Dictionary.com defines blind faith to be a "belief without true understanding, perception, or discrimination." [1]
Does blind faith exist today in Christianity, in Islam and in other religions based on the definition above? In this entry, (without proof) the answer is yes. Do all religions require blind faith to thrive? No. One that does not is arguably Catholicism and one that does is arguably radical Islam.
Many who kill in the name of radical Islam find the need to shout out "Allahu Akbar," which means "'God is greater'" [2] even though the phrase "is commonly used by Muslims as a peaceful reminder of their commitment to their religion." [3] "Allahu Akbar" is also said "in unison to show approval to a speaker, in the same way that Christians use 'amen'" [4] but "many Islamist extremists have co-opted 'Allahu Akbar' as a war cry[, and t]here are reports of many jiahdis uttering the phrase before killing." [5]
This blogger believes that Islam is not a religion of violence anymore than any other religion, including Catholicism, going back to the days of the Crusades. [6] He also believes that it takes blind faith in a religion (or in a government) to commit atrocities, and that ignorance and plebeianness are not prerequisites for blind faith since there are plenty of well-educated and well-off people who kill, or who think that Bergolio is a true representative of Christ.
Why do people have blind faith? There could be a variety of reasons and this blogger can imagine only a few of them. On the radical Islamic side, the saddest of them are boys from a very young age are being "indoctrinated with religious [more accurately, jihadist] concepts." [7] Another is perhaps the sense of isolation felt especially by "home grown terrorists" brought upon by cultural differences and ethnic appearances intensified by the dispensability of "real" human contacts in the age of social media, video games and other online interactions. Still another is perhaps a general dissatisfaction with a materialistic and hedonistic world that is exacerbated by the world leaders who are drunk with power, but who are also insecure and fearful and who need to prove to themselves and to others their prowess and dominance so much so that they will do whatever it takes to shore up their egos, including the direct and indirect invasion of another (weak and defenseless) sovereign without provocation and without regard for future consequences, including the endgendering of hatred of those directly and indirectly affected. Therefore, feeling caught in a system oblivious of their needs, it is possible that these "home grown terrorists" could think, albeit erroneously, that they could find more meaning in their lives when they embrace blindly the "religion" of radical Islam.
Seldom, if ever, do the majority of people think of the "home grown terrorists" who never felt truly welcomed or accepted by their adopted society in which they live, or the brainwashed young boys who eventually grow up to be jihadists, who had never been given a chance to think for themselves, as victims, even though many left-wing liberals consider themselves as victims to such a degree that some of them who are Catholics even see Christ as a victim -- a holy victim. As discussed previously in this blog, it is true that Christ is holy, but it is not true that He was a victim. At most, Christ could be deemed a martyr for his "cause," but that still cannot be right because the salvation of souls is neither a "cause" nor a "principle" [8] but a manifestation of Divine Love. Priests and others who like to think of Christ as a "holy victim" ought to reserve the word "victim" and feelings of pity for themselves.
Christ does not need pity but Bergolio does, and so do those who have blind faith in him. This blogger really has no clue why Catholics around the world would want to follow Bergolio blindly except perhaps for the fact that tradition and obedience demand that they do, or perhaps they have been swept up in the excitement of having a liberal pope who speaks their language of relativism and mercy (mercy for all except for his political enemies), or perhaps they have been caught up in the momentum of the secularists' movement of which Bergolio is a part, evidenced by how often he talks about matters that are political, economic and societal and how much his audience likes listening to him because such talks take the focus away from them and redirects it to others, leading them to believe that none of those problems are theirs and that they belong to someone else, as compared to how rarely he talks about the salvation of the soul because no Bergolio fan wants to hear how to save his/her soul and the consequences of not saving it, and because talking about the salvation of the soul means that people in the audience are required to step outside of their comfort zone, losing their status as observers and not being able to sit self-righteously and comfortably in their seats to simply listen to the pope castigate others whose views are not aligned with his (a mishmash of secular, socialist and heretical beliefs) and become participants in the life of Christ, each being reminded of the burden of sins and having to take personal responsibility for one's choices.
Every time Bergolio addresses secular concerns like a left-wing socialist politician, even with occasional references to the Bible, Bergolio has in effect forced Christ to stand in his shadow while putting himself front and center when he ought to act as a transparent conduit, making himself "invisible" so that those desiring the love of God can be brought close to God by the plain words of God spoken directly by the Son of God.
Because Bergolio has relegated Christ to the background, something not even Satan would do, he has made himself the head of the Catholic Church when Christ is the true Head of the Church. At the helm, Bergolio has attracted a following of "blind" followers who no longer care about what Christ had to say, but care only about what Bergolio has to say. Bergolio expects and demands complete assent; anyone who refuses may be "decapitated" in the way Matthew Festing, the former Grand Master of the Order of Malta, among others, had been "decapitated." Posters that went up in Rome on February 4, 2017, had a message under a picture of Bergolio that said [9]:
“Ah Francis, you’ve taken over congregations, removed priests, decapitated the Order of Malta and the Franciscans of the Immaculate, ignored Cardinals… but where’s your mercy?”
In contrast to the "blind" followers of Bergolio (with their heads still intact), those who walked with Jesus were not "blind." To make certain that their faith in Him was not a blind faith, Jesus had, on one occasion, restored eyesight to a man born blind [10].
Many people, besides the Apostles, were able to see and touch the incarnated Son of God and hear Him speak, and to witness His divinity when He performed miracles, and His humanity when He was being scourged and crucified. Jesus' divinity was also evidenced also by His transfiguration, His risen Body and His ascension into Heaven. Even though many did not witness these and other events directly, they were able to "see" them, and Christ, through the eyes of the disciples by hearing them tell about the life of the incarnated Son of God with unmitigated passion.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the incarnation of the Son of God is to let the world see, hear and reach God through Christ, Who by His death had established the one and only true Church that does not need blind faith (or the Vatican) to exist and endure.
If, for some reason, the incarnation, crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ were not enough to convince the many unbelievers who are truly "blind" to accept the Christ as the Son of the One and Only True God, His Mother has come to the world in His place since His resurrection, through Her many apparitions, to remind sinners of Her Son's divinity.
[1] http://www.dictionary.com/browse/blind-faith
[2] http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/703390/allahu-akbar-what-does-it-mean-why-terrorists-muslim-arabic
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.
[6] http://www.history.com/topics/crusades
[7] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/05/islamic-state-trains-purer-child-killers-in-doctrine-of-hate
[8] http://www.dictionary.com/browse/martyr?s=t
[9] https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/02/04/rome-wakes-find-city-full-anti-pope-francis-posters/
[10] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%209:1-12
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