It is easy for me to scoff at the initial statement but I was wondering the other day about how I handle my beliefs in reality. I acquired a set of beliefs from my parents. Then I obtained some more from the school system and friends. After that I continued to layer beliefs into my life as I went through work and further educational environments. Alongside all these beliefs I was constantly having my initial beliefs reinforced by my family.
Then I realised that if I never questioned any set of beliefs I was not going to improve my understanding of the world, of my world and especially my place in the world.
So I questioned my beliefs. It is a healthy thing to do, trust me: that’s what I believe anyway ... but it’s up to you to question it and see for yourself.
1 comment:
Beliefs, experiences and practice...it seems to me that beliefs as I have received them are always political in thrust: designed as you say to exclude questioning, to provide a controlling template for how we interpret experience and to encourage dependence on the belief-holders, which are church, state or lineage. Extreme acts of cruelty and neglect have done by the belief holders and are right now, be it in the name of Christianity, Islam or Judaism.
Within those power structures, which are socially divisive hierarchies, among the common people, human goodness and kindness survives.
In fact, the reality is that the beliefs are not as fixed as the holders maintain - what they say about the beliefs in the face of science and the evidence of suffering (at the hands of a supposedly all-powerful and all-loving God, shifts.How they deal with those who question them remains puntitive.
So I propose a change in the title: "beliefs are tools of control and authority".
Bah!
Post a Comment