Faith is a number of things:
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confidence or trust in a person or thing, like faith in another’s ability.
We show faith every day, when we get in a bus, taxi or on an airplane, or when we delegate a responsibility. It is important for social cohesion to trust each other and gain confidence in our understand of how the world works. This is an investment of our lives in the trustworthiness of other people. -
belief that is not based on objective proof, for example faith that a hypothesis will be substantiated by fact.
This second case of faith is when we forecast that a certain outcome will come about. We have no proof, but we have experience and, like above, our understanding of how the world works. The combination of these two helps us with our forecasting. Again, we put our faith in such forecasting, even invest in such forecasting, and either come up winners or losers. -
belief in God, in the doctrines or teachings of religion, or belief in anything, as a code of ethics, standards of merit, etc., a system of religious belief.
Faith in God, on the other hand, in as much as it is faith in a certain doctrine or teaching, has been an obligation, if we want to live within a certain society. The society has expected such belief as a form of declaration of conformity. That is why it has been equated with being a good person. This leads to the fourth aspect. -
the obligation of loyalty or fidelity to a person, promise, engagement, etc. and the observance of this obligation; fidelity to one’s promise, oath, allegiance, etc.
If we don’t observe our obligation, we are said to “break the faith”, which is essentially the faith of others in our declaration of conformity.
I see a non-religious spirituality as being the second kind of faith, based on experience but having no proof. We forecast an outcome that we can’t prove, when we are spiritual, and essentially, we will eventually never prove it to be right or wrong, because if it is, nobody else will know until they are on the “other side”, and if it isn’t, nobody will know anyway. So it is a kind of “Pascal’s Wager”, hoping for the best, knowing that if it doesn’t come about, nobody will know that anyway. In a way it is harmless, and people choose to “be good” and trust in the outcome.
In a way the second kind of faith, in as much as it is spirituality, is akin to the artist taking up a brush, or the poet using words to describe their love, the composer of music, the imaginations influenced by high spirits, the sexual experience of true lovers and the dreams we love to dream. There is a knowing that isn’t knowledge, or isn’t something that others can grasp, unless I am an artist and can capture that knowing in music, poetry or colour and inspire others to become peaceful.
Your faith in us being immortal beings could be placed in this category. It is a hope, based on the experience of what spirituality can inspire. It is the conviction that this inspiration cannot die when our bodies die, that there must be something that goes on. All I can suggest is that you live your life as though this is true. It can be an inspiration to others and what can you loose?
The third kind of faith has been seen to not be so harmless. People have and still do die for their faith, and people are killed for having a different faith. The teaching normally has a threatening side to it, with visions of hell in stall for non-believers, even if their belief is only slightly different to my belief. This started to become the downfall of this kind of faith, because the drop in believers has corresponded with the drop in violence, but recently the rise has equally corresponded, with people actually using this kind of faith as a reason for their violence. This is why outspoken people today have spoken out against religion for being a prime reason for violence.
There are those that say that religion has inspired great art, but I think that there have been people who were spiritual, and who were caught up in the obligations of the fourth kind of faith. That is why people like Michelangelo were tortured by their carnal desires, whilst attempting to be good artists and good christians at the same time. Of course we can’t see inside their heads, but we have accounts of many artists who have struggled with organised religion. I often feel that, because many expressive and creative people are bi- or homosexual, this is why creativity has often been suppressed by religion, if it didn’t “praise God” in the way religionists want it to.
I personally am spiritual in the way I have described above, and I’m continually “seeing” things that I can’t show or explain to people. It’s like reading between the lines, seeing a wisp of another reality interchanging with ours, or an inanimate picture come to life, or hearing someone speak two different meanings at once. In this I can read religious stories and have a feeling that they have been misconstrued to mean something graspable, but which are really expressions of these experiences.