Faith

Gardens of the Borromeo Palace, Isola Bella Island, Italy

As oxymoronic as it may sound, I am an agnostic with faith. Yes, I do have faith, but not in God. In humanistic values.

I prefer the most generic definition of the word “Faith,” as found in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English language: a belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence. However, the most common definition of the word is spoken with a capital F to emphasize the divine character of its object: The theological virtue defined as secure belief in God and a trusting acceptance of God’s will, or its corollary: The body of dogma of a religion. 

I cringe when I detect the capital letter F being implied by either a reverent tone of voice, a mystical facial expression, or the dogmatic words that follow, all pointing to the existence of a set of rules, edicts, rituals, and definitions, engineered to control people’s beliefs and behaviors, while depriving them of the right to question or disagree with those rules and rituals. 

As a secular humanist, I strongly object to the assumption that faith must be connected with the belief in a god. I was born and raised Catholic, and both my sister and I went to a private Catholic school for our primary and secondary education. My mother was a devout Catholic, but my father was not, only rarely going to church with my mother to indulge her more than by conviction. I followed on that path until my mid-30’s, when I realized that “I had lost my Faith,” as it was, and still is called.

That’s when I chose the right to challenge all those rituals, precepts, concepts and rules -- found in all organized religions --, that I had come to consider as irrational, illogical, unacceptable or nonsensical, rejecting most of them.

Although he was seriously lacking in interpersonal and communicating skills, my agnostic father’s philosophy of life proved to me that one does not need a belief in or the fear of a god to be a good and worthy human being. My sister and I absorbed by osmosis his humanistic values: integrity, honesty, loyalty, generosity, kindness, sincerity, compassion, keeping promises, perseverance, and respect for self, others and the truth. A man of few words, he could convey disappointment, disapproval or shock by just his body language or facial expression. Lying, cheating, stealing, meanness, greed, cruelty, deceit and prejudice were met with the most eloquent disapproval, tantamount to outright condemnation. This behavior spoke volumes and was more effective than all the speeches and sermons in the world.

So, yes, I do have faith, but not in God – whoever she is.