Is faith a learned behaviour?

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I’ve often wondered if “faith” isn’t actually a learned behaviour, adopted more from faith in your parents than faith in god. For example, if I was born to Jewish parents, or if I was born Catholic, but adopted into a Muslim family when I was 1 year old. Wouldn’t I adopt those faiths since I had not learned how to be Catholic yet?

I know at some point you make a conscious choice, but doesn’t it equate in a way to just being taught one thing over another. If you tell your kids that “green” is “red” and they grow up with others that believe the same at some point they are 1,000 times more likely to adopt this belief as their own. It just seems so random.

It concerns me that something so important could all just be the result of chance.

Does belief = chance? If so, is that fair to those that get stuck in a godless family, etc…
 
The Christian teaching is that all people are called to God by the Holy Spirit regardless of upbringing
 
Oh, I know.

In the end though, doesn’t it seem like most people either reject their religion after they’re able to comprehend it, or just follow in their parents footsteps?

I mean some people go off course slightly, dropping down a level because they don’t like the rules (like staying within Christianity but rejected an Orthodox version), but I would guess the vast majority stay strictly within what they are taught for the most part.

If it was just a calling, or whatever, wouldn’t people be converting to **wildly different religions **all the time? Meaning, wouldn’t their be a huge inflow, not from people that rejected religion and rediscovered it, but from other countries,etc…They just don’t do that. Plus, the ones that do are often sought out and converted trough “messengers” or whatever they are called.
 
Remember, God has no grandchildren. 😉 Faith is not genetic. It’s a gift and a virtue.

You do, however, bring up a point in which there is much truth. It is much easier for someone to remain a practicing Catholic if they are raised by Catholics, surrounded by other Catholic family and friends, and immersed in a Catholic worldview. To me, this only highlights the importance of providing these things for my children to the best of my ability. It also highlights the importance of the Church’s mandate for us to evangelize all people, to bring the Gospel to people who do not have these benefits.

However, this does not in any way change what is true. Is the Catholic Church what she says she is? Either she is or she isn’t. We have to make that decision. Whatever religious tradition one is raised in, they have to decide for themselves eventually, as you said.

As for the analogy you use, if you tell your kids that “green” is “red”, eventually they’re going to realize that most people do not think that way. Thus they will have to either choose to blindly adhere to what their parents said, or to honestly evaluate what the truth of the matter is.

There are conversions, though. According to this article, the Pew Research Center did a study that found that half of all Americans change religion at least once in their lifetime. That’s not a small number.

As to whether or not it’s “fair” for someone to get stuck in an atheisitic household, that’s why we entrust non-Catholics to the mercy of God. Perhaps they were given enough of a chance to convert and they refused it. Perhaps they didn’t have that chance. We simply do not know.
 
Perhaps I used a bad example.

I agree that probably half the people in this country change their religion. I would suspect though that it is typically for selfish reasons. Usually a spouse changes because of their husband or wife, or someone chooses another version of a similar religion because it’s “easier” on them. I would say a great deal of that is Catholics rejected an orthodox version, or Catholicism generally for something more palatable.

A lot of my family is born again for example (we were all born Catholic). The odd thing being, is that once one person becomes born again, they usually take a few in their household with them over time. It’s always seems to be about persuasion, again, like faith is more about familial obligations and teaching than it is about any specific calling.

Maybe those people are just weak, I don’t know.

I would think, if it’s God’s calling, then you would see tons of people in Iran, for example, converting to Catholicism on their own. Now, converting people is a proactive way to do this, but if people are called to God by the Holy Spirit shouldn’t this happen all over the place and all the time without spreading the word?

OR, is ignorance of a religion enough to ensure that a person never discovers it?
 
HopeSE said:
Perhaps I used a bad example.

I agree that probably half the people in this country change their religion. I would suspect though that it is typically for selfish reasons. Usually a spouse changes because of their husband or wife, or someone chooses another version of a similar religion because it’s “easier” on them. I would say a great deal of that is Catholics rejected an orthodox version, or Catholicism generally for something more palatable.

A lot of my family is born again for example (we were all born Catholic). The odd thing being, is that once one person becomes born again, they usually take a few in their household with them over time. It’s always seems to be about persuasion, again, like faith is more about familial obligations and teaching than it is about any specific calling.

Maybe those people are just weak, I don’t know.

I would think, if it’s God’s calling, then you would see tons of people in Iran, for example, converting to Catholicism on their own. Now, converting people is a proactive way to do this, but if people are called to God by the Holy Spirit shouldn’t this happen all over the place and all the time without spreading the word?

