The Importance Of Questioning Our Beliefs By Neale Donald Walsch

[Steve Hutchinson]

The Importance Of Questioning Our Beliefs By Neale Donald Walsch

My dear friends...

I am going to begin the present exposition by repeating a statement I have made before: The problem facing humanity today is not a political problem, it is not an economic problem, and it is not a military problem. The problem facing humanity today is a spiritual problem, and it can only be solved by spiritual means.

The problem is rooted in our most fundamental beliefs about life, about each other, and about the thing we call God. It is these beliefs that are causing — and have always caused — many of humanity’s biggest and most urgent problems, and it is what we believe that must change if we are to resolve humanity’s dangerous dilemmas.

“Beliefs” is just a shorter word — and for some, a more friendly word, a less threatening or confronting word — for “spirituality.” It is what we hold to be true at the deepest part of our being. It is what we live by, make our decisions around. It is the lens through which we look, and it determines, to a large extent, what we see.

Most people will not even seriously explore the possibility of changing their most fundamental beliefs — and that is where the problem lies. Why? What is this reluctance about? It is about our absolute refusal to do a particular and very specific thing that could alter the course of human history.

Beliefs are the thoughts and understandings, convictions and notions that we have embraced and embedded deeply within us regarding what is true about life, about God, about who we are and our reason and purpose for being here, about our relationship to each other, about how life functions, and about the ultimate goal of all of it. But before looking at that, let me explore why our beliefs are important in any event.

Our “beliefs” create our behaviors. They form the foundation of everything we think and say and do. They fuel our economics, our politics, our relationships, our interactions with ourselves and with each other. They fuel the engine of our lives; which takes us exactly where we are going.

And where do these beliefs come from? From our parents, initially. Then, from our family, our tribe, our clan, race or culture, our teachers, models and elders, our religions and philosophies, from our histories and yes, from our media. And because they have come to us from such important, impactful, significant, and in some cases venerated and sanctified, sources, we have found ourselves stuck in a remarkable place.

This is not a place where we find ourselves in any other area of our collective lives. Not in science, not in technology, not in medicine. Only with regard to our most sacred and important beliefs.

In every other important area of human endeavor there is something that we have been willing to do that has made those endeavors productive, fruitful, and enormously beneficial.

In science we have done it, and it has produced extraordinary discoveries. In medicine we have done it and it has produced astonishing miracles. In technology we have done it and it has produced breathtaking advances. Yet in one important area — the most important area of our lives...our beliefs….most of us have more often than not, staunchly refused to do it.

And what IS it that we have refused to do in this one aspect of our daily experience that we have done in every other area of our lives...?

QUESTION THE PRIOR ASSUMPTION.

In science, the very reason we have been able to discover something that we did not understand before is that we have been willing to question the prior assumption. In medicine, the very reason we have been able to come up with a new cure or a miraculous new procedure is that we have been willing to question the prior assumption. In technology, the very reason that we have been able to imagine or conceive of a new tool or a new device is that we have been willing to question the prior assumption.

In all of these areas we have held nothing that we thought we knew to be so sacred that it cannot even be questioned. It may take us some time. We may do it with some reluctance. Yet sooner or later, breakthroughs occur because we have finally questioned the prior assumption. But not so in the single most important area of our lives. Not so in the area of our most sacred beliefs. In that area, we are going to hold onto the Original Idea and the First Version of things, no matter what. This is what we have been told, this is what we know, and this is how it is.

Now if we did this in medicine, we would be attempting brain surgery today using a very sharp stone. If we did this in technology, we would be trying to launch a communications satellite using a stick of dynamite. If we did this in science, we would be endeavoring to unravel the mysteries of the universe using an abacus.

We need now to do with our beliefs what we have done in every other area of human interaction. We need to stop trying to solve modern problems with ancient tools.

A very wise teacher once said, “Who would you have to make wrong in order to begin again a search for the truth?”

Is it your parents? Is it your family, your tribe, your clan? Is it your race or culture? Is it your teacher, your sacred model? Is it your religion or philosophy? As long as you need to continue to make these sources right, you may never be able to “right a wrong” in your world.

Yet when God tells us, “You’ve got me all wrong,” as we heard in Conversations with God, we are given permission to raise questions again about our beliefs regarding life — and even about our beliefs regarding God; to, quite literally, question authority. Indeed, to question The Highest Authority. So the issue before humankind now is, do we have the courage to do that? Because questioning beliefs can sometimes cause us to change them. And changing our beliefs can cause us to change our behaviors.

What if the purpose of life had nothing to do with what have become our normal Earthly pursuits? Would that not be important for us to know? Would that not be the most important message God could ever send us?

It is our Prior Assumptions about Life, about God, about the purpose of the entire human experience, that have created the utterly dysfunctional experience we call life on Earth today.

The biggest and most damaging of those Prior Assumptions is what we will look at next.

Love and Hugs,

Neale

© 2018 ReCreation Foundation - http://www.cwg.org - Neale Donald Walsch is a modern day spiritual messenger whose words continue to touch the world in profound ways. His With God series of books has been translated into 27 languages, touching millions of lives and inspiring important changes in their day-to-day lives.