Katelynn Burns

Social Ethics

Final Paper

April 24, 2012

Why Have Faith?

I was supposed to write an essay on something. I don’t remember what. I only think it is

due tomorrow. All I know is my world just got turned around and all I can do is write, just

something, just whatever happens to come out. My seven year old cousin just died suddenly. I

have no idea how. I have no idea why. All I know is a whole eight people make up my family,

and one of them is now gone. My world just stopped.

How can this happen?

People spend their lives trying to do good things, trying to make others happy, and trying

to please a higher power, yet it seems we get royally fucked over in so many ways. We get the

living shit bombed out of us killing thousands of people, we die in some of the most sadistic

ways, we have these feelings that overwhelm us, we live in a world where there is more bad than

true good, and children die for no good reason. I mean perfectly innocent and just beautiful

children. What the hell? What kind of just fucked up asshole created this place? What kind of

bastard sits in his almighty realm, laughing at the pain we endure? Why do we continue to

worship such an unjust being? What is wrong with him? What is wrong with us?

We have faith.

It sucks more than anything to try to make God happy, only to be crapped on time and

time again. It is so hard sitting here watching my life crumble after all I try to do is please. How

can anything be so hateful that He just enjoys watching me cry? How can He exist?

Because I have faith.

Sometimes it is easy to hate God. Sometimes it is easy not to believe. In the end though,

it is much easier to exist with that sense of faith. It is easier for anyone to walk around knowing

they have a greater purpose, versus just walking towards your death. The beauty in life is that it

is only beginning. We have so much more awaiting us later on, and isn’t that nice to know?

People still believe in a God because it is so much easier knowing that it is because he loves us

that he brings us home to his kingdom. Faith gives us security. It is a beautiful thing that we have

the ability to possess such a powerful feeling. It allows us to find some sanctuary in the bad and

sanity in loss. This has everything to do with society because without faith, who are we? What

will we believe? There is little hope for people who have no hope themselves.

I refuse to believe that anyone cannot believe in something. Even those who follow no

religion must believe that there is something else out there for them, something bigger for them

to be involved in. Everyone must have faith in something; because there is just no possible way

one can truly live without knowing there is something better and something more out there for

them. Everyone needs some faith in their life or what is the point in living?

We all need faith in our lives.

Faith brings us together; with God, each other, even with ourselves. Faith allows us to

reach inside and find an inner strength when we feel all is lost. It allows us to know, in the end, it

will all be okay. Even with the loss of innocent blood, we can hold onto the fact that they are

going to somewhere incredible, and will be forever in our lives, just in a more spiritual way.

Faith lets us see the light in a field of darkness, and sometimes, that can save our souls more than

anything else. The beauty of faith is we can always have blind certainty. Every time we say “it

will be okay” we are sharing our blind faith and just believing that it will be better later on.

Whether or not it will be doesn’t matter, because there is still that hope that it will be okay, and

when we lose that hope, we lose ourselves. We can often times lose ourselves mentally before

we lose ourselves physically.

When everything seems just God-awful in your life, there are always two options. One

can either hold on or move on. These two options validate that every single being has faith.

When we choose to hold on, we choose to continue pursuing our physical life. We choose to

believe that it must get better. That action means we have faith in something more for ourselves

in this realm. By continuing with our lives, we know that there has to be something left to live

for, and something left to cling to. That faith is what we cling to. Yet, sometimes we begin to see

that there is nothing left for us here, and we move on. We end up taking actions to end this life,

in order to find something more satisfying. We have hope that something is more satisfying.

Suicide isn’t a weak act. Suicide is an effect of losing faith, having no hope, and

believing that it cannot get better. Yet, maybe, just maybe, suicide is an action to find something

better. At any time when I have felt little hope in this life, where I have felt that there is no

reason that my life will get any better, I’ve looked at suicide as a way out, an opportunity to take

action and find something better myself. The most interesting thing about this action to me is that

the more I begin to write about it, the more I start to think that maybe it isn’t so much about

losing faith, but about having so much faith in the idea that whatever lies next has to be better

than what lies in this life. The heartbreaking thing is that for some, even just the death of the

mind with the body can give someone enough incentive to pull that trigger, because of the hope

of finally getting out of the current situation.

What makes faith so necessary?

Faith is about believing without evidence. Faith is about finding something to validate

having a future. Faith is about recognizing that there is more out there than what we are facing

now. We need faith because it makes us want to make choices. By believing in something

blindly, we are igniting a thought process that isn’t fueled by reason, but rather by desire, a

desire for us to continue reaching for what is left to come. No matter what conclusion we are

seeking in our lives, there is always the hope that we will reach it. This hope allows us to

continue pushing, through the good and the bad, we all hold onto the fact that one day we will

find a sanctuary of peace.

We all need faith.