What I Hear

I am speaking at the 8:00 am church service this Sunday. This is what I propose to say. I would love your thoughts.

I remember when my journey started. I was 9 years old and sitting in the front row of a packed United Methodist Church of Kirkwood, MO on Easter. The extremely traditional service in a very traditional church was trudging along. Men and young boys like me were fidgeting in their suits and ties. Women were sitting daintily in their Sunday best. I looked out over the crowd through the spaces in the balcony railing, and I thought to myself, “What hypocrites we all are.”

This is when I realized that most people are what I now refer to as “Check the Box” religious.

Attended Church on Easter                         Check

Attended Church on Christmas                   Check

Sent in some money                                     Check

SAVED, Halleluiah!!

I decided that was not the religion for me. So I began to ask questions. Some were asked of adults, but perhaps as many were asked of whatever God is. To my surprise, I got answers.

My father left our family, which was devastating. I did not like that answer.

My mother was depressed and we were suddenly poor, forced to drink powdered milk and eat Underwood Chicken Spread. I did not like that answer very much either.

I decided I did not like this thing they called God very much.

We found the Reverend Larry Watson and the Kirkwood United Church of Christ, KUCC, and things changed, not really for the better but I began to see a tad more clearly and started to get my feet back under me a bit. He was a good man and he led our Youth Group to great summer trips to Indian reservations across the west to build fences, dig drainage ditches, clear trails, etc, probably a lot like our ASP project. These were eventful. I nearly had my leg cut off at the knee by an axe in the Montana Mountains and was flown by helicopter to the hospital at Yellowstone for over 100 stitches to put me back together. I was bucked off a wild horse after a 4 second ride in front of several laughing Hopi Indians in Arizona. Just a few cactus spines to be removed from my shoulder and I was fine, with a newly earned respect from my peers and the Indians. Great fun. Not really terribly spiritual though.

High School was hell. College was bacchanalian. My first wife left me for a 6’4” gun-toting FBI agent less than one year into our marriage. So this God fellow was not yet a best friend, by any stretch of the imagination. 

Since then I secured a law degree, was married, had two wonderful children. I hated law and left it in 1999. My wife eventually divorced me as well. To say that God was not with me was an understatement.

My oldest daughter, Jessica, found a church during High School. Probably something she needed as I did after my parents’ divorce. The pastor was wonderful. We had our disagreements, (we had a humdinger of an argument about homosexuality once, and another about whether the Bible is true) but he got me to begin to read the Bible and most of all care about who and what God is. 

For the last 8 years I have been studying the Bible, other books, asking questions and listening. In a nutshell, here is what I have learned:

The Old Testament God cannot possibly be reconciled with the God of Jesus. Jesus’ God would never have a “Chosen People,” kill the first born of an entire population, destroy an entire army of human beings, order His people to enter a city and kill every living person and thing in that town, throw temper tantrums, etc. Jesus God is a turn the other cheek God. He is a passive resistance God. He is the God of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. So to me the Old Testament is a nice story of old myths and fairy tales, with some bits of inspirational thought, but it is not, to me, the Word of God.

Paul was a man. Paul was a dedicated man, but just a man. Paul met Jesus on the road six years after the crucifixion. Paul had a theology. An inclusive theology. But as we read what he wrote, we have to remember there were many competing theologies of men, some of whom actually knew Jesus, that were not chosen by the Romans when the New Testament was compiled some 300 years after the crucifixion. Paul’s letters should not, in my opinion only, be read as the Word of God. They are the word of Paul, a great man to be true, but not Jesus. We should equally revere the words of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, John Wesley, and many other great men and women, many of whom also died for the cause of peaceful change. They are no different than Paul.

So, for me, that leaves us with the four Gospels to wrestle with. The inaccurate and conflicting accounts of what Jesus actually said. I believe he has several core messages, revolutionary messages indeed.

1. Personal Relationship: You have a personal relationship with God. One on one. You do not need to pray through anyone or anything. Also, there is no right or wrong. Jesus implored us not to judge others. He did not say, Do unto others according to this rule I command of you. No, he said, do unto others AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU. The Lord ’s Prayer points out that you will be forgiven your sins TO THE EXTENT YOU HAVE FORGIVEN OTHERS. What is right under God, is what is right for YOU and YOUR personal relationship and path with God. What is right for you is not necessarily right for me.

2. What is this God? First, I want you to know that I can prove there is a God, or at least a spirit. It is provable through the basic laws and theories of physics and biology. It is too much to cover here, but if you are interested, I can provide it to you. As I spoke to physicists and scientists and others to prove God, I learned many things about WHAT God really must be.

To me, God is the connection of the souls of all those living and past, whether human or otherwise, who have souls. I call it the spiritual internet. It strives naturally and without thinking or judging or compassion or hatred, like all things in nature, to achieve balance and harmony among all beings. If we disrupt the Harmony with negativity, God, the harmony, the Spirit of Truth, will fill that rift with exactly what you are looking for, more negativity. The balance in the universe is restored. When we break the balance with positive energy, a deep positive desire for something, the Spirit fills that rift with more positivity. If we are tapped into this power, we are guided in a way that keeps us in positive harmony with all other souls and can provide us with gifts and strength we never knew we could muster. 

3. Ask. Ask for what you want out of life. Determine what you truly, deeply want. What are you most deeply passionate about? What would you love your life to be like? What do you want most in the whole world, down deep in your heart?

If you focus on the negative, God will give you exactly what you are asking for, more negative things. If you focus on the positive, God will give you exactly what you are asking for, more positive things. God does not decide for you. Ask and you shall receive. Barbara gave me a great metaphor. When you focus on the negative you create a whirlpool in the Harmony that draws negativity to you. When you focus on the positive, you create an equally strong whirlpool that draws positive things to you. When you are deeply focused on what you want in particular, and do it in a positive way, you will create a whirlpool that will draw that to you. 

When you do this, it is very cool how often it works, even in the littlest examples.

When we all pray as a group for something we all deeply want and care about, we can create a maelstrom of positivity toward the result we all are driving for. That is perhaps as cool a part of this as anything.

This is the Power of Positive thinking and it has been around for centuries. Jesus taught us this.

4. Believe. Have faith that what you want will come to you. You have to truly believe that you will get what you are asking for. 

Jesus did not really heal anyone. Read the stories. The faith of the person who came to Jesus healed them. They healed themselves or their friends by asking for it, believing deeply that it would happen and then acting upon that faith, even if it would get them into trouble or it seemed impossible.

5. Act. The final step is the act. For many years the following was the sole part of my belief system

Do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do and you will find yourself in harmony with all of God’s souls.

I still deeply believe this is the key, and it serves me well every day. I know that you know in your hearts what the right thing to do is, pretty much every minute of every day. You are often afraid to act on that because it is scary, embarrassing or your mother would not approve, or that chocolate chocolate chip cookie just looks too good to pass up. Can I get an AMEN on that one!!

The story of the rich man who came to Jesus and wanted to follow him is not a condemnation of the rich. The man knew what he wanted. He had faith he could achieve it. He even stepped out of his comfort zone and met Jesus where Jesus was. Jesus offered to accept him into his fold. BUT when Jesus explained what that entailed, the rich man was not willing to do what was required to secure what he knew in his heart was the right thing for him. Giving up his fortunes was too difficult. He failed to have the faith to act on what the Holy Spirit guided him to do. That was the failure of the rich man.

On the other hand, the story of the friends of the paralytic knew what they wanted, believed with the deepest of faiths that it could be achieved, and they climbed onto the building and broke a hole in it to achieve their results. Despite the difficulties, a nearly certain arrest and the near impossibility of their actions, they acted with faith that they were doing the right thing. They were doing what the Holy Spirit was driving them to do. 

How many of us would give up all our wealth to follow Jesus? 

How many of us would haul our paralyzed friend up onto a building, break a hole in the roof and drop him in to cure him?

This is the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, guiding you through the harmony of all the souls in the world, living and dead. If all you do is do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do, you will live in God’s way. You will follow the path that is right for you.

But your life can be more than that. Ask for what you truly want. Create your own positive whirlpool. No matter what happens along the way, keep the faith that it will come to you and most of all, ACT.

Do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do, do it with deepest faith that what you want will come to you, do it with positive energy, and act on what you know the Holy Spirit is guiding you to do, and you will receive what you have asked for.

That is what I hear.

Doing Good

A good friend of mine read my last blog post and had this to say:

"When I read your blog, I was struck with the overwhelming impression that you place the responsibility of a person's well being in each person's hands.  If you really want it, go for it.  If you have questions, think about it and you will come up with the right decision.  When I think about myself, I totally agree that I have the means (God willing, I suppose) to take care of my own destiny.  But this is due to the background I was born into, the money and resources that my parents and grandparents provided, the educational opportunities that I received, and sheer luck that I am physically and mentally in reasonably good shape.  If I complain with all that I have, shame on me.  Totally agree!

