Here is an inevitable question that man has been asking itself for a while, do we need faith? I personally believe we do, but we should at the very least evaluate it to see.
Reasons to keep the faith: Faith based texts provide moral teachings that have helped guide man thought-out the years of man existence. It has taught us relationships and courtship rituals with respect to monogamous relationships. We have gained laws such as our prohibitions against killing, steeling and adultery. Basic laws and discipline have been handed to us through faith.
In addition to laws and morality, faith has provided us with life examples on people to model our every day lives on. Jesus, Moses, and King Solomon have given us people to inspire and also to learn from as we see mistakes they made in life which continue to occur throughout mans history. Faith also gives us strength and a belief that what we do in life means something. That, the things we accomplish have some sort of impact to affect mankind and affect us in the afterlife. All in all, faith is a motivation, a teacher and a guide for mankind.
Non-belief: Non-belief can still read these texts and garner life lessons. A person without faith can read any religious text and get the same messages that a faith based person would. However, their is a weakness to the non-believers that the faithful do not have, reinforcement for each generation. Faith has reinforcement mechanisms built in to keep people from doing wrong things. But non-believers don't have the reinforcement mechanisms like a concept of being judged by God, or that personal actions have more consequences than just breaking the law. As such, with each passing generation of non-believers, the moral codes of society degrade to be governed by the continuously fluctuating societal norms. Since these norms fluctuate, their is no steady guide to society. I am not saying that a system could take faiths place in creating a foundation for society, but that one has yet to exist that would supplant faith.
Conclusion: Faith is a bedrock that continues to reinforce beliefs and morality in society. Non-belief has a weakness it has yet to overcome. I am not saying this as a person of faith as I am Catholic. Also, I am not saying it out of prejudice as some of my very good friends are non-believers. What I am saying is that the non-believers have no reinforcement mechanism to support society's moral condition and maintain it. They need something more than just an excuse that man creates laws and thus those moral conditions based on laws will remain in effect. I know all to well as a political science major that such write offs of things will not be fine because laws will not be enough as man with their own morality make those laws. Non-believers morality is based on societal codes which fluctuate and thus have no foundation which can lead to change from year to year. Therefore, laws and the moral reasoning behind them will fluctuate as well causing chaos. Once broken, a society without its foundation crumbles. So overall, faith is still a requirement to maintain a society from its inevitable collapse.
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