What We Need to Do
As we were not born to crawl all our days, as it was not written in our genes nor in some Book, what shall we do? We need say “Yes!” to the Western Enlightenment; we need say “Yes!” to the Eastern Enlightenment, to science and religion, to both outer and inner inquiry. This requires us to say “No!” to belief as conclusion, as assertions however forcefully made; “No!” to deeply held certitudes no matter how tenaciously held. In inquiry there is no place for authority—ancient or otherwise, political or religious.
Science as quest has no lamentable issues nor will religion as quest. It is better to know than to believe. Committed to their conclusions, pseudoscience and pseudoreligion will bring darkness at noon. The mind has an inherent capacity for misbelief, for which therapy may be sought.
A culture of belief produces believing minds. Look within. If you do not like the beliefs you were born into, the challenge is not to pick and choose among the world's offerings ones you do like. Doing so has no significance. Trading in one belief for another, showing an utter disregard for truth, is without merit. Truth is a quest—not a creed, not a conclusion. All thought-based conjectures are subject to refinement in the living quest for understanding. Fossil thoughts are curiosities.
Perhaps a culture of inquiry will naturally produce inquiring minds. This is not an extraordinary claim. We need to find out by endeavoring to create one, or rather many which could in time merge to become one. You are the culture. You are the starting point. What is the culture but the people? So change on the level of the inquiry/belief dialectic is from within the individual mind. As is your sort of mind, so is the world as you make it. Be aware of the dialectic. Choose carefully. If you choose the culture of inquiry, read on. Otherwise?
We could corner believers, glaring at them with pointing fingers outstretched, but we need to instead look within. We all require therapy. We need belief therapy. To partially meet the need, there should be a belief therapist on every corner. Yet we live in a belief society where it is assumed that a 'belief therapist' would help you to reacquire beliefs that may be loosing their grip on your mind.
All about you may be insane, but your starting point must be yourself. Come to understand by direct observation the believing mind and how it is created. Endeavor to free yourself, realizing that to understand something is to be delivered from it. Others may help, but the task is incumbent upon you. In relationship with others, especially your own children, endeavor to not pass on the believing mind.
Acquire and pass on the inquiring mind. If you are infected with a flu virus, wash your hands often. Cleanse the mind as well of defiling beliefs lest you pass them on to the uninfected. Fortunately there are cleansing agents, so often reach for the Doubt. This comes with time and effort, but it is obtainable, so make it happen.
Look for and associate with others who are endeavoring to do the same. From two, a community of three or more can form. If inquiring communities arise in their multitudes about the globe, unnoted and unnoticed at first, change from the bottom up will be well under way and belief therapists will be hanging out their shingles. Communities of inquiry will find things out, work things out, find new ways to live sustainably within the greater community of life on Earth that is all the heaven we will ever know. They will make it so. What is the alternative?