Separating the Wheat from the Chaff

At the Decatur Book Fair there was a booth of the "Muslims for Peace". Of course, I had to check them out! Well, a quite interesting conversation ensued. I learned some more about Islam. And, I hope, the man who talked with me, took away some seeds for thought as well.

The most interesting bit of new information to me was that "Islam" means "Peace". He explained, that at the core the prophet's message is about Love.

It seems to me, though, that there's a contradiction: How can a teaching of love demand a death sentence? How can a group that is treating women as second class humans expect to find peace?

Now, throwing out everything, just because there is some nonsense among it, holds the risk of missing real wisdom and insights contained as well.

Why do we tend to swing from one extreme to the other?

Either we follow something to the letter - without reflection, consideration, logical and rational thinking - or we discard everything - without seeing what we can learn from it.



I find, we havee been created with a brain, that can think logically and rationally. I take it as our responsibility to use it. It is our choice, though. If we choose not to use it we find ourselves (even in the 21st century) in the dark-ages, where a lot of people are suffering and where, instead of peace and happiness, there is war and mayhem.



Here's another example:

In the movie "Rabbithole" a couple, who had lost a child, was trying to cope with the loss by saying: "Maybe God needed another little angel. That's why he took our baby." "Why didn't he just make one?" the other woman blurted out. "He's God! Why couldn't he just make one?"

Exactly! It just doesn't make sense!

"My life's purpose is to praise the Lord!" Is another one of these illogical ideas.

Would you create a device, whose sole purpose is to utter "You are the greatest!", and if it doesn't, destroy it in anger? Of course not! And you are just a fallible little human, and not the almighty, all-knowing God!

It just doesn't make sense!

To me these are typical examples of people just reciting what they've heard, without using their brain.

Does that mean all of the teachings about God are to be discarded. I don't think so. That, again, would be to go from one extreme to the other.



I am suggesting to use our brain to think through our spiritual believes. To retain and build upon content that is congruent and fits reality as we can observe. To identify and discard content that makes no sense, and to try to replace it with something that - at least - is not impossible. And each one of us can and should do this her/himself.

Again, you can choose. Do you want to get ahead, to grow, to find peace and happiness in your life? If you stay as and where you are, you stay as and where you are. It's that simple!

I do not suggest you quit being a Muslim, a Christian, Jew, Atheist, or whatever spiritual direction you like to follow. I do recommend, though, to think things through, to question and double-check; and to dare to discard parts that do not jive.

If we want to get ahead we have to continuously work on separating the wheat from the chaff!



This blog and the website www.toolOfTheUniverse.org are all about helping you in this process, and about providing seeds for different, new strains of thought. I hope it fulfills this purpose. Please, do drop me a line and let me know what you think... Thank you! And much success in your spiritual growth...