One of my friends describes herself as agnostic/atheist. It’s helpful starting with the 2 definitions: an atheist has “disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods” while agnostic means “one who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God.”
On 2 April 2016, I wrote a blog about atheism called “Would you believe someone claiming not to believe?” This blog was the result of a 24 March 2016 article of the British Psychological Society called “Distrust of atheists is “deeply and culturally ingrained” even among atheists”.
She said to me that she believes in people rather than in a God or gods. Clearly, she does believe. Essentially, a belief is an unproven (scientific) hypothesis. Albert Einstein was a theoretical physicist and some of his beliefs – or scientific hypotheses – took decades to be confirmed.
Sofar I have developed 3 concepts (hypotheses):
1) the 7 Belief systems,
2) Needs, Wants & Beliefs, and
3) Faith, Beliefs and Willpower.
Faith came out on top of everything else. This made total sense to me on a subconscious level. Yet I was still wondering if there would be an additional concept / hypothesis.
Recently, I had an epiphany: Faith is mutual. I had trouble grasping this thought – let alone write a blog about it. My friend’s casual comment (“I have faith in people”) was helpful in understanding my epiphany. Faith is the final layer of my concepts / hypotheses because faith is mutual. Faith is the pivotal point in business, friendship, love, sport, study – and religion.
A school teacher and former priest once told me the meaning of the name Yahweh: “I am here for you”. The essence of my Faith is that I believe that Yahweh is there for me, and vice versa. Faith – whether between people or with a Supreme Being – must be mutual else it could not even exist. A one-sided faith would be empty and meaningless.
It’s a common mistake to regard Yahweh as a Jewish name. The name Yahweh comes from much older Sumerian religious beliefs (Wiki) that underpin the Jewish, Christian and Muslim religion. The entire royal line of Noah, Shem, Abraham, Moses, Solomon, David, Jesus and even of Muhammad is (African) Sumerian and not Canaanite or Israelite.
My friend asked me what my definition of Faith was. I answered her that it’s an never-ending (eternal) source of (positive) energy. In the Star Wars movies they call this similar belief the Force. The existence of a force, separating g(o)od from (d)evil, is deeply ingrained in all cultures.
Can You Feel the Force (1979) by The Real Thing – artists, lyrics, video, Wiki
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