“I’m not afraid. I have faith!” That’s something people say today. I don’t think faith has anything to do with fear. Fear is an emotion meant to protect us by alerting us to possible danger. Faith is a conviction.
The following is a text version of this blog.
There’s a catchphrase I hear a great deal today. It’s said in different ways, but the phrase conveys that living based on faith is the opposite of living in fear. As best as I can tell, the phrase grew out of some people’s resistance to wearing masks because of COVID-19. In response, some people said, “I live by faith not by fear!” implying that a simple public health measure was a sign of fear. Are faith and fear somehow related? Are they the opposite of each other?
Fear is one of our deepest human emotions. It’s part of what’s commonly called the fight or flight response. Fear alerts of danger. Fear is an emotion that’s rooted in part of the brain called the amygdala. While the signals for fear are released in the amygdala, fear is processed in the prefrontal cortex. What that means is that we have a root experience of fear, but then make decisions about it. The prefrontal cortex is where we make decisions.
Fear is triggered when we perceive danger. Fear is an important response meant for our survival. It tells us to be alert, to watch out, and to be prepared to act. We then decide what to do.
When don’t we experience fear? When we feel safe, when there is no danger, when we perceive that all is right with the world. It’s interesting to note that the writer of the first letter attributed to John in the Bible talks about fear. He said that love drives away fear. (1 John 4:18) That’s because when you experience love, you feel safe and secure.
Faith? We often have the mistaken idea that faith is about certainty, about knowing something to be true. But that’s not how faith works. We know that the sun rises in the East. That’s not a statement of faith; that’s a fact. Things that are real, observable, and can be verified are facts. Faith has nothing to do with facts.
Faith has to do with life’s ambiguity. We like to think that everything in life is clear cut, black or white, right or wrong, good or bad. If we’re honest, most things in life don’t fit into those categories. Instead, much of life, our experiences, and life’s events are ambiguous. There are aspects of most things in life that are good and bad, right and wrong. For example, in a recent storm, maybe you weren’t affected. That’s good. But someone else’s home was flooded. That’s bad. You got a new job. But someone else didn’t. Life is a mix of sunshine and cloudy days. There’s lots of ambiguity.
Faith is a perspective we take about life. In my case, I’ve experienced several difficult things in life. I’ve also witnessed tragedy in other people’s lives. I recognize that some people live with very difficult circumstances. For me, faith is my belief that no matter what events happen, whether they are good or bad or filled with ambiguity, there is something essentially good about life. My faith leads me to look for the good, to find the possibility of goodness, despite the apparent evil. That’s faith.
Theologian and philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, explained that with faith, there is a leap into the unknown. Some people call it “a leap of faith.” That’s because faith isn’t based on evidence or knowing something to be true. Instead, faith is a risk, a leap into the unknown, but trusting that your beliefs are true.
In the end, faith and fear have little to do with each other. Fear is a built-in response to danger that could be very real. It tells us to watch out! Faith, well, faith is our choice to leap into the unknown and perhaps the unknowable, even when there’s evidence to the contrary.
For myself, I pay attention when I experience fear. I consider what’s going on around me that’s caused the fear alert. I wouldn’t want to be without it. As for faith, despite all the evidence of suffering, cruelty, and greed in the world and in human history, I choose to believe that life is worth living. At root, I believe that life is a gift worth living. (Because I believe that life is a gift that’s worth living, I want to safeguard my life and the lives of others by wearing a mask in public. For me, it’s a matter of faith.)