What bothers me is that you also seem to imply that if you are not doing well, that is your fault.  Having traveled to many disadvantaged regions in the world, having learned first hand about discrimination and stereo-typing, knowing from my work with people with [certain] disorders, I know that there are people who are not able to overcome their situation without the help of others.  My understanding of Jesus is that he wanted his disciples to take care of the marginalized.  "Tend my sheep" is what he said to Peter.  Sure, he told the beggars to "pick yourself up and live with faith", but he balanced it with a strong plea that we must take care of the disadvantaged.  This is the message I am missing from your blog."

I certainly did not intend that helping others was not part of the bargain or that we are "at fault" for our own situation. I am a huge believer in helping others. It is part of who I am. We all know that the greatest pleasure one can enjoy is giving to others and seeing them joyfully receive the gift. 

What I needed to learn, however, is that I do it for myself. I do it because it makes me feel good. It is the right thing for me to do at the time. When you do things for the others, you guide your universe in that manner, whether that is good for you or not. You have intentionally created a Harmony that sacrificed your world for theirs, whether they give a rat's buttocks about you and your help or not.

Now, I do what I know is right for me to do for others. I hope that the things I do help the people intended, but I realize now that is entirely outside of my control. That is entirely within their control. If what I bring to the table for others ends up helping to change their world in a positive way, it is because they took it and changed their world in a positive way. I, other than being a provider, had zero to do with whether their life was changed or not. Of course, the benefit may be small or large, and again, that is up to the recipient, not the provider. Either way, if I did it because it felt good to me, it is good for me and my Harmony with my universe and all other souls. 

Just as often, of course, a person in need of help refuses to benefit from the gifts of others. This can be for many reasons. Perhaps to improve is frightening. Perhaps to feel good seems wrong. Perhaps to find a better way may mean risking stability they have in their current situation. Perhaps they are strong while the supporter is there to do it for them, but fall into their old ways as soon as they are on their own again. Who knows why a person chooses not to benefit from gifts, but we all know it happens. In the end, though, it is the decision of the recipient whether to benefit from or fall away from the gifts of others. Who are we to judge how they fit in the Harmony of the universe? Their world, however wretched in our minds, might be perfect for them or at least makes them feel in Harmony. I could never live like the Masai on the high plains of Kenya, but they seem to love it. We don't like it so we build stuff for them and bring them things we are sure they will like. We try to help. We feel good. All is good. 

Or, perhaps they are stranded in a negative world they cannot seem to get out of. 

Perhaps the greatest gift we can provide one another is the power to believe that each of us is in control of our own world. We each have the power to make our world better, to ask for the things we need, to have the faith to believe that it can happen, and most of all the strength to do what is required, to do what each of us knows in our heart is right, to do what the Holy Spirit guides us to do, immediately and without hesitation. 

I believe that there are two parts of the universe:

• Nature that is completely bound by the laws of physics, unable to adjust or change from them. This allows us to build things, send things into space, throw a strike with a baseball, etc. Our physical bodies are part of Nature. They break down. They have issues. Like any machine, they do not always run the way they should. We are bound to occupy our bodies for better or worse. Why not do so for the better. The examples of those who simply refused to succumb to the limitations of their bodies, to look at the positives and strive for the maximum their lives could be, are myriad. They made that happen for themselves. Perhaps others helped them? Perhaps someone lent a hand or provided guidance? In the end, it was they who accomplished the feat, not the counselor, not the coach, not the friend. They created their harmony within their universe around the bodies they were stuck in.
• The Harmony, the spiritual connection of all souls to all other souls, God, the Holy Spirit, the spiritual internet, is the power that allows us to drive the machine. For more, consider reading my post on Proof of God. This is the part of us to which the Law of Attraction applies. No matter the condition of our body, the political system around us, our wealth or poverty, the country we live in, or the differences, strengths or weaknesses we were born with, our spirit is who we are and is what allows us to control our place in the Harmony of all souls. The Harmony is what allows us to change our spiritual world either to the positive or negative.

Being positive is not limited by our situation. It is limited only by our faith.

I believe that the connection of all of our souls matters. AA, NA, GA, OA and all of the other "__A" members meet in small groups that support one another. These group members pull for one another, but a core understanding is that each member is responsible only for him or herself. He or she is not responsible for anyone else in the group. Each member has a more veteran sponsor who helps to guide his or her charge through the process, through stresses, threats and temptations. But this idea that the successes or failures of the charge are not the responsibility of the sponsor applies equally to this more direct relationship. Success or failure rests solely on the shoulders of the member. Sometimes they fail. Often it is the strength they find in the group that gets them back on track. They reconnect with the part of the Harmony that helps them. But in the end, the individual is responsible for his or her own success and failure.

Is our situation our fault? Fault is a difficult concept and I do not like it much. It implies blame where often there is none. Our situation is frequently just that - our situation. It could be due to many factors outside of our control, as listed above, entirely within our control, but most often it is a combination and mash up of many responsibilities. I know that the majority of my situation I brought upon myself, but there were many co-conspirators and participants, and there are aspects of my situation, such as arthritis in my knees and ankles, spreading to my hips and hands, that are genetic and part of the frailties of my body machine. For awhile last Fall I succumbed to "my situation," gained a bunch of weight and felt worse. I could have kept going but I chose to change. Am I without pain? Far from it, but I decided to be positive, change my world and it has worked. I am not out of the woods, but I am on the way.

I am not special. If I can do it anyone can. Perhaps with a little help from our friends, we all can.

The Law of Attraction

Well blow me down and shiver me timbers. There is a LAW that essentially states all the things I believe. It has been around for a long time. Check out this website.

• http://applying-the-law-of-attraction.com/ 

So basically the Law of Attraction says that you control your universe and attract to you what you "ask" for. Like any law, it is impersonal and does not care what you actually want or mean or who you are. If you complain about being poor and in debt and lonely, the universe will make sure you get your wish. You will become poorer, more in debt and lonelier. If you wish to be happy, wealthy and full of friends, and that is what you think about, have faith you deserve and work toward, you will be happy, wealthy and full of friends.

One of the components is to do in life what you are deeply passionate about. Anyone who knows me knows that passion is the key to everything. I have long professed that to be successful you have to become best in your world at what you do. Your world is described by you, and can be limiting or broadening. Up to you.

Being best in the world is difficult. It takes time and commitment. It requires you to become an expert. The only thing you will spend the required amount of time doing the things required for you to become best in the world is that about which you are deeply passionate. As it turns out, focusing on your passions, what you want most in life, what you love most in life, and following through, essentially bends the universe so that you can achieve it. The universe bends to make it easier for you to reach. You want it so badly that to maintain harmony and balance in the universe, what I call the Harmony, brings it to you.

This applies to everything. This is the Harmony. When you do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do, you are tapping into this.

My concept of God as the connection of all souls makes perfect sense within the Law of Attraction. That force wants balance, harmony and for everyone to be happy. Harmony, grace and balance is found in happiness, not in sorrow, misery, fear and hatred. But, if you want to be poor, to maintain harmony, the Harmony/God/Connection of all Souls, will give you what you want.

I think back over the time during which I have become aware of the Harmony and I realize I have gotten EVERYTHING I have asked for. I have the job I chased down and got and love. I have Barbara, the love of my life. I have two great kids. I have a great family and even a great ex-family. I have friends, a great church, a nice place to live and all that stuff.

BUT, I am poor and in debt financially, BECAUSE I asked for it!  I never asked or tried to have wealth. I am working on that. I have realized I am too nice and cannot effectively manage people. They were more important to me than money, so I let them get away with stuff. That actually made me happy. If Paul was feeling good about himself, I felt good, even if it was costing me money.

Ursula asked if I have always made the "right" decisions. I told her I have always made the decision I believed was right in my heart at the time, based on what I wanted out of the deal. For the period I knew him, Paul was off drugs, productive and happy. Once I moved away and our business ended, he went back to his old problems and is back in jail. I am sad for that, but I know HE asked for it! He bent the universe so that he would end up back in jail.

Did I learn from those decisions? Of course. I learned that I get exactly what I ask for. I can only control MY universe. Not Paul's. Not any of yours. I gained a greater understanding of the Harmony, of being poor, of who I am as a person, my strengths and weaknesses, and the importance of recognizing that you cannot have as YOUR main objective the universe of another person. You have no control over that universe. That is not your Harmony to deal with.

God is not a weird scary vengeful being in the sky. God is, in essence, YOU. God is the connection of all spirits and you control YOUR part of that universe. To stay in Harmony, God will adjust to what YOU ask for, so ask for things you really want.

