ABOUT
DEATH, HEAVEN,
SOUL & SELF
THE UNIVERSE & EVOLUTION
BIBLE, CHRIST,
QURAN, ISLAM, BUDDHISM & KARMA
RELIGION
& SCIENCE
SPIRIT-ENERGY &
DECODING INTELLIGENT
DESIGN
The content and subject matter of
these two e-books is underpinned by the culmination of twenty+ years of study
and research
- at four universities in two
countries -
from objective and rational analysis of
information from the disciplines of
RELIGION, SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY, HISTORY,
PSYCHOLOGY AND THEOLOGY
For Inquisitors, Believers, Skeptics,
Agnostics and Atheists
Knowledge is Power - Informing Beliefs,
Values, Attitudes & Behaviours
“Don’t worry about those who concern themselves with predicting the
date for the end of the world, but be conscious of and prepared for your own
personal imminent physical death and passing from this world”
·
“How can something, anything, everything, like the big bang, atoms,
the universe, and life, etc be created without source from absolute nothing.
·
“There is more chance of a Jumbo Jet being built by a tornado
crossing a Junk Yard than there is of complex universe and life being created
by random chance.
·
“Decoding Intelligent
Design as being a function of spirit-energy that sparked and initiated
evolution of both the atom-energy of matter and the spirit-energy of life,
self, spirit, soul and person.
·
“The cruel trick of
(atom-energy) physical death as one’s personal individual end-of-time on this
earth. But the continuation of a person
and their spirit and soul in relation to their self, consciousness, mind and
person (spirit-energy) and eternal existence.
·
“The definitions and
differences between the atom-energy of matter and the spirit-energy of self,
spirit, soul and person are clearly described. The meaning of love, living life to the full, the fear of
death, and the meaning of spirit, soul and mind as being essential parts of the
essence of self are thoroughly identified and canvassed in these e-books.
· “Describes the world’s religions as being essentially more similar than
different in terms of end goals. To achieve heaven and eternal existence as the
ultimate purpose. But with differing beliefs, dogmas and mechanisms towards
reaching this desired state.
·
“Comparative religion research where both the Bible and Koran
(Qur’an) articulate contradicting and confusing verses where such verses are
historically and potentially presently, misinterpreted and misconstrued
adversely.
·
“How can and do religions, traditions,
rituals and cultures affect peoples’ faith and beliefs and the way they
perceive and understand themselves, the world and others.
·
“Evolution is explained as being more a creation and product of
intelligent design where evolution is predetermined and pre-programmed by
intelligence of a Creator (spirit-energy).
Where the atoms of both the inorganic (non-living matter) like rocks
etc, and the organic (living matter) like cells and DNA, have been pre-designed
from the very beginning to evolve to slowly but ultimately reach their
presupposed destination, function and predetermined purpose. This is the same for the spirit-energy of the
person, self, mind and soul but which has also been designed to be an
independent, sovereign and unique thinking being with free-will and
choice.
·
This intelligent predetermined design and plan is a model – based
on rationale philosophy and science - for the creation and existence of matter,
life, spirit and person/self. As opposed
to the universe, life and self, being products created solely from nothing, or
the creation and evolution of universe, life and self/person believed to be the
derivative outcomes of random and chance processes – from nothing - proposed by
anti-creation and anti-intelligent design theorists like names such as Stephen
Hawking and Richard Dawkins.
·
These anti-creation and anti-intelligent design theorists have individually
and personally abandoned and dismissed the academic ‘scientific’ and
‘philosophical’ thought processes and framed principles of questioning when
related to that all time enduring question; Does God Exist?
·
Unfortunately, because those controversial – anti-creation, anti-intelligent
design – ‘academics’ are often egotistically centrically motivated, they’re often
reduced intellectually to making incredulous, frivolous single-minded and
one-dimensional assertions about the beginnings of the universe, life and human
existence. These assertions obtain the
attention of enquirers under the guise of the respectability methodological and
the reputable processes of the academic discipline of science. But such shallow
cliché pronunciations show these assertions are no more scientifically or
philosophically founded than arbitrary outcomes from a pseudo-science that
suggests the creation of the building blocks of universe and life - subatomic
particles, quantum/nano physics etc - appeared/happened magically and incredulously,
from absolute-nothing.
·
Such attitudes of belief, reduces and denigrates the science
process to nothing more than a non cause-and-affect, chaotic, and set of
random-chance interactions that cannot claim to be a credible academic
discipline with regard to validation of the spirit and atom energy components
of this symbiotic and interactive reality etc.
The question is Does God
Exist? The answer lies herein explained as the proof, reasons, evidence and
logic from the academic disciplines
of RELIGION, SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY, HISTORY, PSYCHOLOGY
Herein these e-books discusses
and reflects upon God in relation to the meaning of life, spirit, death, heaven,
soul, mind, self and consciousness, including the existence of spirit-energy
and atom-energy as a major part in human existence
Does God Exist -
Proof for God - About Life, Death, Soul & Self
هل الله
موجود -- البرهان
في سبيل
الله -- عن الحياة ، والروح
، والموت
والذات
神的存在 - 对上帝的证明 - 关于生命，死亡，灵魂和自我
भगवान
के लिए प्रमाण
- जीवन, मृत्यु, आत्मा, और सेल्फ के बारे में
भगवान का
अस्तित्व
है
Существует
ли Бог -
Доказательство
для Бога - о жизни,
смерти, Душа
и Я
1. EVIDENCE FOR GOD:
AND THE COMPLEXITY OF LIFE, BELIEFS, DEATH AND SELF
· Aquinas’ Five Logic, Proofs for
God’s Existence
·
Bible – The Contradicting and Misinterpreted Verses
·
Qur’an – The Contradicting
and Misinterpreted Verses
·
The Cruel Trick of
Physical Death
·
Why Pain, Grief and Suffering
2. GOD AND DECODING INTELLIGENT DESIGN: EVOLUTION, SPIRIT,
SOUL AND SELF
·
Meaning of the words ‘The Word’, ‘Self’, ‘Spirit’ and
‘Soul’
·
Proof of a God/Creator from Subatomic, Quantum &
Nano Physics
·
Person as Soul, Spirit,
Mind and Self
· Self, Mind, Soul and Spirit as an Outcome and Function of
Atom and Spirit-Energy on this Earth
READ ABOUT IT
The contents of these e-books counter these
frivolous unfounded pseudo-science anti-creation and anti-intelligent design claims
through the rational philosophical processes juxtaposition with genuine facts
and hypothesis underpinned by objective, rational and ‘spirit-reflective’
analysis of information from all theological, philosophical, historical and
scientific research/evidence”.
The information within these two free e-books provide
answers to enduring questions relevant in today’s global, cultural, religious,
educational, economic, and personal changing living environments.
1. EVIDENCE FOR GOD:
AND THE COMPLEXITY OF LIFE, BELIEFS, DEATH AND SELF
1. EVIDENCE FOR GOD:
View Full CONTENT
· Science and philosophy as proof of the existence of a God/‘Creator’
· The philosophers’ five logical
proofs for the Creator’s existence
· Humans as sovereign independent beings
· Contradicting verses in both the Bible and Koran (Quran)
· How can the Bible and Koran (Quran) promote violence, punishment and hell
· How do cultures, traditions and faiths affect what and how people believe
· Different religions more similar than different having the same end goal
· What is the new idea of relational love
· What are the dynamics and consequences of believing in karma and
reincarnation
· Are hell and satan real or metaphorical leverage
·
How can a ‘good’ ‘Creator’ allow human suffering
· How can intellect and ‘free will’
manipulate ‘base
instincts’?
· Why are verses about violence,
punishment and hell in the
Bible
and Quran erroneous?
· Who is Jesus Christ – God or Fraud -
and why different
from all other spiritual leaders and teachers?
2. GOD AND DECODING INTELLIGENT DESIGN: EVOLUTION, SPIRIT,
SOUL AND SELF
2. GOD
View Full CONTENT
· The
meaning of life, self, consciousness, personality, spirit and
soul
· The power of human belief systems
that affect thought and behaviour
· Was the creation of the universe
through design or chance
· How can evolution be reconciled with
both intelligent design and scripture
· How could a ‘Creator’ have always
existed
· Why is the world temporary and
planet earth can’t exist forever
· What is the difference between atom
energy and spirit and soul energy
· How are humans composed of these
different energies
· How can the two worlds of the
‘physical’/visible and the spiritual/invisible be explained
· The Science world of subatomic,
quantum and nano physics as evidence of a Creator/God
· What is Self, Consciousness,
Personality, Spirit and Soul?
· What problems relate to human faiths
and beliefs regarding
religions, traditions and
cultures?
· What are the human energies of
atoms, soul and spirit
·
The
human interface of these different energies
The Milky
Way
The Milky Way is only one galaxy of about 100 billion galaxies in the
universe. The Milky Way is the galaxy
within which human beings reside. There
are over 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, the Sun being one of those
stars. The Milky Way is so vast that
light, traveling at the speed of light, takes not 10 years, not 100 years, not
1,000 years, but 100,000 light years to traverse it!
The Star Betlegeux
and the Sun
This
picture demonstrates the enormous and immense size of some of the stars in the
Galaxy of the Milky Way and Universe.
This star is a super-giant called “Betlegeux” situated in the Orion
Sword. Betlegeux has a diameter of 220 million miles and its size is seen here in
relation to the Sun’s diameter of 1 million miles. The Sun has a diameter of 1 million miles and
the Earth has a diameter of just 8 thousand miles.
Planet Earth
The
American astronaut James Erwin, said after viewing the Earth, the Moon, and the
Galaxy simultaneously, as his spacecraft traveled back to Earth between the
depths of outer space and the Moon, that he had just seen the world as ‘God’
sees it, and that ‘God’ must love humans very much.
Snow Geese
Here is
an example of one of the Creator’s beautiful living creations. See how they use the snow as a blanket to
keep themselves warm. The swans (Snow
Geese) of
The
Rainbow
The Rainbow is an
amazing reality exemplifying the wonderful and complex creations in the
universe. The Rainbow, throughout time,
has been regarded as magical and capturing the imagination of all peoples. We have the saying synonymous with the
paradoxical enigma of such existence, “The pot of gold at the end of the
Rainbow”. Perhaps the colours of the
rainbow are symbolic and analogous to the beauty, strength and synergy of human
diversity, illustrated by the electromagnetic spectrum, which creates light
from its many diverse colours.
If you are pressed for
time to fully read musing in total reflection, please browse individual
chapters for subject matter that interests you in the moment.
Share
knowledge and save trees - take the liberty to forward these e-books
E-Books are a
portable format you can read on your computer, print, or via portable device or
e-book reader. Adobe Reader is required to read PDF format
Stephen Clark
2011
|
Contact for any Questions, Comments sclarkp@bigpond.com Free
Translate English to Any Language http://www.translate.google.com Free Dictionary and Thesaurus http://freedictionary.org/ Free Adobe Reader to read PDF
Files http://www.adobe.com/ Free Downloads Java Script, JRE
etc http://www.filehippo.com/ |
Read the Two Full Texts Below and/or Download &
Save
FOR
GOD
COMPLEXITY OF
LIFE, BELIEFS,
DEATH AND SELF
Stephen Clark
ISBN 0-473-03715-7
Copyright © Stephen
Clark 2009
Across Publishng
Second Revised
Edition 2011
Brisbane,
Australia
Any comments about the
contents of this book please direct to:
Prefaces
The Meaning of Life
The Insult of Blasphemy
The Six Dimensions, Steps, and Degrees
to Explain
a Creator’s Infinity and Human
Immortality
Passion of the Christ
Have You Ever Asked These Questions
Introduction
CHAPTER
1 In Search of the Creator
We Do Not Believe
Jesus Calls His Apostle Peter, Satan (Devil)
Pope John Paul II Apologises to the World
Separation of Church and State
Many Religions, Churches
Faiths and Beliefs
We Want To Believe
2 Evidence of God From
Human Reason, Science and Philosophy
Natural and Super Natural Knowledge
The World is Not as it Appears
Proof of a Creator’s Existence through
Reason and Science
Philosophers and Theologians
Aristotle, Plato and Socrates
Thomas Aquinas’ Five Rational Proofs for God’s Existence
First Proof – Motion
Second Proof- Cause and Effect
Third Proof – Contingent and Necessary Beings
Fourth Proof – A Finite Subordinate Series
Fifth Proof, Proof from Order, Descartes, Locke
Atom-Energy Different from Spirit-Energy
The Soul and Spirit of Self
3 Human Pain and Suffering from
Intellectual and Spiritual Confusion
Brief History of Scripture
Language
Misinterpretation of
Scripture in the Bible
Spiritual Abuse
Human Destruction from Base
Instincts, Faiths, Beliefs, Cultures, Politics and Religions
4 Intellectual and Spiritual Confusion
Revisited
Principle Factors for Interpretation
Lucifer and, the King James Version of the Bible
Other Holy Scriptures and the Quran (Koran)
More Similarities than Differences between Religions
5 Truth is Stranger than Fantasy
Did the Creator
become Human?
American Astronaut James Erwin
Was Christ’s Coming Foretold?
Who Is Jesus of
Is Jesus Christ Also ‘God’?
Jesus’ Claims of Being the Son
of ‘God’
Jesus Christ Rising from the Dead
The Logical, Psychological and Philosophical Strategy
6 Why Did The Creator Become Human?
Humans Are Imperfect
The Incarnation
The Conscious Voice of Self
Atheism
Personal Integrity and Choice
Christ’s Teachings
The Original Ten Commandments
Ten Commandments Relevant but Inadequate
The New Law of Relational Love
Live Life with
Relational Love for Self and Others
Judging and
Self-righteousness
Philosophy of Love
8 The Creator’s
Infinite Mystical
Relational Love/ Compassion
The Creator’s Acceptance
The Affects of Transgressions
The Creator’s Mystical Relational Love
The
Creator’s Infinite Compassion and the
Cruel Trick of Death
Christ’s Compassion and Forgiveness
The Metaphor of Hell and Satan
Mystery of Suffering and Pain
Insight to ‘God’ the Creator
Design, Order and Plan, Cause and Effect
Scripture and Suffering
Puppets on a String
Meaning from Pain
Pain and Relationships
10 Prayer
Dynamics of Prayer
The Meaning of Life in Short
We give meaning to our life
because people already exist as we enter the world, and interacting with people
and the environment if we can leave this world – when we ‘die’ - a slightly
better place than when we entered it, we will have given positive meaning to
our life.
Meaning to life -
intentionally treating people with goodwill and a generosity of spirit. Interactions with others as being civil,
friendly and compassionate as opposed to being unkind and mean spirited.
Ultimately, the meaning of
the meaning of the fullness of life can be as simple as or as complex as we will
it to be in relation to what we are capable of.
Question:
Is it more meaningful to
leave one person happier in the world when we die (pass-over), and no one
unhappy, or to leave a hundred people unhappier and a thousand people happier?
Reflect on the above:
Then consider the following:
Ideal
behavioural, thoughtful and empathetic intercommunication aspires to
intentionally converse and interact with all people we meet in a spirit of
good-faith and good-will. Leaving no one
worse-off, but many better-off in their personal sense of well-being.
The Universe > From Something or Nothing?
Life > From Creation or Chance?
Christ > Is ‘God’ or Prophet?
The ‘Creator’ > Is ‘God’?
Will We Meet Again
The Insult of Blasphemy
When one person, or a billion people, swear by
blaspheming by using the name of 'their' 'God' in
private, then that’s their prerogative and their personal 'healthy'
relationship with their spiritual 'God'.
And their ‘God’ can no doubt understand all that involves the
personal relationship between the two of them, and accordingly, deals, accepts
and handles such communication as being part of their private and intimate
relationship.
But when someone blasphemes in public by using the
name of one or a billion peoples’ ‘God’ as a swear word, such as, "Jesus
Christ”, “Christ”, “Oh My God” "God", “For God’s Sake”, and indeed
the words should they ever be used of “Buddha”, “Yahweh”, “Allah”, “Krishna”
including “Muhammad” etc, then the line has been crossed. Whether we believe, or not, in a ‘God’,
blaspheming is offensive in snubbing, with disregard to others’ spiritual
beliefs and sensitivities.
In this instance,
the blasphemer intentionally or unintentionally portrays and executes
the attitudes and characteristics of bigotry, ignorance and arrogance
relating to others' feelings and as such, be interpreted as contemptuous and
disrespectful.
These insults and affronts are ‘discrimination’ on
religious, cultural and spiritual grounds, and thus should be decreed as
illegal.
Please mind your language in front of others.
Blaspheming against someone’s ‘God’ in the public
arena is evidence of the orators and author’s bigotry, ignorance, arrogance,
and illiteracy.
The Six Dimensions, Steps, and Degrees to Explain a Creator’s Infinity
and Humans’ Immortality
It is important to remember that Spirit Energy
exists without the dimensions of Time, Space and Movement. Because spirit-energy can exist without the
dimensions and characteristics of time, space and movement, the question, “How
can the Creator have always existed?” is not a relevant question to ask when it
is asked within in human context in relation to the world.
This is because the meaning of the word ‘always’,
can by definition, only be referred to in the context of Time, Space and
Movement, which in turn are only related within the context of a universe.
So the question “How can anything have always
existed”, can realistically only be asked in the realms of structured
atom-energy of the universe – including Black Matter and Dark Energy - with
which the world is made, and within the realms and dimensions of Spirit-Energy
where time, space and movement is non-existent.
The 6 Steps, Degrees
and Dimensions of Life, Existence and Immortality
Step 1 - The two dimensions of
Length and Width
Step 2 - The three dimensions of
Length, Width and Breadth
Step 3 and 4 - The four dimensions of
Time which must include Atom Energy, Space and Movement.
The phenomena of ‘time’ is essentially a culmination of movement of
structures of atom-energies in relation to other structures of atom-energies in
the medium of space.
Step 5 - The five dimensions of
the human senses which include Touch, Smell, Sound, Sight and Taste.
Step 6 - The six dimension of Spirit
- being Self, Consciousness, Awareness, Thoughts and Feelings. The spirit is the essence of a person and
pivot of consciousness, self-awareness, emotion and thought defined not by
atom-energy structures but by the energy of spirit.
The 6th Step and Dimension of Spirit is
the only dimension that can stand alone on its own without the necessary input
and interactions of the other 5 Steps and Dimensions.
In reality these six dimensions are designed and
planned intelligently to interact and interface with one another.
But if we reduce the above equation of the six
dimensions by one dimension, that one being the fourth dimension of time we
immediately exclude structures of atom energies, movement and space.
If we remove these dimensions that define the
essence of time and therefore the world as we know it one dimension is retained
and that is the dimension of spirit.
And if the dimension of spirit, which by its very
essence and characteristics, stands alone and apart from time, space and
movement, then we can not ask questions about any Creator or Self that includes
within its terms and meaning anything to do with the dimensions and realms of
the first 3 dimensions that in part, define structured atom-energies.
Taking these factors into account irrelevant
questions to ask would include:
“How could a Creator have always existed”? And, “Who made the ‘Creator”?
All these questions are asked from the point of
reference prefaced on the assumption that ‘time’ is an incumbent necessary part
of this world of structured atom-energies, space and movement and not an
essential ingredient of spirit-energy.
The dimension and essence of spirit exits alone in
timeless sovereign integrity, and explains and answers the question, “How can
humans exist eternally or be immortal”?
Without the dimension of ‘time’ involved in the
essence of the dimension of ‘spirit’
there can only exit the ‘now’, the ‘presence’, the ‘just being’, and the
‘just is’.
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST
If Christ is ‘God’/ Creator
and the Creator exists, then ‘God’ must Will Unconditional Mystical Relational
Love towards all Peoples
Perhaps the
most decisive and poignant message derived from the “Passion Of The Christ” is
that the Creator potentially wills to unconditionally love all peoples,
notwithstanding their personal transgressions, or their political, cultural,
ethnic and religious persuasions and affiliations, as explicitly exemplified by
Christ’s outcry, “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:
34-35). This was an outcry by Jesus Christ on His death cross to the
Creator, having been shamed, humiliated, and grievously, mortally and fatally
assaulted and wounded. A sublime
supplication to the Creator from the Son, after being jeered, insulted, spat
upon, punched, beaten, scourged, crowned with thorns, nailed to the cross and
speared, such that He was killed by Roman soldiers, Gentiles, Jews, Pagans,
Elders, Teachers of the law and the Chief Priest. The crime of torturous ‘physical’ and
psychological brutality leading to a person’s suffering and death, no human
being deserves, let alone the innocent Christ.
Yet, regardless of their behaviour, Christ pleads to the Creator to
forgive these perpetrators for their actions that precipitated and procured His
death. And if they were not practical
partakers in His death, forgiveness for their vicarious and voyeuristic
complicity, and their individual and collective transgressions as an outcome of
their destructive, obsessive and irrational cultural, political, ethnic and
religious beliefs. No, they did not ask
their ‘God’, or anyone else to forgive them for their abominably barbaric
intentional murderous behaviour. And no,
they did not believe in the sacred integrity and dignity of humanity. And no, they did not believe in Christ,
either as an innocent human being or as the Son of the Creator. Yet if
Christ is the Creator, then ‘God’ forgave them all, if scripture verse is
legitimately accurate. Yes, it is credible that the Creator forgave all these
people. Killers and accomplices of
Christ’s death all forgiven, despite them not believing or seeking forgiveness. If
forgiven, it was through the
unconditional mystical relational love of Christ, if Christ was/is in fact
‘God’ and if ‘God’ does in fact, exist. “Forgive them
Father for they know not what they do”.(Luke
EVIDENCE
FOR GOD:
.
“Fear neither the uncharted
waters of life, nor the uncharted waters of death; so you fear neither life nor
death, as you fear neither death nor life”
“Fear not Self living in this world, and fear not
Self’s inevitable anatomical death, for Self is not only of anatomical
existence but invisible Spirit that exists on forever.”
“Self ought try to never behave in this life - that if
anatomical death should unexpectedly visit upon Self tomorrow, or next week
etcetera – Self would, on post anatomical death-reflection, remorsefully
regret”
“Despite all Self’s human
flaws and imperfections, Self ought to completely, totally and deeply accept
Self as being OK, but be honestly open to constructive change”
“Self’s life here on earth
will be seen as having been far too short upon Self’s post-earth life
reflection, to have lived life selfishly”
INTRODUCTION
If you have an
aversion to, and limited time to spend reading introductions, the above Content
pages of information, will, per Chapter and per Subsection, provide you with
all the subjects in this book that have been extensively researched, discussed
and grappled with.
The title of this book EVIDENCE FOR
GOD:
This book emphasizes the fact that what
seemingly appears to be fact, is a perceived illusion. However, this perception of illusion is
because we are still to change our mindset and shift it to what we now know it
to exist of – and that is energy - from scientific research. When we look
around us there is predetermined order, design and purpose everywhere. The Will and Soul of a ‘Creator’ is manifest
in subatomic particles, atoms or atom-energy, that not only make up the pages
and print of this book but everything in the universe, including inanimate
objects (non-life) e.g., stars, galaxies, water, rocks, etcetera, and animate
living life, for example, plants, animals, birds, insects and humans etcetera.
Only 0.4% of the universe is made of structures with functions made of atom-energy
we can observe, with 3.6% made of gases.
The other 96 % of the universe is made from an energy that is atom-less,
and perhaps more akin to the spirit-energy of the Creator. Physicists call this unknown ‘matter’, ‘dark
matter and energy’. The world is not
made of what it appears to be made of as it is made of atoms, which are in
essence energies without mass. Atoms are
defined as electrical and electromagnetic charges, and are measured as
electrical volts (eV). Atoms have no
weight but feel heavy because of the electromagnetic energy between the larger
planet earth attracting smaller parcels of electromagnetic energy.
This tension is what we call gravity,
which constructs our perception and experience of weight. Atoms are in essence invisible, but we see
because our eye, brain and interpretation are based on the reflection of light
wavelengths into our central nervous system via our eyes. If we think about how hydrogen and oxygen
make up ice, water and steam-gases, we can understand how everything in the
universe possesses different structures and functions even when made with the
same atoms, but with different atom configurations.
As the functions of atoms changes e.g.,
as in the different structures and functions of ice, water, and steam, although
made from the same atoms, are but structured differently, as in tightly packed
atoms of ice, as opposed to the less-tightly packed atoms of steam-gases. Atoms interact with other atoms of the same
(elements), and different atoms (compounds), that make up the universe.
There are only 118 different atoms that
together, or combined, make up all that exists in this world. The exception is the Self, which by
definition is spirit-energy of consciousness, thoughts, emotions, self-awareness,
personality and will, etcetera.
References in this book to the word ‘physical’ are defined as
atom-energy, referring to all that exists, including the body (anatomy) or the
‘physical’ environment, food and shelter, and all that we observe around us,
other than Self and others, which are spirit-energies and include
consciousness, thoughts, emotions, self-awareness, personality and will
etcetera .
Volume 2 of this
series explores these matters in more depth.
This book also explores credible evidence that
individual human existence is about living one’s life to its fullest potential
whatever that may mean for each individual.
Whilst the death – the change in structure and function of atom-energy
we all eventually encounter, but often ignore and deny, should not be feared,
but celebrated as the natural progression of Self and Self’s intangible, and
therefore, invisible consciousness.
Self’s invisible consciousness being a part of Self’s spirit, and thus,
by definition, immortal living eternally forever.
The
information herein is a product of the knowledge ascertained from the mix of
perceptions and facts interwoven and interpreted from dedicated and peripheral
components and elements of the academic disciplines of Science, Philosophy,
Theology and Psychology.
The art of Science consists
of the study of subatomic particles that
make up atoms, and molecules or atom-energy.
This is quantum physics that studies atoms that make up the different
structures and functions of the ‘physical’ world, in essence essentially made
of atom-energy. The methodology used for
scientific work uses systematic and methodical observation and experiment.
Philosophy is about asking and answering questions
from a rational and logical point of view about anything and everything that
may mean something valuable to someone or everyone.
Theology is
the study of different religions, rituals and scripture with their
interpretation of ‘God’ and then ‘God’s” relationship with and to Self, others,
and the world.
Psychology is the scientific
study of the human brain and human behaviour in relation to different mental
states of thought and emotion arising from diverse and individual personal
experiences. Psychology may also include the study of human awareness and meta-cognition,
where Self thinks about what Self is thinking about.
Through the objective and
rational analysis of peripheral, vicarious and insightful intrinsic information
sourced from the academic disciplines of Science, Philosophy, Theology and
Psychology come together to explore unsubstantiated and mythical beliefs, such
as the literal interpretation of every word in every verse in all
scriptures. This includes the
interpretations of ‘Hell’, ‘Satan’, Karma, and Reincarnation, and others,
including questionable religious, political and cultural faiths, rules,
traditions and practices which are identified, explored and explained as
potentially psychologically and spiritually aversive to the human spirit and
soul.
The human embracement of
such inaccurate and illogical ideologies and beliefs can be seen to the result,
which originates from the complex mix of human characteristics. These characteristics have evolved from both human base instincts
that influence and vice-versa with the higher quality constructs of
consciousness, intellect, cognition, emotion and freewill, which are
interactive with the individual’s personal experiences and choices.
The innate human need to arbitrary adhere obediently to
particular religious, cultural and/ or political ‘beliefs’ and ‘faiths’ in relation to their laws,
rules and practices, is seen in part, to be driven by the need for the
individual’s sense of personal security, psychological comfort and personal
acceptance. Including the subconscious
and conscious crave and desire to manipulate in some way the experienced
existence of Self’s anticipated and ‘hoped for’ immortality and therefore the
perceived prerequisite and requirement to ‘be right’ and ‘good’ with ‘God’. The above premise can then be exacerbated by
innocent ignorance, the quest for what is true and real, personal fear, and
individual arrogance and pride. These
related thoughts, attitudes, emotions
and behaviours can then be subconsciously mixed with the misinterpretation and
misapplication of particular secular, cultural and religious policies, laws,
rituals and traditions, which are required by Self to be perceived as
infallible and ‘true’, and ultimately expressed through thoughts, emotions,
values, beliefs, attitudes, behaviours and contents of speech.
The selective human adoption of particular religious,
political and cultural beliefs and practices may also manifest because of the
synergistic power created by the human psych.
A psych created and operated through the higher constructs of personal
spiritual, intellectual, cognitive and emotional forces, both consciously and
subconsciously, can be manipulated and influenced by base human instincts of
greed, power, survival and aggression.
Self’s higher constructs of spiritual and psychological abilities and
needs then interact with self’s innate primate base instinctive desires
potentially resulting in personal spiritual and psychological discomfort and
vulnerability. This spiritual and
psychological discomfort and vulnerability can lead Self ‘open’ to the possible
exposure of irrational and inaccurate beliefs and faiths of particular
religious, and political and cultural persuasions with their exclusive rules
and practices, procuring an outcome of individual and collective spiritual,
psychological, intellectual, emotional and behavioural confusion and abuse.
As a partial defense against the irrational and inaccurate
beliefs and faiths of particular religious, political and/ or cultural laws and
practices that can precipitate individual and collective human suffering,
destruction, turmoil and indecision, the investigative analyse of spiritual
literatures is undertaken. The
identification and interpretation of contradicting verses in religious
scriptures are explored, in particular those verses that have the potential
‘power’ to impact destructively upon human cognitions, emotion, values,
attitudes and beliefs, and their subsequent expression through mindsets,
behaviours and contents of speech.
Principles for the reinterpretation of religious scriptures
are described, which can be applied to other sacred scriptures. How could a loving Creator allow such human
suffering? The general theme and message
prescribed by the New Testament writings are identified as emphasising the
integrity and sacredness of human sovereignty and independence manifest in the
invisible and intangible – which therefore can be described as Spirit –
constructs of Self. Self in turn is
described and defined in part as containing the attributes of human consciousness, personality,
freewill, intellect, cognition and emotion, which can be expressed in
particular personal beliefs, values, attitudes, behaviours and contents of
speech.
