I’m dragged back into the subject. I’ve been observing while I’ve been away. There’s many interesting things happening in this world. One thing has been made clear— There is systems, networks on this Earth, that we will never get a clear answer on as to how they operate. Even when presented with an answer, we take it as our job to tear it apart and find how it can be presented as wrong or incorrect. But none of us know, we can only believe. But belief is a weird monster. It does things to the way we think. It alters what we look at, it emphasizes what we think we observe and believe in— while at the same time disregarding what’s being presented to us. This flows both ways. Somebody can believe in, I’ll call it; “something extraterrestrial”, and another person can believe nothing of the sort exists. Both of these minds will never be in conjunction of what they think, because neither has “proof” to offer to the other side. Religious belief, extraterrestrial belief, agnostic belief, governance belief, hell even health beliefs— these are all tied to the veracity of the information presented as such by the instruments that measure it. You can believe a religion to be true, but there’s no real way of measuring how true something of the sort is. You can believe the government is being truthful about everything they say and that they’re doing what we would call the correct thing, but we cannot know because their instrument is their speech and our ears and they play them as they please. You can believe that everything the government says is a lie, and that religion is false, and that the earth is flat and the only thing that exists is what’s around you in the present moment— until you’re met with information that proves otherwise, and even then, you can believe that you’re correct. But you cannot know. At the moment that we say we know, we have to take all information regarding the subject as true, because we know it to be true. I believe this is the moment we fail in what our mission is as this community. Not to say, “Hey, look at this and know it as true:”, but instead, to gather information. To provide a space where it can be observed and analyzed, objectively, and to critically think about what we’re looking at. Unfortunately the instruments we rely on— photographs, pictures, informational data readings, stories, our eyes and ears, people’s voices, and belief, can all be wrong. Or they may not be. Information can be presented as factually correct and as true as can be, but as long as we believe that it can be wrong, it may as well be wrong— to us. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying take everything in as correct. That would be foolish. Be skeptical. But don’t disregard. Don’t disrespect because of your own beliefs. _____ I stepped away from the subject because I started becoming aware of how much my own want for the subject to be true was skewing my mind in a certain direction. I wanted to completely step away from it, to detach myself as much as I could. I leaned into life. I have an amazing girlfriend, I’m the sole breadwinner for my home, I provide I safe space for my family, I buried myself in work and became a better version of who I was. Nevertheless, this life has a funny way of throwing things at you that pique your interest at seemingly appropriate times. I’m brought back in because of certain events happening globally, and the gravitation of people towards the subject. I’m interested, but I can tell you for a fact— looking back at what I’ve worked on, and what I’ll work on in this near future, it’s done with a heavy eye of skepticism. I don’t know that what I’m looking at is true. I don’t know that it’s incorrect. I don’t believe it to the point where I’ll disregard the dissenting opinion when shown otherwise. But I’ll analyze. I’ll read. I’ll sift through the information presented, and I’ll make my own conclusions, accepting that it can be wrong or correct, and understanding that neither conclusion has to be inherently false. It’s just a matter of how you process the information presented. Stay curious. submitted by /u/Aeylwar [link] [comments]