Digging a Hole: Faith and Doubt

Faith does not require proof.
Doubt requires proof.
Which is easier to obtain?
Doubt.
How many great things have really been achieved by doubt?
How many more things have been achieved because someone had faith?

Let's break for a minute and focus on why doubt is easier to obtain or have versus faith.

If I want to accomplish a task, let's say I plan to dig a hole, I need something to get me to do it. First, I need a purpose for the hole. Why am I going to dig a hole? (There are many reasons of which I could think, such as; planting a tree, or simply because I enjoy digging. Let's stick with planting a tree for this scenario since there are some who can not fathom why one would find enjoyment from digging.) So, I am going to dig a hole for the purpose of planting a tree. I need the tree for shade and a source of food, let's say apples. So I have good reason for planting the tree, which is my purpose. In other words, I have good reason for my purpose. I can not accomplish this without first digging a hole. So here is my task; to dig a hole. I have my purpose. My purpose seems to give me a desire as well. The more I think about my purpose, the more I feel a desire to dig my hole. Just because I have a desire though does not make me capable of digging the hole. I will need tools. I cannot afford renting a backhoe so I will labor with my shovel. I need more than tools though, now I recognize. How could I make the shovel dig a hole without something else? I need strength and effort. Effort is more important than strength though. Strength would simply get the job accomplished sooner. But with Effort, I can dig this hole even if it takes my little, weak body weeks to do it. So I put forth my effort and pick up the shovel. With the little strength I have I drive the shovel into the earth and begin to remove the dirt and start my hole. It takes a lot of work to dig this hole! I have been digging and digging and have not gotten very deep or very wide into the earth. It feels like I have barely scraped the surface! I'm getting tired. My muscles are growing sore and my hands are starting to blister. I'm sweating from head to toe because of the heat from the hot sun, not to mention all the effort I am putting into this work. I feel like quitting. At this point, why would I go on? Why continue? I've done so much work, put forth so much effort, and you know there is little to show for it. What is the point? I can't do it. I'm too weak. Even if I was stronger, what is the point? It would still take me forever to dig a hole big even enough! I remind myself of my purpose though. If I dig a hole I can plant my apple tree that will give me shade and food! Here is the important next step. The next step is to have faith, or to continue doubting and that will decide what I accomplish. I may choose to have faith to accomplish my task or I may choose to doubt that I can accomplish my task. If I doubt, I will not continue; I will quit. If I have faith, I will continue even though it has become difficult and will continue to be difficult. In this case, I am going to choose doubt over faith. Here are my reasons: I am tired. I am sore. My hands hurt. I can not see that I have made any real progress. Doubt seems to be a natural way of thinking or reasoning. One might call this pessimistic another might call it realistic. No one would call it optimistic though. Why? Because optimistic thinking is related more to faith than it is to doubt. If I change the choice I made in the scenario of digging a hole to having faith: let's take a look. In this case, my reasons are: I am tired, but I think I can keep going if I try. I am sore, but tomorrow I will be stronger. My hands hurt now, but tomorrow they will be tough. I haven't made much progress, but I have made some progress. Little by little it will come along.

Faith is more than believing. Faith is effort. Faith is doing. Faith is working. Faith is not giving up, better yet, Faith is trusting. Many things precede faith, just as faith precedes many things. Faith is a way of thinking. A type of optimism, you might say. Faith is a principle of action and power. If you have faith you hope for things which aren't seen, which are true.

If faith is all these things, doubt is the opposite of all these things.

Doubt is less than believing. Doubt is effortless. Doubt is doing nothing. Doubt is not working. Doubt is giving up, worse yet, Doubt is not trusting. Is there anything that precedes doubt? Doubt precedes many failures. Doubt is a way of thinking. A type of pessimism, you might say. Doubt is a principle of idleness and weakness. If you have doubt you have no hope for things which are not seen, things which are true.

Once again, the beauty of this: We each get to choose. 

Will I have faith or Will I have doubt?

 It is a choice.

Everyday we have the choice.

What will you choose?

Please make comments below! Happy to hear your thoughts.

Rene Descartes: Truth, Faith, Doubt, Error

I have been reading Rene Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy. As greatly as I have enjoyed reading this, especially because of the proof he gives of the existence of God, there is definitely error in his ways to obtain "truth".
No one discredits the truth he stumbled upon known as the Cogito, or Cogito ergo sum, "I think, therefore I am".
In fact, philosophers use this as a base of thinking and searching for other truths.
But besides this, he comes to no other definite truth or conclusion. Even his proof of the existence of God (which I greatly enjoy) is circular reasoning.
So what is his error?
Doubt.
He based his entire reasoning of it all on doubt.
It is true he that he did stumble upon one singular truth with this method. Yet, that is ALL he was able to conclude. Only ONE truth! And yet, there are parts of that truth to even question.
So what is a better method?
Let me ask, what is the opposite of doubt?
The answer: Faith

How much more "truth" can you gain if you have faith?
Faith does not require proof.
Doubt requires proof.
Which is easier to obtain?
Doubt.
How many great things have really be achieved by doubt?
How many more things have been achieved because someone had faith?

