I Have Faith
Faith is perhaps one of the most difficult parts of life, to practice and to keep in balance. On one side faith is beautiful, because it gives us the security to be able to love, and to trust in life, and it represents one of the key cornerstones, of everything good in life. Take a relationship for example, without faith, can anyone ever truly know that they are loved by their partner without at least some faith? Or can any relationship ever hope to survive the trials of life without it? The same is true for religion, without faith, there can be no religion, since faith is part of its foundation. Overall I see faith as a huge positive, but only when faith is subjected to some form of “truth testing” or “reality testing” by the individual, or by a larger group of people. In other words when faith becomes blind to reality, and reason, then yes we can get into very deep trouble .
Take just about any significant change event in human history, and in one way or another, people have relied on faith, in one form or another, to make it happen. All of the tyrants in our history, have also used the concept of faith to their advantage, as did the countless noble visionaries like Martin Luther, Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela. We are now left with the question of how can we know if faith is good or bad, in a given situation in life?
I believe that the answer to this question is in whether or not we just accept something on “blind faith” without ever questioning it, or if we take the time to question it, and to subject it to some form of reality check, before we allow ourselves to experience something on the level of faith within us.
Faith requires us to be vigilant, and we must be willing to ask the hard and difficult questions required at times, which may in the end show us something that we really do not want to see. By the same token it may simply show us that our faith in something is justified. So in some ways faith is very similar to attitude, and truth, in terms of our experience of it, and in terms of the responsibilities that come with it.
For me healthy faith is an open book of sorts, which always allows me to factor in new information, and knowledge. Thus our experience of faith becomes a sort of search for truth in life. With the healthy experience of faith in something, we are always free to ask hard and honest questions, just to make sure that we are indeed on the right path. I think that it is critical, to always ensure, in our own unique individual way, that our faith in something is well justified, and always supported by reality and reason.
Very disturbing to me is when any authority figure tries to hijack our individual, or our collective experience of faith, by trying to impose some external set of rules on our experience of faith. When this happens, based on our history, it represents a huge red flag of sorts, which should alert us at least the possibility, that we are facing some form of deception, or narcissistic agenda, by someone up to something which is not good.
In every dark chapter of human history there is always a point where a threshold is crossed, where it suddenly becomes wrong, or unacceptable to question someone, or something, and people were told to “just have faith” and not to question. This can happen in so many ways, it can be on the level of the individual where people who disagree, or who do not buy into an idea, or an ideology without question, are labeled in some derogatory way. More extreme are cases where the freedom to question, and express alternate points of view, is completely lost. This has happened with every dictatorship, totalitarian regime, and intolerant religious movements in history. How was Martin Luther seen when he translated the new testament from Latin into German, so that for the first time ever, the common people could read the scriptures for themselves, and search for the real truth? Look at what happened to the Germans who openly questioned the Nazi’s in the 1940’s, or the Russians who questioned communism under Stalin, they ended up in concentration camps, and in Siberian gulags. The common thread being some form of destructive force propped authority, which has perverted faith.
The same is still true today even with some intolerant religions, try to question the established faith in Saudi Arabia, or in Afghanistan, and see how long you survive. If it were not for the protection of the remaining remnants of the US constitution in America, who knows what we would face in the United States today? In the last decade we have seen the warning signs, or red flags even in the Unites States, like in relation to the Iraq war. Anyone who openly disagreed with the now known and exposed fabrications, that led to the war, were labeled as “unpatriotic” or “un American” This should actually have been seen as absurd by the people, since this country was founded on people questioning the status quo.
Just ask yourself how many hero’s of the American revolution were seen as “unpatriotic” by British sympathizers in 1776? The very act of questioning the status quo, is in fact what made America great in the first place. The solutions to our present economic, educational, and social problems in the United States, may very well be found by looking back in our own history. Maybe the nation, and American people today, should begin by openly questioning how, and what we are doing, in an open and frank manner. So when people who we know, and others question things today, maybe we should consider doing the same in your own way, instead of quickly putting some silly label on them, like conservative, liberal, republican, democrat etc. just to avoid facing the real issue. How can we hope to solve complex problems, when we cannot even talk openly about them, while the tyrants try to get us to hide behind the idea of faith?
