Faith

A lack of faith causes people not to turn inward, but outward.  They look at others and say that they are an abomination to god and must be smote or converted or whatever.  Yet, if it is a faith in god that we are talking about, it should be obvious that god created the heathens too.  If he was unhappy with their actions, he could probably doing something about it, without your help.  One who has doubt in his faith wants to wipe out those who do not share his/her faith, because if all of the unbelievers were gone, then only one faith would be left alive and there would be no more questions.  That is what these people believe, but it is a false belief.

Wiping out or converting someone is not an act of god, but an act of man trying to justify his/her faith to himself/herself and others.

If you get two people together and ask them what they believe, they will be shown to have different beliefs - even if they believe in the same faith.  There will always be minor variations.  All of these religious beliefs would have to come from some source, someone else told them what to think/believe.  If they all independently came to the same faith with no human influence, then their might be something to this god thing, but that is a different story, since it has never happened.

So, once we get two people who have listened to the same human and claim to have the same belief in god, they will not actually share all beliefs.  And further more, over time they will drift.  They will add to their belief when they encounter new things in the world.  We can see this now.  Which holy book talks about god's view on computers?  Cars?  Space travel?  Yet people need beliefs about this things.  So within each religion, those things not explicitly mentioned in their holy books, each person will have come up with what they believe their god wants them to think about these things.  And they will be different, since they didn't come from one source.  Does this mean you would have to kill or convert them to the holy use of computers as per your beliefs?  If someone used the wrong kind of mouse, is it an insult to god and those people need a good smiting?

So, what is faith?  It is your own thoughts.  It is something that you believe.  It can be something that you think other people believe and/or other people should believe.  Some people spend their time trying to convert others over to their own beliefs.  Some people try to wipe unbelievers off the face of the earth.  Either way, they both have something in common:  it is an outward sign that they do not really believe what they think they should believe, and they hope that they will increase their faith through these external means.  Given a chance to think about it, they really should just abandon their faith, or turn inward to confirm that they are living the life that god wants of them.  For the only being who they have to make it right with is their god.  And their god will make it right with everyone else, without their intervention.  Unless their god is too small to speak for himself.

So, what are your actions saying about your god?  And your faith?  For everyone has a god and everyone has a faith.

The Edward