We Agnostics (Continue)
J: The man who has the Twelfth Step that knows--what I know is--today is from the results of actions that I've taken and applied to my life. Now that I know, what I know is faith. My faith cannot be transferred to the next person. What I know can only help the new person come to believe. He has to take the journey himself. Once he
believes, and he makes a decision, and he takes the action, and he gets results, one day he will know. So believing is the beginning. You got chalk now.
I think it is so simple, whatever we do, success or failure. We fail the same way. There's people in trouble today using that principle. It's a principle. These are the principles of living. Believing is the Second Step, decision the Third Step, the actions Steps Four through Nine. Then we get results, which is the promises. kind then we know, which is the Twelfth Step. The one who knows can help the next person come to believe. This is the way I go to the store and buy something.
When I want to buy something at the store and I haven't bought it before, I go to the grocery store. I look at all these different things, and at all these different kinds they've got. I just don't know which one is good. I really don't know which one is the beat product. Maybe I listen to a commercial, or something I hear on TV and I believe that's a good product.
First time I buy it I don't know what it is. I believe it's good. I decide to buy it, and I take it home and use it. Once I use it and it works good, I get good results, then I've got faith in it. When I go back there next time, I don't buy it on what I believe. From then on, I buy on faith, but the first time, I've got to start off, on believing. You can't start out with faith. You can just start out with simple believing.
C: When Columbus took his little trip, he didn't go on faith. Nobody had ever taken this trip before. He just strictly went on belief. We believe that he hired a special sailor. He put him on the front of the ship at night with a lantern. He said, I believe this world is round. But if you see the edge of this damn thing, you holler. (laughter)
Now, when he came back, he went right back to the Queen of Spain, the lady who financed him in the first place. She said, Columbus, where's the gold, and the silk, and the spices that you promised me. He said, I didn't find any. But he said, if you'll finance me again, I'll go back and this time I'll find them. She did finance him again, and he did
go back.
But the only difference is, this time when he went back, he now went on knowledge. He went on faith. He didn't have go on belief, because now he knew. They didn't have to hire that extra sailor, and put him on the front of the ship. (laughter) Because now he knew that the world was round. But you see he followed the same pattern that mankind has always followed in order to be successful.
