untested by faith?

Well of all things in the morning I got going, through my feeds, on the topic of faith and religion. It is always a contentious topic where some things that work for one need not work for the other. The contention starts when one starts imposing the will or the rather should I say belief of one on another. I have remained fairly neutral on this, especially in open forums. Religion to me is a private choice. It must not be imposed not argued. I take no sides. I try and remain core to my beliefs. At the simplest if I attempt to code it, it might read thus - Try and not hurt, try and help. I have made some noises to the effect in my earlier blogs as well.
Being a parent puts even more stress on one’s belief. What I do is what Jispa will learn to follow. The second last thing I want to teach her is a reliance on a religion. The last thing I want to teach her is absence of faith. How do I reconcile the two within her, within us? The answer is not so straight forward. It is difficult on yourself to codify your beliefs in a manner that your six year old can understand them. I would like her to have a right to question belief. To choose what she thinks is right from her perspective. Above all, I want her to choose something, not because her parents have chosen, but she herself has found something that rings some bell inside of her. The belief must be strong enough to help her when she needs it and flexible enough to accommodate the many inconsistencies that she will encounter as she grows up. It must be able to expand and to allow for opposites to remain reconciled. It must never draw her into an argument but allow to accept others for they are and for what they stand for.
I don’t know how we are doing it. It does help that we have Jispa. She seems to be accepting abstractions and apparent vagueness pretty well. I love it when I say “I don’t know, no one knows and what you think works for you is what works for you”. She thinks a bit. She is quiet, absorbing not refuting. Then the penny drops after due consideration, not blind obeisance. That’s my girl. My mom tells me that I am teaching her to argue. Well I probably am. Anyone read this book – The Argumentative Indian. I am teaching plurality of right.
While jumping tabs I came across two awesome videos that capture similar messages quite well.

This one captures the my belief in scientific thought



This one captures the my belief in religious thought



Do note I am not an atheist. I have faith in faith. It’s only more internal. Thanks Jasmine. You might not know but our faith has evolved thanks to you and me together. I owe a lot of this to you.
Once I had shown my kundli (horoscope) to someone while we were in college. The astrologer predicted that I would not have a love marriage. I was a bit downcast. Jasmine asked me “do you really believe in this?” I said “no, not really”. With her characteristic matter of fact tone she replied “then why do you go to them?” I never did afterwards. I never did.