To get started we need to revist the
concept from the last paper regarding the difference between
experience and truth. Looking at the idea that all swans are white,
until we see our first black swan, introduces the concept that truth
exists independent of our experiences. The black swan always existed,
our belief that all swans are white had absolutely no effect on it
whatsoever.
So the first idea to consider when
beginning a quest for truth is that we close ourselves to discovering
truth when we think we know it already!
“To look at something as though we
had never seen it before requires great courage.” (Matisse)
I plan on discussing courage in a later
paper, but the concept I am describing when I speak of courage is the
ability to face oneself. There are people that make actions and
statements and plans and great successes that other people point to
and say “That person really thinks outside of the box.”
But if you ask them, they often will
say something like “what's a box? People actually think in them?”
They have already, somehow rid
themselves of limits or labels that the rest of us live with. This is
a complex subject regarding the nature of reality and truth. Simply,
the statement “No one ever told me I couldn't do that” is a
comment on both the nature of limits and labels and the nature of
courage.
“You can have no greater sign of
confirmed pride than when you think you are humble enough.” (Law)
That pretty much says it all, doesn't
it? Even without realizing we are all guilty of this to some degree.
Why learn a new way to wash dishes when the way we do it has been
working for years? Why learn a better, if more difficult way to
balance our checkbooks when the way we learned in school has never
steered us wrong?
Its a hard fact for many to face, but
just because we have not been corrected yet, does in no way indicate
we are doing “it” right.
“In times of change, learners inherit
the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to
deal with a world that no longer exists.” (Hoffer)
How would we realize that swans also
come in black if we did not maintain both the constant ability to
recognize something new, and most importantly the fact that what we
“know” may be incomplete or even (gasp!) incorrect?
So let me now turn to a quote from the
bible itself....
This is what's happening: Paul is on a
mission to Athens and he's a pretty smart guy. So he spends a day or
so wandering the marketplace before he tries to speak to the people.
He finds that there are a great deal of idols and other gods being
worshipped by the people, they even have one to the Unknown God, just
in case they missed anyone. So when Paul speaks he talks to them
about their Unknown God and how this is the God that he's come to
tell them about.
Pretty daring stuff really. If we're
going to be critically honest with ourselves, we would note that
although this story has gotten a great deal of traffic over the years
from ministers, if anyone tried something like this on an evangelical
mission they'd be excommunicated faster than you could say “Mars
Hill.”
But there's another part of that story
that's often overlooked.
“For in him we live, and move, and
have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we
are also his offspring.”
(Acts 17:28)
So Paul also read the Greeks poetry,
and quotes one of them in the bible.
The bible.
The living Word of God?
The un-error-able, literal, standard
that people cling to as the only truth in the universe? A quote from
a greek poet?
Have you ever read any greek poetry
from that period? It might be a little like a church adopting quotes
from pornographic romance novels into their doctrine.
Yet there's Paul, under inspiration
from the Holy Spirit, including it into our bible....
I think what this illustrates is that
Paul is saying truth can be found pretty much anywhere, anytime.
Then in 1Corinthians he really spells
it out:
“21Therefore
let no man glory in men. For all things are your's;
22Whether
Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or
things present, or things to come; all are your's; 23And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.”
Now it seems to me that what's going on here is that Paul is saying because all things are God's, and Christ is of God, and we are of Christ, then we now have the ability, through Christ, to claim the truth wherever we may find it. All things are ours.
And really, lets take a look at the
bible in it's totality. Basically we have this story, and it begins
with us in paradise. From a metaphorical sense we can talk about how
“paradise” represents not a real place or garden but the world as
its intended to be, as God intended it to be.
Then at the end of the last book in the
bible we see an image of this paradise restored. I could go on about
how this often overlooked part of the bible talks about the kingdom
of God being restored ON EARTH, and how that means Christianity is
NOT about some reward we are looking forward to receiving after
death, but about what we do NOW to fulfill God's purpose here (and
now)... but that's another paper.
The point is that the bible begins with
the paradise we lost, and ends with the paradise to come. To me that
means that the entire story is what happens in between. Me writing
this paper, and you reading it, are also parts of the story.
So how do you want your part of the
story written?
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