How does faith relate to to the world in which we live?

As mentioned in the blogs underneath, to me, faith means to trust in God and believe in him, even when things don't turn out the way you want them to. Faith is a motivation for me to carry on. No matter how much I slip and fall, faith tells me that all my adversities will be nothing compared to what I will get in the future if I endure through it.

Some people might argue that there is no such thing as faith, and that faith is for people who have no strength of their own, so they rely on another supernatural presence. However, in our world, faith is more omnipresent than what we think. This is because faith does not only mean a belief in God. The real definition of faith says that it can also be confidence in a trust or thing, belief in a code of ethics, etc. In a way, our faith is what we believe to be true. For instance, we have faith, or trust, whichever one you prefer, that our legs will support our body when we wake up every morning from bed. We have faith/trust in our legs. Thus, it is impossible to live without faith in anything. Everyone has faith in something, whether it is surface level, or deep.

Surface level faith is something that anyone can do. People do it unconsciously, without a doubt. Deep level faith, to believe in an intangible God, is harder to do. Although I confidently say that my faith is in God, there are so many people who have stronger faiths in God that it makes my faith look shabby and weak. When I read or hear other people's accounts of how faith influences their lives, it is similar to how faith acts in my life; as motivation, as inspiration and as encouragement. Although statistics show that the number of religious people have decreased over the years, faith unites all believers together in a way that they identically turn to faith during hard times, and trust upon it to be their guidance.

What do traders and NGOs do for these cultures?

Although it might seem very ignorant of me to say so, before reading Peace Child, I never fully understood the idea that in our time, there could still be Stone Age tribes in the "real world", as most people like to describe it, of cell phones and iPods.

Just like my ignorance of their existence, they are ignorant of our existence too. To me, this seems like a very good opportunity for greedy traders to take advantage of the tribes' naivety, often leading to abuse. These situations have appeared in other parts of the world. In Alaska, traders arrived and hired Native Americans, in return for the giving of non-traditional food. Although the Native Americans thought this as an opportunity to get rare items that they have never seen before, the huge influence of traders ended up in a change in the way of living for the tribes. Traders set up small trading posts, which later became a shop, which became a business, which turned into a factory, etc. It was only a matter of time before the government started to get involved in the issue. "Captains" were designated to teach the U.S. law to these Natives. Tribes were banned from their usual activity of whale hunting, and some were even forced to allow access to their territory (information taken from http://vila.alaska.edu/site-templates/timeline.html). In the Sawi population of New Guinea, a similar situation was happening. Soon after Don Richardson arrived, he realized his need to hurry up because the government of New Guinea was sending "...government officers and police patrols [to penetrate] the Sawi domain... (pg. 231)."

Even without the traders, the Sawi, and generally all Stone Age tribes, are in risk. NGOs, or non-governmental organizations, are purposely designed to encourage "...the observance of human rights, [to improve] the welfare of the disadvantaged...(information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGOs#Purposes)." Although there are NGOs who want to help these tribes by providing medicine, supplies, and food, but accept their way of life just as it is, there are other NGOs who go there for financial benefits, such as the resources that the tribes' lands might provide. The latter group is no different than ordinary traders, and can bring the same effects of destruction to the rare cultures of the world.

Although the Sawi, and many other tribes in general, might not see the importance of which type of people arrive to help them, it is imperative that the right type of groups go there. It is time that the world begins to notice the importance of the survival of these indigenous tribes, and makes sure that they are safe from abuse and deceit.

What should we do when we are confronted with other cultures?

As a child, I had to experience what it was like live and adapt to different cultures. To me, it didn't seem like too much of a hard task. Although Britain and Korea had different languages and customs, the same concepts of human life applied; do not murder, do not steal, respect one another, etc. In a civilized world, no matter where you go, to the cold regions of Alaska, to sun-shining Spain, these rules apply. Although different regions have different cultures, because they still withhold the rules that the majority of humans follow, they are not considered as a threat.

So, what happens to cultures like the Sawi? They were "headhunters and cannibals who valued treachery through fattening victims with friendship before the slaughter." Their ways of life were everything the civilized world thought was uncivilized. Their laws were everything the world thought as unlawful. In this case, our first instinct would tell us to change these eccentric cultures to a culture we would regard as acceptable. However, in my opinion, these cultures shouldn't be forced to change because they are different from what we consider as ordinary. They have their special way of life, just like every single one of us has special cultures that we have been known to follow since our birth. Just because we are more technologically advanced than them, it does not give us the right to force them to change their culture into what we believe is 'right' in our standards. It is true that some parts of the Sawi culture needs to be changed, for the sake of the tribe's safety, but except for those, I believe that everything else needs to be left alone. They should have the choice of changing their religion, culture, faith, or belief, rather than by oppression from a force they believe to be supernatural. After Don Richardson went to the tribe and explained about Christianity, the tribe had the option of choosing whether to believe or not. Voluntary actions provoke more changes and improvements than an authoritative figure commanding someone to do something.

Sometimes, because we live in a world where civilization is ubiquitous, the thought of uncivilized people in the world immediately equal to our brains as a threat. We think without a doubt that they are uneducated people who will have a happier life if they got out more and explored the world. In our point of view, we see ourselves as reality. But, I think it is time to change that belief. Just because a majority believes something, it doesn't mean that every single minority has to follow. Everyone is entitled to their different beliefs. Cultures like the Sawi don't need to be forced to face the world we live in right now, but they should be given the choice of accepting the new world, or staying in their present condition. That choice is for them to make by themselves, not by anyone else.

How do I relate to faith?

Taking TOK classes this semester has made me very skeptical about life. Mundane phrases such as "I'm telling the truth," mean anything but mundane. Truth, used in this phrase, has ambiguous definitions that can never be defined perfectly and completely. What is truth? How can anyone define it?

To me, faith is like one of these phrases; ambiguous yet mundane. As long as I can remember, I have always woken myself up at 9 A.M. to go to church with my parents, without knowing anything about what faith actually was, and how it affected my life. When I was young, church was a place to go and play with friends, plus they gave you free gifts and food. I questioned nothing; God created the world, Jesus died for the bad things we did, so if we were good, we could go to heaven and live happily ever after.

But, as I grew older, I got distracted. My family moved back from England to Korea. I faced hard times as I tried to fit into a Korean environment. I spent many sleepless nights, just trying to finish my homework, taking twice as much time than everybody else. I had nosebleeds everyday, due to the stress that I was facing. My grades were crawling on the ground; I barely passed, and sometimes, I didn't even manage to do that. Church seemed pointless to me. I was so preoccupied with the things that I had to overcome that I started to build a wall between me and God. And every year, as my stress levels grew higher, so did the wall.

There wasn't really a certain point in my life that I finally accepted God and became a Christian. It was more of a gradual process, still in effect right now. After coming to TCIS, I wasn't stressed and worried about my life as I was before, so I decided to give God a shot. It was only after making efforts that my faith slowly began to grow. Faith began to make holes in the wall that I had built.

Even now, I still have not managed to break down the wall completely. Faith is still an enigma to me. But, every time I find myself unconsciously turning to God, unconsciously praying and unconsciously feeling guilty about sinning, maybe that is the faith I relate to in my life.