Think about it. This is a post about ego and pride vs. Humility and teachability: about the ability to self-correct. Are there things in your life that you hold to so “religiously” that you cannot tolerate a differing view or opinion?
© 2026 – SoulSequel
16 responses to “What Notions do you live in where you”cannot be wrong”?”
I hold fast to the belief that all people are created equal and nothing can shake me from that belief.
Unfortunately although all of us are born stupid…and that is not an insult;it is just a fact that we are a clean slate at birth…some do not have the capacity to grow beyond it and in fact feed it further through some need to feel superior in some way.
Take this guy; how is it possible that this guy sees himself as an example of superiority?
Side note: notice the difference in the phrasing used in Spanish, versus English, on the police tape.
That’s a good one, because it is less ‘a notion of us’ than a fundamental Truth. It exists beyond us, and we “go to it”. (As opposed to considering the Truth to be “of us” and expecting all things to “come to it” — which actually is “the great Lie”).
Our need to feel superior comes from our perceived need to prove ourselves “good” and “worthy” — but against imperfect others! Not to be demeaning, but it’s like grease stains arguing among themselves as to who is the least ugly!
These spark the various “control dramas” we play on each other as a kind of spiritual “vampirism” — trying to steal energy from those we deem weaker or less worthy than us.
All of this is totally mitigated in accepting Christ’s gift. We are told the only standard worth striving for is utter Divine perfection — but we cannot even begin this quest of ourselves (or against others) . . . so stop trying! (This gives rise to the “Peace of Christ” proclaimed by the angels at His birth). Provision has been made for us to be “spiritually adopted” and our shortcomings totally overlooked. And we are given a birthright of as much spiritual power as we can currently handle (and perhaps a bit more to teach us to stretch ourselves!) . . . so we no longer have to “vampire” it from others! (And this gives rise to the “Joy of Christ” also tied directly to Jesus’ birth)
Yea, the police tape is revealing of the “spirit” of the different cultures. In Spanish they are invited to respect the barrier. In Western (US?) English, commands and edicts (with penalties) are the order of the day. It makes you wonder which is the more mature group?! (I’ll have to check the next time I see Canadian police tape; but I suspect it’s just one of the many things we either import or just copy our neighbours on!
)
There’s is a VAST difference between you cannot be wrong and the message of the bible, which states you can do no right! Condemned from the start, so that even children of parents who are not saved are apt to be in hell. NOT cool! And before one can say “Oh, that is up to God’s judgement, we pray that He will be merciful.” Nowhere in the bible does it say that he 100% will be.
I freely admit (most of) my mistakes for the most part, and try my best not to do them again – though one person can only do so much. If I mess up, oh well, it’s not the end of the world. Yet we’re commanded to come mewling pitifully to god, “Have mercy on me, a sinner.” Even those that I don’t aren’t to the level of outright theft, murder, or rape (which oddly enough is NOT in the 10 commandments… but desiring something someone else has is but NEVER doing anything to get said item). FUCK THAT!
Actually, condemned by the choices we make. Unless you are retreating back into a naked fuzzy beast of the field driven only by instinct.
Complete the message: “we can do no right” . . . when it comes to rendering ourselves “worthy” of being in God’s presence or being “owed it” like some wage for work done: or having His Holy Spirit live in us for the sake of educating, maturing, guiding, empowering us to live in process that is as pleasing as that of a physical child embracing life with gusto, learning, maturing, growing, recognizing their immaturity . . . but not letting it become their excuse for not sitting down and POUTING.
Children live in a state of grace far closer to God’s heart than jaded adults. Jesus had a particular soft spot for them; and even with contrary teaching most children are enough in touch with the part of their spirit made in God’s image to make more ethical decisions than some adults! (I’ve worked closely with troubled children, even children from the streets, and have seen the nobility of ideals and ethics they still hold despite the predations of adults who had no business breeding in the first place).
What we are INVITED to do, is admit our failings and inability to render ourselves “worthy” of Eternal Perfect . . . or to “earn” it by religious works. THEN to accept that God has made total provision for this to be no issue so His Holy Spirit can then come and dwell in us. And THEN, to receive the bounty of Spiritual gifts and power to over time control the part of ourselves (the flesh) that is bound to and beholding to death.
It’s foolish to still live a life of trying to prove oneself according to a rule book. Again, have you NEVER heard the Old Covenant was TOTALLY fulfilled in Christ — and it being called “the ministry of death written in stone”??
You’ve REALLY either missed some fundamental teaching of the Good News . . . or are intentionally trying to negate it in your own mind.
