Do not confuse religion with faith. Religion (especially in a modern sense) is little more than an organised construct purely designed to facilitate a power distribution based on conformity and adherence to certain rules. Rules designed to create a power hierarchy. Similar in nature to a modern day corporate structure. Whereby success, or in this case perceived piety, is measured, by ones ability to increase, or maintain, consumer numbers. Coincidence? I think not. Whereas, in my opinion, faith is maintained and contained within the individuals personal choice to live a life based on a set of core beliefs. It is also undertaken without the need to convince, coerce or manipulate others into following the same pathway. Ergo, using the above examples, I can have faith based similarly to that of an organised religion, but not necessarily be aligned with that organised religions corporate or geopolitical agendas. Or to put it another way, I can have faith in cricket as a sport, and love every aspect of the game. But I dont need everyone play it in order for me to justify my decision to live and breath it on a daily basis. ...Its simply MY choice. Not just a blind compliance, or acceptance, of the preachings of the International Cricket Council. (Couple of glasses of wine, and this sort of stuff runs through my head. So if it doesnt make any sense... Apologies. ...I probably just need to find the corkscrew again and stop posting.)
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 14:31:11 +0000