the other 'f' word
I don’t consider myself religious, never have. So to me, faith has always seemed like a four-letter word. I spent most of my life associating the term with a sense of ‘blind faith’, a kind of mindless zealotry. But I’m starting to realize that faith is actually a huge part of my life. In fact, I’d go as far as saying that it’s a huge part of all of our lives.
If that feels icky to you, try replacing the word ‘faith’ with ‘trust’ and maybe your heart rate will come back down a bit. Faith is trust. Religions use this word to capture trust in gods and tenets, but faith can also refer to the profound, everyday trust that pervades our lives. Our society demands an immense amount of faith from all of us.
When we start a car, we need faith that it won’t explode. We need faith that the bus will come on time. We need faith that stores will actually be open when they say they’ll be open. And when we get to that store, we need faith that they’ll give us stuff in exchange for the swipe of a card and a number on a screen. And why do they accept our money? Well, the shopkeeper has faith that they’ll be able to trade it with someone else.
This goes deeper. Every day, we put ourselves in so many vulnerable situations with the hope that people won’t exploit us. We have faith that people won’t attack us or smash their car into us when we’re walking down the street. A moment ago, I had faith that no one in this cafe would steal my laptop when I took a quick bathroom break. With this lens, you realize that even the most cynical and antisocial actually have a lot of faith in other people.
This faith extends to our digital lives as well. Every time you touch a piece of modern technology, you need faith that your data won’t be used to exploit you. Many of us give our personal information freely online, we share intimate moments on social media, and we trust websites with our credit card information. These days, we even trust bank websites to manage our entire life savings and debts.
Our society runs on faith, so it’s no wonder that we get outraged when someone violates it. When someone rips us off or does something rude for no apparent reason, we’re affronted. We also get outraged when our shared public trust is violated. When a corporation is exposed for abusing our personal data, or a politician is accused of unethical behaviour, people protest. Yet still, all the injustices and scandals out there are the vast minority of cases. There are many more examples of people and institutions behaving as expected, reflecting the basic goodness of human beings.
Even though I rarely use this ‘f’ word, I find it pretty liberating. When I remember that our entire society is based on such a high level of faith, I feel a bit more hopeful about our future. Despite all the looming crises and fear-mongering, I still get awestruck at everything we manage to accomplish together. It gives me a sense that anything is possible. Suddenly, it doesn’t seem like the worst idea to have a little faith in other people.
But even if you feel like people are assholes and you don’t want to trust them, you still have a lot of faith. You have faith that your heart will keep beating and your lungs will keep breathing. You have faith that you are who you think you are, that people will hear the things you’re trying to say, and that your actions will have the effect you’re hoping for. Even if you aren’t the most confident person, you actually have a surprising amount of faith in yourself.
At the end of the day, even going to sleep is a profound leap of faith; you can only really close your eyes and drift off if you believe that you’re going to wake up. I throw myself into the unconscious abyss of my dreams every night with reckless abandon. Suddenly the leaps I make in daily life don’t seem like a big deal. Maybe I can get back in shape. Maybe I can run my own business. Maybe I can be a good father. All of a sudden the risks I take seem like drops in the ocean. Faith can be a beautiful thing; I still feel weird saying it out loud, though.
Jay Vidyarthi