still learning.

It is difficult for me to admit that there may be things that I still need to learn, areas in which I still need to mature. I look around and wonder what these people could possible know that I don't. Oftentimes, I am not convinced there is anything, or, if there is, how I could ever access it.
But I have been learning. The difficult thing in admitting this is pride, sadly enough. And even though this may just be in keeping with pride, I would like to clarify--these are not things that a person learns from other people. I don't think that each person follows the same path as every other, or even that they work towards the same conclusions, necessarily.
Here are some things that I strongly believe.

Faith, ideology, belief. I believe these things are very personal, subjective. I believe that a person's relationship with God and others is explicitly their own and does not necessarily involve other people. Some might argue that faith is essentially social, that a person must act if they are truly to be considered a believer. While this may often be the case--more often than not, likely--I believe the statement itself to be inherently flawed. First, practically, this formulation would exclude the rich monastic tradition that every system of belief contains in its rich heritage. Second, I think it errs seriously when it comes to the fundamental relationship between belief, or faith, and the agent of belief. I truly believe that it all takes place in the heart or mind of the individual, or between a person and God. It has been often said that, reflecting the changed or motivated heart, a person must act if they truly believe. While I might agree with the causal relationship between changed person and external action, I would gently caution whoever makes this claim. There are 7 billion other people in this world, and many times more than that preceding them. If you think it is possible to formulate a general claim like that pertaining to all of them, you may be mistaken.

I believe that the bible is not incorrigible, or--to word this negatively--I don't think that every word of the bible is infallible. I might even go so far as to say that none of it is beyond doubt. The arguable exception of this would be the 10 commandments, but the original was destroyed and a man-made version was retained, if I remember the story correctly, so perhaps not even that is indubitable. I think that the bible represents humanity's--or at least a contained set of humanity, as far as I am concerned, the rest of the world is still an open question for me--attempt to understand their past, the present, and their relationship to God. The gospels are named after their writers and represent their perspectives. Paul wrote letters to specific churches at specific times. It is all subjective.

Many people, perhaps the majority of organized religion will fight me over that. That's fine.


To be continued...