faith

My father was of the opinion that the intellect is not sufficient to grasp all reality. I was in disagreement with him. I was proud of my intellect and headstrong as well. I told him that if there is no reasoning or logic behind things, how can I accept them? He would counter with the argument that logic and science simply could not explain many of the world’s mysteries and it definitely could not explain faith or spirituality. His favorite explanation was of a pair of tongs. The tongs can be used to grasp an object but can it grasp itself?

I believe I was somewhat wrong and he was somewhat right. There certainly were areas gray enough that could not be reasoned out by me. I haven’t figured out the explanation of faith either. Faith is sort of like believing in advance not asking for proof. I used to have it long back and it has suffered greatly since. But my dad had it till his dying day. He always believed God would help him and most of the time, even to me it looked like he did get help. I wanted to believe completely but something always kept me back from doing so.

My father married me to a man who is very like me intellectually. He does not believe in fate or karma or asking a higher power for help. He doesn’t pray at all but he believes in God. He says that we are each to do the best of whatever we can and must try to be self-sufficient. He thinks praying is like asking for favors and also that faith is like a crutch which could make us too dependent sometimes. My mother and brother certainly take the faith bit to the opposite extreme relying on God to do everything and not doing anything at all but still worrying. So I come in the middle and try to work out what makes sense and I have yet to come to a conclusion.

It could be that we are all instruments of a higher power whose purpose in life is preordained. We have no foreknowledge of it so we move ahead blindly secure in the thought that whatever happens is for the best. It could also be that we are all images of God and are required to use our gifted abilities to make choices and live life in a guilt-free and happy manner. It could also be that we are stumbling along making mistakes and learning from them just like mice in a laboratory and God is watching the fun. I have no answer and have instead a sneaky feeling that finding the answer to this may actually solve the riddle of life ;-)