Noah - Global Warming 1.0

Noah is the story of the Great Flood that destroyed the earth. We all know the story and it has been retold by storytellers and movie makers for eons. Humans are all sinners and God has to destroy the world and start over. He chooses Noah as the savior of all creation. Note that early on God instructs him to find 7 pairs of each creature, etc, for the Ark. Later, however, he actually gathers only one pair, male and female, presumably because the Ark was not big enough for 7 pairs, or he decided that 7 pairs was just ridiculous and one pair would be fine. Who knows really.

The great flood is included within the folklore of nearly every tribe that lived in the Middle East and there is real scientific evidence that it may have happened. The Noah thing perhaps not so much.

The time was near the end of the Ice Age some 6000 - 8000 years ago. Mesopotamia and Eden, located as mentioned in my last post, were the cradles of "modern" civilization. The area was reasonbly heavily populated and was much more lush than it is today. See discussions on Egypt in a later text. So to the writers of the time, this area was "the World."

First lets look at a map of the Mediterranean Sea area and the Middle East. Go get a map or pull one up on your computer. Just go to Google Maps and enter Mediterranean Sea. That will allow you to focus in on certain areas if you wish. Go ahead, I'll wait . . . . . . . . . . .

There are 4 very tight straits surrounding the Middle East:

1. The Stait of Gibralter between Spain and Morroco leading into the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. Of course the Rock of Gibralter sits in the middle as a reminder to when this strait was closed off and the two continents were connected.
2. The Strait of Aden at the Arabian Sea, between Djibouti in Africa and Yemen leading from the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean into the Red Sea. Note that there is a residual penninsula and several small islands denoting where these two areas were once connected.
3. The straits between the United Arab Emerates and Iran leading from the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean into the Persian Gulf, where Eden was and where Mesopotamia was at the north end. Again, the UAE still nearly reaches across this narrow passageway.
4. The many small straits in Turkey that lead from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea.

So the theory goes that once upon a time these were all connected land bridges and that inside these basins that are now seas lived many many people on dry land, protected from the higher oceans by these natural dams. As the ice sheets melted, however, the ocean levels rose until nearly simultaneously they breached these natural dams. The resulting massive rush of water into the Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea and Persian Gulf killed thousands and just as milk spashes out of a bowl if poured too fast into one side, the tsunamai-like waves of water would have rushed violently up the far sides of each of these seas, well up onto what is now dry land. There is a theory that the Caspian Sea, a body of water with no outflows fed by fresh water rivers, was partially filled by this on-rush of ocean water, explaining in part its somewhat high salinity, but who really cares. The water would have eventually receded, but not before there was mass destruction and death, including the complete and total destruction of Eden. All theories, but you can see how it makes a lot of sense.

There is quite a bit of archaeological evidence of established societies at the bottoms of the Mediterranean Sea and of the Black Sea, indicating that the rush into those bodies of water was not as swift as it was up the Persian Gulf and Red Sea valleys. There is very little evidence of prior civilizations in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, though there is some indicating the flooding was massive. The story of Atlantis is considered by some to have been based upon the destruction of the society living in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. 

Sooo, did Noah exist. Despite the existance of a structure well up in the Turkish mountains that no one has been allowed to investigate, it is likely that the story is just another way to show the Chosen People that God protects them, and to indicate that God will protect the non-sinners and we should behave as people. This was well before Abraham and the designation "Chosen" but Abraham and all of the Hebrews were traced descendents of Noah.

Personally, I think this was just one of those mass extinction events that the story-tellers had to explain to those who asked, "What kind of God would allow this to happen?" That is by far the most difficult theological question of all time. Of course the Noah story became a huge success and was undoubtedly elaborated upon over the years even through today and the creativity of our modern movie-makers.

Anyway, I thought that was kinda interesting. Bottom line, at least arguably God had little to do with the Great Flood. Luckily the new flooding as a result of current Global Warming will likely be comparatively more gradual. Other than the edges of Holland, there are no areas like this where a nearly simultaneous breach of several sea walls will create such massive and immediate death and destruction. So we got that going for us anyway . . .

Thoughts on the Bible

My daughter told me the other day that she intended to read the Bible. I have read the vast majority of it and much if it many times and I have read a lot about how the Bible was written and why. So I thought I would share my thoughts a little at a time, just the bore the pants off the rest of you.

First, the concept of writing for historical purposes is less than 1,000 years old. Prior to that and throughout the Jewish traditions, stories were told to convey images and messages, and NOT as a recounting of historical fact. The entire Bible was written in this manner. Today, we have a hard time with this. We figure if they bothered to write down events, they must have been writing them down to preserve them through time for future generations so that they could learn from them. The latter is certainly true, but the former is not.

It is also important to note that nearly all, if not all, of the heroes and heroins in the Bible were illiterate. So what was written was written by third party authors; all of whom were certainly men and probably with a perspective of their own. Most of the Old Testament was written down during the time of Jewish exile in Babylon from oral traditions. (Some of the information on kings was noted as having been written contemporaneously and some of the prophets came later.) During this time the Jews were trying to keep their people together and away from the temptations of the Babylonians, so stories were elaborated upon to create greatness in the Jewish God over all others.

In the Beginning . . .
So the Bible opens with two separate creations stories that are internally inconsistent to the point of being impossible. That is OK! They were not intended to be literal recounts of what happened. After all no one was actually there.

The first story tells of God creating the heavens and the earth, the sun, and the next things, etc, then animals, etc, and finally humans, male and female at the same time, who then name all the animals and plants, etc. At the time, the religions of competing tribes worshipped elements of nature as their gods: the sun, the moon, the stars, rain, etc. In this story the Jewish people show the world that the Jewish God CREATED all of their gods and is therefore greater still then them. Pretty creative, huh?