Even in a relationship, you can, and should have faith in your partner, and this can help so much to get you through the rough spots of life, but keep in mind, that if this faith is blind, then it can also keep you in an abusive, or destructive relationship, if you do not ask the hard questions, and check the reality of your faith in your partner.
Faith in today’s information age, is still an individual experience in the end for each of us. With faith comes the responsibility to get it right, in order to be able to reap its many benefits. Just remember that if faith is left blind, and not subject to question, and reason, then the end result, could very well be the opposite, of our best intentions. Keep your faith close to your heart, but always remember, to keep your faith real, then truth and love will always be close by : )
Take just about any significant change event in human history, and in one way or another, people have relied on faith, in one form or another, to make it happen. All of the tyrants in our history, have also used the concept of faith to their advantage, as did the countless noble visionaries like Martin Luther, Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela. We are now left with the question of how can we know if faith is good or bad, in a given situation in life?
I believe that the answer to this question is in whether or not we just accept something on “blind faith” without ever questioning it, or if we take the time to question it, and to subject it to some form of reality check, before we allow ourselves to experience something on the level of faith within us.
Faith requires us to be vigilant, and we must be willing to ask the hard and difficult questions required at times, which may in the end show us something that we really do not want to see. By the same token it may simply show us that our faith in something is justified. So in some ways faith is very similar to attitude, and truth, in terms of our experience of it, and in terms of the responsibilities that come with it.
For me healthy faith is an open book of sorts, which always allows me to factor in new information, and knowledge. Thus our experience of faith becomes a sort of search for truth in life. With the healthy experience of faith in something, we are always free to ask hard and honest questions, just to make sure that we are indeed on the right path. I think that it is critical, to always ensure, in our own unique individual way, that our faith in something is well justified, and always supported by reality and reason.
Very disturbing to me is when any authority figure tries to hijack our individual, or our collective experience of faith, by trying to impose some external set of rules on our experience of faith. When this happens, ba
In every dark chapter of human history there is always a point where a threshold is crossed, where it suddenly becomes wrong, or unacceptable to question someone, or something, and people were told to “just have faith” and not to question. This can happen in so many ways, it can be on the level of the individual where people who disagree, or who do not buy into an idea, or an ideology without question, are labeled in some derogatory way. More extreme are cases where the freedom to question, and express alternate points of view, is completely lost. This has happened with every dictatorship, totalitarian regime, and intolerant religious movements in history. How was Martin Luther seen when he translated the new testament from Latin into German, so that for the first time ever, the common people could read the sc
The same is still true today even with some intolerant religions, try to question the established faith in Saudi Arabia, or in Afghanistan, and see how long you survive. If it were not for the protection of the remaining remnants of the US constitution in America, who knows what we would face in the United States today? In the last decade we have seen the warning signs, or red flags even in the Unites States, like in relation to the Iraq war. Anyone who openly disagreed with the now known and exposed fabrications, that led to the war, were labeled as “unpatriotic” or “un American” This should actually have been seen as absurd by the people, since this country was founded on people questioning the status quo.
Just ask yourself how many hero’s of the American revolution were seen as “unpatriotic” by British sympathizers in 1776? The very act of questioning the status quo, is in fact what made America great in the first place. The solutions to our present economic, educational, and social problems in the United States, may very well be found by looking back in our own history. Maybe the nation, and American people today, should begin by openly questioning how, and what we are doing, in an open and frank manner. So when people who we know, and others question things today, maybe we should consider doing the same in your own way, instead of quickly putting some silly label on them, like conservative, liberal, republican, democrat etc. just to avoid facing the real issue. How can we hope to solve complex problems, when we cannot even talk openly about them, while the tyrants try to get us to hide behind the idea of faith?
Even in a relationship, you can, and should have faith in your partner, and this can help so much to get you through the rough spots of life, but keep in mind, that if this faith is blind, then it can also keep you in an abusive, or destructive relationship, if you do not ask the hard questions, and check the reality of your faith in your partner.
Faith in today’s information age, is still an individual experience in the end for each of us. With faith comes the responsibility to get it right, in order to be able to reap its many benefits. Just remember that if faith is left blind, and not subject to question, and reason, then the end result, could very well be the opposite, of our best intentions. Keep your faith close to your heart, but always remember, to keep your faith real, then truth and love will always be close by : )
By:
roadoflife
Age:
41-45
