What is Faith?

“Let your faith be bigger than your fear”

Jerry A. Coyne, Author of the NY Times Bestseller “Why Evolution is True” in 2010

Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago, where he specializes in Evolutionary Genetics

“When science relies on observation, reason, testing, and experiment, methods that have led to tremendous progress, religion’s methods are based on faith- belief in things for which there is no evidence, insufficient evidence, or even counter-evidence- as well as on dogma, authority, and “confirmation bias,” the tendency to see as true what you want to be true. Coyne irrefutably demonstrates the grave harm- to individuals and to our planet- in mistaking faith for fact in making the most important decisions about the world we live in.”

Reflection: Coyne conveys a good point when it comes to making important decisions in the world. Do the current leaders in our country mistake faith for fact? If a leader were to rely more on faith than fact, would that be wrong? Would we suffer consequences because of that decision to rely on faith, instead of fact? I think a lot of what persuades us to find a solution to important decisions, root from moral questions we must ask ourselves. I don’t agree with the statement, “religion’s methods are based on faith- belief in things for which there is no evidence, insufficient evidence, or even counter-evidence,” because there is physical proof there is evidence. Miracles are evidence. For example, there are many such Eucharistic miracles that have occurred in different countries. The most famous is Lanciano, Italy. The greatest Eucharistic Miracle of the Catholic Church, a divine response to a Basilian monk’s doubt about Jesus’ Real Presence in the Eucharist. When Dr. Castañón first came across the miracle in 1999, he was an atheist. Today, he’s a Catholic. During Holy Mass, after the two-fold consecration, the host was changed into live Flesh and the wine was changed into live Blood, which coagulated into five globules, irregular and differing in shape and size. The Body and Blood from that miracle are still preserved at a church in the town. In 1970, they were examined scientifically and, like the Buenos Aires sample, found to be from a human heart with AB-positive blood. The comparison indicated that the samples from both Buenos Aires and Lanciano must have come from the same man. They both had the exact same DNA. Isn’t that evidence?

(Page 74) “The inevitable concomitant is risk. It is safer to leave faith unexamined, for no one can bring faith out into the hard light of public scrutiny, testing it in the face of competing options, with any assurance of escaping unscathed.”

Reflection: A beautiful line is, “for no one can bring faith out into the hard light of public scrutiny.” This is very true. Faith is untouchable and has not been scientifically proven to be something “wrong.” We are curious like puppies and we strive to acquire information that allows us to grow into intellectual beings but what if this is one thing we weren’t intended to understand?

(Page 11) “Many of those who currently write against religion (and specifically against Christian religion) seem to think that faith is simply a matter of entertaining beliefs of a cosmological kind, concerning the creation of the world and the hope of eternal life. And these beliefs are imagined to be in some ways rivals to the theories of physics and exposed to refutation by all that we know of the evolution of the universe. But the real phenomena of faith are nothing like that. They include prayer and the life of the faithful, obedience and submission in the face of temptation and the things of this world; the experience of certain times, places, objects, and words as “sacred,” which is to say in Durkheim’s phrase as ‘set aside and forbidden,’ reserved for uses that can be understood only on the assumption that these experiences mediate between this world and another that is not otherwise revealed to us.”

Reflection: Would I rather have faith and after passing on from this life, to find there is not a God? Or, not have faith in anything and all I have denied, be true? Is faith the same thing as religion?

“Since faith is conceptual until it is put into play, it is best achieved through commitment. To commit to faith is not the same as committing to a set of beliefs. In the throes of crisis, it is impossible to know what the unknowable God and/or universe is really asking of us. But in the void of not knowing, we may ask: Is it God at all who asks this of me? Or circumstance? The answer of faith: It doesn’t matter. You don’t know now, and you may never know. To not know in the context of faith is to remain humble and teachable. To toss away the conflicting and unusable beliefs of the mind is to be free of human chatter and hubris and a step closer to the divine. Where faith does not fill in the cracks, fear will. Faith is an attitude of acceptance of not knowing.

Knowing does not create faith. Unknowing does.”

Reflection: Mitch Albom’s film, “The Five People You Meet In Heaven,” displays the way we ordinarily feel about death and all the unanswered questions that we have before we die. This movie is one of my favorites because it allows us to grasp a different perspective than the one we are used to. Whether this film be precisely what transpires after we die, we will never know while we are alive. However, I think a profound piece of information is stated above by Martin, “The answer to faith: It doesn’t matter. You don’t know now, and you may never know. To not know in the context of faith is to remain humble and teachable.”

(Chapter 4) “How can we know when it is God speaking to us, and not some emotional experience, or something we ate? And, if we believe God is asking us to do something out of the ordinary, something that is illogical and not common sense, something that demands ‘faith,’ what should we do? How do we know it is God speaking to us, and not something I selfishly want to do? These are all valid questions often asked by Christians, and they are difficult toanswer because there is no burning bush, lightning strike, or parting of the waters. I am often asked, ‘How did God call you to Russia?’ ‘How did you know he wanted you to go there?’ I will try to explain what happened to me, and hopefully it will help others understand how God can work in their lives. But, my call or anyone else’s calling is specific for that individual, and no one else. When God spoke to people in the Bible, it was usually ‘weird’ and illogical. When they acted on it, they demonstrated ‘Faith.’”

