So what does it all mean?

Click on the question mark!

Vantage Point

I saw the movie Vantage Point recently. A thriller based on viewing the same incident from the vantage point of various people.
It made me think about my present point in life and how my perspective changes as I age and my circumstances change. When I was younger there were years in my past and decades ahead. Now I reflect on the past and see decades and realize that there are only a few years ahead.
From this "vantage point" how is my view of life and assessment of the world and it's inhabitants been affected? Where are you on the timeline below, and how does the world look to you? How far can you see in each direction?


Questions to ponder.

Words matter . . .

Human beings are meaning-seeking creatures. Unless we find some pattern or significance in our lives, we fall very easily into despair. Language plays an important part in our quest. It is not only a vital means of communication, but it helps us to articulate and clarify the incoherent turbulence of our in­ner world. We use words when we want to make something happen outside ourselves: we give an order or make a request and, one way or the other, everything around us changes, however infinitesimally. But when we speak we also get some­thing back: simply putting an idea into words can give it a lustre and appeal that it did not have before. Language is mysterious. When a word is spoken, the etherial is made flesh; speech requires incarnation - respiration, muscle control, tongue and teeth. Language is a complex code, ruled by deep laws that combine to form a coherent system that is impercep­tible to the speaker, unless he or she is a trained linguist. But language has an inherent inadequacy. There is always some­thing left unsaid; something that remains inexpressible. Our speech makes us conscious of the transcendence that charac­terizes human experience.

Karen Armstrong, The Bible, A Biography (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2007), p. xi

Understanding what we read

Some things to be considered:
The author's circumstances and worldview.
The author's purpose in writing.
When the writing was done.
Who is being addressed, their circumstances and worldview.
The form/style of writing.
Our own worldview (Are we looking at other century concepts with 21st century eyes?)
When we try to understand things that are written in other than our native tongue, other things to consider:
Idioms unique to that particular language.
Words and phrases that have no meaning in our native tongue.
The reliability of translators and their source documents.
The reliability of reference sources.

Focusing on words and definitions alone without considering all these other things is like focusing on grains of sand and missing the splendor of the seashore: the beach, the shoreline, wave action, patterns in the sand, beach debris, beach breezes and the beach's natural inhabitants.

None of us are original thinkers . . .

Science -
Religion -
Politics -
Relationships -
it's all the same. We believe what we believe because of whom we choose to believe.
What are the sources for the building blocks of our belief system?



For most, it starts with what our parents contributed as we grew up. Early in a child's life today comes a massive exposure to high-tech media such as TV, movies and video games. School and church with its teachers and our peers contributed their input to our developing belief system.
Throughout the process we accept and reject conscience-molding beliefs, but what factors affect whom we choose to believe and whom we chose to reject? Personal identity is the primary factor in the choices we make. Most identify himself or herself as part of a group, community or organization, and we are motivated to seek comfort in conformity.
All through our lives we strive to find and live in a comfortable community. Most of us are born into a community, a family of a particular size and composition. Maybe one or two parents and other relatives. Maybe siblings in the beginning or coming along later. For most it’s comfortable and then, as we mature, comes our inevitable exposure to other individuals and communities. When we’re exposed to new people and circumstances we seek acceptance and a feeling of worth. Sometimes we find it, sometimes not, but all the while we’re constructing our personal belief system.
Crisis may enter our lives, shattering the stability with which we have sheltered ourselves, and the search begins again. The search for an impenetrable barrier to protect us from fear, uncertainty and doubt. As a last resort, some of us become a community of one.
We need to recognize that we each have a personal belief system that confines us to an intellectual box that determines how we receive and process "new" ideas. The catch phase of "thinking outside the box" is not a process that comes easily.
Do we have the power to modify or rebuild our belief systems?
Where would the motivation to do so come from?
Are our belief systems the result of our efforts or the result of outside influences?
Or is it simply as I began this article, "We believe what we believe because of whom we choose to believe."?
Let's examine what a belief system is, what are it's component parts and how it's constructed and modified. Perhaps considering some synonyms would be a first step to understanding the nature of such a system:
world view
principles
conscience
paradigm
standards

This article is a work in progress. Perhaps one that will never be finished.

... man always believes more readily that which he prefers ...
-- Francis Bacon

All seem to me to have a part of truth and a part of error and each espies the error of the other and fails to see his own.
-- Michael Servetus

Seek God in Some New Way

Theologian John Sayre says, "Religion isn't yours firsthand until you doubt it right down to the ground."
If this is true - and it well may be - we need not be afraid of doubt. Rather, we should distrust anything we believe without at least an occasional reexamination.
So today exercise your brain and heart a little. Shine your questioning little flashlight into the darkest mysteries. read more...
-- William Cleary (How the Wild Things Pray, p 43)


If we begin with certainties, we shall end in doubts; but if we begin with doubts, and are patient in them, we shall end in certainties.
-- Francis Bacon