Rhetorical
Why faith?
Is it just something to hold on to? The ground under our feet when everything is spinning? Do we have faith in God, faith in others, faith in ourselves simply because - as humans - we need to believe in something better?
Why are we always striving, always changing, always - for lack of a better word - evolving? Surely the human body, brain and experience has changed from when it began. We talk differently, act differently, dress differently, socialize differently, raise children differently, even believe differently. What for? Faith in a better end-product? Faith that by bettering ourselves, we better the future?
Why do we lose faith? Does it just vanish, a puff of smoke through our hands? Or perhaps it is a flower, untended and withering to die? Maybe a weed would be more appropriate - growing quickly only to blow away at the first mighty tug? Does it weaken when untested, becoming lax and pliable like an un-worked muscle? Or maybe it just can't withstand the pull?
How do we find faith? Are we born with it, or does it grow as we grow, cell by cell? Once it's gone drifting away, will it come back? Or like a severed limb, will it never regrow? Will it call to us, even if we are un-heeding, will it lead us down that dark passageway of hopelessness? Will it be waiting, unaffected by our absence, or will only the bright shell remain?
Setting aside God, and afterlife, and the fundamental goodness of human nature - why, then, faith? Why, then, life? What would be the purpose of this life, of the suffering and pain, of the joy and pleasure, of the common bonds that tie us, if this all ends with the closing of our eyes. Why would we reach, why would we yearn, why would we change, if life is but an anomaly in space?
Why faith?
What else would there be?
Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe. - Saint Augustine
Is it just something to hold on to? The ground under our feet when everything is spinning? Do we have faith in God, faith in others, faith in ourselves simply because - as humans - we need to believe in something better?
Why are we always striving, always changing, always - for lack of a better word - evolving? Surely the human body, brain and experience has changed from when it began. We talk differently, act differently, dress differently, socialize differently, raise children differently, even believe differently. What for? Faith in a better end-product? Faith that by bettering ourselves, we better the future?
Why do we lose faith? Does it just vanish, a puff of smoke through our hands? Or perhaps it is a flower, untended and withering to die? Maybe a weed would be more appropriate - growing quickly only to blow away at the first mighty tug? Does it weaken when untested, becoming lax and pliable like an un-worked muscle? Or maybe it just can't withstand the pull?
How do we find faith? Are we born with it, or does it grow as we grow, cell by cell? Once it's gone drifting away, will it come back? Or like a severed limb, will it never regrow? Will it call to us, even if we are un-heeding, will it lead us down that dark passageway of hopelessness? Will it be waiting, unaffected by our absence, or will only the bright shell remain?
Setting aside God, and afterlife, and the fundamental goodness of human nature - why, then, faith? Why, then, life? What would be the purpose of this life, of the suffering and pain, of the joy and pleasure, of the common bonds that tie us, if this all ends with the closing of our eyes. Why would we reach, why would we yearn, why would we change, if life is but an anomaly in space?
Why faith?
What else would there be?
Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe. - Saint Augustine