Your assessment of this “block”, will determine what good next step you can take. But not wanting to assess it, is just as much your choice . . . your “right”.
The invitation isn’t no strings attached, carefree as you claim it is. It’s a commitment that takes every waking hour, and even the hours that one is asleep. It’s an invitation that doesn’t recognize the realities of life, and when you question its relevance to modernity, the only answer is “you gotta have faith” and “you have to recognize that it was a different time then.” It’s an invitation that is a black hole, that is all consuming, that takes, and takes, and takes, and gives nothing but an empty promise in return, because we can’t know anything except what is written in a compilation of books written years ago, because we only have the words written that haven’t been updated in about 2,000 years.
Then i will exercise that right and have nothing to do with it.
The only thing the invite for a physical child to grow will cost them really, is ignorance.
Physically, emotionally, psychologically growing up takes effort. Some might say constant effort. But it is also a very beautiful, organic process. And not undertaking it at the proper time, can produce all kinds of lasting consequence. It’s not that different with a spiritual child. But a key difference, is the power of the Holy Spirit living in you can make it very much like waking up one day and realizing you’ve grown 30cm! You didn’t really plan to, mean to, intend to. But here you are, a taller person! (Or spiritually, a wiser, more powerful person in Christ)
Faith is a powerful tool and ally . . . but not the excusing catch-all many religions try to turn it into when they don’t know what else to say. As a child you lack the understanding that a moving car will cause you great pain, or not brushing your teeth will have lasting consequence; so you have to “take it on faith”. But as you (if you?) mature, the day will come when the very pragmatic reason will be revealed and you no longer have to “take it on faith”. And when a child asks you why, YOU will be the one insisting they will just have to take it on faith for now!
I keep likening spiritual process with God as a relationship. Extend that analogy forward. If you are in a relationship that is just take and take and take, you are in an unhealthy relationship. You WERE in an unhealthy relationship not with God, but with religion. And it’s like you’ve had one disastrous relationship with predatory person and are now wanting to swear off ALL future relationship of any kind.
It’s a miserable way to live life. But if that is what one chooses I wish them all the best with it.
When you say that it’s not the catch all that others claim, are you saying that it has limits? Why would it? I said it before and I’ll say it again: the very nature of faith should be that if I say “be warm and fed” AND I have the faith to back it up, it should be akin to how Jesus healed the Centurion’s servant. But it’s not!
Faith is a tool. Just like a hammer or a chainsaw are a tool. They have “ordained” purposes where they excel. But to try to use them as a catch-all would be to try to use them to change the baby’s diaper or wash the car!
Faith is not a “wishing machine”. Rights come with responsibilities; just as power comes with conditions. (the access to it via Christ is free; but to not honor the conditions is to refuse the gift)
Actually, go back and re-visit those various healings in the Bible. Did Jesus heal those people . . . or did their faith? Again, religions (with Catholicism particularly notorious for it), try to make it about the healer, the “saint”, the priest, the artifact, the ritual, the ceremony, the penance, the confessional, the host, the magic oil or water. They are so hung up on “faith in the phsyical” that they totally miss the power of the Spiritual.
It’s real, and it’s quite awesome when you are a willing participant in a Spiritual event. But there are “conditions”; such as the moment you try to use it for personal gain (ego), it derails and spins sideways. The departure from God’s “kingdom come” is instantaneous; but the consequences of it often take time to “pile up” enough that one realizes they are WAY off-track.
And then to return to one of your previous questions, repentance is the process of returning the train to the tracks; of switching your stereo from DC (batteries you perform “religious duties” to recharge) to AC (plugging it into a conduit where a steady supply of power is available).
But that’s the exact same thing as saying that God’s power is not ubiquitous for everything, every situation. And is faith not simply God’s power?
In regards to Jesus’ healings, sometimes it was an expression of their faith. Case in point: the woman with hemorrhaging and the Centrurion.
The power of Life cannot be used for Death. Or any of it’s schemes/processes. Period.
This in no way invalidates it as omni-present.
For reasons that remain God’s, “faith” is very important. While this is not a perfect analogy, consider it as “spiritual currency”. A little, properly invested, turns into a lot.
But most religions just dabble in a “hand-to-mouth” spiritual existence and when series of things go wrong and they cry, “Just have faith” . . . well, the “bank account” is drained. Because they have not be properly investing; living spiritual paycheck to spiritual paycheck (Or Sunday to Sunday? Religious exercise to religious exercise?)
