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JAN 28

Faith, according to our two sources, is unavoidable because it is something we rely upon every single day of our lives. Because we only know with complete certainty the things that we ourselves see with our senses directly, every single other event we “know” is not really known but “believed.” Faith is unavoidable because we need faith in order to live each day and make basic decisions. As Augustine reminds us, we have faith in the word of our mother to believe that our father is truly our father (Wilken, 171).

Faith is beneficial because, as Wilken notes at the end of his piece, “faith enables reason” (184). When we open our minds and hearts to something we do not know with certainty, we are able to gain a deeper understanding of it. With love and with greater understanding of the unknown, we can become more comfortable and less fearful. Thus faith, in my view, dually brings reason and comfort into our lives.

Love being a necessary precursor to faith seems like such a simple concept, but truly thinking about and trying to understand the gravity of it is no simple task. I think this understanding has opened my eyes. With this idea in mind, it becomes more clear why hostile arguments rarely lead to any substantive gain of knowledge. When people enter such a dialogue with negativity and closed-mindeness—with hate—they cannot possibly gain from the other person’s perspective. Entering with love, our eyes are opened to new ideas and our ears are opened to reason. Faith is beneficial because it allows us to grow and become better versions of ourselves. Letting God into our lives is allowing light to illuminate the darkness.