Faith and discipline

Was about to do a longer post on another topic when this digression in the post and in my mind led me to make this a separate post in itself

Faith, in my view,  can be defined as what you do in the belief that something good awaits you in the ( or atleast in a slightly) distant future if you do it.  There is no certainty but you believe in it,  and might even through short term blips that may make you question that belief.

This lead me to the other question.  What is it that you do in the belief that something bad awaits you in the distant future of you DO NOT do it? Again there is no certainty or proof, just a probabilistically lurking fear maybe. 

Before I come to answering that, and by now you would have guessed the answer to that from the title of the post in any case, the thing to note is that humans aren't actually wired well to think of what could wrong in a distant future ( as opposed to what could go right). Because it's just mentally easier to do the latter than the former.. And that's the reason long term fears aren't usually acted upon,  its easier to procrastinate. That usually leads to decay while long term hopes on the other hand ( though it may be difficult still from person to person depending upon how they process short term blips) drives passion, which is usually acted upon, leads to better risk taking and occasionally leads to great things.  This is as true of decisions of self as to those of groups of people.  This is why. there's so much buzz about say an AGI ( though the way AI is going,  it may not be that far away), something built on hopes in a distant future,  versus say getting people together on the same page on the impact of global warming ( because its a fear there, and that which is distant in the future , so people may possibly underplay it in their minds)

Coming to the answer. What is it that you do in the belief that something bad awaits you in the ( even slightly) distant future if you DO NOT do it? The answer, to me,  is discipline. The workout you do , so that you avoid disease and weakness later on, to the health insurance you buy and so on.  But there are many hidden things where one doesn't really comprehend the time decay and hence potential for suboptimal if not bad outcomes in the distant future. But if you can indeed comprehend them,  then how do you mitigate it? Discipline

The word discipline used in this context, may give you the vibe of something small , that you do repeatedly. And as a matter of fact, maybe that's what IT IS in this context. In the case of faith,  you possibly take one decision and then stick to it through blips. ( although it may also involve a process of repeated decision making where you say, double down). When it comes to the case of discipline addressing a long time fear, it isn't often one and done , but instead happens through multiple steps.  Why is that so? Perhaps because long term fears just aren't given a priority in one's mind, maybe because it's just too taxing to think about them. But at the same time,  we need to start, and not procrastinate, and the best way to do that, is to make that into smaller problems, which you then address by making smaller decisions, over a period of time.

What drives faith , and especially 'reasoned faith"? Well. that's going to be the topic of a separate post ( maybe part of the next one).