Reasonable Concepts: Nature vs. Scripture

     John Wesley’s Quadrilateral suggests the application of four elements for testing or formulating new material which could or should be included in a theology. Each of the four considerations are worthy of merit, but they are not always applied equally when considering new thoughts or ideas. They are given different priority weights depending upon the authority using this method to validate the subject under consideration. Very conservative orders tend apply a heavier weight of Scripture as the test for acceptance of any new material, whereas a very progressive order will apply the heavier weight of Reason as the main consideration of developing theology.

QUADRILATERAL DRILL WEIGHTING CHART
	Fundamentalist Evangelical	Orthodox Evangelical	Mainline Christian	Progressive Christianity	Possibilian	Agnostic	Atheist
Scripture	100%	40%	20%	15%	0%	0%	0%
Tradition	0%	40%	60%	15%	20%	0%	0%
Experience	0%	10%	10%	35%	40%	30%	0%
Reason	0%	10%	10%	35%	40%	70%	100%
	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%	100%

     During our life time, incredibly more strides have been made in the accumulation of knowledge about the universe we live in than during any time in the last 100,000 years. We have also learned more about the basic structure of organic and inorganic matter not only of this planet, but throughout the universe. Our developing scientific disciplines have begun answering questions about our past, present and future that our ancestors could not even imagine asking. These disciplines have amassed a universe of verifiable facts and evidence to continue building upon this ever growing mountain of knowledge. None of this evidence has been kept secret from anyone, but is made public for any and everyone to examine and evaluate for themselves. Neither does this scientific evidence and knowledge require a “Belief system of Faith” to understand or accept.

     I, like almost every one whose religious education was based on the Old and/or New Testament, has since the age of reasoning, harbored questions concerning almost every story and book in the Bible. Answers provided during our early years by our religious educators included the real fact that we may never know the answers, but were encouraged to continue to have Faith in the stories and Believe that they were either true or important to our lives. Eventually these answers ceased to satisfy our questions and curiosities and reason began to stifle blind Belief.

     One question which has solicited a variety of answers from church members is, “What is the origin of Sin?” Although this question will generally fill the room with definitions of what Sin is, the origin of Sin most commonly expressed is either the; (1) Tempting and Talking Snake; (2) the forbidden fruit; or, (3) the disobedience of Adam and Eve of eating fruit from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. These answers are given only by cultures whose religious education includes what we call “The Old Testament.” Many cultures that base their religious education on other sources of information, have a different set of answers about the origins of unacceptable human behavior. This obviously invokes the question, “where is the truth?”

     Questions can be, and are, endless when it comes to cultural practices. We will never know what the truth is when we base our truths on cultural differences. Scientific evidence, on the other hand, is not affected by culturalism. The study of, and accrued knowledge about our universe has no cultural borders, it is universal.

     The following are only a few more questions I have pondered and attempted to apply the Wesley Quadrilateral in search of answers.

      In the year 1800 BCE, the world’s population was estimated by credible anthropologists and archeologists to be approximately 35 million people scattered around the planet. These peoples lived in tribes, villages, dynasties, and had developed a variety of thriving cultures everywhere on the planet. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population)

2000–1500 BCE:

Hyksos invaders drive Egyptians from Lower Egypt (17th century BC). Amosis I frees Egypt from Hyksos (c. 1600 BC). Assyrians rise to power—cities of Ashur and Nineveh. Twenty-four-character alphabet in Egypt. Cuneiform inscriptions used by Hittites. Peak of Minoan culture on Isle of Crete—earliest form of written Greek. Hammurabi, king of Babylon, develops oldest existing code of laws (18th century BC). Abraham becomes patriarch of Jewish Nation (c. 1800 BCE).  The Chinese Shang Dynasty (c. 1700–1046 BC).(http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001198.html#ixzz1DtZTuZ3Z)

     Question #1: Why is it reasonable to accept a story that the God who created the universe, the world, all of the people in it, and pronounced them, “good,” would reveal himself to a single Bedouin herder from a semi-nomadic tribe of the Mesopotamia area to announce that “he would become the father of a great nation of people more numerous than the stars in the sky, and become His chosen people?”

      The stories of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, etc., come to us from a long oral tradition before they were ever written in any form by unknown people who had no firsthand experience or witness of events they wrote about, the originals of which no longer exist. These stories and a lineage of oral stories, myths, and legends have come to form the basis of Christianity without any archeological or historical support from any other sources. The only authority of truth it purports to possess is the claim that because this story is included in the Bible which is the inspired, if not dictated, words of a God who should be feared without question. There is no other evidence to support this story.

