I grew up a staunch atheist in a family where the gods had their own separate room. Ideas and theories bunking the God concept were (still are and always will be) plentily available. I knew plenty of ways to get at you if you were out to prove God's existence to me. What's more? I was proud of having thwarted seasoned believers at the game.
Atheism was good training ground for me. It trained my mind in reason and taught me that whether I believe or not, God is something that would haunt my mind always.
But this was not just about God. It was quite some time before I started to see this as being about plain old trust. Believing in myself, my dreams, my vision of life, other people's opinions and convictions. It was about working in the absence of evidence. About not being trapped by what is considered the very purpose of our existence -- knowledge.
The need to know
We work under the assumption that when we are born, we know nothing. That we learn as we grow up and have learnt all there is by the time we are grown-ups. And yet, we conveniently forget that practically all the knowledge we gather in our formative years is based on an act of faith. We are told things and we believe them.
Faith therefore, is a quality we are all born with. It seems to exist in the absence of knowledge. Small wonder then, that we equate faith with ignorance.
Truth is, we never really stop believing. You don't exactly know how your computer's keyboard or TV remote functions. But you believe what the techies tell you. You believe advertisements. You believe signboards that tell you "road blocked ahead" and take the suggested alternate routes to your workplace.
Imagine what it would be like if you insisted on knowing everything!
What is the point of knowledge then?
Knowledge is important. But as I said, it has no independent existence. In my eyes, knowledge is an aid to faith. Jumping off a cliff believing you can fly is an act of pure faith (or pure stupidity, depending on your perspective). But if you have flown before, it helps you believe that you can do it again.
Knowledge is good to have. But it is not indispensable. Nor is it opposed to or superior to faith. It complements faith. In fact, you need faith to know. The most reliable encyclopedia will serve you no purpose if you don't believe what it says.
Knowledge can be incomplete or fragmented (it often is). Faith can only ever be absolute. There is no middle path for the believer. Doubt, fear, and misery don't walk alongside faith. If you truly believe in something (God for example), then there can be no doubt and hence no fear. If you are in doubt, you obviously don't believe. Think about it. (I have written about this before)
Faith is a vastly superior quality than knowledge. It does not cripple. It is not a handicap. Those who believe can afford the ultimate freedom -- fearlessness.
So we can believe whatever we want?
Yes. You probably already do that. You wouldn't hear a word against your only son, would you? Even though your neighbours may know of him having broken into a local shop. Similarly, you believe in what your favourite charismatic politician says without giving a tweet about popular opinion.
Sometimes, it so happens that you want to believe something or someone, but simply can't. With all due respect, it is NOT SO. If you want to believe, you can. You don't have to learn faith. You were born with it, remember? I like Richard Bach's way of putting it in his book Illusions:
Atheism was good training ground for me. It trained my mind in reason and taught me that whether I believe or not, God is something that would haunt my mind always.
But this was not just about God. It was quite some time before I started to see this as being about plain old trust. Believing in myself, my dreams, my vision of life, other people's opinions and convictions. It was about working in the absence of evidence. About not being trapped by what is considered the very purpose of our existence -- knowledge.
The need to know
We work under the assumption that when we are born, we know nothing. That we learn as we grow up and have learnt all there is by the time we are grown-ups. And yet, we conveniently forget that practically all the knowledge we gather in our formative years is based on an act of faith. We are told things and we believe them.
Faith therefore, is a quality we are all born with. It seems to exist in the absence of knowledge. Small wonder then, that we equate faith with ignorance.
Truth is, we never really stop believing. You don't exactly know how your computer's keyboard or TV remote functions. But you believe what the techies tell you. You believe advertisements. You believe signboards that tell you "road blocked ahead" and take the suggested alternate routes to your workplace.
Imagine what it would be like if you insisted on knowing everything!
What is the point of knowledge then?
Knowledge is important. But as I said, it has no independent existence. In my eyes, knowledge is an aid to faith. Jumping off a cliff believing you can fly is an act of pure faith (or pure stupidity, depending on your perspective). But if you have flown before, it helps you believe that you can do it again.
Knowledge is good to have. But it is not indispensable. Nor is it opposed to or superior to faith. It complements faith. In fact, you need faith to know. The most reliable encyclopedia will serve you no purpose if you don't believe what it says.
Knowledge can be incomplete or fragmented (it often is). Faith can only ever be absolute. There is no middle path for the believer. Doubt, fear, and misery don't walk alongside faith. If you truly believe in something (God for example), then there can be no doubt and hence no fear. If you are in doubt, you obviously don't believe. Think about it. (I have written about this before)
Faith is a vastly superior quality than knowledge. It does not cripple. It is not a handicap. Those who believe can afford the ultimate freedom -- fearlessness.
So we can believe whatever we want?
Yes. You probably already do that. You wouldn't hear a word against your only son, would you? Even though your neighbours may know of him having broken into a local shop. Similarly, you believe in what your favourite charismatic politician says without giving a tweet about popular opinion.
Sometimes, it so happens that you want to believe something or someone, but simply can't. With all due respect, it is NOT SO. If you want to believe, you can. You don't have to learn faith. You were born with it, remember? I like Richard Bach's way of putting it in his book Illusions:
"Humbug on faith. Takes zero faith. What it takes is imagination...Consider this. There are millions of melodies, all made of just seven musical notes. The notes you can know, but you need to imagine the melodies in order to be able to make them.
Two thousand years ago, five thousand, they didn't have a word for imagination, and faith was the best they could come up with for a pretty solemn bunch of followers.
