The Importance Of Religious Faith

Religious faith is something that is very important to me. I would define religious faith as the belief and trust in a higher power. It is called religious faith because one cannot prove that their God exists, but they still believe and have trust in their God. I have religious faith, as I am a Catholic, and believe in God and his Son Jesus Christ. My faith is something that I live out each and every day by following the teachings of my religion and practicing its values. Faith, quite frankly, makes me who I am and helps give my life meaning. My faith is very similar to what Tilley describes as, “the relationship between one and the irreducible energizing source of meaning and center of value in one’s life.” (Tilley, Faith, 26.) This means

As a child even though I was a Catholic and did believe in God and Jesus Christ, I never really got much from my faith. It was almost like I was going through the motions because it was something I was surrounded by every day. Whether or not you are affiliated with a religion, faith is something that you ultimately have to choose at some point in your life. Many people, including myself, were baptized when they were infants and did not choose to be baptized. So my faith evolved and grew stronger as I got older and better understood the teachings of my faith and the meaning of them. As I got older and grew deeper in my faith going to Mass no longer felt like something I was being dragged to by my mom, it was someplace that I genuinely wanted to go to. Receiving communion didn’t feel like just some other practice in my faith, it was receiving the Body of Christ. As my faith evolved, so did the way I viewed the world we live

Religion is first and foremost a way of seeing. It can’t change the facts about the world we live in, but it can change the way we see those facts, and that in itself can often make a real difference” (Kushner, 21; course pack, 22). Kushner is saying that religion is much more than the practices and beliefs of that religion. It may not have the power to change the horrible things in our world, but it has the power to shape our views and how we see these things. As I grew stronger in my religious faith, it was almost as if I viewed the world through a whole different lens. It has made me a more compassionate and kinder person as I see the good in everyone regardless of who they are. I also see the value and dignity in each and every human’s life. Even though I may have strong disagreements with someone or may not be particularly fond of someone, I believe they are a child of God and deserving of respect and