Updated: 03/12/08
THINK
OR BELIEVE
So, what is this Jovial Atheist? He is a
person like you who wishes the very best for all of mankind and for himself.
The Jovial Atheist wishes no one had to go to bed hungry or be sick without the
attention of a capable, informed medical service. He wishes all people would
have a scholarly education available to them (and that they would take
advantage of it). He would like to see all men and women learn to use their
minds to help the world rid itself from the evils that come to us from the dark
and empty space of ignorance and superstition. The Jovial Atheist wishes all
mankind would (or could) use their minds to separate fact from fiction, truth
from tall tales and reality from the ridiculous. The Jovial Atheist
would like to see ignorance eradicated. Especially would he like to eliminate
our modern surrogate educational system that projects a facade of
sophistication and elitism but is empty of true history, empty of true facts
and is full of propaganda, misinformation and lies. In other words, our
education system today is a sham! And it is boring!
Ignorance is not just something you have NOT
learned. Often ignorance is something you have spent many hours, days, weeks,
months and years learning. Ignorance is often something you have spent many
hundreds and even thousands of dollars learning. There are even Doctor degrees
(PhD’s) issued for years of learning how to be ignorant. What am I talking
about? Ignorance is the ability to discard the Known and Proven facts of life
and science in order to study, learn and perpetuate the untrue, the unknown and
the unbelievable. Now that is superstition and superstition is
ignorance!
This type of ignorance is the Rejection of
proven facts and truth. Ignorance is believing the unbelievable. Ignorance is
allowing superstition and false information to guide our lives and goals.
Ignorance is propagated by false history, sustained by misguided belief,
popularized by personal testimonies and gossip, protected by lies, reinforced
by infallible institutions and spread by self appointed know-it-all
authorities.
The mind (intelligence) is the most marvelous
development in the universe. The mind exceeds in value the stars from which
comes the material of which mankind and his mind are made. An infant is born
with a deep and curious quest to learn everything. What? Why? How? When? The
infant mind is a sponge to absorb knowledge. It is a most powerful indexer of
knowledge and the eyes of the infant see everything as new. The infant mind is
a most precious addition to the truth seeking of mankind.
Then something happens! That infant mind,
which knows nothing about falsehood, about lies and about man's insanity and
irrationality, is told falsehoods by those in whom the infant has trust.
Knowing nothing about lies, the infant accepts the falsehoods as being true.
From that moment on, the infant is at a loss to separate fact from fiction. He
is told about Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Boogy Bear, the Gods and so on.
That infant mind is bombarded by religious tales, and prayer, false hopes and
false superiority. That infant mind is bombarded by false histories, false
theories and false conclusions. These things become as real to the infant
mind as is the car he is driven around in by mama and daddy.
That questing infant mind is now bombarded by
facts and fictions. The infant has no way to separate the two. The
adults, in whom the infant puts his trust, fail to equip the infant mind with
the greatest aid needed to separate fact from fiction. The adults have failed
to tell the infant questing mind that some things he is told are true and some
things are untrue. They have failed to tell the infant mind that he must
honestly doubt all the claims and statements made by anyone until
he has studied the proposition and found them to be true or false.
They have failed to equip the infant mind
with the greatest aid available in determining the Truth. That is, the
adults have failed to teach the infant mind about Honest Doubt, Honest Research
and Honest Clear Thinking in order to evaluate all claims or statements. They
have failed to inform the infant of those things, which guarantee a sane and
wholesome mind.
They have failed to instruct the infant mind
to always examine Both sides of any claim or statement. They
failed to teach the infant mind and indeed have stamped out the value of
asking, "Why?"
In thirty or less years that same questing
infant mind has become hard as granite and as impervious to facts, logic and
new useful knowledge as is a piece of steel. In other words, that questing
infant mind has been nailed shut and crippled and in some, it is destroyed. It
is now capable of doing only routine work. It is no longer capable of honest,
questing thought. It is no longer capable of honestly evaluating a statement or
claim and determining the truth of the matter. It is no longer capable of
seeing the New in everything. It is no longer capable of examining both sides
of any political, religious, or economic issue or matter. It is no longer
capable of identifying the lie or the falsehood.
