Consider This

As one contemplates their own existence and purpose in life the conclusions are always subject to evolution. Change to these said conclusions should be as natural to one self as are the seasons in Nature itself. How else can one claim to be that of open mind or be that of an enlightened one?  Unless those conclusions are based on something more than by the mere words of others who have lived before them or are currently living.

*“Again I say, it is pure illusion to claim that a notion that has passed from one century to the next, from generation to generation, cannot be entirely false. If only we examine the causes of the establishment of certain opinions in the world about us, we readily see that nothing is less reasonable than such a claim.”

This then would cause one to examine or to question the said basis for establishing the creation of said illusions and to examine the result of the conclusion resulted in that belief. If that individual does truly have a certain spiritual belief and conducting their life in honoring that belief then that individual would undoubtedly do so.  Otherwise this then would put an individual’s own perspective in certain beliefs in to questions. It is to them I ask…

*“Tell me, please, how it happens that although there exist among men a prodigious diversity of opinion concerning the manner of serving God and living according to the law of propriety, we see nonetheless that certain passions constantly hold sway in all countries and have done so through all ages; that ambition, avarice, envy, the desire for vengeance, indecency, all the crimes that satisfy these passions are everywhere apparent; that the Jew, the Mohammedan, the Turk, and the Moor, Christian and infidel, Indian and Tartar, continentals and islanders, nobleman and commoners, all these kinds of people who, in other respects, we might say have only their humanity in common, are so alike in respect to these passions that we would think they copy one another? How can all that be true unless we admit that the true principle of all our actions (I except those in whom the grace of the Holy Spirit is fully operative) is our temperament, our natural inclinations to seek pleasure, the taste that we acquire for certain objects, the desire to pleasure someone, a habit contracted in dealing with our friends, or some other disposition which arises from the depths of our natures, in whatever country we may be born, and with whatsoever knowledge our minds may be imbued?”

These questions can only be answered by the individual himself, not only by the words that they speak but by their actions themselves, which speaks volumes to those whom have an ear to hear the truth. This then would leave an individual to logically and reasonably conclude …..

*“If a multiplicity of religions is harmful to the State, that is only because one religion will not tolerate the other but wants rather to swallow it up by dint of persecution. Hinc prima mali labes, that is where trouble begins.”

I ask you all then to examine the world that we currently live in. Search for yourself the reasons for all the current malcontent. Not just in your own countries of the world and their history if you have the means to do so. If not then ask why said information is barred from your discovery.

*“This consideration, if it were carefully weighed and thoroughly meditated upon, would surely reveal the truth of what I am here to claiming: which is that man’s present condition, God is content to demand that he seek truth as diligently as possible and when he thinks he has found it that he cherish it and make it the rule of his life.”

* From the writings of French Protestant scholar Pierre Bayle “Miscellaneous Thoughts on the Comet” (1682) and “Compel Them to Come In” (1686-1687)

Steven Willis Henderson