7-15-19<\/p>\n
I think contemporary folks see a wall of separation between knowledge, belief, and faith. Not necessarily hostile camps of the mind, mutually exclusive; but different provinces. Maybe like summer and winter: hardly the same, but both are \u201cweather.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, knowledge, belief, and faith \u2013 and other versions of our core convictions; trust, security, even firm hope, you know them all \u2013 are really just words, words, words for the same thing. I can know the lamp will turn on when when I flip a switch; but that knowledge is based on a belief that a lot of people know how to make that happen. And I have faith that they will do so, tomorrow too.<\/p>\n
These are not superficial distinctions\u2026 and they apply to, yes, our core convictions.<\/p>\n
In Western civilization in the 21st century, “progress” has freed us from the necessity to have faith any more\u00a0in many things once requiring faith. Of course this goes beyond religion: and I mean, very much, to have us realize how rudderless, value-less, we have become. We have been coddled into thinking that so-called progress, and intelligence, and science, are sufficient in all things; indeed, that vital aspects of traditional faith\u2026 are obsolete. Impediments. Relics of the ignorant.<\/p>\n
But we still exercise faith \u2013 more than ever. Only in different things.<\/p>\n
Governments, politicians, scientists, heroes, philosophies, secularists, the \u201cmind\u201d of the \u201cuniverse.\u201d Superstition. Self-help courses. Gurus, not God. At the end, however, we all still believe in things; we all have faith in something. Or other.<\/span><\/p>\n It surprises some people to know that the mighty Reformer Martin Luther, during the Renaissance and at the cusp of the Age of Enlightenment, declared that Reason is the enemy of Faith.<\/p>\n As we fight against the greatest surge of slavery in history; as we face oppression and abuse and heartache in our midst; as we wipe our hands of the blood of the previous century\u2019s myriad slaughters\u2026 let us think for at least a moment where Human Reason, unleashed for 500 years, has gotten us.<\/p>\n Another figure of faith, an example of embracing faith in the face of the world\u2019s certainties, and hostility, also speaks through the centuries:<\/p>\n