Chapter @!-%^ Faith

"Wee wee!" buzzes someone, flying in the air like a butterfly.

"Persona, chill. I am trying to pray here!" says the Author.

"Oops, sorry!" murmurs Persona, looking down. He is wearing a full mask covering his face and has fancy clothes on.

. . .

"What are you doing?" asks someone as they pop their head up, slightly looking at the Author.

"Just performing a practice that my Creator commanded me to perform," responds the Author.

"Why?" they question as Persona goes towards them and starts poking their cheek.

. . .

"Okay, I'll answer," says the Author.

"Really? Nice!" exclaims the figure, flying into a backflip and emerging from the ground. Then they sit on the couch, excited to listen.

The Author sits down on the couch, "Well, I'll try my best. And my Creator knows best, so here goes,"

Persona flies around them, relaxing on his back and the figure listens intently.

"If you are asking why I perform it, then the only 'why' I find sufficient is that it was placed upon me to do so by my Creator. That's all the reason I need to do it. I have chosen to submit to him fully and completely and in doing so, I'll try my best to obey any order I get," he starts.

"If you are asking why he asked me to do? I can't give you a concrete one hundred percent answer. I can only maybe make an educated hypothesis,"

"Does he need you to pray for him, perhaps?" asks the figure in contemplation.

The Author shakes his head, "Well, I don't think so,"

"How do you know?"

"Well," says the Author, walking towards a book and grabbing it, "He reported to me in his letters that he sent to me, that he is completely self-sufficient, and I think it's pretty clear that my existence and actions can never benefit nor harm him,"

"One hypothesis I find strong is that prayer is actually supposed to benefit me in different ways. I can go into detail about it later," explains the Author, opening the book and reading it.

The figure hums, "I see. Wait, I have a few more questions,"

"Ask," murmurs the Author, checking out the book.

"Why do you believe what's written in the book? And how do you know it is from a said Creator?"

The Author closes the book, "Hm, the answer will be a bit long," he says, getting up and grabbing a cold glass of water from the kitchen and then walking back. He checks on his brother and finds him asleep. He grabs a small ball from the ground and keeps going. Sitting back on the couch, he faces the balcony with his glass of water, looking outside at the night sky.

"First things first, I'd like to share a concept with you, so that you can see my side more clearly. The idea of Faith," says the Author, holding the ball above the couch.

"If I let go of this ball right now, what do you think is going to happen to it?" he asks.

"Um, from what I saw and read of this world so far, it should─ "

" ─fall down towards the center!" interrupts Persona, flying by.

". . . Yes, that," says the figure, looking at Persona.

The Author lets go of the ball and indeed, it falls down towards the Earth's center and lands on the couch.

"Nice, you happened to get it right!" smiles the Author.

"Well, it's to be expected─ "

"Is it?" asks the Author.

"Um, is it?" responds the man in uncertainty.

The Author notices a cat pass by on the balcony. He gets up, slides the door open, and sits on his knees. He raises his hand towards the cat, and it reluctantly approaches.

"Let me ask this then if you don't mind, do you know everything?"

"Oh, um, no I don't,"

"Cool, then why did you decide to predict that the ball was going to fall on the couch? Why didn't you predict that the ball will go up and hit the ceiling?"

"Well, it's because of gravity!" exclaims the figure.

The Author shakes his head, "Giving a name or label for the event we witnessed doesn't answer my question. All you told me is the name of an event that we saw. which was the ball falling towards the Earth,"

The cat finally feel comfortable enough and walks into his hand and he starts petting her. Persona above trying to pet the cat as well, but his hand just passes through the cat. He looks disappointed that he can't pet the cat.

"But to connect and help get the point across, I'll ask, how did you know that gravity will pull down instead of push up, to the ceiling, for example?" questions the Author.

"Well . . . things that have mass attract,"

"That's just another description of the name you previously gave. So, I'll ask, how did you know that they will keep attracting in this case? You don't know everything, after all? Couldn't gravity just act differently this time around in whatever 'how' of way?"

"I─ well . . . I can keep going but now that I think about it, maybe each time I'll just keep giving you a description. And I can't claim that gravity will never change the way it's acting because I don't know everything,"

The cat walks away in response to another cat's meow and the Author walks back into the balcony sliding the door shut behind him.

The figure hums, ". . . I guess it's cause I just trust and assume it will continue to do so. I mean, it has so far that we have been here, why wouldn't it keep on doing so?"

"Great. To clarify how I see it though, what you did was that you had put Faith that the laws of physics will continue to act as they always have to make your prediction. And I don't fault you for that. My previous experiences and constant exposure to my pull towards the Earth would have also had me make the same prediction that you did. And here is where I call another term in, 'trust'," says the Author, taking a sip of his water.

"All my experiences throughout my life have reinforced the idea that, when I do something such as let go of the ball like I just did, it will fall down towards the Earth. Of course, studying academically just showcased to me a more detailed side of 'how' the event is taking place, but knowing 'how,' it happens, is pointless in his equation,"

"I could wake up tomorrow and ignore what will happen as a result for now. But we find out that positive and negative no longer attract but repel instead, and the same charges attract, all I can do about it is just accept that's the new 'how'," he says, putting the glass down and stretching his body.

"Author, can I have some pringles?" requests Persona.

"Here," says the Author, snapping his fingers and Original pringles appear, flying in the air next to Persona.

"Yay! Thanks!" says Persona, grabbing it. The masks starts moving as he eats them happily.

The Author looks at him and snaps his fingers again. A cat that looks like the one he just petted appears, floating in the air. In shock and happiness, Persona flies towards it to pet it. The Author smiles at the interaction.

"Back to 'trust,' imagine trust as like a unit of Faith. Let's say, like meters is for distance, and since I had the same consistent experience and understanding of gravity throughout my life, I have a high trust that it will continue to do so. And since trust is the unit of Faith, when I have high trust in something, I can place my Faith in a particular context about it," explains the Author.

"So, I have Faith that gravity will continue to act the way it does, allowing me to act and behave in a more carefree manner with comfort about the expected results. And so, we keep on applying Faith in every aspect of our life," he continues.

"I see," says the figure, sitting in contemplation.

The Author holds up the book, "And I will even say that maybe this book is from the aliens of higher intelligence or something trying to play a prank or a joke or trying to study how I'll respond or any other possibility. Not just aliens, could be literally anything, as I don't know everything,"

"But, just like how I put Faith in the idea that the ball will fall in the context you provided, even though anything could have happened, you put your Faith there," pauses the figure.

The Author nods, "Yes, from my experiences, I have high trust that the self-report given in this book is from my Creator. And that the content of this book is his letters to me. That is something I choose to have Faith in and predict is the accurate result. We can go into the details of said experiences later, but for now, I am making sure that this point and perspective got across clearly hopefully,"

"Yes, very much so! Can I ask my second question?" asks the figure.

"Sure! But I think this is enough for one chapter for now," says the Author, going to grab his jacket.

He wears his jacket, "I want to go out for a walk, you can ask me later, I don't want this whole book to be just dialogue of this format." states the Author, walking towards the door and grabbing the keys as he passes by.

Persona and the figure follow behind as the Author opens the door.

"Persona," says the Author, and Persona's body disappears, and he turns into just a new shaped mask. The Author grabs the mask with two fingers from the bottom, fits it on his face, and steps outside.