There are some ten thousand extant religious sects–each with its own cosmology, each with its own answer for the meaning of life and death. Most assert that the other 9,999 not only have it completely wrong but are instruments of evil, besides. None of the ten thousand has yet persuaded me to make the requisite leap of faith. In the absence of conviction, I’ve come to terms with the fact that uncertainty is an inescapable crorllary of life. An abundance of mystery is simply part of the essential inscrutability of existence, in any case, is surely preferable to its opposite: capitulating to the tyranny of intransigent belief.
~ Jon Krakauer Under the Banner of Heaven
Faith is such a complex thing. By definition it is illogical and inexplicable. Having faith in something is empowering. By lifting responsibility out of ourselves (like accepting the Higher Power of AA) it seems as if we eliminate a lot of decision making variables. It provides a compass for evaluating behaviour. So often, however, it can become an excuse for irrationality. When I read the atrocities committed by both knights and Saracens during the Crusades, I am appalled that these were people of faith who believed their faith obliged their actions. When a student was murdered and her house burnt down by her father because she wanted to date out of her faith, I wept for the tragedy. When I watched the agony as a couple in love had to walk a tightrope as their parents’ pulled them in different directions, it was crushing. So paradoxically, we pray that unity happens.
The conflicts often break families and destroy faith. Sometimes there is a resolution that finds a medium. The fight becomes irrelevent when the grandchildren arrive, for example, and in loving the children, the parents are both accepted.
Faith is a paradox. God is love and here’s the war to prove it.
It takes a lot of faith to make it through.
Shawn L. Bird 