Belief, faith and religion are interconnected but distinctly different. I thought it worth putting my thoughts down because many people, especially atheists, confuse faith and religion, and to some extent belief. They tend to point to the failures of “religion” and “religious people” as proof that God doesn’t exist. That is clearly nonsense and defies all logic..
Belief and Faith
Belief and faith in God are often seen as the same thing. The reason that I have separated them is my own experience. Before I became a Christian and had faith in God, I believed that God actually existed, but that belief did not in any way affect my life. I didn’t feel a need to do anything about that belief. It was only later that the Holy Spirit led me to faith. Then my life, thoughts and emotions were changed. The difference is the feeling of love and trust. These emotions, for me, changed a belief in God’s existence to a faith that he loved me as his creation and that I could commune with him and ask his guidance and try to understand what he would have me do.
Religion
Religion is based on a core faith and belief. It is basically humankind’s way of expressing that faith and putting it into action. Then, over time, religion develops further beliefs and practices around that core faith. Most of these beliefs, or doctrine, arise from study and interpretation of the scriptures, from inspiration from God and some unfortunately, in my perception, arise from worldly consideration. Inevitably there is discussion about these further beliefs and practices and whether they are fully in accord with the faith. And then inevitably there are disagreements and one group splits off, still holding the core faith but wanting to do things a bit differently. That is why we have a number of Christian denominations, all with the same faith in God and Jesus Christ, but wanting to worship differently or having a particular belief on whether something is or is not in accord with the scriptures. This is both a weakness and a strength.
It is certainly a weakness when members of a particular denomination declare that theirs is the one true faith and the others are apostate. That shows a complete misunderstanding of the fact that we are all one in Christ and all have our different parts to play. The New Testament of the Bible has a number of references to “the body of Christ”, of which all the faithful are part, and that we are all different parts of that same body but with our own particular functions.
A strength of different denominations is that the faithful can find a “home” where they are spiritually comfortable. This may be because they are happier worshipping in a particular way, or because their interpretation of the scriptures is particularly in accord with one particular denomination. That is fine as long as we remember that we are all one and all equal.
I attend an Anglican church and am very comfortable there. That doesn’t mean that I accept everything that the Church of England leadership says and does. In fact I think that some of what they say and do is wrong. But most of that doesn’t affect the life and love so evident in our particular church. Unfortunately some political pronouncements on matters where there is no absolute right or wrong, and on which people hold strong and divergent views, can turn people off the Church of England and, by extension, Christianity as a whole. A lot of politics is a matter of choosing the least bad option and there will always be disagreement as to what that is.
Religious Wrongdoing
Another problem with religion is that some of its adherents do things that are egregiously wrong by any standards. Whether the acts are individual or collective, atheists love to trot out examples to “prove” that the religion and therefore the faith are false. Even worse are the individual cases where those in authority have tried to sweep it under the carpet. Unfortunately, any attempt to explain is seen as an excuse.
Christians certainly accept that humankind is imperfect and that we are individually imperfect. Which is one of the reasons that we are so grateful for our faith. The Bible gives us many examples of wrongdoing (sin) and redemption. “Sin” of course is an emotive and pejorative word that is seen as judgmental, but in reality is just a conveniently short word to use for anything that would be displeasing to God. None of us is free from it. As Jesus said when the adulterer was sentenced to death by stoning (John Ch.8), “Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone”. Nobody did because nobody was. Jesus said to the woman “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more”. What wonderful compassion! One of the many reasons why our faith makes us so happy.
But why these terrible acts? Evil spirits? The devil? At one time I would have laughed at the idea that they existed, but now I am inclined to believe they do. If you wanted to destroy the Church, how would you go about it? Making it illegal has only ever driven it underground. Logical argument against it doesn’t work. Scientific argument doesn’t work. The brilliant physicist Stephen Hawking had to rely on a giant non sequitur to “prove” that God doesn’t exist. No, the only way that would succeed, but for God, would be to try to destroy it from inside. To exploit the weakness of its members, to have them speak or act in such a way as to cause revulsion or indifference towards the Church. I really do believe that is what is happening today. On the one hand attacking the Church from within, on the other hand enticing people away with material things so that they have neither the time nor inclination to think about the spiritual.
I really believe that the tide will turn when it becomes more evident to more people that the current way of the world is just not working for them.
Judgmental?
Christians are often accused of being judgmental, which unfortunately some are in spite of the direction “judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matthew Ch.7). But it is more often a case of Christians being judged. Just do an Internet search on what people think of Christians. It is quite eye-opening, fortunately not all negative, though much is. Every one of our misdeeds is used against our faith. I found a really good article about this online (See it HERE). I was actually searching to see if there was anything about what Christians think of non-Christians, but only found what people think Christians think, as well as their thoughts on Christians.
Command and Control?
On top of this, we see the archaic view that religion is about “command and control” – keeping the peasants under the thumb of the elite. Not realising that that is actually one of the evils of the modern secular world and almost completely absent in Christianity.
The world is becoming more and more polarised with power in the hands of the “elites” whether that elitism is through the power of money, government, industry or whatever. More or less the people who turn up to the World Economic Forum in Davos every year. We have even got to the point of thinking of self-serving misanthropists as philanthropists because they tell us that is what they are. If only more people could see that Christianity is about freedom and not command and control! We try to do what is pleasing to God because of our love for Him and His love for us, not because we are commanded to. Yes, we fall short. But we get up and keep on going because we know it is right for us and for the world. I’ve mentioned before The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan because it is such a beautiful allegory of the Christian journey. A tale of learning, of success and failure, of fear and joy, of trials and tribulations, and of following the wrong path and then getting back on track.
Summary
Faith is immutable and comes from God and is true. Religion is humankind’s attempt to define and follow that faith, and as such is subject to human frailty and weakness. The failure of people is not the failure of God and has no bearing on God’s existence.