True Faith
Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews,
plus all from the other religions: this is for you.
There’s a refrain from an old religious song that goes like this:
Faith of our fathers, holy faith!
We will be true to thee till death.
There are approximately six billion people on this planet who consider themselves religious. What is the key factor toward their religious inclination? Well, if we are truly honest, I believe we would agree that the answer lies within that song’s refrain.
You see, being religious implies some type of relation or interaction with God, a god, or gods. This discussion isn’t about trying to convince anyone which religion is right or if any of them are right at all. What this is about is TRUTH and how truth applies to faith. Like so many people, we can stumble around like blind men trying to figure out truth or we can make a few assumptions that can set religion as a viable option for the determination of TRUTH. But first, to try and not be offensive to any one religion, I am going to take the liberty of referring to the religious being or beings that religious people worship using the generic term DEITY. Plus, to keep it gender neutral, I will also refer to DEITY as IT.
In order for faith to have any substantial validity within reality we must first make several assumptions.
Assumption #1
Our usage of the term DEITY comes with the concept that DEITY’s ways and knowledge are far above our ways. If DEITY exists and chooses to be hidden from mankind, then there is absolutely no way you could ever know IT. On the other hand, if DEITY chooses to be known, then that is the only way you have a chance to know IT. In other words, DEITY must not be silent in regard to an interaction with humanity.
Assumption #2
DEITY wants us to know IT and has made various means for that to occur. Based upon Assumption #1, Assumption #2 must occur otherwise all religions are purely manmade and fictitious.
Assumption #3
Faith is a common component of all religions. We may all differ in our beliefs, but all religious people have faith. This faith is important in the relationship between the religious person and DEITY. You will never act upon any knowledge you have of DEITY without this faith.
How are these three Assumptions tied together?
It boils down simply to this. If DEITY exists and wants you to know and have a relationship with IT, then you can only please IT if you embrace True Faith in DEITY.
In other words, without True Faith, it is impossible to please DEITY.
So, if you have faith in a pineapple and not in DEITY, IT is not going to be pleased.
If you have faith in a monkey and not in DEITY, IT is not going to be pleased.
If you have faith in a teacher and not in DEITY, IT is not going to be pleased.
If you have faith in your government and not in DEITY, IT is not going to be pleased.
If you have faith in your religious leaders and not in DEITY, IT is not going to be pleased.
If you have faith in your fathers and not in DEITY, IT is not going to be pleased.
Your faith must be in DEITY or IT will not be pleased.
Now if most of the six billion religious people’s faith is based upon their upbringing, then I hope you see a really critical problem. No matter what book or books you read; no matter whom your parents are; no matter how many prayers you do a day; no matter how devoted you are: if it all boils down to a faith that is not in DEITY, then IT is not going to be happy. Let me run by a few religions and spell out what they say about the consequences for those without True Faith in DEITY.
If you are Muslim and DEITY is Allah, all your prayers and visits to the mosque won’t do you any good if your faith is not in Allah. Then Allah will be very angry, and you will burn forever in Hell.
If you are Hindu and DEITY is the Hindu gods, then all the things you do to achieve Nirvana but based upon a false faith will only drop you lower and lower in the reincarnation cycle and you will come back as maybe a rat next time and progress down to a cockroach and who knows what else until you finally start that journey and embrace True Faith.
If you are a Christian and DEITY is the Christian God, then all your prayer meetings, congregational singings, communions, and baptisms will do nothing to please God. God will say, I never knew you, depart from me and you will end up forever in the Lake of Fire.
I hope you are not like most of the six billion who will yawn and not take this seriously. If you do, then you probably have a faith that was instilled by your parents, culture, or your friends and you will go through the motions of a misdirected faith and never have the chance to have True Faith.
Based upon our assumptions, the refrain of that song to be completely accurate, would then have to go something like this:
True faith of the true DEITY, holy faith!
We will be true to thee till death.
For the possibility of embracing True Faith in one’s life, what are some of the elements that should or have to be considered?
- The True faith journey doesn’t necessarily mean having to drop one’s religious practices while on the journey. Muslims can still pray daily five times toward Mecca; Christians can still take Communion; Hindus can still make offerings to their gods. Not until a certain point in that journey will one discover whether the faith of their father’s is the True Faith. At that point, one must make a critical decision.
- Truth is not our determination: True faith is not dependent upon our choices. We cannot go to the religion store and pick the religion of our choice off the shelf and then conduct ourselves according to that particular brand of truth and believe our choice and actions are what makes our selection True. It is a very postmodern concept for which multitudes of people follow. Unfortunately, if that is the course anyone follows for truth, then they have already crossed into a zone with little way of escape. This talk employs reason and holds to there being concrete TRUTH, not relative truth. Unless those in that mystical twilight zone grasp hold of reason, they are unable to escape the postmodern grasp and are doomed to their own definition of reality. I would love to embrace those caught in this trap and lovingly pull them back to reason because reason itself no longer has any pull. Even now, I am reluctant to stop writing about this because of the grief it holds like one forced to abandon a child. But I must move on to those who are still with me and are able to see the absolute necessity for embracing True Faith.
