Losing Faith

Have I lost my faith?  Lately I've been asking myself this very question.  My short and simple answer would be no. I did not 'lose' my faith,  I out grew my faith. To lose faith implies a kind of carelessness or lack of attention. I've lost my sunglasses, my car keys and numerous other things from time to time. Sometimes I find them again with intense searching and sometimes I never recover them.

Yet, on the matter of religious faith I can truly say that I did not 'lose' it in some careless sense of the word. I have out grown the need for religious faith  like a child outgrows the need for training wheels on a bicycle.  There's a time when a child is happy to have training wheels.  When they have not yet mastered the art of balance and motion on two wheels it is necessary for them to have the safety and comfort of training wheels.  But the day will come when the training wheels need to be discarded if the child is to master the art of bicycle riding. The child will be glad to see the ugly appendages go and will experience a freedom such as they never experienced while their bike was burdened down with the bulky  training wheels.

For most religious persons the mere thought of losing faith is very frightening. It terrifies believers to imagine having to ride the bicycle of life without the training wheels of faith.  Like a child they have no confidence in their own  ability to balance the bicycle so they cling to the training wheels. I used to hear people say "religion is a crutch" and I would be angry because I was a religious person. I was offended that they viewed my faith as a crutch...thus implying that I was a cripple or too weak to stand on my own.  My being offended by the saying didn't change the fact that is true.

For many Christians to lose one's faith is to lose one's salvation. This is so because Christian theology rest completely on the concept of faith. Faith must constantly be exalted over reason or scientific facts. The Bible must be believed in absolutely and completely even if it is unreasonable, unscientific and filled with myths derived in part from Jewish fables and outright paganism. 

Of course, the true believer seldom if ever investigates the factual history of Christianity.  It surprises me that long time believers have never studied the true origins of the Christian religion.  If they would apply the same critical analysis to their own religion as they do to Judaism or Islam, they would find that Christianity is as absurd as they are. 

Having just made the above statement, I wish to say in regards to the person of Jesus. From what I have learned over the years no one can prove 100% the existence of the first century Jewish man named "Jesus".  If such a man did exist and the accounts of the gospels true, Jesus would be appalled at the faith that bears his name. 

As you can see, I have much to say about religious faith and most of it is not flattering. The greatest harm has been done in the lives of countless persons on the planet from this kind of "faith".  When I was a person of faith, I did and said many, many foolish things all in the name of God.  And then slowly, painfully, carefully, tearfully, diligently, studiously, I began to challenge my faith just as I had challenged the LDS faith, the Jehovah Witness faith, the Muslim faith, the Hebrew faith. I found that they are all the same in that they all make mighty claims, demand blind faith and lead you down a dark empty dead end street.

Oh, how easy it is to have 'faith'....oh, how hard it is to outgrow it!  To lose it in a careless sense would be easy and I suppose there are those who do, but some of us did not lose it in that way, no we won our freedom through the diligent use of our minds. To outgrow religious faith is to know freedom, sanity and wholeness again.