1000–900 BCE:

Solomon succeeds King David, builds Jerusalem temple. After Solomon's death, kingdom divided into Israel and Judah.Hebrew elders begin to write Old Testament books of Bible. Phoenicians colonize Spain with settlement at Cadiz.(http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001198.html#ixzz1DtZTuZ3Z)

400–300 BCE:

Pentateuch—first five books of the Old Testament evolve in final form. Philip of Macedon, who believed himself to be a descendant of the Greek people, assassinated (336 BC) after subduing the Greek city-states; succeeded by son, Alexander the Great (356–323 BC), who destroys Thebes(335 BC), conquers Tyre and Jerusalem (332 BC), occupies Babylon (330 BC), invades India, and dies in Babylon. His empire is divided among his generals; one of them, Seleucis I, establishes Middle East empire with capitals at Antioch (Syria) and Seleucia (in Iraq). Trial and execution of Greek philosopher Socrates (399 BC). Dialogues recorded by his student, Plato (c. 427–348 or 347 BC). Euclid's work on geometry (323 BC). Aristotle, Greek philosopher (384–322 BC).Demosthenes, Greek orator (384–322 BC). Praxiteles, Greek sculptor (400–330 BC).

      Pontius Pilate was the 5th Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, from AD 26–36. Rome occupied many Mediterranean countries and had learned the art of managing a foreign occupation. The secret was to allow the occupied cultures to continue to observe their own religious and social practices as long as they did not conflict with paying a monetary tribute to Rome or threaten Roman occupation. Under this practice, the Jewish Sanhedrin, with Roman approval of the appointment of the Chief Priest, was allowed to rule over Jewish practices. It was easier to maintain rule over conquered lands when some leniencies were allowed. It was a matter of convenience with a minimal force of occupying Roman soldiers.

      Constantine I was Roman Emperor from AD 306 to 337. Constantine issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed tolerance of all religions throughout the empire. Like the Roman rulers before him, he practiced a limited benevolent style of ruling occupied countries.

       Most of the religions and cultural groups living under the occupational rule of the Roman Empire had central authorities which were responsible to the Emperor for control of activities of their members. This made it easier for Rome to control large numbers of occupied people. However, Christian sects scattered throughout the Roman Empire had a very loose connection with each other and had no central authority. Frequently they were at odds with each other over the authenticity and authority of written texts each possessed for teaching and converting new members. When the threat of disputes among the Christian churches was brought to Constantine’s attention, he ordered a meeting of the various church leaders to settle their disputes and create a central authority before they became a domestic problem for Rome.

        This mandatory meeting of the church leaders in AD 325 was known as the first Council of Nicea and was the first ecumenical council of the catholic Church. This meeting was commissioned by Constantine to settle disputes between religious groups and come to an agreement not only on the materials submitted for consideration and inclusion into a common written authority, but to elect an order of Bishops that would preside over future Council meetings and subsequently over all Christian churches. This meeting, as well as later Council of Bishops meetings, would make decisions about; “Was Jesus a God or a Man,” “Powers of the Holy Spirit,” “Elements of the Trinity,” “the date to celebrate Easter,” etc.

      Not surprisingly, the largest delegations won not only positioning the Church of Rome as the central authority over all Christendom, but also ruled over the selection of written materials that would support this authority, hence the establishment of the Roman catholic Church. The selection of letters and texts were voted on by the Ruling Bishops and canonized as the final authority of God’s word for all of Christendom. This authority for ruling over all of the churches in the Christian world was backed up by the insistence and authority of the Roman Emperor and everyone attending the Council meetings knew it.

       The doctrine of Biblical inerrancy was developed by a group of quasi military Bishops who were more politically motivated toward establishing rule over a loosely organized and growing religious group, than establishing any truth of God. They used the power of the Roman Empire and the ancient stories handed down through Jewish traditions as leverage to their success.

     Although Constantine has been credited for assisting the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire, in reality he was just trying to avert an internal conflict between differing religious sects by the establishment of one central ruling agency he could more easily deal with directly and hold responsible for any anti-Roman activity.

      The story of Christianity began in Judea about a Jewish Nazarene who died in Jerusalem, but the story ended up in Rome as a document edited to support a claimed authority to rule over all Christendom in the Roman Empire.

Question #2: How can a Christian world, base any authority of truth on results of events such as these?

For too long, my God has been held hostage by the ancient myths and legends cloaked in unquestioning religious fervor which has blinded us to the marvels of creation all around us. Every single speck of this planet, flora, fauna, and terra firma is composed of common atoms that were created in the death of stars in a universe billions of years ago. These creation atoms are eternal, they never die or expire. Molecules, on the other hand, are composed of eternal atoms, and are used to create all biological life forms which are mortal. Our bodies, our minds, our intelligence, our thoughts are all ultimate products of the stars. This is a much more beautiful and enlightening understanding of the nature of God and the creation of our world than ancient stories of a man made from dust, a woman made from a rib, a talking snake presenting temptations, or a son of God produced by a young Jewish virgin. These may have been acceptable answers for the prevailing knowledge and intelligence of 8, 6, or 2 thousand years ago, but they are not answers for anything today.

