Spent a good deal of time yesterday recovering from an intestinal flu. While I did that I watched three documentaries.
http://youtu.be/Fx4m1SeQqmE. The History of God
http://youtu.be/ZS1x-6al2pE The Signs of God's Existence
This took a great deal of time, but having to stay neat the toilette, I had a great deal of time to spare. I got lucky in that these three documentaries were well balanced, informative, and well done. It amounted to taking a short class on the subject, and I would suggest that if you ever have time you may consider watching these three videos, though not all at once as I did, but save them to favorites and see them at your leisure.
I would like to say at the onset that I am not an atheist. I believe that some creative force created the universe and absolutely do not believe that something comes from nothing nor that organic molecules arise from inorganic matter. I do not derive these beliefs as much from faith as common sense. I believe this creative force is intelligent, and I mean very intelligent, and that this force is still among us and makes decisions and plans and is concerned. I do believe that this force does communicate with us in some fashion I do not believe that any of the three main faiths ascribing to Abraham has this force figured out or cornered in a book.
Man's problem with God is that man wants to understand God by making him like us. That's why God is ascribed as to having eyes, a heart, emotions, a voice, and features like humans. This is absolutely impossible. The creative force that ignited the big bang does not have a forefinger. You may write that down in your notes. When you consider what came before the big bang, or before that, or before that, you will run into a dead end that will boggle your mind because your brain is not programmed to conceive such a scenario. And when you understand that you will understand my assumption that this creative force does not have a forefinger. Now, if you will admit that you have great difficulty in comprehending this proposition, you must admit that Moses, Mohammed, and Joseph Smith are laboring under the same restraints that you are.
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." This is absolutely the truest statement in the Bible, and it is the one that Atheists rail against more than any other. Moses had that part figured out. He reasoned that something came from somewhere, that at some point it had to be created, and he chose to call the creator "God." Atheists will lean on science for everything except this one immutable fact! When confronted by this they will create ideas, cite multiple universes, count commas, and sometimes outright lie, but they will never consider even the remote possibility of a higher intelligence than their own as having anything to do with the creation of the universe because if they do that then their entire anti-theological house of cards will come tumbling down.
The problem with religion is that after Moses wrote that first sentence he fell prey to the human condition of supposition. The entire problem with the conflicting interpretations of the Bible leading up to the New Testament, The Qu'ran, and even the Book of Mormon arose because after that line Moses should have written the line, "In my opinion." And Moses had a lot of opinions. He was a Jew, with what amounted to an Oxford education and a silver spoon lodged firmly in his teeth. If we take Exodus on face value, and I'm stretching it here, he took a bunch of illiterate laborers across the desert and started a nation, wrote a set of laws, and cultivated an entire civilization by convincing what amounted to be a bunch of construction workers that he had conversed with the above mentioned creative force of the entire universe who spoke to him from a Bar B Q pit! Now folks, that there is a persuasive man.
But, they had no choice. The had so riled the most powerful king in the world so bad that even in their illiterate state of mind they fully understood that if they returned to Egypt they would be wearing their ass for a hat! They HAD to listen to Moses. Now let's get on the good ship "Reality." Supposedly, the Jews wandered for forty years in the desert. Have you ever been to the desert? I have. I spent a lot of time in the Mojave desert. Let me testify, brothers and sisters, that is a sobering experience. No matter what the accommodations are death is RIGHT THERE. Just make one mistake, and in couple of days they will find you, and your death certificate will read, "Death by stupid!" No, the Jews didn't wander in the desert all that time to purify the generation, though they did wise up a bit, they wandered because Moses had no plan, and frankly, in my opinion, he was lost! He knew how to get back to his father in law's house, but after that he was absolutely clueless. He stood before Mount Sinai with a case of WTF of, please excuse the pun, Biblical proportions. He eventually struck north because he figured whatever waited in that direction just had to be better than the Arabian desert.
Now, he did compose a set of laws, which are foundational to any civilization. And he did a good job. Wrote a real good set of rules. Problem is he kept writing. He wrote, and he wrote, and he wrote. He wrote not one, but five best sellers. And his audience hung on every word because he appeared to be the only guy with a map, and he had the water! Eventually he found his way to a river, which was good enough for them, and the rest is history.