There are even the same basic 3 steps in the Law of Attraction:

• Know what you want. Tell everyone. Write it down. Ask for it. Pray for it. 
• Have unwavering faith that you will achieve it. Believe, no matter the obstacles and no matter the challenges along the way, that it will come to you. This is how you begin to let the connection of souls/God/the Harmony know how your universe needs to bend in order for it to stay in harmony.
• Finally, do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do. You will become aware of the steps you need to take, the processes required, the people you need to meet, the things you need to say, etc, in order for you to achieve your objectives and restore balance to the universe. Do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do IMMEDIATELY!  Do it without hesitation. Do it on faith. I have and it has landed me in precisely the place I asked for over and over again. 

This applies to huge things and little things. Barbara and I were attending the Strawberry Festival a few weekends ago. We had worked out and were tired. I asked for a spot close to the fair. Barbara agreed we would find one. We found a pretty good one, but we both knew there would be a better one and passed it up. Sure enough the car in the very first spot next to the entrance pulled out as we arrived and we got the best spot in the place. We got it because we were in the Harmony and did not second guess what we knew would be true. I would say this is just a coincidence, but I do not believe in luck and we do this all the time and it always works!

For this to work, you really have to believe in it. You have to know what you want and go for it. You have to have faith when you know you are supposed to, like Indiana Jones, walk on the invisible walkway over the chasm to the chamber where the chalice, your goal, is located.

Find your passions, little and big. Find your loves, momentary and permanent. Find your dreams, short and long term. Make them happen. They are yours for the 

asking.

The Big Picture

I thought it was time to summarize what I have come to believe through reading, discussing but mostly deep thinking and receiving answers. To start with, you must forget almost everything the Bible, your parents, pastor and whoever told you about most things and be willing to ascribe new meanings to words you have long used, like God, Soul, Spirit, etc. I wrestled with using new words for these things, but decided to use the old words and figured if you are reading this, you can handle it.

What is God?  "God" is simply the interconnection of the spirits of all things with Souls to one another. I have likened it to a spiritual internet. From the great prophets in many cultures, well before Jesus, through Jesus himself, to many many brilliant connected theological thinkers since, it has been made clear that God is within each of us and we have a direct connection with and to God. Just because everyone calls it by this name, lets go ahead an refer to the spirit within us as the Soul.

God is not a separate being. We are God. We are all God together. We, connected and acting in harmony with one another without even knowing it, are God. We control God, not the other way around. We control our universe. You control YOUR universe. We use the Laws of Physics to do this.

Us.  We are composed of two parts. Our bodies and our Souls. Our bodies are very complex machines controlled by a very complicated computer. The Laws of Physics govern how it does what it does. Lots of the things that your body does, it does simply be operating properly. Heart beats, breathing, endocrine, lymph, waste and hundreds of other systems just function in accordance with the Laws of Physics. So the fact that a heart beats before birth does not mean the body has a Soul. I do not know when that happens.

There are all sorts of bodies out there that operate in this way, that may not have a Soul. The machine just functions by absorbing energy and functioning to stay alive until it dies. Plants just operate. Do they have a Soul? Are they connected to the God network? I don't really think so, but do not really know. Contemplate one-celled animals, reptiles, and amphibians; all of which are almost completely reactive critters. What about mammals up to dolphins and primates? Perhaps the complete balance of nature means that all of them are? Who knows?

Like any machine, it requires an operator for it to work. When your Soul enters any body, your body, whenever that is, you become the operator of that body. As the operator, you drive the machine. You choose where to drive it. Coolest thing is that by interacting with God, the spiritual internet, the super energy connecting all of us to one another, the super energy that wants all things to stay in harmony, you can change your universe to get what you want for YOU.

How does that Work?  Since you are always connected to the spiritual internet, you can tap into it. If you ask, the answer will be provided. If you need something, ask for it in a positive way, focus on it, believe with deep faith that you will receive it, and then act in accordance with the guidance from the spiritual connection we all share, what you need will come to you.

Nature strives for balance and harmony. That is not always good for any particular animal, as, of course many are inevitably food for others. Generally, however, food animals tend to reproduce rapidly and it tends to be the weakest among them who perish. So in essence, balance in the entire system is maintained.

Jesus noted that the sparrow never worries about where his next meal will come from. Assuming the sparrow is connected, it knows what it needs and has absolute faith it will find it and being connected, does without even thinking about it exactly what it is guided to do to find what it needs when it needs it. Except, of course, the weaker ones eaten by hawks or cats. Circle of life.

I saw a video that likened it to the genie in Aladdin, "Your wish is my command."  I think it is more like what Jesus said, "Ask and you shall receive." Jesus did not heal anyone. In the stories they came to him, asked for what they needed and because he was there and they truly believed in him, what they asked for happened. He even said that. He told them, because of your faith you are healed. He never said, because of me and my great powers, you are healed.

There are three requirements:

• Ask for what you need in positive terms.
• Really believe that it will happen. Faith must be strong to keep the spirit working.
• Do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do, always, all the time, no matter what.

The Power of Positive Thinking: The spiritual internet, God, is part of nature. It does not think. It is just a force, the force, creating harmony and balance among all living things.

Inexperienced soccer coaches often make the mistake of telling their shooters "Do not hit the goalie." This is a negative statement. The result is they hit the goalie. Zero percent will score. Experienced coaches tell them to hit the goalpost, knowing that most of the time they will miss the skinny goal post and a percentage of those will be inside the goal post for a chance at goal. The difference is the first is what NOT to do, which does not work, and the second is a positive action, which does.

If you are in debt, pray for, ask for, what you need. Do not ask to get out of debt. That is negative. If you want to lose weight, don't focus on what NOT to eat or do, but instead on what weight you are going to get to and what you will eat and do to make that happen. Cast whatever you need in the positive.

Do not be greedy. As Mick Jagger pointed out, "You don't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need." Mostly greed is something that you never really believe deeply enough that you will achieve. If you truly believe you will receive/achieve it, ask for that.

That being said, go for more than the minimum and ask for what YOU need. I own two houses I am going to sell soon. I acquired them for purposes of helping others, which happened, but not to my benefit. I did not ask for that. That is why good people sometimes do not get what they want. Because they think it is greedy or inappropriate to ask for it. They ask only for things that benefit others. Your wish is my command. Ask and you shall receive.

Believe:  When you truly believe and have faith that what you have asked for will happen for you, this reinforces daily, momently, what you have asked for to the spiritual internet, to God. It creates an imbalance that the force needs to balance to return nature to harmony. If you do not believe, there is no actual request and thus no imbalance to remedy. You may not get what you are asking for in a day, a week, a whatever, so faith has to be complete and constant.

Act:  Do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do. The world spirit will communicate to your spirit how to guide your body to remedy the imbalance. You must do all of these things all of the time or you will be fighting against the very thing you have asked for.

Why does that happen. Because the world spirit, the spiritual internet, God, whatever you want to call it, is driven toward balance and harmony for every creature in the system. It does not make decisions. It does not screw you over. It does not think. It just does. The system simply strives through natural processes to balance itself. You are simply letting it know how your world is out of balance and then doing the things required to re-balance your world.

You can be and have everything you need and want as long as you ask, believe and act.

Christianity is Simple (not easy though)

In my humble opinion (and I suppose since I write this perhaps humble is a matter of opinion itself), Christianity is not as complicated as so many seem to make it. Afterall there are a lot of people out there making a lot of money telling you what you are supposed to believe. It would suck for them if it was not very complicated.

So by Christianity I mean, what Jesus taught. That is in the four Gospels (and perhaps other writings if you like them). It is not necessarily in the rest of the Bible.

The Old Testament:  The God of the Old Testament is irreconcilable with the God of Jesus. The God of the Old Testament was viscious. If you take the Bible literally (which I don't), the first thing the offspring of God's first humans did was fight and kill and then run away. God later killed thousands in a flood, destroyed two cities, turned a woman to salt, killed every first born son of an entire country, killed the Egyptian army, and ordered the Israelites to kill every man, woman, child and every animal in Jericho, and punished the Israelites who did not do so. These are just a few of the murders commited by or ordered by the God of the Old Testament.

The God of Jesus is about love, kindness and non-violence. The God of Jesus is the love your enemy and turn the other cheek God. So, either there are two completely different Gods, which I suppose is fine, or the Old Testament is like the mythologies of the Greeks, Romans, Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, Egyptians and other ancient peoples of the same time period, just stories of human-like anthropomorphized gods to explain things in nature they could not understand and the violent orders of violent leaders hell-bent on taking land from a foe. Nothing increases the subservience of a people in scary times than the much scarier fear of being smited by God.

So, to me the Old Testament is not relevant to being Christian. There might be some inspiring words and sayings in it, but it is not what being Christian is all about.

Paul:  Most of what is quoted from the New Testament comes from the letters Paul wrote, or allegedly wrote, to various rising groups of Christians. We quote Paul as though he was Jesus, but he was not. Paul never met Jesus while Jesus was in his ministry. He ran into him on the road to Damascus after the resurrection. So, everything that Paul knew about Jesus and his teachings came from what others must have told him or what he read in whatever was written about Jesus at the time, none of which we have now.

