Maybe this is what happens when you get older, but I am deliberately choosing not to live by faith. I think relying on faith is a royal “cop out.” It is a decision to live in a fantasy world, and that is not something I want to do.
How many times have I heard “you have to have faith,” and obligingly handed over my mental acumen to an illusion. For me, having faith means deciding to follow your imagination rather than make the effort to sort things out. Substituting an imagined world for a real, experienced one does not seem like something I am willing to do. Settling into perceived reality seems much more appealing than living in a world shaped by imagination.
In my experience, faith has usually meant living in a world created by someone else’s imagination.
I know this sounds like it is all about religion. Actually most of it is, but it also goes beyond religion. It equally applies to the mind-set I have when I pick up the newspaper. The news is presented in a way that requires me to have faith in the writer’s grasp of reality. I am reading about the author’s experience of the “news” and reliably not much more.
If I make the jump to believe that what is reported is an accurate description of reality, I have to have faith. All that I truly know is that I am reading the newspaper. Believing in what the writer reports means entering into the world of their experience and their imagination. Some reality, some non-reality. I’m not sure I can easily make the distinction.
I’m not willing to have faith in religion or the morning paper. However, both do provide some amusement and entertainment.