There are expectations in every age and culture, normative behaviors, rules to follow. But not every time period has, or has had, conditions where people had the freedom to doubt, question, and reject all the world's bad ideas. As we wrestle with truth and direction we should realize also that man has a track record for producing imperfect, frequently unfair, thinking and beliefs.
Along the road of each persons journey through life lurks a million witnesses waiting to greet and tell impressionable minds what certainty is all about. These witnessing minds appear in humanities path with thousands of prepared ideological claims, each idea believed by them with great certainty.
We stand here in a moment of time, a moment that is fleeting, dwindling quickly away, drifting on with the seasons, and soon to be snuffed out with the changing calendar. We are here somewhere amid endlessness, part of the eternal, and it's wonders, and whatever hidden unknowns that might involve, while none of us should allow to be stolen from our minds how existence here, in this anomalous place, is magnificently complex and sublimely interesting.
A woman standing nearby suddenly remarks thoughtfully: "I believe people should be given a fair chance to believe in existence's possibilities or alternatively to be free to doubt any ideas they want. I think it's fair to open for people a way to think freely, if they choose, and to encourage them to question reality in different ways, and believe what they think is true."
I respond "I agree but don't you think we should challenge the legitimacy of certain claims like those found in the Old Testament of the Bible? Doesn't this ancient thought imprison the mind in fear holding human minds hostage to irrational beliefs many of us never dare step free from? Is it right that people are fearfully led to believe that God might punish us for daring to doubt the writing or for daring to reject the far-fetched claims made about history, morality, and what we think is fair to think about reality. Weren't these writings actually humanly constructed leading to an experience of trembling unnecessarily as our thoughts misleading believe from repetitive Bible sermons it is God who created the scripture verses?"
"We'll believe and teach what we think the truth revealed from God is!" the woman said indignantly.
Slightly annoyed I say to her rolling my eyes "Yes it's your right to teach ideas freely even when those ideas indoctrinate impressionable minds into holding lifelong delusions".
I contemplated now people who scoffed at the idea a superior mind existed. I wondered what physical state, if any, this great mind might embody. I considered our human skeletal system, organs, and bodily systems, constructed from matter wondering if this great mind could abide in a physical state like ours. As my thoughts considered this further I then questioned the possibility of whether our bodies really held our minds, not just our brains.
The great conscious mind of God I knew personally existed which is the source of immense creativity, the builder of world's, the salvager of personalities, the source of both true fairness, and our highest aspirations, and yes is even capable of salvaging us, our memories, and personalities, from the seeming finality of death.
Who has competently ruled out definitively the possibility of a superior form of conscious life I wondered. Who is perfect enough in their knowledge and understanding to stand in the way of hopeful ideas that dare to try and explain with hope the development of our unusual consciousness in the unknown. We sit within a miraculous natural order, a baffling creative place, and here people have the natural tendency to aim our thoughts unusually at the idea of hope, possibility, eternal life, gods, and God.
I'm convinced that this world's mysteries have not been objectively explained. I personally hope multitudes of people don't get persuaded by atheist arguments but I'm not threatened by atheist belief. I don't believe for a second God is angered or threatened by the different answers people searching for truth arrive at. Obviously if so many minds form so many different views of what the truth is finding truth can't be universally attainable, that is if different perspectives on reality are so foreign to God's planning, but if these different beliefs are not foreign to God's planning, when human beings pursue truth in different ways, then God wouldn't be threatened by our inquiries, however imperfect, nor plan to condemn us by throwing us into some anciently devised place of eternal torture, but instead perhaps plan to love us, as God winks at the great atheist scientists of history, and at people of other religions and cultures.
When someone instructs you to accept the idea life is beautiful and interesting but is a life without future hope, without ultimate purpose, they are reducing the scale, size, and reach of realities underlying mysteries. The perspectives they are selling is not the end all tell all. No one in the history of the world has explained all the mysterious unknowns surrounding this miraculous stage of life with any completeness. In the mystery interpreted by scientists, poets, painters, and novelists, through the insights of skeptics, spiritual people, philosophers, none of us owns an understanding of complete certainty. We instead remain up to our necks in this life's mystery.
I now wonder where the desire to plant our personal belief's in other people's mind comes from. Why do inadequately informed people feel the need to produce in others the same perspective they have on reality. Why do people feel compelled to indoctrinate and convert other imperfect minds unfortunately into an ideological prison-- a place where people know as little about reality as they do. Why can't people be permitted the chance to look for meaning freely. If that freedom involves attempting to talk to God then personally I think it's relevant knowing God as he has spoken to me numerous times.
I know from my conversations with God that he is fair, loves all of us, both God the father, and Jesus the son loves us, whoever we are, whatever country we live in. I'm not suggesting anyone quit living, or stop being who you are, or loving who you love, and I'm not attempting to take away your freedom, but being open-minded to a fair God who really has your back, in my opinion, is worth knowing. Go on and continue to think about life in a myriad of unique ways. For us to have error in our beliefs, in my opinion, does not mean hope with God is lost. After experiencing a rigid unfair dogmatic indoctrination into religion I came out the other side with the courage to admit these ideas aren't fair, but I know God is, so I'm now a rejecter of rigid organized religion.
I don't think the Bible is perfect. Many teachings in the Bible are unfair and many of the stories are fantastical and unbelievable. I'm not rejecting God but I am rejecting the idea I have to bend my mind into a weird unhealthy shape and accept all those unreliable truth claims. Saying this I've talked to God numerous times and I know he exists. I know Jesus exists too and I talk to him even more frequently then God.
Peace is both a pursuit and form of consolation God has guided me toward as I struggle with delusional beliefs experienced living with schizophrenia. Both Jesus and God the father have spoke to me in clear thoughts, sharing insight, and telling me that I'm loved, and that every other person in the world is loved, which is very helpful.
On a day not far away from now all present generations will be gone from the earth. It is then that we'll stand together, as a great multitude, and understand the terms of what God's real good is about. We'll see and understand every other person's heart. We'll think rightly, be fair, and care about our neighbor in a mature enlightened way. Seeing each other the way God sees us we'll let down our guard.
We will no longer be selfish or insincere but value our fellow man's humanity as we step into God's triumphant domain. We will move into the peaceful reaches of a paradise unimagined, and never seen, a good beyond any ideas we presently understand. It is then that God will make himself completely known to us. We will shed tears filled with joyful understanding, knowing a euphoria beyond estimation. Until that day comes, we can choose to walk through this world courageously with our heart's open. As we move forward with wisdom we'll step knowingly off any path that hints of darkness that we mistakenly might step down. When this happens to you and the dark path meets your feet avoid that ground knowingly and remember that I am here with you. I will never leave any one of you alone. Tell them what you hear today Donald and remind them they are cared for in immeasurable ways never experienced by the human imagination before.
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