Facts vs. Faith

I finally got my chance to watch The Exorcism of Emily Rose a couple of days back. I'm not sure if it's a good movie but it definitely left me thinking and questioning about my faith and my beliefs.

Although being brought up the first few years of my life practicing chinese religion (i.e. burning papers, josstick, prayers etc.) I understand nothing about the significance of these traditions. It was not until when I was 11, that my parents sent me to sunday school in a temple that teaches a completely different, but often being confused as the same as the chinese religion- Buddhism. I grew up learning that Buddhism is not a religion but a philosophy of life. I grew up learning about the law of kharma- the cause and effect. I grew up learning that we don't pray to the Buddha but only pay respect to him as our great teacher. I grew up learning about the importance of practising metta (compassion), dana (giving), and mindfulness. I grew up learning about sufferings and the road leads to the end of sufferings. I was educated more on the dhamma-the teachings of the Buddha, about morals, about life. I fell in love with the teachings. But, I learnt nothing about g/God. I knew nothing about G/god.

I recalled at one time, when I asked my sunday school teacher about the existence of g/God, where does the universe come from, did G/god create it. All she said was that those are the questions we will never get the answers, so why waste our time thinking about them. What's important is here and now.

I guess the crucial question now is not whether g/God exist, but whether we have faith in G/god. I kept wondering.

A friend once asked me, if someone came to tell me to buy this particular apple because it was sweet, how can I be sure? The answer was to try it. We'll never know unless we try. We'll never know the experience unless we open our heart for that experience. I thought that paradigm was kinda cool. It left me thinking for awhile.

Erin Bruner, an agnostic and the lawyer who defended Father Moore in Emily's case, said in the movie something about
"Facts leave no room for possibilities."
the question is
Is it possible?

And again, it left me thinking....