     We have been conditioned by superstitions and fears for 200,000 years to wear blinders and never venture past our herd culture in search of truth. Ancient myths and legends have been the only acceptable and daily answers to everything we have been allowed to explore. The practices of today’s worship reflect only ancient perceptions of a knowledge of God, and none of the accumulated knowledge of the nature of God during the past 100 years.

Question #3: When are we going to break free from the dark ages and begin shedding the light of truth on our current knowledge of God and the world we live in today?

American Casualties of War 2003-2013

American casualties, March, 2003 to April 26, 2013

Iraq war = 4,422 deaths, 31,927 wounded

Afghanistan war = 2,193 deaths and 18,429 wounded

For What?

     Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. George H W Bush was president; Dick Cheney was Secretary of Defense. The USA along with a coalition of several allies, with UN Security Council approval, went to the aid of Kuwait to push Iraq back across the border and reclaim Kuwait. Dick Cheney and several high ranking Military officers wanted to continue the push all the way to Baghdad, but were held in check by President H W Bush and the UN Security Council.

     When Iraq was pushed back and Kuwait was secured, President Bush, his wife and two of their sons, with several cabinet members made a visit to Kuwait to offer support for the damages inflicted by Iraq. During the visit, an assassination attempt was made on President Bush by Iraqi forces, but was interdicted by Kuwait Security Police. 17 Iraqis were captured in the attempt. This further contributed to Cheney’s desire to invade Iraq and nail Saddam Hussein, not only for snubbing his nose at the US, the UN, and the rest of the world, but for trying to assassinate President George H W Bush.

     After completing his service as Secretary of Defense with President George H W Bush, Dick Cheney spent the next 8 years as CEO of Halliburton, a large government contractor.

     When George W Bush became President under questionable conditions, Dick Cheney became Vice President. Both men harbored a deep seated hatred for Saddam Hussein, and would use any excuse for an opportunity to invade Iraq for the sole purpose of revenge.

     After the Twin Towers attack by 15 Saudi Arabian citizens who were members of the al Qaida terrorist organization, intelligence reports were manipulated to indicate Saddam Hussein and Iraq as the source of the attack. Erroneous intelligence reports were manufactured indicating Iraq was making and hiding Weapons of Mass Destruction which were a threat to the USA. Both of which were later to be proven false.

     Against world opinion and without the approval of the UN Security Council, several allies were bullied into joining a US led invasion of Iraq in March, 2003. Halliburton was arbitrarily awarded a No Bid contract for all military requirements, construction and supply for the war(s).

     After Saddam Hussein’s regime was toppled and his palaces and estates were captured, W Bush appeared on the deck of an aircraft carrier displaying a banner reading, “Mission Accomplished.” As far as “W” and Cheney were concerned, they had had their revenge on Saddam Hussein, for his arrogance toward the US and for attempting to assassinate “W’s” father, and their mission was completed. They weren't interested in identifying or pursuing the real perpetrators of the attack on the Twin Towers, and the US. Yet the war has continued and expanded into Afghanistan. Hussein was later captured and hanged by an Iraqi court on December 30, 2006.

     “W” and Cheney’s personal revenge has cost the US unimaginable debt, and more than twice the number of casualties caused by the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Not to mention the untold number of civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The cost for these wars during “W’s” administration has depleted the US treasury and was charged on a “credit card” to be paid by following administrations plunging the US into trillions of dollars in debt.

     During “W’s” administration we witnessed some of the worst greed ever by banks and Wall Street CEOs, Kenneth Lay of Enron, Bernard Madoff, Mitt Romney & Bain Capital, etc., all paying themselves million dollar salaries and bonuses and stripping pension funds, savings funds, mortgage funds, company assets, and putting thousands of people out of work while the American economy was going down the toilet.

     In the end, what has been accomplished by this act of reckless revenge? What have we settled by waging war in and on 2 Middle Eastern countries? What has been changed? So far the most we have accomplished is the uniting of all Arabic and Islamic peoples in a hatred of jihad proportions against America.

     Middle Eastern countries have been in conflict with each other for thousands of years. When American forces leave Iraq and Afghanistan, deep rooted cultural traditions will prevail and conditions will continue as they have been for centuries.

o

Isn't It Time?

Fresh water is quickly becoming a limited resource. Courts are, and have for many years, been involved in settling ownership of water rights.

Today’s water requirement systems (cities, industry, and agriculture) are based on an ancient design of an unlimited supply of fresh water. We usually use water once, then discard it. Often, we don’t even use it before discarding it; water flows through open faucets while we do nothing with it; brushing our teeth, running water in a shower or bath until it is the correct temperature, leave a hose running while we wash our vehicles, etc. Multiply these wasteful habits by the population of America and we see enough fresh water wasted to supply half of the United States with fresh water for months.

