Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. (Matt 7:15-20)

If the message of Jesus of Nazareth bears corruption, the message is corrupt itself.

I disagree. We take things on faith everyday, like “This plane will not crash” or “My husband will come home from work today.”

Hi Rit. These things have nothing to do with faith. We make these probability judgments based on prior evidence and reasoning–a person has strong evidence from trustworthy sources to suggest that planes don't usually crash.

The same can't be said for religious faith–indeed a belief is based on 'faith' precisely when it's not supported by evidence. When evidence is available faith isn't necessary.

Even when your decision making is influenced by "something Professor X said" it is because you have evidence that suggests that they are a smart person who has probably given the issue a lot of thought. Again your course of action is determined by evidence and reason, not faith.

@kelly: absolutely. I enjoyed looking round your blog.

Obviously, these beliefs have more plausibility than "There is an invisible man in the sky who created everything," but we can also find a gray area, e.g. "I will get this job" or "I will sell this car today."

Plenty of people base their moral systems on particularly salient books or films, and it doesn't seem like such a leap of faith to talk about "something Professor X said" or "the story of Neo" when referring to the way fiction can affect our lives.

After all, I don't see as much hope for progress in history as I see in the unwritten future. And I don't think that the majority of Christians focus harder on Genesis than they do on the message of Christ.

I think that fanaticism comes from a poor understanding of these works as fiction, rather than the simple act of taking something on faith.