Last night I had quite a profound revelation.
It started with the discovery that one of my best friends - a highly intelligent, sensible woman - believes the moon landing was faked.
Now, this surprised me. A lot. What else don't I know about my friend? Is she a Scientologist? Does she believe in colon cleansing? Does she have a third nipple? A well-hidden conjoined twin?
Now I've seen all the documentaries claiming the moon landing was faked, and to me, they have about as much credibility as the claim that a non-photoshopped Jennifer Hawkins represents 'real women' (sorry, can't seem to let that one go). But it's what my friend believes. And no amount of argument will change her mind.
What's more, it turns out she also believes that 9/11 was a brainchild of the U.S. Government. When I discovered that, I began to think my friend was a bit strange in the head.
But here's the twist.
I don't believe in god. Never have. I wish I did, but I simply can't. The concept doesn't make sense to me; it just doesn't ring true. And up until last night, I didn't understand people who had faith. I had none. Or so I believed.
But then my friend questioned me about why I believed in the moon landing, and why I believed in 9/11 as an act of external terrorism.
And I had to admit: It wasn't because of any empirical evidence. I can read the newspapers, I can watch the TV reports, I can see the footage, but ultimately I wasn't there. I will never know 100% whether the information I am being fed is true.
No, the reason I believe in the moon landing, and in 9/11, is because I choose to believe. I don't wish to believe in wide scale fraud perpetuated on humanity. I don't wish to believe in acts of terrorism perpetuated on a government's own people.
So that's faith, right? It may not be faith in god, but it's faith in people.
And for me, right now, that's enough.
No, I don't think this post is too controversial, I think it's just honest. x
ReplyDeleteYou know Faith in God can be Faith in People. Me - I believe God is the personification of all the good there is in people. I have no interest in religion though unless it's to tease people that God is a woman :)
ReplyDeleteFaith is exactly what you say, a choice to believe in something you have no true proof of whether it's God, 9/11, the moon landing or the Tooth fairy. When you lose that it's truly sad but not believing in some religious dogma isn't a loss/lack of faith.
While I'm here - I still hate that word "real". Just because someone is skinny or fat or beautiful or not etc doesn't make them real. I like the idea of a magazine putting an image of an average woman on their cover but they're all real (this could relate to that term "real mother" btw. I have Issues lol)
Whether you believe in God or The Goodness of People, you still believe in something larger than yourself. It's good to have faith in people. You know they exist for certain don't you? Whereas no one can prove the existence of a God. Taryn xxx
ReplyDeleteI love this kind of post, i am like your friend, I love conspiracy theory, I read book and blogs by Chomsky, David IKe, because what is been feed to us by the media is mostly rubbish, this two I mention above twenty years ago where considered "wacky" this days they feel auditoriums with thousand of people are willing to pay and listen, because what they predicted is happening, regarding God, it is a personal choice, for my personal experience it is real, love ooxx
ReplyDeleteWoW! I can relate to this post! Thank you for writing it.
ReplyDeleteAs someone going through cancer treatment right now, I am SO often questioned how I cannot believe in God or have Faith.
I don't believe in God. I don't believe in what some priest tells me I need to do in my life. I think its farcical that some guy would voluntarily let people nail him to a cross and kill him to release people from their sins. I don't believe people rise from the dead. I don't believe in heaven or hell or what you do in life determines where you go when you die. The only thing I believe your life determines when you die is how good a funeral plan you had in place and how nice a casket or urn you're going to have!
However, I have never said I don't have "faith" and people think I'm a contradiction. But my faith lies in my doctors, in my support structure, and mostly in myself. My faith lies in friendship and relationships that surround me. My faith lies in a person's being.
I believe there is something within each of us that guides us through life - that helps us make our decisions and leads our direction, but it's not religious!
I think Faith is a deep personal self-belief that everyone has, just with many it is silent and unspoken.
Very thought provoking. I was raised a Catholic but always found it hard to just trust and believe. I'd never thought about other types of faith, but I think you might have a good point. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteIt's me, Rickofawesome. What a wonderful post. And, at the risk of being too controversial myself, I think the mere absence of faith in God almost necessitates a stronger faith in people themselves.
ReplyDeleteI don't need a Creator watching over me to know that the world is beautiful or that people do good things. Nor do I do good things because I think I am being watched.
My faith in humanity is more important than any religion ever will be.
I could talk forever on this subject, so I won't.
xxoo
I think comparing 'faith' in the moon landing to 'faith' in God is stretching the word.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, if you wanted to prove to yourself for sure that the moon landing occurred, you could.
You could (in theory) use a high powered telescope to see the Apollo landers that are still on the moon. You could travel to the United States and (however unlikely) see & touch moon rocks. You could train as a chemist and determine if the rocks actually were from Earth or the Moon. Secondly, you could check things like documents or interview the thousands of people who were involved with the effort.
