Knowledge and spirituality. I have been thinking a lot about this as a couple weeks ago I was in a discussion with someone about it. Though I kept repeatedly saying that both are equally important, she kept saying that all she needed was her faith. While that is her choice and I honor that, without knowledge she becomes biased to her own beliefs.

What do we gain from faith? Security. Feeling that there is something greater than us, something that guides us, so to speak, is inherent to the human race. Not all believe in a “higher power”, but at least 3/4 of the world does have some kind of faith in a higher being.

What do we gain from knowledge? Tolerance. Understanding of our roots. Those who study not only their own faith, but other faiths as well have a greater understanding of how the human mind works. We have an understanding of the roots of faith. In having such an understanding, tolerance generally follows. When we can understand why we have the beliefs we do and where they come from, we become more accepting of all types of faiths.

Knowledge doesn’t have to compete against spirituality. One does not trump the other. Only in our minds, in our fear of the unknown, does knowledge scare us. The fear behind learning tends to be that we’ll learn our beliefs are a fraud. But how can that be? How can true belief (not fact, mind you, but belief) be wrong? How can it be fraudulent when spirituality hinges on personal experience? Knowledge tells us what happened in history. No amount of balking or turning a deaf ear is going to change how religion started. It will, however, open up our eyes to what people of the past believed in relation to what we believe today. We would learn, for example, that all faiths have very similar beliefs. The deities in those faiths may differ, but the core values remain the same. That tells us a lot about the human race. No matter what gods we call on, we all want respect.

Knowledge and spirituality can co-exist. We can have one without the other, but then we become unbalanced. Knowledge without faith can leave us feeling empty. Faith without knowledge can lead to intolerance and hatred, which in turn leads to death and destruction. Either we take on faith that there are other beliefs that are just as valid as our own, or we do the research on the history behind those beliefs, as well as our own. Condeming others because we are scared of what we would find about our own faith (how it started, what early people believed) is cowardice at best.

We all have a choice. What we choose to believe is solely up to us, regardless of what other people think. Whether we choose to study (both our own faith and outside of it) is also up to us. Bringing an end to hatred of different faiths should be on everyone’s to-do list.