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Question Everything

questioneverythingThe ability to question things is one of the greatest gifts that people are given.  It is not a skill that I developed until recently in life, but I think it should be one that our society encourages in all people, everywhere, all the time.

Why We Don’t Question Anything

For much of my life, I was conditioned to accept what authority symbols in my life told me.  Our parents started us off by giving us the rules of how we were supposed to behave. They passed the baton of behavioral instruction to teachers and religious Philo albertorganizations, who managed to move me toward a fear-based existence.   “Do what we say, or you are wrong.”  That was the mantra of society.   

You learned young that if you questioned something, you would pay the price of being evaluated poorly, a knock to self-esteem, and it was apparent conditioning, find the answers and speak the ideas you were told were right.

That would be followed by praise and reward.  This is easily transferable to the media and popular culture.  We don’t question easily because we were taught that the repercussions of asking questions were most likely going to be painful and harmful to a young mind.  So it is natural that we never question anything.

Main Stream Media Brainwash

We were taught through this process to believe what our authority sources tell us. As adults, we transfer that quite easily into listening to what the government tells us or, even worse, into what the media tells us to think about the government.

Our ability to reason and judge things based on their merit seems to be gone the way of the eight-track tape player.  I hope I am I_have_just_as_much_authority_as_the_pope._George_Carlinwrong, but there seems to be a strict and consistent idea of what questions it is OK to ask and which ones it is not.

We have been involved in a military conflict for a decade, yet nobody questions why?  If they do, they have to face questions about their judgment, patriotism, political leanings, and character flaws. It is our right as human beings living on the earth to question everything.

Why Questions are So Important

Without the ability to question things, it will be very slow in coming when change is needed.  The history of humanity is littered with examples of practices that society told people were good for them, that weren’t or were just plain wrong. These practices needed to be changed for the health of a person or a society. People believed that regular bathing was unhealthy, the world was flat, and the Earth was the center of the universe.  Not to mention the accepted racial attitudes plaguing society of just fifty to a hundred years ago.  Question everything that comes into your life because simply taking something perpetuates unfair and unjust practices.

I am grateful today that I live in a world where you can ask questions.  With each question asked, the world moves closer to finding an answer to solve its problems.  I hope that more and more people will take the time to listen mindfully and honestly look at their own beliefs.

Question

Question everything and only accept those things question everythingthat prove true. How do we learn? There are several different ways that we can infuse our minds and souls with new ideas and knowledge.  However, each individual needs to determine the validity of each morsel of information for themselves, regardless of the source that is providing it.  I don’t believe anything except after individual investigation and introspection have proven it to be so. Finding what is true for you is vital to living an honest and true life. What beliefs you accept will determine your reality.

Don’t Be a Sheep

Just because a message comes to you from an authority figure, that doesn’t make it true.  When we buddhaaccept these messages from teachers, leaders, parents, politicians, or any other authority figure without questioning and/or investigating, we are diminishing ourselves and our own individuality.

That doesn’t mean that all you have been told is untrue. It means that knowledge is a quest for understanding discovered through personal investigation and research. Each idea can be confirmed or disregarded on the merit that you discover it to possess. Each of us owes it to our intelligence to question and research all ideas and theories to establish their truth for us.

Too many people accept ideas automatically from educational programs or religious doctrine. Without investigation and proof of the truth of something, it is just empty words.

Test, Investigate, Prove

Don’t allow other people to cheapen your existence question-everything-163x300and value to the world by accepting ideas without properly questioning them first. Without setting out to provide yourself with the proof of the existence of something or the validity of an idea, it should be considered invalid.

The alternative to this is to accept the truth of something blindly and without question. Once you believe that something is true, it will affect you and influence your life. Don’t you owe it to yourself and those you will influence to be as positive about information as you can? We are not designed to question, but it is through questioning that all proof is discovered.  Look into your heart, mind, and body for the actual truth of things.

Destiny in Truth

It is our destiny on our journey to choose our own path. That is a path in movement as well as in thought. Each idea that we know is true and valid will affect all things that come into our lives. So think, test, prove and grow in your own way. Listening to all, but believing only those things that are proven true. That is the way of your own individual path.