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July 26th, 2007 by Sean Faith

Faith is tough. Faith is something I struggle with.

Really, I believe there is only one application of faith. Having faith that things will be ok. Things will work out.

It’s interesting to see how different root beliefs will filter their way through to behavior. I had a friend who was very controlling and manipulative. She was two-face, and always had to take control of a situation and make things turn out exactly how she wanted them to. One day we were talking about things we struggle with, and she mentioned that she knew she was controlling, but she couldn’t help it.

I asked her: Do you believe in God? The question really threw her off balance. She started saying that she was raised Christian, and while she didn’t take religion too seriously, she was pretty sure she believed in God. I told her that her controlling behavior could be a byproduct of not believing in God - that when someone believes in God, they have faith that things will work out on their own. But without a belief in God, things don’t work out on their own unless you control the situation and make them work out for you.

She looked at me in shock, then walked away. (Telepathy, anyone?).

Without faith, we become controlling, or feel victimized. With faith, we allow things to happen naturally, and we get through tough times knowing that everything will work out. Faith is good.

I believe that modern religion has hijacked this idea of faith to include other things. When someone doubts the Christian God, they are told to have more faith. Faith shouldn’t be used to remove doubt about a subject. If I start to doubt the existence of gravity, a scientist doesn’t tell me to have more faith. If I doubt that President Bush is doing a good job, it’s not because I don’t have enough faith. If you doubt something about Christianity, then explore the doubt. Don’t bury it out of fear of not being “faithful”.

Faith in the future though… faith that things will work out and be ok. That’s where the value is. It stomps out fear and worry in a heartbeat. It removes the desire to control everything. It tells us that things happen for a reason. It allows us to let go and move with time, instead of against it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uENHisKdgQU

“We just had a near life experience.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Video, Philosophy, Personal Development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

### 5 Responses to “Faith”

1. Whitehat Says:
   July 26th, 2007 at 2:37 pm

   I find that having faith in God is a lot easier than having faith in people. I know very few people that I feel I can really put a lot of faith in. Nothing disappoints me more than when I have faith in someone only to find out something dishonorable about them. I suppose this is why the Bible teaches forgiveness along with faith.

   It worries me to think that I’ve been dishonorable at times in my past, and yet someday I hope to have children that have faith in me. Not sure what to do about that; obviously being honest with them is probably the best course of action, but I want to be a good role model for them. I guess I’ll worry more about that when the time comes.

   Faith is an interesting concept in that it is mutually exclusive to substantiation. True faith is the belief in a principle that has no grounds for the warranting of such belief. There are no photos of God, and as far as I know, there is no documentary evidence of what happens to us after we croak. That’s what makes faith so difficult, yet so important.

2. Jusseppe Says:
   July 26th, 2007 at 3:01 pm

   I’ve read everything on this site, but this is my first post.
   I had a funny experience with this specific type of faith you’re talking about. At one point in my life I was very confused, and tried to control everything I could about my life: the way I looked, the way I moved, my posture (trying to stand unnaturally straight), the way I talked and everything I could get my hands on. I tried to calculate where every action I made would lead me to a ridiculous lenght. And all of this only because I had lost my faith in faith.

   Suddenly I had decided faith was for the numb and weak minded, that faith was where the mediocre hid to escape from the truth, from a truth they couldn’t or didn’t want to understand.
   Suddenly I was depressed, really fucked up, very stressed, and all of this because I was trying to control everything, thinking someone wise and smart should be able to consciously take complete control of their life, and that someone brave would do it even if that meant getting hurt. I felt like a juggler with way too many balls in the air.

   I was (I think) right in one thing: blind faith is most of the times really bad, you may get fooled either by someone else or by yourself, keeping you from the truth. But I also realized something really interesting, it was almost magical: having faith in faith, having faith in God (or fate, or luck or whatever you choose to call it) is not foolish at all. It is (at least for me) necessary. I say it’s almost magical (or maybe really magical) because I found believing things will work out makes them actually work out.

   Once I asked the I Ching something related to this, to trying to force things, trying to control them and I got an amazing answer, I don’t remember the exact words, but what it said was basically this: “Don’t look for what you want, because that’s only keeping you from finding it. Start walking the road and you will come across it”. That was so relieveing I started to stop worrying about everything and just letting things happen.
   I also found out that trying to force things to happen can really work, you can actually force them to happen. The thing is: you might do something that wasn’t “supposed to happen”, and stop something that was “supposed to happen” from happening.

   I hope I didn’t bore you to dead, and I hope my post wasn’t extremely confusing, I just have so many things in my head.

