PRINCIPLE TWO:   KNOWING SERVES BELIEVING

     Knowledge and belief are separate functions and we need to always see these as unique and separate. Now we will discuss how these two relate to one-another. One serves the other: the spirit always rules with the mind serving the needs of the spirit. With our spirit’s insatiable need to grasp hold of reality the spirit hungrily puts the mind to work gathering facts so that our spirit can make its best guess at real reality (God’s perspective). The mind can and will “overrule” the spirit at times. At first blush this seems to contradict this principle, however, this “overruling” occurs when a conflict of beliefs exists. This is a conscious decision and a deliberate one. Keep in mind that this occurs when two or more BELIEFS conflict—the spirit is still ruling the day! The mind in this case acts as an arbitrator, yet in the end one BELIEF will reign and become our best guessed stab at reality.
     How does the mind serve the spirit? Remember, the mind is about the function of “knowing.” The mind gathers facts. Why does the mind do this? The mind gathers facts so that the spirit can come to a belief! Our spirit needs to possess some sense of reality, even though, like the game of poker, we are merely guessing at it!
     An ancient Indian parable may provide us with some help here: The Story of the “Six Blind Men.” Once upon a time, in a faraway land, there lived six blind men. Together they decided to visit a local zoo to experience new things. While at the zoo, the heavy sound of a twig snapping resounded close to the five men. The first blind man walked over to see if this big silent person needed any help. Then, with a big bump, he walked right into the side of the elephant. He put out his arms to either side, but all he could feel was the big side of the elephant. "Boy," said the first blind man. "I believe that I must have walked into a wall." The second blind man was becoming more and more curious about what was happening. He walked over to the front of the elephant and grabbed hold of the animal's trunk. He quickly let go and shouted, "This isn't a wall. This is a snake!” The third man walked over to the back and touched the animal's tail. "This is no wall, and this is no snake. I believe for sure that this is a rope." The fourth blind man decided that someone should really get to the bottom of this thing. So he crouched down on all fours and felt around the elephant's legs. "My dear friends," explained the fourth man. “What I believe we have here, gentlemen, is four tree trunks. That's it. Case closed." The fifth blind man was not so quick to jump to conclusions. He walked up to the front of the elephant and felt the animal's two long tusks. "It seems to me that this object is made up of two swords," said the fifth man. The sixth blind man scratched his head and thought and thought after hearing the other five. Just then the worried zoo-keeper walked by and said, "Hi there! How are you enjoying the zoo today?" The sixth blind man seized this opportunity and asked, "Perhaps you could help us figure out the answer to a question that's been puzzling us. My friends and I can't seem to figure out what this thing in front of us is. How can one thing seem so different to five different people?" "Well," said the zoo-keeper. "You are all right. Only by sharing what each of you knows can you possibly reach a true understanding." The six wise men had to agree with the wisdom of the zoo-keeper. The first five of them had been too quick to come to their belief without getting more facts by listening to what the others had to say.
     With the help of this parable we can see our first two principles at work. The six blind men came upon a situation in life. In this case an elephant. Five men began collecting data with the limitations of their senses. Each in turn came to a belief with the facts that each had at their disposal. Individually they came to separate beliefs. No one had all of the facts and no one knew what they didn’t know. Each man viewed reality (belief) differently than the other men. All were indeed wrong! Yet each of them was convinced that they were right! The human spirit is blind without the mind doing its work of collecting information. The spirit needs to believe; therefore, it sets the mind to work to collect data. With one fact the spirit will believe something and with two facts the spirit will adjust its view of reality and believe something else and so on. Remind you of the game of poker? Like the blind men of this story we are all blind to the real reality yet see our own personal reality in the confines of our own spirits. We see a world, but not the real world. Humbling!
     Scientists acknowledge this principle through their own scientific method. Science, in its quest to know reality, is the well developed process of observing the facts that surround us all, and then with these facts forms a “hypothesis.” The word “hypothesis” is just another way of saying “one possible reality.” The scientist then tests their hypothesis in order to prove its validity as either true or false. If false, the hypothesis is adjusted and then tested once again. If tested true, the hypothesis is maintained and labeled by the scientist as a theory. In the end a theory is still a belief of what reality might be, because the scientist knows that they do not have “all knowledge.” There still may be one instance out there where the theory fails. True science is by its nature—humble.
     Through observation the mind collects facts/data so that the spirit can come to a belief. The mind serves the spirit. The mind collects and observes and the spirit believes something based on these observations. All of these beliefs are our own personal realities, imperfect as they are. These beliefs may be called “theories” or they may be called “opinions” or they may be called “conclusions” or even “judgments”, but in the end they are all beliefs. The human mind gains knowledge so that the spirit can do what it does—believe. The function of knowing serves believing. The human spirit abhors a vacuum of belief; the spirit MUST believe something; therefore, the quest for knowledge begins.
     The common phrase, “Seeing is believing,” is a phrase used to describe the marvelous process of our interaction with the world around us—and it is true! When the mind collects data through the body’s senses (seeing), the spirit goes to work and begins to interpret them (believing). What the spirit believes may be right or it may be wrong, but it will still believe something. Imagine, if you will, that our heads are a giant funnel where the wide end of the funnel reaches out to the world around us gathering all of the data that it can and the narrow end of the funnel extends down to our hearts, our spirits. Our mind collects all of this data in order to analyze the data and sort the data and filter the data so that we can come to a belief. The grand purpose of the mind is to serve the spirit by collecting information so that the spirit can satisfy its absolute need for some sense of reality.
     Whatever the spirit believes will contain elements of both truth and error. We just do not know how much of each. This is the humble human predicament. This is due to the following two truths, first: that all knowledge will never be attained and, second: the facts attained will suggest different meanings to each of us much like the five blind men and the game of poker. What the spirit finally concludes as reality is in the end only its personal view of reality—belief.

REALITY CHECK:  Seeing is believing.