IV. Faith for the spiritual plane
Faith is strictly speaking a domain of the sovereign individual; the individual free of any
constraints. It is not with a longing for the past or out of nostalgic sentiments, if it is
suggested here to change the well known aphorism of the last Emperor; “ሃይማኖት የግል ነው፤ “
to “Eምነት የግል ነው።”. “Faith (not religion) belongs to the sphere of the individual”. This is
true, if all the prerequisites of a high human culture with the necessary welfare and peace on
the basis of reason and logic were available. But this is not the reality, though, given the
scientific progress of today, combined with the available spiritual prerequisite, the abundant
wealth could have been sufficient enough to entertain such a culture.. The higher insight
hadn’t unfortunately made its way through the mind of every individual, that the source of
pleasure does not lie in the accumulation of wealth but somewhere in the mind of the self for
the bliss of knowledge (cf. Aristotle) or somewhere between heaven and earth or like Kafka
would simply say over the surface and under the feet. But unfortunately we are still
staggering on an earth – otherwise the beautiful earth – where one feels to be happy touching
the barren sand of the moon and on the other side, a child on this same earth dies out of
destitution by every tick of the minute; and the former could sleep at night silently, without
being nagged by the slightest bit of conscience whatsoever. Because of all such hard facts, the
necessity of the state for the social reality of today is apparent, be it for the administration of
social and civil justice, and be it for the administration and distribution of wealth or
controlling and monitoring of the latter with the help of the “magical market forces”.
Likewise mankind is today full of all sorts of faiths and all kinds of religions. Whether or not
with a highly genuine spiritual purpose or as a style of life, these spiritual instances attract
and absorb the individuals or groups of mankind, since it lies in the nature of the human to be
spiritually affiliated to this or that sect. As long as they are not instances of human
manipulations, as unfortunately they indeed mostly are, these religions or faiths constituted
in all forms of institutions could play a healthy social role. They can fulfil their social
purposes in helping to elevate mankind, if not in the possible spiritual humbleness, at least, in
the sense of human ethics and in its moral awareness. If we are lucky and the intellectual
level of the society allows, this objective can more or less be fulfilled by the religions available
today. And thanks god, ample humanist intellectuals have pleaded for religion not to meddle
in the secular section of life. At least in the regions where enlightenment has succeeded, it is
established, that the civil state should be free of any religious affiliation or attachment, which
is the most optimal way of looking at it. The Faith posited here, as the high objective of the
harmony of life, is but of a higher abstraction. This is, on the one hand the sum total of the
philosophy of enlightenment and the belief that the human mind would be at its summit of
intellectual abstraction capacity and would touch all godly virtues, when it is free of any
institutions, dogmas and religions in their traditional interpretation of disciplining the life of
the human. Without the inherent insight emanating from oneself, liberation of the self would
not be materialized. This way of attitude can be manifested in all forms of intellectual
devotion or system of belief, be it philosophy or re