The word gullible means ‘easily persuaded to believe something’. In that light, we may say that all little children are gullible because we witness it on a daily basis — nowhere more convincingly than ‘Santa Claus and Easter Bunny’. So, why are little children gullible? The obvious answer is simple — ignorance — they do not know any better. However, as they grow and become educated about life and living facts (reach the age of reason), they realize both entities are fairy tales or myths. They soon learn that Santa cannot possibly come down a chimney —neither can reindeer fly. Likewise, they soon learn that rabbits don’t lay eggs, especially candy ones.
With that understanding, how is it possible that so many adults seem to be very gullible about so many things, especially politics and religion — after all, they are educated adults, aren’t they? I suppose, because that may be a semi rhetorical and semi direct question, we need to explore the ‘whys’ of that question.
The ‘rhetorical’ part stems from our preconceived idea that ‘we all share the same common idea about something’ —in fact, nothing could be farther from the truth. Yes, we may think others share our thoughts and understandings, but we are, in fact, badly mistaken. It is impossible for any two people to have an identical idea. That reason rests in the fact that no two personalities are anything alike. Therefore, no single idea can possibly be interpreted identical to another person’s—similar yes, identical no.
The ‘direct’ part stems from the very mistaken idea that others think like we do. To dispel that idea, all one has to do is tune in to different news programs on television or radio talking about an identical subject —the unsuspecting would be terribly confused by what he heard— likely an opposite idea would be proposed concerning the same subject. Then it becomes a matter of ‘whom do you believe or ‘trust’. Based on your pre-programming and built-in biases any individual may choose one or the other or, possibly neither. There’s an old saying that ‘birds of a feather flock together’, and another that says, ‘misery loves company’. So, often in our bewilderment and/or ignorance, we may choose sides—unabashed gullibility.
It seems to me that those sentiments and actions are applicable more to religion and politics than anywhere else. However, they apply to all sorts of situations in our lives — consider sports. Except in very unusual situations could one find themselves not rooting for their child’s team — what about college and Pro teams. Many people recognize a consistent winner and feel exhilaration at being emotionally attached to it. Others may have a thousand different reasons for rooting for a player or team —it’s all about our individual perceptions and expectations. Mind you, however, of the thousands and thousands who may root for the same team, no two do so for identical reasons — each has his own bias.
In the case of politics, we have a dichotomy of basic opinion among voter-age adults, and why is that possible — don’t’ most people think alike? —not on your life. Each person has specific and/or preconceived ideas about most things. Others may not have given a certain subject much thought or attention and thereby, be subject to persuasion which leads to ‘flocking ’with a certain group without really knowing why —it’s a convenience thing — built in gullibility.
I am convinced that most choices of social and religious concern have been instilled in us from childhood on so, when we become adults, we find it natural and easy to ‘go along’ with the crowd we’ve been taught to identify with — sadly, many don’t give it a ‘second thought’— built in gullibility.
On the other hand, there are many people who for various reasons may begin to question some of their indoctrination. For instance, a child who has been indoctrinated in extreme liberalism and eagerly accepts the concept of ‘government giveaways’ may ‘change his tune abruptly when he gets a real job and sees his paycheck riddled with taxes — gullibility may be corrected instantly.
In my own case, even though we were paupers living with five brothers in a three-room shack with no electricity and with the ICRR freight line running through our front yard, my parents instilled in us the concepts that ‘hard work, determination, and our religion’ were the most important things in life — all were ‘built in’ concepts of life from day one. The hard work and determination part stuck like a postage stamp, but at about age eleven to thirteen, I began to question in my mind the validity of certain religious concepts.
At that time in history, 1944-46, questions about Tenets of Roman Catholicism were scorned and, disrespectfully, went unanswered. However, I had an ‘ace in the hole’. I was an altar boy (acolyte)and good friends with our parish priest. That relationship came about two ways — in 1935, he had prevailed upon my mother to compose a history of our little community of Fancy Farm, Kentucky and in addition, I had a good quail and rabbit dog— Father Russell liked for me to take him hunting with Ole Bear. Accordingly, I had no fear or qualms about asking him questions about our religion.
Being an altar boy brought me front and center with most church activities including the dozens of times we as a parish prayed incessantly for God to perform a miracle for us and make it rain when our crops were dying of thirst and the like – not one prayer was ever answered – it never rained – not even once. I asked him straight out why God would not ‘answer our prayers’? —after all, we were God’s ‘most love’ people. His answer, “It is God’s will” flattened me. My mind began spinning like a top —the obvious pertained. If it were God’s will, then all that praying, which we did incessantly, was a ‘total waste of time and energy and terribly misdirected — obviously, God’s will could not be changed — my gullibility about God and religion had been shattered. At that moment, I did not understand the implications, but I became determined to learn the full meaning of that statement. As stated in my little philosophy book, WILDERNESS CRY, at that moment I embarked on a journey of understanding.
It took me sixty-five years or so to complete the journey and dispel all traces of gullibility by finally accomplishing something never before done — define the essence of God. I had to explain why God’s will could not be changed. It was a daunting task but with a gratuitous encounter with Quantum Mechanics (particle physics), it was startlingly simple and easy. In the ever most simple six little words God’s essence could be defined — God is a Perfect Rational Being. Nothing can be added or subtracted from that definition.
The implications of that definition are staggering. Most important of all, it means God is Perfect Love. Nearly as important, it immediately negates and nullifies any and all religions ever to be known because none of them can define the God of whom they speak. In light of that definition, it should be quite obvious that God’s will cannot be changed — if God could change his will, his very nature would by necessity change — the ‘perfect truth system’ in this universe would be lost and the universe would immediately implode— not a chance. Something perfect is complete — it cannot be hurt or helped, pleased or displeased, or changed in any way. Therefore, the obvious pertains — we have only one justifiable prayer— “Thank You Lord God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit (Will of God) for my life and sustenance here on this earth, and for my eternal life in you forever”. Amen – gullibility eliminated.
So, it should be rather obvious that we can eliminate all gullibility about religion by knowing and understanding God’s essence. Should we congregate? Yes, but with a different mindset. WE should gather to celebrate God’s love of us and all his creation with joyous praise of thanksgiving — hopefully, making us more accepting and loving of both God and our neighbor. We are not obligated in any way to do so but I believe it would give us an awareness of our Creator never before appreciated — God is Perfect Love, not merciful, not angry, not hurt, not pleased or displeased. God accepts and loves all his creation with a Perfect Love because he is accepting and loving a mirror image of himself. All creation is ‘the Second Person of Trinity’ — Jesus was our one and only representative who recognized that and willingly gave his life that we may know.
Jesus was killed because he told the Jewish hierarchy that they were a den of thieves and a pit of vipers because they imposed their guilt-ridden religion which feigned appeasement of an angry God while, all the time, bilking the public of their hard-earned resources. Jesus despised religion and openly said so.
And, three hundred years later, those who established the Holy Roman Catholic Church completely ignored Jesus and established a Church patterned exactly after Judaism, hierarchy, sacrifice, and all. Still yet, those who broke from the Roman church with the Protestant Reformation patterned their ‘gazillion’ churches after a book which is so contaminated and corrupted as to be nearly useless – another form of blanket guilt – none knows God – all know how to bilk our resources.
If you have not done so, please read my little book Wilderness Cry. You will then want to read Peace in Spirituality and Provocative Catholic – gullibility gone — wouldn’t it be nice if gullibility in politics was that easy to eliminate?
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WILDERNESS CRY by Hilary L Hunt MD 