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Author Topic: KOS: 8 - Begging for Faith  (Read 3571 times)

veggiewolf

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KOS: 8 - Begging for Faith
« on: February 28, 2014, 07:25:22 pm »
(I apologize if I'm stepping on anyone's toes!)

Prompt:

1. What does faith mean to you?
2. What are you looking for in it?
3. How much certainty do you feel you need?
Fluid Morality - my spiritual blog
Eating Monsters - my mental health blog

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baduhmtisss

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Re: KOS: 8 - Begging for Faith
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2014, 05:24:26 pm »
Quote from: veggiewolf;141264
(I apologize if I'm stepping on anyone's toes!)

Prompt:

1. What does faith mean to you?
2. What are you looking for in it?
3. How much certainty do you feel you need?

 
I was debating on responding, because I am not technically a flamekeeper, but I am working through the Flamekeeping book, so I hope it's ok that I respond to the prompt. If not, sorry.

Faith to me means a lot of things. It means having faith in my Deity that they have my well-being in mind when they ask me to do something, and it means having faith in the world around me. It means trusting my experiences, after I do my best to logically work through them. This for me is big. If I cannot trust my own experiences within my religion, then I don't really have a religion at all, do I?

What I look for in faith, I have no idea. Faith in my religion gives me a way to view the world around me. It gives me a spiritual identity. Makes me more then just a walking blood bag that eats, sleeps, and sucks oxygen.

And as to the amount of certainty I feel I need... Yeah, I wish I had absolute certainty, but that isn't going to happen. I think I'll always have doubts, but if it's working for me where other things have failed, and I'm getting the sense of fulfillment that I personally need... Why should I stop? My faith is for me, and it's for nobody else. Nobody else's faith is going to be the same as mine. I like it that way. So, I guess I'm trying to say that I don't really know how much certainty I need, but if I see that it's working then I have no reason to cast anything aside.

I hope this answers the prompt pretty accurately. If not... oops?
Undefined religion | Parrot Mom | Disaster Reservist

veggiewolf

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Re: KOS: 8 - Begging for Faith
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2014, 08:53:36 pm »
Quote from: RainbowSnake;141401
I was debating on responding, because I am not technically a flamekeeper, but I am working through the Flamekeeping book, so I hope it's ok that I respond to the prompt. If not, sorry.

...

Of course it's okay!  The more, the merrier!
Fluid Morality - my spiritual blog
Eating Monsters - my mental health blog

"Religion does not define a deity- it defines the human approach and interpretation of deity." - Juni
"I hate magical thinking in my magic." - Darkhawk
"...a baseball club; a soccer unkindness; a hockey murder; a football team..." - Cecil, Welcome to Night Vale

baduhmtisss

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Re: KOS: 8 - Begging for Faith
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2014, 09:13:50 pm »
Quote from: veggiewolf;141405
Of course it's okay!  The more, the merrier!

In that case, I'll post around the Flamekeeping SIG more! ;)
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Jack

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Re: KOS: 8 - Begging for Faith
« Reply #4 on: March 03, 2014, 01:38:50 am »
Quote from: veggiewolf;141264
1. What does faith mean to you?
2. What are you looking for in it?
3. How much certainty do you feel you need?

 
Faith is the things I believe without having personal experience of it - I can see pieces of the pattern, but I have faith that the whole tapestry exists. I have faith in some of the higher Powers. I have faith in man's inherent desire to help others. That sort of thing.

I'm looking for a sense of something larger underpinning the somewhat chaotic mess of my own experiences and perceptions.

Certainty is outside of the realm of faith for me - I know I don't know these things. Right now they're my best guesses, and they're fairly optimistic so I'll be disappointed if I'm wrong but that's more to do with what the "right" answers would then be. Does that make sense?
Hail Mara, Lady of Good Things!
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Sophia C

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Re: KOS: 8 - Begging for Faith
« Reply #5 on: March 03, 2014, 04:28:16 am »
Quote from: veggiewolf;141264
(I apologize if I'm stepping on anyone's toes!)

Prompt:

1. What does faith mean to you?
2. What are you looking for in it?
3. How much certainty do you feel you need?

 
Faith comes and goes for me, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

I probably spend about half my days being almost-completely sure that my gods and the spirits exist, and the other half thinking I'm a complete fool (or at least have lost my mind) and have made the whole thing up. I wouldn't want it any other way. I don't believe that faith is necessary for my religion, at least not in the way that it was for me when I was a Christian. In Christianity, faith is pretty much a requirement. Now, I'm much more interested in firinne - truth - which encompasses the ideas of honour and justice, i.e. is about behaving with integrity. I don't think the gods need my faith, but they do expect me to behave with honour. In my personal practice I also have the concept of the Xartus, of working within the flow of the universe, as it keeps chaos and order in balance. Right action and right relationship are part of moving within the flow, for me. Again, I think the gods require that much more than they require some abstract concept of whether I believe in them or not.

Um, I guess I was answering the third question there. In terms of the first, faith for me mostly means belief that the gods and spirits exist. Given that I wouldn't behave any differently if they didn't, I think it's important but not that important. It's certainly more important for me than it is for them. I've lost count of the number of times I've given offerings to the Good Folk while fully believing that I am a naive deluded person. I don't think they care, as long as they get their offerings. And as long as I still give the offerings, I am living within my own understanding of firinne, of right action and right relationship. (And that right behaviour/right relationship actually strengthens my faith in the process.)

Hmm. I might have to write a blog post here. Thanks for the great prompt!
"We're all stories, in the end. Make it a good one, eh?"
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