To Doubt or Not to Doubt
"Cherish your doubts, for doubt is the attendant truth.
Doubt is the key to the door of knowledge; it is the servant of discovery.
"A belief which may not be questioned binds us to error, for there is incompleteness and imperfection.
"To doubt is the touchstone of truth. It is an acid which eats away the false.
"Let no one fear the truth that doubt may consume it; for doubt is a testing of belief.
"The truth stands boldly and unafraid; it is not shaken by the testing for truth, if it be truth arises from those that would silence doubt are filled with fear; their houses are built on shifting sands.
"But those who fear not doubt, and know its use, are founded on rock.
"They shall walk in the light of growing knowledge; the work of their hands shall endure. Therefore let us not fear doubt, but let us rejoice in its help.
"It is not the wise as a staff to the blind; doubt is the attendant of truth."
By
Robert T. Nelson
Unitarian Universalist Hymnal Responsive Reading
John Potts(Arriving Home at the Source) Additional Comments:
I am very thankful that "doubt" about religious texts entered my life at various times and prompted me to question my present spiritual journey and to explore other possibilities. Quotes from particularly ancient religious texts taught to be the inerrant Word of God or other authors, make us particularly vulnerable and closed minded. Even when a fundamentalist Christian who believes every sentence in the Old and New Testaments is inspired by the Spirit of God and is without error, learns how the scriptures were translated, re-translated and put together by leaders like in the Catholic Church to control the population with fear, many times the news falls on ears filled with messages from the ego that every word in the various scriptures are true and if you give it up, God will send you to Hell for eternity.
Thankfully we live in an age rich in many sources of Spiritual experiences and easy access to freedom to search, experiment, compare and apply. Doubt about our present beliefs comes in very handy in letting go of rigidity in ancient written doctrines interpreted for us to be inerrant and THE ONLY source of Spiritual truth.
And of course there are fresh spiritual beliefs/experiences which we are free to doubt, interpret and explore, as well as combine with other doctrines as seems right to us.
As an example, I will use what some of my beliefs/practices have evolved into over seven and a half decades. I started out as a fundamentalist Christian believing that the Bible was the inerrant literal Word of God and without belief in the saving power of Jesus Christ and forgivness of sins, I was doomed to eternal torment in Hell. I now lean heavily toward the following beliefs/practices:
1. Anyone is free to establish their own belief system without being concerned that they will wind up in a Hell of torment.
2. There is no Hell to which God condemns millions.
3. The Spiritual Supreme Being, Christ, Holy Spirit, Creator, Father-God, Mother-God (name not important) is a Being of true LOVE and COMPASSION and desires that each of us is the same as He or She, Father, Mother Being. Supreme Being is all-knowing and caring.
4. LOVE and COMPASSION are the true Spiritual forces which live within each of us and is available, if allowed by our ego, to flow out through our desires and actions into the world, including positively affecting peace, humans, animals, plants, Earth's ecology including pollution - all in positive ways.
5. Reincarnation is a reality for each of us. The "real" us lives forever while our physical body turns to dust soon after each death.
6. Much can be gained by each person who applies principles of meditation in order to live peacefully "in the moment" not fearing about the past or future.
6. Much can be gained by each person who applies principles of meditation in order to live peacefully "in the moment" not fearing about the past or future.
The below summary of "my" evolved beliefs are very general and brief:
*NO one has to believe as I do to have eternal life.
*NO one will wind up in hell for being an atheist or agnostic or a criminal or a member of a "wrong" religion.
*Supreme Being is one of Love and Compassion.
*The vastness of physical universe and individual spiritual possibilities are unfathomable by us average folk... but,
*each of us has the Spiritual presence within us to develop our understanding and ability to exude love, peace and compassion.
Thank you for reading the above and hopefully you will (if you haven't already) exercise the freedom to doubt what your beliefs are; the process may lead through some rough spots until you wade through the numerous possibilities that await each human being living on this earth. I encourage you to explore the numerous books on Spirituality on Amazon.com as well as exploring the internet for the various forms of Spiritual practices and revelations which are being received by individuals open to more and more love truth.
Don't forget the comment section in this blog; you may want to ask some questions.
In Christ Love,
Arriving Home at the Source
(John Potts)
(If you want to know how I got the additional name of
Arriving Home at the Source,
scroll on the link you are on to another blog or two which explains it.)
ALSO, hopefully you will go to more of my links for Spiritual exploration:
To see 700 of my photographs for sale:
No comments:
Post a Comment