Worzels World - Falling on your faith

 

Congregations of traditional religious denominations have dwindled. Church buildings are under utilised. Participation in ‘religious’ activity is at an all time low. Unless of course the worship of electronic screens is regarded as religious. That particular church is doing very well. This has been labelled ‘A crisis of faith’.

Once again it seems that mainstream media have it all wrong. There is as much faith amongst the general populace than ever there was. Faith has never had much to do with religion anyway and that is truer now than ever.

Religion is a practice, faith is a belief. And although what we believe will influence our behaviour and sometimes our behaviour will influence our beliefs, the two are not the same. If there is a crisis of faith it is not that people don’t have faith in anything, it is rather that people have faith in almost everything. The wise treat all things with a degree of skepticism. They ask questions, do research.

American bank notes sport the declaration ‘In God We Trust’. This is an interesting paradox given that so many who put their faith in bank notes would be aghast at ever trusting in God. The predominant expression of faith today is, of course, the worship of money. Serving a demon of greed that enslaves them, this clearly illustrates peoples’ gullibility. The wise and the considered know that money buys nothing of any real value and even the Beatles, who ended up with more money than you can shake a drumstick at, proclaimed that money can’t buy love. 

The beliefs of a gullible and superstitious populace are many and varied. Take for example such crazy notions as Darwinian evolution and neo-liberal economics. Both are widely accepted by what appears to be a majority of people yet any rational study shows them to be hopelessly flawed.
Vaccinations are accepted by around 90 percent of new Zealanders yet very few people know what they contain. Even if people were familiar with the ingredients routinely injected into their bloodstreams, most would not understand why they are there, what they are supposed to do, and how they are supposed to do it. However many are quite prepared to put their faith in these products of multinational corporate entities, operating on a ‘for profit’ basis, that will forever alter their immune systems. They believe vaccinations are good because they are told they are. This is a major triumph of uncritical faith over reason. It is based on the arrogant belief that man can improve upon nature. It presumes that multinational corporations and the researchers who are employed by them have everyone’s best interests at heart. 
I make no judgement upon the efficacy or otherwise of vaccinations except to say that humanity prospered for many thousands of years without them. On the other hand, faith in an unseen but rational beneficent creator God that has been written about, experienced, trusted and revealed to thousands of people over many thousands of years is often summarily dismissed as fanciful and irrational – often by the same people who will vaccinate their children. 
If, however, the conspiracy theorists are correct and vaccines turn out to be a method of ‘population control for profit’ perpetrated by big pharma, your life span may be shortened. You may irreversibly damage your health. You might sentence your children to a lifetime of compromised immunity or even autism. Thinking that people have answers to our worlds problems when it is clear most can’t even solve their own is another quantum leap of unjustifiable Faith. However faith in a God of love is never misplaced. Even if He turns out to be no more than an elaborate construct of the imagination then you have given yourself an excuse to have a purpose in life, a reason to love your friends and neighbours and a hope in something better and more complete than this present tawdry and failing world. You see if we put faith in God and he exists everyone is a winner. If we have faith in God and he doesn’t exist, everyone still wins. 

Often truth is discovered through a skeptical approach to a given proposition. When we set out to disprove something it often happens that we cannot. As we uncover evidence we end up finding that the truth is at odds with what we first thought. There is no lack of faith in the world, rather there is a lamentable lack of skepticism. Truth can withstand whatever scrutiny the skeptical or the curious wish to exercise. True science and authentic faith are not the enemies they are portrayed to be. The enemies of truth are fake science and counterfeit religion, both of which deceive many. 

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If there is a crisis of faith it is not that people don’t have faith in anything, it is rather that people have faith in almost everything. The wise treat all things with a degree of skepticism.