I hold that being open minded is a wonderful thing, but one should also not be so open minded their brain falls out. Being spiritual or religious or whatever term you prefer come with a duty to think, analyze, make judgments between what is right and wrong, and also a duty to fight to the best of your ability against those paths that are wrong. What do I mean by that? Well, lets take the paths of the thugee and the inquisitor and the crusader and the jihadist and a host of similar ideologies that have and continue to exist in the world. Do you really want to call those valid? Now that does not mean you lump entire categories together. A rabid cat does not mean you should stop all cats. That is where the thinking and analyzing comes in.
There are many broad categories; Pagan, Buddhist, Christian, etc. However each of those categories break down to small categories; for example Christian breaks down into Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, and a host of others. Even then if you look at a single denomination, say Methodist, look at it closely and you will find a host of conflicting paths under that same umbrella. So this breaks down to the specific paths of the individuals, as it always should. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water just because something is making the water murky. Some ideas are easier to make decisions about; murdering in the name of your path most can agree is not good, though obviously not all would agree. A quick look at the current world and world history shows many have found that to be a valid path for them. Does that mean we should simply accept that? I don't think so. Every religion once held that slavery was good, but even within each of those cultures there were people who followed their own path are found that wrong and fought against it clear up to today whee the official standing of every country is that it is wrong. I say official, because it does still exist. However, through thousands of years of people fighting against it, we have made progress. You may be thinking “those are just extreme example.” Well, yes they are. I hold that extremism is bad. However, saying “all paths are valid” is an extreme view. In fact it is a view that prevents you from fighting for what is right and good in the world. By saying you can't make moral judgments about other peoples paths (though lets not micromanage the whole world please), you leave the door open for the types of extremists mentioned above. If you do not actively do your best to fight those types of thing, then you are giving them free pass to perform them. You must make decisions for yourself, especially about where you draw the line. The extremists are making those same decisions and fighting for what they believe to be a right path. You can not fail to do the same. Most of the people who would read this blog would probably agree that any path that supports murder or slavery or racism or gay conversion therapy is not a good path. However, the people on those paths have thought about it and decided it is a valid path. It is up to you to educate people and get them to think as much as possible about these things. Question everything. The hard part are those not so good paths that are less extreme and more insidious. For instance, what about the path of religious belief and practice where one person collects millions of dollars off countless people, many of who are living in poverty? Where do you personally stand on that? What can you do to make people think? What can you do to make people question and not just blindly accept? These debates will continue for all time, and they should. Hopefully over generations we will progress. But remember, the arguments against slavery took thousands of years and it still exists. No answers will come over night, but choosing to not fight the things you believe to be wrong is to leave those forces unopposed. The reason it is called a spiritual path is because it is a journey. One where you will have to make countless decisions and continue to learn and grow. If you are not making those decisions you are no longer on the journey. Learn more about the depth of your path. Learn more about other paths. Realize that sometimes paths that seem very different, say Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Kali worshiper, etc; can run closely parallel each other, such as the Crusaders, Jihadists, the current Buddhist terrorists, and the Thugee. At the same time, paths that people actually associate with each other, say all Christians, include very diverse paths from the Crusader to the pacifist and from the engineer who is deeply Christian to the Amish who shun most technology. Each path is an individual one, even though we tend to join up in groups. Never stop thinking, learning, making judgments on how the world could be better. We may not agree on what better is, but keep the thought process active.
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February 2024
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