Personal preference. "Makes sense," as you'd say. It's more like a matter of taste.
The reason I say that your faith is "baseless" is that you admit that it is blind
Of coruse it's blind; faith requires that leap of faith in order to exist. A rumbling volcano is the reason; it produces fear and a foreboding power. The leap of faith is that there is a "god" in the volcano.
We look at the universe and realize what is around us (I am not sure how many believers really do, but that's another story), and they say "wow!" It's overwhelming and humbling. This causes us to ask the question we can't answer: "Who or what made it?" Obviously someone or something that existed before all this existed, which some call "God." From there on, it is God who made all this. But this is just what we believe. It doesn't mean that's what it is. It's a blind faith and it's reached by a leap of reason, but it is not baseless, that is, for no reason whatsoever.
You don't wake up one day and say "I believe" for no reason. Something you experience leads you to make that leap and call it faith. It doesn't mean it's true. But of course every believer, no matter what variety, will tell you his belief is true.
I can't imagine a person bothering to have faith if he wasn't willing to claim it was true
That's the intransigence of religion. No one can admit to being wrong. That's why some consider religion the source of prejudice and backwardness.
I like what Blessed St John Damascene says so beautifully
"" It is impossible for things contrary and discordant to fall into one harmonious order always or for the most part, except under some one guidance, assigning to each and all a tendency to a fixed end. But in the world we see things of different natures falling into harmonious order, not rarely and fortuitously, but always or for the most part. Therefore there must be some Power by whose providence the world is governed; and that we call God"" -St John Damascene (De Fid. Orthod. I, 3)
I never cared for the Leap of Faith idea, especially after reading Kierkegaard's influence on it during my years studying the New Age Movement.
Lust my own personal opinion though
Personal preference. "Makes sense," as you'd say. It's more like a matter of taste.
Fair enough. I just don't think that personal preference constitutes a "base" from which to witness, hence my comment. I cannot tell you with any credibility that you should always order my favorite pizza toppings simply because I like them. :)
FK: "The reason I say that your faith is "baseless" is that you admit that it is blind."
Of course it's blind; faith requires that leap of faith in order to exist.
In that case you cannot believe that true faith is a gift from God. With the gift, no leap is necessary. All of our questions, for which we need answers, are answered in scriptures. Faith a la carte is not the Biblical way.