Once upon a time:
Someone thought they should write down and record what they witnessed—rather than just what they were told. This opened the door to others who also said, “Yes, I saw that too.” Now, two people witness the same thing. Each time another, and then another witnessed and wrote it down. The awareness and knowledge grew among the many who could read and write . . .
Someone in church asked, “Has anyone seen what the preacher is preaching?”
The question disturbed the preacher who said, “We do not question God’s words.”
“What does that mean when no one saw it?” the parishioner asked.
“We do not question God, nor do we question His words”, said the preacher.
“How do we learn and share what we witness and experience in our life without our using words too?” he asked.
“Read God’s words first, but don’t write words that contradict His words with what you think you see”, replied the preacher.
“But isn’t that blocking our view of what we witness?” he asked.
“Yes, we don’t want to confuse others with words of ordinary people”, said the preacher.
“Should we not write words about what we witness, see, and experience?” he asked.
“It’s best to keep it to yourself. You are not respecting God”, said the preacher.
“What if the words I wrote were describing what I witnessed, and also confirmed by others who saw the same thing? Am I not supposed to speak the truth of what I witnessed?”, he asked.
This lays bare the point that the church and its believers suggest that parishioners not read about those things that question beliefs and truths that don’t pass through their scrutiny.
It is not difficult to imagine those times when one in a thousand knew how to read, and one in ten thousand knew how to write. Having access to knowledge brought western culture out of the “Dark Ages”.
The interconnections of society at large, via reading, were confined to the wealthy monarchs, lords, and the religious institutions they dominated. This made it difficult to learn, read, and write—restricting it to personal letters and diaries. It also restricted the availability of documents and books to the masses. Libraries were rare, even the “great” libraries brought writing, art, and documents into human life in an accessibility that was minimal and unavailable to most. Nevertheless, libraries opened the global “book” of human knowledge and other civilizations.
The story of the printing press and its role in facilitating the availability of open access to the dialogue of human history and ideas— bringing western thinking into the age of the enlightenment, and rational knowledge giving the intellectual minds who were interested and curious, access to knowledge and dialogue—is epic.
In today’s reality of limitless access and availability to knowledge; restrained only by one’s individual effort and will—you would think everyone would be seeking it.
But amidst this abundance of information lies a majority of human beings who wish to remain undisturbed in their belief-based reality. They’re not interested in learning what they may not know. I believe I have said this before, “Do not disturb” . . .
“Right, preacher?” he asked. “You cannot protect belief from knowledge unless you reject knowledge. The door of knowledge is forever open and belief cannot keep it closed.“