The identified general theme and message prescribed by the
New Testament scriptures is about practicing the human-to-human expression of
compassion and reconciliation. This is
essentially about valuing and accepting Self and others ‘where you and they are
at’ at a particular moment in time.
Particularly with respect to personal imperfections, and others with
different and diverse beliefs, values and experiences as ones self. A belief in Christ’s death and resurrection
could be potential evidence identified as being credible for the consideration
of the reality of human immortality.
Traditional biblical beliefs about creation and the creation
of human beings are reconciled with the scientific evidence of evolution, but
evolution as an outcome of pre-programmed DNA as opposed to
The
rationale and logical proofs of Theist-Philosopher’s in relation to rational
and logical ‘cognitive’ evidence for the existence of a ‘God’ are
discoursed. The ‘miracles’ of creation
as discovered and identified by technologies of
modern science and articulated as is the wisdom, both spoken and
unspoken, emanating from the general theme prescribed and articulated
throughout scripture specifically regarding Creator-to-human and human-to-human
relational love.
Combining all the above
information together may provide the reader with enough resources to
contemplate and consider the possibility of the existence of a Creator. An explanation regarding the difficult
concept of comprehending that a ‘Creator’ must have always existed if a
‘Creator’ does indeed exist, is also offered.
The reality of Parapsychology is exposed by science as being, at best,
magical beliefs based on myth, potentially exploiting the spiritually
vulnerable and, at worst, encouraging the occurrence of cognitive, emotional
and behavioural self-fulfilling prophecies.
Self-fulfilling prophecies can prohibit the necessary intellectual and
emotional processes of Self’s decision making, that in part, drive Self’s
desire to seek informed knowledge, and ultimately, understanding of Self, and
the desire for personal change. This
mindset relating to ‘predestined fate’ inevitably affects Self’s ability for
self-acceptance, procurement of informed knowledge, and the ability to
personally choose to voluntary change particular aspects that Self believes
needs changing.
The powerful influence
generated by personal beliefs and faiths in a particular religion, culture and/
or politics must be considered such that they cannot afford to be beliefs and
faiths based on a blind and hysterical mindset and mentality. But beliefs are required to be predicated on
an informed, considered, and educated premise so that choices are underpinned
by the interaction between Self’s objective informed knowledge mixing and
interacting with the reflective introspection of Self’s innate spiritual
intuition.
Christ’s examples and teachings
relating to living life on earth, His miraculous, resurrection from the dead,
together with the miracles of creation, including the intangible components of
Self - consciousness, meta-cognition, thoughts, feelings, attitudes and beliefs
- may be viewed as events that
provide a source of hope for the real possibility for the eternal and immortal
existence of Self. So together and
addition to the scientific complexity of creation, and the scientific and
logical premise that you can’t get ‘something’ (the universe and life) from
‘nothing’, and the existence of the intangible components that make up Self,
and the considered belief in Christ’s resurrection, together, have the
potential to set the precedence, and be the evidence, for human
immortality.
The continuation of Self being the
eternal continuation of Self’s experiences of consciousness; the eternal
continuation of Self’s intimate thoughts, memories and emotions; the eternal
continuation of Self’s relational experiences with others, and the eternal
continuation of Self’s individual personality.
CHAPTER 1
Jesus
Calls His Apostle Peter, Satan (‘the devil’)
Pope
John Paul II Apologises to the World
Separation of Church
and State
Many
Religions, Churches, Faiths and Beliefs
We Want To Believe
We Do Not Believe
We are lying in bed, in the late hours of the night and
early hours of the morning. It is pitch
black - dead quiet. We can see the stars
twinkling at us between the curtains through the window. We may not be on our own, yet we are feeling
alone and lonely and somewhat anxious.
This is a time when we may feel most vulnerable and fragile, a time when
we are most reflective. During a
thunderous and wet and windy night when the stillness of the night is
shattered, or in the dead quiet of darkness where nothing moves and when we
feel we could easily exist alone, then we might imagine the end of the world is
near and our personal existence insignificant.
Or indeed, it may be during the daytime as the Sun shines down upon us
and the breeze blows on our face, or the rain drops fall on our head, whichever
the environmental situation may be, our cognitions and emotions could engage
into overdrive as we start thinking, contemplating and wondering;
What are we doing
here?
Where have we come
from?
Where are we going?
Is there a Supreme
Being?
Is there an
afterlife?
Is there
immortality?
It is not the first time we've
thought these thoughts and it won't be the last, we know that! For these questions are very significant to
us. Upon reflection, from time to time these thoughts and questions seem to obsess
our mind and appear to constitute the inner most essence, core, spirit, and
personality of our being. These
irritating thoughts continue to nag at us from within until we learn to either
deny or ignore them, or achieve some semblance of cognitive rationality and
sense of cognitive equilibrium towards these incessantly hounding questions we
might feel need to be answered.
We may have heard about other people’s
belief and faith in a particular ‘God’, which we may or may not believe in or
understand. We may be atheist or we may
be agnostic and we may believe that the person they call Jesus Christ being the
Son of the Creator is but a figment of someone else’s overzealous and fanciful
imagination. We might also compromise
our existential inquisitiveness by entertaining the idea of there being some
sort of ‘power’ out there, or some kind of Super Natural Supreme Being. Or we may even be enthusiastically spiritual
or keenly religious. But we may still,
albeit subconsciously or consciously, continue to question the unknown, the
unseen, the invisible, especially when our defense mechanisms (fanaticism or
denial) slip and our intellectual and emotional coping mechanisms self-destruct
letting our guard down and, the thoughts of the super natural, and spiritual,
in.
Jesus Calls His
Apostle Peter, Satan (‘the devil’)
We cannot help
question the purpose and meaning of life here on Earth, and the possibility of
Self’s personal mortality (eternal death), or Self’s personal immortality
(infinite life). We know others think
these same intrusive thoughts. Our
friends and acquaintances seem to be asking these same questions when they can
no longer hide their thoughts and feelings about their interest in this “deep
and meaningful” subject. There is no
doubt that there are many different people in many different churches, in many
different denominations, in many different religions, and in many different
cultures and politics doing many good things, but people, by definition, are
both imperfect and intellectual, and thus, open to the choice of manipulating
human base instincts. People are the
ministers, administrators and actors of their particular churches, religions
and cultures/ ideologies. Human indiscretions and infallibility is evident
within religions, churches and political ideologies, in the depths and breadths
of their bureaucracy, administration and ministry. An excellent example of human imperfection in
relation to the authority, management and administration of organized religions
is evident when Christ speaks to His
followers and His apostle Simon who He renamed Peter:
”And I tell you that you are Peter (Peter meaning
rock) and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades (or hell)
will not overcome it (or not prove stronger than it)”.
(Matthew 16:18)
Perhaps
Christ was not promising this ‘church’ would be infallible or perfect, but
rather that it would not succumb totally and eternally to absolute evil beliefs
and behaviours. Jesus Christ chose an
imperfect human being to be the foundation upon which to build His ‘church’
here on Earth. Jesus Christ chose, His
apostle Peter, to be the rock on which to build His church. Christ chose His apostle Peter, Peter a
person who seriously betrayed Him, and denying any knowledge of Him whilst
running for His life.
In the gospels of Mark and Matthew we read:
“Immediately a
rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered
the word Jesus had spoken, “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three
times.” And he went outside and wept
bitterly.”
(Mark
Indeed,
Jesus chose the imperfect apostle Peter to be the foundation of his
church. Indeed, Christ chose Peter, a
person who Jesus Himself had publicly rebuked and called ‘Satan’. The word Satan has the meaning today which is
akin to the meaning of the words Devil and Prince of Darkness.
As we read in Mark 8:31-33; and Matthew 16:23:
“And when Jesus predicted His death He then began to
teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the
elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and
after three days rise again. He spoke
plainly about this, and Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But when Jesus turned and looked at His
disciples, He rebuked Peter. “Get behind
me, Satan!” He said. “You do not have in
mind the things of God, but the things of men”.
This unique and fascinating story about the apostle
Peter (the rock) being called Satan by Jesus is potentially symbolic and
analogous to human individual imperfections per se, and institutionalised
religions’ and churches’ sometimes questionable maladaptive, incompetent and
corrupt practices and administrations betraying, denying and ignoring Christ’s
teachings, examples and messages. Ideas
relating to the meaning of the word ‘Satan’ used by Christ toward Peter, and
the meaning of the word ‘Hell’, are discussed in a later Chapter.
Before we continue our discussion and exploration of
human and human-to-human imperfections I would like to share with the
reader a true story of an extraordinary
example of a heart warming and hope producing act of across cultural and
religious altruism within ‘across’ cultural and religious belligerence,
indifference and hatred. In Jenin, on
the
This unique and incredible story about the apostle
Peter (‘the rock’) being called Satan by Christ may represent the reality of
human imperfection in relation to the sometimes, questionable practices of
organised religion. It is credibly
symbolic of the recognition of human imperfection that Peter was chosen as
leader of Christ’s church, notwithstanding Peter’s personal gross misjudgements
and indiscretions of betrayal and denial, and Jesus’ rebuking him for these
indiscretions by calling him ‘Satan’.
This story about this particular part of Peter’s relationship with
Christ is a good example of the potential abundance of Christ’s infinite
compassion and mystical relational love notwithstanding personal human
imperfections and transgressions.
A poignant example of the culture of
inherent human imperfection and subsequent spiritual abuse within churches has
been highlighted by Pope John Paul II 1920-2005, who on the 14th of March 2000
courageously honestly apologised to the world for the past ‘sins’ of the 2000 year old Catholic Church. Pope John Paul II 2005 head of
the Catholic Church for 26 years 1978-2005, justly recognised and acknowledged the
past wrongs committed by the Catholic Church over the centuries against, Jews,
Muslims, Women, Indigenous People and
Heretics. Pope John Paul II in this brave apologetic address to the world, dare it be
said should we be struck down by God’s wrath, has in essence admitted to
transgressions that in reality equate to cheating, stealing,
discrimination, torture and murder, administered and authorised by various
imperfect Popes over the centuries. This
candid admittance by Pope John Paul II to these authorised ‘church abuses’
pontificated from the Vatican provide evidence of the potentiality for enormous
diabolical behaviours and their subsequent destructive outcomes, initiating and
occurring within the kernel of organized religions.
These have been reprehensible
behaviours with disastrous outcomes propagated by spiritual and psychological
abuse directed by certain people in authoritative ‘spiritual’ positions, in
often, powerful organised religious institutions as a manifestation of human
pride, obsessed self-ego, personal arrogance and spiritual ignorance. But it should also be noted that the
spiritual motto of Pope John Paul II was, “equality of humankind, brothers and
sisters in the One God, together redeemed in the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ”. The universal importance of
these words spoken by John Paul II begin with, “the equality of humankind as
brothers and sisters” which surely no one can deny as being true. The words “in the One God” may strike a
strong cord with most believers. The
words “together redeemed in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ”, are believed by
most Christians, and if in fact a reality will undoubtedly apply to all people
whether they are believers or not.
Of course, the best predictor of future
human behaviour is relevant past human behaviour, so unfortunately there is no
guarantee that spiritual abuses will not reoccur in the future. But personal and institutional
acknowledgement and awareness of such orchestrated damaging behaviour stemming
from both religious and spiritual ignorance and arrogance by the spiritually
powerful (those in positions of religious authority) towards the spiritually
vulnerable (those searching and seeking spiritual guidance and direction). Is the first step in preventing the
repetition of such catastrophic and destructive beliefs, behaviours and
contents of speech, that have been given ‘power’, ‘life’ and ‘justification’ in
through ‘God’s’ name.
Separation of Church
and State
Pope John Paul II, because of the traumatic
experiences he suffered as a young man in Nazi occupied
The
impact on people from ideologies that promote the non-separation of religions
and faiths and Government and State political agendas impacts destructively on
the psych of the people who are by
virtue of ‘corrupt’ and biased enforced laws, required to adhere to religious theologies,
beliefs and faiths as important components of political ideologies. This is because, particular religious beliefs
imposed on a people is as personally damaging as particular political
ideologies imposed on a people. The
imposition of religions and non-democratic political ideologies on communities,
nations and countries through the centuries has often been practiced, and
indeed, been the norm rather than the exception. Without the separation of Church and State
(democratic) there is the potential for both religious dogma and practices and
non-democratic political regimes, as part of their political or religious
agendas, to enforce and impose particular ideologies, philosophies and
religious beliefs and practices on their people. So necessarily, there is an imperative need
and requirement for the separation of Religions and Governments. Governments through their democratic
representative administrators and legislators - who must be genuinely
representative of the people expressed through the political system of
democracy - philosophically, theologically, spiritually and ideologically
dignify human existence through the expression of self-determination. Human beings possess the higher transcendent
qualities manifest in the characteristics of personal sovereignty, independence
and freewill, and as such, by definition, have the right to
self-determination.
Religious institutions by
definition, are religions’ churches, mosques and temples etcetera, being the
wooden and concrete structures and frameworks within and from which worshippers
learn, practice and apply their beliefs and faiths are organised institutions
that promote, teach and administer the doctrines and dogma of particular faiths
and beliefs for ‘believing’ individuals and communities. We can also surmise optimism that a person’s
particular ‘spiritual beliefs’ are personally very personal, intimate and
private experiences, which are necessarily, ‘spiritual beliefs’ that have been
voluntarily adopted, chosen and accepted by a particular individual without
undue duress or coercion. So a person’s
belief in a particular religion, can be considered to be necessarily expressed
as a personal, private and spiritually intimate relational experience between
themselves and their ‘God’. However, and
on the other hand, communities, cities and countries are inhabited with people
who are unique, independent, and sovereign human individuals with
freewill. Thus, communities, cities, and countries are inhabited with people who,
by their intrinsic right of being human, have diverse spiritual beliefs, faiths
and religions. We can
anticipate the problematic implications arising if communities, cities and countries are not
democratically governed, but administered by political ideological systems that
endorse the imposition of particular religions and ‘spiritual’ beliefs and
faiths. Indeed, the right to express
personal and individual sovereignty, independence and freewill in relation to
one’s spiritual philosophy and political philosophy would be oppressed from the
imposition and enforcement of alternative political and spiritual ideologies
and beliefs. We have all historically,
or in real time, experienced or witnessed the negative damaging outcomes, where
for example, Communism, Marxism, Socialism, Fascism, Protestantism,
Catholicism, Judaism and Islam etcetera, are both the political and religious
criteria that become arbitrary and inflexible powerful non-democratic machines
used to govern a particular population with coercion
So something as intimately personal
and important to humans as their individual and diverse beliefs and faiths in
relation to their spirituality, ideology, religion and politics can never be
denied or oppressed if the successful administering and acceptance of policies
and legislation to a particular community, city, state, country and nation is
to be achieved. But there will never be
a perfect political system where everyone is totally satisfied, obtaining all
they want in terms of their personal religious, spiritual and political beliefs
because everyone is different. However,
the political system described as Democracy, if administered fairly and justly,
will ensure that everyone gets a vote in who governs a country, and in how it
is run. And on planet Earth the
political practice of democracy allows all to vote and be represented to some
degree. As the potential representatives
who receive the majority of votes represent and administer the ideological,
religious, cultural philosophical and political policies of each individual. But democracy also represents the expression
for political responsibility and accountability, which is assessed at the end
of a government’s term and which assessment results the outcome of new
representative incumbents resulting from the next democratic election.
The other given about the separation
of religion and state politics is that governments and their policies do not
interfere in the intimate, private and personal spiritual beliefs of
individuals. However, it is possible
that the existence, or non-existence of a candidate’s personal spiritual and/
or religious beliefs, and those of other elected politicians may affect their
persona, values and attitudes and thus perceived to contribute to legislation,
policies and interpersonal diplomacy thus influencing who will vote for them. This is unless of course the representatives’ personal existence or
non-existence of spiritual and/ or religious beliefs and persona, attitudes and
values are cast aside to appease any detractors to ensure longevity of their
political encumbrance.
Many Religions,
Churches, Faiths and Beliefs
If we explore the
question of God’s existence from the perspective of a non-believer’s advocate,
then we have no choice other than to reflect on the following. That those who believe, genuinely proclaim
their undying faith and belief in a ‘Saviour’ and a ‘God,’ but when asked for
evidence of God’s existence they rattle off Scripture verses that support their
particular belief system as their considered but spontaneous response to such
questions, as if well trained parrots or computer programs. We have listened to their personal stories of
faith, how they may frequent church once a week, how their prayers were
answered, how they were ‘slain’ in the spirit, and how they pay a tithe every
week towards the promotion of ‘God’s’ work.
We do understand the spiritual need for humans to understand themselves
in relation to the world and creation.
This is a personal need, which may be, alleviated, from the sense of
belonging to a particular religious organization. We understand such a personal need driving
personal fervour, and we admire such dedication. But we have sometimes experienced, and thus
perceive, such personal religious activities as involuntary compliances to
sometimes misguided authoritative directives that are perhaps genuine, but
which can be based on innocent ignorance, or tainted with covert agendas. Not least, some spiritual activities may be
influenced by the need and desire for the commercial and financial development
of a ‘corner assembly’ at the expense of the followers’ expected and sincere
guidance for spiritual, intellectual and emotional stimulation from the
education through informed knowledge encompassed with the embodiment of a sense
of unconditional relational charity and compassion.
No one has ever
proposed to ever having seen ‘God’. And
often there has never been offered any tangible proof, evidence or experience
of such an existence. These statements
may be over-generalizations reminiscing sentiments of cynicism, but these can
be the sensitised thoughts of people brought about by personal feelings derived from their
experiences of the past. This is how we
sometimes think and feel about what we have experienced in our search for
answers from those who believe and preach to us ‘with faith’, in their
‘God’. Others who are searching for
answers have articulated similar thoughts and share similar feelings because of
their ‘spiritual’ experiences.
However, we believe thus far that we
are reasonably realistic and objective in our observations, especially where
the human temporal interacts with transcendence as these observations are based
on personal experience and subsequent intra-personal and retrospective
reflections. We have also seen the
destruction, the damage, the pain, the carnage and the suffering caused by
those who claim ‘God’ and ‘Allah’ etcetera, as their King, who claim Jesus as
their Saviour, and who claim Mohammed as their Prophet.
We have seen the wars, the fights, the
greed, the killings, the judgments, the self-righteousness, the abuse, and the
hypocrisy perpetrated by those who proclaim a belief, faith and love for
‘their’ ‘God’. How can we then
contradict with such incongruence our rational sensibilities, by believing in
the existence of a ‘God’, the existence of a loving ‘God’, when the living
proof radiating from many of our believing and preaching fellow humans
manifests as contaminating fear, arrogance, violence and hypocrisy. Why then, should we believe in a ‘God’ that
we cannot prove to be real, that we cannot personally see, hear, or physically
touch and whose worshipers, through the centuries, have been shown to have
contradicting, distorted and corrupt spiritual agendas and motives? Or the destruction of other human beings has
been explained away and excused as necessary for the preservation of the ‘right
and true’ Religion, the ‘right and true’ Faith, and the ‘right and true’ ‘God’. We do not believe in a ‘God’ because we
cannot see ‘Him’ or experience any proof of ‘Him’ or the goodness emanating
from many of those who believe in ‘Him’. So we ask them, "Where's the
proof"? “Where’s the Evidence”?
We
have been told by ‘zealots’ and fanatics, stories of prophets and ‘holy’
teachers, who purport to hold the answers to our inner most private questions
about the meaning and reason for our birth and life here on Earth. We have read in magazines and newspaper
articles. We have studied literature in
the Bible. We have viewed on television
documentaries and the news, we have listened to Mullahs in Mosques, and Rabbis
in Synagogues, and Buddhist monks in
We have also heard from priests and
ministers about the historical, crucified, and risen Christ, the Son of God who
was born 2,000 years ago. But we have
heard these proclamations from church and religious leaders, the people who
hold spiritual authority over the spiritually vulnerable, the people who
themselves have been seen in the past to be sometimes blasphemous, abusive and
hypocritical. We do not have a problem
with humans being imperfect because imperfection is a part of the human condition. But what does upset us is the fact that these
religious teachers and leaders, with the power of spiritual authority, may tell
their ‘flock’ to do one thing while they themselves do another with an air of
spiritual superiority. They preach to
their congregation that this is God’s word and subtly signal the message, “woe
betide those who stray from God’s word.”
Church and religious leaders have told
us to have faith, to have faith in God, as God’s words are written in the
Bible, or in the Qu’ran, etcetera, for all to see and read. And God’s words are true. God’s word is unchanging, and God’s word is
timeless and infallible. But we are
intelligent beings and the term ‘faith in God’s word’ in this context represents
a blind and hysterical acceptance of something/anything transcendent without
being tempered by the measures of rational knowledge, innate spiritual
intuition and/or intellectual understanding.
We are a conscious, unique, independent and sovereign people with the
ability to learn and reason, think and choose, and this human request to have
the utmost faith in “God’s written words”, written and espoused by those who
are human and thus imperfect, can be offensive to our sensibilities. We have seen over the centuries the
obsession with human destruction and damage perpetrated by those humans against
other humans, and who, either have an unquestioning and emphatic ‘faith’, or
who have no faith. So we want to know
the reality of the truth about God’s existence and if God exists, we want to ask,
“Who is ‘God’ and what are God’s words for humankind”?
People who adhere to different
denominations based on the religious faith of Christianity, including Baptists,
Anglicans, Catholics, Lutherans, Greek and Russian Orthodox, Mormons,
Presbyterians, Methodists, Uniting, Episcopalians and Jehovah Witnesses,
etcetera, have informed us that God’s word is in the Bible. They have told us that God’s word is ‘The
Bible’, both in the Old and New Testaments.
But these words or scripture of ‘God’ in the bible are often invariably
all interpreted differently by them.
People who adhere to the religious faith of Islam, including the Shi’ite
and Sunni factions have informed us, that God’s words, are written in the
Qu’ran. People who adhere to the
religious faith of Judaism have informed us that God’s word is written in the
‘laws’ of the Hebrew Bible, or the Torah (Pentateuch) being the first five
books of the Old Testament. People of
the Buddhist faith inform us that karma is the way and Nirvana is the destination.
People of the Hindu faith tell us to
follow the cast system and lay our allegiance to the spirits and chief gods of
Brahma, Vishnu (
There is enough historical and
contemporary evidence to believe in the suggestion that all the different Holy
Books of Scripture, most likely without a question of doubt, do not contain the
absolute words of the divine Creator/God.
Although these scriptures have been eloquently written, they have in
reality, been penned by humans. But many
people believe that the words in these ‘holy’ books are the actual and absolute
words of God. But although penned by
humans, it is not absolutely inconceivable that some of these words have not
been in some way inspired by the transcendent spirit of the Creator.
We Want to Believe
As we will investigate and
discuss in the next chapter, the Bible although expressing literary elegance,
has literature often permeated with contradictions, paradoxes, irony,
variations and sentiments expressed through stories that are intermingled with
the messages of love and forgiveness and the messages of violence and
aggression. In reality, the Bible is not
a literary work described as an expression of consistency and uniformity. The words and literature of the Bible, have
been constructed from the real and imaginative stories experienced by many
different peoples influenced by their beliefs and faiths from many different
cultures over time. So these
authoritative instructions from church leaders to follow God’s word is not good
enough for us, it is not good enough for our intellect and our
sensibilities. We need more information,
much more.
These postulated beliefs about the
meaning of God’s words are too abstract, too invisible, too open to hearsay,
too open to abuse and too open to grandstanding. This is because the policies, laws and
regulations of the institutions of the world, including all religious
institutions, are designed, decided, and implemented by humans, who are in
essence, inherently imperfect and fallible.
But of
course, we want to believe in a Supreme Being, in an afterlife, we want to
believe in immortality. Who would not
want to believe in their own eternally infinite immortality? But we want to believe in the truth and not
man made writings and interpretations of the truth. We want to know the truth, we want to know
and understand the essence and reason behind any belief in a Supreme Being who
supposedly personifies the Truth, Transcendence and Immortality. We want to see this God! We want to meet this God! We want to touch this God! We may have never personally experienced
God’s presence, God’s grace and God’s touch in our lives and until we do
experience this we would be naive and foolish to invest and immerse all our
vulnerability, all our emotions, all our spirituality, all our consciousness
into such an entity. We want to know God
personally. We want proof and evidence
of the Creator’s existence! We want
evidence based information about the Creator, because if the Creator exists
then Self and Self’s family, relatives and friends have a potential chance of
immortality and thus the potential chance to exist eternally forever.
CHAPTER 2
Natural and Super
Natural Knowledge
The
World is Not as it Appears
Proof
of a Creator’s Existence through Reason and Science
Philosophers and
Theologians
Aristotle, Plato
and Socrates
Thomas Aquinas’s
Five Rational Proofs for God’s Existence
First Proof –
Motion
Second Proof- Cause
and Effect
Third Proof –
Contingent and Necessary Beings
Fourth Proof – A
Finite Subordinate Series
Fifth Proof -
Perfection
Proof from Order,
Descartes, Locke
Atom-Energy Different from
Spirit-Energy
The Soul and Spirit of
Self
It’s now
appropriate we begin the next chapter by making a distinction between the
disciplines of scientific astronomy that describe and give access to the
‘miracles’ of the universe rather than the popular and fashionable cult of the
unscientific disciplines of astrology and parapsychology. We now explore the evidence of the existence
of a ‘Creator’ from rational and logical philosophical thought
The
following chapters will explore the misinterpretation of Scripture, the
magnitude and intricacies of the universe and creation and the blind beliefs
based wholly on faith and myth, but we will first explore what theist
philosophers have said, and how they have used intellectual rationale to
provide evidence, from creation, that some form of Supernatural Being must most
likely exist.
In this chapter, we will explore the
evidence that helps to prove the possibility of God’s existence through the
miracles of creation and natural revelation, which relates to, and is provided
by humankind’s power and ability to reason by way of their intellectual
mind. The conscious intellect provides
humans with the ability to contemplate and reflect upon information received
and process this information in a rational and logical manner, potentially
manifest in productive insight and understanding.
We are all aware of the
concept that an infant does not possess the ‘brain-power’ and the maturity of
emotion and cognition from experience to discern and put language to much of
anything that goes on in their lives, being dependant on the parent(s) teaching
and direction to behave and think in adaptive ways. But as we mature into adolescence and onto
adulthood there are two particular ways or processes in which humans can
discover and acquire the necessary information regarding existential questions
such as the questions this book wishes to explore answers to. To revise, the word ‘existential’ herein
means, one’s sense of psychological and spiritual well-being as an outcome of
self-reflection and introspection with regard to one’s sense of identity. Which encompasses consciousness, thoughts,
feelings and emotions in relation to Self’s personality, values, beliefs and
attitudes including Self’s sense of personal value and esteem as a product of
Self’s sense of intrinsic existence and inherent purpose in relation to Self’s
existence in this world and potentially beyond.
Notwithstanding the presupposition
imposed by many, including ministers, pastors, priests, and imams, etcetera,
different faiths and beliefs that assume the understanding of such existential
mysteries coming as a of prayer and the conscious fostering of the development
of a personal faith, it is suggested that the two imperative vehicles required
regarding the acquisition of existential knowledge, includes, firstly, natural
revelation. That is, the existential
information revealed through the miracles of the Universe and Creation
processed by human intellect and reason.
And secondly, the existential information revealed through super natural
revelation, that is, the information revealed through careful interpretation of
Scripture and the potential reality of the story in Scripture about the
examples and teachings of the person Jesus, who said He was the incarnation of
‘God’.
As it has been said through the
centuries by politicians, poets and philosophers, “knowledge is power”. In existential terms, this ‘power’ is
acquired from the acquisition of personal knowledge from information, which
includes a sophisticated sense of personal understanding through the gift of reason. This newly found personal understanding and
awareness from information gathered can invoke a personal and intimate sense of
existential belief experienced as emphatic and irrefutable, and which, could
overshadow the concept of an arbitrary belief conceived from that construct,
faith. This inner belief and knowledge that can supersede belief from the
construct called faith becomes a real personal experience from which emanates
an intimate awareness of the power of Self’s Spirit and Soul. This experience of a personal and intimate
spiritual knowledge can ultimately protect and immune one against arbitrary and
intended spiritual abuse caused by the belief of the vulnerable relating to
myths, fallacies and untruths told by the ‘powerful’. This inner spiritual awareness from knowledge can also
strengthen individuals from the pain of the battle wounds of life, to rise
above this pain, allowing the gift of life to be lived more fully.
We will now discuss information
revealed and expressed to us through the minds of wise philosophers. Through
the gift of human reason and intellect manifest in the reasoning of these
philosophers, we may discover a new perspective for thinking about natural
evidence that can rationalise the possibility of a Creator as the source of
creation and builder of the universe.
In later chapters, we will discuss in
detail information that may help to give answers to existential questions based
on Super Natural revelation sourced primarily through the contemporary
interpretation of ancient Scripture. But
for now, we will concentrate on the answers that the greatest philosophers of
ancient time, and some would say all time, have revealed to us. Whilst keeping
in mind however, that we will better succeed in the task of answering these
existential questions when we are able to, through intellect and innate
intuitive and discerning wisdom, combine, assimilate and integrate all of the
information revealed in all its different disciplines and forms and from all
its diverse sources.
The World is Not as it Appears
The world is not made of what it
appears to be made of as it is made of atoms, which are in essence energies
without mass. Atoms are defined as
electrical and electromagnetic charges, and are measured as electrical volts
(eV). Atoms have no weight but feel
heavy because of the electromagnetic energy between the larger planet earth
attracting smaller parcels of electromagnetic energy.
