22/01/2024
Been thinking again.... (WARNING!)
I have been seeing a lot of posts on different sites by people with special letters at the end of their names insinuating that people who do not have those special letters after their names have no business “doing their own research.” I can only assume that they mean that comprehension and evaluating context requires some sort of special training. Being a missionary for going on 50 years now, my whole life has been spent encouraging (pleading) people to do their own research when it comes to religion. The fact that Jesus came and established “one church,” and after he left his hand-picked followers continued what he started and wrote books containing stern warnings (Ex: 2 John 1:9-11) for the believers to be careful and do their own research (1 Thessalonians 5:21) before accepting what they were told, means that in our day, with tens of thousands of “churches,” of which all the members pretty much feel satisfied with what their particular church believes and teaches, and everyone, it seems, claiming some form and degree of “guidance” from the Holy Spirit as verification for those beliefs, there has to be a way for a believer to wade through all of the confusion to find and validate the underlying truth; GOD’s truth.
I have spent my life trying to get people to see that it is CONTEXT alone that leads out the intended meaning of any statement made by a person, and that failure to establish context opens up the field for an unlimited number of possible meanings and applications.
The over 7,000 hours of research I put into studying C19 (and I say that not to boast but to simply let you see the struggle I endured – because going through IT MATTERED) poring over papers and articles and learning to evaluate and perform statistical analyses, I simply applied those basic principles of context I learned studying the Bible.
The truth of any matter is bourne out by context and anyone willing to commit the necessary time of investigation can find it. I think that these people with the special letters who are complaining feel threatened. I think they cringe at the prospect that having special letters at the end of one’s name does not offer as much advantage as perhaps it once did, and that ordinary people who are willing to spend the time in study, can come to understand and participate in discussions on an equal footing.
It is easy to forget sometimes that we are all connected and that knowledge is the key to the advancement of all of us. It does not really matter who figures something out. The fact that a new understanding emerges, one that helps us solve a problem, achieve a new height, BE BETTER, is all that should matter. With all the rush to advance, and its connection with making a quick bundle, we NEED more people questioning, more people checking the data. One thing my father (Science teacher) ingrained in me was that scientific truth is only established when someone completely disconnected from your research can follow your path of reasoning and procedure and duplicate your results.
I have found it interesting how that same principle applies to religious matters as well. Religious leaders can be just like these experts, and come to think of it many of them also have special letters at the end of their names. They put together ideas and conclusions and then we are told to accept them because of who they are.
I guess my point is simple. Never trust any professed “expert” with your life and the lives of those dearest to you. You had better make darned certain that what they are telling you is on the level, be it putting a vaccine into the arms of you and your loved ones, or accepting some religious doctrine or practice, because both cases are “life and death” and NEITHER of those experts will be responsible for you making the wrong decisions. If you choose to receive bad advice, the adviser will receive his just due, in this life or most certainly in the next, but you will not excape accountability for your failure to DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH!
