Faith Journal
by Noah Mitchell
Summary:
Faith is not a simple subject. Secularly, faith can be defined as complete (or very great) trust or loyalty. The things we choose to put faith in define us as who we choose to be. This kind of trust is a calculated risk, much like the religious sense of faith. The Catholic, or theological, definition of faith has seven outlined elements: grace, human response, risk, reason, certainty, yearning for understanding, and virtue. These characteristics of faith can be summed up in this: faith is an intellectual assent to a loving God and His revelation. This can involve making ourselves vulnerable to criticism when we strive to make our choice of accepting God's grace habitually. Our life choices (our faith and its influence in our lives) should be based both on beliefs and reason. This balance, often called the "golden way," avoids both radicalism and nihilism. Radicalism, which is based solely on beliefs, is shared by fanatics, who believe too zealously or hypocritically, and fundamentalists, who interpret Scriptures literally. Nihilism rely purely on reason to say that all institutions should be destroyed, and they scorn beliefs. Faith is the golden way. To have faith, however, one must first say "yes!" to the world around him and to life. One must have the will to strive to make the world a better place. Jim Goodnight and Danny Meyer are examples of men who have strongly said "yes" to this fundamental option. They represent faith as caring for others, as looking outside of one's personal life. Father Gabriel and Mendoza in "The Mission," Dick Hoyt, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and even a suicide bomber can be viewed as people of great faith, even though their respective faiths were put in different ideals and different people.
Three Ideas:
1. The story of Dick Hoyt is truly an inspiration for love and a commentary on its potential. Though at first Dick Hoyt may have acted on desperate hope alone, his gift of so much time and such incredible effort for the enjoyment of another person is humbling. What struck me is that Mr. Hoyt suffered so many hours of grueling exercise and muscle torture at the same time that his son felt momentary freedom from physical impairities. Every second of his torture was a second of lessened mental anguish. This is the ONLY thing that drove him onward.
2. Spiritual or religious exploration so often seems to fit this quote: "In some ways I feel we are as confused as ever, but I believe we are confused on a higher level, and about more important things." I find this especially fitting and clarifying. I have noticed this before when i ponder life's dilemmas and beauties, but I never could word this feeling so clearly.
3. The idea of faith as the golden way seemed so interestingly familiar to me. Many times before, when engaged in philosophical conversations, I find myself stressing moderacy, moderacy, moderacy. Things should be approached rationally from both sides or ALL sides and angles. I also found that ignoring a "sense of the mysterious" (as Einstein called it) is almost always detrimental to one's worldview and opinions. Certainly, reason should be very prevalent, but balanced with what lies beyond reason. What is "out there" can be called faith, and in a sense it is un-provable idealism.
(another thought: 4.) Atticus' words, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it," remind me of a similar saying:
Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes; you'll be a mile away and you'll have his shoes."
They both convey the same meaning: see things from someone else's perspective so that you will be wiser and more considerate. Seeing things in one dimension makes you foolish and obstinate. Even if virtue doesn't matter for you, you should consider this because no one likes a stubborn critic.
Images of Key Ideas:
(here a star from the constellation Monoceros erupted into a brilliance of 600,000 times the intensity of our sun. The effect shown is a "light echo," as dust shells are illuminated in its eruption. Mysterious? I think so.)
A Question
Don't even nihilists have some form of faith?
The text proposes that nihilists rely only on reason and have no beliefs. Yet, isn't the cynicism of the world that stems from reason a belief? Isn't distrust of institutions a belief about institutions: that they are evil and contrary to the right course of nature? In this sense, it seems that even in doubting everything, you believe something about belief itself. The way to combat my train of thought would be to say that belief must be a positive force. If belief must involve an optimistic view on something in this world or another one, then nihilism, being entirely pessimistic, contradicts belief.