Writing in Snow

Midweek Reflections on Independent Investigation

‘Idál (Justice), 6 ‘Aẓamat (Grandeur) 176 B.E. - Wednesday, May 22, 2019

"The essence of all that We have revealed for thee is Justice, is for man to free himself from idle fancy and imitation, discern with the eye of oneness His glorious handiwork, and look into all things with a searching eye."

Baha'u'llah1

Independent investigation is important, especially if people are to be a good citizen of the world or their native lands. I was never taught to investigate truth or anything else. As a child, I was expected to obey my parents and grandparent, which most of the time wasn't a problem. In school the only questions I was expected to ask or answer concerned the school work. In church and Sunday school, I was taught that the only truth was the Bible and the way the verses were explained by the preacher or the Sunday school teachers. An questions that didn't suite the Southern Baptist understanding of biblical scriptures was discouraged and left unanswered.

I remember when I started asking questions. It occurred in a Sunday school class I attended at the First Southern Baptist Mission in the Smelter Heights in Blackwell, Oklahoma. I'm not sure how old I was at the time, perhaps I was in the first or second grade of regular school. Anyway, the lesson was "the only way to salvation" or something like that. My question had to do with the people who were born and died before Christ came into world history. After the instructor told us that the only way to salvation was through Christ, I ask what about the people who lived and died before Christ appeared. She told me I didn't need to worry about that because if they were good people, they would go to heaven.

Telling me not to worry about something is the same as telling me it's something I have to worry about. From that encounter, I learned that I was expected to accept, without question, all the doctrines. It didn't stop me from asking questions, it just stopped me from asking them aloud. I finally got an answer to my question after I became a Baha'i and was introduced to the concept of Progressive Revelation.

Gratitude List for 6 ‘Aẓamat

Today I am thankful...
          ...that my Bank of America checking account is not overdrawn today
          ...for the cake doughnut I had with my coffee this morning.
          ...that I have 54,000 points in my YouGov account.
          ...for the rain we received in Las Vegas this morning.
          ...that I have 181 points in my Survey Junkie account.
          ...for the ginger ale I had with my lunch.
          ...that I was able to finish What Does it Mean to Investigate Your Own Truth?   by Victoria Welborn, which is the first article in the series The What Why and How of Independent Investigation  .
          ...that I have $66.44 in my Adsense account.

Morning Rain2

Inhale the morning
the fresh scent of rain washing
the dust from the air.

Footnotes
1  Tablets of Baha’u’llah, p. 156.
2  I posted this on Poet 999 - A Butterfly Emerges From Her Cocoon https://poet999.blogspot.com/2019/05/morning-rain.html.