The Binary of Faith
“There are two kinds of people in this world"
I don’t really like old sailors jokes, but if I had a penny for everytime I’ve heard someone say there were only two kinds of people in the world, I’d have a small fortune by now.
People say if you repeat a lie far too often, it might begin to sound like the truth.
That too isn’t true. Because no matter how many times I hear people say it, I’d never believe there were only two kinds of people.
And what binary would that be?
What binary would have a dividing line so thorough it would instantly split the world into two whole demarcation?
Good people, bad people?
Even Batman is a villain in someone's else story.
Rich people, poor people?
At what particular amount of dollar and cent would you draw this demarcation?
Christian, non-Christian?
This might work, maybe. Except even the Christians don't agree among themselves who the definition of a Christian is.
Do you believe in Jesus?
Do you not believe in Jesus?
One friend tells me he believes in godliness, but not religion.
Another tells me he believes in Jesus, but Christianity has been corrupted, and true Christianity, lost in the dark ages.
I think of drawing a binary line and I start to develop a headache.
One friend asks me how I can be so sure, and goes on to prod me about historical facts and scientific evidences.
The mistake he makes is assuming 'I'm so sure', whatever that means.
Everytime I’ve talked about Jesus, there’s always been this gnawing feeling in my stomach.
What if it was all a lie, and I was right now aiding the spread of this grand delusion, recruiting someone into the greatest scam the world has ever known?
Christianity thrives because people devote their entire lives to it.
Sometimes, this devotion persists amidst great turmoil and uncertainties.
It's tempting to think all my doubts would magically resolve if say for example, someone in a NASA observatory somewhere looked into his telescope and saw an angel with a strapped on sword. Or if a voice thundered from heaven above times square in broad daylight.
But I know they won't.
The things I've seen, the darkness that I face, these things just don't go away...
I've never really been a fan of the Jewish people. I've never understood why God would involve Himself in perpetuating the idea of racial superiority.
I read Palestinian poetry once and pledged my sympathy forever.
Everytime I've been in church lately, which has been few and far in between by the way, I've felt odd and out of place. The people in there look like they have their lives altogether, or at least they do a pretty good job of pretending to.
I'm angry at preachers who give silly, stupid political prophecies for social media likes and the attention of gullible people.
I struggle to understand a Christianity that for the most part, seeks to exclude queer people.
Do you believe in Jesus?
Do you not believe in Jesus?
When I tell people to believe in Jesus and they ask me why, I usually do not have any reason to give them.
I do not have a logical appeal to make, or scientific facts to present.
I simply tell them to believe because I believe
I take my faith, battered and bruised, and present it to them.
Maybe there is something here, maybe there is nothing, but we'll never know if we don't risk it.
There is the known,
and there is the unknown
The perfect binary
The unknown is a vast world unlocked only by faith...
