Ah first post of the new year, actually had a couple of entries on in the draft stages but unfortunately an inappropriately timed reload click erased any trace of written wordyness - it's a word look it up. So after much procrastination finally getting around to retyping a particularly good entry (at least in my humble and oft irrelevant opinion), so without further ado feel free to scroll a bit down, and read the newest post - Faith.

Faith, it can mean almost anything to anyone. everyone has their interpretations - mostly in terms of religion though to be clear (and sound smarterer) as Websters defines it:

Faith: 3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs

Though for the purpose of this post, let's look one of the other definitions 1 a : allegiance to duty or a person [] (2) complete trust. That is to say the faith that we put in others, a belief in the heart of humankind if you will.
I'm not sure why but I think the idea of having faith in humanity is a bit overshadowed by religion... probably better marketing. It just seems to me that having faith in a religion tends to be a lot easier, for example: would someone find it easier to put faith in an all powerful Deity of whom one will never expect any accounting for action or inaction as their will is unknowable and therefore infallible. Conversely can one put faith in the fallible, downtrodden often selfish and usually ignorant fellow mortals that populate this small planet in such great numbers?

I can only speak for myself, and my response would be that placing my faith in religion is a lot easier than putting my faith in my fellow man (and woman... heck, guinea pigs as well). Of course the level of faith I'm considering here is at the level of devotion... sure it's easy to say "hey man I have faith you'll return my CD's later", but can one find it easy to take humanity as a whole and proclaim faith that as a race, no as a species we will be able to make the best of the world given to us?
One only has to turn on news or if your old skool a newspaper, to glimpse the world's problems; disparity between rich and poor, pollution, senseless wars, genocide, racial hatred spanning generation and reality TV. If your faith is in a higher power, one could possibly chalk it all up to 'god's will' or something, though for faith in humanity it gets a little difficult... because we know ordinary people just like us are behind the decisions affecting the world and instead of seeing ourselves in others we try to separate 'us' from 'them'. To make a distinction about people just to put ourselves on a higher level only serves to illustrate how truly unworthy we are to claim superiority. Of course we do it all the time, it is an almost subconscious trait... even America bashing (though extremely popular and fun) only serves to undermine the faith one can put in their fellow man (I'm using 'man' as inclusive to all genders/trans genders... so there!).
Hmm, I guess what it really boils down to is my new interpretation of faith and how I perceive it now. While I have nothing but the utmost respect for people who devote their faith to religion, I reserve my admiration for those who can devote their faith to the ordinary and weak humanity. As for myself, currently have yet to find my faith in either... though I'm looking and hoping for the strength to put my faith in the latter.