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Fear & Faith



We’ve discussed the issue of faith several times in the past, so I thought this Bono quote (or attributed to him anyway) might be of interest to people wrestling with that topic:

Fear is the opposite of faith.

I haven’t been able to track down the original source or context of that soundbite. It may not have even been said by him at all. It may just be one of those things that sounds neat and thus gets repeated. For me, it sounds a little too black and white, a little too simplistic to really account for the enormous and usually difficult struggle that having faith seems to entail. Why can’t you be afraid and faithful at the same time?







3 Reader Responses

  1. Anna Montana Says:
    March 12th, 2006 at 11:11 pm

    I think it depends on what you define fear as. Faith is having trust (thereby peace) that things are as they should be, or that things work out well for you. Fear is lack of trust - faith, that things work out. Have you ever known peace while being in a state of fear? If you trust, you don’t fear. If you fear, you don’t trust. When you said that it’s all to black and white, “a little too simplistic” for you, I was reminded of Occam’s Razor. The simplest answer is the right one.

  2. prnsqlr Says:
    March 13th, 2006 at 10:04 am

    “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.”

  3. Benway Says:
    March 14th, 2006 at 8:51 pm

    Isn’t the opposite of faith skepticism? And fear, well fearlessness, I suppose. I don’t think a lack of faith need even lead to fear, let alone be fear. It sounds like the kind of thing Bono would say, in that it’s pompous and I disagree with it!



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