Spirituality Without Faith

I think we've all heard someone say, at some point or other, that their faith helped them through a difficult time, or to make sense of the terrible things that happen in the world. And I think we also have heard people say in response, "I wish I could be like you, but I just can't accept something simply on faith". This is a problem for many of us. We all face the great mysteries of existence, from existing itself to the inevitability of death, but not all of us are capable of deriving guidance and succor from religion because our minds, insistent upon reasonable explanation, rule out the choice.

So what happens to us, the ones incapable of faith? Are we doomed to accept the other alternative, that once you die you go in the ground, that there's nothing more to our lives than meaninglessness, that anyone who believes in higher powers is a fool? Of the faithless I have met, there does seem to be a ubiquity of smugness at the religious "nuts" who can't accept that there's nothing there.

It seems to me that that answer to things doesn't involve any more thought than "simply accepting things on faith." To say it is irrational to believe that beliefs based on faith are irrational because of lack of evidence is true. But to believe that there must be nothing to believe in is just as irrational. The fact is, we don't have all the answers. However, there are some areas of the discussion that have been neglected.

I have tried to address these ideas in my book, "You Are God." I take a logical approach to explain phenomena in life that we all experience on a regular basis, and tie those ideas together to bring into focus a spirituality that does not require faith. It is a vision in which every person's consciousness is the same consciousness, only apparently separate, and that consciousness is what makes existence itself possible. And since there is only one consciousness, and you are conscious, that consciousness must, necessarily, be YOURS. And existence, therefore, must be your creation.

If you haven't had a chance to read it, please take the time. It's not a quick and easy read, but the time invested will transform your idea of the world and your place in it.

Jim