Faith is more than believing. We will talk more on this in the next posting.


Thanks for reading. Please share any comments or thoughts below because your thoughts help produce more of my own thoughts!

Truth and Error

Here's an interesting idea to ponder upon:

(*DNE stands for Does Not Equal)

Right & Wrong DNE Truth & Error

They correlate; yes.

But they are different.

One can make right choices without knowing truth. Just as well, one can know the difference between truth and error, yet still choose wrong choices.

Right and wrong is something we choose between. Granted we can choose truth and error as well, but it is not the same. When a right and/or wrong choice is placed before us, it requires action to make that choice. When truth and/or error is before us it requires us to choose as well, but not in action, rather, in believing or not.

Faith & Doubt DNE Truth & Error

Truth is something you can choose to believe or choose not to believe. It doesn't matter what you choose though, because truth will remain true. Error is the same. On the other hand, faith and doubt....

Faith is not truth. Faith has been defined as "believing without seeing" or as Paul the apostle said, "faith is the substance [assurance] of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). Doubt is simply lacking faith. So you can have faith in error and/or you can have faith in truth.

Some things are ever-existing, eternal, never-ending. Truth is one of those things. In regards to truth, it doesn't matter how many or few people believe something or not, nor does it matter how many different perspectives there are or aren't, Truth will always remain and exist, whether everyone knows it, or no one does. For example, gravity (and other laws of physics). We (as the human race) have not always known what the force was which kept us from falling off the face of the earth, until Isaac Newton came around and gave it a name and definition. Yet, it was always there, always affecting our lives whether we realized it or not, gave it credit or not, believed in it or not. And it is still here, now that we know a bit more about it, and it still remains to affect our lives in the same ways as it has in the past and it will continue to do so into the future. So I can have faith in gravity. Or I could choose to think it is rubbish and doubt it entirely. Does my doubt change it's existence? No. Indeed it does not. Yet I am free to choose in what I believe and in what I have faith. I am also free to choose in what I doubt and in what I do not believe.

Freedom. (I will have to come back to that topic).

Right and Wrong. Back to these two.

Right and wrong have morals attached to them. Many people feel that right and wrong are not black and white; that there is a gray area. The TRUTH of that matter is that there is no gray area. If you follow truth, then right and wrong are laid out for you. If you are unsure of what is right and what is wrong, you may be lacking truth.

When it comes to Right and Wrong, there are countless controversial topics! (To name a couple: Abortion and Gays and Lesbians, killing (namely in war)) The most interesting thing about these controversies is that the only reason they are controversial is that someone is either, lacking an understanding of truth (they have not been taught it), or choosing not to believe in truth (they have been taught it but do not believe it).

If we want to understand right from wrong; if we want to know where best to place our faith; Seeking and finding as much truth as we can is the answer. I am a seeker of Truth!

I seek truth where ever I go, whomever I am with, whatever I see or hear. The best part is I find it where ever I go, whomever I am with, whatever I see or hear. We all have bits of truth within us that we innately believe. If you listen to the truth you already carry, it will lead you to more truth and greater understanding.

Now I have a question for you:

Are you a seeker of truth?

The Birth of Thought

Where do thoughts come from?
        -Intake of outside information
               -viewing objects
               -reading
               -hearing sounds, words....
               -touch...sensory
               -taste
               -smell

What about thoughts that don't originate from outside information?
Thoughts that are born from other thoughts
Thoughts that just seem to "come to me"?

From a religious point of view, I would say these are thoughts from God (inspiration, revelation, promptings) or temptations from the devil. (Interestingly enough these are still outside sources just not sensible from the "Five Senses").

But what would a not religious person say?
                           ?

Personality influences thought patterns
             We can choose to block out thoughts, ideas, just as well
             We can choose to follow a certain thought path.
The more we follow a path the more paths we find, discover, come across...

The same structure is actually seen in nature. An obvious one: a tree with it's branches that produce more branches and leafs and some fruit or nuts...a tree also has roots ever growing and expanding. It reaches out in all directions; the trunk and branches upward and outward toward Light. The roots dig deeper and broader towards Water planting itself in the firm earth's grip that holds it, supports it, allows it to grow, and to expand even greater in depth, height, and broadness.

If you look at the detail of a leaf or a flower petal, you will find a similar outreaching structure, which holds it together, makes it what it is, a leaf or a petal, all of these tiny little lines representing a new thought and they interconnect with all the others.