General technology has been developing at a rate that has made us not only dependent on it, but we expect new breakthroughs almost daily that will improve our health and simplify our lives and tasks.

We have developed methods and technology to conserve energy by improving the efficiency of our vehicles, by developing renewable sources of energy from naturally occurring forces that have reduced detrimental stresses on our environment, etc. It is now time to put our technology and inventiveness to work reducing the fresh water demands of our culture.

Unfortunately, as in all developing methods and technologies, it will not be inexpensive. But in the long run, we will learn how to improve and modify these water conserving systems which will become integral as well as beneficial to all cultures. The big question is how do we start the process?

To lead, maneuver and direct a herd of cattle requires a joint effort. All of the herders need to be on the same objective page. There can be no independent herders whose only interest is taking care of their own cows or horses. They need to have the best interest of the whole herd in the fore front of their priorities. Herders must get along with each other and work together. If the herders don’t meet these conditions, they need to be replaced with herders who will be able to see and understand the requirements of the herd, and have its best interests at the top of their priorities. The herd does not well follow a blue or red flag. They follow best a red, white, and blue flag.

- o -

How Did I Get Here -- NOW?

     It’s not like I woke up one day wondering about why I’m living in the 21st century, it has been a recurring question from the recesses of my mind which surfaces frequently. Mostly at times when I am reading about some historical event or character of the olden days, and the question is, “How did I miss being born and live in a previous time in history? -- How did I get here, Now?” Since there are two factors relating to this question, existence and time, we will examine both beginning with the examination of time, before we address the question of our existence.

TIME

Time is the measure of biological progression. Biological life forms are the only part of creation for which time has meaning. Before clocks were invented, time was measured in periods of night and day, orbits of the moon, seasons, or the length of a normal life span. These measurements of time mark the span of life for everything, both plants and animals. The blue-print codes of all DNA collect atoms of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur, from the nutrients of our environment to build molecules that form all biological life, both plants and animals. This same DNA not only builds molecules for different purposes such as, flower petals, plant stem, finger nails, ear lobes, hair, teeth, bone, etc., according to the blue-print code being used, but it also has a built in expiration date for when it will begin to cease collecting atoms and building new tissue. When the life form expires, the atoms used to create it are reabsorbed back into the environment to be used again and again by other DNA builders.

Atoms used to create biological life forms are eternal. All atoms are essentially eternal. They have no expiration date. The atoms used to build granite mountains, the seas, planets, stars, galaxies, biological life forms, and the universe were created billions of years before our planet was ever formed and they are timeless. There is no element of time needed to mark their existence.

EXISTENCE

Everyone at one time or another has fantasized about what it would have been like to live during a previous or future time. Every period has tickled our fancy from life during early cave men conditions, to futuristic life in a space ship or on some distant planet. Some people have even expressed how they may have been better suited for life in an earlier time. Yet, here we are, living in the present and unsure why. How did we miss being born to live during any previous time, or during some distant future? What has caused our lives, our consciousness to experience existence now, instead of some other period of time?

Anthropologists tell us mankind has lived and walked on this planet for more than 2 million years in one form or another. Succeeding generations of these ancient ancestors have evolved into a variety of physical attributes and learning experiences. Some variations have succeeded in propagating the planet while others became extinct, or were absorbed into cultures of successful species. The races and peoples now living all over the planet have traveled far to evolve into today’s generations.

Today, we have a broad record of knowledge that tells us what it was like to have lived during almost any period in our past history. These records tell us of the daily life challenges as well as the conflicts and traditions among all people as they continued to survive, evolve and migrate over the entire planet. Countless fictional narratives have been written with settings in just about all of our prior history, not only entertaining us with epic stories, but depicting daily life occurrences. Around the end of the 18th century stories began to appear about life in the future, predicting new and yet unknown technologies, i.e. “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” written by Jules Verne in 1870; “Flash Gordon,” film series, 1936, etc.

Although birth dates mark the chronological passing of time since the proverbial stork delivered us on some doorstep, they are not the orgin of our conscious state. The event that has produced our consciousness at this time in history was a unique biological conception. The joining of two specific sets of chromosomes from our parent donors with a one-of-a-kind set of genetic traits to produce an individual so unique, that in all of the history of mankind, there has never been, nor will there ever be another with the same combination of our DNA structure, finger prints, neurological patterns, etc.

It has been said that snowflakes have unique structures and that no two are alike. Snowflakes are composed of water molecules whose energy levels have been reduced beyond the point which allows them random movement as a vapor. Their gravity has exceeded their energy level and causes the water molecules to stick together. The shape of each individual water molecule is identical and dictates how and in what shape the snowflake will be constructed. Since there are a limited number of geometric design combinations that water molecules can assume to form snowflakes, then eventually some snowflakes will be identical. However, there is no limit to the combinations of chromosomes that can be joined together in conception to create another unique human being. Siblings produced by the same chromosome donors will possess very similar DNA characteristics, but there is enough difference between each sibling to also be a unique entity.   Even identical twins are not identical when it comes to DNA and other physical characteristics. Although we as a species are similar to each other, we are all unique; we are all originals.

