The Problem is faith

As humans we have a need to be correct, sure of our action and when we doubt our actions, we lash out, when we are too sure we defend our beliefs to sometimes to the extreme. It is part of our nature to fight and survive. We need conflict to keep the animal side feed. Although our spiritual side seeks peace, it has to strive for it.

We are such complex creatures in constant battle to survive and achieve success and peace. Many people find peace through religion and there are some that treat it as a vocation and there are some who through study find new understandings.

Now sometimes these new understandings lead to shared understanding other time they cause conflict. It history these conflict have spawned new groups and religious ideals and bloodshed. This conflict arise over one statement �I am right you are wrong� however it is expressed.

This stubbornness to accept change is created out of fear that they may have been wrong. The idea that their belief / faith is wrong, is unfathomable. This is not always a bad thing someone else refusal to accept your findings can give you the faith to prove it or learn you are wrong.

Now as a pagan I have worked in groups and lead group and conflict does arise occasionally sometimes leading to forced hive off or circle closing etc these are not bad things they are the natural progression of magicks and new and existing path develop.

Elders of any religious group have a responsibly to protect doctrine and keep the faith in that belief a live while offering sage advice. The problem with being an elder is that have to be completely devoted to you belief and have faith your correct.

Now I am consider an elder a title I don�t deserve basically because I don�t have faith that I am doing the right thing! I know that i doing what right for me. I am always questioning experimenting I can remember during my early years I would question silly thing like what happens if the chalice is placed in a different spot to which I often got �well you don�t do that! it should go�� or some text book answer never and honest answer like �I don�t know never tried it their� or �it�s just if everyone does it the same way then less chance of mistakes��

This constant need to understand, make sense and find the right answers, lead me to being solitary I often found myself in conflict with aspects of the pagan paths I travelled. I was never disrespectful the elders they knew more than me, and still do. And It was never the big things it was minor details, can that be changed? and I had some good teachers along the way some even helped me become solitary.

A good elder will see in a person their potential and guide them without fear of what they will discover. When I asked question like why or what happens if I was told to go away and find out. I will always remember going to see the priest for confession and telling him that I did not believe in god after years of religious study and even being an altar boy. I can remember the fear I felt as a 12 year (much more mature than my years) telling a holy man that I though his god was a joke and made up expecting fire and brimstone to strike me down. He just smiled and said that ok to feel that way everyone does but your find your way.

It was his words that started me on my pagan path my search for �god�. I have found one simple truth in my quest and that is you can share the divine but can only experience the divine alone.

Over the years I have had people tell me that I should not do things or I doing that wrong. These people some I care very deeply for give their reason why I should not do something some with good reason others because it what they have been taught. But I am very much a child I am still learning and will always be learning sometime I will take advice sometime I will learn on my own, it only though experience do we learn and gain understanding.

If the feeling and understanding of the divine is a unique experience then should your worship not be unique too? That individual relationship that no other can experience in the same way is the key understanding.

Belief of the divine is like a cell dividing at the dawn of time like a single cell then divided and divided again and again producing more cells becoming a form. like pregnancy we are growing the divine with our understanding. During this time of cell reproduction some cells die others become malignant hang on becoming destructive but at some stage there will be a birth of the divine in form that will unite us all. It the natural order of life.

At some stage in our evolution we will be ready for a complete divine form one that is symbiotic with other beliefs. A more lyrical way of phrasing it is �from the seed idea of the divine grew a tree with many branches and each branch grew many leafs each leaf is a religion not alone but part of the tree that grew from the divine�.

We have to all learn that trying to find our way for those that guide and show a way three things but always be remembered.

The student will surpass the master. And you don�t know it all! Only the fool believes he has all the answers and just because someone wrote it down does not make it fact trust you instincts.

We have to remember that everyone�s beliefs are as valid as your own and only when you stop seeing the differences can you start to share the things you have in common.

Favourite quote on this subject from the film dogma :

Rufus: He still digs humanity, but it bothers Him to see the shit that gets carried out in His name: wars, bigotry, televangelism. But especially the fractioning of all the religions. He said humanity took a good idea and, like always, built a belief structure on it.

Bethany: Having beliefs isn’t good?

Rufus: I think it’s better to have ideas. You can change an idea, changing a belief is trickier. Life should be malleable and progressive; working from idea to idea permits that. Beliefs anchor you to certain points and limit growth; new ideas can’t generate. Life becomes stagnant.

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