But hundreds or thousands of people have done this secondary checking for you, and they all corroborate so you can be absolutely sure that it did happen.
Sure, you've technically taken it on faith, but the faith is based on an assessment of the world around you - when the media has said 'Heron Island is a great place to go for a holiday' you may question the definition of 'great' (perhaps it is awful) but you don't question that Heron Island exists. The faith is based on your day-to-day experience with the world.
And when you want to prove (whatever your version of) God's existence? Well you could... um... have faith.
One faith version is deep, meaningful, tangible and real. The other gets people fed to lions.
Faith for me is faith in myself and faith in humanity. I was raised in a house where my Dad was an Anglican priest. I say was... he has been on a life long journey, and I think in the end he came to the conclusion faith is bigger than one true god... that and saying things like there is no hell, standing up for gay marriage, and saying Mary wasn't a virgin didn't go down to well with the powers that be. So, for me going to church as a child was actually the way I lost any notion in god... and it almost cost me my faith in human kind.
ReplyDeleteDo I believe in god? No. Do I believe in humanity... yes, and I wish more people would too.
Does God need to be religious? and does religious has to be associate with God all the time? love to all ooxx
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that man landed on the moon.
ReplyDeleteI certainly don't believe in heaven and hell
I don't believe that anybody or anything judges us as much as we judge ourselves.
I don't believe we get punished for our beliefs by anyone other than our fellow man.
But I also don't believe that anyone knows the answers and what is real and true for me is not real and true for you. It does not make it wrong.
But I do believe that our children vomiting on our furniture is a sign. A sure sign. A sign that they are not well.
xxxxxxx
Oh, and this is for ☆ J ☆!!!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy...
http://is.gd/5TaFV
Sharpest pencil wonderful words, love ooxx
ReplyDeleteOh Wollywally. What a great question! You are such a wise woman. You really should start a blog :)
ReplyDeleteAs for faith? I'm not sure what I think about God but I do believe that basically people are good. This belief seems to be tested a lot but I still believe it.
I love reading your posts and this one got me thinking.
ReplyDeleteI was raised Catholic, turned out gay. However, I don't believe in everything the bible says, I don't believe in a God.
As the mother of little girl lost to leukemia, I don't believe that a God who is supposed to be so great can take such a small innocent life.
But that's not to say I don't have faith. I have faith in my partner, faith in myself.
Faith, like love, cannot be measured.
I believe in God. I'm a Catholic, and became one in 1996. Not because I was getting married to a Catholic (Hubby and I were dating, but not planning marriage at the time) but because I always had a curiosity about religion, and I felt I had a sort of "sign" to become one. I wrote in length about this on Mamamia on the post inspired by Wollywally's email (can view it here in my comment - http://bit.ly/6nb0LJ), so won't regurgitate it again here, and I know some will read this and think I'm loopy or something, but...well, actually, yes sometimes I am loopy...but not "religious loopy" if you know what I mean.
ReplyDeleteAaaanyway. My point is: I choose to believe. But I don't judge those who don't. Whatever works for you, I say. I'm not going to try and convince you otherwise. Not my thing. My choice works for me, so I'll stick to it.
Great, honest post Kerri! Thank YOU! x
hehe fantastic post...don't we need to spend more time with our friends discussing each other's beliefs? it's a great way to know who we really are and who they really are!
ReplyDeleteto answer one of the comments: if there's a god, no way he's a woman, just look at this mess....( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o )
I too, don,t believe man ever landed on the moon. I think it was faked because the Americans wanted to be one up on the Russians,during the cold war,and how come they haven't been back since, and don't plan to for another 10 years or so.........?
ReplyDeleteHi Kerri! It's been a while... I'm loving your new style posts.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe in God either. I've never been overly spiritual. However, approaching 30 & being a Mummy I am becoming a lot more tolerant, sentimental, and finding I have a lot more time for listening to people explain their faith or religion, and giving their religion credit where credit's due - if you know what I mean. Like you, I find it hard to believe in a being called God whose 'son' came to earth to sacrifice himself for our sins.
I have a question for you though. I have heard you describe yourself as Jewish, yet you say you don't believe in God. I am interested to know how this works. Tone is so hard to convey when asking questions like these, and I want you to understand I am completely asking this out of both curiosity, and lack of knowledge of Judaism. Not to 'call you out'. Hope you understand what I mean.
Like many others here, I don't believe man set foot on the moon.
ReplyDeleteAlso I don't beleive France exists. I've seen pictures, video, books, recordings, stories, soveniers from people *claiming* to have been to France, but they must all be lying because America really built the statue of Liberty themselves to make it look like they had more friends.
Eco-Chic-Mummy,
ReplyDeleteSUCH a great question, thank you.
