argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Easter and Faith
Iñaki Lasa Nuin 2022ko apirilaren 13a

At this time of the year, with spring, we remember a whole week called Holy Week. Perhaps more in remembrance of the small holidays than thinking of sanctity. After a long winter, who doesn't want those days? The holidays of the five days in this time, with the warm sun, we enjoyed very well. But we don't all spend the same way these appointed days without a job. There are a group of people who may be shrinking year after year, who move with their religion or with their faith and belief in these days “Santos”, even if it is used to do some tourism or to rest.

I myself could be in the group or outside of it, but looking at it. Even if I were in both things – that would be quantum physics – I would not refuse to make some thoughts, I feel the need and I think it is appropriate to do so in writing.

To begin with, I would like to say that both reflections and opinions are mine – at least those I have written – and that I have no intention of opposing anyone or anything. I therefore do not want anyone to feel despised, insulted or marginalised. I want to look through the window of the 21st century to the plaza of the celebrations of Easter, from this silent area in which I find myself today, surrounded, opening other windows that surround me. Some of them I opened yesterday: the window of the East, which brings warm and silent air; the window of the West, which refreshes you with a touch of reason; the window of the three great religions, a cold and violent air, but which must be opened. Today I open the window of philosophy (especially what is called “peremne”), the new window of neuroscience and the small window of quantum physics, important.

"Religions have made no progress. Man and God live apart. Faith itself has distanced them"

From this distance you can see perfectly through the streets following the same paths that have been going through year after year, the steps that represent the different moments of the passion of Jesus of Nazareth dancing, there and here, with the lights of the candles lit vibrating. Who would say that under that hidden throne, more than 50 men go, like canned sardines, a step of over a thousand kilos of weight that they can't resist.

A terrible, never-ending parade. The sound of trumpets and drums is also not lacking so that the shorelines do not lose pace. The lengthy intervals from one step to the other are also well filled. There's no shortage of an upper cucurucho. Even those who go barefoot are many, they are said to be penitent. With a cross over the shoulder you also see many, all in line, one behind the other. I saw them in sight, on their back, on the red meats, the blood-stained corners, which are beaten to death. Is no one able to denounce this brutality? That is more than a mistreatment of animals.

Faith, belief? Seeing all this, who would not say that there is still faith in man. And I'm convinced that in those parades, the people who appear doing such penance do so by faith. That's what faith was like 2,000 years ago, 500 years ago, yesterday and today as well, in the 21st century. What has then changed the human being and his activity throughout this time? Very little in Christian existentialism (although the word and the current are new). Religions have made no progress. Man and God live apart. It has been distanced by faith itself.

We've always linked faith to religion, but believing or not believing is something that's working for us all the time. Lies and belief happen. They say we use a lot of lying, often unintentionally, unconsciously, but we also believe in it. Faith and belief is the same, even if it seems something deeper when we talk about faith. Believing men and women sing in the church “I believe, I believe.” Believing is being a believer.

Faith is a birth of our brain. He needs to believe. The brain needs the first and the future to continue its work, it doesn't like the present. Religions are based on what happened and the belief in what is going to happen. So, in the first and after. The present of the mind is thought itself. But what you think is the past or the future.

So forget what Descartes said (“Cogito ergo sum”), approach your body and your environment and stop thinking too much. Feeling is now. You cannot live in the past and in the future – that can only be done by the mind – but in the present. Listen to your heartbeat, discover your breathing, see the first flowers blossoming from the garden, embrace what you love, around… all that is the present. God is there, he is with you. It's life itself. There are no fractures.

We need our heads to work on a day-to-day basis, but that's enough. Watch your thoughts because they can do a lot of harm to yourself and others, usually without knowing it.