74. What’s in a book?
Believing in the bible, is not the same as believing in God. It’s believing in the ones who say the bible comes directly from God. Then the question is: why should anyone believe those guys? Because they have good marketing support? Because they have pointed ears? Because they believe in other guys who believe in other guys?
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One can say: “there is no reason and I don’t need any, since I ‘believe’…”
And I agree…
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…as well as I don’t agree. I mean: if you at the same ‘believe’ 2 guys answering a concrete yes-or-no question, the first saying yes, the other no, then I think you have a problem, the more so if it’s a Big Book question. So you can at most ‘believe’ one of them. Which one and why? If this question is unimportant to you, then with all respect, your ‘belief’ is unimportant to me.
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Believing a guy has NOTHING to do with any religious belief.
Not now. Not tomorrow. Not yesterday.
Not 6000 years ago.
NEVER.
Guess who told me this, face to face?
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So if someone ‘believes’ in the bible this way, to me it looks like ‘God’ himself wouldn’t like it at all. I mean: if He would feel anything about this, it would be a feeling of insult or deep pity for the ignorance. This is not something to go over lightly. It’s no marshmallow. If you believe in an afterlife, whether it be heavenly or hellish, then you’d better not bet on ‘something someone said somewhere some time’. You’d better go for it and find out yourself. Put effort in that. Even if ‘God’ wouldn’t like it, at least He would appreciate it. I mean:
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‘Write’ your own book.
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That is: don’t accept anything from any book that doesn’t feel completely as if you could have written it yourself. That’s a good start. The continuation is even better: never being really satisfied. Every time you read it, it’s again an exercise in feeling whether it is yours, completely yours, in mind, body and soul. Don’t be coy. Don’t be lazy. Practice the beginner’s mind. You are worth it. The book is worth it. God is worth it.
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So is the bible right or wrong for instance in making the universe start 6000 years ago? You’ll have to find it out yourself. The problem doesn’t lie in putting the hypothesis, not even in saying it may be right (that’s what one does with a hypothesis), but in making people think it’s definitely true only because it’s in the ‘right’ book.
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Anyone can take any book.
There’s plenty of choice.
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