- If you have committed to embracing True Faith and if the three assumptions are correct, then you can be confident that DEITY will provide the way for you to find True Faith.
What do you have to do to find True Faith?
Simply, just be willing to start the journey. For most people, even the thought of this journey is full of fears. Why? Because it’s full of so many unknowns. The journey might take a long or short time. It might totally turn your world upside down. It could be full of horrendous hardships and possibly even death. You might lose family, friends, and fortune. One must seriously consider the possible consequences of even starting this journey. If True Faith is not worth everything you have then you must settle for the faith of your father’s, and that is a faith that will never please DEITY because it is not a faith in DEITY at all.
If you commit to starting that journey toward discovering True Faith, then here are some of the elements you can count on if the three assumptions are true:
- No matter how long the journey lasts, you will always find True Faith before you die. The reason is that according to the three assumptions, DEITY’s desire to communicate with us is for us to get to know IT and therefore embrace True Faith. It would be unreasonable to believe that if you embarked on that journey for Truth that you would die before it had been revealed to you. Certainly, if DEITY exists, we can reasonably assume IT has the power to reveal the Truth before your death.
- The journey for Truth holds no danger that you could ever lose your True Faith. Why? Because a faith of our fathers is not True Faith in DEITY. Therefore, you cannot lose True Faith, you can only obtain it by embarking on this journey. Therefore, if your family, culture, government, or religious leaders have instilled a fear into looking at other religions, you do not have to worry about that fear. Why? Because finding True Faith is not about you, but about DEITY. Remember, you cannot know Truth without DEITY revealing it. You can journey all you want and travel the world all over and never find TRUTH without DEITY revealing it to you. So, the fear that others have built into your life doesn’t matter. It is the journey, remember. Just start the journey and trust in DEITY. DEITY will overcome every obstacle as long as you don’t give up and surrender to a false Faith. DEITY will take care of all fear. DEITY will open the doors for finding True Faith. DEITY will give you the strength to face all dangers. DEITY will even give you the strength to face death for embracing True Faith. Once again, what do you have to do to find True Faith? Simply, just start the journey.
- If the journey takes you to your father’s faith, then it now becomes your faith and the True Faith.
What if you just decide to ignore the issue and not go on the journey for True Faith?
Then you are automatically lost. You have surrendered to a faith of your fathers which is not a faith in DEITY. It is not True Faith and therefore you cannot please DEITY. Most religious people would not want to face DEITY with a faith in something other than DEITY, like a faith of your fathers.
Isn’t all of life just one big gamble?
To answer this question, we need to take a look at what I call the Rationale of the Gamble: There are those who for a multitude of reasons will not embark on the journey for True Faith. Instead, they will just take a gamble and hope the faith of their fathers or a faith they have chosen for themselves is the True Faith. Their current situation is comfortable, and they are willing to take their chances. They will throw the dice and hope it comes up lucky sevens. They will with the gamble think that if they win, then they would have just wasted their time on the journey. And if they did go on the journey, their life could end up quite miserable and they don’t want to face that possibility.
The fact of the matter is that the gamble is really an impossibility or a myth. There is no possibility of winning. The consequence of engaging in the gamble means you automatically lose. The gamble absolutely holds no possibility of True Faith. Why? Simply, because the faith is in the gamble and not True Faith in DEITY. Faith in the gamble cannot please DEITY and not pleasing DEITY is not where most religious people want to be because of its potential dire consequences.
I am an atheist and find this extremely amusing.
If you happen to be an atheist, I am not surprised if you react either with humor or anger over such “stupidity.” But, in reality, you haven’t faced your own faith. Where did your faith in atheism come from? You might think it doesn’t matter, because there are no consequences at death if we simply dissipate into the matter of the universe. But what if your faith is misdirected and wrong? Then you can’t avoid the consequences. From the very inception, what you are unable to escape is the necessity to take the journey for True faith. The journey may result in establishing the truth of atheism or agnosticism, but an unwillingness to face the possibility of being wrong ends up being a mystical faith and not an established True faith. If it turns out to be a journey of foolishness, then such a foolish endeavor becomes inconsequential. For an atheist, foolishness is merely a meaningless point of view. When the universe collapses into nothingness, then all that is deemed foolish or wise dissipates into the same void of nonsense.
You seem like you might have found True faith or at least think you might have found it. Can’t you help give us a start in the right direction?