3. jesse Says:
   July 27th, 2007 at 9:09 am

   My observation is that faith is that the people around me have a very hard time separating faith from Christianity. Of course, that says something about the people I keep around me Subjective Reality, anyone?

   Honestly, how many people do you know that, when asked about faith or religion, would say “Well, I guess I’m Christian, even though I don’t go to Church or believe in the bible word for word. Yea, I’m probably closest to being Christian.” So in America, you have a gigantic Christian population, then you also have a population that “guesses” they’re Christian.

   This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it IS something to be aware of, as it is the underlying motivation for a lot of action in this country, whether it is academic, political, sexual, spiritual, etc.

   A while back, I discovered the term “Judeo-Christian ethics.” I liked this. I could explain my beliefs without saying “I’m Lutheran” or “I’m Episcopalian.” I just had ethics that aligned with a lot of these people.

   The problem is, these “ethics” are not mutually exclusive, and to think so is pretty condescending. If Buddhists believe “thou shall not kill” do they fall into the Judeo-Christian Ethic? If atheists don’t cheat on their wives, is that Judeo-Christian of them?

   I feel that I’ve wandered a little towards religion and away from faith, but that’s my point. So many people mix up the two, because they are so entwined in each other.

   Faith can be incredibly empowering, or it can be incredibly limiting, depending on what you have faith in. Whatever your choice, people need faith. Just look at South Park’s “atheist” episode. I tried to find the clip, but no luck.

   How many nihilists do you know that have contributed much to society?

4. Whitehat Says:
   July 27th, 2007 at 9:30 am

   Cool post Jusseppe, sounds just like the circumstances of Sean’s friend.

   The following comment is completely unrelated to this thread and I apologize, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

   Two days ago I was in the grocery store. Feeling inspired by the contents of this site, I took $5 and bought a couple scratch-offs. A $2 Bingo, a $2 Solitaire, and a $1 Straight Eights (pretty sure this used to be called Crazy 8’s, maybe it wasn’t PC enough?). No luck with Bingo or Straight 8’s, but won $10 with Solitaire! Bought a soda with a portion of the profits and cruised on home.

   Yesterday I was back in the grocery store picking up a few things for dinner, and I decided to take the remaining $3 from yesterday’s profits to try a couple more scratch-offs. By the way, before these past few days, I honestly can’t remember the last time I bought a scratch-off, I rarely do. This time it was another $2 Bingo and a $1 Straight 8’s. No luck with the Straight 8 (again, blast!), but the Bingo was good for $7! An investment of $7 has yielded $17 in return, netting a healthy $10 profit!

   I wasn’t practicing intention manifestation or anything, not that I’m discounting it’s functionality. Maybe I manifested some of Sean’s intentions! Just thought I’d mention it though. Hopefully I’m not waking the scratch-off demon in anyone. Remember the Simpson’s episode when Marge became addicted to gambling? Hilarity ensues! (Hopefully getting a chance to catch the Simpson’s Movie this weekend.) Anyway, I’m taking my $10 and I’m calling it quits!

5. NeoPsychic Says:
   July 27th, 2007 at 9:40 pm

   After reading Jusseppe’s post it kind of reminded me of myself. “At one point in my life I tried to control everything I could about my life: the way I looked, the way I moved, the way I talked and everything I could get my hands on. I tried to calculate where every action I made would lead me to a ridiculous lenght.”

   But now I remember the faith that I gained from it. Have publicly shown extreme hatred for religion and especialy cathalocism, I searched for my own path. I pushed my mind and body to the limit, and still do. Not because I am faithless, but because of my faith. I have faith only it what I can control, and that is me. Nothing matters but me. A book called Dune had an interesting quote that went something like this: Fear is the mind killer. Fear is only temporary, once it passes only I will remain.

   I don’t control the people around me, why should I? I cannot control them, and if I could what would be the ultimate point in doing so? I can control my body, but what do I want to give up to gain?

   In the end, I have only faith in me and the path I choose in life. Like Jusseppe, I thought that people who were religious were weak. I still do. Any man can pick up a text book and live their life around it and have faith. But it takes a man of great power to put their own text in that book. Trying to write the way you should live your life is not something that can be just learned from a book and something that you can ask when you have problems interpretting. If you have to go to church and ask questions that makes you even more weak. When it comes to the point that you have to ask others how you should think and act you should feel nothing but shame and inadaquecy. I based my life on a certain style, doing what I believe. Then I found a phrase that pretty much summed up my way of life: Lead by example, show others what you believe through your actions.

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