Henry David Thoreau once wrote, "The smallest seed of faith is better than the largest fruit of happiness." Faith is a seed of infinite potential. Faith holds all possibilities within it. Yet, what does faith mean in our modern age of reason?
Faith seems not quite natural to the modern mind. Mind is rational while faith is irrational. Mind is logical; faith illogical. Mind is doubtful while faith is doubt-free. In our modern culture, we have become more dedicated to doubt than to unbridled possibility. We are more committed to the calculations of the rational mind, than to the holistic wisdom of spirit. Like the blind man and the elephant, we have zeroed in on a partial reality, without taking into account the larger picture right in front of us waiting to be discovered.
When we put more stock in the workings of our rational mind than on discerning a deeper truth beyond the intellect, faith seems relegated to a precariously irrelevant position.
However, in a very real sense, faith is the only way out of human limitation. Why? Because lack of faith is a negative story of the mind. X is possible, but Y is not possible. This will work, but that will not work. I am suffering today, so I will suffer tomorrow.
Faith is the decision to step out of ego and deny its claim on a finite reality. Faith is about possibility. It is utter positivity.
An unknown sage once said, "God does not ask about our ability, but our availability." Are we available to believe in something higher than our own ego-mind? Are we available to trust in a pervading wisdom that can know and do everything? Are we available to suspend doubt and disbelief and live in utter positivity?
I leave you with these questions of faith.
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None of this is outside of our own inner experience that is constantly evolving, adapting, experiencing and demanding proof. And each individuals proof is their version of faith. Because faith, is belief made personal.
Look at this quote:
"Mind is rational while faith is irrational. Mind is logical; faith illogical. Mind is doubtful while faith is doubt-free. In our modern culture, we have become more dedicated to doubt than to unbridled possibility."
So faith is irrational, illogical, and doubt-free (your words). But in the next breath you claim it also represents "unbridled possibility"? Um, cognitive dissonance, anyone?
The problem with faith is two-fold: First, the object of your faith is unique to you. You admit as much: "...faith is irrational". In other words, you can no more share your faith than you can share a dream. Secondly, faith is incapable of change - unless you adopt a more potent irrationality to replace it. Again, your own words: "...faith is doubt-free."
I.e., faith is navel-gazing. Rather than accept the world as it is, people of faith want more. The faithful say, "How can this world be all there is? Am I not so special that my life must have a deeper meaning? I mean, if creation itself does not notice me, then my existence will surely come to nothing! Without mystery and miracle, this world would be so boring - so I will invent some!"
How about dropping the chains of irrationality and becoming a truly sentient being? True spiritual growth can only be acheived by LOSING faith. (Try reading "The True Believer" by Eric Hoffer.)
Mark Twain said it best, "Faith is believing what you know ain't so!"
You can sell the Brooklyn Bridge to someone who has faith in you, but not to one who doesn't. Lack of faith thus proves beneficial if you're a non-believing wealthy person. It's also a well known fact that if you ignore something, it will go away, like that darned bus that's roaring down the sidewalk at you. A person of faith, coming upon a pit of sand, immediately starts looking for its head hole. The non-believer asks for his sand wedge.
Man's faith differes him from the beast. Who has it , has peace.
Yup. My dog has given up. He's trying to kill himself all the time. The other day I caught him trying to choke on a sock, that damn wretched beast. If only he was a special creature like us humans he would actually know what its like to live in peace like us people. And Im thinking of those CRAZY EFFIN Bonobos...all they need is some fundamentalist peace training to end their violent, harrowing habits...
faith is a unique human trait. Who has it, has peace. Faith is positive, but if a person has it, it's not to be confused with being naive.
It shouldn't have to be said but it seems that one point has been rather badly confused: Faith does not equal Religion.
Henry David Thoreau's faith had nothing to do with religion, but faith in nature of man and beast and environment.
Good point. But an even more vital point pertaining to the blog post is that faith is a vague term, like freedom and justice. It could mean blind belief, complete fantasy (think santa) and it could mean informed belief. At the semantic level, belief is a matter of faith. The difference is that some belief is informed by evidence and other belief is informed by wishful thinking. A good writer can confuse the issue to portray the latter to be as important as the former, when we know this is not true.
;;;"Faith is the decision to step out of ego and deny its claim on a finite reality."
