Let’s Talk About Faith

Why is faith unavoidable? Why is it beneficial?

The idea of avoiding faith is very hard, for faith is found all around us every day. I find it very interesting how in Wilken’s reading, it is mentioned how Saint Augustine thought “no one believes anything unless one first thought it believable” (64).  This quote portrays the idea that to believe in something, someone (either you or someone else), has had to have an experience with what is believed. One can have faith on many different things: that a soccer player will score a goal at the tournament, that after much studying one will get a good grade on the test, or that if one knows a places directions one will not get lost. A more common example of faith is having a religion. “Faith is the portal that leads to the knowledge of God” and given that religions are based on trusting the word of the Lord, even though one has never seen Him, without faith Christianity and social structure would be impossible. Furthermore, people constantly allude to their Christian principles or background with deep trust,  saying things such as “God has a plan” or “I’ll leave it in God’s hands.” Despite not knowing Him personally, people who trust Him believe with great intensity in His words. Because of situations as such, it is very hard for us to avoid faith, since it is present unconsciously everywhere.; nevertheless, it is good that faith is unavoidable, since it is completely beneficial. Having something to look up to when one has a problem, or even just having the security of knowing that God has a plan for each of us is very comforting. If you think about it, “nothing would remain stable is human society if we were determined to believe only what can be held with absolute certainty”(171). The fact that many concepts in religion are intangible does not mean that religion is not to be trusted, and personally, I believe that it is the intangibility of religion that makes people so blindly in it.