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Beliefs
As I said before, there
is not a single thing anyone could say that would that would be
believed by everyone. The moment a belief system is chosen, be it
religious, scientific, or spiritual, everyone outside that belief is
necessarily excluded.
So how do we include everyone?
Regardless of whether your
belief is strongly defined or completely unconscious, it plays
a decisive role in how you perceive the world around you and how you
react to it. As such, we must understand exactly how our beliefs exert
this control and what this means to us as individuals and to all
humankind.
Any organization, even
a secular democratic government, caters to certain beliefs. The survival
of any organization is dependent upon how well their followers feel
their beliefs are being represented. That is why you will not see an
article on how to most effectively know the will of God in New Scientist.
This is also why any
organization needs to tread so very carefully whenever it speaks
publicly. Sometimes, even a single mistake can irreparably damage the
loyalty of its followers.
Isn’t
that what you are doing right now – trying to determine if
the information on this site matches, reinforces, and/or expands your
perception of truth? To save you the trouble, I can tell you right now
that even if it has so far, it will not continue to do so.
This
is why: this work assumes all beliefs contain unique truth(s) that are
crucial parts describing reality.
There is a way to see this
that is inclusive of what everyone believes, but as things stand right
now, the
opposite is true. While a view that includes all beliefs can act as a
powerful meeting place, everyone will also be in the presence
of elements with which they disagree.
You must choose how to
respond when this happens.
We are "trained" to be more
sensitive to disagreement than agreement. Even a single disagreement
can cause us to disengage from something that previously fascinated
us.
Throwing
everything away because of a single discordant note is a bit
like
throwing away your baby the first time you throw away old nappies or
diapers. This creates
artificially large disconnections between two points of view and thus
allows shadows of disconnections to form in our communities and
society. Within
these large shadows, some very destructive patterns can form.
On
the other hand, if we can learn to look at ideas and see how they might
fit within our belief systems instead of creating walls between
ourselves, an amazing thing could happen.
Scientists
using microscopes don't usually attack the findings of those
with
a telescopes. As a community, we put together what these two groups
study (and many others) to conceive a far greater picture than only one
group alone could.
Similarly, we could put all
our pictures together and see something far greater than any single
belief alone can see.
In
order to do this, we need to find a way to allow ourselves to have a
different reaction whenever ideas outside our beliefs challenge our
own.
I am not suggesting
submission, I am suggesting expansion.
I sincerely hope you give
this a chance and don't abandon it the first time you read something
that you are certain cannot be true.
Go to The Solution
- Part 5
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