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Mid-week Inspiration,
One of the greatest challenges we as a human species have to face is accepting that we are wrong. We literally don’t like it. It is wrong to be wrong and we as a species will go to almost any lengths to deny that we could be mistaken. Continually this little challenge brings us to the brink of disaster in the world and in our individual lives. We seem to embrace a vision of ‘No change until there’s No Choice’.
One of the keys to true genius is the ability to accept that one is possibly mistaken, particularly around core beliefs.
For the most part the greatest technological leaps in human history have not been deeply complex. In fact to the contrary, they have been incredibly simple realignments of our core beliefs. It has been such ideas as a recognition of the world as round, that the earth revolved around the sun and that we are not the centre of even our own galaxy let alone the world.
It is interesting that each of these beliefs was in its time considered heretical and could cost a person life and freedom to even suggest their validity.
We often use our religious dogma to deny ourselves the right to a richer, fuller, better life. We accept beliefs and ideologies without questioning their validity. Even those of us who consider ourselves to be broad minded will often find ourselves defending rigorously some words written down three thousand years and three translations ago, even when they often contradict themselves.
At what point in human evolution will religion truly support free thinking? Possibly never… to do that we would have to relinquish power, release control and our need to be right.
In order to evolve we might have to genuinely accept that we could be wrong, that our parents might be wrong that our spiritual and even our political leaders may be wrong. Maybe we would have to accept that although our idea of democracy has more or less worked for us it’s not really the perfect system. In fact it only appears to work when we keep the majority of the world in poverty.
It is possible that we would have to acknowledge that our religion is not exactly perfect either but rather evolving with us. Maybe as we merrily march ourselves to the brink of a global disaster it’s time for us to embrace a new thought. Maybe, just maybe, we have been wrong as a society, as a culture, as a religious denomination; maybe we are not already perfect but rather a work in progress.
But that would be unimaginable; heaven knows we have never been wrong before.
Well I know I have; I know some of the greatest treatises through history have been proven wrong eventually. I know that I am willing to look at my life and my world and recognize that where there is any pain and suffering mistakes are being made and will continue until I have a new idea and act on that new idea with integrity and perseverance. Every day I practice this approach my life gets better and richer, there is more harmony and deeper value.
It truly would be a sad world if we became so entrenched in our old and flawed thinking that we could no longer experience the richness of a new and really challenging thought stretching our horizons. After all what would this world do without the occasional heretic?
Blessings, 
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