In my view, there is much misunderstanding of the concept of faith, especially how it relates to belief. This all stems from the fact that we often don't know how our beliefs are formed. We are aware of some influencers on how our beliefs are formed such as our intellect or our upbringing, but we are not aware of all influencers. We overestimate how much we consciously choose our beliefs and underestimate how much our subconscious influences what we believe. This, of course, is inevitable.
Since a lot of religion operates outside of the intellect, you find that people will believe something but they do not have a conscious awareness of why they believe it. This is an uncomfortable feeling so naturally people will consciously investigate a reason for their belief. The popular explanation to satisfy this uncertainty is to attribute it to 'faith' since faith is something that seems to be valued and of high importance, so essentially you can kill two birds with one stone.
However, faith is not a reason for belief. We believe something because we believe it. If we don't consciously understand exactly why we believe something, then that just means we don't know how that belief formed, not that we believe it based on faith. The idea that if we don't intellectually understand why we believe something, then it must be because of faith is a misconception.
What is faith then? Faith is to investigate or pursue something that we don't have a belief in or at least don't completely believe in. Faith is actually oppositional to belief and can only be exercised outside of the bubble of our current beliefs. Doubt, resistance, and uncertainty are requirements for faith because they are indicators that we are operating outside of that bubble, in the darkness of non-belief.
To summarize, we can't have faith in our spiritual/religious beliefs since these beliefs require nothing to preserve them. We can only have faith in what threatens our beliefs. If you never allow yourself to detach from your beliefs, if you don't embrace doubt, then you don't embrace faith, and don't exercise faith. Faith isn't about protecting or preserving your existing, stale and tired hope; it's about trusting that if you allow yourself to feel exposed and step into the darkness of vulnerability, then you will find/be given a better hope. Then, when that new hope becomes stale and doubt shows back up, you exercise faith again.. and again.
Since a lot of religion operates outside of the intellect, you find that people will believe something but they do not have a conscious awareness of why they believe it. This is an uncomfortable feeling so naturally people will consciously investigate a reason for their belief. The popular explanation to satisfy this uncertainty is to attribute it to 'faith' since faith is something that seems to be valued and of high importance, so essentially you can kill two birds with one stone.
However, faith is not a reason for belief. We believe something because we believe it. If we don't consciously understand exactly why we believe something, then that just means we don't know how that belief formed, not that we believe it based on faith. The idea that if we don't intellectually understand why we believe something, then it must be because of faith is a misconception.
What is faith then? Faith is to investigate or pursue something that we don't have a belief in or at least don't completely believe in. Faith is actually oppositional to belief and can only be exercised outside of the bubble of our current beliefs. Doubt, resistance, and uncertainty are requirements for faith because they are indicators that we are operating outside of that bubble, in the darkness of non-belief.
To summarize, we can't have faith in our spiritual/religious beliefs since these beliefs require nothing to preserve them. We can only have faith in what threatens our beliefs. If you never allow yourself to detach from your beliefs, if you don't embrace doubt, then you don't embrace faith, and don't exercise faith. Faith isn't about protecting or preserving your existing, stale and tired hope; it's about trusting that if you allow yourself to feel exposed and step into the darkness of vulnerability, then you will find/be given a better hope. Then, when that new hope becomes stale and doubt shows back up, you exercise faith again.. and again.
Last edited:
