Updated: 6/15/04
 
 

THINK OR BELIEVE

 

So, what is a Jovial Atheist? He is a person like you who wishes the very best for all of mankind and for himself. The Jovial Atheist wishes no one had to go to bed hungry, or be sick without the attention of a capable, informed medical service. He would like to see all men and women learn to use their minds to help the world rid itself from the evils that come to us from the dark and empty space of ignorance. The Jovial Atheist wishes all mankind would (or could) use their minds to separate fact from fiction, truth from tall tales and reality from the ridiculous.

Ignorance is not just something you have NOT learned. Often ignorance is something you have spent many hours, days, weeks, months and years learning. Ignorance is often something you have spent many hundreds and even thousands of dollars learning. There are even Doctor degrees (PhD.s) issued for years of learning how to be ignorant. What am I talking about? Ignorance is the ability to discard the KNOWN and PROVEN facts of life and science in order to study, learn and perpetuate the untrue, the unknown and the unbelievable. Now that IS  ignorance! This type of ignorance is the REJECTION of proven facts and truth. Ignorance is believing the unbelievable. Ignorance is allowing superstition to guide our lives and goals.

The mind (intelligence) is the most marvelous development in the universe. The mind exceeds in value the stars from which comes the material of which mankind and his mind is made. An infant is born with a deep and curious quest to learn everything. What? Why? How? When? The infant mind is a sponge to absorb knowledge. It is a most powerful indexer of knowledge and the eyes of the infant see everything as new. The infant mind is a most precious addition to the truth seeking of mankind.

Then something happens! That infant mind, which knows nothing about falsehood, about lies and about man's insanity, is told falsehoods by those in whom the infant has trust. Knowing nothing about lies, the infant accepts the falsehood as being true. From that moment on, the infant is at a loss to separate fact from fiction. He is told about Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Boogy Bear and so on. That infant mind is bombarded by religious tales, and prayer, false hopes and false superiority.  And these things become as real to the infant mind as is the car he is driven around in by mama and daddy.

That questing infant mind is now bombarded by facts AND fictions. The infant has no way to separate the two. The adults, in whom the infant puts his trust, fail to equip the infant mind with the greatest aid needed to separate fact from fiction. The adults have failed to tell the infant questing mind that some things he is told are true, and some things are untrue. They have failed to tell the infant mind that he must honestly doubt the claims and statements made by anyone until he has studied the proposition and found them to be true or false. They have failed to equip the infant mind with the greatest aid available in determining the TRUTH. That is, the adults have failed to teach the infant mind about Honest Doubt, Research and Honest Clear Thinking in order to evaluate all claims or statements.

They have failed to instruct the infant mind to ALWAYS examine BOTH sides of any claim or statement. They failed to teach the infant mind the value of asking, "WHY?"

In sixty or less years that same questing infant mind has become hard as granite and as impervious to facts, logic and new useful knowledge as is a piece of steel. In other words, that questing infant mind has been nailed shut and crippled and in some it is destroyed. It is now capable of doing only routine work. It is no longer capable of honest, questing thought. It is no longer capable of honestly evaluating a statement or claim and determining the truth of the matter. It is no longer capable of seeing the NEW in everything. It is no longer capable of examining both sides of any political, religious or economic issue or matter.

Instead of adding to his knowledge, that granite mind now seeks to build barriers to protect the BELIEFS (ignorance) which he has substituted for knowledge and truth. In place of a wise and open mind, that granite mind now filters all incoming information through the BELIEF FILTER - FIRST. No matter how true that new information and knowledge is, and no matter how well proven that knowledge is, the granite mind rejects it because it does not conform to the beliefs that he now accepts as true. Belief (ignorance) now becomes the yardstick and barrier, which binds the mind.

Belief destroys the ability to recognize facts, TO SEPARATE FACT FROM FICTION and worst of all, steals the happiness and joy, which comes with a questing mind.

You are most likely somewhere between the infant questing mind and the granite mind of those who have all the answers even though they do not have a single clue to all of the questions. The Jovial Atheist is about to tell you a secret. This is a secret which will free you from the rock hard mind set which keeps you from being happy, productive, destroys personal relationships, causes war and terror of all kinds and most of all, keeps you from knowing the truth around you. This is the secret that will open your eyes to the fact, there is still more to learn about yourself and about the world. The use of this secret is also called a SIN by those whose granite minds do not wish to be disturbed. They do not wish others in their circle of influence to be disturbed or challenged with new or contradictory facts, truths and knowledge.

This secret is the fact that knowledge and truth is determined by learning to HONESTLY DOUBT the statements and claim made daily to you. Honest Doubt is the ONLY protection, which nature has given us to protect us from falsehoods, frauds and felons. Honest Doubt protects us from politicians, publishers, prophets, priests and preachers. If you wish to reclaim your infant questing mind then learn to honestly doubt what others tell you.

HONEST DOUBT IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM.

I AM ASKING YOU TO DOUBT EVERYTHING, WHICH I SAY OR WRITE!

Now, when you honestly doubt, you must also check and see if what you are told is the real truth - or not. I would never ask you to believe me. You only believe something when you do not have the facts to prove the matter. If you have the facts to prove the matter, you CANNOT believe. WHY? You cannot believe because you now KNOW the truth about the subject. So, falsehood tries to give you a false alternative to knowing the facts about a matter.

Falsehood says, "Since I can not prove my claims and statements to you, and since I do not have any real facts to present to you, you must therefore, NOT DOUBT. I can not prove to you that I am right and that I am telling you the truth, so you must now BELIEVE that I am telling you the truth." This appeal to Belief is usually followed by the threat of some dire and terrible punishment such as, "Or you will go to HELL." This hatred and FEAR of thinking HONESTLY is the intellectual property and ONLY defense of all religiously oriented minds.

The falsehood has told its followers that to think, to honestly question the claims and stories made by them, and to search for the truth of any religious or political matter, is to SIN. To examine BOTH sides of a matter is to commit a religious SIN.

Think about that!

Do you not know that to honestly doubt wild and baseless claims is the beginning process of thinking? The first step in problem solving and finding the truth of a matter is to honestly doubt the claims and statements made daily to you. That clears the air so a person becomes FREE to evaluate and honestly think about the matter. So the falsehood tells you to NOT DOUBT and it tells you to OBEY! People do not even realize that falsehood has told the lie so many times, the lie soon becomes a cultural totem and is accepted as truth. On the other hand, to honestly doubt some wild, unbelievable claim is to sin. I have a question.

COULD AN HONEST, JUST GOD ASK US TO STOP THINKING
AND START BELIEVING?

I do not think so! Notice, I said an HONEST, JUST GOD.

Up dated regularly and new material added for your thinking and questing.

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Copyright July 1999 Thomas E. Blaylock jr

Updated: 06/015/04

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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