People often tell me they are losing their faith in humanity. My response is always the same: I ask them why they had faith in humanity in the first place. If one is a person of faith, then one is met with the inescapable conclusion that humanity had a very shaky start in the Garden of Eden, and that it was mostly downhill from there, with brothers betraying brothers, disciples betraying their teachers, and nations betraying the prophets that were sent to them. And even if one is more scientific than religious, then the conclusion is still the same: that humanity started out as club-wielding apes, and hasn't progressed too far from that point. Either way, why have faith in such a flawed being as Man?
Faith in humanity goes by a much more controversial name: Humanism. It is the belief that humankind can succeed without any supernatural or otherworldly help. In other words, it is a repudiation of the Divine. Many "utopian" science fiction novels push Humanistic principles, and allege that our kind will eventually reach the stars and beyond, all on its own.
But when you place your faith in something that is doomed to fail, and quite spectacularly so, then you are really only setting yourself up for profound, soul-shattering disappointment. The sad truth of the matter is that humanity in its current form is largely destined for collapse. Any expert will tell you that our civilization is not sustainable, and that we are sucking more from this poor Earth than it can give. We are also constantly threatening one other with weapons of war whose destructiveness has eclipsed our own ability to even comprehend, leading us ever closer to a dangerous precipice from which there is no return.
So forget the craziness of believing in the powers of heaven. The real lunatics are those who believe our species can survive WITHOUT divine intervention. Because there is every indication that humanity's survival will be at the sole discretion of such powers. And a very large number of us will be deemed unworthy of such a blessing.
Personally, I have faith in the Divine, and nothing else. I have learned the hard way of the seeds of treachery which lie buried within every human heart, including my own. And in an age of madness, of war and famine and strife, I have found no other mortal in this world who I would entrust my well being to. As written in the words of the ancients: "None are righteous, all are forsaken, and all have fallen short of the true Glory of heaven". So the Divine is all that is left for me. It is the only thing which has not rotted away with time.
So if you are a Humanist who has faith in this wayward, backwards people known as humankind, who abuse and mistreat one another by the hour, then while it's certainly better than nothing, I would also urge you to remember that there are other, much more dependable things out there to believe in, which will never let you down.
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