Studying Religion without understanding how beliefs work is like learning how to play baseball without the ball. You can read all you want, assume the positions on the field, run around on the base paths or the outfield, but without the ball you’re stuck in an imaginary game.
Jesus said as much: unless you believe like a child you will by no means enter into the kingdom of God. The ‘kingdom of God’ is your divinity which rests solely in the power of belief.
“You can say to the impossible mountain in your life, ‘be removed and cast into the sea’ and if you believe it in your heart it shall be done for you.” Examine the things that cause you to disbelieve this statement. This isn’t a prayer. Jesus was describing how miracles work, he was giving you the ball so that you can actually play the game.
Ah yes, the game. When I say ‘believe‘ people automatically think ‘religion’ completely unaware that every single person ever born has beliefs hardwired in their DNA, and belief > than anything else.
Without the ball it’s just a lot of entertaining activities as the band plays on.
It’s not just religion though, it’s every organized belief system like Philosophy and all sciences, we just happen to strongly associate belief with religion because that’s how beliefs work.
Philosophy is a hairsplitting competition in which participants subject themselves to remembering thousands upon thousands trains of thoughts and their underlying concepts. Check out the topic of Belief at Stanford’s wonderful philosophy website. 13,000 words about ‘belief’. Or just apply my 20-word rational statement to your beliefs:
Beliefs agnostically self-reinforce instantly creating feelings, thoughts, and actions in that order, which creates more self-reinforcing feelings, thoughts, and actions.
The oft-repeated phrase ’believe the science’ is marketing. Science doesn’t require belief. Science requires one to accept or reject it, and in either instance you need to provide your reasons. Otherwise it’s just marketing. If it’s on TV it’s all marketing.
Everything is truly stated (marketing) but only a few things are statements of truth.
The truth is you, thus you are the truth, a divine expression of belief, a divine self-reinforcing expression of fear or love. You choose. Choose love and watch all manner of miracles occur without you knowing of them in most cases for seeing is not believing.
Choose love for you are already intimately familiar with the manifestations of fear.
