I’ve been thinking about what it is to have faith in things. In gods, people, ideas… in science.

It’s as though a capacity for faith is a requirement for human civilization. A faithless polymath won’t get themselves to to the next county, much less the moon.

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I’ve been thinking about the myth of the garden of Eden and wondering if I’ve missed the point entirely: Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

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In Norwegian there is a phrase: lettvint kunnskap.
Carl Jung said to beware of unearned wisdom.
(I’m assuming he said it – or wrote it – in German, but bear with me.)

Every once in a while it occurs to me to wonder why I believe anyone has ever gone to the moon. Apparently I have faith in humanity. And faith in our inhumanity, as well.

But I wonder sometimes how far from the source faith remains a reasonable foundation for the way we live.

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Trees grow in groves to support each other. To support the weight of snow, the force of winds, the dearth of sunshine. They share. Who knows if a kind of faith is at play. If a tree chooses to send roots in the direction of other roots “knowing” there is sugar to be had from another member of the community.

I wonder what they give back
when they take the sugar.

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We think we know things. Like what it takes to make an apple.
( – which was probably not an apple, but that is another story)