Instead of adding to his knowledge daily,
that granite mind now seeks to build barriers to protect the Beliefs
(ignorance), which he has substituted for knowledge and truth. In place of a
wise and open mind that seeks personal development in both civil and spiritual
matters, that granite mind now filters all incoming information through the
Belief Filter - First. No matter how true that new information and
knowledge is, and no matter how well proven that knowledge is, the granite mind
rejects it because it does not conform to the beliefs and the claims of
his religious and political authorities that he now accepts as true. Belief
(ignorance) now becomes the yardstick and barrier, which binds and stagnates
the mind.
Religious or political Belief destroys the
ability to recognize facts, to Separate Fact From Fiction and worst of all,
steals the happiness and joy that comes with a questing mind.
You are most likely somewhere between the
infant questing mind and the granite mind of those who have all the answers
even though they do not have a single clue to all of the questions. The Jovial
Atheist is about to tell you a secret. This is a secret that will free you from
the rock hard mindset that keeps you from being happy and productive. That
mindset destroys personal relationships, causes war and terror of all kinds and
most of all, it keeps you from knowing the truth around you. This is the secret
that will open your eyes to the fact, there is still more to learn about
yourself and about the world. Those whose granite minds do not wish to be disturbed
call the use of this secret - a Sin. Those who know and use this secret
are called Atheists, heretics, traitors, unpatriotic, philosophers, and
sinners. Believers do not wish others in their circle of influence to be
disturbed or challenged with new or contradictory facts, truths and knowledge.
This secret is the fact that knowledge and
truth is determined by learning to Honestly Doubt the statements and
claim made daily to you. Honest Doubt is the only protection that nature has
given us to protect us from falsehoods, frauds and felons. Honest Doubt
protects us from politicians, publishers, prophets, priests, professors and
preachers. If you wish to reclaim your infant questing mind then learn to
honestly doubt what others tell you.
HONEST
DOUBT IS THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM.
I AM ASKING YOU TO DOUBT
EVERYTHING, WHICH I SAY OR WRITE!
When you honestly doubt, you must also check
and see if what you are told is the real truth - or not. I would never ask you
to believe me. You only believe something when there are no facts to prove the
matter. If you have the facts to prove the matter, you cannot believe the false
claim. WHY? You cannot believe because you now know the truth about the
subject. So, religious falsehood gives you “belief” a false alternative to knowing
the facts about a matter.
Falsehood is really saying, "I can only
prove my claims and statements to you by quoting false history, misled
authorities and faulty conclusions. Since I do not have any real honest facts
to present to you, you must therefore, Not Doubt. I cannot prove to you by
facts or logic that I am right and that I am telling you the truth, so you must
now Believe that I am telling you the truth." This appeal to Belief is
usually followed by the threat of some dire and terrible punishment such as,
"Or you will go to Hell" or “you will go to prison.” This hatred and
fear of Thinking Honestly is the intellectual property and only defense of all
religiously and politically oriented minds.
The falsehood has told its followers that to
think, to honestly question the claims and stories made by them, and to search
for the truth of any religious or political matter claimed by them, is to
Sin. To Honestly examine both sides of a religious or political matter is
to commit a religious or political Sin.
Think about that!
Do you not know that to honestly doubt wild
and baseless claims is the beginning process of thinking? This is true in
science, politics or religion. The first step in problem solving and finding
the truth of a matter is to honestly doubt the claims and statements made daily
to you. That clears the air so a person becomes Free to evaluate and honestly
think about the matter. So, the falsehood tells you to Not Doubt. It tells you
to Obey! People do not even realize that the falsehoods of science, religions
and politics have told the lie so many times; the lie soon becomes a cultural
totem and is accepted as truth. On the other hand, to honestly doubt some wild,
unbelievable claim is to sin. I have a question.
COULD AN HONEST, JUST GOD ASK US TO STOP
THINKING
AND START BELIEVING?
I do not think so! Notice, I said an HONEST,
JUST GOD.
Up dated regularly and new material added for
your thinking and questing.
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Know Your Atheist
****
Copyright: July 1990 Thomas E. Blaylock
Jr.
Updated: 03/12/08