The Search for Truth Requires Free Thinking

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2007

We need to create an impetus for one unified language. You read the record of everything True Parents have accomplished, but to read this in translation is a disgrace. It will become your shame in the spirit world. When you go to the spirit world, you might have to pay indemnity for thousands or tens of thousands of years. That is how great a problem this is. Even if the homeland has been restored, people who cannot go over this hill will have no path upon which they can return to their hometown. They will have no certificate of residence that enables them to dwell in their homeland as registered citizens. This is a serious problem. (303-157, 1999.8.17)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1387

    If the True Parents had not come to the earth to teach people the fundamentals, those people will have problems when they pass on to the spirit world. Through this teaching being conveyed to every village and town in the world, the spiritual and physical worlds can be completely united. Thus, the 360,000 Couples Blessing held this year was truly great. At the end of the forty-year course, we were able to achieve, along with the liberation of women through the appearance of the True Mother, the 30,000 Couples Blessing. The reason the number of couples was set at 30,000 was in order to establish a new foundation of the Blessing in the world, based on the True Mother standing on the global level and involving Cain and Abel. That ceremony was the formation stage, and so this latter ceremony, the 360,000 Couples Blessing, can be said to be the growth stage. Through it, God is keeping the world in pace with His providence by focusing everyone’s attention on the problems of the family.
    At the moment, the whole world has become like hell. However much nations may take pride in being advanced, they must bow their heads in shame over the problems of the family. Families have completely broken down to the point that no one can tackle their problems. The situation is so serious that no economic, military, or political power can deal with it. (272-179, 1995.10.5)

The Search for Knowledge

3. Comprehend the Truth Not Merely on the Authority of a Teacher,
but from One’s Own Extensive Study and Research

Do not be misled by reports, or tradition, or hearsay. Be not led by the authority of religious texts, nor by mere logic or inference, nor by considering appearances, nor by the delight in speculative opinions, nor by seeming possibilities, nor by the idea: “This is our teacher.” But when you know for yourselves that certain things are unwholesome and wrong, and bad, then give them up… And when you know for yourselves that certain things are wholesome and good, then accept them and follow them.
    Anguttara Nikaya 1.190-91 (Buddhism)

The search for knowledge is an obligation laid on every Muslim.
    Hadith of Ibn Majah and Baihaqi (Islam)

Thinking is like drilling a well; if we are persistent we will reach clear water. At first it must be muddied, but by gradually scraping away it will naturally become clear.
    Chu Hsi (Confucianism)

He who devotes himself to the study of the law of the Most High
will seek out the wisdom of all the ancients, and will be concerned with prophecies;
he will preserve the discourse of notable men and penetrate the subtleties of parables;
he will seek out the hidden meanings of proverbs
and be at home with the obscurities of parables.
He will serve among great men and appear before rulers;
he will travel through the lands of foreign nations,
for he tests the good and the evil among men.
    Ecclesiasticus 39.1-4 (Christianity)

By collecting contrasting divergent opinions I hope to provoke young readers to push themselves to the limit in the search for truth, so that their wits may be sharpened by their investigation. It is by doubting that we come to investigate, and by investigating that we recognize the truth.

    Peter Abelard, Inquiry into Divergent Views of the Church Fathers (Christianity)

The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue.
    Antisthenes (Hellenism)

Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking; where it is absent, discussion is apt to become worse than useless.
    Leo Tolstoy (Humanism)

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