Things I don't know
There are a lot of things that I don't know. Really. Tons of them. But what I'm talking about my not be what you think. I'm talking about the deeper things. Things we hold on to, things we see as our core values.
The easiest subject for me to point out is religion. Is there a God? Am I part of the right religion? Am I serving God and will I go to heaven? These are all questions we think we know the answers to, correct? But my answers are different than your answers, so I'm not going to heaven and you are? We're both going? I'm Protestant and you're Catholic, who's right? How many thousands have died over that question? Baptist and Pentecostal, who's right? I won't even broach the subject of Islam.
So let me share with you my answer to all these questions; I don't know.
A great friend of mine shared a phrase that I have come to apply as one of my core values. He said “I'm smart enough to know that there are things I don't know.” That's genius. Another phrase I read said “Religion is man's attempt to answer questions that he doesn't have the answers to.” I don't think I quite agree fully with the second quote, but I do see where it's coming from. Do I as an individual believe in God? Yes Lloyd Lambert believes in God and in heaven and hell. I may be wrong...I don't know. And that's OK. (Somewhere Martha Lou Roberts just cringed because I started another sentence with and)
Still on the subject of religion, let's look at this from an engineering stand point. Let's say you're building a person. You need a skeleton, then blood, flesh, skin, eyes and then what? You need a spirit to put in it to make it a person. I think we all agree we have a spirit, that thing that makes me me and you you. Where does it come from? You could say the flesh and blood comes from your parents, well where does your spirit come from? In my own personal opinion, it comes from God. However, I don't know for sure. But that is my belief and my faith.
My hope and prayer, seriously, is that man evolves enough to accept one another's religion. If we all realize that it's OK to say “I don't know”, we could all live much more peacefully. I feel like I've reached this point personally. I am a Baptist, a Southern Baptist and I carry a bible given to me by a Seventh Day Adventist preacher. I have friends that are Wiccans. I have a great many friends that are Catholic. I also have friends that are Atheists. All those people I love and respect, and a member of each of those faiths reads this blog. I deplore the religions that kill in the name of their God. Christians like me have done that and right now many other beliefs are killing in the name of one God or another. To kill is wrong, no matter what the inspiration.
I believe that a lot of people believe what they believe only because their religion is that of their parents. Mom and dad were X so I am too. That's OK, but please have the open mind to consider that what you believe may not be 100% correct. I personally don't believe my chosen religion is fully correct in all the things we do. I sometimes disagree with our preacher's sermon and views. But the real answer is “I don't know.” I wasn't raised in a church. I wasn't exposed to a regiment of going to church like a lot of my friends. I wasn't baptised until I was 31, so I feel like I chose my religion as an adult and found the one that was best for me. I feel like those facts allow me to be a bit more objective when looking at faith as a whole. Religion may not be as strong in me as it is in those of you raised in a church, simply because I wasn't exposed to that environment as a child. I'm sure it's much harder for a life long X parishioner to consider that his or her view isn't 100% correct. But please, if you do anything, just consider that other religions think they are correct too and let's just agree to disagree and move on together. Whoever ends up being right can rub it in when we all get to heaven. For now let's move on together.
In life, we can simply apply “I'm smart enough to know that there are things that I don't know” to just about every philosophical question. Here are a few examples: The Big Bang, Nature vs. Nurture (a personal favorite), Life, Death, Ginger or Mary Ann? There are just too many to count. It's OK to not know the answer. Really. Don't waste your precious time here on Earth burning up your mind with questions that you simply can not truthfully answer. To have an idea of the answer, a feeling, a belief, that's OK. Just realize you may be in fact wrong. I could be wrong for writing this-I don't know.
So, hopefully I have made you think a little. And as always I hope to have not offended you or made you want to go all Jihad on me. "I don't know" isn't the answer to all the open questions. Some of the questions for which we do not have answers need to be solved. See you when I see you, LL
Oh and personally, Mary Ann
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