Which has more value to you: faith or experience?

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The ultimate Brain Game winner will win a iPad mini 4 (128gb)

Kelly Fung |
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Nope, you're not seeing things: there are six contestants again this week, beacuse last week we had a draw! Something that's never happened at Young Post before! 

Every Wednesday we ask our Brain Game contestants one interesting, thought-provoking or just plain quirky question. Their answers will be published anonymously in Young Post.Then readers vote for their FAVOURITE answer. We will eliminate the contestant with the LEAST votes every week until we have a winner. The ultimate Brain Game winner will win an iPad mini 4.

Votes close at midnight on Sunday.

The contestants

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Contestant 1

It would definitely be faith because life itself is about having faith.

To me, faith is believing. Faith keeps you strong and focused, even when you feel lost or defeated. It gives you strength and confidence when you need it the most, and helps you to face the unknown, overcome challenges, and move forward towards your goals.

I believe everyone should have faith. If one has faith, life would be a lot more interesting and fruitful because you can venture into new territory and chase your dreams without fear. For example, Christopher Columbus would not have found the New World if he didn’t have faith when he was battling rough, uncharted waters. Faith helped people make many important discoveries and changed the world for the better. Although both faith and experience are important, experience is more about looking back at the past, while faith is about now and the future. Without faith, we wouldn’t be able to live our lives to the fullest.

As I am a young person with limited experiences, having faith helps me to take on new challenges and stay positive every day!

Contestant 2

For me, faith is my source of motivation. It props me up against the stream, it hydrates me in the desert. Whenever I feel frustrated and am close to giving up, my faith is my only reason to keep going. Faith is like a star in a stormy night that shines bright, encouraging me to chase my dream.

When I encounter a problem, experience can only help me so much; sometimes it doesn’t help at all. However, one needs faith to power through all the struggles and pain you encounter in life.

Nelson Mandela is a perfect example of this. Mandela spent 18 years in jail on Robben Island but was determined to change his country, leading the nation as the president of South Africa soon after his release. He did not have much experience leading a country, but his faith in eliminating the unfair racial segregation system allowed him to make a huge difference. At the end of the day, faith was key to his success.

Contestant 3

Faith. Your faith is like a compass, always pointing to your end goal. When you’re lost, your faith reminds you where you’re headed and gives you direction. When you’re making your way through stormy seas, your faith will keep you afloat. And when the storm passes, you can continue on your way. Experience may tell you which the shortest and fastest route to your treasure is. But you can still get there without experience. Without faith, you’d be lost.

Your faith is what pushes you to keep moving forward, and as you move forward, you can gain experience that will help you along the way.

Contestant 4

Faith. If I relied on experience to live my life, I’d never take any risks. I’d probably never leave my room. You can’t avoid doing things without experience, otherwise we’d never do a thing! Sometimes we just need to take a leap of faith to try something new, even if there’s a risk of failure. I may go to others with more experience for advice, and might use my own experience to make logical choices, but there will always still be a bit of risk involved, whether taking on a new lifestyle, or project, or chapter in my life.

This is not to say that I jump into things blindly and hope all goes well. I still try to do research and ask for people’s advice, but ultimately I need to have faith in myself. Of course I have failed many times, but it’s faith that allows me to keep on trying.

Contestant 5

As Thomas Aquinas once said, “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” I believe faith has more value to me than experience. Faith gives me hope that things will get better. It makes us more eager to try things, even if we might fail.

Or look at Thomas Edison. They say it took him 1,000 unsuccessful attempts before he invented the light bulb. Without faith, he probably would have given up after his first try. I also remember the story of Job in the Bible. Job had everything taken away from him, but he remained faithful to God. Then his faith was rewarded with things that were even more brilliant than what he had before. I think we really need to have faith in life.

Contestant 6

I think experience is more important. Experience is like a big book of facts that tells me what to do and what not to do in life, and helps me come up with pros and cons when making decisions. Faith to me sounds too abstract and I have difficulty trusting others after being fooled by several sly people in my life.

Experience can help you improve in life. For example, I remember struggling with writing Chinese essays in school. My teacher would always call me out for mistakes in class. But I found that with more practice, I was able to improve each time I wrote a new essay, and kept learning from my past mistakes. Eventually, I got a good grade! This proves to me that experience can help people improve in areas, which is why I think it is more important than faith.

The ultimate Brain Game winner will win a iPad mini 4.

Get involved. We’ll eliminate one contestant a week until we have a winner, so vote for your favourite answer: go to www.scmp.com > Over to you > Brain Game (only one vote each). Votes close at midnight on Sunday.

<a href="https://poll.fm/10244898">Which answer do you like BEST?</a>

*In case of dispute, Young Post reserves the right to reserves to decide the result

Edited by Nicole Moraleda

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