This unique conception creates a consciousness that is born as a blank page that genetics, learning, environmental influences, and the consequences of personal decisions will begin to record on as we live and age. Although we receive similar guidance and instruction from parents and schools, our unique thoughts and feelings are produced by a set of neurological patterns in our brain that has never existed before.

As an oak tree grows throughout its lifetime according to the blue prints of a genetic code dictated by the DNA contributed from its parent donors produces a slightly altered oak tree. When the tree is cut down, its life history is revealed and will display the effects of the environment on its growth and life. There will be some very narrow growth rings which reveal lean years of drought; there will some wide growth bands indicating years when water was abundant and the weather ideal; there will be scars made by broken limbs and fires that have threatened the life of the tree. This oak tree will have passed on to its next generations, copies of its genetic codes which have been shaped by age, environment, and experience. This parental fusion of altered chromosomes produces a new chain of DNA blue-prints for the construction of another generation of unique oak trees.

We are alive today with a consciousness because of the unique conceptional donations made by our parents whose genes have been shaped by environmental influences (mutations made by random genetic copying errors, cell changes by gamma rays, x-rays, ultraviolet rays, etc.), and the consequences of their personal decisions. These and many more factors have influenced the nature of the genetic material that is passed on to their offspring. One example of a disorder that is past down from generation to generation through defective genetic codes is hemophilia which affects primarily male descendants. Another disorder affecting genetic codes is the disastrous effect of such things as Thalidomide, illicit drugs, alcohol, etc.,  ingested by mothers immediately before or during pregnancies.

We are now members of the current wave of living biology on this planet. We are the unique products of not only genes from our ancestors, but the environmental influences that have colored their lives. When we die, the living wave will continue to evolve, discover, learn, change and adapt to the environment in which they live. This process is the same for all life forms, both flora and fauna. As the wave of life rolls on, it continues to contribute to the knowledge bank of discoveries and experiences made by previous generations as all biological species evolve to adapt and survive changing environments. Life forms that are able to survive environmental changes of the planet on which we live represent the fittest of the species.

Why am I here -- now? It was no accident. It is the result of thousands of generations of very specific donor combinations of chromosomes. “We only live once,” sounds like lyrics to a song, or the title of a movie, or an ad theme for a product encouraging us to live with gusto and live life to the fullest, yet, it is an axiom based on truth. In all of recorded history, there has been only one Neanderthal named Grog (70,000 BC), one King Khufu (Cheops), (2700–2675 BC), one Socrates (469–399 BC), one Democritus (460–370 BC), one Aristotle (384–322 BC), one Leif Ericson (970–1020), one Galileo (1564–1642), one George Washington Carver (1864–1943), one Nelson Mandela (1918), and one, YOU.

Human beings, like many other species, are social animals with herd instincts which have been nurtured by survival instincts, and have developed cultural vehicles to meet these social needs; vehicles such as small nomadic family groups, to larger multi family groups, to clans, to tribes, to villages, to cities, to kingdoms, etc. With each succeeding larger group size, new and increasing numbers of rules were required to maintain group cooperativeness and a cultural hierarchy to keep the peace. A large percentage of the today’s world populations live in cultures that consist of both government and religion as one ruling entity. In many of these countries there is no separation of religion and state interests. Examples would include most of the Middle Eastern countries such as Israel, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Greece, Italy, etc. and to lesser extents, Italy, and England. Religious dissent in most of these countries is not only discouraged, but in some cases is met with a severe penalty of death. Only in recently developed Western countries has there been an effort to separate the necessity for government from the interests of religion.  

An innate will to survive permeates all life forms, both plant and animal. Without it life would not exist. It is in the very marrow of our being. Ending life by any means is vigorously resisted and counter to the essence of life itself. Throughout history man has tried to avoid death by the use of magic, potions, alchemy, even animal sacrifices in the effort to extend physical life, without any success. When rulers, wizards, shaman, witch doctors, and priests could not conjure physical immortality for mankind, the idea of man having a mysterious consciousness or spirit that would continue to exist after the physical body died, was introduced as a tool to control large numbers of ignorant and superstitious people long before the Judeo/Christian Cannons were ever written. The philosophy that developed was that our spirits would inherit immortality and receive either an eternal reward of bliss or eternal torture as punishment, determined by the conduct and behavior of our mortal existence. Cultures have created various names for places where our immortal consciousness or spirits go when we die. Places with names like Valhalla, Eden, Happy Hunting Ground, Spirit World, Arcadia, Canaan, Elysium, Shangri-la, Utopia, Zion, Nirvana, Heaven, etc., all the result of mankind seeking to know a destination for his immortal life.

