Here we are all gathered in what seems to be the centre of the storm
neighbours once friendly now stand each side of the line that has been drawn
they've been fighting here for years, but now there's killing on the streets
while small coffins are lined up sadly, now united in defeat
We always need to hear both sides of the story

Like other members of the inner circle, I have been busy thinking about such concepts as faith and religion. A while back, I promised 'Eno that I will write something about faith. And events have prompted him and the others to beat me to the punch and present their own views. It seems that for most people faith is indeed incomprehensible, illogical, and even annoying. This is my lengthiest (original) post yet, in which I will give some of my views on faith.

First of all, it is very easy to confuse true faith with simple arrogance. Sis wrote that religion is a system of belief, or sets of principles, which involves god as the creator and the judge, with groups of society as his worshipper. So far, so good. But most people are simply unwilling to accept the existence of an Almighty Judge, so they take it upon themselves to be the judge. Let me elaborate: I'm a Theology student, I AM studying God and His creations. I have been warned many times that trying to learn the Almighty is beyond human understanding and to be careful that I don't lose my faith in the process. Why is that? In fact, the more I learn the more my faith is strengthened. The way I see it is that most people come to God to find some justification for their answers. They have no interest whatsoever in asking God for answers. So, in the end, they either manipulate God's teaching for their own ends or reject Him outright. Religion is in fact a set of guidelines given by the Almighty so that humanity can be reunited with Him. We can, in fact, come to greater understanding about God by studying these guidelines. However, we are NOT God! We cannot arbitrarily decide what is right or wrong. We have to approach His guidelines without any prejudice. We are looking for answers to our questions, not the other way around. And since we all interpret even the same natural things differently, the same is even more true with the supernatural. We have to realize that we may never know what is the true and correct interpretation until the day we come to His presence, which will most likely be when we die. Having faith is accepting that God will judge us according to His standards instead of imposing our standards on other people. Have faith, not arrogance!

Next, the synthesis between science and religion. At first glance, there can be little accomodation between the two. However, once we understand the value of approaching God's guidelines with innocence, we will realize that, in order to understand Him, we must also study his creations. Scientific knowledge is built upon our observation of the world around us, while religious knowledge is built upon our understanding of the supernatural. It has been pointed out many times that mere logic cannot explain everything about our universe. However, we also cannot rely on "faith" when so many discoveries seem to contradict it. Again, we must realize that religion is a set of guidelines. God have yet to give us a step-by-step walkthrough to His creations. Things would become so much simpler and clearer if we accept the use of science to fill in the gaps. After all, God's nature is reflected in His creations, and by understanding our natural world, we can come to a greater understanding about Him. As a sample to such effort, I would like to recommend a book by Agus Miradi titled "Siapakah Manusia Pertama Itu", published by Yayasan Tunas Daud. This and other similar works might help us come to a better understanding, and start looking at religion and science as complimentary to each other. Faith could and should be logical!

Now, about the logic of faith. How do you define faith? In recent conversation with a friend, she had some difficulty defining what faith is. It seems to me that for her faith is a feeling of belief/conviction leading to something greater than oneself. She considers logic to be detrimental to faith while accepting my view that you cannot have faith without some logic. While discussing our views on the progress of faith, we agreed that first, and foremost, we must have knowledge. Once we know, we can begin to understand. With this understanding, comes belief and eventually conviction. The end result is faith, which will lead to greater understanding and something greater than ordinary human logic. This might seem similar to Ogi's and Eno's view on mystical synthesis. I, on the other hand, feel that their approach is somewhat incomplete. Keep in mind that being human is so much more than just our emotional, intellectual, physical, or mystical components. A human has a heart, mind, body, and soul. These affect how we interpret our surroundings. Even though we might make what seems to be a wholly logical decision, it is influenced by our emotion, our physical ability, and our faith. To try and do so with only one part is woefully inadequate. Especially since most of us have yet to fully develop any single component to its full capacity. Most of us still have difficulty with our emotions. The typical human mind only uses approx. 2% of its potential. We have yet to be able to measure the quality of our soul. And even our physical potential has not been fully developed. To deny any single part of our being is to deny our own humanity.

The solution? I, myself, have yet to fully understand, so I cannot offer anything other than a reminder that we must never, ever, limit our understanding in any way. We should always strive to use our potential and strecth our limits with the belief that something greater is waiting.

And the lights are all on, the world is watching now
people looking for truth, we must not fail them now
be sure, before we close our eyes
don't walk away from here
'til you hear both sides