Faith for the unfaithful

One of the longest outstanding institutions of modern society is religion. Religions have been persecuted and forced into hiding, but never wiped out, yet empires, kingdoms, and countries have. The source of religion’s tenacity? My guess is something known as faith.

What is faith?

Belief has power and is hard to smother.

Faith is belief to the highest degree, belief that perseveres, or even becomes stronger, despite when evidence points to the contrary. In church, when life is going astray, they say that your “faith is being tested.”

Faith typically refers to religion, or faith in God. Faith for the unfaithful, as I put it, can be for everything else. In history, I think of movements powered by strong conviction. The communist revolution, the Protestant reformation, the civil rights moment.

I used to think that people who were willing to die for their beliefs were crazy. But now I understand a bit more.

Faith is the basis of strength in the face of adversity. By definition, you must have faith to continue believing in something when those beliefs are challenged. You have to be willing to take shit.

When times are tough, and they always are, I like to hold my faith close. Faith in myself and faith in the eventual positive unraveling of fate. If faith can power the eternal kingdoms of religion, surely, it can power a single soul.