Keep the Faith

What does any of that have to do with the subject of keeping the faith?  Plenty.  Faith by definition shares the same definition of delusion.  Being convinced of something you have no clue about logically, you just believe it to be so, and so you make decisions based on those beliefs.  Now, for those who link faith to religion as inseparable, I protest the notion.  Atheists are convinced that there is no god.  They base their decisions on that notion as fact undeniable.  That’s faith.  Everybody has it, everybody uses it, every single day.  No exceptions.  In fact, people who have convinced themselves that they have no faith, actually have faith in the notion that faith itself has failed them.

In the long run there needs to be a marriage between logic and faith for a person to stay sane.  There can’t be Mr. Spock without emotions,that’s just not how the human being is found.  So what happens when physical evidences collide with our faith system?  That is the heart and soul of conflict.  We don’t get upset with people in general for doing wrong things…until it affects our system of personal beliefs, then, it’s personal, and we get involved (to one degree or another).  When resolutions to our individual differences in belief and practice cannot be found, we tend to either a) embrace some sort of emotional rejection of the other or b) change our own belief systems to more accept the contradictory evidence presented, or c) lose faith altogether at the apparent failures of the system we embrace or d) in rare cases, we set emotions aside and look rationally at all sides of the situation and try to scientifically determine what happened. 

The scientific process when used to evaluate the validity of notions held by faith usually will provide enlightenment of certain flaws within the systems of faith under review, as long as it is used as it was designed, without bias, and without lack of control.  This never happens.  The world was “flat” for centuries, the sun was the center of the universe for even longer, on and on.  It took pioneers ready to be killed for their convictions to challenge these notions, and many were.  On both sides of the brutality were faith systems that were challenged, and unfortunately, people were hurt in the process.

In this day and age, it would be wise to consider how little a role logical thought plays in faith systems by and large.  There seems to be an undercurrent, ever present throughout history, of thought asking for reasons…those reasons won’t come without some grand mixture of evidence, logical thought, scientific discovery on a personal level, and a willingness to admit that we don’t have a completely functional faith system, no matter what faith system we personally subscribe to.  But don’t throw out the baby with the wash water, keep the faith!