Have you seen the eyes of the faithful on a mission? The burning of the faith fire in the form of patriotic zeal, religious reform, or scientific search, has fueled people in ways unmatched. Neither the carrot, not the stick can compete with the momentum given by something so intangible, yet so powerful as faith.
Faith exists in almost everyone’s life to a greater or lesser degree. From going to the doctor, getting married, discovering new lands, inventing things or seeking God. Even science is not free of faith. Most, if not all scientifically ‘proved’ laws begin with a belief, a hypothesis that is either ‘proved’ later as truth, or rejected totally. Not so, with religious faith. God is neither proved nor disproved and perpetually falls in the grey zone of belief. Does intense and total faith imply that what we believe in is true? Do we create that which we believe in or do we delude ourselves and project the unreal phantoms of our minds onto a reality that is independent of our beliefs?
Civilizations have existed for ages with beliefs as its base. Battles have been fought, won and lost for the sake of that which we believe to be true. This is more true of religious belief than perhaps any other. Scientists have rarely taken up arms over the atomic weight of an element! So, a scientific approach solves controversies perhaps even wars can be wiped out if we acted solely on empirical evidence. However, if we act only by that which is proven and testable then we may never act or live because that leaves out much of life and the world.
To some extent you have to have faith in the concept of faith, as a prerequisite to knowing. On the religious path faith is the key that opens the door to a divine reality. In the spiritual mind, myths, visions, prayers, stories mingle to form the private inner world. How much of this is true we can never know. The secret is to have a balance of faith and doubt. Neither be blinded by faith nor be so rigidly against it that it closes the doors to discovery.
- Harvinder Kaur
Faith exists in almost everyone’s life to a greater or lesser degree. From going to the doctor, getting married, discovering new lands, inventing things or seeking God. Even science is not free of faith. Most, if not all scientifically ‘proved’ laws begin with a belief, a hypothesis that is either ‘proved’ later as truth, or rejected totally. Not so, with religious faith. God is neither proved nor disproved and perpetually falls in the grey zone of belief. Does intense and total faith imply that what we believe in is true? Do we create that which we believe in or do we delude ourselves and project the unreal phantoms of our minds onto a reality that is independent of our beliefs?
Civilizations have existed for ages with beliefs as its base. Battles have been fought, won and lost for the sake of that which we believe to be true. This is more true of religious belief than perhaps any other. Scientists have rarely taken up arms over the atomic weight of an element! So, a scientific approach solves controversies perhaps even wars can be wiped out if we acted solely on empirical evidence. However, if we act only by that which is proven and testable then we may never act or live because that leaves out much of life and the world.
To some extent you have to have faith in the concept of faith, as a prerequisite to knowing. On the religious path faith is the key that opens the door to a divine reality. In the spiritual mind, myths, visions, prayers, stories mingle to form the private inner world. How much of this is true we can never know. The secret is to have a balance of faith and doubt. Neither be blinded by faith nor be so rigidly against it that it closes the doors to discovery.
- Harvinder Kaur
(Tue, June 6, 2006; Reflexions; DNA)
An interesting question is: what is faith and/ or belief and what is doubt. I read somewhere, true faith/ belief is not absent doubt but despite the doubt. Also, faith is not an intellectual process but a moral one that requires will not proof. Then again, doubt can lead to discovery as well as despair. As also can faith.
ReplyDeleteFound this piece interesting - especially the last line! Maybe I will quote you someday at someplace.
Swati, what does the moral process involve? Isn't the intellectual process an integral part of the moral one?
ReplyDeleteThe two are not necessarily different, though moral decisions in the 'normal' course of life involve emotions seem to decide what we regard as 'right' or 'wrong', underlying these emotions is an intellectual premise...