Sometimes, in conversation with friends I admire and learn from, we discuss beliefs and what we know about God and The Forefathers et al. At some point in an interesting discussion we would arrive to a question in belief that cannot be definitively explained or scientifically proven and the believer would say: “now see, here you have to take a leap of faith.”
What it is that “leap of faith”, I have been struggling to understand. When do you leap and how do you leap and what kind of shoes do you wear for the leap and what the heck does it mean to leap in faith?! If you cannot prove that something exists or some law has purpose, why take a rather perplexing leap and assume that it does or it doesn’t Why not retain the open question and accept that at this point, we do not know? What is wrong with not having all the answers?
Taking a leap of faith and assuming in a belief one way or another instead of accepting that we do not know seems rather dangerous to me. I’d rather not. I’ll cross over to the side of that faith as soon as science builds me a ramp.
Frieda Vizel
Frieda Vizel left the Hasidic community, the Modern Orthodox community and the Formerly Orthodox (OTD) community. She now lives in Pomona and is actively looking for a new community to leave. She deals with the perplexities of the communities she left by drawing cartoons about them, a habit that gets her into an excellent amount of trouble.6 Responses to “On the leap of faith”
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Why is it dangerous?I do understand your statement “you rather not” but if as you indicate you have doubts then logicaly it would seem it pays to strongly consider the possibility of being wrong.why wait for sceince you might end up on wrong side.
Kevin, at first impulse when I started reading your comment I was going to hit like simply because of the use of the word dangerous. I didn’t quite get why use a strong word like that. But as I continued reading your comment I realized exactly why the use of that word: A lot more evil is perpetuated in this world that we actually know of (and in which, yes, science takes on the leading role for our understating of) by the desire to be on the “safe side” simply due to lack of knowledge. Blind following of faith causes a lot more damage an suffering to others than does careful contemplating and speculation of ones belief and putting off coming to any definite conclusions. So, yes. “Dangerous” is a most apropos word used in this case, and I thank you for making that clear to me.
Perhaps leap of faith means jumping from the comfortable place of knwoeldedge to the unknown. And people do it because there are certain potentially desirable places one can get to only with that leap. A crude example is getting on airplane. You have faith in the technology, mechanics, checkpoints. You can’t be sure about all the processes. You don’t understand how the big thing flies. But you want to to Australia and don’t want to swim there. so on faith in technology and its reps you go. In religion, you don’t know many things but accept them on faith for the potential gain of being part of something which provides purpose, meaning and belonging. To do these things requires not only a subtle movement, but completely leaving the grounded feeling from only logical known things. Thus you must get off that ground. Leap.
Fantastic.
http://magazine-directory.com/Newsweek.htm
Read the article in this weeks Newsweek, “Science of Heaven”. Even physicists can’t explain everything in scientific terms.
If science builds you a ramp, delete the word faith.
Surprised at an oxymoronic statement from you.