"Have faith.", "Everything happens for the best."
Faith is a word one commonly hears in multiple contexts particularly in times of trouble when everyone only advices you to have faith in the almighty and bide time till your problems are taken care of by divine intervention.
What is the faith that everyone seems to advocate ? Faith in whom ? Some supernatural being that they believe exists because everyone tells them so... ? Faith in goodness, fairness and justice ? Faith in the circle of life... ?
I wonder how so many people have the innocence in them to believe in something just because everyone does... Religion, God, Spirituality... they are the cornerstones of most people's existence. How do they manage to have Faith strong enough to over look reason.
We all start of as innocent children with faith but somewhere along the way some people grow up and lose this ability - for better or for worse ! There is a certain innocence in children when they believe that they were dropped by storks or that there is an evil dump-truck that penalizes them for not eating or being naughty. They are able to submit to the higher powers and feel protected and loved. They believe in Santa Claus and in angels and that their dreams will come true.
But then as people grow, they find other things to place their faith on - God, Religion, Prayers, Family etc. Why then, am I so lost in this maze... ? Why do I find it so difficult to simply believe and to have faith.... ? Why can't I believe in goodness and justice, hope and humanity, in the presence of a personal god who is just and will not let any harm come to me.... Why am I unable to let go of my life to the unknown ? Why do I wage this struggle against the randomness of everyday life to make my world my way ? Why cant I be like the child who waits for Santa Claus and hopes for angels ? Why do iI look for rationality in everything ? Why do I let reality get to me so much so that the world appears brutal and dreary ?
It seems comforting to know that someone "all powerful" is watching over you and will protect you ... but then why is it that the winds of time have eroded that vein of innocence in me and made me a skeptic who questions everything ? Why has my mind hardened to weather all storms without seeking solace in the unknown ? Some would say it is good that i am living a life of reason and courage but the truth is, it is far less comforting this way... ! Giving up the Panglossian paradigm of "the best of all worlds" strips life of all romance and reduces it to the bare skeleton of existence in randomness... When things go wrong, there is no blind faith and hope for the future... There are only bare facts which do not provide succor! There is no assurance of justice being done to you or of goodness being rewarded... There is no prospect of things working out the right and fair way. Stripped of this romanticizing, it is a mean world that is left behind, where you survive to the best of your abilities, the way you want to... making the world a better place for yourself and for the others that matter.... I am happy with my life of reason but ever so often when things seem really bad, I wish i could believe and have hope back in my life. I wish i could pass on my trouble to someone and not take responsibility for all that happens... I wish, I had someone watching over me. I wish I could believe in the presence of an omnipotent, omniscient , loving God who will not let any trouble befall me... I wish i could lose the skepticism and the cynicism that ever so often engulfs me just be able to believe in all thats good and beautiful for a little while....
Once in a while, I miss Faith... and I wish I could believe.... :-)
Faith is a word one commonly hears in multiple contexts particularly in times of trouble when everyone only advices you to have faith in the almighty and bide time till your problems are taken care of by divine intervention.
What is the faith that everyone seems to advocate ? Faith in whom ? Some supernatural being that they believe exists because everyone tells them so... ? Faith in goodness, fairness and justice ? Faith in the circle of life... ?
I wonder how so many people have the innocence in them to believe in something just because everyone does... Religion, God, Spirituality... they are the cornerstones of most people's existence. How do they manage to have Faith strong enough to over look reason.
We all start of as innocent children with faith but somewhere along the way some people grow up and lose this ability - for better or for worse ! There is a certain innocence in children when they believe that they were dropped by storks or that there is an evil dump-truck that penalizes them for not eating or being naughty. They are able to submit to the higher powers and feel protected and loved. They believe in Santa Claus and in angels and that their dreams will come true.
But then as people grow, they find other things to place their faith on - God, Religion, Prayers, Family etc. Why then, am I so lost in this maze... ? Why do I find it so difficult to simply believe and to have faith.... ? Why can't I believe in goodness and justice, hope and humanity, in the presence of a personal god who is just and will not let any harm come to me.... Why am I unable to let go of my life to the unknown ? Why do I wage this struggle against the randomness of everyday life to make my world my way ? Why cant I be like the child who waits for Santa Claus and hopes for angels ? Why do iI look for rationality in everything ? Why do I let reality get to me so much so that the world appears brutal and dreary ?
It seems comforting to know that someone "all powerful" is watching over you and will protect you ... but then why is it that the winds of time have eroded that vein of innocence in me and made me a skeptic who questions everything ? Why has my mind hardened to weather all storms without seeking solace in the unknown ? Some would say it is good that i am living a life of reason and courage but the truth is, it is far less comforting this way... ! Giving up the Panglossian paradigm of "the best of all worlds" strips life of all romance and reduces it to the bare skeleton of existence in randomness... When things go wrong, there is no blind faith and hope for the future... There are only bare facts which do not provide succor! There is no assurance of justice being done to you or of goodness being rewarded... There is no prospect of things working out the right and fair way. Stripped of this romanticizing, it is a mean world that is left behind, where you survive to the best of your abilities, the way you want to... making the world a better place for yourself and for the others that matter.... I am happy with my life of reason but ever so often when things seem really bad, I wish i could believe and have hope back in my life. I wish i could pass on my trouble to someone and not take responsibility for all that happens... I wish, I had someone watching over me. I wish I could believe in the presence of an omnipotent, omniscient , loving God who will not let any trouble befall me... I wish i could lose the skepticism and the cynicism that ever so often engulfs me just be able to believe in all thats good and beautiful for a little while....
Once in a while, I miss Faith... and I wish I could believe.... :-)
3 comments:
One of my favorite subjects, I think... Your post prompted me to write one too, instead of leaving you a rambling comment :)
Human being cannot live without faith in something (faith = some assumption she has to make.)
Thank you second sight... I loved your post too... :-) Though i would have loved to know your stand on the whole thing in addition to the various possibilities as you see... It is one thought which has touched many....
Onkar... While I agree with you faith is essential to our existence, the question that remains is faith in what ? I have faith in myself and in my people... but i wouldn't like to have blind faith in something that i cannot even rationalize to exist... It is blind faith that is harmful and can be misleading...
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