Personal Faith

In today's modern world of science and technology there has come to be a serious rift between the world's traditional religions and the body of knowledge that has come about through structured observation and the scientific method. Examples abound, including the current debate about creationism vs. evolution, stem cell research, abortion, gay marriage, and many others. The stem cell controversy is especially interesting because the established religions are often against this research. Stem cells are considered the realm of God. At the same time, the people who are afflicted with serious disabilities, such as paraplegics and Type 1 diabetics, see this research as the hope of leading normal lives. The purpose of this writing is to seek common ground between science and religion and between the various religions of the world with the fundamental idea that all religions are basically right. It is the influence of human beings on this foundational message of faith that tends to corrupt that message and put people at odds with one another, rather than joining them together in a civilized society. The result of this line of thinking is that each individual in the world has a responsibility to develop a personal faith that is more than just blindly following religious leaders, but which embraces the basic values of civilized behavior that have made our modern society possible. The body of the book examines the impact of this common ground between science and religion on each of the basic questions of faith that most of us have, sooner or later, such as how to tell right from wrong, does God exist, is warfare inevitable, what happens when we die, and so on. Along the way the important elements of complexity, tolerance, and truth of logic are brought to bear on these same questions of faith. This work was written primarily for my children, to give them a starting place in their own journeys of faith and to make them aware of the thoughts of previous generations as they struggled with the basic questions. The hope is that the approach to life discussed in this essay will be an inspiration to them to have a measure of respect for all people, ways of life, and philosophies, to be able to discern good from evil, and learn how to live a meaningful life. This book is organized into three major sections and each section has a number of chapters presenting the basic ideas. The chapters are written with a short opening paragraph containing the essence of that chapter and a closing summary at the end, so that it is not necessary to read every last word to get the basic ideas. Additional information on each chapter is given in a series of appendices at the end of the book.