“The Bridge of Truth” webcast was created to provide a platform for leaders in the various fields of Religion, Science, Politics, Business, Art, Entertainment and so forth to speak on the issues that concern them and about which they are actively involved in working to resolve. Often, these issues, the things that we are passionate about, have at their foundation very personal and deeply-rooted beliefs. As explained in The Four Pathways, our beliefs most resonate with the positions upheld by either Religion or Science, and in that context subdivide into four distinct categories. Further subdivision within those categories then occurs until one arrives at their specific beliefs, which are as unique to each person as are their fingerprints and DNA.
Nonetheless, it is in the highest levels of these subdivisions where our ability to relate to someone with a different alignment begins to become impaired. That is because in the process of defining our beliefs we set up boundaries that separate us from others who feel differently. We all seem to have the need to wear our beliefs like protective armor, as if to be impenetrable from the attacks of foreign beliefs. Over time, these beliefs – our truth – become fixed; and in defining what we believe to be absolutely true, we automatically establish that any belief in conflict with it must be false.
The paradox, and its pitfall, should be obvious. Where is the absolute truth if in someone’s eyes we are all false! Such is the paradox of everyone’s need to be right. Its pitfall is the endless series of human conflicts since the birth of belief’s discernment to force one set of ideologies onto another, to compel someone else to think and act our way. This has largely come from the misuse of Religion. But Religion is not alone in that regard. And as Science has developed over time, the weapons available to impose our will have become more devastating and heinous, until now it would only take one wrong button pushed or command given for the history of humanity to itself become history!
The only solution is to foster cooperation over conflict, and that is the purpose of “The Bridge of Truth.” Through the free expression of beliefs, without judgment, we can learn about - and from - one another, until we realize that at their core there are many parallels in the beliefs we all hold dear. They’re increasingly unlikely to occur the further we get into specifics. Even so, there is no need for any of us to change them. Each human being has the right to be, and truly is, special. The parallels occur in the generalities – the common bonds. From them we can build “The Bridge of Truth,” upon which we can not just acknowledge in a condescending way someone else’s truth, but honor it.
The greatest issues facing humanity today know no ideological boundaries. Disease does not care what religion you are; strife does not care what religion you are; catastrophe does not care what religion you are; hunger does not care what religion you are; a bomb does not care what religion you are. Indeed, God does not care what religion you are, only what you have chosen to do with it.
The dream of an ideal world has long been fostered by many of humanity’s great traditions. As wonderful as its realization would be, given the immediacy and potential outcome of the issues we face, we must all work together to insure that our children will have any world worth living in.