These thought paths, if you will, are very similar to actual paths we walk. The more you frequent the same path, the more clear the path becomes and remains. But if you only walk the path once, it will be forgotten, overgrown; and you are left wandering, searching.

I think when we get stuck on a thought process or path and are unable to continue that is when we pose a question. Questions seem to be the way around the block.

           We seek answers from various ways or sources...just as we intake information from various ways. (Refer to page top).
If questions are the outreaching grasp that gets us past our block, then answers must be what the roots grasp onto.
If roots and branches are our thoughts...then Light and Water (the sources of Life that plants need to live and what they live by and what they live to obtain) must be our goal in our thinking, pondering, our outreaching.
Light, Water, Life, must be what we thrive to comprehend, to understand, to absorb.

The Birth of Thought; it begins with us. Rene Descartes said, "I think, therefore I am."

I am therefore I think; and my personality, my nature influences my thought paths, and I choose which paths I follow.


More to come on, "I am." Look for the next blog.

Here are some thought provoking videos about "Light":
  Light Part 1, Light Part 2, and Light Part 3

(Please feel free to share comments or ask questions below. Thanks for reading!)

God vs Man

God vs Man?

Here is an interesting thought. How do we compare in the epic battle of God verse man?

Take a look:
“Any man made creation is possible only because of our divine Creator.” -Russell M. Nelson

(Sorry I had issues with the pictures. Note: None of these photos are my own...they all come from Google search).

   

“The process of construction is truly inspiring to me. From conception to completion, any major building project reflects upon the work of the Master Creator. In fact, the Creation-of planet Earth and of life upon it- undergirds all other creative capability. Any man made creation is possible only because of our divine Creator. The people who design and build are given life and the capacity by that Creator. And all materials used in the construction of an edifice are ultimately derived from the rich resources of the earth. The Lord declared, 'The earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things.'”

So it is simple. It is clear. We are trying to be like Him. Creators within the realm we live in and with the tools and resources we have. There is no comparison. There is no battle. There is no God verse man.
Are we creators though? Or simply replicators?
Any idea man has thought, has it not already been thought by someone else?
My next post will cover more on that question.


NOTE: Please feel free to add comments and questions below! Thanks for reading.

Who Are You Proving?

IF...there is no God & no Satan then
      there is no Good & no Evil which means
      my choices mean nothing.
Why would my choices have no meaning?
      Because the only reason I would choose "good" choices (w/o God then) would be to be moral for the purpose of society and the people who I live among.

BUT...

It does not matter if I live morally or not if I don't believe in God because there would be no eternal consequence, only mortal consequences.

The Fact of the matter is simply this:

BUT...

   This can NOT be the case in which we live, because there is order in our lives.
There is a sense of morals in everyone's heart and mind.

IF...God is not real then I have to discredit ALL of His teachings too. This means any teaching from God is not real also. Teachings such as:
      having a conscience (in other words knowing good & evil), any laws given by Him and also their attached punishments (so that includes the 10 Commandments [thou shalt not kill]).
     God teaches us that there is evil, but if there isn't then I may do exactly how I please without consequence.
How long would humans (man-kind) last if they had no laws, no consequences, no conscience?
                      Not even one generation
It is better to believe in God, to have order, laws, consequences and a conscience than to not even exist (to live).

IF...God is just a lie to get us to all behave and stop killing each other (so man-kind can survive) then God existing is the best lie in all of history and has been the cause of more good than evil.

I know that God's teachings (whether they are His or not) do actually exist. It is evident. Laws do exist, consequences do exist from our actions, people do believe in good and evil and morals. But if they are not God's teachings, then to whom do they belong?

A single person? A group of people who unanimously agreed upon these things? A collection of ideas from various people throughout the history of time?

Perhaps, these things just simply exist...but then for what purpose?

If they simply exist they sound to be eternal truths because they have not ever died (except in individual hearts of people).
   So if a person or people decided to personify these self-evident truths and call the idea of them "God", then "God" does exist.

The funny thing about this is that some people who have lived by these morals and truths and "teachings of God" have claimed to see Him. They gave their very lives defending that claim. Why give up your life if it was just a big lie? Because it wasn't a lie.

The most wonderful part about believing in God and His plan for us is that there is absolutely no way to prove that He exists. God can prove Himself to whomever He pleases, but I can not prove to you nor can anyone else prove that He is real.
   Why is this wonderful? Because of what it requires; faith. If you understand God's plan then it makes perfect sense. He loves us and He sent us here to prove ourselves, not to prove His existence. By allowing us to forget, He frees us to choose to remember Him. It is our choice. That's what makes it so wonderful!