The Israelites took the cue, took the land, too and kept on writing. Now, if you read their version of history they walked that walk, and talked that talk. But if you read other writings during the era you readily see that Israel had absolutely no effect on history. For all the theological pomp and circumstance the only verifiable mentions from contemporary commentators comes when some empire stomped a mud hole in their asses while on the way to somewhere else to stomp someone else's ass. When the Romans showed up they just walked in and set up shop. I can't find any writings concerning any organized war of resistance against the Romans when they arrived. Now I know the Romans must've pissed off the population, but the Temple priests were too busy selling out to them nobody noticed. What it amounted to was the nation of Israel knew that resistance was futile, and that capitulation was the only viable alternative. Smart move. In the year 70 AD they did jump up and the Romans made short work if them. They burned Jerusalem to the ground, crucified every man, woman child, dog and cat they could find and it took the Jews almost two millennia to come back because they weren't quite sure them bad S.O.B.'s were gone! The Romans didn't leave any monuments in the area to commemorate their action, but if they had, it would have been an obelisk reading, "Quid enim est operari," or, in English, "How did that work out for you?"
Jesus realized that the administration had basically screwed the pooch with its interpretation of the Torah. He explained, clarified, and used common sense to forward his version of what he believed it meant. Uh, he also never wrote anything himself, but there were enough people around to do that for him later, and, in true Rabbinical fashion, they muddied the waters enough that it hasn't cleared up for over 2,000 years! We now have hundreds of Christian divisions who claim they, and only they, have, "the truth!"
It got so bad trying to interpret Jesus' simple message that in the year 325 it took a Roman Emperor to tell the leaders of the church fathers to sit down and sort it out, on his credit card, and he even put a time constraint on them because he was tired of all the nonsense! He had an empire to run. Did they get it right? Well, they said they did, and since Constantine will kill anybody who disagreed with them they must've been right. Right?
Then, along about the seventh century came Mohammed. Now before I launch into this politically incorrect portion of this article please put your weapons down. I'm not going to slander or make fun of the Prophet (PBUH) other than to say that I am not an Atheist, but I do not believe in visions, angels, or talking Bar B Q pits. I believe the teachings of the prophet, Penn Jillette, that if you are mystified by something, you simply do not understand the trick. Do I believe Mohammed was inspired, yes. Do I believe he had a bunch of people who were out of control? Yes! Do I believe the Qu'ran was the word of God? Well, as much as the Bible. Mohammed said that himself, didn't he? Do Christians and Jews accept this? Well, as much as they accept each other. Nuff said?
Whenever you take a group of people who have nothing, and you give them SOMETHING, you get fanatical adherence. People are funny. As long as the rules seem to add up, they don't care what the answer is so long as said answer doesn't move them out of their particular comfort zone. A lot of people are very comfortable when they are not required to think! That is the reason my articles don't do so well. When I write I make people think and most people don't like that. They would rather someone whom they have conceded authority over them do their thinking for them no matter how flawed that thought process may be. I try to never call people names, preferring rather to cite their ideas and let thinking people figure it out for themselves. Those who have ears, let them hear. When someone tries to tell me the Bimbo Bop, the elephant boy, told him not to eat a Big Mac the most informative response you will get from me is, "DUDE!" I get far fewer bombs in my car that way. Anyway, Mohammed had a fairly good plan and it serves well for most people because most people are inherently good. If you take the Qu'ran away from them you take away something they hold dear. Don't take something away from people that lightens their load. Get Dish Network.
And if you think I tread lightly on Islam, watch how I pussy foot around Mormonism. I learned a long time ago that the stupider the story, the harder adherents will cling to that story, destroying anyone who casts doubt on their sacred cow. I've only had one video banned in my long YouTube career, and that was because I suggested that Joseph Smith just might have been two bubbles short of plumb! He said that he met a supernatural being who gave him several million dollars worth of golden tablets, which he translated into King James English by burying his face in his hat, and I don't see any reason to doubt him, do you?
Now compare the narrative of my article against my original thesis. The Muslims say, "God is great!" They are right. God is greater than any book. You reach understanding from within. Don't let anyone interpret that communication for you. If the creative force that made tens of billions of galaxies, all spinning in concert, wants to give you a spiritual pat on the back he can do it. Jesus referred to the masses as sheep. Don't be a sheep. If an idea seems good, go with it, but when it tells you something that defies reason, like cutting the tip of you penis off, ignore it. If you needed that you would have been born without a foreskin. See how that works? God won't punish you for not being stupid. If he wanted that he would have never given you a frontal cortex. Use it!
People need moral boundaries. There are simply too many of us. The main reason for dissension is agendas. Where we are so sure that our concepts are valid for everyone. Whenever you try to stick your square peg into someone else's round hole you will eventually get a resounding, "Hell no!"
Final quote from the man who wrote nothing: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you! If this had originated in modern times the audience would have responded, "DUDE!"
Way to go, Wilbur!
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