The Way It Is: Question Authority – That’s An Order

By Gregg Sanderson

“Practically the whole human race is hypnotized because it thinks what somebody else told it to think.” — Ernest Holmes, Love and Law, The Unpublished Teachings

The foundation of Faith is Belief. You can’t have faith in something unless you first believe in it, and there’s a plethora of well-meaning and not-so-well-meaning people just drooling to offer us their Belief System (hereafter referred to by the instructive abbreviation, B.S.).
BOB, the Being Of Bliss with many aliases, gets Its entertainment by expressing through each of us. Our goal in life is to be as happy as we can, just for BOB’s pleasure.*
Everybody tries to tell us how to live our lives. Our problem is we listen.

This month, we’ll look and laugh at some of those who tell us WHAT to think. In coming months, we’ll talk about HOW to think. The first authority in the lives of all of us is our parents. I know those of us who are parents find it hard to believe we have any influence at all on our children, but trust me, we do.

We tell them fairytales, which let them know all they have to do is find their prince or princess to live happily ever after. We also demand obedience, so they learn to do as they are told. Good thing we love ‘em, or it would be their first experience with dictatorship.

Oh, wait.

Then to get another helping of B.S. it’s off to church we go. There we find out about good and bad, reward and punishment, and eternal damnation. Perhaps a “helping” of B.S. is not the most accurate description, since it doesn’t really help. Can you think of a better word?

Amazing! We’re already confused, and we haven’t even been to school yet. That’s where we get our social beliefs from peers and teachers. We learn how important it is to fit in and get along with “others” so we’ll act right, think right, and wear the right sneakers.

You’d think our teachers would warn us about that, but they’re busy loading us up with selective history, political fads, and intellectual snobbery toward those with a different outlook. Who has time for incidentals like living a happy life?

Don’t get me started on the world of entertainment. Oops, too late. I’ve already started. Welcome to the land of stereotypes, all of which instruct us in beliefs of good, bad, and best. Here are our role models—caricatures of life sold to us as life itself, and each promoting more B.S.

The good guys in their white hats always get the girl, after defeating and humiliating the bad guys. They’re trim, honest, hard-working, self-sacrificing champions of the underdog.
On the other hand, the bad guys in their black hats are the ones who abuse the girl after proving they aren’t as good as the good guys. They lied, cheated, and stole their way to greedy wealth and generally bully their way to more. More often than not, they’re also overweight.

There’s a whole lot of B.S.’n goin’ on.

The question is, are you putting your faith in the B.S. you’ve been fed all your life? If so, how’s that workin’ out for you? Can you make it better? How?

Tune in next month for the beginnings of a solution to this cosmic quandary!

*If you aren’t familiar with BOB, check earlier columns at suncoasttransformation.com or that wonderful book Spirit With A Smile — The World According to BOB, which is available almost everywhere.

Gregg Sanderson has a rare view of the metaphysical universe. He traveled the road from Christian Science through Judaism, Agnosticism, Atheism, Living Love, Psychic Development, Spiritualism, Teaching of the Inner Christ, all the way to the International Centers for Spiritual Living where he is a licensed practitioner. He is the author of What Ever Happened To Happily Ever After? and Split Happens – Easing the Pain of Divorce.  Gregg’s latest book is Spirit With A Smile — The World According To BOB (www.transformation-publishing.com). Contact gregg@newthoughtctr.org.

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