To Be Human Is To Live By Faith

Yesterday a sister sent me this SMS:

BBC FLASHNEWS: Japan govt confirms radiation leak at Fukushima nuclear plants. Asian countries should take necessary precautions. If rain comes, remain indoor first 24hrs. Close doors & windows. Swab neck skin with betadine where thyroid area is, radiation hits thyroid first. Take extra precautious. Radiation may hit Philippine at startng 4pm today. Pls send to your loved ones.

So, out of sincere concern, I forwarded the SMS to my close ones. Today it seems that many people have been saying that it is a hoax. But how can we be sure that it is a hoax? We can be certain only when we have faith in the experts that the radiation won't travel that far. We can only be sure when we have faith in the ability and integrity of the experts. We can only be sure when we believe that these experts have done proper research, using a correct methodology, and present the result as what they are. (I hope we are not too naïve to believe that scientists and researchers are the most honest people on earth!) So, we need quite a big faith to conclude that the SMS is a hoax. We also need the same amount of faith (if faith can ever be measured, perhaps by what Gregory Boyd calls faith-o-meter) to conclude that it is not a hoax. In either case, faith is needed.

This illustrates how everyone - consiously or unconciously, admittedly or not - actually lives by faith. No one can live without faith. No one naturally does a DNA test to prove that his parents are really his true parents. Everyone naturally believes that her parents are truly her real parents. After all, having faith is not difficult at all, is it? To be human is to live by faith. The question is: Faith in whom? Faith in what?