Paul was a man. Just a guy, like you or me, or perhaps more precisely your minister, priest or someone else who has dedicated his or her life to spreading what they believe to be the word of God as expressed by Jesus. He was hugely important to the birth of the Christian faith and arguably without him, there would be no Christian faith. He spread the "Word" to non-Christians all around the Mediterranean. This was not all that well received by the disciples, who generally believed that Jesus' teachings were for Jews. So without Paul, Jesus would just have been a prophet of a sect of Judaism.

BUT, he was NOT Jesus. Like the Old Testament, what he says has to be taken as inspirational, but not how to be a Christian.

Jesus:  So what did Jesus say Christianity is. To me, it is very simple. Hard perhaps to execute, but very simple. Here is how I see it and you are welcomed to disagree.

1. Personal Relationship: He explained that we have a personal relationship with God through the metaphorical Holy Spirit or Spirit of Truth. This was revolutionary. Jesus explained that you do not have to ask your priest, minister, a saint, an icon or anything else to intercede on your behalf with God. You can speak directly with God and if you ask for guidance, and listen, you will know in your heart what the right thing to do is. The priests and rabbis of the time did not like this message. Their careers depended on being the source of God's word for the people. Great rulers also did not like this. They waged wars and convinced the ordinary people to follow them out of fear that they are God's chosen ruler and God will smite the masses if they do not follow the ruler. This was radical but it is the core of Jesus' new religion.
2. Unconditional Love:  Jesus taught us to love everyone without limitations of conditions. This includes not just our families and friends but enemies, the poor, children, women, the diseased, the infirm and everyone else no matter who they are. These teachings are clearly inconsistent with the teachings of Paul which are often interpreted or translated, perhaps inaccurately, as intolerant of homosexuals, women and others. Loving unconditionally is difficult. It does not require, I suppose, for us to particularly like everyone. Bottom line, love everyone completely. Respect them. Care about them. Be real for them. But most of all love them for who they are, where they are and what they are all about, no matter how much they irritate you, annoy you or their positions are contrary to your own. That is what Jesus taught us.

Really everything else is a corrolary from those two. Non-violence is an extension of loving everyone, including your enemies; as is tollerance of others, foregiveness of others for everything they do for you or others. Love your spouse and don't covet those other's love, etc. If you love everyone, you cannot be greedy. You cannot take things from those you love. You cannot kill those you love.

I actually consider that everything derives from the first rule. Anyone who has read anything I write knows that I go by that first rule exclusively and it has never led me to any result other than the second rule. I ask God for guidance, to know what is the right thing to do. I feel that when I do this, and listen for the answer, I find I come to know in my heart what the right thing to do is. It does not always lead to great financial results. But in the end it makes me happy. I feel like my decisions help make others happy. I feel as though I live in harmony with others.

If Jesus actually performed the miracles reported in the Gospels, they were illustrative of the power of love for everyone, even people Jesus did not know at all. They could have been horrible people. He did not care. He loved them, period.

All of that stuff is window dressing on the very simple message of Jesus. The spirit is with you (wherever you believe it comes from). Ask and you shall receive relates to guidance, not stuff.

All that being said, following that one simple rule, followed by the second simple rule, is very difficult to do every day. Being a Christian is simple, BUT it is NOT EASY.

A New Religion??

A while back a friend of mine who reads this stuff asked if I was trying to start a new religion. It made me think about what the question really means.

There are a few "major" religions and hundreds or more "minor" ones around the world. Each major religion at least is divided into several subdivisions from "orthodox," to "protestant," to "progressive." Those are divided into different subdivisions, often by region, led by people with different interpretations of the main religion. Each of those sub-sub-divisions are practiced somewhat differently within each parish, church, synagogue, temple or whatever, depending on the thoughts and ideals of the spiritual leader. Within that are individuals and families of attendees who come from different upbringings whose core beliefs and practices vary from that of the local spiritual leader in the church they have elected to feel a part of.

Even those who profess to be the most devoutly orthodox often differ widely on the interpretation of the rituals and underpinnings of that religion. The Catholic Cardinals, about as high up in that organization as you can get, are followers of different versions of that religion. Apparently the new Pope is the first from the Jesuit group of religiously orthodox Catholics. One would think that if there was one religion that the followers of the oldest christian-based one would have complete agreement at the very top.

Then of course, the majority of the population, at least in the US, are irregular attendees at any church and have wildly divergent beliefs based on their own thoughts on the world. Almost 1 in 5 who answered the question admit that they follow no religion at all. Among that majority of Americans are atheists, agnostics, non-deists, deists, and a whole host of others who either do not believe in any god, are not sure if they do or do not, or could care less either way and never really think about it. I think most of us have "religions" or spiritual beliefs that change significantly through our lives based on things we read, things that happen to us, people we meet, ideas shared and significant moments that make us evaluate our lives.

So, when asked "am I trying to start another religion" with my weird thoughts on things, the answer is, I suppose so, yes. Mine.

Just like you have created your own belief system (even a determined lack of belief is a belief system). I am sure that yours is something that you are comfortable with and makes you feel good about your life day to day and within the grander scheme of things. And I don't expect you to believe ANYTHING I write, just as I expect you will not mind that I don't take as "gospel" anything you or anyone else has to say on the subject.

That being said, perhaps we can all learn from one another a bit more from time to time about the mysteries of life. I am listening and interested!!

Death

I suppose that following Easter is a good time to talk about death. As far as that subject goes, Easter is about the brightest moment for death in human history. Death intrigues me. It is counter to everything in nature. But, you say, every living thing dies. Ahhh, but does it?

One of the most basic concepts in nature is infinity. It is a concept that is very hard for most of us to get our heads around because we live in a finite world with walls and . . . well death. But in nature everything is forever.

Space is infinite. It never ends. There are no walls out there and if there were, there would be more space on the other side or the wall would have to be infinitely deep. Even though we cannot see it, space is infinite.

Space is infinite in the other direction as well. Every part of one small thing is made of still smaller things. Chihuahuas are made of molecules, which are made of atoms, which are made of neutrons, protons and electrons, which are made of quarks and other sub-atomic particles, which, scientists with very good eyes have discovered, are made of even smaller things. Actually that stuff is largely theoretical in that its existence is mathematical and proof involves smashing really tiny things together at nearly light speed in a super-collider in Europe (which I think is a fine place for it should anything go very poorly). The resulting collision creates these ridiculously tiny things for a nearly immeasurable instant in time. Nearly immeasurable, but not immeasurable, and so scientists can measure what happens in that instant. Pretty cool really.

At the ridiculously small sub-sub atomic level, things appear to behave rather weirdly. This is where we find things actng by the not yet close to being understood "rules" of Quantum Mechanics. Anti-matter and matter seem to inter-relate rather than annihilate. Particles seem to fly right through others without any effect whatsoever. Some seem to disappear and re-appear, though we cannot tell what exactly is happening. They may of course still be there, just not in a form we can detect. All those odd little particles, however, are composed of even tinier particles that, if we could figure those out, would likely help explain the erratic behavior of the ones we can detect, well so long as we could understand the behavior of the even tinier particles that they are made of. Infinity.

Time is infinite in both ways. There was no beginning and there will be no end of time. Even if there was a Big Bang, everything in that tiny dense thing existed before it went Bang. The Big Bang was not a beginning, it was a moment in time that led to our current status. Perhaps eventually everything will coalesce again and the Big Bang will happen again.

Numbers are infinite in both ways. You can count in positive and negative numbers and you will never reach the end. Fractions are infinite. Every number can be halved again and again. Every segment of a line marked by two points has an infinite number of points between them, no matter how close they are to one another. The decimals following Pi go one forever. The same is true of other natural numbers.

There are the long understood rules, if you will, that matter and energy cannot be destroyed. It can only transform between those two states or into other types of matter or energy. The amount we "started" with, at the Big Bang, is precisely the same amount we have today, had before the Big Bang AND will have throughout infinity into the future.

When a body dies, it decays, changes into dirt, is taken in by the roots of a plant, eaten by a herbivore, which in turn is eaten by a carnivore, which then has babies, and the cycle starts all over again through infinity. Or the organic matter is crushed over time and turned to coal or oil or diamonds and a pretty girl wears it until she dies and turns to dirt as her heirs fight over it. Regardless, the body parts' parts do not go away. Things change, but nothing changes.

As avid readers of my work know (all 3 of you), I consider the body to be a machine. It is a miraculous machine, but a machine nonetheless. Without an operator, like your car or this computer, it would just lie there lifeless - dead. I consider the operator to be our soul. I consider that to be a real thing. An energy perhaps with which we are not yet familiar. It seems to have mass because in repeated studies, when someone dies, within an instant of death one loses a small amount of measurable and unexplainable weight that is in excess of that exhaled or excreted upon death. This was first discovered over 100 years ago.

