Lately I’ve been hearing of struggles people have been having with their faith, many of them refer to the experience as a ‘dark night of the soul’. Mostly the opinion is that this is a negative thing to be feared, though some who’ve come through it claim it’s strengthened their faith.
So what is faith? It’s
defined in general as ‘complete trust or confidence in someone or something’
and more specifically as ‘strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a
religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof’. I think the second half of the definition is
more applicable to the most common understanding of the word.
Interesting choice of words…’based on spiritual apprehension
rather than proof’. The definition of
apprehension is not a positive one: anxiety or fear that something bad or
unpleasant will happen. The definition
says that it’s this apprehension, this fear of something bad happening, that’s the
foundation of one’s belief…rather than proof or reason being the foundation.
This is wrong. Just
plain wrong. We are reasoning, thinking
beings, each of us capable of leadership and co-operation for common good. And
for cultivating and drawing out great things from creation, ourselves and each
other. Yet on the whole, we don’t use
our individual and community reasoning capacity to test and evaluate and choose
the best way, with both short and long term vision in mind.
We separate, divide, bicker, follow, ignore…and
fear. Instead of facing our fear, both
individually and together in community, we retreat into ‘faith’, holding it up
like a shield against reason. Yet in
doing so, we remain in a prison of our own making. A prison of apprehension.
Of course, we are reasoning beings, and every so often the
need to reason things out becomes a driving force within us. And we look at our faith with open eyes. It’s at that time that we face a crossroads
within ourselves.
For most, they struggle through this dark time of doubt, and
reaffirm their ‘faith’ even more strongly.
But for some…there’s light on the other side. It’s hard to lay down the shield of this kind
of faith, and instead pick up the two edged sword of reason and trust. It involves looking honestly and without motive
at what truth really is. And isn’t.
