Blind faith?

Blind Faith?

Religion is a vague concept, and a generalized term which fails to accurately describe a certain kind of belief. I've studied various religions other than Christianity too; despite I have limited knowledge about them. However, faith is associated with almost all religions; thus many claim religion to be a 'blind faith'. Their reasons for saying so, whether you agree or not, is because we can't really see or understand what we're believing; and God, in general, is a blurry concept, which is why we call that mysterious, majestic figure, as ‘God’, for we don't have adequate words to fully describe what the God is. Believing in a religion believes in the unknown and in the supernatural, thus religion is blind faith…

Since I'm not qualified to comment on other religions, I'll just comment on Christianity - a relationship between God and man.

I know a quite a lot who take 'reasoning' as their religion and they call religion a 'farce' for it is blind faith. Honestly, I would totally agree with them based on their conditions and reasoning. If Christianity, the religion which I believe in, is just about placing offerings and predestining a God who created the heavens and the earth; sure, religion is blind faith and perhaps stupid. It's like blindly following a ritual or some laws without questioning the legitimacy. I'm not sure if you've read a short story known as the Lottery; religion, in some sense, may just be blindingly following traditions, doctrines and rituals of one's forefathers. Nonetheless, using today's reasoning and intellectualism, religion may as well be utterly dumbfounded and a farce.

I believe in Jesus with an active reason, and my faith is not blind. Christianity isn't a religion, instead, a relationship. (Repeated) A religion can be about blind faith, but the Christian 'faith' is about the interaction and fellowship between The Divine One and humans. How can a relationship be blind? If one who blindly loves another because of one’s money or because one is 'hot'; hence, is that not simply the lust of the flesh? In fact, when Christianity isn't a religion, it proves that Christians aren't blindly following their 'God'. Of course, there are blind 'followers' of Christ who have no idea of their belief. They are 'believers' of the religion known as 'Christianity' because of their parents or because they've randomly made a choice. Don’t you think that’s kind of like a one night stand; whereas one just chooses to sleep with another, but doesn't know the essence of having a relationship?

I’m not sure if you’re a Christian, but I find the Bible stories useful for distinguishing between blind faith, and the essence of a relationship. In Mark 2, Jesus heals a paralyzed man. There are many applications to this story, but I’ll just relate it to the topic in a ‘bad’ way; meaning this application is a bit taken out of context. (Usually we’re not supposed to do that, but let it be for now)

Basically, a few friends of a paralyzed person wanted to see Jesus. They’ve probably heard of stories of the ‘great Jesus’ healing and casting out demons. They carried the paralyzed to meet Jesus, with faith; yet they were unable to enter the room, for it was packed with people. Ridiculously, they broke down the roof of whomever the house belonged to, and landed the paralyzed in front of people. The others were probably yelling and cursing the friends who broke down the roof. Well, whatever. The point I’m going to share today, is the conversation Jesus had with the hypocrites, or Pharisees. Jesus saw the faith of the paralyzed man. Just kidding, in fact, the paralyzed man probably had no faith at all. He was probably telling his friends to not meet Jesus, but essentially, we don’t know. However, the friends of the paralyzed man had faith and Jesus said to the paralyzed: ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’

After so, Jesus, knowing the contemptuous thoughts of those who wanted to challenge Him, said: “which is easier to say? Your sins are forgiven or get up, take your mat and walk’?” Let’s stop at this moment.

Taking out of context, and relating that to today; ‘your sins are forgiven’ is kind of like a blind faith statement. Let’s say, you done something wrong, and you confess it to a religious person. The religious person says, ‘dude, your sins are forgiven, (smiles) now move on child.” I would probably feel pretty good when I heard it, but what significance does it have? OH, my sins are forgiven, jolly brilliant! So that’s it? To many Christians (I don’t dare to talk about other religions, even though I think similar stuff applies) this is exactly the case. Their faith is blind. They may believe in their mind or their heart that their sins are forgiven, or God loves them so much He died for their sins, or God is the mighty person who created all the species of the world and such. Yea, cool story bro. That’s blind faith.

Moving on with the story, you see that Jesus, my God, isn’t simply a ‘god’ which I believe in. In fact, the multitudes came to see Jesus, because they’ve heard of Him. They’ve heard of Him doing this great thing and that miraculous deed, that’s why they come, perhaps from a long way, to see Him. They mostly have not experienced Him, yet they choose to believe – whether partially or completely. Their faith, at that moment, was perhaps still blind, for they just believe without physically or spiritually experiencing anything.

Jesus Christ, my Saviour King and friend, is more than blind faith. Every other religion may as well be about blind faith, but Christianity is not. The story continues.

Jesus didn’t leave with the paralyzed man’s sin being forgiven, but He said, “get up, take your mat, and go home”. The people’s faith in Jesus, were made tangible and seeable. They were able to experience God and what God does. They used to just know in their brains about the greatness of Jesus, but now they see it with their eyes.

I believe the greatest essence of our relationship is, we get to feel and interact with God - that’s why it’s called a relationship. A relationship without communication and interaction is nothing, but this Christianity thing, isn’t just about me just blindly believing in a creator that could wipe out the world in one stroke. A relationship with Jesus, God, is a promise. We are promised to eligibly have a relationship with Him.

I don’t know what you believe, but if you’ve touched upon Christians, like the ones that actually are real, you’ll see that they’ll say stuff like “oh… it really depends on how God leads me”, or “God told me that…” A Christian is promised in the Bible, that he/she can hear God’s voice through the Holy Spirit. I can hear God’s voice, and I have too many experiences about interactions between God and I. Perhaps I’ll share them in other articles, but this Christianity thing is no blind religion, or else I wouldn’t place my life for Jesus.

A wondrous promise for the people of God, is that they are able to hear God’s voice. The Bible has many verses and stories backing up that idea. In John 8:47, it says that one who belongs to God hears what God says; John 10:27 states how God’s sheep will be able to hear the shepherd’s voice. Jesus Christ proclaimed that He is the Good shepherd, and Christians who follow them, are accessible to the voice of God. This is a wondrous promise.

To come to an end, a religion may be about blind faith, but a relationship is more than just our thoughts, beliefs and knowledge about a ‘god’. When we are in a relationship with somebody, we will have faith towards the other. In the same way, we have faith in Jesus Christ, for we can experience Him in plethoras of ways. Christianity isn’t just a religion, nor is it blind faith.