Faith

Faith! I despise the idea of faith as applied to religious thought. There is absolutely no need for faith, no need to tolerate faith, and no need to endure the endless pleadings for faith! Faith is a superfluous idea, and troublesome to boot. Hope yes!. Faith no!

That there is a Greater Power is intuitively obvious to a casual observer. That there is a Creative Force or Power in this un;iverse is simple, straight forward and clear, even to a rudimentary intellect. Can we call the Greater Power and/or The Creative Force "God". Of course we can and do. It is a simple term or label to use in reference to so grand and universal a phenomenon but this is a just reflection of the picayune nature of intellect relative to the phenomenal universe. So why would one need to pull out the idea of "faith" - to believe without proof, without infallible argument - - in order to justify one's "Realization" of God. To realize that 'you are' is to realize that 'He Is'. It is one and the same phenomenon, an equilibrium:

And though we may - and should - stand eternally in awe of the Greater Power, the Creator, the demonstrated power of His/Its creations, when it comes to the quality of life, here we take exception to God, here we take our stand against God, here we fight! Here we join forces with His Son, Jesus, who came to intercede on our behalf with the Father. Here we seek guidance from the God of Love. Here we defy indiscriminate procreation by the powerful, by "the able", by natural evolution unabated by intellect, untempered by realization and reason, unhampered by self-discipline, self-control and self-restraint. We want satisfying lives, happy lives, lives filled with pleasing experiences, if not downright exciting and hedonistic pleasures and joys. We want fun, happiness and joy. We want "quality" of life as we call lives filled with these pleasures. Too many people in the world would ruin it. We are in conflict with God Him/Itself! Now what do we do?

There are those who serve the Greater Power unabashadly. These procreate without thought for the quality of life. They demonstrate nary a whit of concern for the quality of their own lives or the lives of their offspring. They are often slaves to their base impulses and urges. They have their own rationalizations. They do not ask "how many children can I feed?" They do not query: "How many children can I support and educate?" Their fecundity is the sign of their service, of their unselfish and giving natures. This assures them of God's approval. And his approval comes in the form of a blessing upon their tenacity and their survivability, in their fruitfulness and numbers. For what insures the survival of any species is fecundity. These do not plead for "faith" so that they can bend life and love to their own hedonistic uses. These serve, albeit often unconsciously, but serve nevertheless. And they are rewarded, often unconsciously, but rewarded nevertheless. These have the faith found in trees and horses, faith devoid of questions and unfettered by doubts.

True faith shimmers there only when unrealized. For true faith is found only in those who have never thought to question, only in those things never exposed to the piercing eye of intellect, never killed by intellectual assault, reason, logic and analysis, never mauled by intellect in its attempt to know like God but angrily relegated to only understanding, a false albeit useful form of knowledge!

Man, creature of little faith, given intellect as his tiger's tooth, To protect from harm, to protect from truth ..........

A. Iosue