Faith, Actions, Salvation

My friends from highschool and I have an e-mail discussion group about philosophy, religion, morality and everything else that peaks our interest.

Here is a part of the most recent discussion we've had (just the 2nd half of the discussion actually):

"....One thing that i was curious about is why we have to have faith to go along with actions to complete a person? Why can't good actions be done because of our good nature as human beings and the old addage,"do unto others as you would have them do unto you" If good actions are adopted by all then there's a betterment altogether. Why does faith have to get involved?

Rohit"

"hey guys,

sorry for the late reply. It is a really good question, and not
something that i can just pop up with a quick reply. I actually had to
think this time :P.

We have to remember in what context we are speaking about faith and
actions. We are talking about the idea of "salvation" from a religious
perspective (i.e. from God). If we take away that from the
conversation; then the idea of salvation, faith or actions becomes one
without cause, necessity or purpose. So when we ask why faith is
required, we must understand that the assumptions we are making is
that there is a belief in a higher power and a structured organization
within which one works to attain this ideal end known as salvation.

So we must start by asking what is salvation and what are we being
"salvated" from to know what role actions and faith or anything play
in this? Some common themes offered up by religions are this:
separation of humanity and divine and the struggle with inner self -
the ego. However, this is only one aspect of salvation. The aspect of
us being "saved" from something. The other facet of our salvation is
what we are gaining. An increased awareness, closeness and "union" (i
use the word not in its strictest sense) of the Divine;
overcoming/defeating our egoes (the stem of arrogance, hypocrisy and
all self-made evil); a newer human society based on individuals who
have "earned" the position to live within God's Light (yes..an
abstract religious term..but im sure most of u "get it").

So salvation is both a reward and a saving grace. Essentially (since
we are talking from a religious perspective), salvation is the goal of
life, and life being the vessel thru which we are tested to attain our
end (or new beginning). Religious morality is the structure within
which we are given an organized methodology to attain salvation.
The key thing here is that religion is an organized, large scale,
society-level method of attaining salvation. TOP-DOWN.
Spirituality is a personal, usually silent method of attaining
salvation. BOTTOM-UP.
Religion is in a simplified form: structured spirituality..for the
purpose of having a cohesive, harmonious, working system on a larger
scale. The "purpose of"...doesn't mean that it actually
happens..because there are extraneous elements.

Therefore, life is all about experiencing this very rare opportunity
of separation from God to eventually LEARN to come back to Him, to
grow as a sentient conscious being in understanding, knowledge,
compassion, humbeless etc.

An important aspect of this is the "coming back to God" part. This is
where faith comes in, because coming back to God encompasses
EVERYTHING. The actions that you commit may be motivated by any
reason. The motivations u have are ur end, ur goal...ur god. When some
deed is done, it may appear good or bad by certain societal
perspectives. But to God, these societal perspectives is not what
matters. Its what ur intentions and motivatations for commiting the
deed are and the consequences of each deed are in response to it. If a
person does something good for materialistic reasons, then that is his
end, that becomes his god..and his reward for that good would consist
of the material end. Similarly, an action commited to within the
broader concept of "closeness to God"..it is rewarded in like. Now
before Sina jumps on this...closeness to God is a phrase im using for
a bigger concept. It is because the language we are using is putting
God into a little box..as if its an isolated entity. The closeness to
God translates into closeness to everything. Not that God is
everything, but everything comes from/ is linked to God..it is
intrinsically related to GOD. So helping a poor person on the street,
improving the environment..achieves that closeness, because that
person is part of the structure of the universe where the Divine
presence is more approachable. By helping the poor, by helping the
enviroment; we are helping to create a better structure where the
Divine spark spreads. Hence the concept in Islam that worship is an
all-encompassing aspect of life..with prayer being a subset of it..not
IT. Faith is the "keystone" to having the proper intention and goal.
Without faith, you are susceptible to your intentions, motivations and
end being influenced by something that is only an illusory ideal.
Faith is like the inner sun of the human soul, and the actions are the
life that comes forth due to it and are sustained by the "sun". Faith
is the north star. It is essential..it is the BASE...but just having
faith without doing anything..withers away the "life" and takes away
the opportunity we have to achieve our collective goal as sentient
beings.

What im saying is that we should be "good" because every act of
goodness is a communion with the Divine....and everything is related
to it. Every opportunity to do "good" is purposely there as our test,
to see what our reaction will be ..and if we ever learn to do good for
the right reasons and stay away from the negative aspects of life.

You might say..why not be good for the sake of goodness? My reply is
that there is no such thing. There is no such thing as isolated and
absolute goodness without a Divine. And if there is a divine, then we
aren't doing things because they are good, but because everything
defined as good brings us (collectively) closer to the divine. We all
have this feeling of doing 'good' only because we are INCLINED towards
experiencing the divine..and that is most experienced when giving up
yourself. Its is my opinion, that any true act of goodness (by
ANYONE), devoid of any material intention, is at its simplest form the
natural inclination of humanity ....a withering of the ego/self to
reveal the action of the divine spark within everyone.

To let go of oneself...your ego..is to let go of the illusion that we
are separate from God..and to realize the immense closeness that is
and always has been there.

Sorry for the long reply. I know i didn't address ur question as "head
on" as u might have wanted me to.

Fahd"