The famous Adam & Eve story came much later. This is clearly NOT the creation of the world and of humans, because after Cain kills Abel he goes to Nod, an existing town filled with people, and finds a wife and settles down there. Theorists contemplate that this is the story of the birth of the ancestors of the Chosen people, specially and separate from the non-Chosen people. Yes they were "kicked out" of the Garden, but this happened because they had been gifted with the great and special knowledge of the Gods' Tree of Life. The serpent may not be as bad as advertised and perhaps they were not really kicked out, but born, which can be traumatic.

Note that in this story it is "Gods" not God, and they speak among themselves and use terms like "we" instead of "I". That is a hard one for Jews and others. Who were these other gods?

There is no "original sin" in the Jewish telling of this story. That is a Christian contemplation that came hundreds of years after the Bible was even compiled for the first time, which happened over 500 years after Christ's death. Eating the fruit just meant they could not stay in the Garden. It is not clearly a bad thing in many Jewish interpretations. Afterall, this is their story from their part of the book.

Side note: Based on analysis of satelites and the descriptions of the Garden in the Bible, including its location at the intersection of 4 great rivers, Eden was likely actually located under what is now the Persian Gulf, wiped out by the great flood, which we will get to in a next installment.

The other great thing about the Old Testament and in particular the part referred to as the Torah, is that it is argued about constantly by Jewish scholars and non-scholars alike. This, in their minds, was God's point in the creation of these stories for them, to generate individual thought and scholarly disagreement. Just as a great painter never tells her viewers what was intended by her abstract colors and angles, but leaves that to each person's own interpretation, so do the Jews believe that the stories of the Bible were created to force us to expand our minds - to use the gifts of the Tree of Life.

Note that the Chosen people are all descendants of the third son, Seth, who hardly anyone knows about, who also took wives from among women who already existed in the world, not a sister. The incredibly long lives listed next are the ages of the various tribes of the descendants of Seth headed by the named individual. Just as the descendants of Israel are called Israelites and the descendants of Judah, one of the 12 tribes of Israel, are now referred to as the Jews. The years are of course not important. They just refer to a long time and the relative importance of each clan. The longer a tribe was able to claim it had lasted, the more important it was in stature, whether it really lasted that long of not.

Take all of this with a grain of salt, except the part where you are to read the stories and debate what they mean until they mean something to you personally, for that was their purpose.

More next time, whenever that is.

Easter - What is it Really About?

As we approach the Easter Season I was contemplating what this season really is all about for me. I am a doubter as to the resurrection itself, preferring the well-formulated theory of German theologian, Holger Kersten, that Jesus' friends saved him from the cross and that his subsequent appearances were really of the "recovered Jesus" rather than a risen one. Does that matter? Actually I think it makes the story stronger.

So if it is not about a miraculous rising of a dead demi-God, how could Easter retain real spiritual value for me?

Judaism is about stories. Jesus and his followers were of course Jews. The factuality of the stories is less relevant than the point of the story. 

The point of this story is that no matter how blameless we may be, no matter our motives, intentions or the sincerity of our actions, we will all go through times of suffering, just as did Jesus, who was found to be sinless and blameless by his own accusers. At times that suffering will seem insurmountable, so much so that we may feel that our higher power, our God, our Harmony of souls, or whatever you may be comfortable believing in, has deserted us, just as Jesus did when he cried out in pain, "Father, why have you foresaken me?" (though he said it in Arameic not proper English.)

The story shows us that no matter the pain or the suffering, we can handle it. With the help of our friends and family, we can get through it. We can rise again. We can be resurrected from our suffering. We can be renewed.

We will live through difficult times. We will rise from the depths each time, with the help of others. We will be reborn into a life of joy and happiness, each time.

That, to me, is the story of Easter. Then the Spring comes. The grass turns from brown to green. The trees blossom and then leaf out into summer splendor. The flowers bloom. The birds sing. The animals scurry about finding a mate to perpetuate their species. The world is resurrected yet again from the frozen grey grips of winter.

And, of course, the Easter Bunny comes and brings us colored eggs and chocolate bunnies and other yummy things. (I think that story is in Acts . . . well maybe not).

Love to all. We shall all suffer and we shall all be resurrected many times over.

Advice to My Girls

My life has been a series of ups and downs, as all lives are. No matter what you do, yours will be as well. Uncertainty is the only certain part of life. Assume, no, you should KNOW it will happen. Embrace it. BUT prepare for it!

As I look back, it is amazing how many more downs I have experienced. Abject failures really. Two failed marriages. I have been let go from three jobs, that is a nice way of saying fired though each had its own unique circumstances. As a result I have been out of work for two stretches of nearly a year each and during both stretches, homeless for a period of time. I have run two failed businesses and declared personal bankruptcy. And that is just scratching the surface.

As a result I am in debt up to my ears, make a lot of money and still live paycheck to paycheck, and have no savings or retirement saved up. I am at the bottom of my company's hierarchy with little real chance of advancement within Save A Lot. I am 54 years old with nothing to show for my professional career, I cannot help you out in your lives much and my financial future remains a complete mystery.

So why am I such a happy person?

