In order to even
begin to discuss the idea of faith and what it means we have to define it
totally and definitely. The English word of faith just means you have a strong conviction, one way or the other, on a particular idea/person/entity. A more realistic understanding of the word and the idea that it represents, at least currently, is similar but is more specific. Faith is the belief in a concept that has zero proof
at all, not only that, but the idea Requires there is no proof of concept in
order for the term "faith" to be applied. We do not have "faith" that the Sun will rise in the morning, we simply know, based upon our understanding of the universe, that it is simply a irrefutable logical conclusion.
How is this
concept even remotely accepted? I would understand if a small minority who were
badly educated believed in this concept, but for the majority of our species to
believe in it makes no sense.
To believe in
something, without any logical reason to, is mind boggling. What is even more
mind boggling, is that this idea is accepted as common practice. If we applied
the idea of faith to everyday life we would be completely and totally
incapable, as a species, to achieve anything at all. We live our lives, or at
least should, by making the most statistically accurate choices as possible, ie
we only make decisions on the basis that it has more chance of affecting us positively
than negatively.
Faith, by
definition, is taking a complete gamble on every choice. We see no evidence, we
have no idea if it is the right choice, but we make the "leap of
faith" dependant on our own unsubstantiated concept of the "right"
choice. If there was ANY proof at ALL we would no longer be using faith but, rather, reason. Faith is intrinsically uncertain in nature.
So if we look at
faith objectively, we will see that it is impossible to impact positively on
our world, and I would say, by the same logic, it could not impact negatively on our world. Faith is however an example of an extremest belief system, which at its core, in almost any form, impacts very negatively on us as a society. So the only outcome for Faith to have is a small negative to a large negative effect, which I would say is clearly self-evident in the world today. We cannot therefore ever move forward, as a species,
in an overall positive fashion, if the majority of us are faithful to a certain
belief.