Complicated answer:
My understanding of Christianity is that it is defined by a belief in Jesus as your god/saviour - is that right?
Judaism is different. Judaism is defined by not only the religious element - a following of the Old Testament (as opposed to the New), a belief in one god (not a Trinity), and multiple laws (for example eating particular foods and observing the Sabbath on Saturday) - but also a very strong cultural component.
I was brought up in a Jewish home, eating traditionally Jewish foods, participating in traditional Jewish festivals, and going to a Jewish school where I learned about the thousands of years of Jewish history.
My grandparents spoke Yiddish (the Jewish language from the European ghettos) and I have a very strong sense of Jewish identity and history.
As an older person I decided I didn't believe in god, but I will always have that Jewish identity. I guess it's like being Greek or Italian - you can't separate yourself from your heritage!
Hope that helps
xxxxx
That does help, thanks!
ReplyDeleteI guess it's like the way I celebrate Christmas, Easter etc as holidays, even though I am not Christian.
Boom Tish ! LOVE the France comment. Don't be shy, Anonymous. That comment deserves a credit ! :-)
ReplyDeleteI was brought up catholic, going to church every sunday with my brother and my dad. That for me was a chance to run wild in the car park and a chance for my dad, and I'm most ashamed to put this in writing, to steal money from the collections. Oh yeah, we were highly regarded. My mother, brother and I were unaware of this of course, still didn't stop the mud from sticking. So I believe in little. Wish I did, think it would make a lot of stuff easier to pass off and not worry about.
ReplyDeleteI don't think this is a dress rehersal though. I don't believe that if we are good now, a greater place awaits. What's better than what I've got with my family right now?
I just believe in being nice to each other and I know that sounds naff, but it's all I've got.
The american government cannot provide adequate health care to many of their citizens but they can pull off 2 whooping great hoaxes?
ReplyDeleteNah
I am pretty sure that I am an agnostic with spiritual leanings. Yes, I know, a pathetic fence sitter :-)
ReplyDeleteI see nothing but trouble from organized religions, I believe that our understanding of right and wrong should come from common sense and decency, not from doctrine. I belive that 99% of people are caring and loving, the rest are damaged in some way and just don't seem to get it and a fear of some judgement in an "afterlife" has no meaning to these kinds of people anyway.
I would say that I am spiritual. The earth, the universe are awe inspiring. Scientic theories about the origin of the universe are fascinating, but they are not proven,as such. What caused the "big bang"? Some force, a life force? I don't know but I believe in something bigger than my little life experience.
As for the moon landing etc I am with "an idle dad", the exidence does seem to be there :-)
Hope this makes sense. Typing on my phone here which always seems to lead to typos
That does help, thanks!
ReplyDeleteI guess it's like the way I celebrate Christmas, Easter etc as holidays, even though I am not Christian.
I think comparing 'faith' in the moon landing to 'faith' in God is stretching the word.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, if you wanted to prove to yourself for sure that the moon landing occurred, you could.
You could (in theory) use a high powered telescope to see the Apollo landers that are still on the moon. You could travel to the United States and (however unlikely) see & touch moon rocks. You could train as a chemist and determine if the rocks actually were from Earth or the Moon. Secondly, you could check things like documents or interview the thousands of people who were involved with the effort.
But hundreds or thousands of people have done this secondary checking for you, and they all corroborate so you can be absolutely sure that it did happen.
Sure, you've technically taken it on faith, but the faith is based on an assessment of the world around you - when the media has said 'Heron Island is a great place to go for a holiday' you may question the definition of 'great' (perhaps it is awful) but you don't question that Heron Island exists. The faith is based on your day-to-day experience with the world.
And when you want to prove (whatever your version of) God's existence? Well you could... um... have faith.
One faith version is deep, meaningful, tangible and real. The other gets people fed to lions.
Oh, and this is for ☆ J ☆!!!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy...
http://is.gd/5TaFV
WoW! I can relate to this post! Thank you for writing it.
ReplyDeleteAs someone going through cancer treatment right now, I am SO often questioned how I cannot believe in God or have Faith.
I don't believe in God. I don't believe in what some priest tells me I need to do in my life. I think its farcical that some guy would voluntarily let people nail him to a cross and kill him to release people from their sins. I don't believe people rise from the dead. I don't believe in heaven or hell or what you do in life determines where you go when you die. The only thing I believe your life determines when you die is how good a funeral plan you had in place and how nice a casket or urn you're going to have!
However, I have never said I don't have "faith" and people think I'm a contradiction. But my faith lies in my doctors, in my support structure, and mostly in myself. My faith lies in friendship and relationships that surround me. My faith lies in a person's being.
I believe there is something within each of us that guides us through life - that helps us make our decisions and leads our direction, but it's not religious!
I think Faith is a deep personal self-belief that everyone has, just with many it is silent and unspoken.