That leads to my first advice:

• Love everyone in your life and invite into your life only people you can love. I have two ex-wives and still care deeply for both and would do anything for them. The cool thing is I am pretty sure they feel the same way. I have several former bosses and respect and care for all of them. I am pretty sure they feel the same way. I have several ex-colleagues and care for all of them. I have many acquaintances who I care deeply for as well. Former team mates, work mates, charity mates, school mates and other mates. I love them all, and even the bartender and waitress serving me here at this restaurant. And you know what, they can tell I love them and all love me back. People I have not spoken with in years call me for help and I help them. I call people I have not seen in years and they do me favors. When I needed a place to live, someone came through and provided it. When I needed a job, someone I knew provided it. When I need anything, someone has been there for me, BECAUSE I loved them and was there for them when they needed it. I helped them move, every time. I helped them connect to someone to perhaps get a job. I introduced them to that cute girl they kinda liked, even if I did not know them. I have always done whatever I could to help people out. Most important, reach out to those who no one seems to love and be their friend. Make your friends be their friend. Nothing makes lasting friendships like loving people who need to be loved; and that applies to everyone in life. Life it foremost about how many people you love and how many people love you back.
• Follow your emotions.  There are only two emotions; one makes you feel bad and the other makes you feel good. We give them many names: anger, resentment, jealousy, joy, happiness, peace, contentment. Emotions are your guide to doing what is right. If it makes you feel good, to any degree, it is right. If it makes you feel bad, to any degree, it is not right. That is what following your heart means. Do the same for others. To the extent you can, think about how what you do will give them a positive emotion, but not if it gives you a negative emotion. Smile at everyone. Greet everyone. Make eye contact with friendly eyes. Shake everyone's hand firmly and warmly and mean it. Listen to others and care about what they say. Nothing makes others feel good like other people caring about them. The way the universe of all souls communicates with you is through your emotions. Listen. They are wise.

I may be financially a mess, but I am emotionally very rich. I have the two of you, Barbara, my family and the many people I have met and love in my life. You cannot buy that. You have to earn it and it is the easiest wealth you can ever own.

On the financial side, and I wish someone had convinced me of this long ago, but I am arrogant to a fault and I am sure I did not listen if they did, so here is some advice.

• Save Money.  Having money provides freedom. Pay yourself something out of every paycheck. Take the money your mother and I send you and put it in the bank and leave it there. Invest wisely and conservatively. Make this a fervent religious practice.

• Take Risks but Be Conservative.  This does not mean do not take risks, even big ol' hairy risks. We did that in FertiGator. What I learned and advise is, in the parlance of a book I just finished, "shoot bullets first before you fire off a calibrated cannon ball." What that means is try some smaller risks first that help you to determine whether what you are considering will work, what are the problems that you can fix, what adjustments to your aim are required. Most of your little efforts will fail. The bullets will land in the dirt and miss their target. But each small failure will not cost much and will teach you things about where you are trying to go. It will help you calibrate your cannon ball. Once you figure out all the ways NOT to do it, and are confident you have the data you need to calibrate your cannonball so you will do it properly, aim it at the target, then go for it full speed ahead. Fire a big huge giant cannonball and put everything you have behind it. What we failed to do with FertiGator was shoot bullets first. We had a great product, but we made a fatal calculation error in the width of the plunger that caused it to stick. We would have known had we tested it more. We should have tried it in one market. We assumed that irrigation contractors would love this, but we found they were not capable of understanding the value or the process. We should have made it in the US first. The large volume Chinese manufacturer screwed it up over and over, killing our first year opportunities. We should have shot bullets first. We would have learned all of this with the money we raised and probably would still be in the business making millions. As important, we should have saved money for the uncertainties that were certain, and happened. We were not prepared for them.
• Smile, arrive early, stay late and work hard. Be a great team mate. If you do that, you will be so rare and desired that you will be paid more and promoted quickly. It is not about being the smartest, though you are both smart. It is about caring more than anyone thinks is wise about the company. And save money. No matter how good you are, sometimes you make your entire department so great that they leave the company for better pastures and the company no longer needs you. That happened to me at UHY Advisors. Save money for the uncertain times that WILL happen.
• Make Others Look Great in Front of the People Most Important to THEM!  Your boss may take credit for things you have done. Let them! It is their job to take credit for your work! It is not how they should do it, but they will. Take this so seriously that you give them at least some concrete credit for things you have done alone, even when they give you credit. On the other hand, when you secure a leadership role, when you are the boss, give ALL the credit to your team when your team does things well. All of it. Take ALL of the blame personally when your team fails to accomplish its goal. NEVER blame others for things that you are responsible for that do not go well, and that will absolutely happen. Do this and you will become the go-to person for the most important tasks the company needs to accomplish and your team will go overboard for you. They never want you to take the bullet ever again for their errors. Have everyone else's back. There may be small incidents that do not seem to be going your way, but in the long run everyone will know what is going on and that you are the reason things are getting done. Be the solution, never the problem. And save money. No matter what you do, a great younger employee can be a threat to those above you, and they may do what they can to get rid of you before you take their job. If you have saved money, you can handle it.
• Forgive Everyone Always and Immediately.  Accept everyone for who they are. Feel for those who are always negative. What a sucky life they lead. People who forgive, are healthier, happier and live longer. You cannot control how others are. You cannot change anyone. No one can control or effect your life UNLESS you let them. Always remember the Serenity Prayer. If you don't know it, look it up. Memorize it. Live it. And save money, because some things are outside your control.

• And Finally - Save Money. Did I mention that one. Well that is really important, so do that one.

Love you very much!

Big Questions

As we venture into the world

                We are confronted by two questions,

“How will I make a living today”, and

                “What is the meaning of life?

It is the Big Questions that humans uniquely ponder,

                “I am human, but what does that mean?”

                “I am spiritual, but what does that mean?”

