What Exactly is “THE TRUE FAITH”?

Each religious group claims to have the true faith, and they spend their time and energy to prove their faith to be true and the faith of others to be false. The members of each church give so much value to holding on to the true faith, that they are expected to sacrifice their lives for it. They point out the example of the ancient fathers who died as martyrs to uphold their faith.

As long as we are within a community as its part, we blindly believe whatever our community asks you to believe. But if we happen to step outside our community, we take an objective perspective, and we ask the basic question of what exactly is faith, and why it differs from one community to another. Most of those who stay within a community have never had a chance to take such a stance, and those who do are looked upon with suspicion. They are blamed to have left the true faith! Here, taking the risk of being called a heretic, I am stepping outside my faith community and looking at faith with an objective perspective. What exactly is faith?

Is faith the same as belief? Often faith is seen as a synonym of belief, and the people within a community are called believers. So let us first see what belief is. It is an assertion without any evidences. A fact, however, is an assertion supported by evidences. A belief exists supported by the people who hold the belief, but a fact exists even if no one holds it. Why does a belief exist? Because the truth of it remains unknown. So, can we claim a belief to be true? Not at all. A belief can neither be proved true nor false. It has no evidences either way. Once a belief is proved true with the support of evidences, it get promoted to a fact. So if someone claims that his belief is true, how would we respond? It simply means that he believes his belief to be true.

If a certain belief is believed widely by an entire community, it gets elevated to the status of a fact for the members of that community. For example, the catholic church members all over the world believe that as soon as people die they go to a place called purgatory to get purified. For them it is a fact, but for the outsiders, it is a mere belief without any evidences. Such a belief about afterlife exists because no facts are available about afterlife. We are ignorant about what happens to us after death.

Living in this world as a part of it, we cannot have an objective knowledge of the world. We can never go outside the world and observe it objectively. Also we are limited by the limited number of senses with their limited powers. We can expand the power of our eyes using a microscope or a telescope, and it opens before us a whole new world. Thus we can be certain that the world we know is only a part of the real world. We have facts about the known part of the world, but we have only beliefs about the unknown part of the world. We know our past, but the future remains unknown. So we have facts about our past, but only beliefs about our future.

The world exists within time-space limits, and it keeps changing according to time and space. We imagine that the world exists so depending on something that exists beyond these limits because we can understand something that changes only in relation to something that does not change. Anything that moves has to be related to something that does not move. The world and everything in it change according to time and space. So we assume that the world depends on a changeless reality that exists beyond these limits of time and space. Although we assume its presence we honestly admit that we know nothing about this reality. As we exist within time-space, we can neither understand nor imagine anything beyond these limits. About this changeless reality also, we have only beliefs. Although we have given names such as God to this changeless reality, we honestly admit that we have no facts about this reality, which is why we don’t treat Theology as a branch of science.

Although we know nothing about this changeless reality, we make certain positive assumptions about it. We make these assumptions about the changeless reality relating it to the changing world. The following are such assumptions:

1. It knows everything about everything. But we, existing within time, gain more knowledge as time goes.

2. It does everything right, for it knows everything. But we, with our limitations, are prone to errors.

3. It has all abilities. But we have only limited number of abilities.

4. It has no beginning, and no end. But we begin and end.

About how the world is related to this changeless reality, we have certain assumptions.

1. The changeless reality, existing beyond space-time limits, cannot be limited by anything. So the changing reality exists within the changeless reality as its part.

2. Although the changeless reality appears different from the world to us, looking from the perspective of the changeless reality, the world is one with the changeless reality, and not a separate entity.

These assumptions about the changeless reality are not blind beliefs; they are assumptions derived from the observed facts.

These assumptions help us to live our life overcoming the limitations imposed on us by the world. Without the presence of the changeless reality, we are driven by fear--we are afraid of the unknown, of death, of committing errors. But by acknowledging the presence of the changeless reality, and by trusting on it, we are no longer driven by fear, but by confidence. Although our knowledge is limited, we are within the changeless reality, that knows everything. Although we commit errors, we are within the changeless reality that does no errors. Although we are beings with death, we are within the reality that is deathless.

This trust in the changeless reality that helps us to live a life of confidence is the TRUE FAITH. This is not a mere belief that varies from one community to another. Out of this grows a meaningful life of confidence and love.

