The evolution of faith

EVOLUTION OF FAITH

An unknown and possibly irrational belief in something or someone is faith. We may have faith in God, in ourselves, in someone we love and so on. It could be said that faith is the greatest strength of us humans. On the contrary, it could also be said that faith is essentially a defence mechanism we humans evolved to 'cling on to a blade of grass' so that we sail through a challenge.
Presently, faith is almost as crippling as it is reassuring since people now depend on their faith for every thing big or small, right or wrong. Over the years faith has evolved from an unseen and unsung Samaritan to a poor scape goat as people dump any mishap, any blame on their faiths or the manifestations of those faiths.

If we look back over the ages we would realise that originally there was fear. It was fear of the unknown and the inexplicable that tormented the ancient humans. In their "ignorance" the ancient humans saw the divine in the possibly destructive and thus they eventually started resting their faiths into them. Thus, the scorching sun, the mighty winds, the deep waters and other elements of our nature became the first to be coronated 'God'. Wild fires were the wrath of unhappy 'Gods' while the life affirming rains and the bounties of harvest were the gifts.

When faith was independent of religion, world knew more peace.

There was no religion save the one that celebrated life. All positive and life affirming forces were 'Gods' and all destructive forces were either 'wrath of God' or 'anti God'.
The strongest was the mightiest and was worshipped. Of all elements, naturally the sun obtained a supreme position.

But winters alone pave way for spring and soon the destructive forces were seen as a part of the story of life of the planet as a whole.
In Hinduism, for instance, these supreme forces were divided into a creative force of Brahma, a preserver Vishnu and a destroyer Mahesh .
Subsequently the wise men developed metaphorical stories around the God and lessons of life became mythology. Artists recorded these as paintings and sculptures and thus the human created the face of the divine.
The practises although remained based on the same principle: worship life (and thus nature )
From nature worship evolved faiths such as Hinduism and Paganism.
Subsequently the humans realised that they themselves are also a part of this immense nature and that in certain simple humanly deeds manifest the greatest divine. Some would call such enlightened humans 'avatars' of God. Some call them 'messiah' or 'guru' but the essence was simple: to acknowledge the manifestation of the intangible divine in mortal humans.
However, faith which was incepted as a mighty force to surrender to, submit to and to live united in peace , slowly evolved into the greatest cradle of wars and crimes as it became the identity of clans and pride of people.

It is saddening that something so beautiful has been so marred by us. Today, people know how to spend hefty amounts of money for their faiths but few know that in the ways in which they claim to follow their faiths they are actually shattering the very foundation of their own faith.
While a faith does unite its followers by becoming their identity,  it also tends to unintentionally divide people on the basis of differences in their faiths. While each and every form of each and every faith that exists today talks about essentially the same issue: universal peace and harmony, it is sad that in apparently "following" their faiths people tend to harbour ill will and hatred towards others.
So faith- a seed of hope, happiness and tolerance has over time grown into an arrogant tree that does not submit to the mighty winds but instead stand tall- ready to be uprooted than to peacefully surrender.

-Kriti Gangwar