This tension is what we call gravity,
which constructs our perception and experience of weight. Atoms are in essence invisible, but we see
because our eye, brain and interpretation are based on the reflection of light
wave–lengths into our central nervous system via our eyes. If we think about how hydrogen and oxygen
make up ice, water and steam-gases, we can understand how everything in the
universe possesses different structures and functions even when made with the
same atoms, but with different atom configurations.
As the functions of atoms changes e.g.,
as in the different structures and functions of ice, water, and steam, although
made from the same atoms, are but structured differently, as in tightly packed
atoms of ice, as opposed to the less-tightly packed atoms of steam-gases. Atoms interact with other atoms of the same
(elements), and different atoms (compounds), that make up the universe.
There are only 118 different atoms that
together, or combined, make up all that exists in this world. The exception is the Self, which by
definition is spirit-energy of consciousness, thoughts, emotions,
self-awareness, personality and will, etcetera.
References in this book to the word ‘physical’ are defined as
atom-energy, referring to all that exists, including the body (anatomy) or the
‘physical’ environment, food and shelter, and all that we observe around us,
other than Self and others, which are spirit-energies and include
consciousness, thoughts, emotions, self-awareness, personality and will
etcetera .
Proof of a Creator’s Existence through Reason
and Science
In terms of science, science
has brought us along way in understanding the world as we observe and know it
today. But science still can't
deconstruct, define or describe the unique essence of energy making up 96 per
cent of the universe that scientists term as dark energy and black matter. The other 4 per cent of the world and
universe is that part of the universe and world we observe and see and consists
of atoms, and wave-lengths of energies categorised by scientists as being
within what has been called the electromagnetic spectrum.
So 4 per cent of the world
and universe exits of atoms and electromagnetic wave-lengths emanating into the
universe as a result of the complex interactions of atom-energies. Both atoms and electromagnetic wave-lengths,
essentially and in essence, have been scientifically deconstructed to be shown
as consisting of different forms of interacting energies. This energy is different determined by their
unique strengths, motions, positive, negative or neutral charges, their ability
to interact with other forms of atoms, their structure and functions and their
visibility and weight. Furthermore, it
must be emphasised that when scientists talk about atoms being in essence,
energy, they are defining and measuring energy in electrical voltage (eV). Atoms and their energies are electrical
charges.
I believe we have rational
thought and we have science to help us understand the world. Rational
thought suggests something cannot come, or be made, or exist from
nothing. Science also suggests something cannot come from nothing. Something cannot come, or be made, or exist
from nothing, no?
Science suggests what we
observe in the world, including all that makes up the world such as the
environment, buildings and flora and fauna etcetera, is made of atoms, and
atoms are made of complex interacting forms of electrical energy. Science
suggests that before the existence of what we term the Big Bang, there was
nothing. But there needed to exist as a
requirement of such energy that constitutes the Big Bang not only energy but
energy with intelligence that initiated the design, plan and order for energy
to pre-determinedly evolve into the world as we understand and experience it
today.
Indeed before the Big Bang
there was nothing except and other than cannot be scientifically defined or
reconstructed, or even for some, rationally thought. But there had to exist a mysterious, an other
form of unique energy that always was without the need for something to create
it and which possesses intelligence.
Intelligence is required of
this unique energy for the existence of the organised universe and world as we
know and experience it today. That
without intelligence the universe and world could not mathematically statistically
exist. Indeed, this is the measure of
intelligence required over and above that of random chance, to design and plan,
as could the capability of a tornado restructuring the material and contents of
a junkyard into a high-rise building, or Jumbo jet, not to mention the complex
existence of flora and fauna.
If we rationally follow this
line of thought through to its inevitable end then reason and science suggest
some other form of energy with intelligence created these first forms
of energy that make up the atoms that make up the universe no? What would
you call this unique other form of energy that must have intelligence and must
have always existed?
For further information
about subatomic and atom energies, and how the spirit and soul exist in
symbiosis, can be read in, GOD
Philosophers and Theologians
The great
philosophers Aristotle, Plato and Socrates and the famous theologians Augustine
and Anselm employed their acutely developed faculties of reason and logic to
try to understand cognitively and intellectually the possibility of the
existence of a Creator and Supreme Being from the evidence of natural
revelation. Indeed, a rationale from the
evidence of creation created by the mystical relational love of a ‘God’ that
human and their hearts, minds and soul so desired to believe, predicated on
human innate spirituality.
The Greek philosopher
Aristotle (300 BC) held God to be the supreme intelligence, supreme mind and
subsistent thought who is eternally engaged in the contemplation of His own
reality. Aristotle said that the proper object of God’s being is that of
truth. And because God is supreme
intelligence, the proper object of His supreme intelligence can only be
truth. Therefore, God is the proper
object of his own intellect.
Plato (350 BC) thought of God as the
supreme good. He was able to reflect in the terms of; “I see ‘good’
about me”. He was not speaking of moral
good but just good: Trees for example
are good in terms of providing wood for burning and building. Fruit trees are good for producing food,
etcetera..
The Greek philosopher Socrates (400
BC), reflecting on the visible universe, inferred that God exists as a
providence, that is, as a provider, responsible for all those things in the
world that cater for human needs.
Now that we have
had a little taste of the thoughts of philosophers and before we go further
let's listen to the Acts of the Apostles (100 AD) regarding this matter of
providence:
"Since the God
who made the world and everything in it is Himself Lord of Heaven and earth, He
does not make His home in shrines made by human hands. Nor is He dependent on anything that human
hands can do for Him. Since He can never be in need of anything, on the
contrary, it is He who gives everything, including life and breath to
everyone". (Acts of the Apostles 17:24)
Therefore, ‘God’ may be identified and
described as a provider. God may have
made everything for human kind! It has been said that God is responsible for
all those things in the world that cater for human needs, for example; Oxygen
for our lungs - the Earth has four layers of decreasing amounts of air to the
height of 500 miles, a digestive tract for our food, a blood circulation system
to remove and replenish wastes. It is
conceivable the Universe exists as a means to an end. The Universe’s creation and existence a means
to an end, being that for living life, and for human’s to live. For instance, had the planet Earth been 1.5
per cent (i.e. approx 130,000 miles or half the distance from the Earth to the
Moon) closer to the Sun its atmosphere would have a greenhouse effect with a
surface temperature of 400C night and day where absolutely nothing could grow
or survive this extreme heat. On the
other hand, had Earth been 1.5 per cent further away from the Sun it would
be frozen in a permanent ice age like Mars where again nothing could grow or
survive this extreme cold. A graphic
example to illustrate this principle is that of the North and South poles which
are essentially uninhabitable because of their intense cold from inadequate
exposure to the Sun’s rays. Further, in the distance of a few thousand
kilometers, we can experience heat of 45 degrees Celsius in the Australian
desert, it being close to the equator the closest point on Earth to the Sun,
and minus 30 degrees Celsius in the South Pole, the Earth’s longest distance
from the Sun.
Moreover, if the original explosion of the universe had
not occurred with exactly the right balance of expansive force and gravitation,
but instead had been weaker, the expanding universe would have fallen back on
itself almost immediately, before the miracle of predetermined evolution could
weave its web of magic. Had this initial
expansion force been a fraction stronger, cosmic atom-energy would have blown
apart so rapidly that galaxies could not have formed. So, there had to be Some Substance, or
Something, or Someone, or Some-Super Natural Being which could provide such
substance to exist with such preciseness to enable creation to form, develop
and evolve as it has. And that
Substance, Something, Someone, Super Natural Being, we may decide to call the
Creator, or ‘God’, or ‘that which nothing greater can be thought’, for what
else, for who else could create something from
nothing, or create something from its Self.
Astrophysicists
have now ascertained, by calculating the velocity of radio waves and colour of
the light spectrum i.e., red = moving away and blue = moving towards (called
the Doppler affect) transmitted from the furthest galaxies and received by
satellite dishes that the ‘big bang’ occurred about 13.7 billion years
ago. Further, they are also able to
determine that the galaxies and universe continue to expand at an accelerating
rate. By calculating the measurement of gravity required for this accelerating
expansion there does not seem to exist enough atom-energy, such as the atoms of
gases, dust, planets and stars, etcetera. Only 4% of the universe is made from
atom-energy that we observe. From the measurements of gravitational forces
there must also exist energy, which scientists cannot detect and has been
called ‘dark matter’ spread between atom-energy like stars and ‘dark energy’,
which consists of 23% of the universe.
The other 73% of the universe that exists between that which we observe
as atom-energy and drives the accelerating expansion of the universe, is
explained by the existence of what has been called ‘dark energy’. This is the
existence of massive amounts of energy created at the time of the ‘big bang’
and which might better be described as the Creator’s spirit-energy of the
‘Word’.
First Proof - Motion
We are certain,
because it is evident to our senses, that in the world some things are in
motion. It is equally clear to us that
whatever is in motion was moved by something else. If a thing is at rest, it will never move
until something else moves it. When a
thing is at rest, it is only potentially in motion. Motion occurs when something potentially in
motion is moved and is then actually in motion; motion is the transformation of
potentiality into actuality.
Imagine a series of dominoes standing next to each other. When they are set up in a row, it can be said
they are all potentially in motion, though actually at rest. Consider a particular domino. Its potentiality is that it will not move
until it is knocked over by the one next to it.
It will move only if it is moved by something actually moving.
From this fact, Aquinas drew the
general conclusion that nothing can be transformed from a state of potentiality
by something that is also in a mere state of potentiality. A domino can not be knocked over by another
domino that is standing still.
Potentiality means the absence of something and is therefore nothing;
for this reason, potential motion in the neighbouring domino cannot move the
next one because it is nothing, and you cannot derive motion from
non-motion.
As Aquinas says, "nothing can be
transformed from potentiality to actuality, except by something in the state of
actuality." What is actually at
rest cannot be simultaneously in motion.
This means that the particular domino cannot be simultaneously the thing
that is moved and also the mover. Something potentially in motion cannot move
itself. Whatever is moved must be moved
by another. Each domino could become a mover,
only after it had been moved by the one prior to it.
Here we come to Aquinas' decisive
point: if we are to account for motion, we cannot do so by going back in an
infinite regress. If we must say about
each mover in this series, that it in turn was moved by a prior mover, we would
never discover the source of motion.
Even if such a series went back infinitely, each one would still be only
potential, and from that, no actual motion could ever emerge. The fact is, however, that there is
motion. There must be a Mover, which is
able to move things but which does not itself have to be moved, and this, says
Aquinas, "everyone understands to be God".
We experience
various kinds of effects, and in every case we assign a cause to each effect. The cause of the statue is the work of the
sculptor. If we took away the activity
of the sculptor, we should not have the effect, the statue. But there is an order of causes; the parents
of the sculptor are his cause. Workers
in the quarry are the cause of this particular piece of marble’s availability
to the sculptor. There is, in short, an
intricate order of causes traceable in a series. Such a series of causes is demanded because
no event can be its own cause; the sculptor does not cause himself, and the
statue does not cause itself. A cause is
prior to an effect. Nothing, then, can
be prior to itself; hence, events demand a prior cause. Each prior cause must itself have its own
cause, as parents must have their own parents.
But it is impossible to go backward to infinity, because all the causes
in the series depend upon a first cause that has made all the other causes to
be actual causes. There must then be a
first cause "to which everyone gives the name of God".
The material
universe he says is made up of contingent beings. All the trees, birds, water in the sea,
clouds scudding across the sky and humans, are all contingent beings. That means they could exist, or could not
exist. The trees out there need not have
grown until someone planted them. They
did not appear of their own volition. If
our Mother and Father had not met, we would not be. Once upon a time, we were not.
We did not will Self to be. The whole material universe is contingent. They exist now but their non-existence is a
possibility. Say you have a litter of
newly born kittens. There was once upon
a time when they were not, then they were; and one day they will not be and
they will not exist. If all that exists
is contingent, then in fact nothing can now exist because there is a principle
that states; anything that can not be, must necessarily once not have been and
must necessarily cease to be, unless there is something out there that keeps
them going. A 'contingent being' in
existence is contingent upon certain things, happenings, for its existence, so
that being need not have been there.
But if there was a time when
nothing existed then nothing could start to be and even now, there would be
nothing in existence, "because that which does not exist begins to exist
only through something already existing".
But since our experience clearly shows that things do exist, this must
mean that not all beings are contingent.
So we have to get out of the visible system, to come to a being, which
is necessary as opposed to contingent, a necessary being who supports the
contingent beings, and maintains them in existence. If every single unit, every speck of sand and
dust is contingent, and they didn't just appear of their own volition, by their
own native power, then nowhere in this visible universe is there an adequate
explanation of this activity, which we call existing. So we have to come ultimately to a necessary
being that requires no other being to account for His existence. A power that possesses existence of its very
own Self, a supreme being we may call God!
The Philosopher, Saint Anselm of
Reason tells us
that it must be impossible to have an infinite 'subordinate series' of
units. For example, a parrot on a hat,
the hat on someone's head, the head on a person, the person on a deck, the deck
on a boat which is on the sea, which is on the planet Earth, which is in the
solar system, which is in the Milky Way, which is moving in space among other
galaxies etcetera. Each unit is
immediately dependent on the unit before it.
Take the hat away and the parrot falls.
The parrot is there because of the hat.
Take the boat away and the man sinks, take the galaxy away and the solar
system is disordered. But as long as all
is maintained, we have a series called subordinate.
A unit depends on the thing before it,
before it, and before it, etcetera. Knock out any one of these and everything
after it fails, falls, shifts or changes.
It is impossible
to have an infinite 'subordinate series' because the whole series is dependent
on the unit before it. Take the whole
series; imagine if you can, that it is infinitive. This whole series is made up of units, which
are dependent upon the unit before it, which means that the whole series is
dependent. Because the whole series is dependent,
there has to be some being somewhere who itself is independent and maintains
the whole series. That being we call
God.
Thomas Aquinas saw that the visible universe was
composed of beings that are limited in perfection. There are more and less beautiful roses; more
and less good fast drivers; more and less, good pole-vaulters, etcetera. These are certain degrees, more and less of
perfection. If there is limited
perfection anywhere, it has to be ascribed to something that has perfection in
an unlimited way. And that perfection we
may call God.
Proof from ‘Order’
Let's now look at
the proof of 'order' first developed by the Greek philosopher, Anaxagoras (5th
Century BC). So God created order. All natural beings whether living or non-living
have to be ordered and programmed. They
have the characteristic of an ordered means to a certain determined end. They have to depend on an intelligent cause
for their program. If we plant a bean it
will grow into a beanstalk. A quail with
chicks runs away from a hunter. It doesn't intelligently assess a hunter and
say this is a hunter with good aim with a loaded gun whose bullets will kill
quails. No. The quail reacts exactly as if it's been
programmed. It does an intelligent thing.
It eludes the hunter. It has not
got intelligence, so somewhere there is an intelligence that programmed the
quail. Likewise, our lungs don't say
“let's breathe,” or our ears “let's hear”.
The human eye and all that is behind it, all the way to the brain, is
made up of various components, all of which are organized to this end; that the
possessor see. They are not inserted in
the skull as a counter-weight for the back of the head or to make the face
agreeable. They are there to make the
face and the person who owns it, see.
All these things; these innumerable parts and elements that go to make
the eye and all that is associated with it, like the optic nerve etcetera, and
that part of the brain that is involved in the activity; all of these diverse
elements come together to one end: to permit the seer to see. This indicates
that somewhere around there is an intelligence that organized all these diverse
elements to this one end - to make the sense of sight possible.
Here is another example of order: There is so
much information in the DNA within one living cell, if you wrote it all out, it
would fill 1,700 volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica or fill 10,000 miles of
computer printout. What's more, the
nucleus of every cell in a person’s body contains the same unique DNA for that
individual being, that is, the same information. Yet the cell knows somehow that it has to
reproduce a cell that will become part of an eye or a toe, a gut or a muscle,
etcetera. How does it know which page to
read out of all the information? It has
been ordered, and programmed by some intelligence.
This ordering of means to an end is
characteristic of all natural bodies whether living or non-living. Those trees out there, they suck up water
from the ground, they take various nutrients from the ground and turn it all
into a tree. Here we have a program so
organized to produce a certain end that in another few hundred years there will
be a completely different generation of trees doing exactly the same
thing. This reveals intelligence. Intelligence isn't in the tree so it's got to
be in someone who is organizing the means to the end. The existence of order around us and in us
requires an intelligent cause to account for it because it is still striving
towards its goal, its end! All of this
indicates that we are not alone in the universe. Our intelligence is not the only intelligence
around nor is our intelligence of a particularly high order in comparison, that
is, with the intelligence we see organized things around us. We are the subject of organization to and for
a particular end. In our case, the
supreme end is eternal life with that intelligence, that is, eternal life with
the Creator.
The ancient prophet
Isaiah in 750 BC (Isaiah 45:18) said:
"Yes, thus say
Yahweh,
Creator of the
heavens,
Who is God,
Who formed the
earth and made it,
Who set it firm,
Created in it no
chaos,
But a place to be
lived in."
Descartes (17th
Century AD) says, "Our reason tells us that something cannot be derived
from nothing and also that the more
perfect cannot be a consequence of the less perfect. Our ideas possess different degrees of
reality. It is manifest by natural light
that there must be at least as much reality in the cause as in the effect. By the name God, I understand a substance which is infinite, independent, all-knowing,
all-powerful and by which I myself and everything else have been created. How can I, a finite substance, produce the
idea of an infinite substance? Indeed
how could I know that I am finite unless I could compare myself with the idea of
a perfect being." For these reasons Descartes concludes that, since ideas
have causes, and since the cause must have at least as much reality as the
effect and since he is finite and imperfect, it must be that the cause of his
idea of a perfect and infinite being comes from outside himself from a perfect
being who exists, and that is God!
Locke (17th Century). His proof begins with an
intuition of one's own existence. Since ‘nothing’ cannot produce something, and
since man is aware that he had a beginning, he must have been produced by
something else. If there is not some
external being, the problem simply regresses indefinitely. Therefore, something external must exist, and
this is God. Furthermore, not only does
God produce that which has a beginning, but He also produces it as the kind of
being that it is. Again, there are
created beings that have intelligence and the capacity to love.
Hence, God must be intelligent and loving and, therefore a
personal being. So through the events of
Providence, Motion, Cause and Effect, Contingent and Necessary Beings,
Subordinate Series, Perfection, Order and Something from Nothing, we may have
formulated from this evidence through personal reason and logic a strengthened
consideration to there possibly being in existence some Super Natural Being for
creation to exist itself.
Atom-Energy
Different from Spirit-Energy
The Soul and Spirit of Self
A Caterpillar Transforms
into a Butterfly – But with a Different Brain and Same Memory. New research has identified that the
caterpillar’s brain dissolves when it transforms into a butterfly, but the
transformed butterfly retains the laboratory-conditioned behaviours of the
caterpillar in terms of being aversive to the memory of a particular scent.
When humans create or build
non-living atom-energy structures such as artefacts, artwork, or a culinary
dish etcetera, we use not only the non-living structures of atom-energies in
the form of building materials, paint brushes, paint, and cooking utensils,
harvest food and cutlery etcetera, but also living structures of atom-energies
in the form of human hands, body/anatomy
and brain etcetera. When humans create,
we also use the non-atom spirit-energies of thought, will, belief, ideas,
images and design, order, plan and then the execution of these as the
goals. These processes are encapsulated
within Self and expressed as a manifestation of Self’s soul and spirit.
Self, being the creator of
these creations must by definition then leave part of their Self, being the
will, design and creation of the artefact etcetera, and thus Self as and in
part of the creation, but with an independent and sovereign standing. Thus the Self’s creation is a part of the
likeness and image of Self’, as a function of Self’s soul and spirit. The soul and spirit now residing within the
creation is a part of Self and retained as soul and spirit-energy, being the
blue-prints and ‘finger-prints’ of the designer, planner and doer of the
artefact and creation.
This multi-dimensional
process of creation is perhaps a simple analogy of that described as ‘being
made in the likeness and image of the Creator’.
The artist’s creations of structures of atom-energy (paintings, houses,
etcetera) did not come into being by themselves. But required essentially as a major
contribution for production, both the structural atom-energy of body, hands and
brain etcetera, but also the spirit-energy of the characteristics of Self in
thought, will, design, plan and execution, which must be the spirit and soul
energy of Self.
Now if someone else
recreates what we have created, then that person too, will use both the
atom-energy of their body and the spirit-energy of themselves. But in recreating what has already been
created there will need to used similar structures of atom-energy as in body
parts, and use of spirit-energy as in the unique thought, design, order, plan
and will to execute that which has been previously created and brought forth
from consciousness.
Self’s creations of
artefacts from soul and spirit energy, and thus in a sense being part of Self,
can perhaps be a reverse analogy of the existence of atom-energy structures
created from the existence of subatomic particles brought forth by a Creator’s
thought, design and will, manifesting in the Big Bang, including the existence
of other forms of energies.
These energies include the
energies of atom-energy, electromagnetic energy, dark-energy, dark-matter and
spirit-energy, all designed and planned with thought, design and will of a
Creator and thus have within them a part of their Creator as does Self’s
creation has a part of Self, but with an independent and sovereign
standing.
As the chemical formations
and interactions that initiated the beginnings of life through complex
interactions of particular atom-energy structures developed over time, so the
evolved atom-energies of life increased from one cell to trillions of cells and
with them, so the spirit and soul as a manifestation of the signature of the
designer.
The human brain has
developed larger and more complex in humans than in any other species. This development of the human brain gives
humans the ability to think, plan and do all the intellectual, emotional and
behavioural things humans can do.
Thinking and emotions are
part of the spirit-energy of consciousness being part-and-parcel of Self. Spirit-energy cannot be objectively measured,
and captured as atom-energy can. We may
consider the essence and existence of Self to be a divinely inspired outcome
from predetermined design and order of the Spirit/Word.
So we may be able to say,
that through the energy of ‘The Word’, was brought forth and embedded the Soul
and Spirit in the different energies within the universe including the soul and
spirit of life and Self.
Humans’ Spirit and Soul may
be inherited and passed on from species to species, from generation to
generation, through the soul and spirit-energies dwelling particularly within
all living existence, as the defining divine signature of the ‘word’ of
creation.
The energies of Soul and
Spirit may also exist within, yet on a unique dimension or plane, or exist
parallel to, or in symbiosis to the atom-energy structure of DNA. Atom-energy makes up the structure and
function of the brain, which is the vehicle for the interactions and existence
of the spirit-energies of Self.
Brief History of Scripture’s Language
Misinterpretation of Scripture in the Bible
Spiritual Abuse
Human Destruction from Base
Instincts, Faiths, Beliefs, Cultures, Politics and Religions
Now
that we have read from some of the greatest philosophers and theologians of all
time we will now look at the importance of language and the spoken word and how
it affects our understanding of the world we live in and accordingly our
beliefs.
Language is a human verbal
tool developed and evolved over many centuries for the use of human
communication. For over three millennia, Hebrew has been both the literary
religious and secular language of the Jewish people. Hebrew is a Semitic tongue, and was spoken
during the period of the migration of the Patriarchs into
Most
of the Old Testament texts were originally, written in Hebrew, and were derived
from oral traditions as far back as 1000 BC.
But the younger books of Ezra and Daniel were written in 165 BC in
Aramaic. The language of the people of
Over the centuries, the perceived
messages of Christ spread throughout
As we continue the
search for life’s meaning, and evidence of a Creator’s existence, we may
understand that whether we like it or not, rightly and wrongly, warts and all,
the values, beliefs, perceptions, perspectives, laws and policies, to some
extent, adopted by Western Civilisation have been framed, shaped and driven by
Christian philosophy. A Christian
philosophy being the thoughts, ideas and beliefs evolved over the last 2000
years and based primarily on the New Testament of the Bible. Christian influence in the world started with
the measure of universal Time reinvented, with the splitting of Time into two,
becoming “Before Christ” BC and “After Christ” AD. Furthermore, Western Civilisation has over
the last 2000 years, been on a roller coaster of both constructive development
and destruction. It is therefore
important that we deconstruct and reinvestigate the misinterpretation of
scripture in relation to its construction and interpretation. The Bible being the primary premise of
Christian thought, beliefs and philosophy.
We discover that the many different meanings given to Biblical scripture
can be, attributed to the many biblical verses, which are differently
interpreted by both religious institutions and individuals. So a more conservative and ‘safer’ way to
read any Holy Scripture is to read it with an informed spirit and rational and
open mind and heart.
We will discuss the meaning and
interpretation of controversial verses in the Bible, and learn what biblical
scholars and academics say about how we can, as individuals and organisations,
alternatively read and interpret such complex ambiguous writings in ‘Sacred
Scripture’. Information on biblical
construction and interpretation is important because the Bible is said to be
the most wonderful and genius of all literatures. The most widely read book in the world, handed
down from ancient history through the millenniums potentially wielding an aura
of psycho-spiritual information to the reader.
Without a doubt, if read in context, the New and Old Testaments of the
Bible furnish one with the acquisition of a rich source of historical, cultural
and spiritual information.
Those Biblical scholars who have studied the construction
of Sacred Scripture say that its contents need to be interpreted
carefully. Even though the Bible is said
to be inspired by God, that is, by spiritual inspiration and quality breathed into humans
to give a proper understanding of God’s intent and purpose (Job 32:8), it’s
obvious to all that the Bible did not fall to Earth directly from heaven from
‘God’. But, rather, is made up of human
words and writings representing the perceived ‘words’ and ‘meanings’ of ‘God’
by humans who believe they know what truths come from ‘God’. Although some writings are surely, inspired
by the spirit of ‘God’, we begin to realize that we must not confuse the two different
origins of the two different ‘words’ in the Bible. That is, the ‘words’ originating from the
personal agendas and perceptions of humans mixed with the ‘words’ originating
from the inspiration of ‘God’. The Bible
may indeed be considered to originate from the confusing combination and mix of
the above two origins. Nor must we be
tempted to just arbitrarily separate out these words, but instead seek and
identify those words and verses that are definitely gross contradictions, in
turn discovering the central theme written within scripture and ultimately the
purpose and meaning of the Creator’s message.
Perhaps then can we define the divine message from the Creator’s
‘inspired’ words, appreciating the mystical message and its meaning when
interpreted within the appropriate literary genre and within its particular
cultural and religious contexts.
God’s actual words
spoken through Christ, are perhaps hidden and camouflaged through inspired
human words that attempt to describe the true story of the Creator’s mystical
relational love. If Jesus Christ was the Son of the Creator, then the
Creator has spoken words of great wisdom on this planet. Although Christ did not write any words His
time on earth was communicated through speech to others before being written
and immortalised by His followers. If
Christ is ‘God’ then the Creator has lived and spoken great wisdom on planet
Earth. Christ’s words being initially
transmitted and communicated orally to others, because His disciples and
followers did not follow Him around with a pen and note pad jotting down His
every move and articulation.
Instead Christ’s articulated wisdom was recorded,
sometimes years and decades after His resurrection and ascension, and therefore
unlikely to have been written verbatim.
However, many recordings written about Christ’s thoughts and actions can
be, considered to convey reasonably accurate messages and teachings intended
for humankind if they are interpreted with care. There have been many erroneous
and potentially damaging attempts at interpreting ‘sacred scripture’ when taken
out of context visa verse for verse rather than thought as a general theme and
message.
During Christ’s time on earth He wrote nothing down with pen on paper
or chisel on rock. There is good reason
why Christ did not immortalise His miracles, examples and teachings by writing
down his thoughts and instructions on some permanent material and manner.
This intentional omission
was for good reason, and that was His determined intention and strategy to
emphasise the fact humans are imperfect but sovereign and independent beings
that we are. Indeed to emphasise that we
are beings imperfect, who make mistakes and because of such human
characteristics that which they hear, interpret and write down must be assessed
carefully, but all the same, is open to flaws and fallibility. For this reason alone that which has been
written about the Christ requires to be attended to with the main focus on the
grand general theme and message of the written discourse of His Story.
Furthermore and in addition
to the above explanations, Christ respected the sovereignty, independence,
individuality and free choice as human gifts.
In essence giving them the freedom to interpret His life on earth,
expressing it their unique way and in turn giving credibility to the
special-ness gifted to humankind notwithstanding that such interpretation of
His life and word would be less than perfect verbatim, but perfectly imperfect
if understood within his point of reference.
For instance, Grant Jeffrey tries to prove the legitimacy of every
word the Bible as being that written and inspired by God, in his book The Signature of God. He attempts to do this by purporting to
having identified a Bible code that reveals future historical events, by
finding words such as ‘Hitler’ and the ‘September 11th World Trade
Tower Attack’ in the letters of a particular sequence of words in the
Bible. The scientific academic
discipline of Statistics would propose that if one has enough words (as there
are in the Bible) to work with, one can generate through a computer program any
number of preconceived words from a particular letter from a sequence of
words. The more words one has to work
with as a resource, the greater the chance and probability of creating a
particular word or phrase, and in this instance, the suggestion that God has
inscribed in the Bible a covert and subliminal secret code. This suggestion is akin to suggesting that
God validates the predisposition of predestination in the course of every human
action and event. Of course, this is an
absurd depiction of ‘God’, because if every human action was predestined then
the gift of freewill and choice may as well be redundant.
The idea that human belief, behaviour and speech are
predestined is an aberration to the invisible constructs of human intellect,
freewill and choice. The acts of human
freewill and choice are transcendent characteristics that allow humans
voluntarily to choose their actions, behaviours, and speech, congruent with
their experiences and personality.
Self’s personality predicated, in part, on particularly chosen beliefs,
values, attitudes, ideals and experiences.
If everything people did was predestined then people could chose
destructive behaviours without conscience, because they could justify these
behaviours by saying, “Well if I do such and such a ‘thing’ it is okay because
God already knew I was going to do it because it is predestined and so
therefore out of my control”. This
mindset can only be considered to be extremely dangerous and damaging to the
dignity of human personal determination, and an aberration to the Creator’s
purpose for the uniqueness of Self’s personality manifest through the
independence and sovereignty of Self’s dignity, autonomy and freewill, and as
such, Self’s Spirit.
