Thursday, January 7, 2010

Freedom from Received Opinion

How much of what we believe in, react to, is merely received opinion? I suspect it is alot. We often marry ourselves to cultural, political and religious ideas that we were born into. I find it enslaving, constraining so...

I imagined my mind floating above a world, shaped not of land, but of "continents" of thought -- theological, philosophical, sociological -- hovering over them, detached. My whole life I have traveled to, and spent time on, several of those “continents.” I have made them my home, embracing them and defending them, jingo-istically so to speak. Today I increasingly resist those culturally-born boundaries. My mind flies above them relishing the freedom of no thought, of all thought combined. Where is the place where a truth pertaining to all can be found/absorbed/known?

Yet each of us is a prisoner of her or his thoughts. What’s more, we want, if not demand, others to see our truths as we see them. Many join a “club” of belief systems. Entire cultures subscribe to general concepts/thoughts and, even then the individual members never interpret the concepts/ideas/beliefs in exactly the same way.

Thoughts are as varied as the number of humans creating them. The influences and forces that we react to every second of every day is different for each and every one of us. And therein lies a sort of freedom. The freedom is in deciding that what you think/feel/believe can be truth for you because no one really knows for sure…at least not until we find a some sort of unified field theory. An ultimate truth that pertains to every aspect of the universe exists but I will never know it with my limited mind. Only until we achieve total acceptance of and adherence to universal truths will we ever be free.

(first contemplated in February 2007)

1 comment:

Granggie said...

Opinions are like cells...everyone has them!

Our cultures do shape us. Yes we are born into them to a great extent however there comes a time when we learn there is more to us than that. We cannot live off the coattails of our parents.

What I know, what I believe, I have lived...am living. Many of my beliefs are a bit contrary to the beliefs of my parents, my grandparents, my sisters, my children.

My beliefs have come from a personal, intimate relationship with Someone I truly know, have experienced for myself. One of His names is Truth. He said that the Spirit of Truth will guide us into all truth...John 16:13.

Though known limitedly in the mind
real Truth is consummated in one's heart.

Knowing Him...Jesus...has made me free...is making me more free each day.