Friday, April 25, 2014

Human Existence Is based on Beliefs



Many times people confuse having faith as a belief in a specific religion or theocratic version of creation. Those who reject religion or theocracy claim to live a faithless life. I challenge that premise. I believe everyone of us lives a life of faith grounded in the belief that what we do, choose and pass on is logical and scientific in it's very premise.


The Atheist for example like to say that they live a faithless life but that is not true. Many live a life that is grounded in moral values. Moral values lived in how one defines them. The Mafioso lives a moral life which is one that is grounded in family, do unto others before they do unto you, and even murder is only "business". They seem to be living a life that gives benefits but only to themselves, whomever they define as "family".



Other Atheists live a life rejecting religion as based on a fairy tale we call holy writings but bear no real credence to truth. The fact of the matter is, according to some, religion has committed more atrocities in the name of God than all other institutions that have ever existed. Their life of faith is the belief that there is no supernatural spirit and those that believe in one are duped by those manipulators like Popes, or Imams.


Those who are Theologists sometimes confuse their belief in the religion practiced with the God they are supposed to worship. Religion should be the vehicle one uses to worship their God therefore that specific religion takes a back seat to the Godhead being worshiped. Catholics for example should realize that they are Christians believing in a Triune Deity with Jesus as their bridge to the Father through the Spirit and that they are Christians first and foremost who choose their religion to become better Christians, followers of Christ. Christ always first, Catholicism always second to that. The Muslim or Jew too or any practicing religionist should put the specific religion second to the God they are worshiping.


My argument is that we humans live a life built of faith, belief in something we think we know all about even though we know very little. We go to sleep, lie our heads down and enter a coma like state that refreshes us and makes our life better. We are confident we will wake when we lie down but what is that confidence built on? The experience we have gone through from birth, our mother telling us we "need" sleep but it is through blind faith that we permit ourselves to lose consciousness knowing we will wake refreshed for another day of work, love and laughter. We get into an Air Plane with the full faith, belief that the pilot knows what he is doing and we will safely arrive at our destination. But what is this faith based on? Certainly nothing that we have scientifically proved and in fact sometimes that faith is wasted as the pilot fails us and a crash ensues.


This discussion can be ended by saying I guess we should be more tolerant of ideas that are floated about because each and every one of us lives a life of faith based on beliefs formulated in our lifetime that bear truth and non-truths. Perhaps we all have a semblance of the truth and should do our best to weed out what isn't true and include what is true.


Or perhaps we exist only in the mind of some great giant existing only when he is awake and ceasing to exist when he stops thinking of us. But I don't think so.


          

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