Moreover, it is conceivable that in
a complex divine and mysterious way, the Creator chooses not to know. If we had died at a very early age but God
were to know what we would have done with our free will had we lived, then He
would be justified in allowing us the experience of the process of purification
for any transgressions that we may have committed had we lived. If this is the case then we would perhaps have to reflect on and experience the
pain we would have inflicted on and caused others despite being materially
innocent. If God chose to know
everything that we humans will do with their lives then freewill, by
definition, cannot be free. Human consciousness,
thought and emotion, freewill, intellect and discernment, etcetera, provide
categorical evidence that the Creator has created humans as beings with the
integrity for personal independence and individual sovereignty. The creator then can not be perceived to have
created humans as beings who live lives that have been preplanned,
preprogrammed, pre-mapped or predestined.
If the Creator chose to know each person’s future activities, including
Self’s thoughts, emotions and behaviours etcetera, then this knowledge, by
definition, would amount to human beings being in essence, pre-preprogrammed
and predestined freaks of creation. The Creator perhaps chooses not to know how a person
lives their everyday life and chooses not to intervene in the day-to-day
activities of a person’s life, unless of course that person wishes to
specifically relate to and communicate with their Creator.
To
understand the writings of the Bible more fully we need and want to know when,
how, why, to whom, and by whom the different books and gospels of the Bible
were written. Through our exhaustive
research, we find that there are many contradictions, variations and
inconsistencies between and within the different forms and styles of
literature, and in particular, messages from verses written in the Bible. For instance, there are two entirely and
possibly three, different stories about how humankind and the universe were
created.
The first story of creation
described in Genesis 1:1-31 and Genesis 2:1-4, and the second story of creation
described in Genesis 2:5-23. These
creation stories were, first shared verbally, between individuals and
communities, who brought them down through the ages in both written and verbal
forms. These creation stories were,
expressed orally through story telling by the people of the time, to help
explain their creation, life experiences, and personal existence on Earth. The Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament) in
the Bible were eventually documented in writing by the ‘first authors’ so they
could be remembered and communicated to others.
The first story of creation in
Genesis (Genesis 1:1-31; 2:1-4) explains how humans, both male and female, were
made in God’s image and likeness on the sixth day, being after the Universe,
Sun, Moon (lights), and trees and animals were created in the first five
days. This version describes how these
creations and creatures were, brought into existence within a timeframe of six
days, and God saw that it was good. And
on the seventh day, ‘God’ rested.
The second version and different
story of creation in Genesis (Genesis 2:5-23) explains how Adam, which
translated to its original Hebrew means man, was created first and placed in
paradise of The Garden of Eden. This
story tells how Adam was, created first, before the trees, water and animals,
and then placed in ‘The Garden of Eden’.
It then describes how Eve, a generic name for life itself, and the
personification of motherhood, was created from a rib of Adam. This version of creation has humans created
before all the other creations of water, trees and animals, etcetera, of the
Earth, which is in direct contradiction and opposition to the first story of
creation in Genesis.
Also this second story of creation
does not describe a timeframe of six days for the Creator’s creation of
creation. It also describes how Eve ate
from the tree of life and knowledge of good and evil, in the centre of the
garden - and not from an apple from an apple tree - and how from that moment
onwards humankind suffered from the consequences brought about by the choice
made by Eve. A third, but brief version
of creation, also described in Genesis
reads:
“When God created man, he made him in the likeness of
God. He created them male and female and
blessed them. And when they were
created, he called them man. When Adam
had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he
named him Seth. After Seth was born,
Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he
died”.
(Genesis 5:1-5)
The evidence provided and
described in the book of Genesis by these three different versions about how
‘God’ created the universe and life suggest a single author with differing
views or several authors and as such the identification of serious
contradictions about the concepts and stories regarding creation and indeed the
authorship and written construction of the Bible. Instead of being read as the absolute words
of ‘God’ these stories need to be read as the different ideas and
interpretations of different people (writers) written at different times as
representing how they think ‘God’ could have created humans, the world, and
universe. So these particular stories
about creation must not and cannot be read literally as literal texts and words
coming directly from ‘God’ if the integrity of the meaning of the words and verses in the Bible
are to be maintained. Although the words
used by authors to describe the creation of the universe and life in the book
of Genesis may have been originally written for literal interpretation they are
more likely to be words to be interpreted in the metaphor genre. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a
term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable
in order to suggest some form, or type of semblance. To interpret these words as actually written
in the metaphor genre makes for a more sensible and realistic read as explained
by New Testament scripture itself.
In 2 Peter we read:
“One thing you must
never forget my friends is that with the Lord, a day can mean a thousand years
and a thousand years is like a day.”
(2 Peter 3:8)
The
fact that ancient Scripture uses a word in Genesis that translates to the
English word ‘day’ to describe and explain the time frame it took ‘God’ to
create the universe is interesting in its self.
The writers of Genesis have used a human word describing human
experience, and as such, words used in the metaphor genre to describe the
creation of creation. The human
(English) word ‘day’ describes the behaviour of the Earth in relation to the
Sun where it takes 24 hours (humans’ measure for time) for the earth to revolve
once on its axis, giving us a period of darkness and a period of light, which
we term ‘one full day’. The word ‘day’
then, describes a particular phenomena related to time, movement, objects and
space in the universe and essentially only exists within this context. Prior to the creation of the universe the
reality of a ‘day’ including time and space did not need to exist. Therefore, the Creator who created the
reality of what we describe as a ‘day’, and who created time, movement, objects
and space, did not need to require or possess as a prerequisite, time,
movement, objects and space, as humans know and experience these realities
today. These are realities which, in part, give us light and dark, and which we
term night and day. The word ‘day’ is a
human word humans use to explain and describe a particular phenomenon of
creation itself.
So we cannot necessarily reduce and
deconstruct the Creator’s work as depicted in Genesis, to a specific ‘time
frame’ of days, or capture and interpret the reality of God’s creation upon the
literal
reading
of a passage or verse in the Bible. There are many varied forms and styles of
literature in the different books of the Bible.
For instance, in the Old Testament there are the stories of the
histories of the chosen people, a story about the beginning of God’s personal
relationship with those made in His likeness and image – human beings - and the
story of His love and intended purpose for them to live life fully in a just
and sustainable society.
The Bible consists of interpretations
of the people’s sacrifice to God and their rules and laws to live by, their
plights, their kings, their wisdom writings, their stories about suffering and
their exaltations to God. We read about
these in the stories of the Old Testament and in the Psalms and we read about
their prophecies for the future in Daniel, Isaiah, and the Prophets.
As we move our investigative attention
to the New Testament, we notice a dramatic and significant change of
theological and psychological pace and direction. We read stories in the New Testament about
the good news for humankind and about God’s unconditional mystical relational
love for humankind. We read about the
teachings and commandments of Christ and about ‘God’s’ new laws of relational
love, charity, hope and compassion. We
read about the ‘acts’ of the apostles and the letters they wrote and carried to
their communities. We also read verses that
contradict and are incongruent to this new message of relational love,
providing further evidence for the need for cautious interpretation as being
the words articulated by human experience and thus human interpretation to a
significant event.
Spiritual Abuse
From researched
information into the interpretation of biblical Scripture, we find that we need
to be careful in how we read and interpret both the Old and New Testaments of
the Bible. Many Biblical writings are in
a style that they require to reading with an open mind, spirit and heart. Much of Sacred Scripture needs to be
interpreted from a metaphorical and allegorical literary perspective than from
a literal literary perspective if we are to derive from this work its full
sense of meaning and purpose. Indeed,
people’s past and current inaccurate interpretations of Scripture have caused
much physical and psychological harm in and throughout the world in relation
to people’s individual and collective lives.
There has been much spiritual and psychological damage caused as an
outcome of the misinterpretation of Scripture and the resulting instructions,
rules and laws espoused and interpreted by the vices of arrogance and ignorance
of the ‘spiritually and religiously powerful’ directed towards and demanded
from the spiritually vulnerable.
All humans are spiritually vulnerable
or conscious because human spirituality is an essential component of humans
being human beings. All humans are
spiritually, and psychologically vulnerable because, firstly, humans have been
created, by a Creator, a Spiritual Supreme Being, and thus are created and
infused with an independent and sovereign spirit by virtue of their
creation. Secondly, humans have been
endowed with the possession of the invisible spirit of consciousness,
self-awareness, discernment, intellect, cognition and emotion, etcetera, and
thus can reflect on their own inevitable physical death, and therefore on their
own mortality. Humans can also reflect on
the possibility of the death and cessation of Self and Self’s consciousness and
personality. But in contrast to this,
humans also have the capability to contemplate concepts such as the eternal,
infinite and immortal existence of Self ,and all that entails the invisible
Self, as opposed to the physical body within which the invisible/spiritual Self
resides. Because of this intimate
reflective ability of humans to contemplate Self’s potential immortality,
people are spiritually vulnerable, and as such, open to possible spiritual
abuse by those in positions of ‘spiritual power’. Spiritual power defined in terms of perceived
and expressed religious knowledge and authority.
Over many centuries, many different
churches, from many different denominations, have interpreted verses of
Scripture in many different ways, and mean many different things. These many interpretations by many churches
create many laws and rules designed for compliance by believers. Directing believers in what to believe in,
what to do, and what not to believe and what not do. Particularly in terms of what is
‘spiritually’ ‘right’ and ‘good’ and what is ‘spiritually’ ‘wrong’ and ‘bad’ in
relation to one’s thoughts, feelings, values, attitudes and subsequent
behaviours and content of speech. This
in turn potentially underpins the measure of the perceived quality of one’s
‘spiritual’ standing with ‘God’, and thus one’s perceived spiritual state in
relation to one’s potential transition from the physical death of Self to
Self’s transcendence to personal immortality.
Because of the psychological power,
that can be wielded over people because of their given and innate spiritual
needs, and therefore, their spiritual vulnerability, religions and churches and
their administrators need to read and interpret Scripture prudently, within the
literal genre and cultural context it was written, and in light of when and why
it was written. For example, the 38
parables about Christ as described in the New Testament were stories told by
Him or about Him at an appropriate and particular time and context for an
immediate purpose (Collins, 1984). But,
which can have profound messages for people today because they can be applied
for the benefit of all people in every age.
So it would not be prudent and accurate if these biblical stories were
interpreted literally on a word for word basis as they perhaps were originally
written in the metaphor genre tens of hundreds of years ago. But these verses can be, if interpreted
carefully and therefore fully understood in relation to their original context,
applied as a message for today’s circumstances, purposes and important issues. Many people recognise that various parables
in the bible have been written in the metaphor genre as an intended way to
explain a particular teaching.
For instance in
Thessalonians we read:
“For you yourselves know full
well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night”.
(Thessalonians 5:2)
Some will
understand that the following phrase; “The day of the Lord will come,” as a
metaphor. That time being one’s own
personal physical death and subsequent spiritual ascension. Others may understand it to mean the actual
second coming of Christ to Earth, and others may understand the it to be
synonymous with Christ plucking one from Earth and into Heaven, whilst still
physically alive. And the phrase, “just
like a thief at night” may be reasonably understood to mean that one’s physical
death will more than likely come unexpectedly;
The following
verses written in the New Testament are harsh and ambiguous with an apparent
emphasis for the motivation of obedience through the incitation of fear by way
of the threat of eternal damnation in hell. These particular verses may have
been written originally for literal interpretation. However they may also have been written at a
time and in a culture where they were intended to be interpreted within a genre that expresses
messages through deeper metaphorical and allegorical (figurative and symbolic)
meanings. However, this latter
possibility is perhaps being too kind, but we could suggest the jury is still
out on these theoretical possibilities.
Although, the use of the principles for scripture interpretation will
provide a clearer idea of the complexity involved for such interpretations, and
in turn, a picture that is clearer and closer to the reality.
For example, we read in the
Gospel of Mark:
“If your hand causes you to
sin cut it off. It is better for you to
enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never
goes out.”
(Mark
Again, in Mark’s gospel, we
read:
“And if your eye causes you to
sin, pluck it out. It is better for you
to enter the
(Mark
In the Old
Testament of Hebrew scriptures, some writings were written to explain human
experiences such as in the story of creation in Genesis and the story about the
incongruence of sin and pain and suffering in relation to Job’s reality of
leading a ‘good’ life. But perhaps other
scripture verses were intended to be, and still are, interpreted literally;
As in Exodus, we read:
“And if any mischief follow,
then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand,
foot for foot.”
(Exodus 21: 23-25)
Leviticus says:
“Breath for breath, eye for
eye, tooth for tooth; as he has caused blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him
again.”
(Leviticus 24:20)
Deuteronomy states:
“And your eye shall not pity;
but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth and hand for hand,
foot for foot.”
(Deuteronomy 19:2)
But in stark
contradiction to these messages inciting fear, pain and suffering through the
infliction of physical maiming and the command for revenge and equitable
retribution, we read in the gospel of Matthew Jesus’ definitive redefining of
past religious rules and laws espoused throughout the writings of the Old
Testament;
We read in the Gospel of
Matthew:
“You have heard what has been
said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you, that you
resist not evil, but who so ever shall smite thee on the right cheek turn to
him the other also.”
(Matthew 5:38)
We also read in Matthew:
“You have heard
that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy’ (Leviticus
(Matthew 5:43-44)
These New Testament
messages provide evidence that many ancient religious scripture instructions
and commandments are based on the barbaric laws, rules and behaviours of a
particular culture, of a particular people, at a particular time in history. We can appreciate that these ancient rules
and laws are clearly not humane, compassionate, or sensible practices in
today’s society, or in the context of Jesus’ new law of mystical relational
love. Many of these scripture verses at
the time of their writing were probably written with the intention for literal
interpretation, but through Christ’s reinterpretation carry within them
evidence of antiquated scripture construction.
Many of these verses need to be completely overhauled or reinterpreted
as Jesus explained, imploring the need for urgent change of the interpretation
to the ancient laws and rituals of scripture that fall short of the new message
of mystical relational love and compassion.
To arbitrarily interpret the meaning of these verses in a literal context
is negligent and erroneous amounting to the reception of potentially
dangerous, abject and destructive information for Self and others. Furthermore, in Biblical scripture there are
sadly 15 references to hell and 59 references to punishment.
But, as the apostle John
states:
“There is no fear in
love. But perfect love drives out fear,
because fear has to do with punishment.
The one who fears is not made perfect in love”.
(1John
As discussed later,
it is incomprehensible and inconceivable that in the divine Will, Desire and
Mind of the Creator, there exists concepts, realities and entities that relate
to the spiritual, physical and psychological pain and suffering of people
through the generation of fear expressed by the threat of the potential reality
of infinite punishment and damnation.
And, the eternity of flames from the fires of hell.
Human Destruction from Base Instincts, ‘Faiths’, ‘Beliefs’, Cultures,
Politics and Religions
It would be helpful to define the meaning of the above
words. Base Instincts are all those
‘primitive’ behaviours performed by animals and primates, and humans. Base instincts, come from the origins of
human evolution and were originally designed for survival, and include,
aggression, fear (fight and flight), territory dominance, control and
power. We observe the behavioural
dynamics of ‘the pecking order’ in many species- sex drive and the survival
needs of food, water and shelter. For
instance power, dominance and control over territory and subjects is prevalent
in the animal kingdom where even in a chicken pen chooks will gang up together
and peck the weakest chicken to death.
The emotions of anger and fear are related to the fight or flee response
and originate from the primitive part of the brain called the amygdale. Therefore these base behaviours have been
adopted by humans as a result of predetermined and preprogrammed evolution
passed down through the genetics of DNA, but prevail to impact negatively on
humanity through their continued expression and therefore conditioning, within
parent-child relationships and, in turn, whole communities. But
these primal base instincts also include the seemingly counterintuitive need
for many species of animals, including humans, to be social, to live and belong
in colonies and/or groups. This need for
some species, including humans, to be social, living together in close
proximity and the need to belong to the same species group
can facilitate and exacerbate the expression of the negative characteristics of
base instincts. Base instincts less
dormant in humans manifesting negatively as destructive manipulations of power,
control, aggression, fear and sex drive. The idea of the
predetermination of the creation of human evolution is fully discussed in
another.
The meaning of the
word culture can be defined as particular personal experiences brought about by
people adhering to a particular set of beliefs, attitudes, values and
behaviours which are possessed, promulgated, nurtured and grown within and by a
group of people living, working, playing and/or worshiping together. The dynamics of Culture are everywhere,
including within a communities of people in any family, office, company,
church, organisation, and/or political party with confined or unconfined
boundaries and may extend nationally and internationally. The meaning of the word Faith on the other
hand, can be complex, but put simply, can be defined as a deep-seated personal
belief that may or may not conceptually represent a blind acceptance of the
transcendent without a rational foundation of knowledge and intellectual
understanding of the subject matter. And
which can be driven by a personal innate spiritual need to transcendently
belong. Faith can be an unquestioning,
substantiated or unsubstantiated belief in anything of perceived importance to
do with someone or something. Faith can
be an inner ‘spiritual’ belief initiated and maintained by informed or misinformed
innate spiritual intuition. The
construct of human faith can often be initiated and maintained through informed
and/ or misinformed tradition’s, practice’s, law’s and rule’s of particular
cultures and religions.
Sadly, we experience elements of
systematic barbarism in particular cultures, political regimes, ideologies,
traditions and religions operating to this day.
These often uncompromising individual and group acts of aggression and
violence towards other humans can be understood as being driven by what may be
termed as inherent and intrinsic human psycho-spiritual dynamics and
principles. Therefore, in essence the
blame for these contemporary human acts of abuse and violence cannot be seated
solely at the foot of the ignorant and erroneous misinterpretation of
particular ‘Holy Scriptures’. This abuse
is part and parcel of an insidious and pervasive human mentality that is a
result and outcome of human beings’ innate need to adhere to particular
‘faiths’, ‘beliefs’, cultures, personal attitudes and/ or politics, which will
potentially provide a perceived sense of personal well-being and
security. The need to adhere to a
particular faith and belief is also predicated on human beings’ innate
‘spiritual’ desire and quest to aspire to and achieve that which is true and
right driven by the Self’s need for potential immortality.
This is in essence an innate human need
to psychologically aspire to the achievement of that which is perceived and
believed to be ‘absolutely right’ and that which is perceived and believed to
be ‘absolutely true’. These aspirations
and desires to achieve and embrace that which is ‘true’ and ‘right’ are often
driven by and expressed through ancient or neo religious practices and beliefs,
cultural and/ or political teachings and traditional rituals and practices. The practices, beliefs and faiths one may be
drawn towards, may in essence, be primarily irrational and founded on
ignorance, with the power and control dynamics of a system that has originated
from the depths and mix of complex human experiences.
The innate human need to adhere obediently to arbitrary,
religious, cultural and political ‘beliefs’ and ‘faiths’, is in part, driven by
the need for a sense of psychological security.
This is exacerbated by innocent ignorance, a sincere quest for truth, personal
fear, and the misinterpretation, and then application, of particular secular
and religious policies, laws, rituals, traditions and scriptures, which are by
definition, fallible, but which may be perceived as, but are definitely not,
perfect or infallible. The personal
selective conscious, subconscious and/ or arbitrary adoption of spiritual,
political and/or cultural beliefs and practices may manifest through the
synergy of a powerful psychological dynamic created by the mix and interaction
of spiritual, intellectual and emotional desires manipulated by needs produced
from base physical and psychological instincts.
These particular mixes, interactions and manipulations result in a
potential powder keg of personal vulnerability leading Self to the possible
exposure of irrational beliefs and faiths that result in spiritual,
intellectual, emotional and behavioural confusion, and the possibility of
interpersonal abuse. Moreover, these beliefs and
faiths can be adopted and widely disseminated without questioning the origins,
reasons and affects of such beliefs, and their corresponding outcomes on Self
and others.
We have seen examples of systematic and
nonsystematic physical, psychological and spiritual abuse in many cultures and
societies as an outcome of perpetrators ignorance, arrogance, fear, paranoia and hatred
exacerbating the hysterically blind following of misinformation and propaganda
that affirms one’s beliefs, thoughts and feelings manifest from the mix of
one’s intellect, cognitions and emotions interacting with one’s base
desires. The interaction of base desires
and instincts in association with one’s personal choices, environment and/or
experiences can produce thoughts, feelings, attitudes, values and beliefs that
facilitate particular behaviours and content of speech that manifest in a
actions such as, violence, discrimination, hatred and barbarism within and
between individuals and groups.
Furthermore, human-to-human atrocities can stem from the addition of the
aforementioned added to a plural basis of personal ignorance, arrogance, pride,
fear, vengeance, paranoia, and anger as a manifestation of the interaction
between base instincts and the advanced intellectual and emotional capabilities
to manipulate these base instincts. Such
an interactive recipe can result in the choice of a particular course of action
with diabolical repercussions.
Past and present cultural, political,
and religious beliefs, faiths and experiences may also contribute to an
individual’s or group’s chosen course of behaviour and mode of operation. Some examples of human-to-human psychological
and physical violence through ignorant and arbitrary cultural, political, and
religious beliefs, practices and behaviours humans have cruelly perpetrated on
one another include:
·
The ‘Christian’ Crusades
·
Radical Muslim Jihad and it’s coercive indoctrination
of Islam
·
The ‘Catholic’ Spanish Inquisition
·
18th, 19th 20th and
21st Century Colonialism and Neo
Colonialism
·
The fervor of Nationalism as an ideology
·
Communism as a political ideology
·
The political ideology of Fascism
·
Human Right’s Violations across many countries
·
Availability of Female and Male Circumcision
·
‘Honour’ Killings for cultural and religious reasons
·
Bride Burnings for cultural and religious reasons
·
Suicide Bombings for political, cultural and religious
reasons
·
Voodoo and Witch Craft Practices
·
Universal Racism
·
Universal Discrimination
·
Terrorism for political, cultural and religious
reasons
·
Ethnic Cleansing to justify wars in many countries
·
Religious sectarian violence, e.g., between Christian
Catholics and Protestants, and
Muslim Shi’ites and Sunnis
·
‘whites’ and ‘blacks’.
Human beings, by nature, are creatures
who have the potential to be misinformed, and ‘pumped’ with their own
importance, consequently displaying destructive attitudes of pride, ignorance
and arrogance, which often overlay and/or are overlaid with negative feelings
and thoughts, such as fear, paranoia and revenge. These less than constructive human
characteristics weaken an individual’s ability to make informed, independent,
and constructive choices, allowing for the impression and persuasion by people
and events that promise a sense of perceived personal gain, at others’ expense,
because of individual selfishness and greed, and political, cultural and
religious ideologies, beliefs and practices.
But there are more complex and sinister interplays affecting destructive
human psycho-spiritual behaviour.
It may be that destructive human
behaviour and contents of speech are a result of the culmination of the
intertwining of inflexible distorted and irrational cultural, political and
religious traditions, beliefs, ideologies and practices mixed together with
primal base instincts. These ‘true’
beliefs are generated by questionable beliefs, attitudes, and faiths as an
outcome of past and present experiences and the quest to achieve
psycho-personal gratuitous benefits and gains.
These personal human dynamics may in turn be exacerbated and fermented
by perceived and/or real ‘wounded’ sentiments and egos, and the distorted and
perverted quest for personal benefits and security, juxtaposition with the
desire for retribution and/or to be ‘right’ with ‘God’ and/or ‘powerful
others’.
This ultimately achieves a perceived
sense of maintaining or creating Self’s ego in terms of pride, power and
control. These distorted human mindsets
can result in feelings, thoughts and attitudes that manifest in anger, fear,
paranoia, revenge and oppression towards others with outcomes of obsessive
violence, racism, discrimination, oppression and abuse, to achieve personally
perceived individual and collective ‘important’ goals manifest in personally
perceived individual and collective personal satisfaction.
These are outcomes that we have seen in
humankinds’ sometimes, diabolical thoughts, feelings, values, beliefs and
attitudes resulting in coward and abusive behaviours and contents of speech
towards others by both individuals and communities. These behaviours of abuse may be explained by
the act of being driven by political, cultural and/or multi mass-slaughters,
genocide, and psychological and spiritual abuse, oppressing and destroying the
fragile, the vulnerable, and the innocent religious ignorance, arrogance and
bias, often manifesting in widespread.
Such examples of hysterical, cowardly, senseless and
mindless motivated acts of violence, genocide and oppression in the world, have
perpetrated over hundreds and hundreds of centuries. As the tribes and armies of particular
countries have attacked the tribes and armies of other countries to take over
executive control, and become the power.
Moreover, people of different religions have formed armies to attack and
kill people of other religious persuasions.
The philosophical and political ideology, culture and
behaviour of many European countries, in the early and late centuries, was
driven by their desire for power, greed and security, believed achievable
through the growth of their Empires through indiscriminate acts of annexation
and colonisation. World War I (1914-1918), in part, began with the large number of people living
in Bosnia-Herzegovina unhappy with Austrian rule, and favouring union with
For instance, to
pick one event during World War I, New Zealand’s defense chief Air Marshall Bruce Ferguson, on the 90th
anniversary of ANZAC, alludes to Winston Churchill and his Senior military
Officers, both English and Australian, demonstrating gross incompetence and
ignorance in their misguided and ill-informed decision to invade Turkey at
Gallipoli. Indiscriminately sending
brave and courageous young soldiers to their death, as if lambs to their
slaughter. Brave and courageous young
men, trained to kill and trained to be killed, as in the ‘
And in World War II (1939-1945), where
the people of Germany and its ‘professional dignitaries’, yes professionals,
including both men and women who were supposedly highly educated with
attributes of knowledge, honesty and ethics, such as, Scientists, Politicians,
Journalists, Medical Doctors, Nurses, Lawyers, Judges, Psychologists, Teachers, Ministers,
Priests and Psychiatrists, etcetera, supported Hitler’s Nazi Party. These ‘professionals’ supported the Fascist
ideologically driven extermination of six million Jews in death camps,
Auschwitz, etcetera, and millions of the mentally ill, disabled and
homosexuals, through either their implicit silence, or explicit contribution to
Hitler’s regime. A regime that desired
to ultimately implement, firstly, a universal ‘purity of race’ defined by the
personally perceived meaning of the indefinable abstract adjective words
‘beauty’ and ‘perfection’, and secondly, territorial dominance of the
world.
In may 2005, at an opening speech in Moscow,
celebrating the 60th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat, the
president of the United States of America, George Bush, admitted that allowing
the soviet domination of eastern Europe was ‘one of the greatest wrongs of
history’. This ‘mistake’ was ratified by
the 1945 Yalta Agreement, and signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston
Churchill and Josef Stalin. This
agreement followed in the ‘unjust tradition’ of war pacts that carved up
continents, leaving millions oppressed.
The
The
Meanwhile, and in
addition, the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian War between 1991 and 1995 represented religious, cultural
and ‘nationalistic’ oppression by
This aggressive terrorism
was the central theme of the conflict, which had war theatres in
Human-to-human
violence and oppression also includes individual as well as collective
person-to-person manipulation and exploitation, such as domestic violence;
physical, sexual, spiritual and emotional abuse; workplace and school bullying;
police, civil, political, private and corporate corruption and fraud; organized
crime (e.g. the mafia) and outlaw gangs.
These types of aberrant human-to-human behaviours can include despicable
activities where corrupt members of Governments can and do, in some countries,
siphon off public wealth and aid into personal and private bank accounts. Where police corruption manifests itself when
police officers commissioned as ‘upstanding’ members of the community choose to
abuse the extensive powers bestowed upon them by the public’s representative (Government)
to endorse and enforce legislated law.
Where, in police corruption, the end seems to justify the means. The ‘means’ defined firstly, as personal
voyeurism, illegal activity, complicity, duplicity, obtaining information, and
the general abuse of their use of power.
The ‘end’ defined as the number of
‘successful’ prosecutions, or personal financial gain, or drug use or
individual addiction to power broking.
Such a distorted philosophical mindset necessarily drives behaviour that
entails police interacting with the public and ‘alleged criminals’ at the
expense of judicial, transparent and natural justice – through the unethical
and illegal process of ‘wheeling and dealing’. For example, police corruption
manifests itself when particular police officers choose to use ‘drug addicts’ as
‘unofficial’ police informers, or choose to use ‘working girls’ as ‘unofficial’
police informers. This procures an
outcome that indirectly and implicitly, but ‘officially’, encourages that
individual addicted to drugs to use drugs, or indirectly and implicitly
‘officially’ encourages that individual working in the sex industry to continue
to ‘work’, or indirectly and implicitly ‘officially’ encourages whoever else to
continue doing whatever else.
Police officers have been found guilty
and been convicted of planting ‘evidence’, drug pushing, sexual assault,
physical assault and murder. Of course,
many police officers in many countries around the world are honourable
individuals imbibed and imbued with integrity.
But there are more than a few who undoubtedly become obsessed with the
abundant powers bestowed upon them, believing and acting as though they are
above the law and as a consequence, have no qualms about breaking the law that
they have been specifically inaugurated and commissioned to uphold. This results in the destruction of lives.
Furthermore,
individual corruption can also be defined in terms of ‘professionals’ living
distorted and twisted lives, because their behaviour is ‘dollar’ driven and
driven by all that the ‘dollar’ promises. For example, tobacco companies continue to
manufacture, promote and sell cigarettes to fellow humans despite their
intrinsic knowledge relating to the danger and harm to human health caused by
nicotine etcetera. Where
‘professionals’, those people in the community who are supposedly highly
educated, with the assumed attributes of honesty, common sense, and ethics,
such as, Psychiatrists, Psychologists and Lawyers have been known to write
dubious and questionable reports and assessments about a particular individual
geared toward the specific agenda of their fee paying client. These ‘professionals’ interact with and
assess a particular client in a way that is inherently influenced and biased
toward the particular agenda of those individuals or organisations that have
commissioned such ‘professional’ interaction, and who will remunerate them for
this ‘professional’ interpersonal assessment and communication. Professional medical doctors and nurses have
been found guilty and convicted of murdering their patients.
