Faith comes from latin fides which means reliability, trust between two people. God, or however you define it, doesn't require faith, believers do. This is because there is no truth in this world and if there was it would be rejected. People do not value truthfulness as much as they say they do, because truth is usually ugly and horrifying and people like to live in ignorance. They don't want to know, they sense something off but they just keep distracting themselves. Take a look at how we treat animals in factory farming, or foreign workers, or the animals we experiment on, genetically modified crops and animals, or the humans we've experimented on, the ideas we hold and the wars we rage. Regardless of religion which can be destructive in itself, I feel you have to believe in something, and it has to be good and greater than mankind.
Why do you not take your fellow men for all the money they have? Some do, but why don't you? If there is no ultimate reason what use is there dying with a clear conscience when you and your family can enjoy this one time existence the best way possible? Banks loan money at an extortionate interest, do those people feel remorse while they are cruising the Mediterranean, why we scrimp and scrape and care whether our elderly neighbour has enough heating through the winter? Pay In for that parking fine? We believe in the golden rule then that leaves the sharks at the top of the pool. Why not be a shark and let those others mess around with a false sense of care for those less fortunate, nature says let them die. Survival of the fittest. So why not take care of your own the best way you can because only "your" genes really count, other schmucks can live by "the golden rule." Why not be selfish?
Secondly, why did we become "civilised?" Are we civilised? Thousands of years as hunter gatherers then we decided to start civilisation, why? For me this is what the bible and ancient texts point to, the beginning of civilisation. In Sumerian text Enki or Adapa on behalf of Enki (god of wisdom) brings Me's to Sumer ie "civilisation." In the Bible it is Sin, we wanted to become like God, that is what the snake offered, "you shall become like god knowing good and evil." In becoming like god we cut ourselves off. Dogs and other species live in the now, they live in harmony with their environment, we do not, we seek to dominate it. We live in a different mindset. We do not live in harmony, we are selfsh and manipulative in our dealings. Look at our planet, then look at it before civilisation.
Are we good for our planet? We are so good for our planet we are escaping the concrete prison for virtual reality. Without a faith in something greater than us we will have no respect for anything, and we view everything as less. We want to dominate and control everything, thank goodness we have only conquered 95% of the ocean. Without any power to be holden to, then there are no limits and we shall r@pe this world. We shall bring on our own destruction. This universe will never give up it's secrets, every time science tries to pin it down it changes, why? Because we destroy and consume everything we discover.
