What is faith?

In todays’ London Daily Telegraph (November 14, 2008) it was reported that Prince Charles, in the event he accedes to the throne, would change his title from ‘Defender of the Faith’ to ‘Defender of Faith’, omitting the definite article in the hope of drawing together the multi-ethnic and religious groups that exist in today’s Britain.

What is faith?

It is the means by which we humans are able to get through each day of our allotted 3 score years and 10 in the face of inevitable death.

You should, all of you, read Richard Bach’s book ‘Illusions’. In it one can find no better definition of faith.

An individual’s faith can be anything they want.

For most of us our faith is based on a set of personal moral rules (not necessarily the ten commandments) but certainly rules that allow us to live our lives the way we want whilst accepting that our neighbours have their own set of rules by which they wish to live.

But then, the rules by which an individual chooses to live may be at odds with what some others perceive as being good.

Suppose you are a thief. Your faith is that you can get through life by taking other peoples property without their consent. Is it ‘good’? To the thief it probably is, to his victims it is not but it is, never-the-less, a faith.

The real truism here is that you are perfectly entitled, as an individual, to follow any faith you wish BUT, you must also accept the consequences of that faith.

There are those, the Clergymen, the Priests, the Imams, the Rabbi’s who make their living by organising peoples faith, setting up rules and regulations and using them to control people.

This is a choice too. A Bishop or a Grand Mufti has just as much right to his belief that his role is to lead and organise as those who choose to follow him.

But is it good?

The young Catholic girl whose life is wrecked because her organised faith told her she could not use contraception – the young idealistic Muslim who straps a bomb to his body and kills himself and dozens of innocents because his organised faith has told him that heaven welcomes a martyr.

Individually, we are all responsible for the further effects of our particular faith. If we choose to join an organised group, we abrogate all control to others who will use it, ultimately, against us.

Prince Charles, don’t go there. It might seem quite a laudable concept to remove the definite article and call yourself ‘Defender of Faith’ in the hope of drawing people together but faith itself is a two-edged sword and it could end up biting you on the backside.

By calling yourself this you could end up supporting the likes of Osama bin Laden who, like it or not, has a faith to which he adheres and which, to his mind, is right and proper.

Far better to remove all references to faith from your official title and leave us to work it out for ourselves.