Since my brother died I've been thinking a lot about the concept of "faith."
Allow me to esplain....
No, there is too much. Allow me to sum up:
(nod to ~springrain
)
For most of my life I've been an agnostic. I tend toward logical positivism, and generally want evidence before I commit to a belief, whether it's the best car for me, or support for a particular policy, or that someone is my friend.
Faced with the uncertainty of death, or life after death, I've been asking a lot of "big questions" and I am stuck. None of them seem to have answers that can be found in the empirical world. (Yet.)
For instance, I
want to believe that my brother is, somewhere, still himself in some form - that his "essence," not necessarily his ego, is still intact. However, absent any proof of that, I feel like belief in an afterlife is simply something that I would "believe" to make myself feel better, a lie I tell myself so I can sleep. Is faith ever anything other than 1. either a (conscious or unconscious) rationalization of a viewpoint that makes life bearable; or 2. a mystical state of being that you can't get to - it just happens? I know some people who have very strong faith, and I don't think they're rationalizing anything. They just believe [whatever] the way they believe water is wet. But if you're not lucky enough to have that sort of experience, or gift, or enlightenment, can you
will yourself to have faith? Are faith and empiricism mutually exclusive? Am I incapable of faith (not necessarily religious faith, but the kind of "felt" faith that doesn't need evidence) without some "road to Damascus" experience?