Klaas-Jan BAKKER - AMORC

were conceived merely to conceal traffic police
and spends his or her life constantly on guard for
that hidden traffic policeman.
Scepticism
A sceptic, on the other hand, is not necessarily
a blind, ignorant disbeliever. The sceptic merely
wants positive, objective, verifiably testable
knowledge and places no faith in empty assertions.
It is fair to say that a good mystic
must be a real sceptic: a walking
question mark.
The sceptic is neither naïve nor easily misled, and
what is capable of proof, she wants proven to her
full satisfaction before she will accept it.
The sceptic is not necessarily a rank
materialist but is in fact a just person; and
being just requires rational thought. On matters
concerning the abstract, the sceptic will not ask
for material proof or empirical evidence, but will
demand something more than just fantasy. There
must at the very least, be an adherence to the
known laws of logic. Do not argue with a sceptic
on the basis of illogical reasoning. Oh, how many
persons hate logic! So many people are inclined
to give their imagination free rein and skim the
surface of logic. And such persons resent sceptics
because they bring them down to earth.
It is fair to say that a good mystic must be
The sceptic wants positive, objective, verifiably testable knowledge
and places no faith in empty assertions.
The new generation appears to be far less mystically,
metaphysically and philosophically inclined.
a real sceptic, i.e., a walking question mark, one
who seeks objective truth. The mystic speaks from
experience, not fantasy, and all he or she says, has
the ring of truth. We should all adopt an attitude
of scepticism, but always be ready to accept that
which can meet the test of logic and known truths,
even though we know that truth is never absolute
and is always relative to human understanding.
Tolerance
A final suggestion for the individual’s adjustment
to the trend today is the cultivation of tolerance.
This is an old admonishment but it is ever new
in its value. Tolerance is not the granting to each
individual the license to act as they want. Rather,
it is to acknowledge the right of each of us to
express our views and contemplated acts.
The expression of ideas should be given
the opportunity of fulfilment. The only restriction
should be that the ideas of another do not tend
to destroy the welfare of society, namely, what
people in a given place and period have found by
experience to be best for them.
46
The Rosicrucian Beacon -- December 2007