Faith should not be a static thing in today’s world, especially since there are so many who are using their version of God to try to shut off your mind to other possibilities.
Many very intelligent people have come to view faith as something they don’t want to have any part of because so often it becomes an excuse for lack of thinking or it is a refuge for manipulators who want to take something from you.
Faith must be earned, it should not be flippantly given. My faith in God is still a strong part of who I am, but my faith in church has been constantly eroding, especially for the last handful of years. Bluntly speaking, faith has become a strangling point for most religions. Before we can join a church, we must swear allegiance to the beliefs of that organization. Most proudly state that this must be blind faith, or faith of a “child”. Don’t question it! If you do, you might just be shown the door. The trouble with that is that this blind faith does not allow for any form of descent.
As evidenced by their political affiliations, most Evangelical churches today are vastly different than they were even a decade ago. Their total acquiescence to a very defective narcissist is beyond belief to me. They have lost any semblance of respect from me, and I expect many others.
Yes, there are words in the Christian Bible about having the faith of a child, but there are also words about slaves and their masters, and women unequivocally submitting to their husbands in everything.
- The God I believe in is up to any questions I might have. She doesn’t need to demand my blind faith to keep me out of hell and eternal agony.
- The God I believe in is wise beyond any human comprehension. Too many churches today have fashioned their god to meet their expectations, not the other way around.
- The God I believe in sent us Jesus to teach us how we should live in the world. Many of the lessons he tried to teach us are, for the most part, ignored by too many churches today.
- The God I believe in loves us all, but has left it up to us how to live our lives. He doesn’t kill innocent children by starvation or tragic accident. That is always our fault in one degree or another.
RJ's Corner 
There is a huge, and ever-widening gap, between true faith and religion. To believe in a higher power and act accordingly is an individual decision.
Human organizations are built around the premise of a set of agreed upon beliefs and an organizational structure. Religions suffers greatly when forced into a human-defined box that attempts to regulate God.
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It just seems to me that every Christian church, and there are about 40,000 now, insists on making inventing a god in their own image.
When I look at all the orgs around now, about the only one I am very attuned to are the Quakers. They don’t believe or even allow creeds as they know any creed man can invent falls totally short of any idea of God.
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