Faith

My wife and I had a discussion yesterday about religion and faith. We live in an area where the dominant religion has an enormous impact on the government (of course, that area of religious dominance is a mere subset of a larger area of religious dominance, i.e. the U.S.). We have our grievances with this particular religion because it's dogma infringes on our lives and beliefs. Unfortunately, our irritation extends beyond the boundaries of this religion's politics into it's philosophies. In other words, because some religious asshole shits on my parade, I hate the religion.

But my system, whatever that may be, is not perfect either. And if I hope to achieve what Tyler Durden would call the "instant of perfection", I need to consider the value of other people's ...well... values.

As I said before, I am burdened by mortality. Not to jump ahead and ruin the ending, but I think it unlikely that I'll ever find an answer to my burden (hopefully just some relief). Because of the weight of this burden, I wish (if i am truly areligious, to whom or what do I wish to? So many contradictions...) I had faith. True faith provides an answer by not giving one. It says it's there but you just can't "see" it. Just trust whoever or whatever it is you have faith in. Pulling it out of the dogmatic, politicalized, business entities that we deem religions, it is quite beautiful. We are perceptually imperfect beings. We can't know everything. If there is something we need desperately (i.e. meaning, order, purpose), maybe it does exist. And if it doesn't and we have to make it up, why not create it in the hands of an extraterrestrial? Who cares where it comes from, as long as it does it's job. I wish to whatever god I believe in (we all believe in gods - the providers of truth - whether they be in the form of a white male, a multi-limbed elephant, or the scientific method), that I had faith. It would give me a reason for my mortality and lessen it's burden.

I think Kierkegaard explained faith beautifully. He dismissed the dogma and piety surrounding his beloved Christianity and boiled religion down to faith: subjective faith that can't be understood by anyone other than the practitioner him/herself. In essence, the god is you. Quite beautiful and empowering.