In this wave of biological life rolling through time are species of various life spans. Giant Sequoias live thousands of years; the oldest known Giant Sequoia was 3500 years old. A colony of 47,000 Aspen trees in the Fish Lake National Forest, located in south central Utah, share a common root system which is estimated to be 80,000 years old. On the other end of the spectrum is the shortest life span, the adult Mayfly, which may live from just a few minutes to a few hours. The life span of almost all other life forms ranges somewhere between these two extremes. Chromosomes of the parents of all life forms produce unique individuals whose consciousness of the present exists only once. For us who are living in the current wave of biological life, it is NOW.

"Do not do to others what would anger you if done to you by others." – Isocrates (436–338 BCE), and enjoy your ride in the wave of life. It’s the only one we will experience.

o

An Accident of Birth

I was born and raised in a Christian culture. I was indoctrinated in a protestant denomination. The community in which we lived included various representations of the Christian world, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Lutherans, Catholics, Baptists, etc. My religious education included the “what and why” we believed as we did, as well as a brief summary of how our beliefs differed from the other denominations, and why we felt confident in our interpretation of truth.

My being a “Christian” was not a decision of choice made by me. It was “expected” of me to follow the precepts and rituals in which I was raised. For many years of my early life I never questioned this allegiance. It was, for the most part, comfortably easy to accept. All of my early questions had been met with appropriate answers all neatly tied up in packages that coincided with the theology of “my” denomination.

As I grew older, my interests and quests began to expand beyond my denominational world which fed my curiosity about other cultures and people. My primary sources of research became the scientific disciplines of Archeology, Anthropology, History, Astrophysics, Geophysics, Chemistry, Flora & Fauna research, many allied sciences, and the forever educational, National Geographic. Soon questions began to arise concerning my original cultural instruction and answers.

How can so many denominational branches of the same tree claim to possess an exclusive knowledge of truth? If I had been born into another culture such as, Chinese, Indian, Islam, Mayan, Aztec, Viking, or Cheyenne, I would have more than likely embraced the dominant religion of that particular culture. Each of these cultures, and all others, has their own stories about God, creation, history, and the rituals they practice. So, the truths we claim and live by are nothing more than an accident of birth, not a result of a personal search for truth.

The Bible upon which both Judaism and Christianity base their foundation and religious authority is an enigma of myth, legend, history and suggests its claims of truth are within its own stories. There is no way to verify the source or veracity of these stories because almost all of them existed first in an oral tradition, 50 to 1000 or more years before they were ever written, then rewritten many times over before they became words now found in today’s Bible. In almost all cases, the original stories were not written by first hand witnesses but by later unidentifiable scribes. Stories written in the “first person” suffer incompatibilities with various aspects of the stories, and stories recorded in the “third or fourth” persons were written as if they were a fly on the wall observing and recording events in real time.

To compound the inaccuracies in the transition from years of oral tradition to written accounts, councils of Christian church leaders were convened by Constantine 1, in the 3^rd Century AD, and ordered to collect and consider all of the miscellaneous texts being circulated and used by the various Christian sects scattered throughout the Roman Empire. Their commission by Constantine was not only to make a final selection of texts to comprise a canonized authority for all Christendom, but to gather the various churches under one central authoritative body. As in any quasi-political assembly, the 300+ voting Bishops were heavily weighted by delegations favoring the Church of Rome as the seat of authority. These decisions made in Nicea were backed up not only by the authority of the council of participating church leaders, but by edict of the Emperor of the Roman Empire, and everyone attending these councils knew it.

I believe in the creative and inventive minds of men far more than I believe in the accuracy of stories included in the Bible. The Judeo/Christian Bible is not the only book of its kind. Almost every culture has its own written form of religious history and instruction which uses similar myths and legends to guide its adherent’s understanding of truth in their religion. Each has been enhanced by creative minds through oral traditions before there was any inspiration to set the words in written forms. Many cultures share some of the same recorded events, such as portions of a much earlier Sumerian Epic have been included in both Muslim and Hebrew records.

Almost everyone familiar with these religious books believes them to be interesting and remarkable. They contain all manner of examples of life morals and ethics filled with great stories, parables, myths, legends. They, and many non-religious books, are worthy of consideration when taken in light of Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Mean, “Moderation in all things.” Unfortunately, most religious books provoke dissention, violence and separation between people, denominations, and cultures when used as an authority of absolute truth.

We have discovered more about the nature of creation and the universe in the last 50 years than man could have imagined during the previous 10,000 years. Yet we continue to cling to ancient texts as our prevailing knowledge of God, ignoring the current information gained through scientific discoveries in nature and the universe.

The Old Testament was a script to establish a new tribe. It was written to answer all of the normal human questions of the time, about the creation and social relations using heroes and legends to model an allegiance to a tribe and their God of choice.

