SHORT STORY; Think about it: without faith

  An atheist and a believer had the
  same doctor. Every time they met in the
  doctor's waiting room, they would argue
  and end up insulting each other.

    "You really believe that you are
  going to be saved on Judgment Day and
  go up to heaven. Do you really believe
  everything you read in the Bible, and
  everything they told you in church?"
  said the atheist.

    "I'm not certain of anything," the
  believer replied. "Like you I have
  doubts. But I still have hope."

    "But I don't have doubts," the
  atheist cried. "I have only
  certainties. For example, I can assure
  you that God has nothing to do with the
  ache in your knee, and that He doesn't
  care in the least how you feel."

    "You don't know what you're talking
  about. And do you know something? You
  are a believer too. I can prove it to
  you."

    "Really? That I'd like to see!"

    "Will you be straightforward and
  answer my questions honestly?"

    "Of course. I'm an honest atheist."

    "Okay. Can you tell me what the name
  of the doctor is who you came to see?"

    "Well no, he's not here. And I can't
  pronounce the replacement's name."

    "Well, when you leave his office,
  will you check the prescription he
  gives you for mistakes, like you would
  a lottery ticket?"

    "No, of course not. The doctor knows
  what he's doing."

    "Are you a close friend of the
  pharmacist who is going to fill the
  prescription?"

    "No, I go to a big pharmacy, and I
  rarely get served by the same person."

    "Do you know what medication the
  doctor is going to give you, and what
  its side effects are?"

    "No."

    "And yet you are going to take it,
  aren't you?"

    "Yes."

    "Well, dear friend, I am happy to
  announce that you too are a man of
  faith!"
    ___________

    Many of us behave like the atheist:
  we don't understand how believers can
  have blind faith in their God, and we
  often find their fervor ridiculous.

    And yet, we also have well
  established beliefs, and not only when
  we go to see the doctor!

    Think about it: without faith,
  without any certainties, life would be
  impossible. We sometimes have to have
  blind faith to survive.