CHAPTER 1
Origin Of Belief
Schools of psychologyconcerning the origination of spiritual belief have convincingindications all life on Earth has always experienced someform of emotional belief. Under a microscope, smalllife is in a constant and frantic search for protection,food, companionship or sex which obviously continuesbecause of a belief it will materialize through persistenceand usually does. Hence, the fruit of belief. The sameapplies to larger life such as rats and roaches. Theywill accomplish almost any task they set their mindsto, obviously again, because they believe if they do notaccomplish their task, they may not survive. Appearancesare that belief hinges on insecurity in the negative senseand confidence in the positive sense.
Escalating a bit to the size of the monkey, they areego and emotionally driven. They are not driven as muchby fear because they possess the confidence (the belief)that perpetuates them to jump and flee in a moment ifnecessary. Their belief system also allows them theconfidence to capture the affection of other monkeys andmore recently, humans.
The belief system of a rabbit or a bird, in general, isto survive and reproduce, but they are still confident inaccomplishing their daily tasks because they believe intheir defense mechanisms.
Humans, with more intelligence driven capabilitieshave had tendencies to complicate their belief systemsas far back in history as we know because of developingso many alternatives. Some are helpful where experienceis utilized and some become readily confusing anddisastrous. Humans are aware of the risks of so manyalternatives. They are aware they cannot handleeverything perfectly all the time. That is a fairly firmbelief too for the normal person.
Animals have always been simple and not greedy.Man has always complicated life by taking chanceswhich is a belief in calculating, not necessarily anecessity. Man has always wanted "more" which is abelief in greed.
Word of mouth philosophy and belief in varioussupernatural beings were passed through manygenerations prior to materially recorded history.
Appearance and speculation has it people in thosedays were intellectually uncontaminated and didn'tposses broad perspectives of endless possibilitiespertaining to, in this case, spiritual or religious concepts.Many beliefs were misinterpreted, misunderstood,mistrusted, and condemned. Belief systems were onlyforming. The battles for religious consolidation unfoldedslowly to remove the anxiety of their needs to feelsecure.
The unfolding and timely results encompasseda population of naive and gullible people who trulybelieved they had "discovered" a revelation of spiritualrewards that would cure all human insecurities and ills.Nothing indicated any relativity, though, to the remainingbalance of living beings (animals and insects, etc.) in andon the planet. The people were limited in their scope ofbelief and biased as to whom or what may "qualify" tobe possible candidates for their vision of an afterlife orwhatever their culture believed.
Is there a meaningful difference between faith andbelief? Believing in something (anything) is usuallyaccomplished through observing or studying it over alengthy period of time. Believing something instantly asa result of hearing, reading or seeing may be allowing amisconception in or of belief.
Early man was obviously more concerned abouteating and surviving and less concerned aboutphilosophy. Nevertheless, the hunt for food wouldn'thave existed for animal or vegetable without a feasiblebelief it could be accomplished. Hence, mankind wouldhave died without that inherently strong belief.
Strong as it was and still is, it wouldn't have existedwithout the will of faith to secure it. Which comes first,faith or belief? Dictionaries describe them both to beabout the same. Let's look at it.
Logic infers belief is something someone "does"(in this case, reference is directed to all living beings).Usually, something is "done" after one has discoveredreason to "do" it. This reasoning is an executive typepower of the mind. That is, it is that which initiates adecision. In this case, it is the decision to "believe" insomething.
True, it could be said discovering reason requiresfaith. How far will we be willing to exercise thisanalysis? Being reasonable about it all, belief isgenerally, preceded by faith. What is prior to faith isanother story.
Faith is gathered from headquarters of the mind,collectively, which is confident enough for decidingwhat to believe. Belief can be just as momentary asfaith. Example: "I believe I will change my mind." Itis possible, within reasonably accepted parameters,that may happen in the reader's mind somewhere in orafter the contents of this book when the mind decidesto "really" open and analyze whatever privileges,birthrights and possibilities are available.
The origin of belief concerning the beginning ofmankind, their historical, religious and personal beliefs,belief of belief itself or even the belief to not believe isbasically no different from day one (whatever, wheneverthat was) of mankind and all living beings than it is atpresent.
However the direction, reality, believability, qualityor validity of mankind's past and present, they doclaim and deserve credit for exercising faith and beliefregardless of whether they can or even want to confirmor justify them. That is the wondrous privilege of choiceavailable to all the same as the availability of all Earth'scontents and surely must be respected by all.
