Ok, so what's the difference between faith and trust? (It's kind hard to type properly after a few drinks...) I think trust is built on past actions to a degree - i.e. I believe that you won't screw me over because you haven't in the past, and because I'll allow the jury to be out on that one after one instance if you have other things to refute your testimony. However, I think faith is built on the idea that regardless of fact/fiction/proof/disproof, you have to simply believe in a thing, and therefore it will happen/be true (i.e. churches say that if you have faith in God he'll heal you, but if you don't have faith, you're a disbeliever and damned to hell).
So as a (somewhat) rational person, what do you do? You look at the world and see that women over XX years old don't seem to find soul mates. Based on that, trust would say that you probably won't either, but you should live your life as if that's true (you won't find anyone) and you should make yourself as happy as you can given that fact. However, faith says that just because you haven't seen it so far, and probably won't, doesn't mean it won't happen, and the fact that you would even doubt the faith means that that won't come true for you (i.e. Prince Charming and happily ever after). It's a stupid quandary - do I believe in fairy tales (i.e Charlotte in SATC), or do I move on and live the life I'm given on my terms and to my way of thinking (i.e. Samantha on SATC)? Obviously I don't have the answer. I kinda think - fuck it - if my life isn't what I want it, then I work around my deficiencies and work with what I have and make my life the best it can be. Then again, if I'm a faithful person, I wait around forever for something that may or may not really be meant to be for me (as you never get to know for sure what the universe has in store for you).
I really hate these 2AM existential dilemmas...
Posted by cshell at November 23, 2003 02:15 AM