Sense And Emotion
In 1935, a philosopher of note, Alfred Jules Ayer wrote, “We reject knowledge of a transcendent reality. Assertions of religious value are not scientific but emotive, thus neither true not false. They express only feelings; that God or an immortal soul exist are assertions of no literal significance. This is the view of theists. A sense-experience cannot belong to the sense-history of more than one self. We know of other minds in the same way we know of our own, by inference from the body, from reality.”
Faith is Double Edged
Jeff Landauer and Joseph Rowlands expanded on the theme, “When accepting a statement as true, there are two basic methods. The first is reason; when the known evidence points to the statement being true. The second is faith. It is when one accepts a statement as true without evidence for it or in the face of evidence against it. The result of using faith consistently is the complete inability to think.
Faith nullifies the mind. To the degree, ideas are taken on faith; the process of thinking is subverted. If someone claims to be able to speak to their god, and tells you what god demands, you have no reason to accept it as true. In fact, it should be rejected.
Faith is an act of mental destruction. If there is no evidence for a claim, then accepting it is irrational. Eventually, even if confronted with evidence against it, one's mind will be so dependent on the belief that fear of one's world view collapsing will encourage one to reject the evidence. When this happens, one acts against reality. This is an act of destruction.
Faith Is A Personal Choice
In 2003, in my book, Ceremonial Pathways, A Pilgrim’s Journey, I wrote, “Allowing one’s life experience to manifest in a good way that honors your suffering and your joy allows you the opportunity of experiencing life at its fullest. Faith is a state of consciousness that is reflected when our physical, mental and emotional experience and our inner identity are one. To walk in an integrated manner is to experience faith.”
Ayer is correct when he points to the fact we exist on a planet revolving around a star that spirals around a center of a small galaxy; that we exist literally in the middle of nowhere. Landauer and Rowlands are correct when they affirm that if there is no evidence for a claim, then accepting it is irrational.
Yet, it is also true that it is a wondrous thing when we are fully conscious of our celestial home and honor our place in the universe. It is also true that we can make a choice to live in a good way inside of ourselves and with other people, animals and elements. To walk in Faith is to affirm a personal decision to live in a good way; to cherish our planetary home simply because we desire to.
An elder once told me that my grandmother and I were soul mates and that we had shared many lifetimes. She said we agreed to experience those wonderful early years of my life and of which I write often. If by soul mate, she meant that indescribable sense of connectedness we experienced, we were surely soul mates.
I do not know if there were other lives before or whether there will be other lives to come, it does not matter to me. What matters is that we all make a choice every minute of every day to live life to the fullest and share unconditional love.
Over the years, I have met many loving people and have surrounded myself with them because I have learned to recognize my loving grandmother’s vibration, her way of being, within them.
I dare assert that most people live with faith: Faith in God, faith in science, faith in nature, faith in family, faith in hate. And Faith can take many external forms: it can take the form of a Sunday ritual, genuflecting before a sacred icon, sipping the essence of Jesus; kneeling and moving in a procession to ask for blessings from Our Lady of Guadalupe; or hiding in a dark corner living a lesser existence.
Faith may take the form of meditation in the presence of a candle’s flame or express when parents pray for the best possible outcome for their children and family or when a spouse holds a picture of a loved serving in Iraq to her or his heart. Faith is expressed when a person appreciates a beautiful morning or an afternoon sunset or when someone plants a flower seed.
While faith does not prescribe any necessary set of values, it tends to encourage clusters of values such as compassion, respect, honor, truth, fairness, charity and brotherhood that promote greater happiness. It is also true that it can encourage judgment of others that can be destructive: the inquisition, the crusades, the holocaust, the Islamic jihads are but a few examples. Truly, faith without reason is the downfall of our planet.
Faith by choice is a hope; an affirmation of values that may some day weave larger ecumenism among the world’s religious. At bottom, we are one genetic family with similar challenges and aspirations with a very long and painful shared human experience.
This Christmas, let’s choose a personal faith that transcends ethnic, cultural and religious division; let’s choose to live in a good way simply because we want to.
Wishing You A Holiday Filled With Faith
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This perspective first appeared in Border Observer, Jaime O. Perez, Editor