If you could blame the downfall of the human spirit and the lack of joy in the world on one thing, what would it be? Talk about your loaded questions.

I actually had a homeless man ask me that on the street once. I was on vacation, and here this bum is asking me about the human spirit and lack of joy. Needless to say, I did not fire back with an answer. Instead, I followed those ancient words of wisdom passed on from every mother to every child: “Don’t make eye contact.”

Now, I am hoping that I see that man again someday. Because after thinking about it long and hard for a whole month after it happened, I think I could now counter with a reasonable answer. The void of spirit that is in the world has been caused by a lack of blind faith.

Blind faith is an important quality to have. Without blind faith, you can only believe in things in the universe which you yourself can prove. Obviously, that is not going to work.

We’re all pretty sure that the sun truly is a big yellow star, but who among us can really prove it? Sure, you can read it in a book or burn a hole in your retina pointing a telescope at it, but you can’t really prove it.

I’d venture to say that way less than half a percent of the population has the mathematical and astronomical knowledge to prove the existence of the sun. And even those who do are probably relying on formulas proven by other people and using data they did not collect.

But that isn’t really my point. Spiritual void doesn’t have much to do with your inability to solve complex, calculus-based physics formulas (that has to do with your capacity to stay in your original major).

Spiritual void is caused by lack of blind faith in such things as love, ISU athletics and God.

First of all, let me tackle love. The concept of love revolves around blind faith. You must trust another person even more than you trust yourself for no real reason other than you think you feel an emotion that no one can truly explain. For all we know, one man’s love is another man’s heartburn.

You’ve got to buck up, blindly believe that you are indeed in love and spend a bunch of money on the little lady. It’s a leap of faith every time you try to convince yourself that you’re in love. No matter how perfect everything is going, there’s that moment when you are laying in your bed late at night.

Right when the train goes by for the third time in the last hour, suddenly the thought hits you. Only blind faith will allow you to get through those moments.

Next, the void of spirit that is caused by lack of faith in ISU athletics. I think most people who have ever been Cyclone fans can testify that being a true ‘Clone fan requires more blind faith than can be realistically mustered (but you can get close).

Every time the football team has a lead, you must have blind faith. Every time the basketball team puts in Tony Rampton, you must have blind faith. Every time you play the Hawkeyes in anything, you must have blind faith.

Even though you’ve been through enough to know that all of these situations will end in disaster, you must pretend that they won’t. You must talk as if your Iowa State teams are top-notch in every sport, even if you are discussing football.

It’s the only way that you can stay sane. You must have complete blind faith because if for some reason something did happen that was miraculous and moving, like perhaps a victory over the Iowa football team, you won’t miss out because you did not predict victory.

Believe me, as a man who knows what it’s like to bleed cardinal and gold, doing so is a nearly religious experience.

Speaking of that, the third thing that blind faith must be used in is religion. God is something kind of foreign to your average college student.

All students seem to fall into three categories as far as religion is concerned: the bible-thumpers who insist on wearing shirts proclaiming God’s love for them, the self-proclaimed atheists who don’t believe in God because they love it when people hate them, and the rest of us.

I’m most concerned about the rest of us. The other two groups have got their act down and seem to have faith in their cause, and to them I tip my hat (and I scream at them to shut up). But for the lost souls who fall in between (I believe that covers most of us), we don’t have blind faith.

For the most part, we were all raised in some sort of religious manner. Maybe some of us even attended church on a regular basis. But for some reason, we just don’t think much about God anymore. It’s not that we don’t believe in the whole ultimate divine power deal, but it just seems to be too much of a hassle.

Now, I’m not saying that all of us shuffled masses in the middle should run out and buy ourselves a crucifix necklace, I’m just promoting a little blind faith. No, nobody can prove it. Yes, it seems a little ridiculous at times. Yes, it seems to make people crazy enough to stand out by the hub and pass off hate as religion.

But maybe that’s what’s missing from our lives after all. Maybe we should just give religion a thought from time to time. That probably sounds corny, but just try it in some small way that works for you.

I can’t guarantee anything, but maybe it will help. As for the other two, I know those will help at least two things. It will cut down on the divorce rate and those fans who think it’s cool to leave football games at half-time because we’re losing by a touchdown. All you have to do is have some blind faith.

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David Roepke is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Aurora.