PhiloFaith: What is faith?

How Faith Failed.
You could claim that you are Hindu or Deist or Hedonist. You may show us that you observe the eclipse and worship the seas. You may find peace in merging your soul with the higher beings. But does faith bring food on the table? Can faith unplug a sink or reverse death, or renew a life?

When it comes to life and death, it really doesn't matter what faith you believe in. How many times did the death come and we yelled "Oh God!" and He did not bother to bat a mighty, omniseeing eyelid for our sake?

Isn't He, in moments where He is desperately most needed that He proves Himself most uselessly absent?

This is how a lot of us lose faith in any omnipresent being and argue with dogmatic religious systems. Because the belief systems for the masses have failed us as individuals; in our most intimate moments, when a god or a miracle was most needed to flaunt some sparkling miracle.

What Faith Is (Or Should Be).
Let's have some stuff straightened up.

Concrete. Faith doesn’t disappear altogether with the fall of a god or religion from our graces, it just shifts into something less abstract and more relevant. So, just be.

Sure. Faith – unlike religion – is inarguable, until a deep dissonance occurs and we are forced to reconsider its terms. The terms of faith may come in the form of religious text. It may also come from personal convictions, until a group of people think and recognize the truth in that same thought. So, think.

By the way, that's faith in democracy.

Wealthy. Faith – just like money – has no religion or god, because it is dumb and neutral. Religion is just the bureaucrats of faith. The cool thing about Faith is that never runs out the deeper you dig into its well. It'll just multiply itself. Until you are taken and spent. So, share.

Loyal. Faith – similar to a faithful lover – only needs attention to grow. make friends with it. love it. undress it. For the more you know about your faith, the less insecure, the more trusting your relationship becomes. So, dare.

Instinctive. Faith – just like hope and the natural instinct to survive – is inherent in the human psyche. Yet, unlike hope, faith is doubtless; for Faith is the only guide and friend when all compasses and expectations have gone berserk and awry. So, believe.

Cool. Faith – in contrast to what the preachers have heatedly fed us every Friday, Sabbath and Sunday– actually has no direct impact with day-to-day life encounters and decisions. Faith's work is gentle and subtle. So, lighten up.

What about conflicts?
Then again, who cares about gentle subtlety when survival is hard enough on its own? Aren't you supposed to be driven and successful? Aren't you supposed to be loved and socially accepted? You have to be a dentist, even though you want to be a musician. You have to act normal, even though kinky is all that you wanna do tonight. Damn those weekends when you are faced with time to think for yourself. Damn them.

The personal conflict between the fulfillment of social regard and individual wants is where Faith settles. You can't understand language structure had there not been any spaces and commas between the words, right?

Simple. Like any other supplement, Faith is the natural drive to preserve what's already right and amend what isn't, in what matters to the unseen, unexpected, and unwanted. The soul. The small stuff. The silence.

Simple as that.