The New Testament created a new hero, Jesus. Although he was a Jew who honored Jewish laws, practiced Jewish rituals, and honored the Jewish God, for the most part he was bent on confronting hypocrisies of human nature that had corrupted the rulers and leaders of the Jewish tribe. He led a social ministry to denounce corruption and reduce the many tribal laws into a single sentence, “Treat your neighbor as yourself,” from the book of Leviticus. This was such a bold reminder at a time when the Jewish nation was not only occupied by the Roman Empire, but the Empire had a strangle hold on the Jewish leadership, holding them responsible for infractions of Roman law by members of the Jewish tribe. After Jesus’ execution for inciting insurrection, the seeds of his revolutionary thoughts continued to take root and spread. Again, we are dealing with the human nature of oral traditions long before anything was ever recorded. When the stories of Jesus were finally written, it was after many tellings and retellings and were penned by people who had no firsthand knowledge of events.

Many people, both before and after Jesus, have made an equal effort to call immoral ethics and corruption into question. Prophets of the Old Testament, as well as more recent prophets such as, Martin Luther, John Knox, John Calvin, John Wesley, Abraham Lincoln, Dietrich Bonheoffer, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, etc. Many of their efforts also took root in often unintentional new movements by ardent followers.

So, who was Jesus? He was one of those rare individuals who had an eye for injustice and a heart for getting involved. He lived his principles and died modeling them. Jesus was never reported to have baptized anyone, nor did he ever start a Christian church. He spoke as a Jew to Jewish people in synagogues, on the street, in the hills, from a boat, in a language using parables his listeners could relate to and understand. The friends who followed him were so taken with his wisdom and bold manner that they began a movement which has resulted in what we know today as Christianity. Unfortunately, none of the first hand witnesses of Jesus’ activities ever recorded any of their experiences. Again, these stories were left to the embellishments of human creativity through many years of oral traditions which has a tendency to make anyone larger than life, before someone decided to start writing these stories into words. One of the first to do this was a very literate and a prolific writer, the Missionary minded Paul, but even he had no first hand witness or knowledge of Jesus or his activities. All Paul had to rely on were the oral stories that were circulating about Jesus. Later, written accounts began appearing in the names of people who may have had first had knowledge, but were written by unknown authors who again, heavily relied on stories circulating in an oral tradition.

When the Bishop’s Council of Nicea began collecting written accounts of stories about Jesus, 300 years after his death, they too sought to continue the larger than life legend of Jesus by selecting only those ancient texts which they believed contributed to this purpose. Many texts not included in the final canonized collection were intentionally banned and attempts were made to quickly destroy them in order to discontinue their use as an authority for religious teaching. Another purpose of the Bishop’s Council was to select texts that related to construed and vague predictions recorded in the Old Testament of a future Messiah. Old Testament references to a Messiah were made after King David’s reign, and were hopeful expressions for another King like David who would restore the temple in Jerusalem, end Roman occupation, and restore Israel to its former glory and protection from Israel’s many surrounding enemies.

Was Jesus the super hero depicted in the Bible, or was he another of those once in a great while extraordinary men in history that have made a positive footprint to emulate? This has been an intimidating question for two thousand years.

Is God a reasonable deity?

In the year 1 AD, there was an estimated population of 300 million people living all around the world. Is it reasonable that God would suddenly decided after 200,000 years of modern man’s existence on this planet, that the people on earth needed a “Get To Heaven Free Card,” and took steps outlined in the Bible to provide a special “Pass Key” to only a small fraction of the world’s population living in Judea? Is it also reasonable to believe that in order to provide this “Invitation to Heaven,” he had a son produced by a Jewish virgin, who would eventually be crucified on a cross as a means to immortality in either a heaven or a hell? In light of the extraordinarily complicated universe he had created earlier, would this even have been a reasonable story about anyone, least of all, a God?

Stories such as, man created from dust, woman from the rib of a man, a tempting talking snake, a son of God produced by a Jewish virgin, may have been acceptable answers to questions of ancient superstitions, but they don’t fit in today’s knowledge bank. The current and growing knowledge man has of the past, present, and future of our place in the universe far and exceeds any attempts to describe a God based on primitive 10,000 year old concepts by any religion or accident of birth.

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The Malleable Mind

     The human mind is a mysterious organ. It serves its physical host in a myriad of ways. It can enhance healing of various parts of the body; it regulates physical complexities such as body temperature, blood flow, tissue growth, hearing, facilitate sight as well as many other basic functions. During sleep when most of the body is at rest, the mind continues to function by regulating breathing, heart rate, and it produces mental images we commonly call dreams. We don’t actually see anything, but our minds envision places, people, stories, situations, past experiences, dialogues, problem solving, etc., that we have never consciously experienced before. There is much yet to learn about the human brain including the possible mental connection between all forms of flora and fauna, as we continue to discover.