;;;"Are we available to believe in something higher than our own ego-mind?"
To really not have an ego is to say "I don't know". There is "something higher than our ego-mind"- Its called the unknown universe. Faith is a way of saying "I know what cannot be proven"; now thats an egoistic position.
Faith is belief in something for which you have no demonstrable evidence. It is the weakest of human tendencies because it allows people to buy into ideas and movements that have no basis in fact. Though it is often touted as a sign of good character, it is, in fact, quite the opposite. It shows that someone is willing to adopt belief systems which they know little or nothing about, whose origins they cannot trace, and insist on the validity of those ideas to the point where they will dismiss actual evidence, condemn entire groups of people, and engage in unreasoned actions at the bequest of some figurehead who claims to have special access to a truth that is unavailable to followers.
No argument from me. I was merely pointing out the writer's point that those without faith are egoistic to be completely false (because we can truly say that we don't really know) and am making the point myself that the ones with faith are the ego-maniacal ones because they pretend to know what is unknown.
Muddling semantics helps equate blind belief with informed hope. Well obfuscated.
faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
At it's best, faith is how we touch what we cannot grasp.
Faith in a religious sense is to believe that there is a God despite the fact that there is no evidence that there is a God (therefore irrational). One does not question it; one does not think about it. One is to take someone else's word for it that there is a God and that one has to devote their lives to this God or else be punished...despite the fact that there is no evidence that God has ever inflicted eternal punishment on anyone. This is irrational.
The writer needs to be careful not to confuse religious 'faith" in God with a generalized "hope", or with "faith" that a supernatural being exists with "faith" that the sun will come up tomorrow. These are different things. One does not need to believe without evidence in an imaginary God to have hope or faith in life. People are told from an early age that you need to believe in God in order to be introspective. However, that is not the case. You do not need to believe in irratioanl things to have emotional responses or to know your place in the cosmos.
Why do you say there is no evidence? If you have not seen God, it does not mean others have not seen. Because you lack knowledge does not mean others also lack knowledge. Atmavan manyate jagat, means "One thinks everyone is like him." A liar thinks others are dishonest, and a fool thinks everyone else is a fool; but that you do not know God does not mean others do not also know, so speak only for yourself.
You seem to have faith that the whole cosmic manifestation is limited to the rational. That assumption is your mistake. Human beings can only slightly understand even the manifest universe, so how do you suppose you can imagine what existed before and maintains it all and is its resting place? What we see is that life comes from life in every case, so it is not at all unreasonable to even presume that this inconceivably wonderful universe is the creation of some wonderfully intelligent person who is superior to everything, who makes the rules like gravity and the passage of time so that all this can occur.
Sometimes when a criminal is jailed for a long time, he may become mad and say there is no king or president. If you say there is no God, no supreme authority, then why are you being punished? Why will you be forced to die? Nature punishes you, all of us, for denying God.
"Why do you say there is no evidence? If you have not seen God, it does not mean others have not seen."
If anyone believes they have "seen" God, I suggest they take themselves to the nearest mental hospital immediately for proper evaluation. They have medication that can take care of people who see and hear delusions.
Are you another aspect of the god Pandu?
No, damn you. I believe in the improbable and so I'm better than you. Your "rationality" makes you inhuman...arrrggghhhh
Faith is about pretending that a god that creates people of different religions, and then sends vast majority to hell to be tortured for eternity because they belong to the wrong religion, is a loving god. There is absolutly nothing positive about that, is there?
So I will take science over faith any day.
science provides a nuclear hell
Thanks Stacy- Science provides good, amazing, helpful, educational, and enlightening information. Our scientific knowledge is mind blowing. Medicine, weather prediction, social sciences, physical science, bio physics name them all. Science explains alot of things. Science can hurt us too. Meth, nuclear fall out...Humans have the ability to work in faith that some good can be learned. Science helps me understand the laws of nature. What I see, hear, feel, taste, touch, perceive, sense...demonstrates an amazing creative power. Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could. ( SOM) I can not see God, I believe that I see His creative power all around. Other theological topic like heaven, hell, a life hear-after do not apply here. "Are we available to suspend doubt and disbelief and live in utter positivity?" How about we doubt, question, feel profound unbelief, be human, and then have faith that Someone has answers if we keep asking and seeking.
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Posted May 5, 2008 | 07:34 AM (EST)