I have postulated that God is the connection of all of our souls to all others. The metaphorical spiritual Internet. The reason we can be guided to do the right thing by this "God" is that all of our souls drive the overall process toward universal harmony. We want balance. That is also a natural driver in nature and of the universe. For every action there is an equal an opposite reaction - balance. Crazy things happen when things are out of balance. Out in space, those are often terribly dangerous things. We create bombs, for example, by intentionally knocking volatile things out of balance causing a violent reaction. After the explosion, however, everything returns to balance. A new state of balance, but balance nonetheless. Nature wants things to be in harmony with one another.

When we do things that we know in our hearts are wrong, we are stepping or acting outside of the drive toward universal harmony. That is the essence of free will. We can violate the harmony of all things, and we do it all the time.

I generally believe that animals and anything truly living (not just animate but alive) has a soul. I think that most animals, excluding probably apes, porpoises and other more evolved creatures, cannot operate outside the harmony. They can only do the right thing. We call this instinct. We take advantage of this in training, repelling and hunting animals for our benefit and have for years. Perhaps that is evidence those animals have no soul, but are in reality just machines, but they can't read this so I don't really care about them . . .

So when death happens, the machine dies due to heart failure, cancer, a smashing by a bus, worn out parts or whatever. The matter and energy in the body transform eventually into dirt and heat, etc, and exist forever. The soul, it seems to me, also then must be infinite. It is, in my opinion, some undiscovered energy with mass. It is a real measurable thing, not a weird undefined magical spirit thing. It is what connects us to everyone else and into the harmony of all souls. (Just an aside, as physicists try to create the "Theory of Everything" if they leave this soul thing out, they will never get there.)

The soul, in my way of seeing things, is like everything else in nature; it continues on into infinity. That is the natural way of things. Balance and infinity. Harmony.

Easter

It is Easter afternoon and I sit here contemplating the importance of the Christian holiday just celebrated. As a child, of course, I thought it was all about chocolate bunnies and colored eggs and the like. Then as I grew up, Easter became a mysterious time about a miracle that I could never quite get my arms around. For those who have read much of what I write, it has become clear I am not one for miracles. Then my children were born and Easter again became the more comfortable day of chocolate, eggs and family. My children are now well past the age of such frivolous things, though I am proud to say they are not past frivolity by any stretch of the imagination, which they also do. I find myself at an age where what is real in spirit has become very important to me.

So what to do with Easter? I am now somewhat comfortable that the entire story was a marvelous ruse concocted by wise and well-connected men of the time for the purpose of accomplishing precisely what it managed to accomplish. I have also come to realize that this is the moment that the teachings of Jesus became permanent, real and different than the prophetizing of all of the many others of that time, the time previous and, for the most part, of all the times since.

The teachings of Jesus were unique. They changed the thinking of the world. They were about a personal relationship with God that did not require an intermediary. They are about love, unconditional love, for everyone including, and perhaps most particularly, our enemies. They are about our connection to God, referred to as the Spirit of Truth, that allows us to always know in our hearts, if we will only listen, what is the right thing to do. And it is just that simple and just that glorious.

Those concepts were not what the leaders of the church, then or now really, wanted to hear. After all their jobs depended upon the reliance of the masses.

If each of us are connected directly to God and can interact directly with God then why do we need them?

If the secret is so simple, love everyone unconditionally, then what mysteries remain for the religious leaders to hold over our heads?

But Jesus never wrote any of this down. His followers were simple illiterate men. Like so many others, his message was told by those who knew him, those influenced by him, those who followed him. Given the rather negative reception he received when offered freedom by Pilot, his followers were not in the majority by a log shot. His strongest disciple denied him three times. The objective was simple, cut off the head of the snake and the entire snake dies. Certainly, without the rest of the story, that would certainly have happened and we would not know the great vision of a great but simple man.

During the weekend, the focus at our church was about how we exhibit those basic principles. We were asked to contemplate those who have been victims around the world. Those who no one seems to love. Very powerful.


I spent a Saturday morning with several men discussing this time in the Christian calendar and what it means. The focus was on how hard it is to exhibit unconditional love.

While certainly we should contemplate these things at all times, I wonder if we would consider them at all had the "Easter story" not occurred the way it did?

So the moment that Jesus failed to dutifully remain in his tomb, however it is that he disappeared from it, and then when he then appeared to several people thereafter, whether risen from the dead or risen from the presumed death makes no difference, his status as immortal and the immortality of his simple message became inevitable.

It is a funny thing for me to to say really, but, thank heavens.

Why Risk It?

There is a new commercial for some sort of identity protection system, I guess, where a guy meets with a non-stereotypical medium. The customer has had his identity stolen. The rather slovenly, heavy and ordinary-looking male medium gazes into his crystal ball and sees that the thief is buying pre-paid cell cards and leather pants, "lots of leather." The customer moves to the medium's side and tries to peer into the crystal ball. The medium stops him and says, "You can't look into the ball, you're not a medium, it will tear a hole in the universe, or something."  The customer asks if he is sure and the medium says, "Why risk it?" The customer acquiesces.

As weird as I am, I immediately figured they were doing a spoof on religion. So often I read or hear about things required of this or that religion, and wonder, "Why do people think God cares about this stuff?" It dawned on me as I watched that commercial. It is because someone in a purple robe in a pulpit told them that if one did do it, or did not do it, or did it this or that way, then one would go to hell. Well, for the many, when the guy in the pulpit says something, then we do it. After all . . . . why risk it?

What troubles me is that much of what we do today that is called religion, we made up. Over the 2000 years since Jesus, we just made stuff up. Heck, the holy day, to the extent a day was recognized at all, was on Saturday. And Jesus, thought very little of the "Sabbath." This was a man-invented idea that Jesus realized God did not care one whit about. He got into a lot of trouble for that, because after all, he was asking them to take a lot of risks, ignoring the Sabbath like that. Jesus took risks to get away from the man-made pomp and circumstance and back to what was really important, a simple and direct daily relationship with God, as you understand Him or Her.

Paul expanded on what Jesus said on all of this. Paul pointed out that anyone who worships or considers idols to have any power at all is one of weak mind. Note that, of course, idols include the cross, the Madonna and all those things for saints that people pray to. We fast for periods of time, refuse to eat certain foods on certain days during certain times of the year, and do all sorts of odd things in God's honor. We made all this stuff up. God does NOT CARE that we do it. Paul explained that there are no special foods or days, and yet because the man in the pulpit says so, we do it. Why . . . well, Why risk it?

Some demand celebacy until marriage, consider homosexuality a sin, don't drink or dance, all because they think God will smite them or condemn them to hell if they violate these rules. The largely egotistical, testosterone driven males leading the various religions over time have created a whole host of these rules, and in many cases the only way to get out from under the curse if you did them was to confess to them, or their underlings, as though they possessed the power to free one's soul from eternal damnation. Today, fewer and fewer people follow these ancient rules, but in conversation one can glean that they are still a bit concerned that perhaps the guy in the pulpit was right. So they follow the rules when they can. After all . . . why risk it?

Because Jesus risked it. Moses risked it. Paul risked it. Mohammed risked it. Siddhartha the Buddha risked it. Gandhi risked it. Martin Luther King, Jr risked it. Bill Wilson risked it. John Wesley risked it. All the great people of all time, took the risk. Amazingly, every one of these people came from nothing. They were not famous. They were not sons of great people. They were regular people like you and me. What made them great? As to the thing they are known for, they each had the clarity of mind to say, "This is silly, God does not care that we are doing this, and we should stop doing it!"

In reality, all of these great people did not feel they were the ones taking the risks! They understood that each of us has a personal relationship with God. The rules are so simple that they do not need a hierarchy of great church masters to explain them. My biggest concern is that ceremonies, rituals, dogmas, and rules allow people to check the boxes of their spiritual lives without ever checking in.

• Went to church on Sunday or Easter or Christmas, check.
• Did the communion thing, check.
• Got the kid baptized, check.
• Ate fish on Fridays during Lent, check.
• Said some Hail Mary's, check.
• Attended the kid's Christmas pageant, check . . . that counts right?
• Prayed, check - yea it was for that par putt to go in, but still, I prayed, and I made the putt.
• Gave some old clothes to the Good Will, check. Got my tax receipt, too.
• Gave the pastor that big check in front of everyone, check.

OK, so now I am a Christian. Off to make money in any way possible. What is the bigger risk?

