MAN'S CAMP   OUR PRESENT REALITY

     This section is devoted solely to the world of belief. This is the world in which we all live and move and have our being. This is the human camp.  The assertion that I will attempt to prove is this: we do not live in the real world; we live in the world of our own making—the world of our beliefs. We are imprisoned in the human predicament.

     In order to prove this assertion, ten principles of belief will unfold and be taught in much the same way that dominos are set on end and aligned so that they sequentially fall on one another. Like these cascading dominos, each principle is the premise to the one following it. The first principle of belief must be both understood and embraced in order to understand and embrace the second principle of belief and so on to the final one.

      We will attempt to look at our human predicament with only mankind in view and withhold any beliefs about God until the final principle of belief, which deals with our various views of God. This is done so as to minimize confusion. We will look solely at the world of our own making before we look at the world of God’s making. Once we understand our personal world’s limitations, our predicament, we can begin to understand and grasp the world that exists outside of ourselves.

     As these principles of belief unfold, the reader will soon realize that most everything discussed is already instinctively known to one degree or another by most of us. Some of these principles will appear obvious at first; however, the ramifications of these principles may very well suggest to some of us truths never considered. We all have this knowledge available to us. This knowledge is common to all of mankind throughout our many shared experiences; however, the principles of belief drawn from this common knowledge are unique and may seem to a few of us as outrageous. Reactions to these principles have been varied throughout the years. Most seem to respond as if their eyes have been opened and they see a new world for the first time. Others have responded with gratitude as their own insights have been confirmed and strengthened. A few roll their eyes and do not see the relevance. Some of us have already come to these conclusions. In any case the hope of this writer is that we will benefit from this exercise and either learn new insights or refresh the truths we have already discovered.

Our Belief is Our Reality