“I have (lost) faith in: you / my exam / Saturday’s game / meeting my deadline at work”. These are just examples of how we use the word “faith” in daily speech. For a long time, I have confused the concept of Faith with the concept of Religion. I was finally able to separate these two concepts while writing my 20 September 2016 blog on Religion as a Belief system.
Having faith in a Supreme Being (eg, Allah, God, Jupiter, Odin, Yahweh, Zeus) is different from having faith in human institutes (eg, church, mosque, synagogue) or in its human leaders (eg, grand mufti, imams, pope, rabbis). Faith is in our mind while Religion is in our appearance.
We use the word “faith” to express hope, trust and also love. Doubt, fear and despair express a lack of faith. Faith – and the lack thereof – is similar to having negative and positive energy in our lives. Negative energy consumes us and positive energy feeds us.
The analogy between faith and energy is also interesting in a related context. In our vocabulary, we use the concepts of the “force of good” versus the “force of evil”. Clearly, a force = energy. This force and/or energy is not a dimension that we can measure in science. Our (known known) dimensions are so far limited to Space (where) and Time (when). Combined it’s the spacetime concept.
Scientific hypotheses do include other dimensions, like the Multiverse or parallel universes. Remarkably, the “multiverse” concept in Religion is much older than Science and usually called the afterlife (eg, Heaven, Jannah, olam ha-ba). More recently, theoretical scientists are even stating that human knowledge (ie, information) is not “lost” after our physical death but “stored” within the Universe (eg, Erik Verlinde, Stephen Hawking).
So far, I have noticed 6 forces that govern our Faith: Love vs Fear, Trust vs Doubt, and Hope vs Despair. Over the years, I have noticed that some people are more at the positive side (Hope, Trust, Love) and that others are more at the negative side (Doubt, Fear, Despair).
Although Wisdom still lies at the heart of my 7 Belief systems, Faith – or the lack thereof – must be the driving force in our (daily) lives.
Faith is not only our Input (energy) but also our Output (energy). It’s up to us to determine our “burn” ratio, the rate at which we spend our talents (ie, capital) before generating positive energy by our actions.
I think, feel and believe that Faith is something like a connection between dimensions, similar to a WiFi signal. The connection isn’t always stable and its strength varies constantly. We cannot hear, see, smell or taste its signal. It is beyond human senses. Still it’s there. Getting closer to the WiFi router (ie, the source), usually gives a better connection.
John Hiatt – Have a little faith in me (1987) – artist, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
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