I suppose there is no harm in any of these practices, so long as we understand God does not care if we do them or not, and we are doing them because they are important for us and our connection to God, as we understand him. Jesus said that if we are going to fast, or whatever, then do it for God and without letting anyone else know that you are doing it. The Muslims fast during the daylight during Ramadan, and those who follow Mohammed's teachings, do it without letting anyone know or changing their ways. If fasting is important to their relationship with God, they do it, but for those who do it is not a way of checking the box. I am not a huge Paulian, but one of my favorite things he said was essentially, recognize that God does not care about man's created idols, saints, special ceremonies, days, foods and the like. BUT if that is important to someone else, do not judge them, but instead, when with them, respect their traditions and eat as they do, drink as they do and respect the things they respect.

Anyway, I am fairly sure that if you are not a true medium and you look into a crystal ball you will tear a hole in the universe. I mean . . .

Why risk it?

Miracles

I had a conversation with a Biblican (a person who believes that every part of the Bible is true - this as compared to a Christian who trusts in the teachings of Jesus) one day, and he was spouting off about all sorts of things and I stopped him and asked him this question (people hate it when I do that):

Would your faith be as strong if none of the "miracles" revealed in the Bible ever actually happened?

What if Moses did not part the Red Sea, God did not smite those living in Sodom & Gomorrah, God did not destroy the walls of Jericho so the Hebrews could get into the city and literally massacre every living thing in the town including women, children and animals, etc, etc?
What if Jesus did not feed the masses, heal the sick, cure the deaf and mute, allow the blind to see or raise the dead?
AND
What if Jesus never died on the cross, much less rose from the dead?

Well, the immediate response was not to entertain the question. It seems to me, I said, that if your faith depends solely, or really at all, on the occurrence of miracles, then it is not all that rock solid. If your faith, instead, is based on what you know in your heart to be true, then it seems to me it follows exactly what Jesus told us it would be. Do you:

• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you?
• Love everyone unconditionally, even your enemies?
• Forgive even before anything is done to you?
• Always strive to do what you know is the right thing to do?
• Believe in peace over violence?

Well, if so, miracles or not, you are following Jesus' basic teachings. How about that?

But since you have chosen to tune into this heathen diatribe I write, let's delve in on the whole miracle thing, shall we.

Scientists, mostly archaeologists, geologists, climatologists and anthropologists, have crafted plausible theories for many of the physical "miracles" of the Old Testament, assuming they even occurred.

• The great flood, which is in almost every theological writing from this area, probably occurred when natural global warming caused the ocean waters to rise high enough to crest the thin land bridges at the narrow mouths of the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea. The resulting nearly simultaneous cascade into these deep long valleys, eroding the entrances even wider, resulted not only in massive catastrophic flooding of the towns located in the valleys (see ruins from this time period at the bottoms of these Seas) but then washed violently up on the other side, flooding the entire area we refer to as the Middle East. Perhaps Noah was an early climatologist and saw this tragedy coming. Sort of the Al Gore of his day.
• Sodom & Gomorrah were probably destroyed by parts of a huge meteor that scientists know flew over that area, raining debris over a great distance, the bulk of which pounded ultimately into the European continent.
• There are rocks known to nomads of the Sinai desert today that if struck by a staff will ooze water for them to drink. Certainly Moses, a denizen of that desert, knew this as well.
• I still contend Jericho was an inside job.

Ahh, good ol' Hebrew miracles. Probably just stories to explain natural things they did not understand glorified over time, but Jesus healing folks, well that certainly was real. Well, maybe . . .

What if, like most of what he did and said, these were not events but merely metaphors. Jesus' revelations about our personal connection to God, how we should treat one another, etc, certainly opened eyes that could not see, opened ears that could not hear and freed tongues that dared not speak. He changed people. He fed the spiritually hungry. He brought them to life with faith and a revelation that THEY were the sons and daughters of God. That they were important enough to have a real personal relationship with God. That they did not have to listen to the rabbi's and well heeled whoop-dee-doos at the Temples. That the Holy Spirit would guide them directly, if they had eyes to see, ears willing to hear, mouths willing to speak and a faith alive and well. While there is a great deal of repetition in Matthew, Mark and Luke about where Jesus went, there is remarkably less redundancy in terms of describing his miracles. He only ascends into heaven in one Gospel. Only one guy thought that was cool enough to make his book?

These are really amazing accomplishments. It is not every day a dead guy comes back to life, except in the plethora of zombie movies, and I sense it was not told quite that way back then. Why is there no independent or contemporaneous writing from others at the time about them? There were Greek and other scholars writing about all sorts of things at this time. Much of our current philosophy (like heaven and hell) were already being theorized and written about. We have stories about people who spoke, made a difference, did cool stuff and even performed miracle from this time period and before. Significant strides in mathematics, science and literature occurred in the 500 plus years before Jesus was even born. There were some very literate people, but no one wrote about these amazing miracles when they were happening.

This would make sense if these amazing miracles were merely metaphors from a wandering philosopher. It also explains why they were potentially converted in later writings to actual physical miracles. As time passed, the point of the moment was adjusted to fit the story-teller's needs or word of mouth, over the 30 - 50 years until the books were actually written, just changed the meanings honestly and inadvertently, as so often happens.

But certainly Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected. Hmmm, was he? Today we would look at that story and say, "The most logical answer that does not involve magic is probably the right one." It reminds me of the cartoon where the physicist is showing his work to another. There are complicated equations scribbled on each side, and in the middle connecting the two are the words "And then a miracle happens." The other physicist is not impressed, nor would we be if someone walked up to us and told us he was resurrected from the dead, even if he was a really Jesus-like persona - Martin Luther King, Mohamed, or Gandhi, for example.

Consider this alternatie ending:

• Joseph of Arimethea and Nicodemus were huge supporters of Jesus and big wigs in the Hebrew hierarchy. They were the wealthy elite.
• Late in his ministry, Joe and Nic go to Jesus (and perhaps his trusted friend Judas as well) and tell him that the Sanhedrin is going to come down on him hard and want to have him killed.
• "This would be good for the movement," Joe notes. Jesus and Judas nod nervously. "Yes. A martyr is always a plus," Nic explains. Jesus and Judas look at one another. "It is inevitable," Joe points out. At this point, I am fairly sure Jesus asked, "Umm, excuse me guys, but while certainly good for the movement and all, do I actually have to die." The two men are taken aback. They ponder this for a moment, and perhaps speak off to the side in hushed tones while Jesus and Judas stand uncomfortably in the middle of the room. When the two powerful men return, they had crafted a relatively simple plot to save Jesus' life, AND BONUS, make him an even better martyr than the last guy! "Brilliant." Judas exclaims. Jesus breathes a sigh of relief. It still does not sound all that great to him. "We will handle everything," Joe comforts and turns with Nic to venture to the patio to work through the details, as Joe's servant escorts the two wanderers out the front door. 
• So, according to the plan, Judas dutifully arranges for the government to find Jesus and arrest him. This was, as they noted, inevitable, but they wanted it to be done in a place where they could control the situation and the story.
• They probably did not bargain for the brutal beating Jesus underwent, but they did ultimately arrange for someone else to carry his cross for him.
• They paid at least one Centurion to give Jesus a bitter tasting sedative common at the time, through a sponge at the end of a spear that knocked hm out cold and made him appear dead.
• They paid a Centurion not to kill Jesus with the spear. "Merely a flesh wound now," Joe explained, "but make it look good." Nic added. 
• Unlike the others and custom at the time, Jesus' legs were not broken so that he would die faster. Why was that? Anomalies beget good conspiracy theories.
• Joe and Nic come and bargain, probably for an additional price, to have Jesus removed from the cross before sundown on the Sabbath so that he can be buried. He is dead to the eyes of the generally uncaring and now richer Centurions there, so they take him down. There is no doctor there to verify he is dead and that good zombie play was on at the theater and they now had money for tickets and, perhaps, a date.
• He is taken, and in witness of many wailing followers, is placed in Joseph's tomb. Under the guise of burial ritual, healing ointments are placed on his wounds and they are dressed. 
• As it says at the end of Matthew, though denied as a lie by the author, Joseph, Nic and the team return that night, knowing no Jew would be out on the Sabbath, pay off the guards, roll back the stone and take Jesus away to be healed. Remember Jesus was a regular breaker of the Sabbath, so why would his followers not behave that way as well?
• Early Sunday morning, before anyone else can get there, Mary Magdalen, a probable co-conspirator, brings another woman as a witness and creates the story that an angel rolled back the stone and Jesus rose from the dead. Each story is a bit different as it evolved with the telling.
• Most of the wounds, while not insignificant, were only flesh wounds. Others, such as the nails through his hands and feet, would have healed in time. The Roman tradition was to place the nails through the wrists and ankles, often breaking bones. The Bible says the nails were driven through his palms and feet, where the damage could be less severe. Who would notice? Later "doubting Thomas" puts his fingers into the resurrected Jesus' palms, not his wrists, to feel the nail holes there.
• If the paid off Centurions held back on the spear plunge, that wound would not have been too bad either.
• He is healed through medicines used at the time, not miracles.
• He returns to appear before the uneducated disciples and many others who followed him and is deemed to have been resurrected from the dead.
• Often he is not initially recognized. Probably because being discovered would be a bad thing for Jesus and the movement.
• People scoff, so the story of his ascension is created in the region where it is required but does not evolve where it is not required.
• The plan works. A new unifying, individual-based, personal relationship with God religion is born because of a great miracle. So regardless of its truth, the story is critical to the growth of Christianity. 