If one believes in God, in the conventional sense,then surely one would have to believe God was inexistence forever. That's an inconceivable length of timefor the human mind to digest. Of course, no one knows.The balance of that knowing is equal to the amount ofknowledge we have in knowing or understanding whatthe term "God" really is. The sum total of that deductionis only a belief. There is no knowledge of any God; onlybelief. Deducting the age and originality of belief is equalto deducting the age of all living matter.
Comprehending enough data on the age of all livingmatter will allow one more knowledge about the self. Ifnot, then you may just want to settle for the possibilityof belief being here at least as long as man has. If ithas been here that long, it has to be real and powerfulenough whether it is for religious purposes or for gainingcomplete confidence and security within the self.
The origin of belief isn't just something like horsesstarting a race at the gate or a result of Sunday schooltraining. It didn't just start when mankind beganrecording religion. It began when the first tadpoles oflife began forming untold millions of years ago. Theirfirst instinct was to protect themselves for survival asany other species of life. Their wiggly gyrations were aprocess of preventing predator attack while searching forfood and mating partners. Trial and error taught them aneffective belief system of what would or what wouldn'twork.
Today, it's a little different, but basically the same.Our belief system today, that is within thousands ofyears, is a result of trial and error. As in those very earlydays of life, belief systems begin slowly and changewith the passage of time. We are at present fluctuating inour beliefs from one protective aspect to another. That'snothing new.
What "is" new is happening "today" with the stabilityof our belief systems (there are obviously many). Allsystems, as in the beginning, pass through a breakingdown era, then form new ones or at least make somechanges. At present, we have already entered into thatera similarly as did the tadpoles of the ancient past. Theonly differences are the shapes, sizes, socialistic andgeographical intensities and other factors.
The origin of belief wasn't necessarily a basis forbelieving; only a beginning. Many trials and errorswould form a base. Originally, according to the theory ofevolution, mankind (in that stage) was indeed very smallin their lower form of development and could only gatherfood that was available on the ground (they couldn'treach up yet) for surviving. Hardly enough sound basisfor believing in anything other than stretching themind enough to learn how to grow for their obviouslyintended destiny of wanting more. That means beliefsystems began and still are dependent on that instinctualmagnetism to grow from one stage to the next as theygain confidence.
Going back in time just a bit for the benefit ofrealizing changes in thinking and believing really dounfold as time passes. The belief of a Supreme Beingliterally began between four to five thousand years ago.Belief systems weren't recorded prior to that time.
More recently, somewhere around two thousandyears ago, scripts, scrolls, and rock plates displayedhearsay evidence of God to man communication whichstimulated belief systems in a Supreme Being.
These belief systems, as the centuries passed, grewtogether from various walks of life and fluctuated withdifferent mentalities. Eventually, bits and pieces formedthe "Great book" (Bible) as it was originally named.
Early forms of the Bible disclosed man'sinterpretation of how "God" manifested himself and hiswill to mankind in the New Testament's last mysteriousand questionable book of revelation.
There was truly much revelation in those daysgathering those bits and pieces of very mystical aspectsof religious history. They were all difficult to piecetogether. It's a wonder how they formulated at all.
Recent years have unveiled more revelation intransitional growth of less mystical natures in thechanging belief systems that has prepared the way andpace for philosophy of believing in this present day oftime.
All those stages of growth have come to pass andwe are ready once again for psychologically ascendingto new stages of faith, confidence and the belief ofaccepting more responsibility for our lives. That's good.
Reviewing the past to determine what or howmankind was thinking and believing is almost asnecessary as viewing the progress of spirituality up todate. Why? Let's see. This is about humans only.
Historically speaking, everything mankind has donehas had a reason based on need more than incentive.Then, incentive was low and need was high. Without thatneed, basic or neurotic, earlier mankind wouldn't haveslowly developed a long term spiritual system of belief.They would have just existed. So, obviously, the need topossess a divine image was a prevalent impetus in theirquest to believe.
Spiritual seekers still have prevalent desires. Now,though, they are a little more complicated. The spiritualseekers may be somewhat aware of the need to flexand flow with the new, but are inhibitively resistive inreleasing the rules of the originators.
Bear in mind, all rules of divinity have beendevised, written and distributed by mankind, not anyhypothetically envisioned supreme leader as the originalbelief makers have conjured. This will be repeated invarious contexts throughout.
Belief concepts in the origin of belief is quitedifferent now with the influence and interference ofneighboring science, astronomy and technology, etc. andmust change with the destiny of progress and maturingconsciousness.
