Faith

I don't write much about religion per se -- I don't really see the point. It's one of those areas in which minds that are made up are not going to be changed, and my religion says that it's wrong to try to force my beliefs on anyone else because there are many paths to Truth.

I found this post from Andrew Sullivan to be right on the mark. One of his readers writes:

That said, I'm probably an atheist. What I am not, however, is an anti-theist. Religion has the same potential for good as for bad. If all faith ceased to exist tomorrow, there would still be war, persecution, crime, etc. What upsets me, and I assume many atheists, is the inability of many in the religious fold to admit that they might be wrong.

Sullivan calls it "doubt," I call it scepticism applied to oneself. It leads to inquiry and serious contemplation, and hopefully, if you're doing it right, better answers, as temporary as they might be. (A core principle of science: there are always new facts. That's probably one reason science doesn't threaten my beliefs -- we agree on that principle.)

That scepticism, when I stop to think about it, is probably the driving force of my life.

Sullivan concludes with a telling quote from Thomas Merton that contains a fundamental truth that shouldn't even have to be stated, but people being what they are, it bears infinite repetition:

You cannot be a man of faith unless you know how to doubt. You cannot believe in God unless you are capable of questioning the authority of prejudice, even though that prejudice may seem to be religious. Faith is not blind conformity to prejudice - a "pre-judgement". It is a decision, a judgement that is fully and deliberately taken in the light of a truth that cannot be proven. It is not merely the acceptance of a decision that has been made by somebody else.