That is not too far afield to have happened. There are plenty of clues in the Bible itself, which is rather interesting. But perhaps the Bible story is true. Either way, whether it happened or not is not relevant to the question!

To me, the real question is,

If NONE of the miracles in the Bible are true, even the most important one, is your faith still strong enough to believe and follow the simple teachings of Jesus, or more accurately, what you know in the honesty of your heart is right?

OK, now I really have to dodge those lightning bolts.

A Process of Understanding God

It is fun for me to think through spirituality in a logical and scientific way. My mother posits that once we die, that is all. Body and soul turn into dust. That is Old Testament and a very legitimate way of looking at things, but for me, the math, the science does not work.


Jesus said that we connect directly to God through the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of Truth. In the end, that connection is all that matters. See Matthew 12:31-32 and Mark 3:29, and John 16: 12-15. (I use the NIV).

Prayer is the way to connect to the Holy Spirit. Not to ask for things, but to ask for guidance. That is what I came to call the "Harmony," mostly because non-religious people (aka Mom) freak out at words like "Holy Spirit" because of the layered history of misinformation placed on that and other Biblical words.

That is where I created the words at the top of this blog, expanded to what they are today:
"Do what you know in your heart is the right thing to do, regardless of your feared earthly consequences and regardless of what your minister, mom or friends say you should do, because that is the Spirit communicating with you and to do so will keep you in harmony with all (originally God's people, but now) all souls."

In the Old Testament, God had emotions. He got mad, frustrated, sad, happy, etc. I thought, does God have emotions? As I have read it, there is a lot less of this in the New Testament, but the Father is still said to be happy or angry from time to time. He just does not show it with major catastrophes.

In the Old Testament, God could move physical things and make weather and floods happen. Can God control physical things like that? Again, there is very little separating of rivers or destroying of towns or leading the Jews in battle in the New Testament, but Jesus does heal the sick and even the dead.

In the Old Testament, God guided people through deserts, talked to them through bushes, in dreams and directly almost face to face. Does God act like that? There is not much of that in the New Testament.

In the 2000 plus years since Jesus, there has been almost none of any of that stuff. Perhaps I missed it.

So then I had to ask what came to me as the core question no one discussed, "WHAT is this God?" I spoke to ministers, who had no answer. "It is enough to have faith that there is a God." they say. I thought, well then why not lots of gods for all the things we used to have gods for. Of course we still have them, Mother Nature, Father Time, and all the saints, for example. Books I have read refer to God. No explanation as to what we are talking about. Amazingly, no one I spoke to seemed to even sit down and ponder this question, "If there is a God and only 1 god, WHAT is God."

I went back to Jesus. He said that the Spirit of Truth is all that matters. Well then, what composes this spirit? How can I prove it exists at all? I derived my Proof of God analysis which is posted earlier in this blog. I thought it through over many years, but also spoke to some physicists about the science side of it. Basically, and you should go read it in its entirety, it proves there is an operator of our machine-bodies that is not physical or energy as we currently understand those concepts, but something different - our spirit, our soul - but not scientifically different.

And, we know that the spirit of life that makes us alive and conscious and able to drive our machine-bodies, leaves us when we die. That is the essence of death. Since we know through science that things do not go away, matter and energy cannot be destroyed, just altered, that similarly total spiritual existence must survive our deaths. Everything we currently understand about physics and biology are located there in the corpse. But dying people have been weighed just as they die, and there is an infinitesimal loss of weight just as the person passes away. Interesting. To me, and other theorists, this is the spirit of life leaving the body.

People who have died on a table report that their conscious selves leave their bodies and can see their corpses laying there on the table being resuscitated. (Note that doctors still heal death) They report seeing a bright light and following it. I am a deep believer in "ghosts." I grew up in a haunted house. We experienced them first hand. I believe that these are the spirits of a former life, the driver of the machine-body still hanging around for some reason.

As much as I contemplate it, the math and science, as I have delved into it, does not allow me to conclude that the soul dies and disappears from existence upon death. To me, like all energy and matter, it survives, just in a different form.


So then what? Off to heaven with God? Well that returned me first to WHAT is God. Is he even a He? Of course not. Does he sit on a throne with Jesus beside him in some kingdom in the skies (see Zeus)? I did not see that. It is mythical and does not fit my scientific analysis of this situation. There is no physical kingdom in heaven with pearly gates that we go live in when we die, and similarly no hell. That is magic and we no longer believe in magic, at least I do not.

I did the analysis in my brain and through readings of the Bible and other books, some on other religions and some on scientific issues, and over many months I came to believe that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, the spirit of life was just that, a spirit and that is truly "God." This, in my mind, is a provable aspect of our overall physical existence, like other as yet unexplained things such as anti-matter, dark energy, quantum mechanics, and the Big Bang. Actually adding this sort of unpredictable spiritual quotient of life helps to explain a lof of equations that do not otherwise stay on point unless they are focused on inanimate things in space. Even there, we find entropies that miss the calculations. Are those the effects of this life spirit? Beyond this entry to contemplate, but I am sure I will get to it some day.

I concluded that each of the spirits of life that occupy our bodies while we are alive, are integral parts of the larger Spirit. All living things from Amoeba and bacteria to humans that have a spirit of life running their body-machines, and I do not know when that happens, are part of that Spirit. That is why we have a direct connection. That is why the "holy spirit" guides us. Not because it is a mysitical power or a magical guy in the sky. It is because that Spirit is the essence of the driver of our machine-bodies. That is why, in my opinion, love is the connection and not greed or desire.

Note, we are not integrated into that Spirit, but connected to it. We can chose, perhaps more than any other creature, to not follow what we know would keep us in harmony with all other souls. We can ignore the connection to the spirit. Our brains are phenomenal computers, which we can use to do the right thing, our own thing, or what others say we should do. We have choice. Our drivers have the wheel. They do not have to listen to the Spirit in the back seat if they do not want to. I suspect most people do not.

I believe that if we could tap into that spiritual internet of all of the souls in the world and perhaps well beyond, we could make life on this earth amazingly better. If we were guided by the overall love of all souls for each other, perhaps things like war and greed would go away. Perhaps we would learn that war and greed are not bad things, but part of the balance of life. Who knows. Not there yet.

So what happens after we die. I have had people ask me whether we stay as ourselves or are swallowed up into a larger spirit and mixed in and lose our individual identities. That would be the same as what Mom postulates. We, as separate humans, go away even though the spirit essences continue. Perhaps parts of our spirit are bundled randomly into a new life spirit as it enters into another newly born machine-body. Or perhaps our same life spirit survives into life after life or reincarnation like some eastern religions believe. Hmmmm.
Lots of next things to think about.

What is "Heaven?"

I have heard my father-in-law, who is struggling later in life with some significant illnesses, say many times that he is ready to die. It has made me contemplate end of life like never before. What I found out, at least for me, is that I do not fear death. Mostly it is because everyone does it eventually. It seems quite the trendy thing to do really.


I contemplated what happens after we die. I suppose that is the biggest fear of those facing death in the relatively near future. I believe in a concept of God that is rather simple. To me God is all of the spirits of all of the souls in the world. This explains the trinity. God is the Father because the souls of my ancestors are all part of that spirit. It is the son, because the spirit permeates all of the living souls on earth all the time. We are all the sons and daughters of God, because we are the living embodiment of all the spirits that make up God.

Most important to Jesus is the Holy Spirit, which Jesus called the Spirit of Truth. Jesus explained that you can ignore or disbelieve God and you can ignore or disbelieve Jesus, but the Holy Spirit must be listened to. The Holy Spirit is the connection between our souls and the universal spirit of all souls we call God. When we connect to that Spirit; when we ask for guidance; when we listen carefully; when we are open to hearing the answers to our prayers, we are connecting directly to God, to the spirit of all souls current and past, we are truly in harmony with all the souls living and not.

I believe that our bodies are just machines that our souls occupy for a lifetime. When we die, it is simply time for us to leave our failing machines behind and rejoin the Spirit, rejoin those who have died before us, but I do not believe we leave our connection to those still alive. We become part of the Holy Spirit for those we love.

Our souls are connected to those souls forever. The Holy Spirit is the voice of those who care deeply for us; those who have gone before who want to guide us, help us, and show us the way when we are lost. Someday, when the time it right, we all will rejoin the spirit, but we will not leave those whose souls remain in their bodies. You will still be there helping to guide us and all those who you love and who love you. It is a common seemingly known truth. Yes she is dead, but she has not left you.

