Blind Faith
The first principle of the gospel is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. As a word faith has swollen over the centuries till it fills our consciousness. The very mention of the word faith in some inspires reverence for God, in others contempt.
Linda will list a few synonyms from Rodale’s Synonym finder for faith or faithful. They all have a religious connotation:
Belief, reliance, dependence, confidence, assuredness, expectation, aspiration, feeling, devotedness, dedication, consecration, allegiance, allegiant, loyal, true-hearted, steadfast, scrupulous, trusted,
Not everyone has faith in God, but everyone has faith in something. In that sense, we are all religious. Faith is the catalyst for all action. Some have faith in God. Some have faith in a rabbit’s foot or other good luck charm; some have faith in their own genius; some have faith in money, idols, witchcraft, fetishes, science, charismatic leaders, nature, law, traditions, government,
I classify faith into three categories:
1. Faith in Self.
2. Faith in others or other things
3. Faith in God.
In other podcasts I have talked about the necessity of wise exercise of faith in all three categories, for they are all gifts of God. For example, we must have faith in ourselves or we wouldn’t even get out of bed. Faith, like any principle, has extreme opposites. Some see themselves as superman who need no outside help. Some are so beaten by despair that they have no confidence in themselves at all. One is as destructive as the other.
We must have faith in others, or we would exclude doctors, nurses, parents, teachers, mentors, ecclesiastics, hospitals, scientists, and so on and on and on.
We must have faith in science, in natural law, in technology and so on or we would be crippled.
Ironically the greatest clash is between science and religion. We have divided into two camps, atheists and theists, and have gone at each other’s throats. Today faith in science seems to be increasing and faith in God appears to be decreasing. It is as if science were on a crusade to eradicate faith in God. Many who believe in the natural world deny the supernatural world and feel it their duty to covert others to their belief. Both camps are under a religious necessity to win converts. It should come as no surprise that both are religions. They just worship different Gods.
There is a trend that appears to elude some. Faith in America is not declining. It is stronger than ever. Faith as a principle never dies, but the object of faith is changing. We are turning away from theism to humanism. We are turning away from the virtues of Christ to the ethics of man. Enthusiasm hasn’t waned. It is the object of our enthusiasm that has shifted. In our nation we are converting our laws away from the Ten Commandments and toward the ethics of an evolving religion based on humanism.
Another phenomenon that eludes man is that you can separate church and state, but you cannot separate religion and state. In other words, you can pass a law against having a state religion, but you cannot pass a law against a state becoming religious. Moral laws must be based on something. Some behaviors must be governed by society under penalty of law or life would be a horror. Like it or not, laws are based on our sense of good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, morality and immorality. What difference does it make what language we use. “Thou shalt not kill” is part of the Ten Commandments of all Judeo-Christian religions, but it is also the law of the land
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