Essay:Quantifying Faith

There are potential advantages to quantifying faith, if possible. Once something is quantified, then it becomes easier to focus on it, and improve it. Quantifying how far someone can jog or how much someone can lift sets a target for surpassing. World athletic records are frequently surpassed because they set a goal for improvement.

No one, except perhaps the devil, would doubt that strengthening faith is a worthy goal. If quantifying faith facilitates strengthening it, then it seems like a powerful means to an end. Of course, God's grace is a necessary ingredient of this, but our effort matters also.

Possible ways to quantify faith (each of these questions has a numeric answer that can be improved):

• does your faith enable you to delay a meal without distress? For how long?
• how often do you overcome an irrational fear?
• can you put anxiety out of your mind? How many minutes or hours does that take?
• how long does it take to forgive someone else ... or yourself?

(suggest more)