by J L Petriesan

Created on: August 22, 2007

Faith is not the belief in something when common sense says it not to be true. It is also not belief in something without evidence. Nor is it superstition.

And while this is a side issue, really, it is an important one. And will lead to my point.

Faith is belief in something. Religious faith is a special type of faith.

If I drop a ball, I have faith it will fall to the ground on a planet with positive gravity (what the heck is negative gravity anyway?) Too banal? Ok . Try this. I have faith that I can get out of almost any difficult financial situation. Somehow, someway, even thought I cannot see a way out when times are difficult. This is because in the past, things have always worked out. Somehow someway.

We can have faith in God or Jesus or Allah or Joseph Smith (do not email or flame me. I KNOW the LDS do not worship Smith) or, in the Great Pumpkin. We can also have faith that gravity will be suspended much like the disbelief in a good Science Fiction novel if it we find ourselves lying under a fifty ton sack of bricks held in place by a fraying rope.

The point is some things we have faith in work and some don't.

General, wholesome, religious faith is not a problem nor does it cause a problem for society.

The problem is Blind Faith ( and no, I am not talking about the old rock and roll group with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker). This is faith without any reason, faith that blinds to reality. Faith that causes not suspension of disbelief, but of reality. Those with this kind of faith will argue (often) that they are the only true believers because they, and they alone can hear the voice of God. In the heads of serial killers, we call this insanity.

But we dare not say this about the devout. Because to do so, makes us an enemy of the devout.

Really, the problem with a supreme being who (that?) cannot be seen, who does no overt actions where one can actually physically see it/her/him, does not speak in a manner where multitudes can hear at the same time is this: It/He/She can be anything, can direct anyone to do or to say anything in its/his/her behalf, unseen and unheard to all but he chosen one who communicates God's will to the masses . (The Priests in a very real sense do own the oracle.)

Maybe not all the wars have been religious wars, but religious wars have been, without any doubt, the bloodiest. Even Hitler believed he was doing God's will in his attempt to exterminate the Jews (Martin Luther even had some pretty nasty things to say about Jews late in his life. I wish I knew what was really going on in his head when he wrote that diatribe, which may have spawned the derangement in Adolf's mind.)

Maybe not all evil in the world is at the hand of devout people, just perhaps the most extreme kinds: witch trials, inquisitions, excommunications, need I go on?

Blind faith causes divisions, not unity. Jesus actually had one thing to say: quit your bickering and love each other. Blind faith misses this. And causes problems, always has.

Open their eyes that they might see. Please.

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