“Am I a human being having a spiritual experience, or

                Am I a spiritual being having a human one?”

In Christianity there is sin and salvation,

                In Buddhism there is no sin, only harmony.

In my life there is difficulty and joy,

                I choose joy and feel guilty about that.

Religions drive war, hatred and terror,

                Yet “God” is loving, caring and merciful.

Humans crave peace and love and harmony, and yet

                We love power, competition and success.

“I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.”

                “It is not an auto race without a fiery crash.”

Yin and yang are as natural as all of nature.

                The bell curve represents all in the world.

Good and bad, evil and holy, war and peace, strong and weak

                Are all essential to balance and harmony.

What is God?

                Is there a heaven?

                                Is there a right and wrong?

                                                Are there universal truths?

                                                                Is there one path for me or many?

What are the answers to the Big Questions?

                Perhaps they are those that bring us personal joy, peace and harmony,

                                Even if to others they seem violent, painful or crazy.

Well back to making a living . . .

Love

God is love.

When you share the deepest of all loves with someone,

                You are in spirit with them,

                                In harmony with them,

                                                Connected with them,

But you share something so much more,

                Something divine that cannot be explained.

When you are together all is right in the world.

                There is no place on earth you would rather be.

                                Warmth pours through you.

                                                Dreams are at once real and surreal. 

We call this person a soul mate.

                They are entwined with our soul.

                                We are enmeshed in theirs.

Whether our physical bodies are together or apart,

Our spirits are never separated.

Being with Barbara makes my spirit dance.

                When I hear her cheery voice, my soul soars.

When I hold her and kiss her, my world becomes so simple.

                I love her dearly and all else will figure itself out.

This is God.

                The connection of all souls to all others,

                                And a uniquely deep connection of two souls to one another,

Within the infinitely abundant cosmic harmony of spirit, nature, physics and life.

I say that all things are temporary.

                I feel, though, that our spirit is infinite.

I feel that when you meet your soul mate,

                A true deeply connected soul mate,

The fusion of spirit shared by Barbara and me,

                That is infinite too.

I am looking forward to infinity . . . one day at a time.

The Mirror

I was listening to a book on CD and

the author told me to look in the mirror and

tell myself that I am wonderful.

So I did.

What is wonderful, I thought.

What is a wonderful person?

                Do I know anyone who is wonderful?

Perhaps I do.

Who are they?

They love everyone unconditionally:

                Those they know well, know a little, have only just met, have yet to meet and will never meet.

                Those who disagree with them, with whom they disagree and those who are downright mean.

They know that love is inside them.

                Something to give to others.

                                Something they do not need back.

                                                But likely will receive nonetheless.

They know that they need not like those they love.

                That they bring everyone they meet into their lives for a reason.

                                No one can harm or discourage them unless they let him do so.

As a corollary, they do not judge anyone ever:

They know everyone is on his or her own journey following his or her own path.

              It is not their place to judge her on that path, nor what he believes, says or thinks.

They know their own path is one of peace.

                Something to share with others.           

                                Something they do not need back.

                                                But likely will receive nonetheless.

They know that each person’s path is her own.

                They know they bring people with odd paths into their lives for a reason.

                                No journeyer can deflect them from their path unless they let him do so.

They do not care a whit what others think of them:

                They know following their path is their journey for their enlightenment.

                It is not the place of others to judge or interpret or interrupt their path.

They know their own path is theirs alone.

                Sometimes shared with others they let in.          

                                A sharing they do not need back.

                                                But likely will receive nonetheless.

They wear what they want for themselves.

                They eat what they want for it is right for them.

                                They listen to their heart alone for directions.

No one can deflect them from their path unless THEY let her do so.

 

And they are always happy. They know what is right because it makes them so.

The mirror looked back at me.

                “Can you be that person?” it asked.

“I will be that person.” I replied.

Then I finished brushing my teeth . . .

Joy

The music plays wistfully in the background.

The sun glows brightly in the sky.
Barbara flits about preparing for work.
Big hug and kiss and she is out the door.

My mind wanders, as it is wont to do,

To ponder the world, the spirits and the universe and
The music plays quietly in the background.

I learned that DNA gives off electro-magnetic signals all the time.

                We can sense them.
All life gives off pheromones into the world around us,
                We can sense them.
I have known for years that we are part of a universal harmony of all things.
                We can sense this.
We feel comfort with no reason. We sense fear for no reason. We love for no reason. We join for no reason. We talk to a stranger for no reason. We act for no reason.
                Other than that we know, in our hearts, it is the right thing to do.
It is in harmony with the universe, and
The music plays boldly in the background.

When we are connected into the harmony of all things

We attract into our lives those things we really really want,

if we know that we can,

and have the faith to act.

We know it is the right thing to do

                Because it brings us happiness to do it, and

The music plays joyfully in the background.

Connecting means

Awareness,

                Thoughtfulness,

                                Belief without doubt,

                                                Knowing,

                                                                Trusting,

Dreams,

                Desires,

                                Passion,

                                                Love, and most of all

                                                                Joy.

Love and Joy are the absence of

Judgment,

                Hatred,

                                Anger,

                                                Jealousy,

                                                                Blame,

                                                                                Guilt,

Unworthiness,

                Insecurity,

                                Fear,

                                                Grief,

                                                                Despair, and

                                                                                Powerlessness.

All of these things are external to who we are.

                They are visions we create of ourselves, for ourselves.

They may be visions others have of us, but

                We have to make them ours for them to become real.

Our biggest fear is the realization that we are responsible for creating our own world.

                All of it and through it all,

The music plays constantly in the background.

