Magic of Faith

I believe in magic. I think everyone should believe in magic also. The reason I believe in magic is because as far as I know anything can become real and to me that classifies as magic. In order to make something become real though there is a process that goes something like this:

imagine it

believe it

rationalize it

design it

implement it

Imagination is the very important first step. We learn imagination when we are children. Everyone should know how to do it, but all too often when people grow older they lose their sense of imagination.

Here are some imagination quotes:

“I reject your reality and substitute it for my own.”
Adam Savage

“You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'”
George Bernard Shaw (Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, 1856-1950)

“Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.”
Jamie Paolinetti (American Schroeder Iron Pro Cycling)

“If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it.”
Jesse Jackson quotes (American Civil-Rights Leader, Baptist Minister and Politician, b.1941)

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
Sparrowrose
Howard Thurman (American Theologian, Clergyman and Activist. 1900-1981)

“I can believe anything provided it is incredible.”
Oscar Wilde (Irish Poet, Novelist, Dramatist and Critic, 1854-1900)

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
Steve Jobs (American Entrepreneur Apple co-Founder, b.1955)

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
Albert Einstein (German born American Physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. 1879-1955)


The Next step is Believing. But arguably believing starts first too because in order to imagine you have to believe you can. Its really ironic when you think of it that way, that you have to believe you can imagine in order to imagine, but really belief has a lot to do with confidence. You must know that you are capable of doing certain things, but in order to find out what those things are, you have to believe first to experience them, like in the case of imagination. In order to imagine you have to first believe you can imagine.

“Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe.”
Gail Devers

“I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.”
James Joyce (Irish novelist, 1882-1941)

“Believe and act as if it were impossible to fail.”
Charles F. Kettering (American engineer, inventor of the electric starter, 1876-1958)

“For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don't believe, no proof is possible.”
Stuart Chase ( Writer and Economist, b.1888 (Tragedy of Waste)

“You can have anything you want if you will give up the belief that you can't have it.”
Dr. Robert Anthony (Self-help author)

“Men often become what they believe themselves to be. If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it even if I didn't have it in the beginning.”
Mahatma Gandhi (Indian Philosopher, internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest, 1869-1948)

The next step is to rationalize it. We use reason for many different reasons. Namely we want to know good from bad and the truth. So reason is our safety net. We have some knowledge already usually so that we can compare new knowledge with old knowledge thereby rationalize new ideas in order to make them work with the ideas we already have. Some ideas it comes very easy, other ideas like faith can be more difficult as it can be quite difficult to rationalize faith for some people, especially if you haven't really experienced it a lot in your life yet. In order to experience faith you first have to imagine and believe it like anything. But you won't be able to do that either if you can't rationalize it. So if faith can't withstand your doubt, which can be the opposite of faith, then you won't be able to use it. This just sometimes happens. Some people can be very analytical and over logical for example, and miss a lot of human emotion in the process. The goal is not to remove human emotion because it seems illogical or because it can lead to suffering from desire that don't always get fulfilled but to balance and control it with everything else that we know ourselves to be.

“The heart has reasons that reason cannot know.”
Blaise Pascal (French Mathematician, Philosopher and Physicist, 1623-1662)

“"I can't" isn't a reason to give up, it's a reason to try harder”
Reason quote

“Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.”
C.S. Lewis (British Scholar and Novelist. 1898-1963)

“Time heals what reason cannot”
Seneca (Roman philosopher, mid-1st century AD)

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
George Bernard Shaw (Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, 1856-1950)

“Dubito ergo cogito; cogito ergo sum.
(I doubt, therefore I think; I think therefore I am)”
Rene Descartes (French Mathematician, Philosopher and Scientist, 1596-1650)

And now, since we are dealing with the rational, we must most certainly have our counter arguments:

“What I conclude is that religion has nothing to do with experience or reason but with deep and irrational needs”
Richard Taylor

“Reason is the enemy of faith”
Martin Luther (German Priest and Scholar whose questioning of certain church practices led to the Protestant Reformation. 1483-1546)

“The man who listens to Reason is lost: Reason enslaves all whose minds are not strong enough to master her”
George Bernard Shaw (Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, 1856-1950)

“Being unable to reason is not a positive character trait outside religion”
Dewey Henize

The reason that reason causes so many problems is because people will sometimes get trapped into thinking that something is absolutely real in the utmost sense that really isn't. To explain, imagine that in order to imagine you have to rationalize that you can do it. The way to do that might be seeing someone else imagine first. When you are a child, you are told to imagine, such as in school or engaging in some artistic activity. Because you can see art, you know that you can imagine such things too. But what if there was no art? Would you still think to imagine things on paper?

If you have a closed mind, and you do not reach into the unknown, then yes, you will never think to imagine such things. Imagination has a lot to do with creativity. And so by this point we are to the designing stage. A painting or sculpture is a design that someone believed, imagined, and rationalized that they could do.

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will.”
George Bernard Shaw (Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, 1856-1950)

“Sometimes you've got to let everything go - purge yourself. If you are unhappy with anything . . . whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you'll find that when you're free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.”
Tina Turner (American Singer. b.1939,Nutbush, Tennessee, USA)

“The chief enemy of creativity is "good" sense.”
Pablo Picasso (Spanish Artist and Painter. 1881-1973)

“The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.”
Oscar Wilde (Irish Poet, Novelist, Dramatist and Critic, 1854-1900)

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”
Scott Adams (American Cartoonist, b.1957)

“It is better to create than to be learned, creating is the true essence of life”
Barthold Georg Niebuhr

“The principle goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done - men who are creative, inventive and discoverers”
Jean Piaget (Swiss Psychologist and pioneer in the study of child intelligence, 1896-1980)

“Creativity is a lot like looking at the world through a kaleidoscope. You look at a set of elements, the same ones everyone else sees, but then reassemble those floating bits and pieces into an enticing new possibility. Effective leaders are able to”
Rosabeth Moss Kanter (American business Speaker and Consultant )

“Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.”
Pablo Picasso (Spanish Artist and Painter. 1881-1973)

From that point, implementing it becomes natural, because in the course of designing it, as in the case of putting it on paper for art, we have done most of the work. Whatever you design, you also implement. The more you design, the more you implement. Remember the automobile started as a single idea, someone wrote it down on paper and designed it. Then they submitted those designs for a patent, and they continued to design it even further after that by representing what they had on paper in pieces of metal that make up the parts to an automobile. And then every year after that the automobile is being continually redesigned. Now if the fact that someone can take an idea about themselves or something, and turn it into a physical reality is most certainly magic: To imagine something to become real not only for yourself, but for everyone.