Hello there--
I recently saw the above on a bumpersticker and it seemed to express very succinctly something I have been experiencing in seeking out new info for Farkel's Berta & Bonnie thread... I find myself stumbling across intriguing bits and pieces of decades old information and I get to thinking "Wouldn't it be amazing if this person was connected in such and such a way with that person?" and "If this is true then it might mean that..." and on and on. I get very caught up in investigating and theorizing and, suddenly, the amazing tapestry I have been weaving in my head comes unravelled when one more bit of information comes to light and disproves the whole thing. Terrible disappointment. Into the scrap heap. Then on goes the search.
Realizing this made it seem very likely to me that this is at least partly what happens when people try to investigate and interpret ancient holy books which seem to me to contain only jumbled up fragments of early beliefs and practices, contibruted throughout the centuries by a variety of people (kinda like the internet now). Elaborate theories and personal interpretations are continuously created and recreated by persons with varying degrees of intellectual capacity and imagination and with a variety of motives, good and bad. Then organizations are founded on a belief in what someone thinks is true and those beliefs must be perpetuated and protected at all costs or else all that passionate fabrication is for nothing.
That's my take on it at the moment. I don't think that there is anything wrong with such investigations in either case and they can actually be of great benefit as long as we can keep in mind the importance of not believing everything we think no matter how beautifully constructed and not labeling everything we think as truth, honoring everyone's freedom to learn and explore. People might be able that in groups but I'm not so sure they can in organizations, if that makes any sense.
Whatever your personal quests I hope they are as educational and inspiring as mine have been since coming to JWD !
--Merry