Faith

In spite of knowing,

Yet still believing.

Though no god above,

Yet god within.

There is no god in the sense of a cosmic father or mother who will provide all  things to their children. Nor is there some heavenly bureaucracy to petition. These  models are not descriptions of a divine order, but are projections from archetypal  templates.

If we believe in the divine as cosmic family, we relegate ourselves to perpetual adolescence. If we regard the divine as supreme government, we are forever  victims of unfathomable officialdom.

Yet it does not work for us to totally abandon faith. It does not follow that we  can forego all belief in higher beings. We need faith, not because there are beings  who will punish us or reward us, but because gods are wonderful ways of  describing things that happen to us.

They embody the highest aspects of human  aspiration. Gods on the altars are essential metaphors for the human spiritual  experience.

Faith shouldn’t be shaken because bad things happen to us or because our  loved ones are killed. Good and bad fortune are not in the hands of gods, so it is  useless to blame them. Neither does faith need to be confirmed by some objective  occurrence.

Faith is self-affirming. If we maintain faith, then we have its reward. If  we become better people, then our faith has results.

It is we who create faith, and it  is through our efforts that faith is validated.