Independent Thinking is important

A return to fishing after several decades while on vacation reminded me how much fun it is to wet the lure and toss it into the murky water and wait for the vibrations of the bite. Thanks Peter.

Usually we want to know what the majority thinks, because we assume they must be right. We follow the crowd. But the road less traveled has the most surprises in my experience.

I find myself being drawn not to the conferences and books that everyone is listening to, but to the independent voices that have asked the questions and done the due diligence. Every great movement of reform and recovery began with a few dissenting voices saying, that's not the best way to look at it, or I disagree enough to look for better answers.

It is no different in spiritual searching, the crowd follows the majority opinion while the lone dissenter finds the rose among the thorns. In theology we have two huge constructs through which the evangelical faith is interpreted, generally called Calvinism and Arminianism. A close look at the language and assumptions that each produce quickly shows you that both cannot be true in all their conclusions. The lone dissenter looks at each and then goes to the original documents of the scriptures to see how each view developed and how the system became self sustaining and questions the presumptions until and new way of seeing begins to develop.

I visited an author who did such a thing yesterday. I am not the man I described above, I am a gleaner, one who picks up the fruit of brave men and women who have the drive to look deeper and ask the questions.
I am grateful for those searchers, those dissenters, those minority voices.