Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Believe what you want as long as its your own...

This thought has been on my mind lately.

It can be taken in regards to almost anything: religion, faith, politics, child-rearing, social interactions.  But, it doesn't mean to make up your choices and decisions just based on what you think you know.  We need to be open to what we don't know and the possibility of facts going against our reality, beliefs and truths.

When I use words like Truth and Belief they're not the same concept as we're taught growing up.  How can two people believe two opposing things and both things be true?  How can we believe two different things and both of us be right?  I'm not saying that its always the case that everyone is right and could never be wrong - relativism.  Truths and beliefs do need to be balanced out with a sense of morality, ethics and compassion that transcends through all societies. But, at a different level, we can both have a different approach for the same end result.  There is not just "one way".

I can't accept that someone will believe what someone tells them at face value without having gone outside of their comfort zone to see if there are other opinions and facts.  Just because someone you respect says something, doesn't make what they say true, and it doesn't mean that you have to take it as truth and convert it into your own beliefs.  You can still respect someone and look up to someone, even if you don't agree with 100% of what they say.  Isn't this what friendship and marriage is about?  Same holds true for people with positions of authority in our lives.  We can respect, but not follow blindly.

The strongest ideas and beliefs are those that came about after we were nudged enough to make us uncomfortable.  We learn some information that pushes against what we think is true.  We finally realize that what we believe can stand the test or needs to be re-evaluated.  The strongest convictions come from not taking just one point of view, but looking through the different ideas and deciding for ourselves what is true for us- which may not be the truth for someone else.