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A New Religion

If Satan wrote the Bible, shouldn’t Jews, Christians and Muslims be looking for a new religion?

No, we have enough religions. No need for more. The religions many have grown up with are imbedded in their psyche. Communism was the largest experiment in getting rid of religion and it clearly failed to do so. However, new religions have formed over the years; some of them, most notably the Mormons in recent times, have been quite successful in drawing people to them from other religions. It is apparent that many people need religion perhaps to help them stay on a moral path or to help them through difficult times or to give them comfort. Religious rituals are important to some; songs and sermons can be uplifting as well as doing good.

I would not for a minute suggest replacing established religions with a new religion. I shudder at the thought of anyone taking my writings (this is not the only place I write) as the basis for a new religion because historically all of the great religions have strayed from the words of the teachers on whom they were founded.

My philosophy is introspective. To follow my path one needs to use his or her brain to think about this life, his or her life. I hope that what you find when you look inside yourself is a conscience that guides you. Much of your conscience may be in step with a religion or, more nearly, with the teachings of the original figure in the religion but the ultimate guide should be totally within you. We are all different. If you want to call what you find within yourself a new religion, fine; but keep it to yourself.

Posted 29 October 2009 † ThomasD § General Religion ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: ,

Does God Exist?

After satisfactorily proving his own existence Descartes  went on to try to prove God’s.

 

I recognize that it would be impossible for me to exist with the kind of nature I have–that is, having within me the idea of God–were it not the case that God really existed. By ‘God’ I mean the very being the idea of whom is within me, that is, the possessor of all the perfections which I cannot grasp, but can somehow reach in my thought, who is subject to no defects whatsoever. [Meditation III, paragraph 38]

 

Descartes says that his existence includes the perception of a perfect God and that the perception was not learned but came directly from God. When God made Descartes he programmed him with a belief in a perfect being. I accept his perception that his understanding of God was implanted in his existence. How could I possible challenge it? If he were alive, we could discuss the difference in our perceptions. However, it is unlikely that either of us would be changed. Anyway, he’s dead.

I believe that my knowledge and understanding of God comes from things that have shaped me since my birth. I joined a church, went to Sunday school, listened to sermons, read the Bible, read many books that expressed ideas concerning God and have listened to many people express their understanding of God. I classify the experiences in the previous sentence as second-hand or coming from others of my species in this perception that I recognize as my life. I have also experienced blazingly colorful sunsets, towering mountains, the ocean’s roar and power, the tinkling sound of a rill in a brook, a baby’s grip, the smoothness of a thigh, and the explosion of flavor released by a vine-ripened tomato. I classify these experiences as first-hand and not coming from others of my species. To which should I give more credence in my search for an understanding of a god?

Is there a God and, if so, what is the nature of God? I exist and I perceive this thing that I call my life and everything contained in it. I don’t know anything beyond that. I don’t perceive through first-hand knowledge anything beyond that. The notions of things outside my perception that I call my life come from others–notions of life after death, reincarnation, heaven, hell, a supreme being watching over me.

One of those notions is the big bang theory of how the universe came to be. That is based on scientists’ perception as they study the universe that everything in the universe is moving away from everything else at a rapid speed. They determine this by the color of light they can see and an understanding that the color is a wave and that changing the wave length will change the light. Light moving away from the perceiver will be different from light moving toward the perceiver because the wave lengths are elongated or compressed respectively. I have not directly observed this phenomenon but I am willing to accept it from the things I have read. All the scientists know is what they are observing, the color of the light coming through space. They believe the color indicates that everything in space is moving away from us. From that they have formed the theory that the universe is exploding.

Our sun was a bit in the explosion. It got spinning around and some chunks were thrown off forming our solar system. Our planet cooled down and as it cooled life came into being. Single celled life that evolved into life as we know it on Earth today.

If you buy that, as to how we came to be, you are still left with how did the material form that was involved in the big bang? I am not aware of any scientific theory answering that question. It is an interesting question to ponder and questioning the big bang theory and evolution are also worthwhile stimulus for thought. However, it seems unlikely that I will ever, within this life, come to an assurance of how the world came into being. Even if science came to a reasonable answer…  Well, I can’t imagine such a thing so I can’t finish that sentence. I like the ancient explanation that the world rides on the back of a giant elephant and the elephant stand on the back of a giant turtle. When asked what the turtle stands on the subject was changed.

