Wilz Random Thoughts

Today I was asked a series of questions with regards to faith.

Generally, the question is "How can I be sure of my faith just because the Bible tells me so?"

It is a good question. After being a Christian for so long I can say for sure, despite what was said in the Bible, was will be times when you will question the validity of the Book, you will question why I am a Christian in the first place?

But first let us look at the word 'faith' which is defined by the strong belief in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual conviction rather than proof (got this via Google).

From that definition, you can know who is behind the one writing the definition. Faith to me is the ability to believe despite not having 100% proof of something. But that doesn't mean I have no proof to at least base my faith on something.

That is basically what God is doing. He gave you something so you can believe in Him and so you can go forth with a positive expectation of the good coming (which is defined as Hope).

Faith is not just about thinking but really about looking at the whole situation and ascribe confidence based on what has transpired.

Is the Bible true? Is it a true historical account or just a storybook for kids?

If our faith is based on the 100% accuracy of the Bible, it is very easy to fall out of faith (not Grace mind you) because there are so many 'facts' that can discredit the Bible just by using facts to construct a 'truth' to someone's perception.

So ultimately someone has to ask, did the Jews and their enemies in the Old Testament exist? Look at the State of Israel then. There are many indications of facts that are challenged time and time again. If it is some books like Greek Mythology can be ascertained as being myths, why not the Bible after so many years?

Sometimes, the reliability of a source is also dependent on the perspective of the reader. If a reader is hell-bent on not giving the source a chance, then no matter what it will still be unreliable.

For me, I know I am in this world for something. I am not a machine that is born, study, work, have kids and family, retire and then die. There's no meaning to it all if that's the case. There has to be more.

A lot of people say must do good. But why must do good? So the human race can continue. Otherwise, if people go around to kill and murder, the human race cannot continue. And why do we need the human race to continue? To continually pollute this earth?

If we are true to our inner hearts we know we yearn for something even better than this earth. Human beings, because of our human condition, will always fall short (the true meaning of sin). We do not want war but wars still come. We don't want sickness and disease...we want to be forever young. Please don't tell me that we didn't go through such an emotional roller coaster ride before?

So yes we have a human condition...the inability to do good every time, all the time.

If we cannot do good every time, all the time, then how do we expect a perfect homeworld in the future? We simply are not ready for that. In fact, we are already given a perfect world before and what has happened since?

Religion solution is to keep doing good, believing in the inner goodness of everyone.

But really...even the best of us will do some wrong from the point we are just babies, being selfish, asking for food in the middle of the night from our parents. That is not 'good' ain't it?

"You are just a baby so you don't know" if that's the case, how about the sin of omission where I did something thinking it is good but in fact has harmed everyone but yet I am still legally culpable in today's courts.

So no. We are born to be selfish bastards that's what we are.

Now you know why religion is to do your best and hope that the ultimate judge will grant us mercy. That's why Buddhism (which incidentally is a philosophical undertaking but became religion) has a Goddess of Mercy when Buddhism do not ascribe God-hood on anyone simply because Buddhism cannot account for the presence of Kharma and who gave that system of good and bad. Or about Islam...where Muslims keep doing the things hoping Allah will grant them eternal forgiveness. The Hindus? They have too many gods to pray to, hoping one would help them in the afterlife eventually.

But really how can you grant someone innocent when they obviously have done some wrong in life? Even Buddhists and Hindus understand the significance of Karma and how it affects the afterlife (as in the current world, not heaven). And for Buddhists, being nothingness is the state of nirvana. But really, how can one be detached from their thinking when they obviously have a thing call self which is in-born.

And by the way, who gets to decide how much punishment for those who have tons of bad karma? Who gets to be in charge of who to give the 2nd/3rd/4th chance at life once again so one can reach nothingness? Certainly not Buddha himself because he reached Nirvana indicating someone has given it to him unless he gave it himself. But how to give nothingness to oneself since you have to be something to give something (or nothing) in this case?

If we have a true sense of justice, something that is ingrained in us since young, then surely we cannot ask for forgiveness for all the things we do right? That's the reason why Siddhartha Gautama leave his family to find the answer. But isn't leaving one's family a great sin too? If he keeps meditating or helping others to offset his great sin, then how he knows how much help is needed before his past sins are forgiven?

See...if we agree with the Bible that we as human beings cannot go beyond who we are called to be, then we have to agree with the Bible's solution. Even the 10 commandments cannot help because the 10 commandments show us where we are lacking so Judaism is not the answer too.

See even before we even need to go and argue what is true or not true in the historicity of the Bible in order to ascribe faith, we cannot even argue away the core problem that the Bible is saying, then why argue the finer points?

If one agrees we need help to become much better than human selves, then all other details of the Bible really are not important.