Grace and Faith

Christians and Muslims sometimes talk about the fact that faith is needed to believe certain things, and appears to approach that as a virtue -- that God leaves things open so that we need to exercise his grace-given faith to believe.

Now there are a variety of subtle sub-themes here.  Does one automatically get such faith by sincerely asking for it, or is it a case of those who will be given such faith are entirely predetermined long before creation?  There are Bible passages that seem to support each view -- only God's grace can save us as opposed to seek you you will find.

Personally, as a Buddhist, I think one should not depend on such a weak foundation but should hold opinions, not beliefs, and they should be only as one finds them good and supported by the best evidence and the wisest people.  Believing only on authority -- especially traditional authority as handed to us by our culture -- has long been a road to error.

That said, however, look closely at these two views of where faith comes from.  If it is truly a gift of God's grace, how is it possible that those so chosen can ever entertain doubts?  An omnipotent being is giving a gift; it would overwhelm one and that would be an end of it.  Still, we know that all believers doubt from time to time.  And, of course, the idea that it is nothing to do with our qualities but only God's whim that determines who receives this gift is extremely hard to align with any sense of justice or appropriateness, and leave us with an arbitrary god.