DICTIONARIES define faith as, ‘Trust and confidence in the truth, in honesty, friendship and God.” (Not the god as espoused in religious literature – rather, Universal God or Intelligence – us at our very core) We confuse faith as being a part of religion when in fact it is not. Religion has usurped faith to suit its own purposes. Unlike religious faith, whose blind following hampers our progress towards the evolution of mind, true faith is an asset.

An Archbishop of Canterbury once said, “It is a great mistake to suppose that God is only concerned with religion.” This same truth also applies to faith. The general belief that faith is something that has to do only with religion is incorrect. Having faith can affect our whole outlook on life – constantly – not just on Sundays, but seven days a week.

We profess to have faith in God, but that god is not the real deal, only a cardboard cutout manufactured by religious zealots to hoodwink the masses. The real God does not want or expect us to kowtow to his every whim and imposes penalties if we don’t. Nor does the real God want us to die in religious wars or acts of terrorism fought supposedly in his name.

These wars are waged for a false god, depending on who he is depicted to be and in what faith a particular mob follows. Religious faith is OK, if you believe in the same god and creed that I believe in. But what happens if I don’t? Faith goes out the window and we are classed as terrorists or infidels and ostracized to all but adherents of our own particular faith.

If we are in the right spot at the wrong time, we are likely to be shot for our ‘misguided faith’ as so many of our own kind already has. Millions of us have died in the name of religious faith and for that we all must share the blame, not just the perpetrators, for we are all – as a collective intelligence, responsible for the world we live in – and we are doing a shit of a job of it.

Any alien civilization that may be watching us out there in space would be finding it unbelievable and difficult to reconcile the fact that a race of beings with the intelligence we have and the advancements that we have made could in their right mind, be so homicidal, cruel and unkind to their own species and the other species that share their planet. We certainly would not be invited to join up as members of a galactic community.

The only problem we have with faith is that we give it to others, whether a person, a god or a religious creed. Faith is vital life energy and to give that precious commodity to someone or something else outside of ourselves saps our inner strength and stunts our progress towards the evolution of mind.

We belittle our very own nature. No other person or belief system is worth that price, for those others are no different or better than you. Faith, given away free to others is done unconsciously. Once again, it is the work of the ego that in truth, does not like itself at all, so is happy to let us believe that faith belongs to religion, rather than us finding out where true faith really belongs.

There is not a different god for different religions, there is only one God that is an essential part of every one of us, so how can we possibly maim, kill or blow up another person when the same God resides in their mind, as ours? And yet we do. It seems that religion and faith are bad things to have, but they are not. They are learning tools that were purposely placed in our lives.

We were meant to be confronted by them. These stories are not meant to be unkind or blasphemous in their depiction of religion or faith, but are simply guide post that allows us to maybe look at a part of our everyday lives with conscious awareness and learn the lesson they hold – something that we don’t normally do.

There is no problem with a person who is religious, or has religious faith, or goes to church every Sunday – as long as they are doing it with conscious awareness, not blindly following another.

True faith is trust in our own personal inner nature – God in physical form. True faith conjures up feelings of love, joy and peace – attributes of a consciously aware mind. It has nothing to do with any belief system, but simply a quiet and assuring faith in ourselves and a knowing that all is really OK – we are on the right path.

Dan’s Quote– “Faith in oneself is the best and safest course.”- Michelangelo

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