     Hypnosis is a mysterious power over the mind and is not just a parlor game. It is a noninvasive method of overriding the conscious mind and tapping into the subconscious. Hypnosis is commonly used for a number of medical purposes, assisting law enforcement, addictive cessation, pain reduction, behavior modification, etc. The subconscious parts of the mind are like hidden files on a computer. The subconscious contains information that we didn’t know we had retained and through the use of hypnosis can be accessed and recalled. Although hypnosis is usually administered by a qualified person, it can also be self induced with training.

     Through hypnosis, a post-hypnotic instruction can be given so that the person so treated will perform an action without his/her awareness at sometime in the future, whenever a specific trigger circumstance occurs. Hypnosis can condition the mind to accept what is not real. It can cause a person to believe they are an animal and act accordingly; it can cause a person to not recognize family or friends; it can cause a person to see or imagine something that is not there. The power to override the mind’s normal behavior and instructions is not completely understood, but has been well documented.

     Other external conditions that can influence perceptions of the mind are: the Stockholm Syndrome, Brain Washing, Mob Hysteria, Extreme Fervor, etc.

Belief is a multifaceted concept which does not necessarily require a basis in fact or truth.

     During the most recent hundred years, man has been able to increase his knowledge exponentially in the fields of human behavior, science, and the universe. We have expanded the knowledge base of our world more in the last 50 years than during the previous 200,000 years. Today we can read farther into the past and future than we have ever been able to do. These wide screen visions have enabled us to answer more questions than our ancestors could even dream of asking. We know many things about our neighborhood in the universe. We know what our genomes are made of and where the material came from. We know much about the stages of development and growth of biology on this planet. We have excavated in every part of the globe to find out what our ancestors did, and why and when they did it. We don’t pretend to have all of the answers, but we have more answers and knowledge than any of our ancestors could even imagine.

Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true.

     Many animals have sufficient intelligence to be trained in a relative short period of time to perform domestic service or for entertainment purposes. If at the end of their training and usefulness there is a period of noncontact with their trainer or their useful environment, most animals will retain some measure of their training. When, after a long period, they are reunited with their trainer or environment of their prior use, they will still be able to perform a measure of their purpose for being trained. Although this is the result of only a single generation of training, it is held in some point of memory until the animal dies.

     For 200,000 years superstitious, yet intelligent humans have been conditioned and trained on a daily basis to believe the only answer to unknown phenomenon or occurrences, whether good or bad, is the result of an invisible power who manipulates the universe as well as our lives. Laws and rules have been presented by witchdoctors, shaman, chiefs, prophets, priests, preachers, etc. in stories and myths to appease these unknown powers and avoid future calamities. This training has not been instilled in only one generation, as in the case of the trained animal, but engrained over thousands of years of generations to the point that no one dares to question the existence or influence of any deities.

     Every culture that has ever existed has met the same unknowns in the same superstitious manner. Stories were generated to answer the question of creation; rules of behavior were established to minimize the risk of angering the invisible powers who can do good or bad things to us. If you are not obedient to these rules and laws, you risk being thrown out of the herd. The human drive for survival has produced a fantasy life after death to accommodate a desire for immortality. No matter where you live on the globe or how primitive or sophisticated the culture may be, all have produced answers they can understand to the unknown conditions of superstitions. Many Gods, many traditions, and many rules have been the results of our encounters with events that we do not understand and have no answers for.

One big gap in our recent wealth of knowledge is, we don’t yet know what, where, or who God is. We think God is the creator of all that is. So on this subject; we don’t have enough information to disprove God’s existence. On the other hand, we do have enough verifiable information about our past to know that the ancient texts we have traditionally relied on for information about God are not reliable. Most of the authors are unknown; many recorded events which did not happen; insufficiently verifiable or corroborating archeological evidence; conflicting accounts and details, etc.

     Not a single person, present or past, has ever been able to prove or disprove the existence of a God, neither Atheist, Jew, Christian, Muslim, etc. There is simply no human test for the God theory. Although there are many who would disagree with this statement, no one has been able to produce any substantive proof. There are many who claim to “feel” God’s presence as a real experience. However strong a person chooses to believe in God, it still remains a condition of choice and not proof. Many religions teach an attitude of, “Just believe and have faith” and it will become real. Their proof is concealed in the premise that all one must do is believe and it will be so.

     So, for now, we stand in the middle. We know too little about God to say that God does or does not exist; and we know too much about our past and future to continue to allow ancient superstitions to limit or control our pursuit of knowledge and truth. None of the ancient texts and stories remotely depicts or describes a God who created everything that has evolved over the past 13.7 billion years.

     Does God communicate only with the “good,” “righteous,” or “religious” of only one tribe or denomination on earth?”

     Does asking questions and considering the current wealth of accumulated knowledge make anyone an Atheist, Agnostic, Deist . . . . . . or just an Aboriginal Seeker on the 3^rd planet from a sun, in only one solar system of the billions of galaxies throughout the universe?