Also corrupt outlaw gangs may encourage
‘prospects’ (potential gang members) to commit horrific crimes against
individuals, such as bashing and rape, as the process for their initiation and
‘right of passage’ to gang membership and the ownership of club ‘colours’ and
‘patches’.
These examples of human-to-human
cruelty and aggression include regular people hurting their families and
others, together demonstrating how easily it is for human beings, both male and
female, to continue with depraved and barbaric practices towards one
another. And which behaviours are
explained or justified by an individual’s particular adversarial upbringing or
particular attitudes based on their unquestioning faith and belief to
particular cultures, politics, traditions and/ or religions. These are personal choices made albeit
choices often based on ignorance and misinformation, or choices deliberately
made without mitigating factors.
These are evil and corrupt acts
predicated on personal and communal arrogance, pride, power and greed. These acts are often ‘rationally justified’
and implemented through ideologies that are psuedo-sanitised and
psychologically camouflaged through a personal need to belong and commit –
albeit irrational and distorted - loyally to individual or tribal, or national
subjective beliefs to particular cultures, politics, traditions, rituals and/
or religions. These irrational and
distorted mindsets manifest in destructive behaviours and contents of speech
without the intellectual foundation of logic, reason, thought, and emotion, to
the injustice, pain and injury inevitably suffered by others. This is in spite of the destructiveness and
amount of pain and suffering these acts of physical and psychological violence
bear upon fellow human beings.
Such practices seem predicated on
personally destructive experiences and/ or compliance to authoritative
religious texts and literature, and/ or compliance to traditions and rituals,
or compliance to powerful political figures from which personal loyalties and
beliefs towards such cultures and bureaucracies ferment a deep-seated attitude
of arrogant exclusiveness, and perhaps, the fear of abandonment for
noncompliance. Compliances of this
nature result in base ‘tribal’ and ‘gang like’ mentalities because of the
unquestioning and irrational adherence to particular faiths and beliefs that consequently result
in destructive behaviours and contents of speech through individual and/or
collective human-to-human policies of human psychological and physical
oppression and violence.
Inhumane political ideologies and
nationalistic loyalties and practices, are underscored by ‘distorted’ and
‘irrational’ attitudes, values and beliefs formulated as a result of acute
knee-jerk, and/ or extreme and chronic psychological reactions driven by base
instincts and selfish ego driven desires as a way of manipulating and
controlling particular civilian climes and situations for gratuitous personal
benefit. Of course, these destructive
practices are a consequence of coming from the self-absorbed perspective of a
secular and sectarian ego, rather than from a starting point and reference of
relational love, charity, reconciliation and compassion, being the driving
force and rationale of this book’s discourse.
Nonetheless, the human-to-human experience of inter-relational hate and
destruction, resulting from individual and collective traits of fear,
arrogance, pride, power and greed, is an indefensible excuse.
But without going over board and
throwing the baby out with the bath water, ‘appropriate’ political, cultural
and religious beliefs can sometimes be the building blocks of society’s healthy
psyche, and positives may flow from history including, constructive ancient
traditions, and rituals. But valuable
lessons can also be learnt from the many past and current disastrous mistakes
made by humans from destructive behaviours and speech driven by the base
instincts of ignorance, arrogance, self-obsession, self-absorption and the
personal possession of irrational and destructive ideologies, beliefs and
faiths. Indiscriminate beliefs in
questionable ideologies of particular cultures, politics, traditions and
religions can impose psychological influence over subjects through the ingestion,
imposition and/ or embracement of regulations, rituals, values, attitudes and
faiths regardless of their intrinsic integrity, commonsense and rationale.
These beliefs, in turn, through their
specific criteria for personal admission, can often promote within the psyche
the need for regimental and arbitrary psychological oppression and aggression
because of their insanely orientated attitudes and behaviours inevitably
experienced as destructive to societies, groups and individuals. These beliefs and behaviours can often be a
result of conscious and/ or subconscious brainwashing influenced by those who
advertently or inadvertently promote, propagate and teach these cultural,
political and religious traditions, beliefs and practices that can either be
transmitted from one generation to the next or evolve ‘in situ’. And which, are adopted through personal fear
and/or arrogance because of the need for a personal sense of security and power
and/or a personal faith and belief that gives meaning to one’s life. These diverse cultural, political and
religious faiths and traditions are exacerbated and perpetuated by the
followers’ and members’ psychological, communal and spiritual need and desire
to dutifully adhere to the code of their specific cultural, political and/ or
religious practice as an expression of implicit and explicit spiritual,
political and cultural commitment, zeal and dedication.
These ‘dutiful’ behaviours and beliefs
can be emotionally, and cognitively justified, through the psychological need
for a fanatical belief in one’s faith, politics and culture. This is, the psychological need of being
faithful to one’s faith, politics and culture and the unwavering and intrinsic
desire of a fervent and uncompromising belief in one’s faith, politics and
culture as the prerequisite for being a dutiful and ‘good’ follower, and thus
as such, an admired person. That is, a
personal belief and faith in a particular politics, religion and/ or culture,
which is considered to be the only ‘true’ and ‘right’ one, and as such, is
deeply ingrained in the spiritual and intellectual psyche compatible with being
a ‘belonged and needed loyal member and person.’
Some thoughts and feelings going
through an individuals mind with such subjective belief’s relating to these
personal self-needs, may include, ideas and words that represent sentiments,
like: “If I am faithful to the laws and rules - regardless of any negative
impact on others - of my culture, politics and/or religion. And am dedicated to ‘believing’ in ‘this’
culture, politics and/or religion, which I ‘know’ and ‘believe’ to be both
‘true’ and ‘right’, and a means to my end.
“Then I will be filled with pride and admired and accepted by the
authorities, peers and/or ‘God’, as a loyal and dedicated subject. Therefore, I will be an ‘important’,
‘powerful’ and ‘good’ person, giving me a sense of personal fulfillment and
meaning to my life. I will also continue
to be a valued member of my particular ‘faith believing’ community in relation
to this particular culture, politics and/or religion, and therefore, a
faithful, valued and important individual belonging to such an ‘important’ and
‘powerful’ entity.”
It is because of the potential damage
engendered by the psyche generated from an unquestioning faith and belief in
the rules, rituals and laws of cultures, politics and religions, that it
becomes understandably imperative that we consider believing in ideas and
values underpinned by unbiased and soundly informed logical and rational
foundations of knowledge and information.
This is, informed knowledge about an important subject, which has been,
or will be, intellectually synthesised and integrated with an informed,
reflective, introspective, intuitive and discerning intellect and spirit of
goodwill. A particular mindset based on
a sound, logical and rational foundation integrated with a reflective,
discerning and intuitive spirit will result in constructive thoughts, feelings
and behaviours towards Self and others.
These expressed articulations are not about excluding every facet from
all ‘faiths,’ ‘politics’, religions and ‘cultures’ from the complex mix that
manufacture human attitudes, values and beliefs and subsequent behaviours and
speech content. But are intended to
highlight the potential dangers of human base instincts and selfish needs
manifest in attitudes of exclusiveness, ignorance, arrogance and pride, at the
expense of personal commonsense and humility, at the cost of human suffering
and pain.
Psychological and physical pain and
suffering will occur because other very important components and information
are not included in the mix that precede an individuals propensity for
potentially treacherously disastrous thoughts, feelings, values, attitudes and
beliefs and subsequent behaviours and content of speech. As an outcome of constructive, rational,
unbiased and evidence based information, interactively mixed with a reflective,
introspective discerning and intuitive spirit, human beliefs, behaviours and
speech, will potentially impact in a positive way through constructive personal
thoughts, feelings, attitudes and values that are characterised as selfless as
opposed to selfish.
As discussed, a spiritual,
intellectual, logical, rational and appropriate foundation and measure for
one’s thoughts, feelings, values, attitudes, beliefs and actions can arguably
be based on the principles derived from informed knowledge, spiritual intuitive
discernment and freewill, manifest as personal integrity, reason, honesty,
relational love, compassion and charity.
Rather than being based on that which has the destructive and
debilitating, polarising and dichotomizing affects and outcomes from thoughts,
feelings, values, attitudes, behaviours and speech that are based on base
instincts and the personal selfish needs and requirements to be right and proud
and not ‘wrong’ or ‘insignificant’ and therefore possession of a perceived
sense of security.
If we are ‘right’, then we are ‘good’,
with a potential sense of smugness and personal power, but everyone else must
therefore be potentially wrong and therefore potentially bad. If everyone else is wrong and bad then this
will inevitably lead to personal feelings, thoughts, behaviours and speech that
reflect the attitudes, values and beliefs reminiscent of self-righteousness,
judgment, pride and hypocrisy and ultimately, discrimination and hatred towards
those who are perceived to be different and therefore ‘bad’ and ‘wrong’. Perhaps we may possess the mindset that if we
are not ‘right’ and therefore ‘good’, then we must be wrong and the meaning of
wrong within this context may be identified and defined as being ‘bad’, this
is, the opposite to the meaning of ‘good’, thus potentially leading to personal
feelings of perceived inadequacy, inferiority and low sense of self-worth.
But hey, in reality all humans are
imperfect and so fall short of the ideal of perfection. But through the personal act of riding the
‘high moral ground’ or thinking that one is ‘holier than thou’, such conscious intellectual and emotional attitudes and
beliefs and subsequent behaviours and speech
exemplify confirmation of human personal imperfection. So as we may understand, we are talking about
personal and conscious attitudes, behaviours and speech, which are determined
by individual and/or collective beliefs, values, and faiths, determined by
personal needs and which are either fundamentally and radically rational and
constructive, or which are fundamentally and radically irrational and
destructive to Self and others.
CHAPTER 4
Lucifer and the King James Version of the Bible
More Similarities
than Differences between Religions
More about Comparative Religious Beliefs
So then, when reading
literature from within the Bible, it would be helpful to be familiar and aware
of five principle factors pertaining to the interpretation of scripture. Without such informed knowledge regarding the
construction, origins and editing of ancient scripture we could adversely
interpret Scripture, and thus, the cognitive and affective influence it may
hold. We could unknowingly distort,
through misinterpretation, the meanings of the words in the text of the verses,
and consequently, the interpretation and understanding of the semantics of
scripture, in both the Old and New Testaments.
To add to the mix of confusion relating
to scripture interpretation, keep in mind that today there are at least
thirteen different versions of the Bible.
These different versions of the Bible have their own individual literary
nuances, which are evident in every Chapter.
These different Bibles include, for example, the American Standard
Version, New American Standard, New Living Translation, Contemporary English
Version, King James Version, New King James Version, Revised Standard Version,
New Revised Standard, The Darby Translation, Hebrew Names Version and The Latin
Vulgate.
Unfortunately the misguided and
inaccurate interpretation and misinterpretation of such powerfully influential
writings as the various Holy Scriptures, such as the Bible and Qu’ran etcetera,
will inevitably - specifically for many individuals, and generally for many
communities, both nationally and internationally - determine the way Self
thinks and feels about Self. And the way
Self thinks and feels about others, and in turn, the content of Self’s values,
attitudes, beliefs and behaviours ultimately resulting in the manner in which
Self treats Self
and Self treats others, and thus the manner in which others treat Self.
The five principle factors for interpretation of
scripture include:
(1) The
attempt and need to grasp with present day experiences taking into
consideration unique cultural contexts, the original meanings of the Hebrew and
Greek words in verses written many hundreds and thousands of years ago. And a decision made whether to extrapolate
and apply these meanings or not to present day problems, contexts and issues.
(2) The ability to decipher and
identify the accuracy of the corresponding meanings of the Hebrew and Greek
words when they have been translated into ‘equivalent’ English words, or the
words of another language, is critical in the understanding of Scripture. For example, today we have a natural tendency
to read the word “church” as if it referred to the reality we know by that word
today. That is, as the prayerful
community in a highly structured, organized and institutionalised Religion of a
particular belief and faith. Yet, the
reality in Peter and Paul’s time, when Paul speaks about the word “church,” was
rather different from its meaning today.
In Peter and Paul’s era there was the ritualistic and formal Holy Temple
of Jerusalem and the followers of the Jewish splinter group ‘The Jesus
Movement’. This movement identified with
the behaviour of people gathering informally to dialogue and discuss their
everyday experiences and spiritual beliefs, achievements, future plans and
goals, in order to disseminate the phenomenal message of the Messiah.
The list of these ‘theological’ words
interpreted differently today is long and some translators try to avoid the
difficulty by using other synonyms. For
example, the word “community” would, be used, instead of the word “church”. The word “church,” in Paul’s time was not a
Christian invention, but a common word used in the Greek world at that time
with a specific secular meaning. Those
people who first heard Paul’s letters, read to them, would have been aware that
a common secular word was being used with new connotations. Yet today when we hear the word “church”, we
hear it in its pure contemporary meaning and are probably unaware of its
original secular connections.
(3) The need to be aware of the degree of accuracy that
the original authors, editors and redactors of Christ’s life had in remembering
Christ’s living reality, and the degree of accuracy in their interpretation of
what Jesus really said and did.
Furthermore, we need to be aware of the possible inaccuracies subsequent
editors may have incurred whilst interpreting original written sources.
(4) The need to be mindful of asking Self the question; is the text which
was originally written in the metaphor genre being read by Self as intended,
that is, metaphorically rather than literally?
And is text that was originally written in the literal genre being read
in today’s context rather than the context in which it was originally written?
(5) What was deemed, as ‘the law’ and ‘good and right’ more than 2,000
years ago in terms of the Old Testament and in some verses of the New
Testament, may not be necessarily right or good, appropriate, humane and
practical today. Because of the
scientific, cultural, ethical and technological changes within society, and the
continual development and refinement of beliefs, values and morals through the
progression of intellectual, emotional and social evolution, the process of
hermeneutics in relation to the interpretation of Scripture is about
reinterpreting ancient Scripture within a contemplative, spiritual and contemporary
context. This is, reinterpreting literal
or metaphorical messages from antiquity into messages that are relevant for
today. Christ Himself totally overhauled
and redefined many of the ancient scriptures and replaced them with messages
that relate to the invocation of unconditional relational love, compassion and
reconciliation to be practiced between all peoples. This imperative message from Christ of
unconditional relational love, compassion and reconciliation, is by definition,
a message that is universal and timeless and can be expressed and performed by
individuals regardless of cultural and religious contexts and which
interpretation is immune from the ages and generations including today’s
‘modernity’ and ‘contemporary’ society.
Here are two more
interesting and ambiguous verses that require our special attention to decipher
their deeper and metaphorical or literal meaning:
In the gospel of Matthew we
read:
“If the miracles performed
on you had been performed on
(Matthew 11:22-24)
Again in Matthew we read:
“It is harder for a rich
man to go to heaven than a camel to fit through the eye of a needle, impossible
for man but for God everything is possible.”
(Matthew 19:24-26)
At a deeper underlying and metaphorical level of meaning,
perhaps the author of these two verses is emphasising the power of the
Creator’s ability to mystically relate with all peoples through divine
unconditional love, no matter whatever their past, present or future personal
experiences. Whatever their past,
present or future personal situations and circumstances may be.
Lucifer and the King James Version of the
Bible
The ease with which Biblical Scripture can be
misinterpreted, is exemplified by the historical evolution of biblical
literature in relation to the literal mistranslation and transmutation of the
word “Lucifer”. Most of us would
acknowledge that the meaning of the word “Lucifer” relates to and is just
another word used for the words Satan, Devil and Prince of Darkness and the
meaning these words represent, which themselves, are words, that have also been
misrepresented and misinterpreted.
However, the word “Lucifer” makes its appearance only in the King James
Version of the Old Testament of the Bible, in the book of Isaiah Chapter 14
Verse 12. If you search the web site,
www.biblegateway.com you will find that all the other Bible versions of Isaiah
14:12 use the words, King of Babylonia, or Morning Star, Shining Star, or Day
Star, instead of the word “Lucifer”.
The King James Version of Isaiah 14:12, reads:
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer,
son of the morning! How art thou cut
down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations"!
(Isaiah 14:12)
A scholar at the library of the
The word “Lucifer” is a Latin name, which in Roman astronomy was the name given to the
morning star that we now call Venus, also from Latin. This ‘morning star’ appears in the heavens
just before dawn, heralding the rising sun. The name “Lucifer” derives from the
Latin term ‘lucem ferre’, bringer or bearer of light.
The scholars who were
authorised by King James I to translate the Bible into current English, did not
use the original Hebrew texts, but used versions translated from Hebrew into
Latin by
Theologians, writers, and poets have taken
this misinterpretation of the word “Lucifer” and transformed it into the
mythical story and erroneous ‘doctrine’ of ‘The Fall’. So now, the word “Lucifer”, means the same as
the misinterpreted meanings of the words Satan, Devil, and Prince of
Darkness. Subsequent christian scholars and scribes,
writing in the Latin, which
was used at that time by the Church, have intentionally, or unintentionally
decided for themselves that this story is about a fallen angel. But this creature the “Fallen Angel” is not
even mentioned in the original Hebrew text, but nonetheless has ‘conveniently’
been given the name "Lucifer".
However, only the King James Version now still uses the word “Lucifer”
in the text of Isaiah 14:12.
Other Holy Scriptures and the
Qu’ran (Koran)
Importantly, some of these same guiding
principles that would allow us to read and interpret the verses of Scripture in
the Bible with increased accuracy and clarity would also apply to the readings
and interpretation of the writings of other ancient ‘Holy Scriptures’ in
existence today. These ‘Holy Scriptures’
have been written with their contextual stories, laws and rules that provide
the foundational impetus for the intellectual, behavioural and emotional
climate of a believing people that can fertilise the seeds of innate spiritual
desires and needs, and the attitudinal climate that incubates and nurtures the
ongoing culture, theology and philosophy of a people. These beliefs and behaviors, in turn,
continue to drive many of the diverse religions and faiths existing in the
world experienced and lived by humans today.
And so similar to the influence Christianity has had on the western
world so Islam has impacted on Eastern Civilisation over the last 1300 years in
relation to the values, beliefs, perceptions, perspectives, laws and policies
that have been framed, shaped and driven by Islamic philosophy based on
Muhammad and the Koran.
The
Qu’ran (Koran) is the holy book of Islam, which was/ is said to been revealed
to Mohammed in 616 AD through an angel called Jibra’el (Gabriel). Mohammed was
born in
The
contents of the Qu’ran are said to been given to Muhammad through the revelation
of an angel called Jibra’el. The Qu’ran
consists of 114 Chapters or Suras, and has striking literary similarities and
semantic resemblances to both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, although
the Qu’ran is a smaller book. In light
of this knowledge, it is perhaps not surprising that Abraham of the Old
Testament is the focus of attention in Sura 14 of the Qu’ran. Also, Jesus’ mother, Mary (Miriam) of the New
Testament is addressed 33 times in the Qu’ran.
The Qu’ran also is remarkably comparable to the Bible in that it relies
heavily on an emphasis and preoccupation of violence, punishment and hell as a
threatening lever for the driving motivational force to instill a particular
belief and subsequent reform, conformation and obedience. The Qu’ran comprises of 114 chapters, which
within are 97 verses dedicated to the threat of hell and 171 verses dedicated
to the potential experience and threat of punishment.
For
example in Chapter (Sura) 2 Verse 206, we read:
“And
when it is said to him, guard against the punishment of Allah; pride carries
him off to sin, therefore hell is sufficient for him; and certainly it is an
evil resting place.”
In
Sura 3 Verse 12 we read:
“Say
to those who disbelieve: You shall be vanquished, and driven together to hell;
and evil is the resting-place.”
Sura
3 Verse 77:
“(As for) those who take a
small price for the covenant of Allah and their own oaths-- surely they shall
have no portion in the hereafter, and Allah will not speak to them, nor will He
look upon them on the day of resurrection nor will He purify them, and they
shall have a painful chastisement”.
Sura 3 Verse 86:
“How shall Allah guide a
people who disbelieved after their believing and (after) they had borne witness
that the Apostle was true and clear arguments had come
to them; and Allah does not guide…the…unjust…people”.
Sura 3 Verse 90:
“Surely, those who disbelieve
after their believing, then increase in unbelief, their repentance shall not be
accepted, and these are they that…go…astray”.
Sura 3 Verse 91:
“Surely, those who disbelieve
and die while they are unbelievers, the earth full of gold shall not be
accepted from one of them, though he should offer to ransom himself with it,
these it is who shall have a painful chastisement, and they shall have no
helpers”.
Sura
3 Verse 162:
“Is
then he who follows the pleasure of Allah like him who has made himself
deserving of displeasure from Allah, and his abode is hell; and it is an evil
destination”.
Sura
3 Verses 196-197 we read:
“(As
for) those who disbelieve, surely neither their wealth nor their children shall
avail them in the least against Allah; and these are the inmates of the fire;
therein they shall abide. A little
enjoyment and they shall have a punishment.”
In Sura 4 Verse 93, we read:
“And whoever kills a believer
intentionally, his punishment is hell; he shall abide in it, and Allah
will send His wrath on him and curse him
and prepare for him a painful chastisement.”
In Sura 4 Verse 121, we read:
“These are they whose abode is hell, and
they shall not find any refuge from it.”
In Sura 4 Verse 169:
“Except the path of hell, to abide in it
for ever, and this is easy to Allah.”
In Sura 7 Verse 4, we read:
“And how many a town that we destroyed so
our punishment came to it by night, or while they
slept at
Sura 7 Verse 41 reads:
“They shall have a bed of hell-fire and
from above them coverings of it; and thus do we reward
the unjust.”
Sura 8 Verse 50:
“And had you seen when the angels will cause
to die those who disbelieve, smiting their faces and
their backs, and saying: Taste the
punishment of burning.”
Sura 9 Verse 6 reads:
“Allah has promised the hypocritical men
and the hypocritical women and the unbelievers the fire
of hell to abide therein; it is enough for
them; and Allah has cursed them and they shall have
lasting punishment.”
In Sura 3 Verse 67 we read:
“Ibrahim
(Abraham) was not a Jew, nor a Christian, but he was (an) upright (man),
a Muslim, and he was not one of the polytheists”
Sura
3 Verse 85 reads:
“If
anyone desires a religion other than Islam, never will it be accepted of him;
and in the Hereafter he will be in the ranks of those who have lost all
spiritual good”.
Sura 5 Verse 51:
“O you who believe! do not
take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each
other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one
of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people”.
Sura
5 Verse 72:
“They
do blaspheme who say: "Allah is Christ the son of Mary." But said
Christ: "O Children of Israel! Worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord".
Whoever joins other gods with Allah - Allah will forbid him the GARDEN, and the
Fire will be his abode”.
Sura
9 Verse 30:
“And
the Jews say: Uzair is the son of Allah; and the Christians say: The Messiah is
the son of Allah; these are the words of their mouths; they imitate the saying
of those who disbelieved before; may Allah destroy them; how they are turned
away”!
To
the ‘faith’ believing reader, these ‘holy’ scripture verses contain literature
that appear to consist of a complement of specific words and statements
dictating harsh and vitriolic sentiments that threaten ‘physical’ violence,
including the ultimate punishment, eternal hell. The collation and collaboration of these
frightening verses, are obviously calculated to inflict the inducement of
maximum fear on the believer, enforcing strict adherence and obedience to the
rules and laws of these particular religious faiths. These intimidating verses of laws and rules
are used to induce the manipulation of specific behaviours by using the
leverage of personal fear from the threats of ‘physical’ violence and spiritual
damnation.
Indeed,
the threat of calculated punishment and hell towards those followers, believers
and nonbelievers who do not comply with or are not obedient to the structured
framework of ‘spiritual’ regulations required by the particular faiths of these
religions. Of course this intimidating
and threatening ‘physical’ and spiritual modus of operandi to achieve specific
and particular behaviours in relation to the compliance and obedience to the
dogma and creeds of religions and their ‘spiritual’ leaders occurs in many
other beliefs, faiths and religions. But
in contradistinction to the above verses, the following writing
illustrates a more benign and constructive message.
But again, in stark contrast to the
above potentially belligerent, judgemental and counter constructive religious
scripture messages, we have a more user-friendly verse that attempts to
describe a ‘God’ that ‘is loving’ towards believers of different faiths and
religions:
Sura
3 Verse 89:
“Except those who
repent after that and amend, then surely Allah is…Forgiving…Merciful”.
Sura 3 Verse 129:
“And whatever is in the
heavens and whatever is in the earth is Allah's; He forgives whom He pleases
and chastises whom He pleases; and Allah is Forgiving, Merciful”.
Sura
3 Verse 134 reads:
“Those
who spend (benevolently) in ease as well as in straitness, and those who
restrain (their) anger and pardon men; and Allah loves the doers of good (to
others)”
Sura 2 Verse 62, which reads:
“Surely
those who believe, and those who are Jews, and the Christians, and the Sabians,
whoever believes in Allah and the Last day and does good, they shall have their
reward from their Lord, and there is no fear for them, nor shall they grieve”.
In the next example we have
several verses alluding to Mary as being the virgin mother of the Messiah (the
anointed one):
Sura 3 Verses 42-47:
“And when the angels said: O
Marium! surely Allah has chosen you and purified you and chosen you above the
women of the world. When the angels
said: O Marium, surely Allah gives you good news with a Word from Him (of one)
whose name is the Messiah, Isa son of Marium, worthy of regard in this world
and the hereafter and of those who are
made near (to Allah). She said:
My Lord! When shall there be a son (born) to I me, and man has not touched me?
He said: Even so, Allah creates what He pleases; when He has decreed a matter,
He only says to it, Be, and it is”.
The
following verses, with similarity to the Old Testament of the Bible, describe
the time it took Allah (God, Creator) to create the Universe:
Sura
7 Verse 54:
“Surely
your guardian-Lord is Allah. Who created the heavens and the earth in six
periods of time”.
Sura
10 Verse 3:
“Verily
your Lord is Allah, who created the heavens and the earth in six periods”.
Sura
11 Verse 7:
“He
it is Who created the heavens and the earth in six periods”.
These verses are, in general, further evidence of the
spiritual literary contradictions of holy scriptures and the need to interpret
positively scripture as a whole.
Misinterpretation of such verses can easily turn to
weapons creating potential damage by eliciting negative misinformation from the
literal interpretation of ‘holy’ and ‘sacred’ writings. These verses clearly indicate an illustration
of the incongruent and contradictory nature of the messages conveyed in such
scripture and allude to the possession of similarities in relation to other
scriptures, including those of the Bible.
We will explore how this seemingly
gratuitous extravagant emphasis on violence, punishment and hell in both the
Bible and the Qu’ran, and also implicitly advocated through the notions and
concepts of ‘Karma’ and ‘Reincarnation’, can never ever be attributed to being
the messages and words that come from the mind and will of a Creator. From a creator who is mystical, creative,
intelligent, unconditionally loving, compassionate and merciful.
Moreover, to attribute the threat of such potential
realities as ‘physical’ and psychological violence, and such spiritual images
as eternal punishment and damnation in Hell with Satan, to ‘God’, to the
Creator, will, by association, unjustly and unfairly portray ‘God’ the Creator
as a vindictive, angry, belligerent and violent Super Natural Being. This would reduce the Super Natural Being to
a Creator and ‘God’ who’s quality of mystical relational love with the created
is solely defined in essence by a value that is predicated on the quantity and
quality of human ‘goodness’ and/ or ‘badness’.
That is in turn, judged and measured by the notion and concept of being
‘right’ and/ or ‘wrong’. Such portrayal
of the Creator can only produce in humans a mindset and mentality that incites
human-to-human ‘physical’, psychological and spiritual violence and abuse that
ultimately manifests in the real expression of personal prejudice, judgment,
fear, disharmony, arrogance, pride and violence.
Nevertheless, the interpretation
of Scripture verses, will never be entirely satisfactorily completed. New experiences and challenges at every stage
of our generational and human lifecycle of experience will inevitably bring to
light new insights and meanings about the value, need and reason for Sacred
Scripture in the world. Thus, there will
be new and evolving interpretations and meanings in Scripture to grapple with,
to internalize and appropriately apply to our experiences as we continue to
evolve and grow individually as human beings and collectively as a community,
nation and international world.
More Similarities than Differences between Religions
We have
discussed many contradictions with religions and differences between
religions. There are many more core and
intrinsic similarities between all the religions, than there are inherent
differences. Personally, I think it is
helpful to acknowledge and celebrate the similarities between and within
religions because this builds the sense and experience of cohesiveness, which
brings humans closer together rather than alienating them and making enemies of
them. This religious ‘sameness’ and
inclusiveness will demonstrate our ‘brotherhood’ and ‘sisterhood’ for each
other as human beings who carry the need for personal goals such as the requirement for self-improvement and
immortality of the Self – that is to eternally exist after one’s anatomical
death. So lets discuss the similarities
and differences between religions.
Firstly, in
Christian religion, its founder, Jesus Christ, was the only ‘person’ who
claimed to be the Son of God observed and described to have performed many
miracles, including raising the anatomical dead back to life again. The 2000 year old ‘Catholic Church’ is said
to have been the first ‘Christian’ church with its succeeding denominations of
Christian churches splitting from Catholic genesis. The Christian churches or Christian
denominations that split from the first church were initiated, administered and
ministered by imperfect humans. But all
these imperfect humans with negative innate traits to transgress, be selfish,
greedy and exploit others may still provide to all humanity, believers or not, Christian
or not, contributions to peoples of the world.
The universal
contributions to the world, by these groups of ‘religious’ people, may be
described in the following way. Over the
months, decades, centuries, and millenniums of time and space, the imperfect -
Christian religion - has connected with the perfect – Christ. Christian religions with their association to
Christ, have over the past 2000 years, connected the imperfect with perfect. So the
So, through
Christ, the ‘conscious spiritual infinite’ has celestially and transcendently
been connected with the ‘physical’ finite.
