The Gaelic Roundtable for September: Faith

This is my sixth post participating in The Gaelic Roundtable blogging project, and September's topic is Faith. The Roundtable asked:

"What gives you faith? What makes you believe in the Gaelic Deities, and why? How do you respond to those times when your faith is wavering? What do you do when your faith becomes too unstable, or “too hard to handle”? do you think that doubt is healthy when it comes to having faith? Why or why not?"

I think that in some ways faith/belief/trust comes naturally to me, to the point that the motto of one of my ancestral clans is Confido. So perhaps it's even in my DNA. ;)

While this is probably not really an influencing factor, I was brought up with the idea that faith is important. Even as a curious, at times skeptical child I still held on to this notion and that hasn't changed much since becoming an adult.

Don't get me wrong, I have a healthy skeptical streak in me and I almost always question things, but I think that belief in something, anything is important. It doesn't have to be religious or spiritual, it could be political, philosophical, or even just in oneself and those you love. Either way I think that faith is a must if one is going to keep hope.

Faith and hope bring comfort, and I am a huge fan of comfort. 

I believe in the Gods of the Gaels as well as other deities, although I choose to be devoted to the former. I can't say that I know that they exist or who they are exactly, but I have my ideas. I could be wrong, may be right, or perhaps a little bit of both. 

How I see them {as well as all deities and spirits} is not how they would be classically viewed in the Abrahamic sense. I don't believe in an all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful deity. I think that their powers are finite, although they definitely have a lot more than I do. Which I think is kind of the point why us mortals benefit from forming amicable relationships with them.

Obviously I have my own personal reasons for believing in deities and spirits instead of being an atheist or at least an agnostic. That said, I am not going to trot out a laundry list of experiences, but will just say that I am either touched in the head or they exist at least on some level. 

Even though faith for me is important, so is doubt/skepticism. Blindly believing in something with no reasoning or benefit to oneself I think is more bane than blessing. This is especially true when dealing with leadership, risks and such. People who blindly believe are the perfect candidates to be duped or abused. 

Skepticism and questioning things are obviously important to the pursuit of knowledge, and to me knowledge is just as important as faith. 

I think that both faith and knowledge are important facets of our species. Faith and hope bring us comfort in life's hardships and the pursuit of knowledge is what helps our species strive through those hardships.  

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Sláinte!

Laurel