Ode to Belief

These days more so than ever my mind keeps dwelling on how brave people who don’t believe in God, really are. For if I didn’t believe I would find it so hard to find strength.

For me to believe in God and for that belief to be rational to myself I don’t need to back it up with any argument – it simply exists and if I were to try to negate it, it would still be.

When I’m scared, it is comforting to pray and leave it to an entity, which I believe to be much bigger than myself. Believing in God is the ultimate selfish act – it gives me much more than it does to God.

Believing in something is what gives most of us some meaning. There has to be something we believe in whether it is knowledge, truth or beauty or being right.

Everyone does need that belief – for with that system, some principles are born which give form to the life that exists in our head.

For me that belief is my belief in the existence of God, I choose to believe, not because I was taught to, as there are certain rituals of organized religion which I don’t follow at all, but because I just do, I don’t have an option even if I tried not to believe it wouldn’t happen. Only someone who believes can tell you the sweet release of letting go and leaving it to God with the prayer to accept with strength whatever outcome ensues, an outcome over which nobody whether they believe or don’t believe, have any control. You can only control the way you feel and that’s what you pray for.

I don’t care if it is the more unsustainable or complicated hypothesis to choose.

Let me explain…

William of Ockham says that when you are presented with two hypotheses that are otherwise equally well-supported by the available evidence, you should always pick the simpler hypothesis. This principle is known as Ockham’s razor.

For example, these are the two hypotheses

1. There exist aliens amongst us but they can choose to be invisible and immaterial to escape detection by humans

2. There exist no aliens

Both can appear to be correct if we measure their accuracy according to their descriptions. The rational thing, people will point out, is to believe that no aliens exist – it is simpler.

But like I said earlier, faith does not require a good argument to justify its existence. It is unexplainable.

I suppose this battle will wage on for as long as the universe exist with both sides believing in how absolutely false the other is. Arguments will be presented by generations to come, questions such as why God allows there to be suffering and why does cancer exist, why does punishment seem to be so unfair why do cruel people prosper and the good ones have horrible things happen to them will always exist.

But what people don’t realize is that when you believe, you believe unconditionally it is very much like the love a mother feels for her newborn baby who keeps her up all night and demands the world. It is all encompassing and has no argument for its existence, it just is.