Is There Faith Beyond Religious Belief?

The following is a chapter from the book Money, Sex, Power & Faith.

“We have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Indeed only by myth-making, only by becoming ‘sub-creator’ and inventing stories, can Man aspire to the state of perfection that he knew before the Fall. Our myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily towards the true harbor, while materialistic ‘progress’ leads only to a yawning abyss and the Iron Crown of the power of evil.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

Since before we began to measure time or space, we have embraced our compulsion to connect with the Divine, that energy that fuels the Universe and our continued existence therein. As we have taken to filling our time with effecting the space, we have carved our understanding of our Creator and Caretaker through stories, myths, and methodologies. Yet beyond the constructs we have used to develop our religions as extensions of our egos back toward the Source of our being from which they separated us, there is a glimmer of blindness revealing the possibility we could be wrong, and in that glimmer is where our true faith lies.

There is a difference between faith and faith-based. As our culture has developed, we have often confused the two, and we often still do.

When we often use the word “faith,” we use it to describe a brand of religion, a particular incorporation in…