CHAPTER 1
Origin Of Belief
Schools of psychologyconcerning the origination of spiritual belief have convincingindications all life on Earth has always experienced someform of emotional belief. Under a microscope, smalllife is in a constant and frantic search for protection,food, companionship or sex which obviously continuesbecause of a belief it will materialize through persistenceand usually does. Hence, the fruit of belief. The sameapplies to larger life such as rats and roaches. Theywill accomplish almost any task they set their mindsto, obviously again, because they believe if they do notaccomplish their task, they may not survive. Appearancesare that belief hinges on insecurity in the negative senseand confidence in the positive sense.
Escalating a bit to the size of the monkey, they areego and emotionally driven. They are not driven as muchby fear because they possess the confidence (the belief)that perpetuates them to jump and flee in a moment ifnecessary. Their belief system also allows them theconfidence to capture the affection of other monkeys andmore recently, humans.
The belief system of a rabbit or a bird, in general, isto survive and reproduce, but they are still confident inaccomplishing their daily tasks because they believe intheir defense mechanisms.
Humans, with more intelligence driven capabilitieshave had tendencies to complicate their belief systemsas far back in history as we know because of developingso many alternatives. Some are helpful where experienceis utilized and some become readily confusing anddisastrous. Humans are aware of the risks of so manyalternatives. They are aware they cannot handleeverything perfectly all the time. That is a fairly firmbelief too for the normal person.
Animals have always been simple and not greedy.Man has always complicated life by taking chanceswhich is a belief in calculating, not necessarily anecessity. Man has always wanted "more" which is abelief in greed.
Word of mouth philosophy and belief in varioussupernatural beings were passed through manygenerations prior to materially recorded history.
Appearance and speculation has it people in thosedays were intellectually uncontaminated and didn'tposses broad perspectives of endless possibilitiespertaining to, in this case, spiritual or religious concepts.Many beliefs were misinterpreted, misunderstood,mistrusted, and condemned. Belief systems were onlyforming. The battles for religious consolidation unfoldedslowly to remove the anxiety of their needs to feelsecure.
The unfolding and timely results encompasseda population of naive and gullible people who trulybelieved they had "discovered" a revelation of spiritualrewards that would cure all human insecurities and ills.Nothing indicated any relativity, though, to the remainingbalance of living beings (animals and insects, etc.) in andon the planet. The people were limited in their scope ofbelief and biased as to whom or what may "qualify" tobe possible candidates for their vision of an afterlife orwhatever their culture believed.
Is there a meaningful difference between faith andbelief? Believing in something (anything) is usuallyaccomplished through observing or studying it over alengthy period of time. Believing something instantly asa result of hearing, reading or seeing may be allowing amisconception in or of belief.
Early man was obviously more concerned abouteating and surviving and less concerned aboutphilosophy. Nevertheless, the hunt for food wouldn'thave existed for animal or vegetable without a feasiblebelief it could be accomplished. Hence, mankind wouldhave died without that inherently strong belief.
Strong as it was and still is, it wouldn't have existedwithout the will of faith to secure it. Which comes first,faith or belief? Dictionaries describe them both to beabout the same. Let's look at it.
Logic infers belief is something someone "does"(in this case, reference is directed to all living beings).Usually, something is "done" after one has discoveredreason to "do" it. This reasoning is an executive typepower of the mind. That is, it is that which initiates adecision. In this case, it is the decision to "believe" insomething.
True, it could be said discovering reason requiresfaith. How far will we be willing to exercise thisanalysis? Being reasonable about it all, belief isgenerally, preceded by faith. What is prior to faith isanother story.
Faith is gathered from headquarters of the mind,collectively, which is confident enough for decidingwhat to believe. Belief can be just as momentary asfaith. Example: "I believe I will change my mind." Itis possible, within reasonably accepted parameters,that may happen in the reader's mind somewhere in orafter the contents of this book when the mind decidesto "really" open and analyze whatever privileges,birthrights and possibilities are available.
The origin of belief concerning the beginning ofmankind, their historical, religious and personal beliefs,belief of belief itself or even the belief to not believe isbasically no different from day one (whatever, wheneverthat was) of mankind and all living beings than it is atpresent.
However the direction, reality, believability, qualityor validity of mankind's past and present, they doclaim and deserve credit for exercising faith and beliefregardless of whether they can or even want to confirmor justify them. That is the wondrous privilege of choiceavailable to all the same as the availability of all Earth'scontents and surely must be respected by all.
If one believes in God, in the conventional sense,then surely one would have to believe God was inexistence forever. That's an inconceivable length of timefor the human mind to digest. Of course, no one knows.The balance of that knowing is equal to the amount ofknowledge we have in knowing or understanding whatthe term "God" really is. The sum total of that deductionis only a belief. There is no knowledge of any God; onlybelief. Deducting the age and originality of belief is equalto deducting the age of all living matter.
Comprehending enough...
