Faith is very abstract, as abstract as it gets I think. I have little hope that anyone could clarify that for me but I aimed to hear a bit about how others cope with this concept in their day to day lives. The world isn’t doing very well and faith seems to be a primary source of struggle for the society and a majority of its individuals IMO.
I was raised by Christians, we didn’t go to church every Sunday but “holidays” like x-mas or easter were mandatory. Regardless, one doesn’t need to be raised by religious people nowadays in order to be exposed to religious beliefs and its consequences, both good ones and bad ones and on both a personnal level and as part of a faith driven society.
This said, here’s a sensitive string for me:
[quote][quote=“Tainan Cowboy”]Faith in a higher power is a bedrock for ones life.
Believing that someone or something is there to help when trouble occurs is not a weakness, its part of humanities bond with the everlasting.
And its a choice freely given. No cost attached.
It also can require a submersion of ones ego and this can be a personal problem for some.[/quote]
Like Taj Mahal says…
Quote:
You’re gonna need somebody on your bond,
You’re gonna need somebody on your bond child.
When it’s late, 'round midnight and old man death comes slippin
into your room,
You’re gonna need somebody on your bond.[/quote]
That’s intimidating to me. Nothing else and it is in good parts what triggers my inhability to feel fulfilled and satisfied through religious faith. It’s all about having faith religious people will tell you. Once you have faith, you do not fear but you feel comforted instead.
That just doesn’t ring a bell for me and it confuses me instead. What is this magic that will take over my starving logical mind and make me into a fulfilled religious minded individual if I open my heart to Jesus for example? In other words, how is your day to day life affected by faith is basically what I’m asking. If it’s through ego submersion as you mentioned TC, I’d like to know how it’s done, that’s still far too abstract.
Telling me I should fear the day I will die doesn’t help me. Having to live up to Jesus’s words is overwhelming, the difficulties in my private life can not logically be due to lack of faith although religious people will tend to disagree with me while society and politics are all about religion and building machine guns at the same time. To sum it up, it doesn’t add up for me.
It’s difficult to express my agnostic views without sounding atheist. It’s difficult to ask for insights and not sound like I’m arguing them. I invited anyone to discuss the concept of faith with an emphasis on religious faith because it’s something that is described as indispensable by many and as I said, I don’t think I can dismiss it all together.
I think my relation with religion and the concept of faith makes me fear death in a way and it also makes me leasy. I prefer an approach similar to Stray Dog’s when it comes to faith. Believing will achieve wonders but faith is too abstract and all you will achieve would in consequences be abstract too. Believing in God isn’t helping the world one bit right now…Believing in peace would be a different story. On a personal level, believing in God isn’t helping me either at this point but believing in myself is also a different story.
Bobepine.