17 June 2012

Faith

I have thought about faith, god and the whole religion thing a lot lately.  I guess for a few months I have felt a bit lost and empty and wanted something to fill that space.  I look at people who have 'faith' and belong to a church community and envy them at times.  Even to the point of dipping my toe in and going to church recently.
However, I just can't do it.  I find the whole jesus son of god thing ridiculous and cannot for the life of me get into it.  No matter how hard I try, research and read my bullshit radar starts pinging and just doesn't stop.  I have friends who do the believe and that is great but I just obviously don't think in whatever way one needs to to believe in the whole kit and kaboodle.

Today though I started thinking about the whole faith thing.  I wonder, is it about having faith in god and his minions or is it having faith that the person who told you about god is right??  Not so much believing in god but believing in that person, whether it be your parents or a peer.


ETA:  I want to note that the above post is referring exclusively to christian faith as I don't have any experience with other forms of faith.


2 comments:

No one said...

I don't know the answer to that question.

I've grown up surrounded by religion and people with faith. For many years (from the age of 8 to about 24 or so), I tried to have faith. I prayed, and I looked for God's miracles in every day life like the people around me. I went to church many times a week. I read the Bible all the way through - twice. I went to bible school for a year.

Deep in my heart, I just couldn't own it though.

I actually find fairies easier 'not to deny' than the idea of a vengeful God who punished unbelievers.

My mum told me recently that she felt God was denying Dave and I happiness (Dave failing his driving lesson 8 times already, sometimes being failed for things that were very dodgy) because he needed us to see that without him in our lives, we couldn't be happy.

Wow...

A manipulative God like that is not someone I want to declare everlasting love for.

Besides, if I believed in her God, it would be loving fatherly version who accepts and loves all his creations - including gay people, including muslims and including heathens like me...

If I had that kind of faith.

tankgirl said...

After 13 years at Catholic school, I was done with religion. But, more recently, I have come back to faith. And I think there can be a distinction there.
I'm not actually convinced there is a higher being, or that (s)he has predesposed my destiny. But I would like to think that there is something, however intangible, that makes good in the world and in people. And if there IS a higher being (or beings), that the message (s)he or they promote is love and understanding, for all. I just can't get behind religions that treat and/or ascribe certain individuals as second class or unacceptable.
My mother was a very strong Catholic. One of the things I admire(d) about her faith was that she was "real" about it. She was able to separate her faith from the institution of the Church and was always comfortable about this. This taught me that we can believe in something, anything really, and not have to tie ot to an institution to have meaning.