Faith, Belief and Ideology

    It's been a while now since I have launched forth into the sea of ideas, but it has occurred to me that their is a lot of confusion regarding what we do and what we think we believe about a whole range of things.  We call belief "faith," for example, and then turn around and act in faith about something that originates from our ideology and has nothing whatever to do with what we really believe.

   The politician, for example, who encourages voters to support programs that help the "poor" by giving them "free" money, food, cell phones, etc. fully understands that he is taking money from people who have legitimately earned it and is offering it to others who have not earned it.  Yet when one examines his personal finances, one finds that he has financial counselors who manage his money so that he has very little or no debt and minimize his tax liability. His money is carefully invested in the very companies he asks voters to hate.  He has created and "ideology" which he does not believe and presents it to people as something they should have faith in, at least to the extent that they would vote for him on election day.

   Focus now on the individual who is presented with this scheme.  His belief system comes largely from the synthetic environment created for him by "news" media, Facebook, the internet, movies, peer ideas, public school indoctrination.  In short, he has spent very little time honing his own personal analytical skills so that he can parse the ideas presented to him.  He has received little or no training in his home or in public school that would give him any way to challenge the validity of any ideas at all, let alone ideas that are presented to him in a way that seems to pander to his immediate needs.

   If faith can be defined as a motivation for action, it then takes on significance for the individual because it permits him to act in certain way without the tension of questioning the wisdom of his actions.  Belief, on the other hand, is  based upon a whole collection of impressions, most of which may not be scrutinized at all.  Man-made global warming, for example, is taught openly in our public schools as a fact to first grade children.  The idea is not challenged in the classroom and the student "believes" it even though the whole scheme arose out of an ideology perpetrated by the teacher to achieve future political goals.  The same is true about ideas relating to capitalism, religion. wealth, work skills, reading, math proficiency, freedom, rights, etc.  

   Without the ability to challenge and test these ideas, the individual is at the mercy of those who would manipulate him for the advancement of their own ideological goals.  

   Look around, seekers.  Have your own kids been taught to parse the ideas presented to them and question the wisdom of placing faith in whatever comes down the road?