Crisis of Faith

Faith, the kind that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence, is pretty much an inherited thing from parents and society, and it habitually lumbers under the mantle of some religion that has evolved while its promoters pursued worldly objectives. Unfortunately, that drive to prove to the world that some institutionalized belief system is the only way to storm an indifferent Heaven signals that the bottomline aimed for by that promotion system rests entirely in this world, not in a higher realm.

Pretending that mystical power aids them in exerting control over this material world becomes questionable when the omnipresent-omnipotent-omniscient deity that is alluded to apparently has to rely on militant actions of mere man to fulfill his wishes. Something just doesn't add up to the deity's claimed divine capabilities.

Reality--which is to say the everyday problems experienced in the material expression we call life--is not well served when believers are assured that natural laws can be set aside if you only believe a certain way--their way. The universe would implode if exceptions to bypass creation's laws were granted. That is wilfull ignorance of holy truth--the truth that each identity stands responsible for itself: the buck cannot be passed to a redeemer or savior, or patched over by rite and ritual. And Paradise cannot be gained by disrespect for other life forms or other life expressions.

In every man-conceived faith system--especially in the western world-- an uncomfortable feeling lurks in the heart of "believers," --a sense of disjunction with that which is presented as the Supreme Being. The claimed closeness to and the simultaneous feeling of alienation from that Being does not make for comfort in the inner self. The result is a confusion of "faith" that too often becomes the trigger that initiates an indulgence in senseless acts of violence and hatred toward others. What that "faith" has blinded them to is the fact that what one does to another leaves crippling scars within the self.

Evil does not lurk in the diverse expressions of life as hard-line bigots may rail, nor is one an "infidel" if their reverence for the Source of all things is expressed from one's heart rather than in programmed posturing. One's faith is in crisis when they are led into a conceit of spirit that leaves the world around them in shambles.