Love and Joy are the presence of

Empowerment,

                Freedom,

                                Appreciation for all,

                                                Enthusiasm,

                                                                Happiness, and

                                                                                Creativity.

These are wealth. These are abundant. These are infinite.

They are available to all who truly want them.

Many do not, despite their circumstances, complaints and moaning,

Because these three are who they believe themselves to be,

They are safety, simple and comfortable no matter the pain involved, and so

Those three things they drag more of into their lives.

The music still beckons in the background.

The greatest gift we can give someone is not food, or money or things, but

                The power to know they can find love and joy in their lives, for

With love and joy you can have anything you truly want in your life,

But what could be more than love and joy?

The music plays so nicely  . . .

A Minute Passes

A minute passes and children die of hunger.

We send them food.

Still many die.

But even more live.

                Overpopulation

A minute passes and people die of malaria.

We send them nets.

Still many die.

But even more live.

                Overpopulation

A minute passes and people die from war.

We send them aid.

Still many die.

But even more live.

                Overpopulation

A minute passes and babies are born.

We send them drugs.

Still many die.

But even more live.

                Overpopulation

More people are born and live.

We send them condoms.

Still many live.

And even more are born.

                Overpopulation

We sit in our big arm chairs.

In comfortable rooms.

In US suburbs.

We send them money.

And complain.
Still many die.
But even more live.

Overpopulation

We change the channel . . .

The snow falls . . .

The snow falls silently outside my tree house window as it has for so many days now.

The birds that are still here seem not to notice as they peck the tree and eat from our feeder.

The squirrels eat corn from the tray we put out, their tails pulled tightly over their backs and around them like a big fur coat. They still romp after one another around the frozen tree and scamper across the blanket of snow with relative ease. Where do they go?

Jays and crows also like the corn. What do the robins eat? They seem happy and healthy as they fly about from branch to branch, but there are no worms.

I see the tracks of rabbits in the snow below and wonder where they go. What do they find to eat? I see tunnels that lead beneath the snow and wonder whose labyrinth they lead to. The surface is white and featureless. Barren and cold. Perhaps there is a whole world of life under that surface we cannot see.

I stay safely behind the glass and wonder, “How are all the creatures of nature so very bold?”

I think about things I cannot know. They do not seem to care at all about these things. Perhaps in their silent evenings in hiding, they too contemplate the universe. Who knows? I read something recently that asked, “Can we be more like them?” I suppose I am thankful we are not, because I am warm and dry as I watch them forage in this frigid environment.

Is thinking a trade-off for bliss? We create our own environment and bring life to us. In exchange we worry, ponder, want, seek, think, dream and strive for more. More money, more knowledge, more comfort, more understanding, more peace, more land, more everything, often figuring out how to take it from someone else, though we should know that abundance is infinite.

They, nature’s creatures, are not so much different than we are. They too fight over the food that is available and chase others away when they can, even though it is always there and always full, every day, all year long. They do this even in the warmer months when food is plentiful. The fear of want pervades all creatures, I suppose, and the greed of the powerful overwhelms the desire of the weak at every layer of nature. It is the way we are all trained, perhaps from before our birth.

Perhaps we will learn to be patient. Perhaps we will learn that joy, wealth, and happiness, as we individually define them, are in infinite abundance and we need not take from one in order to have what we need. Every great wise man and woman has preached this for many thousands of years, and yet it has not sunk in yet, really at any level of our society. Why is that?

Perhaps even I will learn those lessons someday. Today does not feel like one of those days.

It has been a long week . . . I take one last look out my window at the squirrel who seems to look up at me, and the birds flitting about the feeder, and the white expanse beyond, and think, “God bless nature’s creatures. I’m going to make a sandwich . . . “

Gay Marriage

Illinois will soon become the 16th state in the nation to recognize marriage as NOT JUST between a man and a woman. Very excellent and a long time coming. I was, however, made aware by our pastor, a woman dedicated to freedom and equality for all and who leads us in an open and affirming church, that our denomination still prosecutes pastors who marry or even oversee civil union ceremonies for gay or lesbian couples, and who do not condone either as pastors in their churches. I am deeply saddened by this. It caused me to remember an incident in my past. A rousing debate on the subject with a pastor of a former church I attended.

We were discussing this several years ago, and the issue was not gay marriage, as that issue was perhaps just emerging onto the stage, but it was homosexuality in any situation. My pastor at an introductory dinner, despite the fact that no one had asked the question, offered that the church considered homosexuality to be a sin and in direct violation of Biblical teachings. Well I was unprepared at the time, but I decided to look into this. Here is what I presented to him later. For a great and fair discussion see, http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibl.htm. It is a great site for all sorts of religious reference and analysis.

I asked, if homosexuality is such a dire act, as you say, then certainly Jesus preached against it at least once if not many times. I asked if he could show me where in the Gospels he explains that homosexuality is a sin. He could not.

I asked, well did Jesus point out any sins in his time on earth. Well certainly, and he rattled off several, which I agreed were in the Gospels. He pointed to Matt 15:18-20: "...those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man..." Note that sex with a person of the same sex is not specifically listed, though it is argued that it is subsumed in the word "fornication" since homosexuals could not marry one another. If, however, they can be married, then this argument is lost. In many translations, however, this word is interpreted as "prostitution," which is a different matter entirely. Most of what is translated as homosexuality is mistranslated in this manner.
The pastor did not mention any of this.

I said, "Well I wonder then, if it is an abomination, why Jesus left it out of his message entirely? I said, we are Christians, right, and so he is sort of "the guy" on what we believe, correct?"
He agreed. He did point out that, "Leaving it out does not mean he favored it. It only means that in his world of Galilee and Judea, it was not an issue that arose such that he had a reason to deal directly with it."

