To be honest I am unsure as to what faith means in a religious capacity. To me faith means that one has a strong belief in something and that it is not necessarily a religious term. I sort of have religious faith, but I am still trying to figure it out. I guess you could say that my religious faith is simple in that I believe in God and that is what I base my faith on and not the religious explanations that come from the Bible. I think that my lack of belief in the stories of the Bible comes from my stronger beliefs in the more physical documentation of humanity from written history and science. However, there are many in the world that has the opposite opinion.
For me, history and science does not really bolster or limit my faith, but I understand that for the more devout people of the world that history and science limits faith. Personally, I still have faith despite what history and science says and I still believe in history and science despite what religion says. I am of the opinion that one can choose to have faith in religion and history and science at the same time.
Religion and history/science are two things that most do not find compatible. In conjunction with religion, history and science are contradictory and usually conflict with one another. History and science are more factual based and is documented knowledge that can be proven or disproven. Religious explanation is almost completely faith based. One must choose to believe that the stories in the Bible are true and that is what their faith is based upon. I have studied anthropology a little and I believe what I have studied because it can be proven. There is documented evidence that humans originated in Africa and that humans migrated out of Africa in different stages. However, religion disagrees saying that humanity started with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Being a not very religious person, it is an interesting experience being in Rome, which is the center of the Christian world. People flock to Rome every day just to see sites that have religious significance and that bolster their faith. It is fascinating to see how moved some people really get at these sites. For example, this week our class visited the Scala Steps at Scala Santa. The religious significance behind these steps is that Jesus walked up these steps on the way to his trial where he was sentenced to crucifixion. And today Christians from around the world travel there to climb up the steps on their knees (they do this out of respect of the ground that Jesus walked on). However, from a historical perspective, there is no evidence that Jesus walked up these steps. And as much as I want to believe that it is true, I just do not feel comfortable in putting my faith in something that I honestly do not see as more than a story.
It is amazing to see all of these people coming to Rome to see and touch all of these different significant religious statues, stairs, and chruches. I'm Catholic I didn't even know the Scala Santa or "Holy Stairs" existed but after hearing the story about them (and that is what it is to me since there is not really proof behind them) I felt the need to go up them like the pilgrims that came to see it. I must say I did feel some sort of feeling going up the stairs, but I think it was more just from praying while going up them than rather just the steps themself.
ReplyDeleteI agree Alyssa completely. It is hard for me as well to base my faith off of a story with no documentation proving it. As for not believing the stories in the bible, I can say I am kind of the same way. The way I see it is that the bible has been floating around forever and I feel that the stories could have been mixed up or not completely true. There are so many versions of the bible and it is hard to believe that all these people believe the same thing and all the stories match up. Once again, it is great to have something to believe in like this but it is hard not knowing if it is just some made up story that someone wrote because they were bored. It is very hard for me too and I believe in the basics as well; God, Jesus dying on the cross for us and little things like that.
ReplyDeleteThe steps at Santa Scala were amazing to see and get to go up.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on your thoughts about the bible also. I do not take the stories literally, as I believe that most of those stories were created as a way to teach people how to live a good, faithful, sin-free life.