Rather than search for something for the turtle to stand on or anything in between I am content to credit “God”. What is God? My creator. What am I? A thinking being that perceives what I call my life which includes everything within my perception. Please don’t add any frills or extras to “my creator”. I have no notion what kind of an entity “my creator” might be—if I was created in its image, if it is a committee, a blob, a vapor or something totally inconceivable.

Posted 14 October 2009 † ThomasD § Satan Wrote the Bible ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , , , ,

The Lucifer Effect

Phil Zimbardo’s book, The Lucifer Effect, Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, is fascinating regarding individuals. I may even have to modify my feelings about the existence of evil (I basically reject evil as a concept.)

The book got me thinking about what is going on right now in the United States with conservative talk show hosts and their guests finding nothing but fault with anyone who doesn’t agree with them. Actually it goes farther than that. If they listened to what liberals, those horrible Democrats, were saying or read what was being proposed; they would actually agree on some things but they reject totally anything that comes from the mouths or pens of those on the other side of the aisle.

Fomenting hatred can’t be a good thing. One wonders if a whole nation could be victimized by the Lucifer Effect or at least enough people to damage if not destroy democracy. Consider the disruptive tactic now being employed at town meetings across the country where democratic senators and congressmen and citizens who came to listen and to be heard are being shouted down. This tactic is praised by Fox News yahoos as free speech. Wait a minute good buddy. What about the free speech of the rest of the people in the room?

If you don’t think there may be a serious problem here, consider that 58% of republicans question the president’s birth certificate. There can be no conclusion other than 58% of republicans have shut down a thinking section of their brain.

PS I’m not a liberal but liberals don’t scare me. People who have stopped thinking do.

Posted 11 August 2009 † ThomasD § Uncategorized ‡ Comments (8) ° Tagged: , , ,

Do I believe there is a Satan?

I had a lovely conversation with a Jehovah’s Witness recently. As she turned to leave she paused and looked back to express the very thought that was on my mind. “I enjoyed this. We listened to each other.”

She couldn’t understand how I could write an essay “Satan Wrote the Bible” and yet I claimed not to believe in Satan.

“Do you believe there is a Satan?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Then the essay is for you. It is written for those who believe in personifications of Good and Evil and who think the personification of Good, God, caused the writing of the Bible. I read Job with great care many times trying to understand what was being said. I really don’t think I was trying to find what I found.”

“You found that Satan wrote the Bible?”

“I found that Satan comes across as being smarter than God and that led me to the notion that Satan wrote the Bible.”

“But you don’t believe there is a Satan?”

“Right.”

“But you believe Satan wrote the Bible?”

“I believe the Bible was written by young men who thought the world was flat.”

At this she turned to a page in the Bible and read, “Isaiah 40:22 There is One who is dwelling above the circle of the earth.” She referred to another passage about space indicating that we are but a small part of the universe. Then she asked, “Young men?”

“Just a flip comment based on life expectancy 2,500 years ago,” I replied.

 

In this exchange I implied that I read Job objectively. I certainly tried but I don’t doubt that if I had believed God wrote the Bible, I would have come to a different conclusion. I do think I was a leg up on someone reading the Bible to substantiate his or her belief but it is incredibly difficult to read anything objectively.

Posted 24 July 2009 † ThomasD § Satan Wrote the Bible ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , ,

What is heaven like?

Ask anyone who believes in heaven what it is like and most will tell you they don’t know.

Have you thought about it?

Not really.

Would you say you live your life with the goal of getting into heaven?

Yes, of course.

What would you do differently if you didn’t believe in heaven?

Oh, I don’t know. I guess I wouldn’t necessarily follow the 10 Commandments.

You mean you might kill someone?

No, not that. I don’t know. Maybe I’d commit adultery.

You mean believing in Heaven is the only reason you don’t commit adultery? Some people believe dancing is a sin and even though they would like to dance they don’t because they want to get into heaven. Do you believe dancing is a sin?

No.

Is there anything like that that you don’t do because it would be a sin?

Not that I can think of.

Is masturbation a sin?

Yes.

Do you masturbate?

I’m not going to answer that.