"But", I said, "the region was full of Greeks, Romans, Arabians, Persians, and many other non-Jews during that time. That was a big reason the Jews wanted a 'Messiah,' someone to free them and the Promised Lands from these outsiders. The area had been part of many empires over the years. The most popular was the Greek empire. Many Jews and Hebrews took on the beliefs and activities of the Greeks during these years. Many peoples, especially the Greeks, practiced homosexuality as an open part of their culture. Certainly Jesus' cared little for the Greeks and Romans, and homosexuality was a part of their culture that many of his Jewish targets had become comfortable with. He certainly would have had reason to not only run across it, but to expressly condemn it as part of the heathen cultures around his people."
No real response. He reiterated that not mentioning it does not mean he did not condemn it. The argument on that front was over. So I moved on.

I asked, "Wasn't a core part of his theology, loving everyone no matter who they are, what their sins are and even one's enemies?"
"Oh", he said, "We love homosexuals. We just believe the act is a sin under heaven. So we care for them and try to help them stop having homosexual thoughts and actual intercourse."

"Didn't Jesus also say that it is not for us to judge others?"
"Oh", he answered, "We do not judge them."
"But you just said that you judge their homosexual acts and thoughts and consider them a sin."
"Well, we believe they are not their thoughts and acts. They are the work of the Devil."

"OK, but still we are sure that Jesus never condemned homosexuality ever, right?"
"Well, no. He did not per se."

OK, so it is certainly in the Ten Commandments."
"Well, no. Not really."

"Well is is certainly one of the seven deadly sins."
"Well not specifically. Lust is on the list."
"But the concept of lust focuses us on coveting someone else's wife or someone other than our own spouse or girlfriend, or contemplates sex with someone else without their consent, essentially rape, or someone who is just looking for sex at every turn without love as a part of it at all, correct?"
"Yes, that is what it contemplates."
"Couldn't a gay or lesbian person be in love with another person of their own sex, be devoted to that person just as you are to your wife, and thus not be lustful at all?"
He stated that the church did not believe that gays and lesbians actually loved one another in that way.

"Well where is this strong and clear objection to homosexuality then and if Christ did not think it important enough to even bring up ever, how do we consider it such a terrible sin?"
He pointed to Leviticus. The current translation seems to clearly make homosexuality a sin.
I provided him a text from the Internet site above that explained how difficult that section is to translate from the original Hebrew, and that there are many translations other that the one King James' translators put to it. He looked it over, un-convinced, which I knew from the beginning what not going to happen and was not my objective. I asked, "Why are we dead set against a more positive translation? Clearly there were homosexuals at this time, and yet there is no clear demonstrable statement against it in the Old Testament. They opposed prostitution, rape, and the like, but not with any clarity, homosexual activity. Why do we force the interpretation that they did?"

We discussed some other references in the Old Testament. I pointed out that they were all about public sex, rape or threatened rape, prostitution (hetero- and homo- and other-sexual), and sometimes in the context of worshipping god with public sex. I think we are all pretty much on board that those things are at least arguably bad.

I asked if there wasn't somewhere in the Old Testament where homosexual sex between consenting adults who cared for one another was clearly banned as a sin?

"What about the New Testament?" I asked.
His eyes brightened because he knew Paul was clearly against homosexuality.

He pointed to Romans, Corinthians and Timothy as examples. As to the latter two, Paul uses a made up Greek word, "arsenokoitai." It is not found in any other Greek writings. The Greek word for homosexual males was at the time, "paiderasste." He did not use that word, so he could not have meant, consenting homosexual males.
There is a great discussion of what he may have meant at this site.
http://www.religioustolerance.org/homarsen.htm
I gave him the explanation. I had printed it out. He promised to read it over.

It is widely contemplated that Paul wrote to his Jewish audience in Greek. There is a fair amount of current argument that he actually wrote in the language most people he was targeting, mostly Jewish, but also Gentile peasants in far off lands, actually spoke - Aramaic. This would allow their leaders to actually read it to them so that they could understand. Aramaic is a pre-language of Arabic and is closely related to Hebrew, with similar alphabets but somewhat different pronunciations and some different words. It is contemplated that the Persians who ruled the area for so many years, forced all residents to speak it, even non-Jews, and so peasants who would never have been trained in Greek regardless of their heritage, would still generally speak Aramaic, just as Jesus did along with those he spke to. I do not know if all that is true, but it is interesting.

The Church of the East, which is an old Christian church that managed to escape persecution because they lived in the mountains of the area, has a very old version of the Bible written in Aramaic. They consider it the original version of the writings of the Apostles and of Paul. The pages have been translated into English. See http://www.v-a.com/bible/ and other sites.

The Aramaic "original" of this Corinthians passage translated into English reads, "Neither adulterers, nor idol makers, nor fornicators, nor perverts, nor child molesters." It does not mention homosexuality. So perhaps the translation of the Greek that the Romans used in 325 to create the Bible, was a rather failed attempt to properly translate the words from Aramaic. Perhaps it was not Paul who created "arsenokoitai" but a mediocre ancient translator who made the word up to fit an Aramaic word he was not sure about. Who knows.

Bottom line, whichever "original" you choose, NEITHER meant homosexual!

Perhaps the most powerful passage used is Romans. In just the plain reading, it seems to me to refer to prostitution. Most believe that the context clearly indicates temple prostitution. The translation from the Aramaic seems to make this clearer: 
"For their women exchanged their natural virtue for that which is unworthy of their nature. And likewise their males abandoned the female's natural virtues and exhibited their depraved lusts one for the other, and males acted shamefully against males, and they received wages worthy of oblivion in their beings."

