what faith means
definition1;complete trust or confidence in someone or something: this restores one’s faith in politicians.
definition2; strong belief in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual conviction rather than proof.

If u add all the denominations of Christianity then it is the largest and most popular in the world. So i will concentrate, my slight rant lol towards Christianity’s obvious and ubiquitous short comings. Please keep in mind that you will surely find that the points in this thread im trying to make will apply to other religions as well.
Some denominations of Christianity who have been brainwashed into believing everything that is written in the Bible is true. Now wholeheartedly they renounce scientific reasoning.
They are also against freedom of speech, unless it suites them,ie preach the word of hatred. Also , try as they might , they want us to make homosexuality,divorce and abortion against the law because to them that's what the Bible implys. There is no hope in trying to make delusional people see that the true intention of the writers of there beloved scripture was to encourage, the masses to abandon hatred and any form of greed and most of all benevolence. The teachings were meant so they could make their own individual moral judgments on the world soley upon equality, compassion and honesty rather than following the often Neanderthal and barbaric moral dictates of a religious texts.

This also implys to the overwhelming brainwashed majority of Muslims today who have been brainwashed into believing that the Koran is the final and last word of God, so armed with that view they oppose any form of democracy also like Christianity any form of freedom of speech,unless it suits them,ie preach the word of hatred,they also share the same views about homosexuality,divorce and abortion but they do implement harsh laws for these already. they fear that today's democratic values is going to evidently replace old conservative Islamic views so they fear the west.

I for one think the concept of religion for any intelligent person is a futile thing. BUT please don't hate me for saying that,thats just my opinion.

Religions are authoritarian in nature that's a fact. Most of what i say is aimed towards the bad apples as they say.I know there is benefits to religion no matter how small but same could be said about gun powder or the A bomb lol. One simple fact is you don't need to have faith in anything to tell you,you should not kill,cheat,steal or anything else that YOU know is wrong just trust in your OWN intellect. It baffles me how people allow this concept to dominate there free will. So you become united under what ever banner they choose for you it is the oldest but still the most effective way of social conditioning. Ask you self why are religious teachings invariably mysterious,incongruently confusing and never straight forward to understand. Why do people have to go study for years to fully understand the word of there god. Why would they write something that the masses of that time and today cant fully understand. Shouldn't the word of god be clear so the last 2,000 year was not full of blood in there names. You already have and had presidents who use religion to get elected. So many politician in America mix religious beliefs with political rhetoric. They know that this is the quickest way to get votes, be it the fact that there are 33,820 denominations of Christianity globally. The biggest in america is evangelicals even if they are out numbered they still turn up to vote more than the average Joe. Presidents use the evangelicals or is it the evangelicals use them people like Billy Graham who met with Obama in 2010. Billy Graham and entourage used the visits to the oval office as publicity. Graham and his pastors made a statement to the press outside before entering. they spoke about the details of there visit.then three pastors even went on to try an make the press kneel on the lawn of the White House as if praying. and this type of symbiotic relation has gone on as far back as Harry S. Truman but the most ridiculous of all Presidents to do this and shine light on this affair was Bush. We in Britain are lucky that our politics do not get mixed up with any form of faith. Its this type of thinking that america is allowing in to its politics no good will come of it. Not just your Founding fathers but many separated church and state deliberately. Politicians should no doubt honour this. There is no room for backwards thinking in this day and age if america lets these types in to far in politics you will find your selfs in a state close to what you have in the middle east.

Thanks to all who read

I agree with your view concerning faith and politics. Its a shame that many people looking for some kind of hope don't appreciate how 'political' religion is, basically since the bible was written.

I disagree with you that its better in the UK simply because of the seats in our government held by the clergy. Our monarch is head of the Church and therefore religious control divulges down to the ordinary people. We may have let various religions in, but although they are here and we do a good PR job and some of their followers are sabre rattlers, little inroad to the seat of power exists in reality.

That is except in one area, today Oliver Letwin has been caught dropping off papers into park bins. This particular gentleman is by faith and action a supporter of Israeli causes in this country. If you think about the way this country responds towards Israel and its actions as opposed to other Nations such as libya, you don't need to look very far into our politics to see where 'faith' has a huge influence.

This applies to any entity in one stops and thinks about it religion or their faith in government doesn't matter what one wants to believe in but no faith should have greater meaning than the faith in yourself.

Should people have faith in politics? No
Should people have faith in government? No
Should people have faith in religion? Thats between you and your maker by whatever name you call him or believe at all.

Have faith in yourself the rest is gravy.

you mention scientific reasoning and then not 2 lines later you mention homosexuality, divorce, and abortion issues being influenced by religion.

i dont think that it takes a rocket scientist to understand that there is no scientific reason in any of those 3 things. from a scientific point of view the union between male and female creatures has always been to procreate. none of those 3 things achieve procreation. therefore it becomes painfully obvious that those 3 things in one way or another are exploitations of the procreation process, for whatever personal gain the supporter desires.

lol I think i hit a nerve. As i stated and i know it comes across to readers who are not angered, really clear. That not all followers of faith are bad people just the bad apples i also state SOME denominations of Christianity and Muslims and all other religions who have been brainwashed. By that i mean the extremists of all religions who just fuel hatred through misconstrued teachings. I knew writing this thread that i would get negative feed back. When it comes to religion any criticism of any wrung doings is perceived as an attack. Which is due to the unbridled devotion which stops most seeing things clear. I assure you all that what i have said is not an attack. I was solely trying to get the consensus view from the better part of these religious communities. I hear a lot about how the Muslim extremists are not backed by the mainstream Muslims. But what about the Christianity extremists nearly every one who as posted on this thread seems to think they don't exists. So theses people must be Christians and are treating my thread as an attack.