Religious Faith: An Invaluable Means to an End

Faithfulness is an abstract notion, not unlike love, upon which we as a society place great value, and yet discerning why it is worthy of that value is no trivial task. Even more problematic than defining faith, personally, is the justification of the leap of faith inherent in the notion of faithfulness. For instance, from an early age, at least in American society, we are told both what and whom to be faithful to by our parents and peers, but how does one justify the acceptance of that faith? Furthermore, is it not unlikely that faithfulness to something in its entirety is unreasonable or irrational? If Judaism of Christianity were to be truly “faithful” towards the word of the Bible, we would in all likelihood live in a polygamous society with slaves and servants. So I ask, how can we remain faithful to a religion whose texts promote such things, and why is faith important at all? Merely accepting faith is not enough; the affirmation, or conversely rejection, of faith calls for questioning and testing. I contend that faith need not be uncompromising nor does it need to be an end in and of itself, but rather it can be a means to an end. If while attempting to rationalize faithfulness to something, a particular aspect proves problematic, to a certain extent, one can compromise with respect to the acceptance of that aspect in order to remain faithful. I argue that though faith may be troublesome to attain and even more difficult to maintain, faith is crucial. Each person’s personal goals may be different, but regardless of the specifics, faith can be an invaluable means to an end in terms of fulfilling those goals.

Religion is thrust upon us at birth; we are taught a particular religious faith without any choice in the matter. I...

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...vide that aspect as well. For me, faith is about the latter; my faith in Judaism is primarily because it is a community that identified with and felt comfortable in. As a shy person who struggled to find his niche, faith was the perfect means to better my life by providing the niche I so longed for. Faith can be hard to attain, and equally difficult to maintain, but inevitably is worth the effort. Faith, in one-way or another, can contribute towards fulfill a goal, or can fill a void in a persons life. Faith is personal. There is no definitive way to discern why a particular person has faith but I would argue that no matter the reason, that faith is powerful and important because of the many ways in which it can benefit many aspects of a person’s life. Strong faith can become an integral part of you; without it a large void can be left open and unable to be filled.