Originally posted by twhitehead
Desire is the father of faith. Nobody ever has faith in something that they do not desire to be the case. I often hear the phrase "If I am wrong, I don't want to be right", or the similar concept "I couldn't believe in a God who was ...."
In the history of God's dealing with people in the Bible quite a bit of space given to contrasting true
faith with something else.
We might call that something else "presumption" or even "wishful thinking".
It becomes crystal clear that everything that issued from man's heart about God was in fact
not received by Him as genuine faith.
Probably the first clear case of this is Cain and Abel. And other examples follow. it becomes very clear that
faith is not every kind of wishful whim from man's heart about God. And the tension between this presumption and true faith grows more and more pronounced.
Eventually you have some very religious people with something strong enough for God, apparently, that they desire to crucify the Son of God. It was related to God. But apparently it was not
faith.
So your broad generalization of all manner of wishful thinking about God is faith, doesn't nearly hold in the 1600 year record of God's interaction with mankind reviewed in the Bible.