CHAPTER 2
Different Manners of Believingand Why
The history of mankind hasbeen and is confusingly laden with endless beliefs andbelief systems which inevitably prognosticate earthlyand heavenly success or gloom and doom failures.Consider a belief or a belief system (organized religion,parental rules, court evidence, etc.) as that of being true;at least at that particular time. The foregoing are beliefsof and can pertain to the self, a group, an employer,family, friends, and acquaintances, a teacher, a guru, adeity and many more who may influence one's successwhether they participate or not. First are illustrations ofbelief power generally referred to as negative beliefs.
NEG. 1
Being frantic is an anxiety triggered by other beliefsthat weren't substantial. Example: The lady becameupset and ill during and after she moved. She said, "Howwill I ever get organized?" The lady obviously didn'tprogram and believe her move would unfold withoutchaos. Her belief system was negatively oriented.
NEG. 2
Suspicion: Randy thought he "should" be married,but he had doubts and mistrusted his lady. They did getmarried. They had problems with money. His suspicioncaused her to be suspicious and they divorced. Theemphasis here is not negativity of divorce. It is thepower of belief. Randy's belief of her being indiscreetin money matters triggered a belief where she would beshort-changed in the marriage. Negative times negativeequals negative (0).
NEG. 3
Greed: The desire to acquire and possess morethan is needed is usually an emotional, wanton andoverconfident craze motivated by, strangely enough,an insecurity of not having enough. Having anythingexcessive becomes a position of power and stronglyjustifies greed without much rationality. To be rationalmight lead to being fair and somewhat normal and thatwould be intolerable for the greedy.
Being greedy must be supported by an honest beliefof it being in the best interest of the greedy persondoing it. Continuing that stance increases the belief of itbeing the best. Is it success or does it defeat its purpose?Would a Supreme Being have allowed it? Why would aSupreme Being allow it with one and not with another?Answers are revealed through filters of the minds as timepasses.
NEG. 4
Hypocrisy and mistrust: A classic example ofhypocrisy in religion has been viewed by the worldrecently in the Middle East. Exposure to pious andrighteous beliefs associated with a Supreme Being theworld has never known began to arise there. Centuriesago, the holy word of everything godly, which meantgood, began spreading around the world. All seemed wellfor awhile. The mistrust of supposedly cleansed peoplebegan and created ungodly beliefs and mistrust thatlead to world wide and ungodly conflicts to say nothingabout a poor example of their spiritual contentions thatbackfired on them.
They continued their relentless, mistrust of each otherthrough bloody conflicts to prove how wrong the otherwas. Certainly, a good Supreme Being wouldn't let themdown especially when they had promoted such greatmomentum in convincing the world their God wouldalways help.
Topping it off, their supposed divine way of believing,while they did nourish it, was and is shattered with holesand are definitely not piously holy. How do they oranyone else expect the world of believers to continue thephilosophy of do good and murder too? The bottom line isthat particular divinity either couldn't or wouldn't help todecrease the mistrust they had for each other. Why? Thewhole belief system had holes in it since the beginningand the holes weren't being repaired and became widerto the point of artificially hanging together. The faith andbelief has been and is falling apart. The damage has beendone. The belief in a deity is only remotely static becauseof the hardline believers and promoters.
Man-made spirituality has expanded and has a longway to go before they even know what they are doing.To speak of divinity with heavenly tones and turn aroundto kill is no way to create trust. It only creates dismay,sorrow, disbelief and crushes the desire and will toDifferent Manners of Believing and Why 15promote a peaceful society. It is definitely a negativemanner of believing.
NEG 5
Deception: Being deceived into the process of believingin someone, in what someone says or in some form ofmaster of all is so very typical of only humans. The massesare easily led into euphoric and comforting beliefs byhigher than thou predecessors who, supposedly, speak the"truth" as though it were absolute. These masses naivelyabsorb what they have become to believe is the "truth" onlybecause the teachers say it is.
There is a covert deception occurring in these casesof teaching, preaching or just sharing only the views ofone particular philosophy or subject which has a strongtendency to divert or prevent the study from branchinginto areas of "other" beliefs.
Deception in belief is to learn deliberately directedconcepts which exploit for purposes of controlling thosewho are exploitable for the exploiter's purposes.
The possibility exists while these mentionedteachers appear to believe they are right, they mayteach without awareness how they are reaffirming theirown exploitation through their acquired establishment'sindoctrination.