OR, is ignorance of a religion enough to ensure that a person never discovers it?
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I understand what you’re getting at, and I think your observations do touch on an important truth. You are correct that we simply do not see spontaneous random conversions. And there’s a good reason for that: it would short-circuit the role of the Church (our role) in handing on the faith. Further, it would undercut the reality that we are one human family.

If you look at the Church documents on catechesis and evangelization (Catechesi Tradendae, the General Directory for Catechesis, the National Directory for Catechesis, Evangelii Nuntiandi) they all emphasize the role of people in handing on the faith. EN 41 says: “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.” GDC 156 says: “No methodology, no matter how well tested, can dispense with the person of the catechist in every phase of the catechetical process.”

Recall the famous line of the poet John Donne: “No man is an island”. This is really true. The Church is a community, the Mystical Body of Christ. We’re all in this together. The Catholic Church is not a “me and Jesus” kind of religion. Your observation of the lack of conversions that are divorced from human contact is testimony to this truth of the faith.
 
HopeSE said:
I’ve often wondered if “faith” isn’t actually a learned behaviour, adopted more from faith in your parents than faith in god. For example, if I was born to Jewish parents, or if I was born Catholic, but adopted into a Muslim family when I was 1 year old. Wouldn’t I adopt those faiths since I had not learned how to be Catholic yet?

I know at some point you make a conscious choice, but doesn’t it equate in a way to just being taught one thing over another. If you tell your kids that “green” is “red” and they grow up with others that believe the same at some point they are 1,000 times more likely to adopt this belief as their own. It just seems so random.

It concerns me that something so important could all just be the result of chance.

Does belief = chance? If so, is that fair to those that get stuck in a godless family, etc…
Click to expand...
I think it is, what your raised with is probably the way your gonna go
I was as a child raised without any religion, when I grew older a Catholic family took me under their wing, & I converted To Being a Catholic, & I had to learn it too, I had to go to catechism classes, so it wasnt a thing I was born with , it was learned
 
Another thing this discussion illustrates is the serious need for us to take serious our duty to evangelize. There are some people out there who will not have the opportunity to hear about Christ if we don’t tell them about Him. It’s a sobering responsibility, to be sure.
 
There is a saying that faith is caught not taught…

That’s clear when we plant the seeds of faith in our children by our example.
And St.Francis of Assisi has said…preach often and when necessary use words.
So if we are to preach the love of God throughout the kingdom, then the best way is to set a good example in the way we live our lives. And people/especially our children are watching. So I would say that faith is surely a learned behavior that we adopt and take into our own hearts and lives.
 
I define faith as “Father And I THereafter”. There were numerous times that I have questions about my Faith and I always search for answers. In doing so, I stumbled upon the Truths. Truths that answer the basic question of the purpose of my existence here on earth.
 
Joe_5859 said:
There are conversions, though. According to this article, the Pew Research Center did a study that found that half of all Americans change religion at least once in their lifetime. That’s not a small number.
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That was a really interesting article, thanks for posting this.
 
HopeSE said:
I’ve often wondered if “faith” isn’t actually a learned behaviour, adopted more from faith in your parents than faith in god. For example, if I was born to Jewish parents, or if I was born Catholic, but adopted into a Muslim family when I was 1 year old. Wouldn’t I adopt those faiths since I had not learned how to be Catholic yet?

I know at some point you make a conscious choice, but doesn’t it equate in a way to just being taught one thing over another. If you tell your kids that “green” is “red” and they grow up with others that believe the same at some point they are 1,000 times more likely to adopt this belief as their own. It just seems so random.

It concerns me that something so important could all just be the result of chance.

Does belief = chance? If so, is that fair to those that get stuck in a godless family, etc…
Click to expand...
Faith is a gift, no one earns it. No one gives it to himself. God gives a person faith.
Sin is the reason some people do not have faith. According to the catechism having faith is when a person"completely submits his intellect and will to God" Scripture calls this human response to God “the obedience of faith” (CCC 143) Sin says “my way”, faith says to God “Your way”.
 
HopeSE said:
I’ve often wondered if “faith” isn’t actually a learned behaviour, adopted more from faith in your parents than faith in god. For example, if I was born to Jewish parents, or if I was born Catholic, but adopted into a Muslim family when I was 1 year old. Wouldn’t I adopt those faiths since I had not learned how to be Catholic yet?

I know at some point you make a conscious choice, but doesn’t it equate in a way to just being taught one thing over another. If you tell your kids that “green” is “red” and they grow up with others that believe the same at some point they are 1,000 times more likely to adopt this belief as their own. It just seems so random.

