Faith - A Conceptual Analysis - Part I.

Have you ever flipped through a Philosophy text and found the terms neccessary and sufficient being bandied about ? Ever wondered what they mean ? What they are about ? In this essay of mine, I plan on flipping through a Intro. to Phil. text that I have, take a look at the concepts of neccessary and sufficient conditions, and then analyze the concept of faith relative to these conditions. The text that I am going to be looking at is Theories of Knowledge and Reality(henceforth TKR) by J.A. Cover, and Rudy L. Garns. In TKR, Cover and Garns discuss conditional sentences. A conditional sentence is basically a sentence of the form: If P then Q. Whats so special about conditional sentences is that they help us "spell out what are called neccessary and sufficient conditions". What are these ? A neccessary condition(NC) is a condition that is required for something to be what it is. For example, in order for me to grow my hair long, I must have hair in the first place. Having hair is a neccessary condition to growing hair. A sufficient condition is a condition, the presence of which is enough to bring about the actualization of something else. For example, in the US, the willful murder of one single person is enough to land you in in jail. However, while this is a SC for landing you in jail, this is not a NC. Why ? Because even simple theft can land you in jail, here in the US. In the conditional form if P, then Q, the P is the SC, and the Q is the SC. Moving right along...How does this all relate to Faith ? Well, the theory of Faith that I've been working on goes something like this: If Bob has faith that X will happen, then X will happen. If for some reason whatever, X does not happen, then Bob never really had faith to begin with. He was mistaken.(*Problems in the way that I've stated my thesis -need rework.) What I've been trying to say: Suppose Bob does not have faith that X will happen. Then will X happen ? Quite possibly yes, It can, in spite of the fact that Bob was filled with fear and doubt. Why ? Well because faith is a SC for X to be brought about, however it is not a NC for X to be brought about. Other factors are also can bring about X. Quite simply God's grace is one. The fact that X taking place is Gods will is another. Bobs prayers might be one. In spite of the fact that He lacked faith, Bob prayed fervently. (*Possible problem here with the book of James.)