Faith

My faith is a private matter and I rarely discuss it.  I do not feel bound to share or force my religious views on others.  I am no proselytizer.  I would probably drive away more people than I would convert and there are people far better suited in temperament and persuasive powers to fill that role so I leave that to them.

As with most folks I came to my set of beliefs through my family.  My father is a Presbyterian, although he himself would admit not the best one and I’ve yet to see him attend a single service at any Presbyterian church.  My mother is Catholic and devout.  She wanted all her kids baptized but that’s as far as she pressed it.  In her opinion a person’s faith was their own to develop as they saw fit.  I suppose I inherited that viewpoint as well.

I keep my faith quiet as it is an internal matter and does not need the input of others to work.  I see it as a source of comfort and strength during hard times.  I don’t mean hard as in work sucks or my significant other is cheating on me or any of life’s little dramas.  I mean those times when nothing and I mean nothing is going right.  When the walls of your world are falling down around you and even those precepts that are the foundation of your life seem in doubt.  Rather than testing my faith I find those times strengthen my faith.  Delusional, right?

That’s the thing about faith.  You will never prove it by logic, you can’t point to it and say here it is.  No facts, no figures, and nothing you can pin down.  It’s either there or not.

I do not look down upon those that do not have faith just as I do not look down upon others that have their own beliefs.  I have met many people from different belief systems and have found that their believing or not believing has nothing to do with whether they are good or bad.  I have met atheists that embody the ideals of christian compassion better than some christians I know.  However that doesn’t mean I want to be an atheist.

So do I believe in a creator?  Yes

Do I believe in an afterlife? Yes

Do I believe that there is a point to this life thing and that it’s not all just one incredibly complicated math equation playing itself out to completion over several billion years?  Yes

Am I going to hassle you with pamphlets, ask for donations, or shun you if you don’t believe as I do?  No

Am I ever going to blog about religion ever again?  Probably not