Is faith in God more productive than faith in yourself? As an atheist this is often a question that interests me.
How is it that someone can have little faith in something as solid as themselves, but have absolute faith in something intangible, unprovable, untouchable and controversial?
While the faith in oneself immediately leads to the opportunity to experience and evaluate its rewards, faith in a deity has no proof of reward; and that is what we are talking about here. It is a mechanism that produces a reward, that reward being that your leap of faith, your instinct and assessment were right. So why have faith in a deity when having it in yourself brings immediate, concrete and developmental results?
What comes first? What is best to come first?
Faith is central to any religious belief system. But so are obedience, discipline, tests, punishments, deferred rewards and ceremony; otherwise where is the test of your faith, the depth gauge of your belief and the outward show of your allegiance?
Having confidence in yourself is not a selfish act or emotion… it is essential to the human learning process. If you do not have the faith and confidence in yourself to achieve something then can you achieve anything new, or reattempt anything once known and then suddenly failed?
So if you are confident, open minded and ready to learn (all of which tend to be mind sets of people who have belief in themselves, moreso than those who do not) then not only are you better prepared to take on the demands of a religious life, but you are more likely to learn from the experience through trial and error or success and reflection. I suppose the only true measure of success comes after there was any chance to improve.
Is it therefore more effective to have faith in yourself before God? If so, should religious organisations help you achieve that before asking you to have faith in god? Wouldn’t that be more productive and supportive?
Is faith in God a crutch, a Welfare State mentality?
“God helps those who helps themselves,” isn’t a quote from the Bible despite, what some may say. It tends to be accredited to Aesop, Euripedes, Algernon Sydney or Benjamin Franklin.
What appears to come across from some research into the Christian Bible (and due to their close relationship, I would assume similar sentiments in the Torah and the Qu’ran – although don’t quote me on that!) is some mixed messages on exactly what the Abrahamic God expects of his followers. However, some reading between the lines does draw out something important – the relationship with God is not a one way system.
What is essential is that the believer meets God half way. The believer cannot sit back and expect help to rain down from the skies, but nor can the believer decide that what they have decided to do is better than any of God’s suggestions.
So… if you do not have that faith in yourself, that confidence, then can you achieve what God is asking of you?
Faith Should Start at Home
That first step has to be there at every point, every decision, every action.
A religion’s holy scriptures provide the guidance but in the end it is the believer who has to make the decision and that decision isn’t whether something is right or wrong, but whether they can decide on a course of action and then carry it through.
In Christianity this is exemplified by the Book of Job, “turn the other cheek,” and the story of the footsteps in the sand. In all these it is the decisions and actions of the individuals that are the first true test of faith; faith in themselves to achieve what God expects of them.
So while the faith in God is belief in support when needed, and reward when deserved, to actually achieve you need faith in yourself first and foremost.