(Chapter 4) “Common sense and faith are antagonistic towards each other. If you can understand it, if it is logical, if you can touch it, examine it, stand on it, and it makes sense, then it takes no faith to obey or act on it. It is only when you are standing on the edge of the abyss, looking into the foggy mist of the unknown, believing that God will catch you if you jump, that you have the opportunity for faith. Only then is it possible to know if you have faith. There is no faith until you jump, because you are standing on the solid ground of logic and common sense, and that does not require any faith.

Reflection: I’m sure we all ask ourselves questions like these. Ultimately, faith is not something forced upon us, rather it is a choice that we must make based off something that is hard to explain. To believe in something greater than ourselves. We as humans, always have the need to control our destiny and the way our lives unravel as much as we can. In the circumstance with faith, we cannot. Therefore, those who find the unknown hard to accept, will turn away from having faith.

(Page 108) Saint Augustine- “Faith is to believe what we do not see, and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.”

(Page 108) Plato- “We are twice armed if we fight with faith”

(Page 111) Helen Keller- “It need not discourage us if we are full of doubts. Healthy questions keep faith dynamic. In fact, unless we start with doubts we cannot have a deep- rooted faith. One who believes lightly and unthinkingly has not much of a belief. He who has faith which is not to be shaken has worn it through blood and tears, has worked his way from doubt to truth as one who reaches a clearing through a thicket of brambles and thorns.”

(Page 112) Helen Keller- “Often when the heart is torn with sorrow, spiritually we wander like a traveler lost in deep wood. We grow frightened, lose all sense of direction, batter ourselves against trees and rocks in our attempt to find a path. All the while there is a path- the path of Faith- that leads straight out of the dense tangle of our difficulties into the open road we are seeking.”

A Personal Narrative: Finding my Way Home

It was a cold, bitter day on December 19, 2012. You could feel the warmth of Christmas love and happiness everywhere in the air. But… inside of me, my heart was becoming just as cold as the temperature was outside. I was losing myself. I was unemployed for a year and living off the government. I put my health at risk by smoking marijuana and became addicted to cigarettes. I allowed myself to be used and mistreated. I was arrested for shoplifting and the downward spiral continued of being abused and brain washed by people who were toxic to me. Looking back, the way I describe my life during that time is, “The Devil had his hands around my neck, he was in control.”

I just finished eating lunch and had received a phone call from my father. Typically, in most conversations he spoke to me like he was disappointed and hurt. Although he was distraught, he never gave up on me and continued to always have faith that someday I would change. I lived away from home for almost two years in an abusive relationship that I didn’t know how badly was affecting me until afterwards. Out of frustration from listening to my father always saying to go to confession, I nonchalantly decided to head to a Church nearby. I thought to myself, “I’ll just go so he shuts up about it.”

Walking through the tall doors of Saint John and Saint Andrew’s Parish to attend four o’ clock Sunday Mass was scary and intimidating. For the first time in roughly three years I was walking into a church. My heart was racing and I trembled nervously wanting to run away. Every second I thought, “Why am I doing this?” I felt like I didn’t belong in church. The God I grew up learning about, who claimed to be merciful and forgiving, must have hated me. I questioned whether there could even be a God. My mind raced with fear as I began questioning, “If God is real, how could he forgive me?”

Mass began, and a feeling that I had never felt before filled my heart. The words and the songs became familiar to me. I could join along if I wanted to, but I didn’t because of how stubborn and coldhearted I felt towards being there. As Mass continued, an indescribable feeling arose. I exhaled with strength and relief saying to myself, “I feel like I’m home.” Indeed, I was finally home and where I was meant to be. Without realizing it at the time, I had a peak experience that day, which would transform the rest of my life forever.

Four days later, I was faced with an eye-opening, controversial decision I finally had to confront. Consequently, I was gifted with the courage to walk away from an abusive relationship and liberate myself from the shackles that prevented me from leading a healthy life. I moved back home to Cicero, New York, on the evening of December 23, 2012. It is very ironic that my peak experience happened two days before Christmas, which is around the time of Jesus’ birth. I was born again too that Christmas.

Since returning home, there have been many obstacles I’ve had to overcome to be where I am today. The one word that kept me alive, was faith. I made the choice to have faith in God, faith in my family, faith in my words, faith in my actions, faith I was doing the right thing, faith I was on the right path, and faith that I would be okay. I chose to make that “leap of faith” when I walked back into church and gradually my eyes were opened. My heart continued to be healed. I believe God is real because I can’t explain why I am here today. Since that day he continues to lead and inspire me. My life has blossomed over the years and transformed in ways I never imagined were possible.