I am not going to lie. I am conflicted. The conflict is between my commitment to Jesus and my experience of – and respect for – other paths such as Buddhism, Hinduism, paganism, metaphysics and psychology. I want to avail myself of all the wisdom that’s out there and figure out who is right and about what.
Now there are many people who get portrayed as being insane. In fact, it can be easily shown that the bulk of humanity is insane. Different people believe different and conflicting things; which means that even if one group is right, everyone else is insane. And that means: the majority of the population.
To make an original contribution, someone needs to think in original ways. And people who think in original ways will always see someone saying that they are insane. However as we see this extends to the bulk of the population and is not limited to the original thinkers.
When the bulk of the world is wrong, the only people who have a chance to be right are people who think in ways external to that of their environment. Once again, these people will always be seen by somebody as insane. In some cases this will be a truthful accusation, in other cases it won’t be. But what is also true is that these people don’t own insanity, and that once again it is easily shown that the bulk of the world is insane.
However, insane or not, some of these people also tend to have come into possession of useful knowledge and useful wisdom. I have found wisdom in all sorts of places where I didn’t expect it. I found it in American inner city and rural Australia. I found it in businessmen and military people. I even found it in children. When I was talking about my daughter about yuckie people, she said that there are no yuckie people. You wouldn’t expect such wisdom in a six-year-old child, but I have found it there.
The error of many religious people is thinking that the only wisdom is in the Bible. In fact there is wisdom in many places, and in failing to avail themselves of that wisdom they are impoverishing their understanding of the world. The error of scientific materialists is failing to avail themselves of the wisdom that is in the world’s religions and spiritual paths. That likewise impoverishes their understanding of the world. Both of the above are right about some things; but in discounting the rest of the world’s knowledge they make unavailable to themselves the bulk of the world’s wisdom. And that hurts mostly themselves.
In my case, figuring out such things has been a lifelong quest. It has lead me to many unexpected places. And while I have a serious relationship with Jesus Christ, I also know that there have been wise people in history besides Jesus Christ, and that things stand to be learned from these people.
I would encourage people to pursue knowledge that isn’t a part of their upbringing. There are two possible outcomes from this. One may decide that the has been misinformed and hopefully lead the people of his upbringing toward better understanding. Or one may decide that he has been informed correctly and use the wisdom he’s gathered in other paths to extend the mindset of his upbringing. In either case the results are beneficial ones, and this is a process that can be useful for many people.
Of course one side effect from that is the conflict and confusion I’ve been speaking about. That can be unpleasant; however it’s better to be conflicted than ignorant. We live in a world where everyone is influencing everyone else, which means that many people would be conflicted. However the more they persist in working through such things, the greater becomes their wisdom and understanding. And that is as good for them as it is good for the world.