{"id":285,"date":"2008-04-26T05:55:45","date_gmt":"2008-04-26T05:55:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/04\/our-stubborness-to-change.html"},"modified":"2008-04-26T05:55:45","modified_gmt":"2008-04-26T05:55:45","slug":"our-stubborness-to-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/04\/our-stubborness-to-change.html","title":{"rendered":"Our stubborness to change"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nNOTE: Saturday is Prose Day here on the blog, a time to take a moment once a week to relax the mind, open the heart, and access the soul through the gift of prose from one of the many books of The New Spirituality, For this week’s prose we offer…the first in a series of excerpts from The New Revelations<\/em>…
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\nLet me see if I understand. You\u2019re saying that this book is on a par with the Torah, the whole Bible, the Bhagavad-Gita?<\/p>\n

I did not say that. But, for the sake of discussion, were not those books written by mortals, guided by Divine revelation?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, yes, but surely you\u2019re not equating the words here with the words of Confucius, the teachings of The Buddha, the revelations of Muhammad\u2026<\/p>\n

Again I say\u2026these were mere human beings, were they not?\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I wouldn\u2019t call them \u201cmere\u201d human beings. They were very special human beings. <\/p>\n

Human beings who understood enormous truths. Human beings who were deeply inspired.
\nYou, too, can understand enormous truths. You, too, can be deeply inspired. Do you think these experiences are reserved for the very few?
\nI tell you, they are meant for the very many.
\nDivine inspiration is the birthright of every human being.
\nYou are all very special. You simply do not know that. You do not believe it. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why not?<\/p>\n

Because your religions have told you that you are not. They have told you that you are sinners, that you are unworthy, that only a very few among you have achieved a level of worthiness to be inspired directly by God \u2013 and that all of those people are dead.
\nThey have convinced you that no one living today could possibly achieve that level of worthiness, and, hence, no book written today could possibly contain sacred truths or the Word of God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why have they done so? Why have they told us this?<\/p>\n

Because to tell you otherwise would be to leave open the possibility that another master, another prophet, another messenger of God could come along, bringing new revelations and opening you to new understandings\u2014and that is something which already established organized religions could not abide.
\nAnd so, while your world\u2019s religions may not be able to agree on which book contains the highest truth and the deepest wisdom and the True Word of God, there is one thing on which they are able to agree. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What\u2019s that?<\/p>\n

Whatever book it is, it\u2019s an old one.
\nDefinitely.
\nIt\u2019s an old book.
\nIt could not be a new book. It could not be a book written today.
\nGod\u2019s direct revelations ended long ago, your religions agree. Only old sacred books can contain divine revelation.
\nMost people can accept that God\u2019s great truths have come to humans through humans. They simply cannot accept that this could be true of humans living today.
\nThis is how you think. This is how you have it constructed.
\nIf it\u2019s old, it\u2019s worthy, if it\u2019s new, it\u2019s unworthy.
\nIf it\u2019s old, it\u2019s true, if it\u2019s new, it\u2019s false.
\nIf it\u2019s old, it\u2019s right, if it\u2019s new, it\u2019s wrong.
\nIf it\u2019s old, it\u2019s good, if it\u2019s new, it\u2019s bad.
\nThis peculiar mindset is what makes progress on your planet so difficult, and evolution so time consuming.
\nWhat complicates all this is that, as you have constructed it, this mindset applies only to things\u2014that is, inanimate objects\u2014and to ideas. Ironically, when it comes to people you have it constructed the other way around.
\nIf it\u2019s new, it\u2019s worthy, if it\u2019s old, it\u2019s unworthy.
\nThus, your society dismisses out of hand some of the brightest new ideas and some of the wisest older people.
\nAsk Hermann K\u00fcmmell. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hermann K\u00fcmmell?<\/p>\n

A medical doctor in Hamburg in the late 1800s who had a terrible time convincing other physicians that it was a good idea to wash their hands before surgery.
\nThe idea of \u201cscrubbing up\u201d was summarily dismissed by \u201cthose who knew better,\u201d with K\u00fcmmell turned into a laughing stock and practically driven out of his beloved medical profession for even suggesting that such a practice could save lives.
\nThis stubborn tendency of human beings to cling to their past, to refuse innovation or new thinking until they are forced to do so by an ultimately embarrassing weight of evidence, has been slowing your evolutionary process for millennia.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = NOTE: Saturday is Prose Day here on the blog,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-words-from-conversations-with-god"],"yoast_head":"\nOur stubborness to change - Conversations with God<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our stubborness to change - Conversations with God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = NOTE: Saturday is Prose Day here on the blog,…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/conversationswithgod\/2008\/04\/our-stubborness-to-change.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Conversations with God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-04-26T05:55:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Neale Donald Walsch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Our stubborness to change - 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