The Unreasonableness of Faith

Well, that's just it, isn't it? Faith is what makes religion. The belief in a higher order, a spiritual presence which somehow directs the order of things takes faith. We cannot see that spiritual being whom we name God, we take it on faith that He exists, that His power and His glory ennoble those of us who believe in Him. The rest of us are just schleppers.

Actually, no, just non-believers. Are non-believers' lack of faith a symptom of something else? Are those who cannot find it in themselves to believe in the presence of an all-powerful, all-seeing entity just too full of ourselves? That we believe we and we alone are responsible for the choices we make and their repercussions?

To believe in something like science is to believe your eyes, your ears, your experience, for all of these senses are called into play in verifying fact follows theory. Faith is blind perforce, because you cannot see that which you are encouraged to believe with all your heart and soul. For your own good. For those who find God and worship Him are assured of His blessing and His care.

The rest of us are on our own. And, for the most part, that's the way we would have it. Morality doesn't necessarily result from religious belief, but it can help. Human beings have an inbred system, a moral map that we take out and consult from time to time just to ensure we're headed in the right direction. That's exclusive of religion, although most religions have taken the cautionary measure of formally submitting a list of recognized moral triumphs.

Most people profess to having a need to be guided. An external guide, a kindly helping but metaphorical hand which can lead them unerringly on the right path in life. Others prefer to forge their own path in the certain knowledge that this is their responsibility to self and to life. Mind, when things go awry, they have only themselves to chide or blame as the case may be, while believers can vent to their hearts' content to that all-caring God.

People aren't even looking for proven results in their passionate belief in God. Just the warmth of knowing that someone up there cares about them. Up there resides some entity more meaningful that any being here on earth. That spiritual entity directs everything, the Chief Executive Officer of anything that has ever occurred and which will ever occur.

But wait, there are limits. God, evidently, has given us fairly free rein to do what we will on this earth; His little gift to His subjects. And haven't we made one god(sorry)awful mess of this planet? Will He save us? If enough people pray, all at once in perfect unison will the pleading reach His ineffable ears? Will He care?

He seems to have answered that amply enough in the past. Think Holocaust. Think of all the carnage that humankind has visited upon itself, one tribe upon the other. Think of our baser instincts and how we fall victim to them, behaving in a manner that we quite well know God would never approve of. And when psychopaths rule unhindered creating unspeakable chaos, where is God?

Well, He may be there, but like all good parental figures He may just figure that we made the mess, we better figure out how to clean it up. He will lead us to salvation, once we have made our way through temptation.

And then recall how in times past to the very present mankind has warred, each side claiming God is with them. How Godly is that not to discipline one's wayward child?