Belief is not
knowledge. A belief is an assumption, which if treated as a working
proposition can at times help us find the truth. But if we take it
as true in its own right it becomes a preconception that clouds our
vision. For example, in order to climb a mountain I must first
believe I am capable of it or I will not be able to put forth the
effort to attempt it. But if I regard that believing I can climb the
mountain is the same as actually climbing the mountain, then my
belief is a delusion which breeds not only incapacity but unreality.
While belief may have
some preliminary value it must be discarded as we move along the
path. Belief in God is not
knowing God, though it may assert what God is supposed to have said.
And how can we know what someone has said if we don't know who they
really are? Merely because it is written in a particular book? If we
ourselves do not know God, how can we fulfill his will? And if we
don't know God within ourselves, how can we know his reality outside
ourselves?
Such belief does not
take us to truth but presumes to tell us what it is as a mere verbal
formation. Belief becomes a substitute knowledge which prevents us
from discovering truth. To know a
particular food, like grapes, we must actually get them and eat
them. It is not merely enough to believe in grapes or believe in
another person who once ate them.
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