Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Novel Concept: Faith Binds Us All


First, let's get this out of the way. This isn't an advertisement for religion. It isn't a testimonial. It's not a sermon. It's an observation of faith and how it applies to my Big Idea.

Faith is one of the few things that connects everyone in some small way. It's a charged word that causes most who hear it to think of religion. But it's not about religion. It's bigger than any such institution. It transcends. It's secular and religious.

I have faith, for example, that my car will start each morning. It's a small example, but the point remains. We put our faith in many things. On rare ocassions we have faith in each other. If we're lucky, we have faith in ourselves. We all demonstrate a little faith in just about everything we do.

But what if to "put faith in" something is more than just a turn of phrase? What if it's more literal than that? And, if literal, what is faith exactly and where is it stored? To answer that, tear away the material, irrelevant trappings of faith and you'll discover the truth.

Faith is energy. It's power.

When focused, it's stored in objects and symbols connected to ideas. This power is demonstrated regularly, but we often choose to ignore it.  It's not uncommon, for example, to feel a short burst of moxie and vigor when people put their faith in you. Also, zealous fans supply athletes with strength and determination through devotion and admiration. The difference between the two examples is the number of people involved. The larger the pool of faithful, the more power is transferred. Now, imagine the same idea as applied to a religion. Hundreds of thousands of people putting faith in one idea. As an amorphous concept, that steady stream of energy is stored in the things closest to the religion: its symbols. A Christian cross, the Jewish Star of David, the Sikh Kirpan, and even the Egyptian Eye of Horus all contain stores of energy. In that context, there is indeed power in symbolism.

If a small, select group of people could harness and use that faith like any other form of energy, what kind of dominance would those few have over darkness?

Would you be afraid ?

Or would you join in the fight?

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