Jesus showed us that we are here to serve; not to have our feet washed by others, but to wash the feet of others; to love our family, no matter what they do; to love those we are mad at, those who are mad at us, those who perceive themselves as our enemies, and perhaps most of all, those least fortunate. I believe that never changes. I believe that when you have found the ability to love so deeply that you love everyone no matter who they are or what they may have said or done, and through such love, learn to forgive completely without expectation of anything in return, you have found heaven. It does not matter whether you are here on earth or your soul is part of the Spirit in the next world.

I was speaking with an alcoholic and she mentioned that part of the 12 steps is to make a moral inventory of your life, to confess to God, as you understand him, and at least one other person anything that troubles you about your past life, and then to make amends to those you honestly feel you need to forgive or those from whom you wish forgiveness. She queried, “What religion would require such a thing?” I said, “All of them.” We just don’t tend to do this because it is uncomfortable. It is the essence of Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. Jesus told us to confess our sins and repent (to recognize the wrong in something you have done and be sorry about it, make amends to those you have wronged, and change your ways), and the Catholics formalized the process. It is a critical part of Islam and I am sure most other forms of worship.

I believe this is an exercise guided by the Holy Spirit, connecting to those souls who have gone before you, those who love you and want to guide you and help you on your path. Most important, however, is that this is a personal exercise. The evaluation is not what would others think? It is, “What do you, in your connection with the Spirit, honestly believe?”

Someday, when the time is right, your soul will cross over. It will not go to hell. There is no such place. It will join the Spirit which is all of the souls of all who live now and all who have lived before, and you will be responsible to love and guide those souls still in bodies here on earth.

I have a very simple prayer I say all the time. It goes something like this.

“God, the Spirit of all Souls, thank you so much for all the wonderful people and things you have brought into my life. Please help me to love them all. Please provide me guidance as I go through life. Please help me do what I know in my heart is the right thing to do, no matter the consequences or fears, for I know that guidance is from the Spirit of God and you who love me will not lead me astray.”

Be happy, for being happy is your decision. Be at peace and know that the Spirit of all of the souls of all who love you are still with you and available if you let them in. Be in harmony with all those around you and love because love is heaven.

Guest Post from Mom: Response to My Prior Post "Bible Stuff"

Good information. About 19% of Americans now are self- declared "nones". This term is being used to describe both non believers in god and believers who do not associate with any religion or describe themselves as religious. Many of these "nones" are on the evolutionary path toward being non believers, secularists, humanists etc. and are moving away from a belief in a higher power.

Why? Not sure but many find that there is a disconnect between the messages of love that are supposed to be the basis of Jesus words in the new testament, and the judgementalism, bigotry, and outright hate expressed by many who say they are religious. [Interjection:  Philosopher Anne Rice refers to this as Conflicted Religious Identity Syndrome (CRIS) and is reflected by people who are increasingly "quitting Christianity" in favor of following the loving, all-inclusive, serving and peaceful teachings of Jesus and other great philosophers. Sadly today, Christianity and Jesus are often not synonymous.] It has been shown that religious people respond to crisis such as floods, hurricanes etc. in a humanitarian way, reaching out to others to help, but often return to a false piety in their daily living.

Organizations such as the Rationalist Society, Freedom From Religion, etc. are there for people to think through their beliefs from a different perspective. These and many others, support those who were reluctant to "come out" as it were, as atheists and non believers for fear of rejection by society. Now people are talking, sharing, and reasoning together.

I do believe for some, religion serves a real purpose of support and help in need and to feel someone cares about them in their daily lives. They form communities of like believers who share ritual and connections. Often they continue to believe out of fear of not believing. However, for some reason or other, the "nones" are now the third largest "religion" in the world behind Catholics and Muslims.

Can it be that organized religion has failed to resonate with so many because they recognize that religion is not required for good and moral living, that it has failed to carry out the pious messages from the pulpit and been used to promote the antithesis of love? Or has religion simply become irrelevant and meaningless as anything but adherence to a set of rules set up by a denomination to keep a flock together?

Under all the preaching, pontificating, evangelizing, analyzing, praying and struggling, is the simple need for community. How that comes about and survives will be more important to the future that ancient texts and stained glass windows. Since nearly one third of all young people describe themselves today as "nones" it seems the world is moving in a direction away from church and will need guidance and support from groups other than churches to provide community, love, and help.

This is a challenge for us all.


Mom   Disclaimer: The foregoing message, while interesting, is the opinion of the author (Mom) and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of this station, its parent companies, or of any of its affiliates, including its siblings, children and wife. Love to all.

Bible Stuff

I often converse with  people who are strong believers that the Bible, cover to cover, is the "word" of God. I personally do not believe that, and there are many reasons why. Mostly, I suppose, I don't believe it because neither Jesus nor Paul believed it.

On several occasions, Jesus violated the Sabbath. Mostly he cured people on the Sabbath, but he also instructed his disciples to get the group food from the fields on the Sabbath. The Pharisees were appalled. Jesus pointed out that God would not want people to avoid doing good things on the Sabbath, like pulling an ox from a ditch or feeding the poor.

Jesus and Paul both quoted Old Testament writers incompletely, editing out the parts extolling violence and exclusion, and retaining only the peaceful and inclusive part. The Old Testament contemplates that the Hebrews are the "chosen people" and all others are unclean. Jesus and Paul both clearly believed that all people on earth are "Chosen" people under God. That was extremely difficult for Jewish hierarchy at the time to take. It seems a difficult concept for many "Christians" today.

While Hebrews were unique and special in the eyes of the Lord, Jesus explained that those who follow Him are chosen to serve everyone else. We are to wash the feet of all others. We are to serve. We are not better than anyone else. In fact, it is our job to care for "the least of these."

Paul makes it clear that there are no special days; no special foods; no special anything. God does not care about such trivial issues. All rituals are simply man-made for man's personal satisfaction. Paul did ask us to respect others for whom a day, food, etc. is ritualistically important. God is the love in your heart for others. Both explained that one's connection to God is personal and direct.

Honestly I do not even understand why believing that the entire Bible is true is important to people. The Old Testament is just a history, and an admittedly embellished one at that. The stories of the Hebrews, handed down verbally over time, were written down after the Judeans (now known as Jews) were kicked out of Judah (capital city Jerusalem) and exiled to Babylon. To keep the exiled Jews' spirits up, and keep them feeling chosen despite their predicament, the stories were written down so as to show that if they do what their God says, good things happen, and when they do not, bad things happen.

In the early years, the Hebrews had no king. God was their king and he resided everywhere there was a tented temple set up according to the rules. Moses, Aaron, Joshua, etc, down through Samuel, were merely successive interpreters of what God was telling them. The demise of the Hebrews began when they decided they wanted a human king. Samuel tells God this is what they want and God's feelings are hurt. God explains that this is a bad idea and that human kings will be selfish and power hungry. He, of course, was right.

Saul, the first king, was good. David was beloved, but imperfect. He ordered one son killed so that his most beloved son could succeed him. Solomon was wise, but he began the years of increasingly bad kings. There were 13 tribes of Israel, each with different parts of Canaan, the Promised Land. One of the tribes made up of the descendants of Judah (the Jews) lived in Jerusalem. They demanded their own king. The other tribes became known as the Israelites and they demanded their own king. Then the two sets of descendants of Israel began to fight one another. God became an after-thought.

The Babylonians invaded and the Jews (not the rest of the Israelites) were exiled, just like when it all started, but not in Egypt this time. Eventually, the Persians beat the Babylonians and sent the Judeans back to Judah. You would think they would have learned, but of course they did not. They created a king, a hierarchy of Godly people and a path to God that had to go through those holy folks. The Romans invaded and eventually (in 70 AD) destroyed Jerusalem and kicked the Jews out again.

Why are the ancient theological mythologies and musings from a failed and defeated society, whose philosophy Jesus tried to fix, so important to modern followers of Christ? I have never understood this.

I suppose the main appeal is the idea that God created everything. Jesus refers to God as the creator, but does not mention that he did it in either of the two ways it is portrayed in Genesis. I think the fact that there are two creation stories is, at a minimum, evidence that they are just stories.

If you want to believe that God created everything, fine, but there is no logical reason to need to believe that it happened in 7 days, or in a Garden somewhere. By the way, the second creation story, the Adam and Eve story, is the Hebrews' story of their own holy beginning, not of all humans. There clearly were other humans in the story living in a town called Nod, where Cain went after killing Able. The most unsung member of the family, though, was Seth, who is actually the father of all Hebrews. Noah down to Abraham are descendants of Adam and Eve's third son, Seth. Just a side note I think is kinda cool.

So, could there be a higher power contributing to the evolution of humans? Who really knows? If you believe that, go ahead, but this does not conflict with science and there is no reason or logic behind contemplating that the world began only a few thousand years ago.

Oh well.