|
We needn't abandon all reason
In order to protect our religious faith
From science or from our own intellect.
Do we protect our doctrines from questions and contradictions
Because we are somehow fearful that God really can't be found...?
Or that science will totally disprove His existence...?
Do we think
That if we go beyond the safety of just believing in something...
Into a search for explanations...
That such an act constitutes a lack of belief...?
Are we afraid to look for God...
Thinking we would make Him human when He is High Spirit...?
How can we ever understand... "High Spirit"...?
Are we afraid that if we question the definitions
Of what is "good" and "bad"
That those definitions will at last be lost
To a world of human logic and reasoning...?
A world that we might think
Has no measurable definition of "good" and "bad"...?
Are we hoping to find God somewhere
In the walls of our churches...?
Or in the endless manna of moral dispensations...?
Are our churches sanctuaries for the gentle of soul...?
Missions to the lost of our societies...?
A place of comfort and of hope for our lives...?
Or have we just built another Tower of Babel...
Long in words and short in understanding...
In our eagerness to get to heaven...?
Are we suffering
From a type of mental addiction to self-righteousness...?
Based solely on a faith that we barely understand...?
That is full of... mysteries...?
Why... so many mysteries?
If it is truth, then it is true of itself,
It doesn't need to be taken out of the world
Of comprehension and human understanding
To be explained away.
Truth speaks for itself.
One doesn't need to take it on faith.
If God is Truth...
Then He would not be lost to the truths of scientists.
If God is Truth...
Then truth itself will not destroy Him.
If God is Truth...
Then faith is not an end to the role of religion...
Faith is only the beginning...
The beginning of our search for Him...
And for a human rightness.
Faith and belief are only an energy to find that truth,
Not a goal to claim as an achievement in itself...
Not a place to stop and remain distant from the Light...
Not a leash of obedience we willingly submit to...
To let someone else search for God.
But, it can be too confusing to understand so many doctrines...
And so... we are lulled into an existence of obedience...
Leaving the understanding of doctrines... to others.
We cling so strongly to our doctrines
That we have actually abandoned belief...
Substituting doctrine for true understanding.
We like the certainty of religious definitions
Because the darkness hurts.
We embrace religions to still that desire to know...
To calm that longing to understand.
As intelligent creatures,
We yearn to have clear definitions of truth,
Yet... it has been so elusive.
We have accepted doctrines
That have been standards for milleniums...
Yet that... do not really fulfill our hearts.
Religion should not be a craft
To seduce God into loving us...
It should be the art of truth.
As intelligent creatures...
We cannot turn off our minds.
Our brains want to know truth.
Our survival instinct... needs to know truth.
Our very being MUST have truth to function.
In our enigma, we must find the answers
With the only thing we have...
Our hearts.
We may only need to connect the truths.
We must know that we have been answered,
And that that answer is embodied within creation itself...
And within life.
Finding the truth
Has everything to do with survival.
To discover truth...
We must become truth.
Until we embody truth our hearts will be lost...
We will remain children with no true understanding...
We will never achieve a true manhood...
We will never be creatures of Light and intellect...
And... we won't know the truth if we see it.
It may be that understanding science
Is what will help us understand God.
But, we must recognize the distinction
Between scientific theory and proven science.
Our science must be correct or it is only a mere possibility...
Another leap from one lily pad to another.
You can test your own understanding
Of what is written in the scriptures
By approaching with various sorts of pre-existing beliefs.
You may discover that whatever you believe each time...
Is reflected back to you somehow.
Scripture is just as true with one pre-existing conclusion
As it is with another...
And what you don't understand...
You can just dismiss as "a mystery".
This treatise will start from its own premise...
To take its own look at all that we accept as the Truth.
The standard interpretations of scripture
Have been formed from a pre-existing concept...
That mankind is flawed and is in desperate need of salvation...
That we are born sinful...
That God is wrathful...
That we are saved by blood and sacrifice.
We are all familiar with these doctrines.
This treatise will take a fresh look
In the hope of finding a more whole explanation
Of what is written.
It's premise is... God is Love...
And He teaches us how to love.
Mankind's problems are a direct result
Of us not knowing how to love.
We should have learned just from life...
How to love one another.
This treatise's premise also is...
That unless one can stand at the top of a mountain
And see all that ever was and all that ever will be...
One cannot see the whole of all Truth.
That... can only be God's province.
That... is part of the wholeness of all that is.
But... the foundations of life are set firmly.
We are surrounded by beautiful truths...
Truths that we should know...
Truths that we should claim understanding of...
Truths that could never change God.
It is from these truths
That God has formed all that is.
We should discover...
All... that... is.
When Jesus healed,
It was described again and again as..."being made whole."
To be made healthy?... good?... complete?... whole?...
There is something of science in the concept of wholeness.
If we think of all things in terms of their wholeness,
We might begin to grasp at the Truth.
|
