Let’s start with what faith isn’t. Faith isn’t the sure knowledge of something. It isn’t simply a recitation of understood fact.
Faith is a statement of belief or a statement of confidence or a statement of hope. Faith should be built on a foundation of knowledge, but faith goes beyond that. Faith, by definition, is always a step into the unknown and every step into the unknown is an act of faith.
Everyone lives by faith. When we sit down in a chair, we have faith that it will hold us up. That faith is built upon the foundation of past experience. We believe that it will hold us up, because when we’ve sat in other chairs, they’ve held us up. Do chairs always hold people up? No, sometimes they fail, but past experience assures us each time we sit down, that it will probably be OK. If we didn’t have faith, we wouldn’t sit in that chair.
Does Everyone have Faith?
Yes, whether you’re a Christian or a Buddhist, a Muslim or an Atheist, you live your life by faith. Furthermore anyone, even an atheist, can be pushed to the edge of their knowledge and into the unknown of their faith by the simple expedient of playing that five year old’s game of asking “Why?”.
Ask it long enough and you will reach the edge of knowledge and force a person to step into the unknown, into faith. And here’s the thing. The more you know, the more you know you don’t know. We humans have accumulated a vast storehouse of knowledge and yet that base of knowledge isn’t even a quark in a proton in an atom in a molecule, in a water droplet, in the vast ocean of knowledge still left to be found. No matter how much we learn, so much of what we do and what we think we know will always be an act of faith.
What if I have doubts?
Doubt is not a failure of faith and doubt most definitely isn’t the opposite of faith. Certainty is the opposite of faith. So then, what about my doubts?
You will always have doubt. You need faith to push through your doubts. Faith is how you manage doubt. Faith is how you prevent doubt from paralyzing you.
What is the foundation that our faith is built upon?
Our faith is built upon the wisdom of the Bible and our belief in a loving, creator God who gave his only son, Jesus Christ to be our savior.
Regardless of what you believe, the teachings of Jesus Christ, particularly a speech he gave called the Beatitudes, form the very foundation of modern ethics. So much of what he taught, whether it be “turn the other cheek” or “go the extra mile” have become so ingrained in our language that many use these terms without the slightest idea about their origin.
That his teachings are true expressions of loving and ethical behavior is fact. He teaches us to “do unto others as we would have them do unto us.” and to love, not just our neighbour, but also our enemy. This radical demonstration of love and generosity is at the very core of his teaching.
That he existed as a historical figure is very well documented, far beyond the Christian Bible. The only question remaining is who you believe he is.
We believe that he is the son of God. We trust in his teachings and we have faith that he is our savior. This is the foundation that our faith is built upon.