Christians will proclaim that the eternal, infinite, immortal, unique,
independent and sovereign Creator who always was and who always will be, has
now been consciously and transcendently connected in a ‘spiritual-relational
way’ with the infinite, immortal, unique, independent and sovereign created
entity of the human being. So Christ’s
historically earthly, and present heavenly presence, now in a
spiritually-material fashion, disseminates his perfect and intrinsic essence of
compassion, mercy, justice and forgiveness towards the potentiality of
compassion, mercy, justice and forgiveness that human beings will follow and so
act towards one another.
Now we must be
mindful, without prejudice or favour, without arrogance or pride, the Christian
church must take its place alongside and with all religions of the world. Religions, that by definition and practice,
all deliver their own brand of particular rituals, beliefs and traditions but
which have very similar goals. These are
the human goals that anticipate and hope to achieve, as a destination, the
personal experience of self-improvement, peace, happiness and immortality. These are goals that unquestionably humans
admit and confess to desiring as an innate and intrinsic personal
happening. Indeed, these are the
experiences that all humans anticipate and desire to occur at anatomical
death. That is, that their
consciousness, self and personhood, with all that these comprise, will live
immortally and infinitely even though their physical body dies. These desires would be generic for most if
not all humans no matter race, creed or colour.
Moreover, within the barrow of diverse religions there
include multiple denominations of Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims,
all with varying forms, degrees and extremities of beliefs etc. These diverse religions, through their own
unique experiences, traditions, rituals, faiths and beliefs are commutatively,
ultimately directed towards understanding more deeply the idea and reality
about the existence and nature of a Supreme Being juxtaposed with living life,
and life after death. This is, after
anatomical death, when the structure and functions of the atom-energy of the
body dies (changes in form, structure and function), the person continues
onwards with their consciousness, memory, experiences and awareness, in another
place, and in another dimension to the universe as we now know it.
Of course, the
various religions of the world use different rituals, traditions, beliefs and
ideas to encapsulate the transcendent concept universally imbibed by humans to
understand themselves, life, the universe, and life after death. This process of transcendent understanding
undertaken is often kick started and propelled along by the ingestion of the
material content from the different religions which people fervently belong
to. As described, most religions ascribe
to similar goals. These are personal
universal goals that relate to understanding the complexities and unknown’s of
immortality and the continued consciousness of Self, including achieving
personal improvements in all the aspects that make up the Self. An example of such personal improvements
would include the expression of platonic love, reconciliation and compassion in
day–to-day interpersonal communications and interactions with each
another.
Most religions
have a ‘spiritual’ modus operandi of personally working through one’s
challenges in this world and improving Self through discovering and then
acknowledging personal strengths and weaknesses and benignly adjusting and
changing as required for self-improvement.
Most religions adhere to the belief that in the next world we will
experience a personal sense of infinite and perfect wellbeing, happiness and
satisfaction after reflecting on our actions, thoughts and feelings that we
have expressed negatively towards others in life on earth. Reflecting on our responses and actions
towards other human’s perse, and their feelings and thoughts will define our
past interactions with others, and any pain we have caused we will experience
allowing us to acknowledge and lament on our behaviour and its
consequences. We thus become more aware
and conscious of ourselves as unique individual sovereign beings, who have the
ability to improve ourselves. And this
is a form of spiritual personal purging and ‘purification’.
So there are
many similarities between the different religions and their ultimate
goals. However there are many
differences in the ritualistic, ideological, philosophical, and theological
aspects and elements that make up the ‘machinery’ of the different
religions.
Although there
are the commonalities between religions that describe the definition of most
religions perse, this does not mean that religions have not become tainted, or contaminated
or institutionalised over time. Just as
there are theological and practical distortions and contaminations etc., and
extremes, cults and spin offs in the broader ‘Christian’ church, there are also
‘extremist’, ‘cult’ and ‘spin offs’ in other religions that distort their
intrinsic and unique ability to find and experience the essence of truth they
so desire. Of course there is absolute
Truth and personal ‘Truth’, both are elusive entities, but personal Truth may be described as being
the personal consciousness and awareness that ultimately leads to ones personal
understanding of Self, perse, both independently and dependently in relation to
the Supreme Being.
Moreover, not
only are there many similarities between religions, there are also many diverse
and different ways that religious institutions go about achieving their
universal goals of self improvement and understanding and achieving
immortality. For example, many
non-Christian religions believe in the process called reincarnation - in all of
its different forms – said to achieve personal purification and enlightenment
through ‘good works’ and meditation.
Followers of different forms of reincarnation believe that purification
of the Self is achieved either here on earth, or in the ‘other world’. Reincarnation is believed by some to be a
‘spiritual’ vehicle, that allows a person who anatomically dies, to come back
to earth as some kind of plant, animal, or human situated in a ‘better’ or
‘worse’ status, dependant on the quality of their past life in terms of being
and doing ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
Most religions
that adhere to reincarnation as a form of purification use the concept of
‘karma’ as being the punishment or reward for the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ behaviours,
thus being a natural ‘cause and effect’ way or transcendent spiritual machinery
being the motivation for improving Self. This is, experiencing a higher or
lower level of consciousness. So if one
has lead a ‘bad’ previous or present life a person will be punished, and on the
other hand, one will be rewarded for living a ‘good’ life. One of the downsides of the belief in karma
is that it is open to abuse. That is, it
is ok to abuse those who are poor, disabled, or disadvantaged because their
punishment is ‘deserved’ and because they have lived a ‘bad’ life in the past
or present life. On the other hand,
these believers ‘look up’ to those who are healthy, rich and successful as
being their rewards for living a ‘good’ life in the previous and present
one. We do not have to be rocket scientists
to realise that these associations made between a person’s existing status in
life and their ‘good’ or ‘bad’ behaviour in the past or present life are not
necessarily absolutely connected.
It is ignorant
to believe that everything ‘bad’ that happens to a person, can with certainty,
be relegated to the ‘bin of punishment’, for a particular ‘set’ or singular
‘bad’ acts. For example, you surely
cannot arbitrarily and judgementally relegate to the ‘bin of punishment’ the
person who gets terminally ill, or who dies from cancer, or who killed by a
drunk driver, or whose business collapses, or who loses their job, or the child
who dies from drowning, or run over, or the child who was harmed by their
parents. These tragic acts, by
themselves, and independently, by their very nature, explain and describe how
such tragic events cannot be blamed to have been caused by an individuals ‘bad’
behaviour. Sadly, this is the concept,
ideology and philosophy that defines the meaning of karma.
Within this
belief system of reincarnation, destructive judgements of others are often made
justifiable because of the belief in reincarnation that karma drives and
dictates to whom or what one comes back to earth as. And one comes back to earth to experience a
higher or lower status and consciousness depending on their past or present
behaviour being, ‘good’ or bad’. Karma
is the concept within the system of reincarnation that evaluates and dictates
when and how you will die, and to what you will return to earth as. If you have transgressed in your past life,
it is believed that you will come back to earth with a lower status and
consciousness, and if having attained certain level of enlightenment one will
return to earth with higher level of status and consciousness. The ‘entity of karma’ determines whether you
will return to earth ‘punished’, or ‘rewarded’.
The idea of ‘punishment’ in Karma is about ‘the purification’ of the
person who has lived a previous ‘bad life’, and through the ‘cleansing’ of
punishment, becomes a better person.
Other religions
have other concepts believed transcendently designed to achieve the human goals
of self-purification and immortality.
Christians – rightly or wrongly – believe in the transcendent entities
of hell and purgatory that allow Self, the person, to reflect on both their
individual level of virtuous contributions whilst living in the world, as well
as their degree of indiscretions, and by doing so, more fully attaining
awareness of their potential as sovereign, independent and unique beings. Of course, those who believe in a ‘hell’
would say that you are there to suffer in pain forever. On the other hand some followers of
Christianity would describe purgatory as being the spiritual process that
invokes the purification and purging of transgressions through personal Self
reflection, increased awareness, and as a result of this, Self
improvement. And who wouldn’t want to be
a better person in the presence of the Supreme Being and all our friends, and
relatives etc., who have also passed to the ‘other side’. For many religions this ability to purify
self occurs after anatomical death, as Self remains on the ‘other side’ rather
than travelling back and forth to and from earth as in reincarnation. So the goals of personal purification in
terms of becoming a ‘better person’, and achieving personal immortality of
consciousness, etc., are indeed the central goals that most religions have in
common.
Similarities in
religions also, sadly, include an appalling record in human rights, ethics and
moral violations. It is an abomination
to the word of God and Allah, and to sovereign spiritual human beings, that
there exits forms of human violations in the name of religion, Allah, and God. These horrific human violations in the name
of religious and cultural rituals, include the depraved acts of female
circumcision and bashings that exist in many parts of
Abominable acts
carried out under the name of religion also include the murderous suicide
bombings that we often see used as the weapons of choice in Islam’s Jihad. ‘Jihad’ is the name Muslims use for the
potential and real wars Islam wages against any culture and religion in the
world that is not Islam. Different
religions, cultures and ideologies throughout the world can be viewed as a
threat to Islam disseminating their beliefs and practices worldwide. All these religious abominations, are, sadly,
current today, but it is hoped that spiritual commonsense and awareness, guided
by a conscious spiritual truth from meditation and informed knowledge will
prevail throughout the globe, blowing away hate and disharmony and imbibing a
new tide of peace, inclusiveness and harmony across humanity.
These flawed
distortions and aberrations within religions are often not the original
‘criteria’ and ‘rules’ of a belief system or religion that you have decided to
belong to. This is, a belief system that
has undoubtedly evolved through time and so may have originated with
‘contaminations’ or evolved with distortions – as does a Chinese whisper. So you experience the current beliefs and
ideologies but you may also have the luxury of learning about the legitimate
history of the Faith to that to which you have decided to belong to, thus
giving you more informed knowledge and understanding of the origins and
evolutions of the religion and belief system you have chosen to belong. But distortions and contaminations of any
original ‘truths’ may have evolved slowly within the different cultures and
traditions that encompass a religion.
Sometimes the original rules, principles, and criteria forming the basis
and framework of a religion or belief system may be the result of the
activities of a ‘prophet’, or charismatic person which activities may include
personal pride, opportunism and the need for personal power. They may have also, in part, have been
plagiarised from other ancient religions and belief systems.
Because of the
inadequacies and imperfections of belief systems – because, by definition,
humans are imperfect at remembering and interpreting - ones belief in a
particular faith and religion should not be an absolute belief in all that is
written and spoken about that particular religion. And definitely, ones beliefs should not hang
on the personal feeling that one’s belief
is perfectly ‘right’ or ‘good’.
Or a belief that is about being personally proud, arrogant or having a
sense of exclusiveness about their religion with regard to other
religions. Because having an attitude
that ones religion is the perfect and ‘right’ religion automatically puts other
religions in the position of being ‘wrong’, evil, and or ‘bad’. So ones beliefs should also include
celebrating one’s awareness that all religions are vehicles for worshipping and
understanding Self and Self in relation to the universe and Creator, including
understanding more the invisible spiritual intricacies and dynamics of Self and
Self’s consciousness and awareness. Including
acknowledging self’s strengths and inevitably any weaknesses that need
adjusting, changing and working on in relation to Self towards Self and others
in the world.
More about Comparative Religious Beliefs
The word Karma
is an ancient word meaning ‘for the fruits of.action’. In Hinduism, Karma is often about
retribution, vengeance, punishment or reward.
The pure meaning of Karma simply deals with what is. Karma is an extension of natural universal
acts. The effects of karma potentially
experienced are also believed to be mitigated by actions, and are not
necessarily fateful. This means that a
particular action now, does not bind you to some particular, pre-determined
future experiences or reactions; it is not a simple, one-to-one correspondence
of reward/ punishment or an ‘eye for an eye.
Because Hinduism originated from the culture and tribes of ancient
Indian peoples, the meaning of words such as karma have been given
interpretations with more menacing and self-serving meanings.
In general,
religious and cultural terms the effects of deeds, actively create past,
present and future experiences. This
makes one responsible for one’s own life, and the pain and joy it may bring to
others. Of course, this is a limited
simplistic concept of life lived because life is lived in very complex ways,
often dictated by the environment, family, community and government
interventions that may dramatically stifle one’s choices.
However, in the
religion of Buddhism there is no outside intervention from God as there is with
Hinduism. In Buddhism most types of
karmas, with good or bad results, will keep one within the wheel of ‘sansara’-
the cycle of reincarnation – other actions conceived will produce ‘seeds’ that
sprout into the appropriate result that liberates one to nirvana. The idea of karma is related to the personal
motivation behind an action. When full
enlightenment is achieved, or when one becomes a ‘Buddha’ one is not influenced
or controlled by the notion of reincarnation, but achieves nirvana or a state
of perfect wellbeing where reincarnation ceases to be.
Nirvana is a
mode of being free from what are called personal defilements of lust, anger,
ill will, aversion, greed, jealousy, conceit, hatred, fear, sensual desire,
obsession, passion, irritation, distraction, vengeance, depression, anxiety,
worry, doubt, restlessness and clinging to the body etc. of which there are
different levels and degrees. But
meditation through the process of jhana is about auditing such personal
defilements through internal investigation, analysing, and experiencing and
understanding the true nature of each defilement through applied and directed
thought, sustained thought, neutral feeling and one-pointedness achieved
through instigating the fixation of the mind on the meditation object to
eliminate and reduce the defilements.
Higher attainments in the scale of concentration and consciousness
include the dimension of the infinity of space, infinity of consciousness,
dimension of nothingness and the dimension of neither perception nor
non-perception.
Over time these
meditations eventuate in a state of great inner peace and contentment, and one
which is of “the highest happiness”, Enlightenment and Nirvana. That is, not a sense-based happiness but an
enduring transcendental happiness of the highest spiritual attainment. It is one of ‘deathlessness’ and calmness
attained through Enlightenment. Nirvana
is the domain of the True Self. This is,
a state constituting the attainment of what is “Eternal, the Self, Bliss, and
the Pure”.
Enlightenment
dissolves the causes that keep beings forever wandering through realms of
desire and form. This concept in terms of Christian beliefs would compare with
an individual moving through, after anatomical death, to the cleansing place
they call purgatory and in heaven with spiritual bliss. Described simply, depending on one’s degree
of virtuous living on earth will determine the level of ‘pain’ experienced
through one’s self-reflection when one ‘passes over’. If one has lived a virtuous life this is akin
to becoming pure and thus a ‘Buddha’, and so, closer to the experience of
enlightenment and the Creator.
But Buddhists
believe in the ‘purity’ and contentment of self as the ultimate goal and
immortality as being not to far removed from Christian belief. The author believes these entities and
elements are inherently interwoven. So
as with most religions, different terms describe different paths to self
improvement and immortality, but which paths ultimately all lead to the same
destination. Indeed in Hindu passage –
Rig Veda 1. 164. 46c, it states, “The truth is one the wise call it by many
names”. On the other hand, the Hindu
sect of Vaishnava believes that spiritual liberation can only be obtained
through submission to God in the form of Vishnu.
Moreover,
Buddhism understands karma as an inherent principle of cause and effect
manifest from the actions of the individual without the intervention of a
Supernatural Being. Most Christian and
Western religions understand God dispensing the deserved reward or punishment
when Self passes to the “other side”.
This reward and punishment concept from God, is, however, becoming
obsolete in terms of the new generation of thought where one’s Self reflects on
one’s life both in ‘this’ world and after anatomical death resulting in one
experiencing the happiness or pain one has produced for others on earth.
This reflective
experience then is either more or less congruent or incongruent with the knowledge
of Truth of ‘God’s’ unconditional love, and determines one’s required degree
and need for self-improvement.. Other Christians believe in the earthly cause
and effect response – ‘what you sow you shall reap’ – but which is qualified by
the commandments of the behaviours of ‘compassion and forgiveness’. This is in addition, as discussed above, to
Self reflecting on one’s life regarding both transgressive and virtuous
behaviours, and learning from any pain and suffering caused or pleasure and
respect given to others.
In Christian,
Western and Eastern religions the religious and spiritual purpose, destination,
and goals are similar where the ultimate desire and goals are to reach a state
of perfection and spiritual deathlessness.
Immortality and eternity means that after death the individual does not
age, does not die, and does not perish.
So religions ultimately carry the same goals with different paths and
this is no less truer for those belief systems that contain elements of
extremism, which by definition, means their path is corrupt and distorted and
open to abuse.
But belief in a
religion or no religion does not exclude one from the fruits of desire and
goals of self-improvement, happiness and immortality. But one gains internal
conscious and unconscious knowledge from the information disseminated through
people and the media regarding the beliefs, structures and frameworks of
different religions.
Indeed, many
Hindus venerate scriptures of other religions because it is believed that the
‘One Divinity’ can reveal itself in infinite ways. Of Hinduism the experience of divinity is the
only thing that can give self true peace, happiness and salvation from
suffering and ignorance. Many have heard
of the pop culture ‘Yoga’, but Yoga in Hinduism describes Yoga as the different
methods to achieve the spiritual goal of life.
For example:
The religion of
Hindu believes reincarnation continues between a pleasant and unpleasant
rebirth until over the cause of time a person sufficiently purifies the mind
and intellect to attain the goal of life which is to experience the highest
truth about God. Reincarnation is called
Samsara according to the Vedic texts.
This is, being bound to the cycle of repeated birth and death through
numerous lifetimes. The soul is
immortal, while the body is subject to birth and death. A person desires to be reborn because he/she
wants to enjoy worldly pleasures.
Hinduism teaches
that worldly pleasures can never bring deep, lasting happiness or peace. Once a person realises their own divine
nature, realises that the true self is the immortal soul rather than the body
or the ego, all desires for the pleasures of the world vanish. This breaks the cycle of reincarnation and
thus one attains the state of Nirvana.
Hindu practice seeks to increase a person’s awareness of the divinity
that is present everywhere and in everything.
The more a devotee can think holy thoughts, the sooner he/she can purify
his or her mind. Seeing the Supreme
Being in firstly in one thing and then another.
CHAPTER 5
TRUTH IS STRANGER
THAN FANTASY
Did the Creator
become Human?
American Astronaut James Erwin
Was Christ’s Coming Foretold?
Who Is Jesus of
Is Jesus Christ Also ‘God’?
Jesus’ Claims of Being the Son
of ‘God’
Jesus Christ Rising from the
Dead
The Logical, Psychological and
Philosophical Strategy
We have in part so far discussed information revealed
to us by way of Natural Revelation. This
is information from human reason and intellect in relation to the deduction of
knowledge from the scientific knowledge regarding the entities of the
universe. From logical and rational
deduction from this information, we may now be increasing further the
contemplation of the incredible and amazing features of creation. For those of us that have been cautiously
skeptical we may possibly be starting to consider in believing that a Creator
may need to exist for life its self to exist.
But has this Creator personally revealed Himself to human kind here on
this planet through supernatural revelation?
Amazingly, the evidence suggests that the answer to this question maybe
yes. The Creator has possibly revealed
Himself through the incarnation, by becoming a human, by becoming a man, a man
called Jesus Christ. Christ is the Greek
word for “the anointed one” and Messiah is the Hebrew word for “the anointed
one”. Based on historical evidence, the
person called Jesus of Nazareth really did exist about 2000 years ago. If we can believe that a Creator created the
universe then we could believe that this Creator could also come to Earth in
the form of a human or any other form for that matter. If we can cognitively and emotionally accept
the historical facts about the possibility of the person Jesus Christ, truly
existing. And if we can cognitively and
emotionally relate to the notion that a Creator of the universe would find
nothing IT willed impossible. Then it would be true to say, that any perceived
discrepancy, and the only potential ambiguity and question remaining today,
regarding the person Jesus Christ, would be about whether He really was/ is the
Son of ‘God’, that is, the Son of the Creator.
So the defining question is whether or not Jesus Christ really is ‘God’
incarnate”. Instead of questioning
whether the person Jesus Christ actually did or did not exist.
It is said that Jesus Christ was and
still is both fully and completely human, and fully and completely Divine. It is said that the Creator came into this
world as a human being, one of us, for humans to see Him experience first hand,
human consciousness of emotions, thoughts and relationships. The Creator came into this world to
demonstrate solidarity with the reality and sacredness of human dignity and
sovereignty and the human experiences of sadness, happiness, fear, joy, grief
and death. The Creator came into this
world to show us the power of interpersonal relational love, compassion and
reconciliation. He came into 'our' human
world to show and inform us of whom He, the Creator, really is, and to make
aware and inform us of the potentially destructive nature of human base
instincts associated with gratuitous damaging choices made by humans as a
result their freewill. He came into this
world to declare His desire for an interpersonal relationship. He came into this world to pay the dues for
all humans, to pay debts incurred through the human imperfect condition, to
fully, and perfectly, justify all peoples in the Divine eyes, heart and soul of
the Creator. For all have transgressed
and fallen short of the glory of ‘God’ thereby the necessity of opening up the
Creator’s kingdom to all the peoples of the world. The Creator came to planet Earth so that
humans could experience the resurrection and thus confidence in their personal
eternity and immortality.
Secular scholars and historians agree
unequivocally on the existence of Jesus Christ of Nazareth nearly 2,000 years
ago as an historical figure, a historical fact of those early times. It is contemporary knowledge that Jesus
Christ existed as a historical figure, equally as much as it is known other
famous historical and ancient figures existed, including Buddha, Socrates,
Plato, Pontius Pilot,
Constantine, Augustine and Mohammed, to mention only a few famous and colourful
figures from the past. Famous people
from the past, whose contributions and influences to the world have been
carried down to us through the ages, through history and through the centuries
of time.
Secular historical evidence of the
existence of Jesus Christ includes; Cornelius Tacitus the Roman Historian who
was Governor of Asia Minor in 112AD described the Emperor Nero’s persecution of
Christians in Rome, “Christus, from whom they got their name had been executed
by sentence of the prosecutor Pontius Pilate when Tiberius was Emperor”. Dr. Steve Kumar looks at the historical
figure of Jesus from another perspective in his book, Answering the Counterfeit (1992).
The fact is, how could Jesus have even been a great moral teacher or
prophet let alone the Son of God if he was lying about the nature of his true
being? If the man they called Jesus of
Nazareth was wrong on the most pivotal and crucial area of his life he could
hardly have been a great moral teacher and prophet and all the writings of the
Gospels would be pointless. Indeed, if
Jesus Christ wasn’t in fact the Son of God as purported by his disciples that
he claimed to be, he must have been either a liar or intellectually and/or
psychologically ‘challenged’. Thus, the
entire writings of the New Testament would be fanciful and based on
fiction. Furthermore, if the
disciples, writers, and authors, of the New Testament had lied, or been
misquoted, or mistaken, about what Jesus had said and taught with regard to
being the Son of God, then the entire New Testament and the two thousand year
old Christian movement, with its billion followers, would be based on nothing
but error and folly.
These statements and concepts provide
us with a significant and profound intellectual quandary. Is it not true that
we must either believe that Jesus of Nazareth had to be a liar or
intellectually or psychologically disabled or he was misquoted or his disciples
lied about what he said or we must believe that Jesus must have been the Son of
God. That is, Jesus Christ did rise from
the dead, and was and is God, and God was and is Jesus Christ?
The American astronaut James
Erwin, who was one of the first humans to travel deep into outer space, and set
foot on the moon said, on his return to Earth, and after seeing creation from
a new perspective. "The greatest
event in history was not when man was able to travel deep into outer space and
walk on the moon, but when God Himself walked on this Earth." This is a profound statement from one with
the opportunity to view the earth and universe objectively from the depths of
outer space. We may discover that we too
could find that statement difficult to disagree with as we continue to explore
the reality of God becoming man through the historical figure Jesus Christ –
God incarnate.
Jesus Christ is the name of a man who
most people on Earth have heard of. We
may have all heard about Jesus Christ even if only through the cursing of His
name from someone’s mouth and lips, or we have heard of Him through the media,
or from friends and relations about the festive celebration of Christmas and
Easter.
Interestingly enough it appears that some of the ‘prophets’ and
writers of the Old Testament may have foretold, through the gifts of spiritual
insight, the coming of God, the coming of the Messiah in future times through
and as a human being, centuries before the actual event of the birth of Jesus
Christ.
Verses in the Old
Testament that foretold Christ’s coming, include Isaiah 53: 1-12:
“Like a sapling he
grew up in front of us,
Like a root in arid ground.
Without beauty,
without majesty (we saw him),
No looks to attract
our eyes;
A thing despised
and rejected by men,
A man of sorrows
and familiar with suffering,
A man to make
people screen their faces;
He was despised and
we took no account of him.
And yet ours were
the sufferings he bore,
Ours the sorrows he
carried.
But we, we thought
of him as someone punished,
Struck by God, and
brought low.
Yet he was pierced
through for our faults,
Crushed for our
sins,
On him lies a
punishment that brings us peace,
And through his wounds, we are
healed.
We had gone astray like sheep,
Each taking his own way,
And Yahweh burdened him,
With the sin of all
of us,
Harshly dealt with,
he bore it humbly,
He never opened his
mouth,
Like a lamb that is
led to the slaughter-house,
Like a sheep that
is dumb before its Shearer
Never opening its
mouth,
By force and by law
he was taken,
Would anyone plead
his cause?
Yes, he was torn
away from the land of the living,
For our faults
struck down in death.
They gave him a
grave with the wicked,
A tomb with the rich,
Though he had done
no wrong
And there had been
no perjury in his mouth.
Yahweh has been
pleased to crush him with suffering.
If he offers his
life in atonement,
He shall see his
heirs,
He shall have a
long life,
And through Him
what Yahweh wishes will be done.
His soul’s anguish
over
He shall see the
light and be content.
By his sufferings
shall my servant justify many,
Taking their faults
on himself,
Hence, I will grant
whole hordes for his tribute,
He shall divide the
spoil with the mighty,
For surrendering
himself to death,
And letting himself
be taken for a sinner,
While he was
bearing the faults of many,
And praying all the
time for sinners.”
And Isaiah 7: 4
reads:
“The Lord Himself,
therefore,
Will give you a
sign,
It is this: the
maiden is with child,
And will soon give
birth to a son whom she will call, Immanuel."
Isaiah 9: 5-6 says:
“For there is a
child born for us,
A son given to us,
And dominion is
laid on His shoulders,
And this is the
name they give Him,
Wonder-Counsellor, Mighty-God,
Eternal-Father,
Prince-of-Peace,
Wide is His
dominion,
In a peace that has
no end."
Isaiah 42: 1-4
states:
"Here is my
servant whom I have chosen my beloved,
The favourite of my
soul, I will endow Him with my spirit,
And He will
proclaim the true faith to the nations,
He will not brawl
or shout,
Nor will anyone
hear His voice in the street,
He will not break
the crushed seed,
Nor put out the
smoldering wick
Till He has led the
truth to victory,
In His name the
nations will put their hope."
Also including:
Malachi 3; Isaiah 62:11
Zechariah 9:9; Psalms 110:1
Zechariah 11: 12-17; Psalms 2:1-12
Micah 5:2-5;
Daniel 9:25
Daniel
Who was Jesus
Christ? Who is the historical Jesus of
Nazareth? Who is the Jesus as the
written facts of ancient history would allow us to understand. In a third rate and subjected nation to the
Roman Empire, Jesus of Nazareth, later known as Jesus Christ, was born a Judean
or Jew of a Jewish virgin peasant woman called Mary. However, over the
centuries Jews have acquired a new identity as Jewish people. It is written that Jesus was born in
At twelve years of
age Jesus preached in the Jewish Temple, which was the focal point for
economics, trade, politics and religion.
He chastised them for abusing His Father’s house. Jesus never had any money or owned any
property and He was without formal education never holding any office or
position of influence. He never wrote a
book and never traveled further than a long walk from his place of birth. He trained as a carpenter and was seen to be
a student of Hebrew Scriptures, but also wandered around
He was a friend and advocate of the
poor and hungry (Luke
He performed many miracles of which
37 were recorded in the Bible, from the changing of water into wine at Cana,
walking on water, feeding of the 5,000 with a few loaves and fishes, to the
raising of Lazarus from the dead (John 11:14-43). Christ was made known to not only the general
population, but also to the authorities, through the witnessing and reporting
of the miracles performed by him. These
miracles included the miracle of the raising of Lazarus back to life and the
blatant turning over of the ‘money changers’ tables in the Temple (people had
to pay for ‘holy tokens’ to enter and pray in the Temple). These activities, along with Jesus’ claim of
being ‘King of the Jews’ exposed Him as a significant risk and threat to the
status and authority of the
“Meanwhile
Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king
of the Jews?” “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied”.
(Matthew
27:11; Mark 15:2; Luke 23:5)
At the young age of 33, Jesus was
condemned to death by the High Priest Caphias and the Roman prosecutor Pontius
Pilate. He was killed because He was
seen as a threat to the traditions and
way of life of the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law (Mark
But He forgave those who remained
silent thereby allowing His death, He forgave those who instigated His death,
and He forgave those who carried out His death.
And three days after His burial in the tomb He rose from the depths of
darkness. He rose from the dead. He rose above the shackles of the world’s
transgressions. He rose above the
‘physical’ and emotional pain of His suffering.
He rose above the emotional, spiritual and intellectual anguish of the
world. He rose for all humans. He suffered His death and rose to life as the
Creator’s payment for the faults and transgressions of all the people’s of the
world. He rose above all human
imperfections potentially nullifying their effect in relation to their
spiritual disparity between the Perfect and the imperfect, between the Creator
and the created, between the divine and the human. He suffered death and rose to life opening
the way for all people to follow Him in an eternity of intellectual, emotional
and spiritual existence.
