Faith: The Gathering

Keith Sader sent me a fascinating article about a reporter who found and lost his faith. It's a really profound and cool article, and will no doubt generate nothing but a mountain of hate mail for his efforts.

What struck me was his conclusion where the author said "Either you have the gift of faith, or you don't".

Part of me finds that statement distasteful. It's like saying either you have the gift of being blind, or you don't.

And yet, there is some truth to the statement. I've met many people in this world who have an amazing ability to "fix" and idea or a point of view in their mind. With little thought or effort, they can etch a belief into their brain that is absolutely permanent for the rest of their life, no matter what they see, hear, do, or learn. It must be comforting to have that kind of certainty, and maybe that's why they are able to maintain it.

Sometimes it's harmless. Countless people (usually men) will adopt a favorite sports team as a child, and then remain loyal to that team their whole life no matter how many times they move to other cities. They don't seem to grasp the fact that their choice of favorite team is arbitrary thing, based solely on where they happened to be living when they developed an interest in sports.

I knew a co-worker named "Dave" who was determined to be a rabid loyal fan of the Philadelphia Eagles for his entire life...despite the fact that he only actually lived in Philadelphia for 8 months as a child. It just happened to be the "right" 8 months when he saw his first live football game and developed his interest in the sport. He doesn't consider it the least bit odd that he's still a rabid Eagles fan, despite having lived in San Diego (a city with a pro football team of their own) for the past 20 years.

And if people are able to form a bond of unwavering loyalty to an arbitrary sports team, then just imagine how strongly they can bond with something even more significant...like religion. Most believers don't grasp the fact that their religion is almost certainly determined by the religion of their parents. If they had been adopted by Muslims as a child, they would be Muslim now, with every bit as much certainty that their beliefs were right and everyone ELSE was going to hell.

This "gift of faith" is a strange gift indeed. I can't imagine what it is like to be absolutely certain of anything, and then on top of it be absolutely certain about something that is absolutely arbitrary! Jeez, that's messed up!

As much as I wish I had that level of confidence and conviction, I would still consider it a curse...not a gift...to have a brain that worked like a "write-once" CD-ROM.