This true faith is asserted in the traditional worship of the religions when they repeatedly affirm that God is omniscient, holy, almighty and immortal. The changeless reality is referred to as God, Alla, Yahweh, Brahma and other similar names. Being omniscient, God knows everything about everything, which makes God Holy, that is free from committing any errors. Also God is almighty, that is having all the possible abilities. God, being beyond space-time limit, is also immortal.

Whereas the true faith unites people, their religious and other beliefs divide them. Faith evolves out of in-depth understanding, but beliefs are superficial. It does not need any effort to hold a belief, but it takes committed search to discover faith and a meaningful and successful life based on it.  

Conclusion

The words faith and belief have often been used as synonyms, which is why Faith has been mistaken to be a mere belief. A belief exists about anything unknown to us, and it is foolish to live or die for our beliefs.  By the term TRUE FAITH we mean our trust in the changeless reality on which our changing world exists, and by which we are able to live a life of confidence. We don't live for our faith, but once we discover it, it serves as a strong foundation on which we can build up our life. This reminds us the parable of the two houses-- one built on sand and the other built on rock. Most of the people build their lives on the sand of superficial beliefs, and their lives collapse when they face storms. The wise ones dig down to discover the rock of faith, and build their lives on it.

Are we Slaves to our Beliefs?

Recently I wrote an article reflecting on how the concept of Trinity might have originated, and a reader responded saying that it is a mystery which our church fathers have presented to us, and all that we need to do is to accept it as such blindly without even thinking about it. This reader thought that my attempt to understand the concept of Trinity was similar to reinventing the wheel. It has already been explored and explained well enough by the fathers, and so we don’t need to waste our time and energy to do so. This reader believes that the beliefs we have inherited from our fathers need to be blindly believed, and any thinking on them is not only futile but also harmful, for there is a possibility that we arrive at different discoveries and conclusions, which is a disservice to the fathers.

The general understanding among Christians is that a Christian is someone who holds certain beliefs, which are believed to be true facts. However, the various Christian churches cannot agree on which are those beliefs. That is why we have hundreds of divisions within Christianity. What some Christians believe as true beliefs are not so for others.

Beliefs are jealously protected by the priestly class in each community. If you cannot blindly believe a certain belief of your community, and you openly express your disagreement, then you will be excommunicated. Sins like murder and rape are pardonable, but a deviation from the established beliefs is unpardonable. Beliefs, elevated to unchanging doctrines and dogmas, are believed to be inherited from the very apostles of Christ, and questioning a belief is the worst crime someone can commit. If beliefs are to be blindly accepted, there should not be any thinking at all, and so thinking is discouraged and even prohibited in the Christian communities. I have yet to find a Christian church that is an exception to this.

This situation seems to be as old as Christianity although we don’t see it in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not teach to hold on to a set of beliefs, but soon after his time, there slowly developed a set of beliefs which were transferred from generation to generation. In the fourth century, Constantine made Christianity the imperial religion, but soon the emperor had a headache facing the fights within Christianity on which was the right belief about Trinity and about the divinity of Jesus. Fearing that the empire may not stay united because of this fight, he called a meeting of bishops to decide upon which was the true belief. Of the two separate beliefs, one belief was declared right, and those who held the other belief were excommunicated. As this was not the right solution to the fight of beliefs, the fights continued creating headache to the successors of Constantine. This fight of beliefs continue to this day all over the world, and Christianity continue to split into hundreds and thousands of pieces, each piece claiming to have the right belief on various matters.

We human beings are supposed to be free, but in Christianity, we have allowed some beliefs to rule over us. We have made ourselves the slaves of some beliefs. We die and kill for our beliefs. During Jesus’ time the members of his community had made themselves the slaves of certain rules such as Sabbath and purification, and Jesus asked people to get out of such slavery. He declared that Sabbath is for Man, and not Man for Sabbath. If Jesus lived among us today, he would declare that Beliefs are for Man, not Man for Beliefs.   

So let us make an attempt to understand beliefs. What exactly are they? Once we understand the truth of beliefs, we can make use of them rather than be slaves to them.

What are Beliefs?

We understand the world around us with our mind and with the senses. As we get to know little by little, the area we know advances, and the unknown area recedes. In spite of how much we advance, there will always be the distinction of known area and unknown area. We can speak of what we know using facts, but about the unknown area we use our beliefs or opinions.  

 A piece of information can be either a fact or a belief. A fact is supported by evidences, but a belief is supported by the people who believe it. A belief does not exist if there is no one to believe it. A belief is expressed by an opinion.