It concerns me that something so important could all just be the result of chance.

Does belief = chance? If so, is that fair to those that get stuck in a godless family, etc…
Click to expand...
As a young adult I rejected the Catholic faith I was taught as a child. Later I began to seek truth on my own-which included reading the bible, an endeavor I figured would be fruitless but I had to give it a chance. Little by little I lost interest-for the most part- in all religions except Christianity. My faith developed as I excercised it-praying and seeking God in various ways- but I never expected to return to the Catholic faith. However, thru a series of events I did return to it-25 yrs later- much to my own surprise. Life is full of surprises-which itself points to a transcendent power and the fact that we’re better off lacking the control we usually like to think we have. God draws us but we must do our part and I honestly believe that unless one seeks Him on their own (going beyond our initial education by asking, seeking, knocking) we don’t find Him.
 
maryj said:
Faith is a gift, no one earns it. No one gives it to himself. God gives a person faith.
Sin is the reason some people do not have faith. According to the catechism having faith is when a person"completely submits his intellect and will to God" Scripture calls this human response to God “the obedience of faith” (CCC 143) Sin says “my way”, faith says to God “Your way”.
Click to expand...
I’m not sure I understand the first paragraph.

So, would you contend that since “God gives a person faith” that if you isolated 100 people from birth on some Island (completely cut off from society) some would possibly become Catholic or adopt some sort of Christian faith?

(I realize you can’t actually abandon 100 children the day they were born on an Island - I’m speaking hypothetically of course)

Doesn’t it have to be taught at least on some level? If it HAS to be taught, than is faith anything more than a belief in someone else and then your ability to take what you’re taught and develop faith from there through God’s gift?
 
fhansen said:
As a young adult I rejected the Catholic faith I was taught as a child. Later I began to seek truth on my own-which included reading the bible, an endeavor I figured would be fruitless but I had to give it a chance. Little by little I lost interest-for the most part- in all religions except Christianity. My faith developed as I excercised it-praying and seeking God in various ways- but I never expected to return to the Catholic faith. However, thru a series of events I did return to it-25 yrs later- much to my own surprise. Life is full of surprises-which itself points to a transcendent power and the fact that we’re better off lacking the control we usually like to think we have. God draws us but we must do our part and I honestly believe that unless one seeks Him on their own (going beyond our initial education by asking, seeking, knocking) we don’t find Him.
Click to expand...
Interesting, thank you for sharing!

Do you think if you weren’t indoctrinated as a Catholic 25 years earlier you would have returned to Catholicism?
 
HopeSE said:
Interesting, thank you for sharing!

Do you think if you weren’t indoctrinated as a Catholic 25 years earlier you would have returned to Catholicism?
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I really doubt it since I could’ve cared less where the journey took me. I had a hope of sorts, that there was something worth living for beyond my immediate wants or needs but no way of knowing. I studied other religions and, if I had my druthers, probably would’ve ended up a Buddhist-or nothing at all. There was absolutely nothing cool about being a Christian-and maybe less so a Catholic. That’s what’s so cool about it in the end, though, it forces one to give up their egos to the extent they’re able at the time and embrace this crazy faith in a story and a cause and a God much bigger than themselves and one that the world will never congratulate them for. Anyway, to answer your question directly, no, I threw out everything I was taught and started over-and it became a very personal -at times even desperate-quest to find truth wherever it may lie.
 
HopeSE said:
I’m not sure I understand the first paragraph.

So, would you contend that since “God gives a person faith” that if you isolated 100 people from birth on some Island (completely cut off from society) some would possibly become Catholic or adopt some sort of Christian faith?

(I realize you can’t actually abandon 100 children the day they were born on an Island - I’m speaking hypothetically of course)

Doesn’t it have to be taught at least on some level? If it HAS to be taught, than is faith anything more than a belief in someone else and then your ability to take what you’re taught and develop faith from there through God’s gift?
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Faith isn’t taught, beliefs are taught. Am I as clear as mud;)
 
maryj said:
Faith isn’t taught, beliefs are taught. Am I as clear as mud;)
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Faith doesn’t exist by itself though. For example, you’re not born with faith. You would be incapable of having faith without being taught the belief system. With that being said, it all seems kind of worthless to me.

It just seems like dumb luck that you have someone in your life to teach you, and then you subsequently develop faith. You can’t develop faith without being taught the belief. The whole system seems a tad random to me.

I respect it all, I just don’t understand it and wish that I did.
 
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