"Regardless, unless I am mistaken," I concluded, "we are not Paulians. Paul was just a man, correct?"

"Yes, but a holy man who witnessed Jesus and spread the Word . . . "

"But he was not Jesus, right. You are a man. I am a man. We both care what Jesus preached for us. We are not a aggressive as Paul, but we are just as inspired and just at human. Why then do we ignore the positive messages of Jesus to love everyone, in favor of an arguably poorly translated message of hatred that not only conflicts with what Jesus was all about, but conflicts with everything else Paul preached to the world?"

We decided to agree to disagree, but I think I at least got him thinking. He took the pages I gave him. Who knows?

The Golden Rule - Not Quite Right

I was talking to my lovely wife Barbara about what most people believe about religion, and she said probably just the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule is, as we know:

"Do unto others as we would like others to do unto you."

or something like that. I got to thinking about that and it dawned on me that the phrase is wrong. What if I am a sadomasochist? (I'm not, but just for pretend) Did Jesus then intend that I should be able to beat up on others since that is what I would like them to do to me? I think not.

I believe that phrase should be:

"Do unto others as they would like to be treated."

Don't you think we should be focusing on "the other" in this scenario, considering we are contemplating doing something unto them?

Perhaps the Golden Rule is really not all that Golden after all.

I am going to call the above the Platinum Rule.

Love to all (which is really the Diamond Rule don't you think)!


PS, Barbara thinks I am wierd. Does that mean I can call her wierd? Just wondering.

What Got Jesus Started - A Speculation

If the ball-parked timeline in the Bible is to be believed, Jesus began his mission rather suddenly in his late 20s. The Gospel of Mark was the first one written, not long after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the 60s CE (Common Era - formerly AD). Mark is the shortest of the Gospels. It has no reference to the birth or early life of Jesus. By comparison, Matthew and Luke are written at least 10 years later and perhaps due to a need for readers to fill in some of the gaps, add two different birth stories, both of which are full of factual and historical inaccuracies, and John, written right around the turn of the first century, some 70 years after the crucifixion, does not follow the others much at all, adding new passages to solve some theological issues that Christians were likely wrestling with at that time.

Mark begins with John the Baptist baptising many people at the river Jordan. In chapter 1 he predicts that someone more powerful than he will follow him, but he does not identify Jesus as that person. In the next chapter, Jesus arrives. "At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan." No pomp and circumstance, as in the other Gospels. Jesus just arrives. John matter-of-factly baptizes Jesus and moves on to the next person. Jesus sees the heavens split and the spirit alight on him, but no one else sees this. He enters the desert with John the Baptist and his followers as was the custom of those following John. John is arrested. Jesus, a good disciple of John, heads home to Galilee to preach John's message and gather followers. The rest is history, sort of.

Jesus, according to the other Gospels, was a "tekton" which simply means laborer or artisan, not carpenter as it is widely interpreted. Nazareth was a very small town as it does not appear on any ancient map. Since there would have been almost no work in a tiny town like Nazareth at the time, Jesus would likely have been employed by contractors for the Romans and wealthy Greeks and Jews in the building of two major towns in Galilee that were expanding greatly at the time - Sepphoris, older and located not far from the contemplated location of Nazareth in the mountains, and Tiberius, built later on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, southwest of Caperhaum where Jesus started his ministry. While he likely started in Sepphoris, by the time he was in his 20s, Tiberius was the better source of work, so he likely went there. Plus he ends up on the river Jordan, directly south of Tiberius. Sepphoris is located significantly farther west in the mountains.

Based on the Bible, which is all we have to go on, what do we "know" about Jesus?

• He was in his late 20s.
• He was very bright
• He knew the Jewish laws and history despite the fact that Nazareth would not have had a synagogue and he likely had no formal education there as a child. Later, as he visits with them the priests are amazed, perhaps less about his great wisdom, but more that he knew any of the holy information that was their province. They were disappointed they could not pull the wool over his eyes. This guy knew what the books actually said. How annoying that must have been, and astonishing coming from a simple Galilean peasant.
• He was charismatic, a good speaker and people followed him.
• He was passionate and driven.
• He cared for the poor and downtrodden and disliked the wealthy, non-Jews, foreigners and the priests.
• During the time we know of his life, he is without wife or children, something that would have been very very odd for a man in his late-20s.

What could we logically speculate about him prior to his appearance at the River Jordan?

• Given his intelligence and leadership skills among the low class tektons, he would likely have risen by now to a management position, perhaps a supervisor of projects for the general contractor. Certainly, unlike the Roman, Greek or Jewish masters, he spoke Aramaic, the language of the workers. They would have required the services of a now veteran tekton with Jesus' obvious qualities to lead teams of workers to get projects done.
• Therefore, he was probably relatively well off financially for a person from Nazareth.
• He was tall and apparently handsome enough. He was almost certainly married and probably had children. He probably had a small  but nice place to live and was fairly comfortable. His children would likely have been teenagers, his sons probably at the lowest rungs of the work he was overseeing.
• He likely attended synagogue and learned the laws from the Jewish priests there. There is no evidence he could read or write, but it was more common for the stories of the Jewish law to be passed down orally, especially to the lowest classes. There was in fact at that time little practical use for reading and writing among those Jesus would have associated with.