This does not mean that a fact is true, and a belief is false. A belief is also believed to be true although it lacks evidences. A lot of information come to us in the form of beliefs or opinions. Later, when they are supported by evidences, they get promoted to facts.

Let us see some examples from the well known story of Jesus healing a blind man. The Pharisees questioned him about the healing. (John 9 : 24-25) They said about Jesus:

Give glory to God, we know that he is a sinner!

The one who was blind replied:

I do not know whether he is a sinner! One thing I do know, I was blind, but now I see.

The one who was blind honestly makes a clear distinction between what he knows and what he does not know. Such a distinction comes out of honesty, and any honest person will make such a distinction. “I was blind, but now I see” is what he knows for sure. But he honestly admits his ignorance of whether Jesus was a sinner or not. He had no way of knowing that.

The Pharisees are not honest though. They claim “We know that he is a sinner”. Do they really know? If they were honest, they would have said “We think that he is a sinner”. They thought Jesus was a sinner because Jesus healed sick people on Sabbath. According to them, Sabbath was to be observed by total rest, and so any activity on Sabbath was a sin.

Whatever we know for sure can be expressed as a fact, but whatever we are not sure can be expressed only as a belief or opinion. There are always areas more unknown than known to us. So we always make use of beliefs and opinions than facts.

Although we speak a lot about God, we must honestly admit that no facts are available about God. So we always use our beliefs.

Also when we speak of the unknown, we speak of it relating it to what is known to us. Although we know that God is unlike anything in the world, we speak of God relating to things in the world just because we have no other way.  

Beliefs vary from person to person, and also from time to time. I had certain beliefs of God in childhood. As I grew older, my beliefs kept changing. I do not think anyone else shares the exact same beliefs as mine. Although we all use the word God, we all mean different things by that word.

Before going further, let me summarize what I have said so far. Always we have known and unknown areas before us. We use facts to speak of known areas, but beliefs to speak of unknown areas. Beliefs vary from person to person and from time to time. To speak of God, purpose of our life, etc. mostly we use beliefs because facts are not available.

What is Faith?

Jesus advised his disciples to have faith at least as little as mustard seed. St. Paul included faith in the three things that last, the others being hope and love. He also claimed that we live not by sight but by faith. He devoted an entire chapter to talk about people who lived their life by faith (Heb 11). Now the question we ask here is this: What exactly is faith? Is it the same as belief?

Faith seems to be a wider view of life, for it takes into consideration what the inner eye sees as well. With the outer eye, we don’t see God, we don’t see how we are related, and we tend to live in fear, anxiety, and depression. But with the inner eye, our vision gets wider and deeper. We see God, we see how we are related to one another, and the purpose of our life, which helps us to live a meaningful life.

Paul claimed that we get saved not by good works to please God, but by faith. By this he probably meant what Jesus meant in his story of the Pharisee and the tax collector praying. According to the Pharisee’s evaluation, he deserved to be rewarded and the tax collector deserved to be punished by God, for he lived following the moral code of his community. But Jesus asserted that in God’s sight, the tax collector was to be rewarded, and not the Pharisee. God used a different standard to evaluate them. God saw their understanding that lay deep down within their hearts. The Pharisee believed that there were two kinds of people in the world -- righteous and unrighteous, but the tax collector believed that God alone was righteous, and all human beings belong to the same category-- unrighteous. This understanding of the tax collector helped him to come to God’s presence with repentance, and also to live in peace with his fellow beings.

Thus faith is the understanding that lies deep down within us, and it is a set of beliefs which provides a foundation for our life. Faith exists at the very foundation of our life, and our life depends very much upon it. Jesus advised people to have a life with a firm rock-like foundation, not a sand-like one. It is very important to have a very good understanding of our life as the basis upon which we can build up a fruitful life. If our faith is firm and positive, our life also will be so. Jesus advised people to critically evaluate what kind of beliefs they had as the foundation of their life.  

The quality of our faith will be exhibited in our deeds, words, and attitude, just as a tree will be identified by its fruit. One doesn’t have to verbalize what he/she believes. This is what Jesus taught. But, later, faith couldn’t be exhibited in their deeds and words. James deals with this problem in his epistle. He went to the extent of saying that faith without corresponding deeds is dead. When faith couldn’t be seen in deeds, they started verbalizing what they believed. That is when all the fights based on beliefs started in Christianity, which still continues.  

