George and Ira Gershwin wrote many songs, one of them has this title: "It Ain't Necessarily So" it's from the 1935 libretto/musical "Porgy and Bess" based on the 1925 book "Porgy" authored by DuBose Hayward. The lyric begins: "It ain't necessarily so, it ain't necessarily so, the t'ings dat yo' li'ble, to read in de Bible, it ain't necessarily so!"

It seems strange right now to write this, but these opening lines from the song were the first indication I ever had that what I was being told in church and Sunday School was open to question. Up to that point and even later, when I'd forgotten the song, I didn't question the validity of what I was taught on a Sunday as being anything but the "Word of God".

The great philosopher Rene Descartes said: "If you are to be a seeker of truth, then it is necessary at one point in your life, to doubt all things!" The dark tea-time of the soul is where you come face to face with the assertion "It ain't necessarily so!" It's when you confront your beliefs and ask: "What if I have been misinformed by well meaning fools?

Some of the things we have taken on board as our beliefs can easily be dismissed when we accept the evidence to the contrary. However, there are other beliefs that we hold so sacred that all the evidence someone might bring us to the contrary would not persuade us we were wrong to hold the beliefs that we do. It is what results from us having a closed mind.

And yet ... It ain't necessarily so! It doesn't matter how tenaciously we hold on to our beliefs, it doesn't make them true! In fact within the duality, it is natural that there will be people whose beliefs diametrically oppose our own! It also doesn't confirm or deny the validity of our beliefs should we find a large group of people who agree with us.

Yesterday, I spent an hour watching President Putin, whilst listening to a translation of what he was saying. You see, I like to try and understand why people have different views to me, and how they have been able to convince themselves of what they say. Putin's world view is different to mine, but of course his teachers and circumstances weren't mine.

What disturbed me the most was the way the media reported only the snippets of what he said that were most negative towards the west and its world view. In Bible school I was taught: "A text without a context becomes a pretext!" By taking only bits of what is said, a total misunderstanding can take place. Eg "Judas hung himself; go thou and do likewise!"

I want to challenge you to follow Descartes assertion, that if you are looking for truth, you need to doubt ALL things! My way of attempting to do this, is to find out the opposing view to my own, on any subject and synthesize both points of view. Is it possible for both sets of beliefs to be merged and for both beliefs to be seen as partially correct?

 

(Originally written 28th October 2022 by Barnabas England)