Look deeper in the concept of the faith people “invested”. Consider Peter walking on water, and when it failed; how Jesus was able to do so little in his home-town of Nazareth; the various cripples he ministered healing to . . .
Consider that last statement. Did Jesus “heal them” . . . or “minister healing to them”. It most cases, it seems that SOMEONE . . had to step out in [invest] faith for something to happen. Even going back to most OT examples of miraculous happenings. It’s a concept I’m still exploring — but it does seem to have good traction. For whatever reason, God want’s us to some day “rule with Him”. So we need to understand this “spiritual currency”.
It also could tie into the concept of hell/spiritual damnation. If indeed faith is the currency of all things spiritual, imagining arriving in a purely spiritual realm, with absolutely no currency to enable one to do anything. Not even to move from point A to point B.
But at day’s end, even if I concede that there may be a god, with my experience, struggles, and overall problems with life coupled with the fact that i see biblical horrors, contradictions, and rules as being too much, too outdated, too problematic, the fact that the stories seem outlandish (in authorial circles it would be called “suspension of disbelief”), the fact that the bible’s morality doesn’t jive with modern life OR the way life is in general, AND the fact that the believer is called to a life of suffering, persecution, and pain that far outweighs the potential of eternity, therefore I must do the only thing I can do: pass on belief. Even if there is an afterlife, i will go with my head held high when I walk through with god the problems that caused my disbelief.
I had no idea you were such an arbiter of the full “potential of eternity”!
Let’s be very clear on the observation that as you keep returning to “the ministry of death written on stone” and the literal worship of a book . . . your faith and now your disillusionment have little to do with God.
By your own words you’re contradicting yourself! Haven’t you said that we send ourselves to hell by our own actions? Wouldn’t that mean by default that we are the arbitrator of all eternity for the one and only thing that matters: our own eternal destiny! Anything else outside that is meaningless.
And in terms of the book: don’t you believe the event of the bible were exactly as described therein? You keep talking about the spirit of life, yet everywhere he or his followers go, death follows. And a few times it’s even called death. You should really look up deaths caused by directly or at least approved of by god.
You have a point.
Namely, that it’s totally upon us what kind of “eternity” we will be subject to; in the gist of “natural consequence for actions freely taken”. But this raises the point that you have total faith that any “eternity” you currently have the potential to occupy, is not worth it. Faith is not the issue: “in what” is the issue.
Death is an inevitable function of physical life. Of spiritual life? That is still an open question, even to those who have tried to “divorce” themselves from anything “beyond self”.
I do have great faith in the Spirit that inspired the writing of Scripture. But not to the point where I will overlook the context of the people and times and events associated with it’s writing. I do not “worship” the book like many religions insist we should. (As in, WHY would you erect a “Chapel” in the name of the “Bible” and make no mention of the alleged Author on your sign-to-the-world??)
But from the Bible I’ve learned that our flesh (feelings, fears, urges) actively work to place spiritual understanding out-of-reach. I’ve also learned that “the death of ego” is not the bogey-man our flesh make it out to be.
A physical death “endorsed” by God is very unalike an alleged spiritual death “endorsed” by us through the choices we are empowered to make.
Most of the extremely extensive work I have done to try and understand very important matters difficult to comprehend has engaged removing preconceptions and other forms of misconception.
So I end up with far less known then many who claim to know far more (or think they do).
Which, is, really, “the way” one can see applied effort returned in value.
But, this is especially true, where I am at, as I work in the “I don’t know what they are” things field, one has said before, and said it well.
More importantly, there have been situations well organized, where I had just about every major belief smashed, including core beliefs about people close to me. Going way back.
So, no, nothing.
Critical doubt I certainly do not find the most powerful for demolishing false beliefs, but instead, evidence.
Just like the fantasy best court room case. Where undeniable, strong evidence is presented that makes everyone shut their mouths and believe.
If they have some kind of bias against this new belief, there is trauma.
This is why a core tenet of Christian belief are teachings centered around the very idea of not holding to what the eyes say, but what the truth says in one’s heart.
An addendum to this thread:
If one’s drive is “to be right”, anything that might cast doubt on your “rightness” HAS to be seen as a threat. Defenses go up, biases flare, and one’s own personal “Department of Justification” goes into red-alert! Which leaves no space or resources for learning and growth. For self-correction.
But if one’s drive is for “Truth to be the only right”, then one’s ego is not personally threatened by new information that something one believes may not be Truth — may not be “right”. Defenses don’t need to be triggered and there is both ability and resources to consider the new information; impartially and without it becoming a personal threat.