In the Mind of a Fish

We read chapter four of the book that we are reading on Thursdays with our friends. I wasn't planning on enjoying any of the book because the author is as dry as an author can be. I may be as dry as he is, but I wouldn't know since I don't read what I write.

Chapter four was the surprise chapter. It pretended to be about the trinity. But, I saw right through it as time went on through the night. This chapter was about faith the war between faith and knowing. Of course, we don't feel like they should be mutually exclusive of each other, but the idea of that was presented and that is what began my interest in the whole thought process.

I believe that the author wrote that, if we need to prove through some test or logic the validity of the thing we have faith in, we are demonstrating that we don't really have faith in it. And he said that, if we actually do validate our faith by these proofs, then our faith has been minimized. I would go so far as to say we don't need our faith any longer in this case because we have empirical, theoretical or logical proofs.

I then realized that this is where I am going and want to go. This is my passion (if we can only have one and it can't be family).

I couldn't sleep that night thinking of all the things that I don't really know anything about and how they are all wondrous, or mysterious, or require me to have faith with regard to them.

The author's point was simply that we use science without understanding it, and we accept the activities in nature without knowing their cause or process, but when it comes to the things of faith, we feel that we have to have a complete understanding of the thing in order for it to be valid.