I can’t influence you one way or the other. If so, then this would only be for the purpose of being manipulative and would violate the stated assumptions. If Deity exists, it is Deity who will direct you to TRUTH. You could never be certain at the outset of your journey whether I have found True faith or not. Below I have many quotes from all the major religions and philosophies that might be of some help.
In closing, I welcome all to take the journey. Life is too short to live in falsehood.
It is far better to live in truth and die young than to die old living a lie.
Ralph Wendt
To hopefully help get you started on your journey I’ve compiled some quotes from some of the major sources that claim to have the Truth. There are quotes from Islam, Atheism, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Agnosticism, and various Philosophers. They are purposefully all jumbled up without reference. These quotes are only to show that for all time there has been a universal call to seek the truth even though it has come from conflicting sources. The irony is that in most cases the dispensers of truth probably don’t really see the TRUTH themselves.
Truth is no theory, no speculative system of philosophy, no intellectual insight. Truth is exact correspondence with reality.
Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
A person consists of his faith. Whatever is his faith, even so is he.
All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
Follow the straight path, and do not follow the path of the ignorant.
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
All know the Way, but few actually walk it.
A lie is a lie even if everyone believes it. The truth is the truth even if no one believes it.
Three men went into the jungle on different occasions and saw a chameleon. “A chameleon is red,” said the first man. “No, a chameleon is green,” said the second man. “Nonsense, a chameleon is brown,” said the third man. Those who disagree about the nature of God are like these three men.
Do not allow yourselves to be deceived: Great Minds are Skeptical.
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.
The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances.
Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.
sancta simplicitas! What strange simplification and falsification mankind lives on! One can never cease to marvel once one has acquired eyes for this marvel! How we have made everything around us bright and free and easy and simple! How we have known how to bestow on our senses a passport to everything superficial, on our thoughts a divine desire for wanton gambling and false conclusions! – how we have from the very beginning understood how to retain our ignorance so as to enjoy an almost inconceivable freedom, frivolity, impetuosity, bravery, cheerfulness of life, so as to enjoy life!
Help your brother’s boat across, and your own will reach the shore.
Remember …. for He has guided you.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
Birth and Death is a grave event.
How transient is life!
Every minute is to be grasped.
Time waits for nobody.
Study the past if you would define the future.
A king asked a sage to explain the Truth. In response the sage asked the king how he would convey the taste of a mango to someone who had never eaten anything sweet. No matter how hard the king tried, he could not adequately describe the flavor of the fruit, and, in frustration, he demanded of the sage “Tell me then, how would you describe it?” The sage picked up a mango and handed it to the king saying “This is very sweet. Try eating it!”
Truthfulness. He will never willingly tolerate an untruth, but will hate it as much as he loves truth … And is there anything more closely connected with wisdom than truth?
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
The object of knowledge is what exists and its function to know about reality.
One torch can dissipate the accumulated darkness of a thousand aeons.
What can be gained by thinking about the scriptures? What fools! They think themselves to death with information about the path, but never take the plunge!
So, the tendency of our childish nature is to take small things too seriously and get easily offended, whereas when we are confronted with situations which have long-term consequences, we tend to take things less seriously.
Say, “Humankind! The Truth has come to you from your Lord. He that follows it for the good of his own soul, and whosoever goes astray does so to his own detriment.”
… a distinction must be made between true and false ideas, and that too much rein must not be given to a man’s imagination under pretext of its being a clear and distinct intellection.
The Four Reliances:
First: rely on the spirit and meaning of the teachings, not on the words;
Second: rely on the teachings, not on the personality of the teacher;
Third: rely on real wisdom, not superficial interpretation;
Fourth: rely on the essence of your pure Wisdom Mind, not on judgmental perceptions.
Two things awe me most, the starry sky above me and the moral law within me.
Indeed, in general I hold that there is nothing truer than happiness, and nothing happier and sweeter than truth.
… for He guides whom He wills to the Straight Way.
The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they’ve found it.
Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star.
A worldly man seeks all his life but is still bewildered.
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil.
In the world people think they can attain glory by having cows and horses, elephants and gold, family and servants, fields and mansions. But I do not call that glory, for here one thing depends on another. Utterly independent is the Infinite.
If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.
And isn’t it a bad thing to be deceived about the truth, and a good thing to know what the truth is? For I assume that by knowing the truth you mean knowing things as they really are.
The greatest action is not conforming with the world’s ways.
I am the way, the truth, and the life:
At a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
The people may be made to follow a path of action, but they may not be made to understand it.
Humankind, you have received manifest proof from your Lord. A radiant light to dispel your darkness was sent down to you.
Illness is not cured by saying the word “medicine,” but by taking medicine. Enlightenment is not achieved by repeating the word “God” but by directly experiencing God.
Wisdom is the light by day and Right mindfulness is the protection by night.
Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
There is nothing more necessary than truth, and in comparison with it everything else has only secondary value.