OK. I think you have, but for people who think masturbation is a sin and yet they find it pleasurable to the extent that they do it anyway; if they believe it is a sin, aren’t they constantly feeling bad about doing something that might keep them out of heaven? Does it make sense to struggle with a conflict between one’s god-given body and religious belief of a heaven and give no thought to what heaven is like?

What is heaven like II

Those who do try to describe heaven usually have a lot of gold, silver, diamonds and other jewels radiating bright light. I like to sink my god-given feet into the soil (I seldom wear shoes) so I can’t imagine a worse place than one made of hard metals with stones scattered about. Give me grass, shade trees and garden soil rich in humus. Fill the air with the scents of flowers, moldering leaves, ocean spray. Lift my spirits with chirping brooks and bird songs and, please, please let there be sex.

The purpose of heaven was understood by the believer in the dialogue above. Heaven is the carrot for living a “moral life”—“Moral life” as defined in the same book that invented heaven.

Huck Finn couldn’t see any point in going to heaven if Aunt Polly was going to be there. Heaven for climate, Hell for company. The heaven that most people of faith aspire to is no place I want to be but I have found a heaven that does help me to live my life better. Ironically this “better life” is rather closely aligned with the morality described in the New Testament.

The heaven I have found is a place where everyone loves everyone. Other than that it is pretty much just like life here on earth. I envision a party with friends and at this party there is a game that we can play. We step into this closet or put on a virtual reality suit and we are “born” into this life. Just like with games as we know them here on earth we can play the game over and over and each time we get better at it. Before stepping into the game we can think about how we will play it. We may give ourself certain goals and pick a time and place to be born. Our friends on the other side can come into our game and be characters helping us, challenging us or testing us.

Here is an example of how it works.

I am an organic gardener and one of the things that takes up a fair amount of my time is chasing stripped cucumber beetles (CBs) on my squash plants. I have decided that the cucumber beetles are some of my friends from the party. They were hanging around the punch bowl watching me and…

CB 1 Let’s play hide and seek with Mort in the squash patch.

CB2 I’m game. Let’s make a side bet on who lasts the longest.

CB3 I know what I’m going to do. When he spots me I’m going to drop off the leaf.

CB1 Yeah, that works pretty well where he has mulch but he can spot you on the ground.

CB 2 I’m going to fly.

CB 4 How are you going to fly out of a blossom?

CB2 I’ll be on a leaf and keep my eye out for him.

CB 4 If I know you, you’ll be in a blossom screwing and when he comes along you will be oblivious. Your lady friend will probably start running and you won’t even get off her.

CB2 I guess you’re right. I’m not going to waste a life just hanging out. Maybe I’ll get lucky and he won’t see me.

 

This dialogue goes on as I mercilessly move down the row of squash plants picking off CBs, chasing those who drop onto the mulch and tunnel in, who drop and play dead or who drop and run. The blossoms will frequently have several mating couples making me think of a luridly painted yellow motel. Sometimes they will see me coming and watch me ready to fly if I move toward them. These I have learned to catch with a swift grab but others fly immediately and escape. This heaven I have invented helps me get through a job that might otherwise frustrate me perhaps to the point of anger. Instead of anger I am feeling playful and forgiving.

 

Yes, I am living my life as if it were a game. One of my friends from the other side came into the game as George W. Bush to try to take me off my goal of happiness and he succeeded for a time until I put him in his place. The place? Why among my friends who love me. When the game is over, when I die, and I go back to the party with my friends we will have some laughs over how I played the game and I expect some congratulations. I have this image of W pointing at me from across the room wagging his finger and saying, “I gotcha, buddy.” I’ll make my way across the room and we’ll high five and embrace and I’ll say, “Yeah, you got me you son-of-a-bitch.” He will take no offense at the appellation SOB because it was meant as a term of endearment.  

Posted 07 July 2009 † ThomasD § General Religion ‡ Comments (3) ° Tagged: , , ,

Fundamentalist Republicans

Conversations with Republican friends have brought me to the generalization that Republicans are more likely to be fundamentalists in their religious beliefs than Democrats. These were conversations on politics, not religion.

A recent conversation began with agreement that we would like to see both parties work together. Why couldn’t they approach the idea or proposal of the other with a positive attitude? Then I mentioned the vote on the stimulus package put forward by President Obama and how I admired the three Republican senators who voted for it.

“Oh, we’re on opposite sides of that!” my Republican friend exclaimed.

