I've been reading some interesting thoughts from Desmond Tutu on how much faith it takes to walk on a pavement, whether or not you believe in God. The point was that–even if you are an atheist–life cannot be lived without faith. It takes faith to drive your car and believe that everyone else is going to drive sensibly. It takes faith to put food in your mouth and trust it will not poison you, and faith to step onto the street believing that the ground will remain firm beneath you.
If you do not believe in God, you are still a person of faith.
With this in mind, can anyone tell me why the word 'faith' has become such a dirty word? Sometimes it's all we've got. It's not weakness to admit this, it's beyond strength and takes courage. It turns you into a child again, which isn't wrong, but it does go against the grain when you've spent your adult life working out the sense in, say, evolution, only to discover it forces you to make an off-putting case for oppressors, the sort that suck away all the world's resources for themselves, or systematically murder off people living on land they want. What stops people doing those things? Faith, that this rubbish is not the final word.
Faith tempers the arrogance of the fool.
Say a prayer, go on, don't be shy.
{Today's soundtrack: Pete Seeger - Oh, had I a golden thread}
3 comments:
I guess "faith" has become a dirty word because, in many ways, "religion" has also become a dirty word.
Also, with terms like "faith killing" bandied around by the media so frequently, the connotations have become quite negative.
It's sad - I like your thinking.
Don't let the fundamentalists hijack faith.
I like the rallying call: let's reclaim it.
I believe that faith is very important whether, you are religous or not, i agree with your prognosis! Faith shows us light at the end of tunnels and gives us courage to evolve in all situations.
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