Belief

Belief is a funny little thing. I know a bit, I don’t know a lot, and I believe a bit. I know, for example, that I’m sitting here typing, I know Possum is asleep in the lounge room, I know I have four kids, but I don’t know exactly where they all are. I don’t know so many things they are uncountable, not only that I don’t actually know what it is I don’t know. But the fuzzy area is the things I believe. For instance, do I know that this chair won’t fall down as soon as I sit on it, or do I believe this based on the fact that it never has before? Do I know that the sun will come up in the morning, or do I just believe that, again based on past experience? I don’t even really know that the world is round, I have never left Australia, so I haven’t been far enough afield to really know it. I believe it based on various facts, I have seen pictures from space, I’ve seen globes and know people who have travelled around the globe, so I am pretty sure that it really is round, yet I don’t really know it, not like I know my glass of water needs refilling.

There are some things that I believe that most people also believe, because they are so close to certain that there is little doubt, like the world is round, and we revolve around the sun, so it will come up in the morning. There are very few people who don’t agree with this. What about the holocaust, some people don’t believe in that, yet others do. I can’t say I know it happened, after all I’ve never met a holocaust survivor, nor even a descendent of a holocaust survivor, yet I believe it happened. Why do I believe this, well because I have read and seen the results of it, so many others believe in it, I’m certainly not alone there.

Then there are the other things, things that aren’t so certain, like the existence of God. I look around me and see the wonders of the world, the wonder of giving birth and bringing up kids, the love of parents for kids and kids for parents, and I see reflections of the wonders and love of God. Yet others look at these same things and don’t see any signs of God. I am just as certain that God exists as I am that the sun will come up tomorrow, yet the proof is no where near as clear. I am a Baha’i, I believe that Baha’u’llah and the Bab did walk the earth, actually this is fairly certain, many non Baha’is have written about them, they really did live where and when I believe they did. The big question is were they who they said they were, were they really messengers from God, when I read the books they wrote, am I reading the word of God, or is it nonsense. Of course, if you don’t believe in God, you have no problem, it is just nonsense, but I believe in God and I believe that Baha’u’llah is indeed the most recent messenger from God. I also believe that one day in the future God will send us more messengers, because the message needs to change as the state of humanity changes. The world is very different to 2000 years ago, and it has changed a lot in the last 180 years, it will continue to change and God will need to update our message. I believe that one day this will happen, but I also believe that I won’t be alive to see it, although I do keep an open mind there, just in case.

This is how belief is a funny thing. There are even less certain things that we believe with out question, yet there is no proof at all. Many people believe the things they see on the TV news or current affairs shows, sometimes this is OK, sometimes it isn’t and yet they assume that because its on the news it is true, so they think they know things that aren’t true. This can cause trouble.

So I know a little, a believe a lot, and I don’t know so much I can’t even imagine most of it.