On Faith

Believe it or not, this is the 5th blog I created. I abandoned the other four for various reasons, but I hope to stick with this one.

Anyway...

I don't normally attend mass, whether it's a sunday or any other holy day of obligation. I just don't see the point in it. But I attended mass today, and I have a pretty good reason for it.

It's my mom's birthday, and she really wanted to go to a catholic mass. The thing is, we're in New Jersey right now and the nearest church is an episcopalian one. There is a Catholic church, but my mom, who isn't exactly Wonder Woman, would have to walk through 15 minutes worth of... not too savory neighborhood. Alone. Suffice it to say, that's a good enough reason for me to get off my lazy ass and walk her there.

Resentful as I was, it was sitting in the pews that gave me an idea for what to post first in my new blog. So when I got back home, I sat down and typed up a little essay on the what I think of the nature of faith. If you get offended, well, sorry but that's tough.

What is it about faith?

For their faith, millions of people end up doing things that they probably would not even consider otherwise. Pick a church, any church, and go there on a Sunday. In this country at least, chances are that you would find it filled to capacity with people of all demographics.

Now one would be tempted to conclude that this is a good thing. After all, once you enter through those large wooden double doors and take a good look around, you see a gathering of people that could almost represent a sense of community. You’ve got the high school nerds sitting beside the cheerleaders, the jocks making peace signs with household helpers, and you’ve got bosses holding hands with their employees while singing the Our Father. Presiding over everyone is the kindly old priest, he of the soft white hair and the fatherly twinkle in his eye. All in all, it paints quite the happy picture; the gently shepherd tending to his loyal flock as he guides them through the plains and valleys of life.

But as he intones his blessings and convinces everyone to eat of his body and drink of his blood, an odd thought can niggle at the back of any rational person’s mind, if he chooses to use it. And once he does, there comes the realization. What makes up the flock of a shepherd? Sheep… Sheep who are content to let go of their autonomy and individuality; content to simply sit back and let one person make all their decisions; content to disregard the fact that their god created them with a mind designed to be used.

Are they, the churchgoers, wrong in what they are doing? Are they wrong in surrendering their rationality, albeit for a single hour or so, to a theological concept that is untenable at best? Maybe… maybe not. Anyone who knows me knows that I abhor doing something just for the sake of doing something. If I am to be forced to do something, I must know that it furthers my existence; Otherwise I lose an hour of my life to something I do not believe in.

There are many people who attend church just for the sake of it. All it takes is another sweeping glance around at the people clumped together, ass to ass, on those hard wooden pews. You will find the odd face overcome by an almost manic joy at being in the presence of his lord, but that is quite rare. From my own experience, one is more likely to see anything from old men picking their noses, young ladies self consciously examining their fingernails for blemishes, and young men desperately ogling those same girls. Frankly, I find people like that repulsive, for it is these people who are truly wasting their lives. An hour every Sunday devoted to something that is worthless is a waste by anyone’s standards. Anything that doesn’t enrich your life is a waste. And, sadly, these people are either too lazy or too stupid to think of it that way.

But what of those few people for whom it IS real? What of those people who believe that the hard pews, painful kneeling, and awful sing are truly worth their time? What of those people who truly believe that the piece of wheat held in the priest’s all too mortal hand is actually the lord’s edible flesh?

Well, for them I have more respect. Personally I think they are deluded and often want to shoot them, but I cannot fault them for their faith. You see, we all need to know we have meaning in our life. Some people find meaning in their work or their money, others in the love that they share with someone, and still others believe that meaning lies in their accomplishments. Well, I understand that some people find their sense of meaning in believing that they serve some higher power, and that he has granted them free will so that they may live to do his work. Okay, when it’s put that way I STILL want to shoot them and tell them to shape up, but if they want to believe it then that’s their problem.

Or maybe it’s not a problem.

Faith is a powerful thing. Not just faith in god, but faith in general. When you ask the Red Sox players how they beat the Yankees, they will answer the same thing: Faith. When you ask Stephen King how he completed an entire novel lying on the brink of death, there’s that word again: Faith. How did the allies win World War 2? Faith.

Faith in itself is useless without action. One can dream and dream until the Sandman runs out of sand, but if they do not act they have nothing. But faith, a true and powerful faith, can give one the chance to find his strength, shape it, and then unleash it. This is what the Red Sox did; what King did, and what the allies thankfully did.

On the strength of this, I really cannot disparage the true believers too much. Do I agree with them about their doctrines? No, and I probably never will again. But I believe in their belief, and all props to them.

And this is why a false faith is truly dangerous. If your faith, be it in god or yourself, is insufficient or inadequate in any way, you are in serious danger of deluding yourself that what you do is making a difference. You spend time filling your self with nothingness. The safeguards and defenses that faith is meant to build will be missing, leaving you open and vulnerable to all sorts of dangers.

And that is when the devils come in.