So just applying some simple logic based on what we know about Jesus, Jesus probably has a nice little life. Good job, wife, kids probably following in his footsteps, a place to live, friends to hang out with, a church community and perhaps even a Rabbi to challenge his intellect with the stories of his heritage and faith. So that begs the HUGE question . . .

What would cause a grown man with so much going for him to suddenly leave it all and end up many many miles from home being baptized by a crazy man in the middle of the wilderness at the River Jordan?

Well what else do we know about Jesus?

• He was a Jew, fairly far from the holy city of Jerusalem but still in the holy land, in a growing town of Romans, Greeks, wealthy Jews and other foreigners. If he got anything from the Old Testament lessons, this was not the way the Jewish God would have wanted true Jews to populate the Promised Land. Wealthy foreigners ruling over poor Jews. No way. Those he associated with probably complained about this often. There were frequent uprisings of the poor at the time.
• He is a man of passion, with a strong belief in doing what is right. While his theology may not have fully developed until the days with John in the wilderness, his basic understanding of life seen later was likely part of who he was in his earlier pre-mission life.
• He was a tekton. Even if he was now a man with some power, he came from the lowest ranks of the population. He was likely as high up as he could ever go. He was high enough up, however, to see how the other half lived, how they acted and how downtrodden and mistreated his people were. 
• If he had them, his sons were now working age or very close. Perhaps one of them was mistreated in a way Jesus could not ignore.

He knew the story of Moses, who, as a privileged Israelite in Egypt, killed an Egyptian overseer who was punishing a fellow Hebrew worker. It would not be a stretch to think that Jesus began to make trouble on behalf of the downtrodden Jewish tektons he supervised, including his own sons. They should be paid better. They should be treated better. Days should be shorter. Working conditions better. They should not be beaten. Jesus may have been the first union organizer. It certainly fit his demeanor. Perhaps his young, impetuous sons spoke out at well.

What would the Romans and the wealthy class in these towns have done about this. They would have crushed any dissent, as they had many times before. They would have done so harshly, to make sure the lowly tektons knew their place in the order of things, and to make sure the troublesome Jews, and the even more troublesome Galileans, feared them and remained cowed. They killed more than the perpetrator, they killed their families and even punished those guiltless people unlucky enough to be associated with them.

What makes the most sense to me, as I see a bright and evidently passionate man with absolutely no possessions whatsoever, show up at the banks of a river located many many miles to the south, is that something terrible happened to Jesus in Tiberius. Something so terrible, in fact, that he barely got out of there with the clothes on his back. Perhaps as a result of his actions, his family was murdered, house ransacked and possessions taken. Perhaps Jesus barely escaped with his life, running from his pursuers around the Sea of Galilee until he reached the River Jordan, and then following it south, he ran into John, baptizing people.

Crushed at the loss of his family, betrayed by his Jewish God, hungry, tired and strung out, Jesus follows the line of people to the water. He may not have known why. He is baptized with them, and upon coming out of the water, Jesus has a vision. Perhaps as the result of the delirium driven by the tragedies he had faced, or perhaps it was real, but at that moment he finds God. Unlike most who are baptized that day, who simply head home, Jesus has no home to go back to. He has no where to go. So he follows John and his disciples back into the wilderness. Like John, he probably eats what he can find, locusts and honey. Certainly from time to time he is tempted to leave and find another way, but he stays. He learns the ways of this Ascetic/Nazarene holy man. They begin to resonate with him. No possessions. Freedom and equality for all. God as love. Jesus spends many (40) days in the wilderness with him. John is the teacher. Jesus the student (until later Gospels change this).

When he emerges, he is a changed man. He has found a calling. He has found someone that he can follow, and he does, until John is arrested. Now, with his leader gone, what is he to do. Jesus is reborn. He is getting his confidence, his swagger, his charisma back. So he heads home to Galilee. Not to Tiberius or Nazareth even, as those places may be too dangerous for him. He heads to the northern edge of the Sea of Galilee to a lawless fishing town called Capernaum and starts preaching John's teachings to the residents there. Followers join him and his confidence grows. It is quite a while before he is bold enough, recovered enough, confident enough again to take his message elsewhere.

As he builds support and begins to travel and teach, he avoids Sepphoris and Tiberius. When he returns very briefly to Nazareth, he is basically chased out of town. There is some reason he chooses not to preach his message to the many in these towns. Perhaps he is known there, and not in a good way. Perhaps going there would be too painful, if his family died there. Perhaps the poor reception in Nazareth is because the workers there were also punished for his actions.

When he leaves, Jesus' entire family leaves Nazareth and follows him on the rest of his journey, turning up many times thereafter. James, his brother, even becomes the leader of the church after the crucifixion. Why would they all up and leave unless home was no longer a safe place to be, or as outcasts, they could no longer make a living there. Jesus certainly was not afraid of big cities. He went to a few on his way to the biggest one, Jerusalem for his final days.

Why did he never marry again? There of course is speculation that he was married or at least very close to Mary Magdalen, and perhaps even had a son by her. If that is not true and my speculation is, it would not be odd for him to avoid marriage. Many widows and widowers can never bring themselves to remarry for the love of their deceased spouse. If he felt as though he caused their death, the pain of re-marriage may have been even greater. His new mission also made marriage and certainly children impractical, but again "replacing" children that you feel you may have indirectly killed, would have been difficult at best. John was likely a Nazarene, a devout monk-like sect of Judaism that did not believe in marriage, among other things. If Jesus was a disciple, he likely took on the same beliefs. Finally, if he knew the end-game was crucifixion, and we know he mentioned it many times, perhaps he felt that would be unfair to yet another family.

Who knows what really happened? But I was just thinking . . . what if?