Africa?
It’s amazing, the amount of trust, the amount of faith, that we need to have in our day-to-day living.
How do you know that Africa exists? How do I know? I’ve never been there. Now, I’ve known people who’ve said they’ve been there. But even there, by necessity I’m presented with needing to decide for myself whether or not a.) I believe that what they are saying is what they believe, and b.) even if it is, that I believe their information to be correct and factual.
“But there’s so much information supporting the existence of Africa! Everybody believes it.” By and large, we as a society believe that people during the time of Columbus believed the world to be flat, when in reality this theory was not taken seriously at this time (See Wikipedia’s “Flat Earth” page). But do you believe the explanation that is contained on this entry?
Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see. There’s nothing mystical about that. The necessity of faith does not require the allowance for the existence of the supernatural.
I’m sure that I hope the red light at the intersection that I stop at will turn green in the imminent future. I’m certain of it doing so, even though I don’t see what is going on inside, mechanically or electronically. I’ve developed this faith because I’ve experienced traffic signals that have functioned similarly, where they are red and then they turn green.
Faith does not happen in a vacuum. It is logical conclusion based off of observation.