Exploring Faith

Allen Watts, which I think is the best summation of the difference between belief and faith, he wrote in The Wisdom of Insecurity , “whether one believes in God or believes in atheism, we must here make a clear distinction between belief and faith because in general practice belief has come to mean a state of mind, which is almost the opposite of f... See more

But it affects my own feelings about the universe, because I think it’s demonstrative of the possibility that you can be completely committed to a rational, if you like, material explanation of existence, of why — how we got here, without being committed to a reductive account of our own experience. You can believe that there’s a completely rationa... See more

in that quest for certainty in that desire to sort of do the right thing or get to the end or, be good, we want some sort of exterior authority, some system of belief to confirm for us that we're following all the steps and checking everything off the to-do list. And that's a fallacy, certainly.

I think curiosity is our friend that teaches us how to become ourselves.

But I think in our time, those of us who grow up in doubt, who accept scientific skepticism as a foundational part of our worldview, also are drawn again and again to kinds of faith, to spiritual practice.

that's why I think of myself as a person of faith and why my mantra is, I don't know. Because to presume to know, to presume that I can order the universe or understand all of the powers at play, or that I understand or know or can predict with absolute accuracy, everything that's going to happen or that we live in some sort of mechanic, materialis... See more

I have this odd sense that what was outside has become very inside. And that whatever I mean by “God” is, as my Muslim friends say, as close to me as the heartbeat in my neck.

The more mystical and precious, in a way, that we make creativity and spirituality both, the more people get left out of it.