 How may we deal with beliefs?

So what should be our attitude toward beliefs? Imagine that you are like a gatekeeper letting in people identifying them. Facts and beliefs approach you. Facts are on their own, and you cannot stop them. How about beliefs? Beliefs are of three kinds:

1. Beneficial

2. Destructive

3. Neither beneficial not destructive

4. Not sure which of the above group they belong to

So what will you do with them? Accept the beneficial ones, reject the destructive ones, and ignore the ones that are neither beneficial nor destructive.

We need to be extra careful with the fourth category. Most of the beliefs we inherit from our parent-generation may belong to this group. We just have to patiently make an effort to understand them. We are not supposed to discard them even if we do not understand them.

Many of the beliefs spread by the Pharisees were destructive, and so Jesus advised to reject them. Pharisees believed that Sabbath should be observed by doing nothing, and this rule was a burden for the common people. Jesus substituted it by a beneficial belief -- Sabbath should be observed by doing good deeds. Pharisees held the destructive belief that God favors good people, but Jesus substituted it with the beneficial belief that God loves all people in the same way.

I think we need to follow the example of Jesus, and weigh and measure every belief we come across. If Constantine had known this in the fourth century, the history of Christianity would have been different.

  We defined faith as a set of beliefs that exist at the foundation of our life. We have inherited faith from our parents and from the community we belong to. As children, we blindly accept them, but as we grow older, we need to critically evaluate our faith to see if they consist of beneficial beliefs, destructive beliefs, or beliefs we can ignore.

 I think we should not allow our difference in beliefs affect our relationship. A belief that disrupts our relationships is destructive. In spite of whatever we believe, still we are brothers and sisters. We are all children of the same heavenly father. Constantine couldn’t think in this way.

That God alone is omniscient is common knowledge. No human being has all knowledge. Whatever we know, still our knowledge has limit. Whatever we think right can be proved wrong later. If all people can agree on this one point, we will not fight and divide based on our knowledge and beliefs.

I think we need to feel sorry for all the divisions we caused by placing too much stress on our beliefs. If our heavenly father loves all people in the world as children, we should be able to treat all people as our brothers and sisters regardless of whatever they believe. 

Conclusion

We examined the role of beliefs in our life, especially in the history of Christianity. We allowed beliefs to enslave us, and as a result, we get divided into hundreds of pieces based on our beliefs. It is high-time we realize our foolishness and examine our beliefs critically instead of blindly accepting them all. Let us all realize that God alone is omniscient, and humbly admit our ignorance. Let us not sacrifice our precious relationships for keeping our beliefs.      

John D. Kunnathu

Facts and Opinions in the Bible

Suppose someone you haven’t seen before comes to meet you at your home or workplace. The very moment you see that person, your mind makes the following distinctions for you:
 Is that person a male or a female?
 Is that person an adult or a child?
You don’t do it consciously, but it happens at the subconscious level. You react to that person based on these distinctions.
   
Here is another similar situation. You either hear or read a statement. The very moment, your mind makes the following distinctions about that statement:
 Is it a fact or an opinion?
 Is it to be understood literally or metaphorically?
Your reaction will be based on these distinctions.
    Here is an example:
You hear someone says:  “My boss is a tiger.”
The moment you hear this, you make the following distinctions:
    This statement is an opinion, not a fact.
    This statement is to be taken metaphorically, not literally.

Imagine what will happen if you fail to distinguish between fact and opinion, and between literal and metaphorical! This is basic to effective communication. In our everyday life, we misunderstand facts for opinions, and opinions for facts. Similarly, we misunderstand literal for metaphorical, and metaphorical for literal. The result is miscommunication, that is, the communication sent is different from the communication received.

Someone sends a message (idea) encoded in a language using an audible or visual medium. The one who receives it needs to decode it correctly in order to receive the intended message. Failure to decode it correctly results in miscommunication.

Miscommunication is dangerously high in religious literature. It is not because there is anything wrong in the communication sent, but because the readers receive different communication by misunderstanding. Here we shall see examples from the Christian Bible.

A fact is a statement that can be verified by evidences. Facts are independent statements in the sense that they stand on their own regardless of whether there are people to believe them or not. The statement “Water is made of hydrogen and oxygen” is a fact because it can be verified anywhere.