“But isn’t that an example of cooperation?”

“Obama was the one who wasn’t cooperating. He rammed that through too fast without giving Republicans a chance to have their input.”

“Hey, wait a minute. Wasn’t there an urgency to get something done? All the experts on both sides said this was ‘uncharted waters’. Nobody came forward to say ‘this is the way out of this. This is what we must do to revive the economy.’ Nobody! No one claimed to have the answer. Wouldn’t it be better to say, ‘OK Mr. President, we’ll go with your plan’ especially since the President had listened to Republicans and had put a significant tax relief in it.”

“No. He just pushed it through so quickly no one had time to look at it critically.”

“What about the financial bailout pushed through a couple of months before Obama took office?”

“What bailout?”

“Remember the three page legislation that put $700 billion it Paulson’s hands to pretty much do with as he pleased? Remember how urgent it was to push that one through? Paulson got down on his knees to Congress and Bush signed it a week later. One week! Wasn’t that pushy?”

Republican amnesia on that one.

Fundamentalists take their dogma without question. Republican presidents and legislators are always right even if what they say today is a direct contradiction of what they said a month ago. Similarly The Bible is God’s word no matter that it is filled with contradictions. Could it be that being brought up to believe the Bible without question prepares them to accept whatever Republican leaders say no matter how nonsensical?

One more dialogue:

“I can’t stand Slick Willy.”

“What do you mean?”

“All his slick real estate dealings. He’s a crook.”

“Ken Star spent nearly $40 million investigating his ‘slick’ deals and found nothing.”

“He was impeached.”

“Yeah, for lying about getting a blow job, not for any slick dealings unless you call ejaculating on a red dress slick.”

Posted 17 June 2009 † ThomasD § Satan Wrote the Bible ‡ Comments (4) ° Tagged: , , , ,

Pascal was Wrong

French philosopher Blaise Pascal wagered “that one would be wise to believe in God, since in the end the believer would lose nothing, unbelievers everything, if proved wrong.” Assuming that the God he was talking about is the God of the Bible I argue the opposite. If one leads a life based on a certain belief and that belief goes counter to the way one might otherwise lead his or her life, it could be a wasted life.

 

What if the purpose of life were pleasure? What if a successful life were measured in sexual intercourse? Picture the Pope arriving at the Pearly Gates expecting to be welcomed warmly but St. Peter says, “Man, you really messed up.”

Pope: What!? I led an exemplary life. I helped people. I was their moral leader. I guided millions of people to do right.

St. Peter: Yeah, you did some good things but you failed sexually.

Pope (hangs his head sheepishly): Oh, God, I didn’t masturbate that much. Forgive me.

St. Peter: I’m not God.

Pope: Sorry.

St. Peter: You misused your God-given body.

Pope: I’m sorry. I fought it all the time but it felt so good and I was weak.

St. Peter: It felt good? Where did that feeling come from?

Pope: The devil?

St. Peter: Did the devil give you your body?

Pope: No.

St. Peter: No. God gave you your body with all the senses. God gave you your erections. You denied yourself one of the greatest features of your God-given body. What did you think when, at the height of your pleasure you gasped, “Oh God”? Did you think this was blasphemy? Did it never occur to you that this was when you were closest to God, closest to paradise? You can come on in if you want to but I suggest you take another life and try again.

 

This is just a whimsical tale to illustrate a different point of view. Where did the notion come from that celibacy was a good idea? Certainly not from thinking that our bodies were God-given. Who would want to take away pleasures of the flesh? Certainly not the giver of those pleasures.

 

We are all different so I don’t want to suggest that someone who does not get pleasure from sex should seek it out against his or her senses. If I am to believe the religious people who wonder what keeps nonbelievers from committing crimes, then I most emphatically say that those people should hold onto their belief that they will go to hell if they don’t follow the Bible. We are all different so I cannot say that anyone else has a moral compass built into their being. Personally I would not consider a sexual pleasure other than with a consenting adult or onanisticly. Anyone who does not have those moral constraints built into their psyche or soul should, by all means, hang onto whatever moral rule or law or commandment keeps them from violating another.

 

If our belief causes us to live out life in a way different than we otherwise would, then Pascal is in error when he says we have nothing to lose by believing.