After His death and resurrection
thousands of the followers of Christ were, killed, murdered and martyred for
their undying conviction and belief in Christ as the Son of the Creator. The followers of the Jesus Movement murdered
without a hint of provocation. They
themselves did not commit the murder of non-believers. His miracles and examples, His proclamations
and assertions about being the Son of God, about being the True God, has
impressed upon human kind so deeply that today about a third of the world’s
inhabitants strive to live by his teachings and example.
Indeed, the very fact that a man called
Jesus Christ came to live and express Himself on Earth in this meek, humble,
fragile and vulnerable manner, while also portraying extraordinary, virtuous,
miraculous and divine characteristics must undeniably place its own categorical
seal of authenticity on the origins and content of His proclamations,
assertions, examples and teachings. If
any human being was planning God’s entry, via another human being, into this
world, seeking to radically change and revolutionize the way participants of the
human race identify with themselves and others.
They surely would not have planned it, executed it, reported it, and
written about it, after the fact, in a way that exhibits such an outward and
explicit display of seeming variation and contradiction, simplicity, openness,
naivety, insecurity and fragility.
Importantly, there
are three unique reasons why pure Christianity – without imperfect human
intervention - is so very different from all other religions, including
Judaism, Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism.
There are three unique reasons why the historical person Jesus Christ
can be intellectually and spiritually set apart from all other spiritual and
religious leaders of the world, such as Buddha, Vishnu, Mohammed and
Confucius. They include, Jesus’ Claims
to being the Son of ‘God’, Jesus Christ Rising from the Dead and The Logical,
Psychological and Philosophical Strategy.
The first reason is
because:
Jesus’ Claims of Being the Son of God
Jesus Christ’s
claims to being the Son of ‘God’ and therefore ‘God’ Incarnate are claims
manifest in the proclamations by the authors of the Gospels in the New
Testament of the Bible, and therefore are a major theme:
He was the light of the world (John
He was the bread of life (John
He could judge the world (John
He was sinless (John
He was the truth (John
14:6)
He could forgive sins (Matt
9:1-8)
He could give eternal life (John
He could answer prayer (John
He had all authority (Matt
28:18)
He was worthy of worship (Matt
He was the object of faith (John
He and the Father were one (John
To believe in Him was to
believe in God (John
To see Him was to see God (John
To receive Him was to receive
God (Mark
To know Him was to know God (John
And:
Jesus Christ is the unique Son
of God.
(John
He is co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the
Holy Spirit.
(John 1:1)
He has no beginning or end.
(Revelations 22:13)
He is the eternal God and
Creator of all things
(John 1:3; Col. 1: 15,16,17;
John 20:28; 1 Timothy. 2:5; 3:16; Phil. 2:6-7; Isaiah. 9:6; John. 10:30;
14:7-9).
He had two natures, one divine
and the other human.
(Isaiah 9:6; John 1:1, 23;
5:18, 23; John 8:58; John 12:37-41; 17:5; 20:28; Heb. 1:1-12; 13:8; Rev. 22:13,
Isaiah. 7:14; 9:6; Phil. 2:8-11; Rom. 9:5).
The Bible teaches that there
is only one God.
(Ex. 20:2-3; Isaiah. 42:8;
45:5).
Although there is only one God, and there can be only one God, it is
believed by some, that God may exist in three forms, indeed He could exist in
any type and number of forms He chooses to.
He may exist as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
(Matt. 3:16-17; Matt 28:19 John
Further antidotal evidence written suggests that Christ was indeed the
Creator and therefore different from all other great teachers and prophets
revered by humankind:
·
“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the
prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by
his Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the
universe.”
(Hebrews
1:1-2)
·
“For
there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
(1 Timothy 2:5)
·
“Salvation is
found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by
which, we must be saved.”
(Acts
·
“Jesus
Christ, is the same yesterday, and today, and forever”.
(Hebrews 13:8)
·
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and only, who came from the
Father, full of grace and truth”.
(John 1:14)
·
“Jesus did many other miracles in the presence of his
disciples, which are not recorded in this book.
But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”.
(John 20:30-31)
·
“Christ who is God overall, is forever praised”.
(Romans. 9:5)
·
“The righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus
Christ”.
(2 Peter. 1:1)
·
“In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”.
(John 1:1-2)
·
“No
one has ever seen God, but God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, has
made Him known”.
(John. 1:18)
·
“Thomas said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God”.
(John. 20:28)
Still there is antidotal
evidence and overt theme trailing throughout the gospels that the man called
Christ was God, and God is Christ, and therefore different from all other great
teachers and prophets:
·
Only God should be worshipped (Matt.
(Matthew. 8:2;
·
The Magi fell down and worshipped Him.
(Matthew. 2:11)
·
One of the lepers, healed by Jesus,
worshipped Him.
(Matthew. 8:2)
·
The blind man
whom Jesus healed, said to Him, “Lord, I
believe”, and He
worshipped Him.
(John 9:38)
·
Those in the
boat worshipped Him.
(Matthew. 14:33)
·
After the resurrection, the disciples, when they saw
Him, worshipped Him.”
(Matthew. 28:17)
·
God the Father commanded all angels to worship Him.
(Hebrews. 1:1-8)
The authors of the Bible also gave Him the highest
honour due only to God:
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
over all creation. By Him, all things
were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him, and
for Him. He is before all things, and in
Him, all things hold together. And He
is the head of the body, or the church, He is the beginning and the firstborn
from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy”. For God was pleased to
have all his fullness dwell in Him, and through Him, to reconcile to Himself
all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace
through His blood shed on the cross”.
(Colossians
1:15-20)
The second reason
why the man Jesus Christ should be considered as set apart from all other
teachers and prophets is because of the historically authentic possibility of:
Some
epidemiological and philosophical evidence suggesting that Jesus Christ rose
from the dead includes:
1. Centuries before the event of Christ’s Resurrection
this miracle was foretold in Daniel 12:1-4 as Luke writes:
“This is what is
written. The Christ will suffer and rise
from the dead on the third day.”
(Luke 24: 46)
“They will kill Him
and after three days he will rise again.”
(Mark
2. Christ
Himself predicted that He would die and rise to life again:
“When Jesus predicted His death He then began to teach
them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders,
chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and after
three days rise again. He spoke plainly
about this, and Peter took Him aside and began to
rebuke Him. But when Jesus turned and
looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter”.
“Get behind me, Satan!” He said.
“You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men”.
(Mark 8:31-33; Matthew 16:23)
“On the third day
he will rise again.”
(Luke 18: 33)
“He is not here; he
has risen. Remember how He told you
while He was still with you in
(Luke 24: 6)
“We remember that
while he was still alive that deceiver said; after 3 days I will rise again.”
(Matthew 27: 63)
“But after I have
risen I will go ahead of you into
(Matthew 26: 32)
3. He could not
have risen from the dead if He wasn't ‘God’.
4. If He was ‘God’, He could have
risen from the dead.
Three major historical facts support the authenticity
of the story of the resurrection: The empty tomb; the appearance of Christ; and
The origins of the Jesus Movement and the Christian Faith
1. The empty
tomb
The Roman guards
saw the empty tomb; the Jews never denied it; and six of Jesus' disciples saw
it:
“You are looking
for Jesus of Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him.”
(Mark 16: 6; Matt
28:1, Luke 24:1-12 and John 20:1-10)
2. The appearance of Christ
The historical facts
demonstrate that after His death and resurrection, Jesus was seen, alive, by
His believers, by His skeptics, and by His enemies. Importantly, after rising
from the dead, Jesus was reported first seen alive by women, by the women who
had followed Him everywhere. The gospels
report and record Jesus first seen by Mary, Jesus’ mother, by Mary Magdalene,
and by the mother of James who was also Mary.
Mark 16:1-9 reads, “After he had risen on the first day of the week He
first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons.” This is significant in itself. Because these women, these females, who first
saw Jesus’ empty grave and tomb, were a people living in the Jewish historical
culture of the times, which possessed, sadly, patriarchal traditions where
women, especially those unmarried, were always the least believed, were always
the most vulnerable, were always the worst treated, and were always the least
respected.
It is significant that Mary Magdalene
was one of the first to see the empty tomb and the first person who Jesus
appeared to. This is because of her
previous reputation and encounter with Jesus, where it is said that He had cast
out seven demons from her. She therefore
had a less than reputable standing within the Jewish community. If the story in the New Testament about Jesus
Christ’s resurrection was fabricated by the disciples, authors and writers, it
is highly unlikely and improbable that Judean women, and in particular, Mary Magdalene,
would have been officially reported as being the first to have seen this
phenomena. This miraculous
world-changing event, as is the rising to life from death of the crucified,
buried and ‘dead’ Jesus Christ.
“Later Jesus
appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of
faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen Him after he had
risen”.
(Mark
“It is true. The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon
whom Jesus called Peter” – Peter meaning “the rock.”
(Luke 24: 34)
Including: (Matthew 28:9-20; Mark 16:9-20; Luke 24:13-49; John 20:11-31;
21:1-23)
After Christ’s death the apostles would have been very
afraid of also being persecuted by Caphias, the Chief Priest of the
“With
great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus, and much grace was upon them all”.
(Acts
Through belief in the event and
experience of Christ’s resurrection, people need no longer fear their own
individual ‘physical’ death. Through belief in the event of the Christ’s
resurrection and ascension (John
3. The origins
of the Jesus Movement and the Christian Faith
“After his
suffering, He gave many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty
days”.
(Acts 1:3)
Christianity came into being
because the disciples had also been there to see that Jesus had risen from the
dead. The resurrection of Christ brought
life and courage to the disappointed and disillusioned disciples. It was because of the message "He Is Risen" that the Christian
movement spread miraculously across the impenetrable and formidable
Although the seeds of Christ’s
reality have been sowed and fertilized we can still observe that the beliefs
and practices of organized Christianity and other institutionalized religions
has impacted and influenced the world in a distorted and corrupt fashion,
causing significant suffering to both followers of Christianity, other faiths
and non-followers alike. Humans have,
over the centuries, in part through misguided loyalty, arrogance and ignorance
institutionalized, hijacked and power played the intrinsic essence of Christ’s’
sublime spirituality and supreme authority manifest in His teachings, examples,
life, death and resurrection. Jesus, a
radical and revolutionary divine authority through which God intended to
disseminate the essence of His Being of unconditional relational compassion and
reconciliation and to provide substantial and unequivocal evidence for the
continuation of human immortal life after ‘physical’ death. For there is no greater sacrifice than to lay
down one’s life for another; there is no greater miracle than to rise to life
from death, and there is no greater source of hope for human immortality than
the reality of Christ’s resurrection.
“They came out of
the tombs and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.”
(Matthew 27: 52-54)
As the “Acts of the
Apostles” affirms: In about the year AD
30 in
“Jesus of
Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs
which God did through Him in your midst ... this Jesus you crucified and killed by
the hands of lawless men. But God raised
Him up ... and of that, we are all witnesses.
Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received
from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which
you see and hear ... God has made Him both Lord and Christ”.
(Acts 2: 22-34)
Those who heard Him
asked what they had to do:
“Repent and be
baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of
your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Three thousand
were baptised at that time and the church was born.
(Acts 2:37-41)
The third reason why the man
called Jesus Christ may be considered to be the Son of God, and therefore set
apart from all other teachers and
prophets, is because:
The Logical,
Psychological and Philosophical Strategy
Think
about it. From a logical-psycho-philosophical perspective, the true reality of
Christ’s life can be broken into two parts.
The first part is, the actual reality of Christ, the real experience of
Christ, who Christ actually was, and what Christ actually did. The second part, is how Christ was actually
perceived by His followers, and how they spoke about Him, related to Him,
experienced Him, talked about Him, and wrote about Him. The reality and experience of Christ, and who
Christ really was, was not expected, or accepted by the Judeans at that
time. Indeed, the Jewish religion is
still waiting for the coming of the Messiah.
Christ was not expected, but He existed.
Christ did not write pages of parables, rules and instructions about how
to behave, because His mission involved the people around Him, and all the
peoples of the world. His mission
involved the experience of interpersonal relations culminating in His death for
humankinds’ imperfections, and in His resurrection for humankinds’ immortality.
The
authors of the gospels could have instigated and espoused individually, or
colluded and conspired collectively, the origins and contents of Christ’s
teachings and parables written in the Gospels, by annunciating that they had
been received directly from ‘God’ or God’s angel. But the scripture verses and parables of the
gospels and letters in the New Testament were written decades after the
experience of the reality of the living Christ.
The apostles who knew and followed Christ or people who knew and
followed the apostles of Christ wrote the gospels and letters of the New
Testament decades after the event of Christ.
The gospels were not records of events written verbatim, but are
recollections and memories of the events and messages, teachings and examples
from Jesus Christ. The gospels were not
written down or recorded, in the first one, or two decades after His
death. So this was not the power that
drove the first followers of Christ. It
was the actual experience of Christ’s life that drove the early Christians to
live life with relational love, reconciliation/ forgiveness and compassion, to
teach this and then to write and record this about Him.
So
who was the real Christ that is portrayed in the gospels? Is the Christ in the gospels the real
Christ? Now, they were expecting a
Messiah, but not this particular Messiah, so they could have written any spin
about Christ they wanted to, but they did not.
The writers of the gospels could have put any spin on Christ’s life at
that time and it would have been about who and what they were expecting. Or it would have been a story that would
influence and compliment their particular agendas in the culture of their
time. Indeed, individual’s personal
experiences and the accuracy of individual’s memories may contribute to the
fact that there are some significant contradictions within the stories of the
gospels. But, you don’t ever write and
record the life and teachings of an ordinary person, but of a charismatic
person, a person who has perhaps performed miracles that only the Creator could
perform.
You
cannot write about phenomenal events decades after the fact with credibility to
influence present and future readers, without there being something
extraordinary, without there being something credible, without there being
elements of truth to them. You write
about someone special, indeed you write about someone special decades after
their death, because the person and events were/are extraordinary special. You write about them to the best of your
ability, remembering and recording their real life and their teachings from the
oral stories told by that special person’s disciples and apostles and/or their
followers. The real experience of Christ
was so dramatic and so powerful at the time, that alone, it was enough to inspire a major
shift in many Jew and Gentile’s belief’s, and consequently, their
behaviours. Indeed, Christ’s life
created a new form of Judaism, a Judeo-Christian belief and way of life based
on His life and teachings.
If the man
they called Jesus Christ, who without a doubt existed 2000 years ago, was a
phony. But the writers of the gospels
wanted to portray Him as God’s messenger and deceive the populace and people of
the community that He was the Son of God, the easiest and most convincing way
to gain the peoples’ trust and support at that time would surely have been to
write a spin about the power of His ‘physical’ might. Through His coercive powers, political might
and military savvy. Indeed, sell the
idea of Judean superiority, and promote and conspire military rule and victory
over the Romans to convince the people that Christ was God. Because this is what the Judeans were
expecting. They were expecting a Messiah
to be a King in the linage of King David, to rule and lead the people to
political, religious and territorial victory.
These
factitious stories would perhaps deceivingly convince and sell the idea to the
people of not only the content of the message, but also the source of the
message. But those people who had not
witnessed, or could not remember the real experience of Jesus could only accept
such deception, such a factitious spin. This could have been a deceptive
fictitious story written many decades and centuries after Christ’s death and
recorded as a historical fraud. But it
could not be a story written while people still remembered Christ. It could not be a fraudulent story of
deception to be then, credibly accepted, whilst written only a few years and
decades after Christ’s death.
Of course
Christ the Son of the Creator could have presented Himself in this way, conjure
Himself as an instant King and create an army out of thin air to crush a
powerful empire if He had willed to. But
this was not His way. This was not His
message. But He did, indeed, perform
equally astounding and astonishing miracles.
Yet He did not have the need or desire to write down a single word, or
wear a robe and crown, or sit on a throne, except when He forced to do so
during His abuse and humiliation, just before His death. He did not need to kill or murder a single
person. He didn’t need to command a
great army, but instead, Christ said He was the Son of God, He said He was the
God incarnate, and He performed many miracles that only a Supreme Being could
perform. He was eloquent and
charismatic, but from a human perspective He willed not
to be materially coercive, nor did He will to be militarily or politically
savvy. Christ did not need to be that
which was expected of Him, but instead He performed absolute and divine miracles.
The
articulation of His message was eloquently divine, inspiring a new way of
living in the world, a new way of viewing the world. Christ was divinely intelligent,
compassionate and humble. Christ was all
these things, but the authors of the early gospels (as opposed to the much
later Gnostic gospels), could have been inane enough to spin any story they
wished about Christ to propagate their own particular agendas and personal
interests. But they didn’t because they
would have been words without credibility, words without endurance, words
without transparency, words without evidence, words without substance, words
without truth, words without justice and words without foundation. Indeed they would have been words that could
only appeal to human base instincts and needs, human ignorance, and human
arrogance.
Regarding
what the writers of the gospels said Jesus had said. The authors could write that Jesus said He
was ‘God’, and Jesus could say to the people that He was ‘God’, and hope
everyone else is gullible and crazy enough to believe them. Or they can say and write about the truth,
about what Jesus really said and did.
That He had performed incredible miracles and said He was God, and back
up their claims with their real experience of Christ. From all accounts, from all perspectives and
from all results and purpose, Christ did in fact display and execute such
supernatural wonders, from the raising of the dead to His own resurrection and
ascension. These are miracles that
potentially can give much hope to the existence of one’s personal
immortality. For the event of an eternal
afterlife to those who can believe in Christ’s resurrection.
We can also explore the legitimacy
of Jesus of Nazareth being the Son of God by looking at the gospels from another
perspective, by placing our minds inside the minds of the New Testament
writers, the witnesses and disciples of Jesus Christ as authors of the New
Testament. It is obvious that the
writers of the gospels could not have fraudulently fabricated, ‘set-up’ and
conspired an interaction between themselves and ‘God’ so as to influence a
change in their politically oppressive environment, by recording in pen a
‘phenomena’ of the coming of ‘God’ to Earth in the guise of a human. Because we can visualise and experience
history through the psychological and intellectual rationale of logic,
that this would have been strategically impossible.
The fact that the early Christians were driven solely
by the real experience of Christ’s life and not by the written word - as the
gospels and epistles were non-existent at this time - is verification that
Christ’s life and relationships with humans preceded any written word. Indeed the early Christian movement began to
exist gradually juxtaposition with the written words as they began and
continued to be written. The writings of
the gospels and letters by the apostles are a fertile and rich source of
information about the life and teachings of Jesus, the activities of the
apostles, the first Christians and the dawning of the early Christian
church. The uniquely creative literary
structure of these gospels and letters of the New Testament expose the
necessary technical and personal dynamic processes required to drive and
promote a legitimate way of life, and belief system followed with universal
impact. By all accounts, the sequence of
events, the type of events, and the process of events throughout Jesus’
life. The birth of the Christian
Movement, and the subsequent evangelism culminating in the written words of the
gospels, must be considered unequivocal proof justifying serious consideration
for a belief in the amazing phenomenon of the life of Jesus, as being authentic
and legitimate.
The writers of the gospels probably had no idea what
they had written about Christ, would be revered, studied, and followed by
millions and millions of people for more than 2000 years. And this is perhaps one of the reasons why
they have written what they have written and in the style and context they have
written in. These Gospels were written
by a people writing about their personal experiences about Christ and Christ’s
followers and the memories and stories they had of Christ and His
followers. The Gospels were written for
a particular people, at a particular moment in time, which in retrospective
reflection allows these writings to be considered authentic and
believable.
Yes, they may have exaggerated and embellished certain
events, and they may have not remembered everything with total clarity, but the
stories of Christ are unique and special, being an eloquent blend of
contradistinction between the ordinary and the extraordinary. And if we were writing the gospels ourselves
as deceptive and fraudulent works of literature, recording the life of a person
who claimed to be the Son of God, to be used to motivate in a particular way a
certain community. Or engineered to be
handed down through the centuries to be read by a future people, surely we wouldn’t have
written them in the particular, unique and special manner we know them to have
been written.
The authors would surely not have written about God’s
coming in such a superfluously glib and somewhat contradictory and diverse
fashion, but would have coordinated and streamlined their writings within and
between themselves. But the messages and
writings are not streamlined within and between the authors and writers of the
four gospels, because perhaps this really was not a fraudulent and fabricated
event that was ‘set-up’ and conspired for self gratification and benefit, but a
real event written by different witnesses, in different times, and from
different perspectives. The
authoritative collators of the New Testament gospels surely would not have had
John’s ‘left of field’ gospel included together with the more consistent
gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke’s.
John’s is a gospel written, in comparison to the others, with a
different imagery, genre and style. But
they did, because perhaps God’s message can also be delivered and expressed in
a diverse, mystical and lateral literary style through the eloquence of imagery
as an alternative perspective reflecting the Creator’s message.
If fraud, deceit, conspiracy, collusion and personal
agendas were the impetus for the motivation of the writers’ writing the gospels
then we can perhaps be assured that the authors surely would not have chosen a
fragile and vulnerable ‘human’ baby, an infant, as the representation and
personification of ‘God’s’ visit to Earth.
They would instead surely have prescribed a Powerful, Majestic and
Kingly figurehead as ‘God’. Or they
would have had themselves receiving God’s messages from above. But they didn’t prescribe a ‘powerful’ king
as their political and religious saviour, or proclaim their writings were
messages from God above, but they wrote about a baby, because perhaps this baby
really was the Son of the Creator.
Perhaps baby Jesus really was ‘God’ Incarnate.
The authors surely would not have written the Son of
God coming to Earth as a human baby, but surely as a fully-grown adult, but
they did, because perhaps the Creator really did come as an infant human
being. The authors would surely not have
said and recorded that God’s Son had come to Earth in human form instead of God
coming in a spiritual and Godly form.
But they did write that Jesus said He was the Son of ‘God’, because
perhaps the Creator really did come to Earth as a human being and Jesus really
was the Son of ‘God’. The authors surely
would not have written the Son of God was
born into a human family comprising of
Mary (the Virgin Mary) and Joseph and with four brothers or cousins, James,
Joseph, Simon and Jude (Mark 6:3).
Instead have Him existing independently without a father, mother and
brothers, but they did, because perhaps the Creator really did want to be born
into a human family with parents and siblings as a gesture of solidarity with
humanity.
The authors surely would not have written that the Son
of God was born in a manger in a stable (although Luke’s gospel describes this
as a house) with farm animals, but have Him born in a Palace fit for kings, but
they did, because perhaps He really was born (from a human perspective) without
pomp, ceremony, style and prestige. The
authors surely would not have written that the Son of God was the impetus for
Herod’s diabolical slaughter of the innocent infants in his search for the King
of ‘kings’ who he perceived would derail his own personal status and
kingship. Instead surely the authors
would have had Him saving the infants, or better still, not have had them
killed at all, but they did, because perhaps this whole story is really true
and Herod really did kill the innocent infants.
And perhaps God really does not interfere with the freedom of human
choice, responsibility and decision making, no matter how evil the action may
be. And perhaps the Creator does hold
the sovereignty of human integrity, responsibility, and personal accountability
of freewill as sacred. And perhaps it
really was not yet baby Jesus’ time to teach or work miracles or perform out of
the normal context of the human developmental process.
The authors surely would not have written that the Son
of God was born into poverty, but have Him born with riches and wealth, but
they did, because perhaps he really was born poor and without earthly and
material resources. The authors surely
would not have identified Jesus as riding upon a donkey and walking in the
dust, but have Him being carried upon a splendid golden throne, winged by
angels, but they did, because perhaps he really did live and lead a very poor,
humble and simple life. Interestingly,
Jesus’ donkey ride also fulfilled ancient scripture prophecy alluding to the
coming of the Messiah (Zechariah 9:9).
The authors would surely not have had the Son of the Creator writing no
words of wisdom at all, but instead, have Him writing all of the gospels. But they didn’t, because perhaps Christ Jesus
really didn’t write anything, but intended His teachings, life and words to be
recorded and interpreted through the sovereign determination and experience of
human beings – through human personality, spirit, intellect,
emotion and freewill – expressed and interpreted through human hands and
minds.
The authors surely would not have written that the Son
of God had befriended the tax collector and the ‘possessed’ and promiscuous
women, but instead, have them condemned, whilst having Jesus accompanying and
fraternizing with the upper class, priests and aristocrats. But they did, because perhaps Jesus really
did have a radical and revolutionary mission to fulfil and message to give, and
perhaps He really did relate to and connect with everyone, no matter who they
were, and no matter how they behaved, or what position in society they
held. The authors surely would have had
the Son of God ‘physically’ crushing the oppressive authority of the Romans and
their Empire, but they didn’t, because perhaps Jesus really was the Creator
with a special purpose, with a special message to annunciate, a message of
compassion and charity, to be expressed freely through personal choice.
The authors of the gospels and letters recorded in the
New Testament surely would not have had the Son of God’s own family, mother,
father and brothers, question His credibility and authenticity as the Messiah,
as the Creator’s Son. Jesus Christ was
the Messiah who shocked and upset His Mother and Father when He was ‘lost’
whilst He was preaching in the
The authors surely would not have written that the
‘Son of God’ was betrayed by His own disciples, but have Him being treated
loyally and respectfully and with honour.
But they did, because perhaps Jesus’ love and trust really was betrayed
and slighted by His human friends, by His followers and by His apostles,
because by definition of the human condition, all humans are imperfect. For instance, the apostle Peter betrayed
Jesus three times by denying any knowledge of Him because of his personal fear
of violence. And the authors would
surely not have written that Jesus had to rebuke Peter and then have Him
calling Peter Satan, but they did, because perhaps Peter was an imperfect human
being, whilst Jesus also redefined the meaning of the word Satan/Devil. The authors surely would not have had the Son
of God proven to be ‘physically’ vulnerable manifest by ‘physical’ beatings and
the brutal murder He suffered at the hands of the Romans, but instead have Him
overpowering and overthrowing the Romans.
But they did, because perhaps the Creator really did intend to be truly
human, and thus ‘physically’ and psychologically vulnerable through the pain
and shame of being abused and bashed by human beings. The authors surely would not have had the Son
of God suffering ‘physical’ and psychological abuse by the Romans, elders,
chief priests and teachers of the law, but have Him commanding and demanding
their respect and loyalty. But they did,
because perhaps He really was disrespected, misunderstood, feared and insulted
by human beings, and commanding and demanding their respect was not the divine
message to be enunciated through the Creator’s life on Earth.
The authors of the gospels and letters surely would
not have had the Son of God being humiliated, spat upon, bashed, crowned with
thorns, speared and nailed to the cross, but instead, have Him rising above
this quagmire of abuse in strength and might, slaying his nemesis and
exhibiting powers of strength, splendour and majesty. But they did, because perhaps He really was
treated worse than an animal by frightened humans and squashed like an ant
because His message was about the inadequacies of human nature, behaviour,
faith and belief, expressed through the humanness of His ‘physical’ death, and
through the divinity of His spiritual resurrection. The authors surely would not have had the Son
of God slaughtered on the cross, but have Him ruling Judea and the world, with the
authority and power of a mighty King.
But they did, because perhaps He really was crucified and killed by
ordinary men, killed by human beings, to show that He doesn’t need to succumb
and retaliate to the ‘physical’ might, power and oppression of base human
instincts. But rather, teach by the
influence of examples of human-to-human unconditional relational love,
compassion and reconciliation, manifest as an outcome of Self’s informed
consciousness of Self’s thoughts and emotions manifest through Self’s
attitudes, values, beliefs and behaviours manifest through the sovereignty and
dignity and of Self’s freewill. The authors surely would not have recorded
women as being the first to sight Christ’s empty tomb, and the risen Christ,
but have Him first seen by His male apostles.
But they did, because perhaps women really did see Him first having
risen from the dead, giving further credibility as to truth of the stories
about Christ in the gospels, whilst also emphasising women’s equality.
As has been suggested, instead of Christ’s disciples
and their witnesses having written the gospels, the authors surely would have
had Christ as the writer of the Scriptures and verses in the Gospels and New
Testament, but they didn’t, because perhaps Christ really did will and desire
to write nothing. And the authors surely
would have had just one writer of the gospels who would then write consistently
and without contradiction and variation.
But they didn’t, because perhaps there really were numerous writers who
didn’t consciously streamline and coordinate their scripts, because perhaps
there really were many valid and sovereign witnesses with varying personal
experiences, accounts and perspectives to the life of Jesus Christ. The authors surely would have just written
down scripts and messages saying they received them from God above or God’s
angel, but they didn’t, because perhaps they really didn’t receive any messages
from the transcendent God above, but wrote from their own personal experiences
of the teachings, messages and examples of Christ.
The authors and disciples surely would have said that
Jesus was the author of the New Testament.
But they didn’t, because perhaps Christ really had no intention of
writing, but rather, teaching by example, whilst respecting the disciples’ and
followers’ individual, personal and spiritual sovereignty, dignity and
independence. By allowing them the
intellectual, emotional and spiritual freedom to interpret, perceive and
understand the divine meaning of His
coming, the divine meaning of His life,
and the divine meaning of His resurrection and ascension. The authors of the New Testament surely would
have embellished and exaggerated Christ’s coming and going in the phenomena of an
‘ideal’ state of wondrous hype and thunderous glory, without controversy or
dilemma. But they didn’t, because
perhaps they couldn’t, because perhaps Christ really didn’t come in that way,
but instead, came in His own unassuming, unpretentious, unique, loving, gentle,
humble, special, but yet divine and revolutionary, radical, sophisticated,
complex and mysterious way.
And so the authors wrote and recorded the life and
story of a man who lived perhaps more simply and poorly than most. Yet who also performed the most unbelievable
miracles, whilst promoting and teaching knowledge about the higher transcendent
qualities and characteristics of compassion, charity, reconciliation and
relational love. Inspiring humans to
choose intellectual, cognitive, emotional and behavioural actions and content
of speech that contribute towards the construction of constructive and positive
intra-personal and inter-personal relations and communications. The ubiquitous incredulous literary genre and
style of the gospels in the New Testament, with their somewhat psychological,
paradoxical and incongruent content must lead us to consider that the writers
of the gospels about Jesus Christ were either, at best, comedians, or at worst,
irrational and crazy. Or that there is
indeed an uncanny and divine truth within this seemingly chaotic and diverse,
but wonderful and miraculous story, that perhaps only the divine will of the
Creator could truly orchestrate. That
only the divine will of the Creator could choreography through use of the
sovereign, yet imperfect hands and minds of humans.
