"Acts of Faith"

A new novel written by Philip Caputo called “Acts of Faith” as reported by Patrick T. Reardon, Tribune staff reporter, describes how unquestioning religious or secular faith can lead to corruption and evil. One excerpt in the book by character Phyllis Rappaport, an abrasive CNN reporter reads as follows: On Faith: “Belief is a virus and once it gets into you, its first order of business is to preserve itself, and the way it preserves itself is to keep you from having any doubts, and the way it keeps you from doubting is to blind you to the way things really are”.

This book is set in Africa and Caputo says he didn’t write the book intending it to be “metaphors for America. If they are human metaphors for anything it is for the West in general. I’ve been to Africa many times, and I have seen lots of efforts began by many nations - grand schemes, wonderful ideas. And they all seem to end up flopping or turning themselves inside out and becoming catastrophes”.

We in the United States are in the middle of many “acts of faith” and while we certainly aren’t Africa, we so seem to be often blinded by the way things really are.

Anyway, Caputo is an interesting author and I plan to read his new book. I’m now in the middle of a hard to put down book entitled “What’s the Matter with Kansas” by author Thomas Franks published in 2004. One of the chapters is titled “Persecuted, Powerless and Blinded” and another is titled “Kansas Bleeds for Your Sins”. This book is more interesting to me because I am a moderate Republican and I have a connection with Kansas having lived in Topeka for two years. My youngest daughter was born a “Jayhawker”.

Much has been written about the ties between blind faith and beliefs and good and evil. The ties between faith and beliefs and good and evil are causing the world to have some of its worst problems since the beginning of history and blind faith causing evil could eventually lead to the demise of humanity.

I close with this thought “Facts are better than dreams of blind faith. It’s far better to infuse the entire process with the brutal facts of reality”.