Posted 17 June 2009 † ThomasD § Ethics § General Religion ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , , , , ,

How Jesus got superpowers

You don’t know there is a God any more than an atheist knows there is no god. You can believe there is a God. You can think there is a God. You can have faith there is a God. But there is nothing you can do to convince me you KNOW there is a God.

            Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps there is something you can do to convince me you know there is a God. What might that be? How about if you told me God had given you the ability to walk on water? OK. Show me. Let me see you walk on water. If I see you walk on water and you told me that this ability was give to you to convince doubting Thomases like me that God exists, then, wow, yeah, I think I would be convinced.

            This is a new thought for me and I think it answers a question I have pondered without resolution before. I think that the teachings of Jesus are really wonderful. Love thy neighbor. Love your enemies. Love everyone. Do not judge others. Really great stuff. My question has been why the supernatural stuff–like walking on water and virgin birth. I simply don’t believe in things that go against all of the experiences that have come to me through my god-given body. It doesn’t matter to me. The supernatural things don’t take away from the wisdom of his words that I can relate to and actually put to good use in the way I live my life.

            So here is how I think the supernatural stuff came into being. There were these men, the evangelicals of their time, trying to get the masses to follow the teachings of Jesus but the masses were not buying it so they started attributing supernatural abilities to him.

Are you one of those who need to have Christ with supernatural abilities? Why? Aren’t his words powerful enough without the virgin birth, turning a fish and a loaf of bread into enough food to feed the crowd, resurrection?

            This is the life God gave you. There is so much to be explored, learned, and enjoyed in this life. There are so many challenges, like living peacefully, like having a meaningful relationship with another, like dealing with our deficiencies whether it be physical handicaps or mental handicaps. What a fantastic game has been developed for us—this game of life with its pleasures and its pain and suffering. There are video games that try to recreate parts of life. Think of life as the ultimate video game and play it well.

Posted 20 April 2009 † ThomasD § General Religion ‡ Comments (3) ° Tagged: , , , , , ,

What I believe

There is a type of question on tests in which we are given several samples and we are to choose which one doesn’t belong. For example, which of the following doesn’t belong: horse, mouse, man, mosquito, whale? The answer is mosquito because the rest are mammals. Here is another. Which of the following doesn’t belong: Muslim, Jew, Sikh, Agnostic, Atheist, Christian? Five of these hold a belief about the existence of God. It could be said that an agnostic has a belief but the belief is not in the existence of God but rather that no one knows whether or not God exists. Atheists believe there is no God while the others believe there is a God.

            It bothers me that the term agnostic is frequently used similarly to the other terms in my list, usually lumped together with atheists as being nonbelievers (in a god). There can be agnostic Christians, agnostic Sikhs, agnostic Muslims, agnostic Jews and agnostic atheists. That is to say that, linguistically at least; one can hold any belief about a god while acknowledging that what they believe is just that, their belief.

            But when someone says their God is the only true God, that their God is the only way to the Promised Land, and that they know this, they are telling everyone who doesn’t hold the same belief that they are wrong. Most of us do not react too well to being told we are wrong. How much better it would be if that someone said something like: “I believe in this wonderful God and through Him I will find my way to the Promised Land. What do you believe?”  Then I could respond, “I believe in 24 Gods, two for each sign of the zodiac and they are all trying to sing in harmony and when they do they will hit a note that will transport all of us to the Promised Land.”

            Well, hey, there’s a cool belief.

What I believe is that the world would be a much better place if we accepted each other’s beliefs as being no less valid than our own.

Posted 13 April 2009 † ThomasD § General Religion ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Bernie Madoff joins my list.

I have been collecting names of people that fit their occupations like Buzz Wire the electrician, Dr. Hogg a swine specialist, Dr Stopp performs vasectomies, and Dr. Hacket is chief of surgery. Dave Crook is an accountant and Dan Marquis makes signs.

And now we have Bernie Madoff (pronounced made off) who made off with billions of dollars through a Ponzi investment scheme. Here is a billionaire who just doesn’t have enough money. When caught, he mails valuables worth millions to his children so they won’t be claimed as his assets and taken from him to repay some of the money he took illegally. What a guy—trying to implicate his children and friends as accessories after the fact. Seems to me he is a pretty good example of money not bringing happiness.

Posted 08 January 2009 † ThomasD § Uncategorized ‡ Comments (0) °