Faith, Part 1

I have a salt shaker downstairs, with a race of tiny people living inside. These tiny people cannot be detected by any scientific means, and they do not do anything that can be detected by any scientific observation or experiment.

However, they have the power to do amazing things. For example, they created the entire universe, and they created life, and they can give you eternal life, so that you never have to die. Sometimes they may even grant your wishes; or not -- you can never tell for sure. The thing is though, you have to believe in them. If you don't, they won't grant your wishes of course (since you won't ask them to), and although you will still live forever, you won't like it much, because you will be tortured for eternity. So it's really important that you believe.

My neighbor on one side is absolutely certain that I am completely wrong about this, and doesn't believe in the tiny people (too bad for her.) Instead, she thinks there are fairies in the teapot that do basically the same thing. My neighbor on the other side is quite sure that we are both wrong, but he believes there are leprechauns in the sugar bowl. Both of them are of course badly mistaken and will be tortured forever after they die.

Oh, and you don't really have to give 10% of your money to the tiny people, but if you don't, you are kind of stealing from them. And if you want evidence, I don't really have any -- nothing you would call evidence anyway. You just have to believe.

You do believe in them, don't you?

If you are religious, that's your story. And that's all you've got.

This is called faith.