However, all statements are not facts because evidences are not available for a large number of statements we make. When I make a statement without the support of evidences, then it is my belief or opinion. The statement “Humans were evolved from monkeys” is not a fact because enough evidences are not available to prove it in an undisputable way. It is a belief or opinion for some people. Once scientists are able to produce clear evidences, then it gets promoted to a fact. Opinions or beliefs are dependent statements in the sense that they can’t exist without the support of people.

A belief gets social acceptance depending upon its popularity. Once a belief is accepted by the majority of people in a certain community, that belief is elevated to the status of a fact. That belief would be considered a fact, and whoever deviates from it will be considered a heretic. In Psalm 53, the poet says: The fool says in his heart there is no God. The majority of people in his community believed that there is God; therefore, the handful of people who denied the existence of God became fools in the sight of the majority. In a community where the majority deny the existence of God, those who believe in God’s existence would be fools. In a Muslim nation, a non-Muslim would be considered fool; in a Hindu nation a non-Hindu would be considered fool, and in a Christian nation a non-Christian would be considered fool.

Most of the statements we make in science are facts. In history, statements regarding who, when and where are mostly facts, although statements regarding why and how are mostly opinions. In religion, most of the statements we make are beliefs or opinions. Religion answers the basic questions of existence such as Who are we? Why do we exist? and How should we exist? Evidences are not available to answer these questions conclusively. Therefore, the answers we give remain beliefs or opinions; never facts. No wonder, there are countless belief systems and religions. Beliefs about existence vary from person to person, and even a person changes beliefs from time to time.
 
A belief or opinion could be true or false. We just don’t know. Only facts can be conclusively true or false. Beliefs or opinions can either be true or false. We just don’t have enough evidence to prove either way. However, all the time we hear people claiming their belief to be the only true belief!
Similarly, a fact need not be absolutely true. A fact is true only based on our present knowledge. When we gain better knowledge of something, a fact regarding it may become a non-fact. For example, the statement “Water is made of hydrogen and oxygen” might be proved false by the science of the future. Who knows? However, there is less chance for a fact getting demoted to an opinion than an opinion getting promoted to a fact.
Although beliefs cannot be classified into true and false, they can be classified into three categories based on their relevance and effect.
1.    Positive  (beneficial to the healthy existence of humankind)
2.    Negative (harmful to the healthy existence of humankind)
3.    Neutral   (neither beneficial not harmful)
Positive beliefs should be encouraged, negative beliefs should be rooted out, and neutral beliefs should be ignored. Here are examples:
    Positive:    God loves all people alike.
    Negative:   God loves some people more than others.
    Neutral:    One should face the east when he/she prays.
A major part of the Christian world considers the Bible to be the infallible word of God. By this, they mean that everything in the Bible is true, or in other words, all the statements in the Bible are true facts. They imply that there are no beliefs or opinions in the Bible, but only facts. They quote the Bible saying, “Bible says” or “God says”. It doesn’t matter to them whether the statement was uttered by Matthew, Paul, or Peter because they were mere pencils in the hand of God, the real author.
I shall cite a few examples to make this idea clear. Psalms is a collection of lyrics or songs used by the Jewish community.
In psalm 22, the poet says,
        I am not a human, but a worm!
In psalm 23, the poet says,
        The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want!
These lines were written by poets to express their diverse states of mind. In ps. 22, the poet is at the depth of depression. He identifies himself to a worm. In ps. 23, the poet is at the height of a feeling of safety and security. There is confidence, courage and hope.
 In one psalm, in the midst of troubles and tribulation, the poet complains to God:
“God, why are you sleeping?”
However, in another psalm, the poet affirms:
        “God does not sleep!”
Anyone can see that these lines were not written by God, but by people expressing their beliefs and feelings at different times. When I quote something from Paul I prefer to say, “Paul says” rather than God says or Bible says. I believe that all these authors were divinely inspired to write. However, it appears senseless to me that they were just pencils in the hand of God.
There are both facts and beliefs in the Bible. Statements such as:
        Jesus lived in Palestine
        David was a king of Israel.
are historical facts. However, statements such as:
        Jesus is the savior of the world.
        David was the greatest king of Israel.
are beliefs or opinions.

Presenting a belief or opinion disguised as a fact is dishonesty. If I want to convert someone to my belief, I might present my belief clothed as a fact. Although I might win him/her temporarily to my belief, once he/she realizes that it involved deception, he/she becomes my enemy. Honesty is the best policy. One is free to tell others what she/he believes provided that it is made clear that it is one’s belief.  When people spread their religion, they need to take this into account.