And we must not forget that throughout the centuries
throughout the world, the Creator has perhaps allowed miracles – only those
legitimate phenomena that have been scientifically tested and validated as
authentic - to occur in different forms and in different parts of the
world. Especially the miracle of the
stigmata of Padre Pio, 1887-1968, who for fifty years manifest the
bleeding and open wounds of Christ, and where upon his death, these wounds completely
vanished. These are perhaps contemporary
miracles validating the reality of the event of the crucifixion and
resurrection occurring over 2000 years ago, reminding humans of the humility
and compassion of Christ, and the potential reality of human immortality. Finally, it would surely have been more
credible, more dramatic, and more sensational for readers of the gospels, if the
authors had written that Saul who became (Saint) Paul had believed in the risen
Christ with an unquestioning and categorical faith without having to first hear
and ‘see’ being visually blinded – for three days - by Christ’s words and
glory. But the authors wrote that Saul
had to see and hear the risen Christ in His spiritual light before he could
believe in Him, and thus a spiritual and physical ‘see’ to believe faith.
As
the New Testament Letter testifies:
“But
Saul began to destroy the church. Going
from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. As he neared
(Acts 8: 3; Acts 9: 1-8)
Similarly, it would have been far more credible if the
authors of the gospels had Thomas believing in the risen Christ without him first
having to see and touch Christ’s wounds.
But they didn’t record in writing, the apostle Thomas having an
unquestioning faith in the risen Christ.
Because although Thomas personally knew Jesus before His death, Thomas
was as sceptical as any person would have been, and did not believe with
unfettered faith in the risen Christ, without first having to see with his own
eyes, the evidence of Christ’s wounds (John 20:26-28). Many of us perhaps can strongly relate to
Saul and Thomas’s sceptical spiritual/intellectual dilemma regarding the need
for concrete evidence before allowing one’s self to believe in the possibility
of a mighty and wondrous miracle, such as the resurrection of the Christ.
Perhaps
it is a spiritually transcendent statement endorsing this unique, wondrous and
incredulous story of the experiences of Jesus Christ who claimed to be the Son
of God, that today, about a third of the world’s population strive to live by
the teachings and examples of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. These people struggle to live in the Spirit
of His unconditional and universal charity, hope, reconciliation and
compassion. Therefore, it is surely
imperative for these people who follow in the footsteps of Christ, that life is
lived with an accepting, non-judgmental and non-righteous attitude, both towards Self, and others. This
means in practice, respecting with dignity all peoples, including those who
call themselves atheist, or those who have no belief, by treating others with
compassion, acceptance and dignity as valuable and unique human beings. This accepting, non-judgmental and
non-righteous psychological mindset and attitude towards others includes
extending to acknowledging other’s religions and diverse beliefs in the Creator
as valid ways of knowing ‘God’. No one
can have an absolute monopoly of ‘understanding’ about the realities of ‘God’
the Creator. A God, ‘that nothing
greater can be thought’. This is because
the Creator must be, by definition, far too Awesome, far too ‘Omnipotent’, far
too Magnificent, far too Complex, far too ‘Benevolent’, far too ‘Omniscient’
and far too ‘?????’, for human minds to accurately and comprehensively
conceptualise with a clear, absolute and transparent image and definition. Even a fleeting image of the defining
realities of such a Being would surely be impossible to be fully expressed in
human words, feelings and thoughts which could unequivocally, categorically and
transparently describe the absolute true character, nature and essence of such
a Supernatural Divine Master as the Creator of the Universe.
It is
understandable that humans therefore, can only pigeon hole and imprison the
Reality of ‘God’ in the confines of human intellect and understanding. Authentic and genuine Christians who try and
follow the examples of Jesus – the word Christian being a name which meaning
has been misinterpreted, because it has been tainted over the centuries by
blatant and inadvertent misuse by those in positions of religious authority and
power - will respect and celebrate the sovereignty and integrity of human
independence and dignity. Manifest in
human spiritual diversity and understanding, as displayed through the beliefs
of those who make up the many denominations of Christianity, in those who
journey the way of the Hindu, in those who follow the path of Buddha, in their
sisters and brothers of Islam, and in the Jewish People from whose roots the
Christian tradition arose.
When we
as human beings can see through and beyond the psychological obstacles created
by human tradition, ritualism, fanaticism, illusion, politics, misinformation
and pride. And when we can see through
and beyond the psychological obstacles of the human attitude of “having to be
right or wrong”, and the human mindset of “being good or bad” within any
religion, belief and culture. We can
then consciously and advertently gaze into the real, authentic
and genuine heart and spirituality of a people who ultimately want to
understand, ‘that which nothing greater can be thought’. Christians can acknowledge and respect with
dignity a people who have different beliefs, a people who also strive to
satisfy their inner intellectual and spiritual thirst and hunger for the
absolute truth, for human justice, human immortality, and belief in a Creator
or ‘God’. The Creator, a Being that
would perhaps be to far removed from that which human thought could
conceptualise if not for the existence of Jesus Christ, if indeed we can
spiritually, emotionally and intellectually consider Jesus Christ to be the Son
of ‘God’.
It could be said, that through
the spiritual, emotional and intellectual
knowledge
and understanding of the life of Jesus, God’s unconditional and universal
relational love, compassion, justice and reconciliation can be manifestly
expressed in the relational love Self receives when someone cares, values and
accepts Self. That the Creator’s
unconditional and universal relational love, compassion, reconciliation and
justice can be manifestly expressed in the love Self gives to others as defined
when Self takes time to understand, value and accept others as unique and
special beings. That the Creator’s
unconditional and universal relational love, compassion, reconciliation and
justice can be manifestly expressed in the love that enables Self to overcome
and celebrate the potential barriers and obstacles of intellectual,
psychological and spiritual diversity that has the propensity to
intellectually, psychologically and spiritually separate human beings from one
another.
CHAPTER
6
WHY DID THE CREATOR BECOME
HUMAN?
Humans Are Imperfect
The Incarnation
The Conscious Voice of Self
Atheism
Personal Integrity and Choice
Christ’s Teachings
The Original Ten Commandments
The Ten Commandments Very Relevant but Inadequate
We are all
aware of at least some of the defects in our personalities, the flaws in our
character and the imperfections in our behaviours. We are often aware of the inclination to do
less than good, the indiscretions we sometimes chose to perform at times when
we offend and hurt others with our offensive attitudes and behaviours, from
which results and derives as an outcome, personal and emotional pain and
anguish. But our ‘sinfulness’, in part,
is a condition of being human, because we were made both with personal
autonomy, intellect and consciousness, with the capacity to act and behave in
anyway we choose as well as being made from the process of evolution whereby we
inherit some of the characteristics of human origins, this is, the
characteristics of primates. But humans
sometimes and in other cases often, abuse the high quality constructs of
freewill, intellect and autonomy. We
only need to look around at the suffering caused to people, by people, from
people thinking, feeling, behaving and speaking less than constructively
towards others. The Creator knows this
suffering caused by people to people, for if He made humans, He must know of
human weaknesses and imperfections. And
this is an excellent reason why the Creator may have sent and gave His only
Son, Jesus Christ, to the human race by which through His examples and
teachings humans are more conscious and made aware of their imperfections
and indiscretions that cause Self and others intra-personal and interpersonal
suffering and anguish. The Christ may be
considered to be the example from the Creator given to humans so that humans
may have a credible and observable Supernatural and Transcendent measure or
‘yard stick’ for human thoughts, feelings, attitudes, behaviours and speech. That human beings may have a divine ‘measure’
for personal ‘goodness’, a ‘goodness’ which function is one of a healthy and
wholesome intra-personal and interpersonal relationship with Self and
others. The Christ, a transcendent earthly
‘vehicle’, for humans to potentially come to know and understand, the reality
of who and what the Creator is all about.
If we believe in
the possibility of Jesus Christ being the Son of God then we will consider
believing that ‘God’ has offered up to all the people of the world, offered up
to everyone in the world, past, present, and future, the ultimate
Sacrifice. Christ is the ultimate
sacrifice of ‘God’ Himself as the Due Justice paid for humans’ debts manifest
in imperfections, faults and transgressions that may have been committed
against self, and others. This offering
and sacrifice of ‘God’ to human beings through Jesus Christ, this offering and
sacrifice of ‘God’ the Christ, could ensure the wholesale salvation of all the
peoples of the world.
So through Jesus
Christ, the God incarnate, it could be considered that God intended to:
* Buy humans’ immortality with His personal body, blood, suffering and
humility.
* Prove His
unconditional mystical relational love and compassion for every single person
in the world, past, present and future.
* Say, there is a better way to live life; there is a productive and
constructive way to live life, a way to live life that is defined by
interpersonal compassion and reconciliation for and between Self and others.
* Say, “Hey, what about a
personal relationship, can we be
cognitively and emotionally intimate, can the Creator and the created,
be friends?”
* Say, it's never too late;
it's never too late to be reconciled between Self, others and the Creator, for
anything and everything ever committed that’s compromised ‘good’, that's
compromised the spiritual integrity, sovereignty and personhood of Self and others. To reconcile for any ‘physical’ and emotional
suffering and pain incurred by Self and experienced by Self and others as a
result of Self’s indiscretions compromising of the manipulation of base
instincts through personal choices.
* Say, “Can I will walk with
you, and you with me, through the imperfect valley of tears and anguish;
through the mountains of pleasure and smiles; through the weakness of the seas
of despair and tribulations”. Through
such spiritual inter-relational experiences with the Creator may come strength
and satisfaction manifest in personal contentment in having lived life to its
fullest potential in relation to compassion and acceptance for Self and others.
Human
Beings, who have evolved from animal, primate mammals, are able to choose their
behaviour. Humankind, masters of
themselves, an independent people, with the gifts of intellect, choice and
freewill to do as they see fit. Humans,
a people who may choose to embrace, follow and live by the above sentiments of
a transcendent human/ ‘God’ interrelationship, because:
·
Through the
incarnation, the Creator became man by way of Jesus Christ. And so the infinite has become finite, the
intangible has become tangible, the abstract has become concrete, the invisible
has become visible, and the reverie (dream) has become reality.
“Go and tell my brethren”
(Matthew 28:10; John 20:17)
“We love Him because He first loved us”.
(1 John 4:19)
·
Through Jesus Christ we receive the law of freedom of
love. Freedom of love, because through
His mystical love He sets humans free from the world’s traditions, rituals, and
judicial observances. Through His
mystical love He sets humans free from both the ancient and contemporary
irrational religious and cultural laws and rituals.
(John
·
Through Jesus Christ, The Word became flesh; the Word
became flesh and human to make humans, through complicity, partakers of His
divine nature, and partners in His immortality.
(2 Peter 1:4)
·
The Son of ‘God’ became man so that we might realize
our full potential as human beings through his examples, becoming improved
people spreading kindness, ultimately sharing in eternal immortality.
·
The Creator assumed human nature so that He, ‘God’
made into man, through His teachings and examples will elevate humankind’s
attitudes and behaviours so that humankind lives life to full potential.
·
To redeem humankind, the Creator became man, taught
and suffered, thus conveying to man/ woman the Creator’s unconditional mystical
relational love and compassion in order that man/ woman, should not become
obsessed with his/ her own pride and arrogance.
Which could potentially procure Self to a life of personal
destructiveness, unhappiness, emptiness and hopelessness.
·
Through the incarnation the Creator gave humankind
proof of His intrinsic unconditional relational love and compassion for
humankind. That through this act of
humility He might obtain peoples’ motivation to desire to voluntarily choose to
relationally love and accept Self and others, and in so doing, others to
relationally love and accept Self, and thus also the Creator in which image
humans are made.
·
Through the authority and humility of the voluntary
act of the incarnation – ‘God’ becoming human - humans can recognize and
resolve the power of their transcendent high quality intellectual and emotional
constructs and break free from the magnetic base instincts of human pride and
arrogance.
·
Through the incarnation Christ’s sacrifice was
totally acceptable to the
Creator, because if Christ was/ is the Creator/ ‘God’ then there is an
infinite, absolute and just atonement for all human ‘debts’.
·
Through the incarnation the suffering Christ through
His humanness and solidarity with humankind potentially alleviates the personal frustration
humans may experience caused by tension between the maladaptive cognitive,
emotional and behavioural characteristics potentially motivated by base human
instincts and the constructive intellectual, emotional, and behavioral
characteristics potentially motivated by the transcendent spirit.
·
Through His life and death, Christ has unequivocally
and categorically, won victory over evil.
He has paid the ultimate price.
He has paid the perfect price for human imperfections and faults. With His life and death He has paid
universally for human debts. He has paid
the debts for all human indiscretions and transgressions. That is His, ‘physical’, emotional and,
intellectual humiliation and suffering for human/Self’s immortality.
The
Conscious Voice of Self
It perhaps should be brought to our attention an
experience that we all may have known.
Yet, is an experience intimate and personal and sometimes
uncomfortable, and that is the sense or feeling that somebody is dictating to
one from within, and saying, “You should not use this means for that purpose or
pursue that particular goal or behaviour.”
Yes, one of those quiet little voices of the conscience that talks to us
within. We may rationalize to Self that
something is okay or that it is good, but it doesn't and will not totally
silence what we call the voice of spiritual truth within us. It is said that every person born into this
world is illuminated and affected in one way or another by the light of
spiritual truth within (John 1:9).
We all have this gift of voice, this noise of our
conscience and spirit within our being.
Through this quiet voice of consciousness, this voice of and within
Self, we can make choices and decisions about our actions and behaviours, about
our thoughts, emotions, values, attitudes and beliefs. We can choose to, or not to listen to that
voice which may be based on the spirit of truth, to that which may be based on
goodness, and to that which may be based on fairness and justice. We can choose to, or not to do that which
Self’s heart and mind believes may be constructive, or that which Self’s heart
and mind believes is destructive. In
most cases, the choices and decisions Self makes and decides to act upon are
Self’s to make.
But perhaps we can keep in
mind the potential spiritual support that might be available:
"Yet in fact
He is not far from any of us, since it is in Him that we live and move and
exist."
(Acts
But if we constantly resist this
internal voice of conscience, this private voice whom some would say is the
prompting of Self’s Spirit, Self may eventually reach a state where Self
chooses to be impervious to the voice of truth and its promptings and what it
is trying to say to Self. The consequences
from the decision not to listen but to deny this voice of conscience may
include the prospect of eventually becoming immune and numb, incapable of
feeling, hearing, and responding to it, choosing to deny its presence. We may therefore eventually become oblivious
to what the Creator is trying to convey, we may become oblivious to the
promptings of the inner spirit, which drives Self’s conscience to seek out that
which is good, true and just encapsulated by compassion and reconciliation.
It is not that the Creator has stopped
wanting to talk and relate to Self, it is perhaps that Self may find it
difficult to connect with the Creator because of past experiences and the
potential pride manifest in Self’s attributes and integrity of independence and
sovereignty. Self may be ignoring the
possibility of the Creator’s existence, thereby denying Self the opportunity to
experience personal and private reflection in relation to Self’s relationship
with Self and hence Self’s relationship with the Creator. It could be said that the invisible door has
been slowly closing for such a long time that the door through which the
Creator emanates may become rusty and cannot easily be opened without some
extra incentive and personally intended application.
Self-absorption as opposed to
self-reflection may possibly, through involuntary ignorance or blatant will,
become the product of the manifestation of pride and arrogance manifest in
indiscrete base acts, which hurt Self, and others. This process may result in living a life of
self-centeredness, and gratuitous selfishness, and as a spiritual and
psychological consequence, possibly harmful to Self’s inner being and others as
a product of the aftermath. These
particular attitudes may directly cause discriminate and indiscriminate
human-to-human pain and suffering.
Relief through personal acceptance, compassion and reconciliation may
prevail when Self is able to decide to choose to disabuse Self’s denial of
Self’s intrinsic spiritual existence, imbibing the independent and sovereign
Self to live life that effectively flows outwards from within as a result of
Self consciously ‘centering’ Self.
The deliberate transformation of Self
by choosing to listen within Self’s center may act as if it were magic,
changing every aspect of one’s being, thereby enabling Self to live life in
harmony with Self and Self’s brothers and sisters in a spirit of compassion,
acceptance and reconciliation and thus, in truth, peace, love, joy and
happiness.
Agnostic is a word
defined by an individual’s non-belief in a ‘God’s’ existence, because that
individual believes that there is not the evidence available to prove in the
Creator’s existence. But surely if one
does not study and read appropriate information then one cannot learn and will
never acquire enough information necessary to consider the possibility of ‘God’s’
existence.
The word Atheism is a term often used
to describe those who choose not believe in the possibility of a “God,” a
belief they choose based on the principles generated by their personal attitude
and values from the information they have acquired. This stance about not believing in a Creator
and labeled as Atheism may be based on misinformation and one being uninformed
of all the necessary evidence required by an individual to make such an informed
decision, which may otherwise lead one to consider the possibilities of the
Creator’s existence. This particular
mindset and stance may be based on the false perception of one’s personal and
individual autonomy being exaggerated to the point of believing one is denied
and has had extracted, extinguished and nullified one’s personal independence
and sovereignty by belief in a Creator.
Logically speaking, this position of requiring total intellectual and
emotional independence is understandable, and indeed, such attributes as
consciousness, intellect and emotion can allow individuals to believe in and
experience their personal sense of being and uniqueness, which by definition
may be a very private and intimate affair.
A Creator of invisible constructs such
as consciousness, intellect, emotion and freewill surely respects the integrity
and sovereignty of each individual, enabling a person to think and feel, and
allowing an individual to possess personality, values and attitudes as
characteristics of Self and Self’s being and Self being Self. But we are also social beings and require
others for comfort and support. And we
are beings who are ‘physically’ and psychologically dependant in some way or
another, on creation, including, the air we breathe, the water we drink and the
food we eat, for our existence. And we
are spiritual beings who can reflect within as we think and feel about how we
think and feel.
But inevitably, human bodies of
atom-energy are, through design, order and plan, programmed to ‘die’ or more
accurately, change their structure and functions as we have experienced
them. The sacredness of being human
involves believing and thinking as one wishes without the burden of the
Creator’s coercive influence or threat of wrath. Indeed, humans are entitled to expect their
individual rights but as adults are also accountable and responsible for their
actions and the subsequent consequences associated with these actions. But perhaps all peoples need to be cognizant
of having an open mind and heart to listen to and contemplate fully all the
information in relation to such transcendent possibilities. Some people may harbour a personal resentment
against the possibility of a Creator formed from the idea of such an incredible
Power, Force or Spirit necessary to create humankind and the universe. This stance may also provide the motivation
for one to seek out the available evidence for the existence of such a Creator
and ‘God’. To acknowledge and consider
the possibility of the existence of a Creator is in no way to oppose or deny
the sovereignty and independence of Self or human kind. Since the essence of human dignity is
grounded in and brought to perfection in a loving Creator who loves
unconditionally and universally, and who, by nature, is essentially
intrinsically and substantially all ‘good’ and perfect. A Creator, who indeed, may exist and love
regardless of whether we like it or not, and who may exist and love whether we
believe or not.
The ability gifted
to humans to reason and choose, and therefore, to be able to make decisions,
and to act freely in a certain way, or to not act in a certain way in the
things they do, think and say, has the potential to shape the development of
human character and personality. And,
therefore, the personal experiences of Self and others for better or
worse. This freedom to act and to do so
is a force for our personal growth and maturity in dignity, truth, love,
forgiveness and goodness and hence a force shaping our personal
well-being. The spiritual and personal
growth we can achieve is ultimately perfected and magnified when enacted and
expressed in the direction of ‘God’, who is the essence of all love and truth.
Humans
are social creatures made to enjoy community with our fellows, and we are
spiritual creatures made to enjoy community with God. Until the day comes when we can enjoy
community in fullness with our fellows and enjoy community with ‘God’, our
experience of the world may not be fully complete, or fully satisfied, but only
partial. As humans we were made to
“long” for real justice, real truth and real love. Self cannot but advocate Self searching for
the true meaning of Self’s life - which discovery will be satisfying - if Self
is not in any personal spiritual, intellectual and emotional denial of the
sacredness of Self’s human sovereignty.
Our desires can be boundless as we yearn for the love
and truth that can fill the feelings we sometimes may experience of the
emptiness and limitless wanting of our hearts and minds. These feelings we may have experienced, that
we may have felt about our human limitations and human brokenness are perhaps
the symptoms of the need and desire in our hearts and lives for a sense of
relationship with others and the absolute ‘God’. We have within our being a taste for the
infinitive, a taste for divinity, a taste for justice, a taste for mercy, a
taste for love and a taste for compassion, which when filled will go towards
satisfying our need for personal wholeness.
The philosopher and
theologian Augustine (4th century AD) eloquently described this phenomenon when
he said:
"We are
restless beings who cannot rest except in the one who made us".
However, this reflection, although
potentially true, may seem slightly simplistic as it may ignore the
sovereignty, integrity uniqueness and the potential sacredness of personal
freewill and independence created within the being of each human. Also, by adding to the mix the true and
wonderful relationships we can experience with others may be our console and
highlight the sacred experience of relating to the spirit of another person,
and in turn, connecting with the Creator through the spirit of the other as
made in the image of the Creator. The
faculty of Self’s free will and choice to choose a particular action has the
potential to be a very powerful force.
These faculties give Self the capability to both love and/ or hate and
destroy other human beings. We only need
to look on the state of the world to realise this with wholesale emotional
‘psychological’ devastation and ‘physical’ annihilation from acts causing
human-to-human suffering through people’s choices to perpetrate acts of war,
greed, hatred, prejudice, cruelty, and murder etc. These are some of the atrocities and
abominations perpetrated by human beings against their brothers and sisters.
So what are the
possible answers to rectifying and healing the irrational and painful
devastation humans have created and perpetrated for and against one
another. We humans need information and
resources, we need to be educated, we need to be fully informed about our
spiritual heritage our spiritual makeup and how our actions, thoughts and
feelings can have catastrophic consequences for Self, and others. In this way, through education, it is hoped
that we can make measured and considered decisions and choices based on all the
relevant material and facts so as to best behave in a way that is in keeping
with the master blue print of our inherent spirit and essence and ultimately,
that for which we were intended and made for.
The application of the above principles
and concepts undoubtedly incorporate and intertwine all the spiritual and
psychological areas of our personal lives and the personal lives of
others. Such a ‘God’ knows the
importance of human knowledge about these facts, of course, and to this end
Jesus Christ, His examples and His teachings, are the resulting outcome. These examples and teachings exemplified and
espoused by Jesus Christ, are the principles and values expressed as a main
theme throughout the New Testament, but also based on the refinement and
re-development of the original Ten Commandments in the Old Testament. So as a measure against destroying Self and
each other, and as a guide to real truth, real love, real mercy, real justice
and real compassion, improving on, reflecting on, and practicing living life
with unconditional love, as is described and expressed within the messages,
teachings and letters witnessed throughout the New Testament, can be behaviour
aspired to.
The Original Ten Commandments
The historical biblical Ten
Commandments written in the bible said to have been given to Moses from ‘God’
on Mount Sinai were useful behavioural and moral guidelines and rules for the
people of the time, who did not have any ‘divine’ code to live by. And which without question were and are still
considered to be good morals and rules for personal guidance promoting better
behaviour and living for humans.
The Ten Commandments read:
1. You shall have no
false gods except me.
2. You shall not bow down
to or serve any carved image or any
likeness of anything in
heaven or on earth.
3. You shall not utter
the name of Yahweh your God or misuse
it.
4. Remember
the Sabbath day and keep it holy.
5. Honour your father and
your mother.
6. You shall not kill,
maim or injure.
7. You shall not
commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You
shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
10. You shall not covet your neighbours wife,
husband or anything that is his.
These commandments
are in the following verses of both Testaments.
(Matthew 5:20-48;
19:16-22; Mark 10:1-31; Exodus 20: 1-21; Deuteronomy 5: 1-22)
However, some would say
and commonsense would dictate that these ancient moral rules, although
generally excellent guidelines to live by, if read and interpreted literally
with absolute faith, will be deemed today to be inevitably inflexible, narrow
and flawed in their specificity. If
these commandments are interpreted literally with little room for movement
rather than being interpreted with room for interpretational nuances, like the
inflexible analogy ‘of embracing the concrete inflexible colours of black and
white’ rather than the opposing analogy, ‘embracing the shades of colours of
all the colours of the rainbow’, then problems of scripture interpretation will
undoubtedly decrease. Dare it be also
said, that these ancient ‘imperative’ moral rules and laws are of course very
relevant today underpinning moral behaviour, but inadequate as being the
perfect spiritual guidelines and boundaries safeguarding against the manifold
complex transgressions committed by Self against Self’s neighbour that we too
often see and experience in today’s world.
Furthermore, these prohibited activities prescribed in
the Ten Commandments are in many circumstances considered too narrow for many
situations in many different countries today, and therefore, are behaviours
that are possibly even justifiable and legitimate as being the lesser of two
evils in some circumstances. For
instance, some parents, sadly, abuse their children and so the commandment to
do good and not sin, ‘to honour your mother and father,’ could not only
exacerbate further abuse, but indeed destroy ‘God’s’ credibility in the eyes of
those who are and have been harmed. In
many countries, citizens are dying from starvation, or killed and murdered by
militia and supporters of dictators and tyrants. And so, for people in these cultures, when it
involves the taking of another’s’ life for self-preservation and self-defense,
or stealing food for survival against starvation, we cannot surely and
automatically say, “you have stolen and so have committed a grave sin” or, “you
have killed someone and therefore committed a mortal sin”. So it could be justifiable to break Moses’
commandments and laws under certain circumstances.
These
laws show how an absolute faith and belief in Sacred Scripture and the absolute
unwavering compliance of these rules may inevitably lead to further ‘physical’
and psychological harm, compromising psycho-spiritual health, and ultimately,
the murderous killing of humans. Only
the Creator knows the full and total circumstances of any one person’s
situation, who might perform certain behaviours, and so only this Supreme Being
can judge such a persons behaviour absolutely.
It
could be suggested that to amend the anomalies of the commandments in the Old
Testament, God in His infinite Wisdom, through Jesus Christ, became the
architect, author and example of the new commandment, the new law of the world,
the new law of love. In the next chapter, we will investigate the meaning of
this new law of the ‘Creator’, this new law of love.
CHAPTER
7
The New Law of
Relational Love
Live
Life with Relational Love for Self and Others
Judging and Self-righteousness
Philosophy of Love
Let us again
front the reality of life and death.
Living life as a human would mean nothing in the end if, when all is
done and finished, life has been lived without love for Self and others. If life is lived without the experience of
value, respect, compassion and acceptance, etc., for Self and others, life
itself may be deemed to be experienced as worthless, and in reality,
wasted. There is nothing more important
in the world, in the universe, than the experience of human love, charity and
compassion and the subsequent enduring health of spiritual and psychological
well being that flows from the ‘relational love’ experience. It is a universal truth that these attributes
and virtues of the higher transcendent qualities of relational charity,
reconciliation and compassion, can provide personal satisfaction in terms of
meaning, vision and hope to Self’s life and existence.
The importance of the value of love
is endorsed and verified when Jesus Christ summarised, overhauled and redefined
the above historic Ten Commandments and rules of the Old Testament, into two
major and imperative concepts. The term
‘concept’ is used here, firstly because the word ‘commandment’ encourages the
notion of ‘rightness’ and ‘wrongness’, and this could never have been the true
intention. Real love is about freedom
and choice. Real love is intrinsically
unconditional and is predicated on the essence of Life and Creation itself, and
not on any notion of ‘rightness’ or ‘wrongness’. The notion of being ‘right’ and therefore not
‘wrong’ creates a psychological and spiritual polarization, which has the propensity
to perpetuate
attitudinal psychological compartments within Self and others which are labeled
by a particular belief, as ‘good’ and/or ‘bad’.
This can propel an inner drive in Self for goodness and perfection,
which becomes distorted because it becomes a need for goodness and perfection
at any cost, and ultimately, necessitates the elimination of all that is
considered and perceived as bad and imperfect.
This inner need to do and be good, perfect and right at all costs,
necessitates the desire to eliminate badness and imperfections in others, which
in turn, risks personal thoughts, feelings, values, attitudes and behaviours
that can be obsessive, compulsive and destructive such as thoughts, feelings,
values, attitudes, beliefs and acts that include discrimination, aggression and
hatred. This mindset and behaviour-set
inevitably destroys the ability for one to experience and practice true love,
which by definition, is not based on right or wrong, pride or arrogance, but on
understanding, compassion and unconditional love.
The attitude of needing to ‘be
right’ is dangerous one as it comes with exacerbating consequences. If we have a need to ‘be right’ in terms of a
spiritual and religious context, it is because we believe that only if we are
‘right’ are we then good enough to live eternally with God. And so our belief systems, our religion, has
to be the ‘right one’, and everyone else’s therefore must be inherently bad
and/or wrong. These destructive ‘true’
and ‘right’ belief systems are then compounded and intensified by thoughts of
exclusiveness and thus quickly develop into attitudes, feelings and behaviours
that are characterized by hate, fanaticism, fear and anger, which are the
antithesis and antipathy of compassion, acceptance and unconditional love. Secondly, the meaning of the word ‘concept’
in the statement ‘the concept of love’ gives the connotation of love being a
choice or option, and so ultimately, an attitude, belief and behaviour that no
one can ever be forced into or coerced by.
Because the act of love is indeed not love if one is threatened by
anyone in anyway, to love.
To love is a choice.
To love is an option. If the act
of love originated in any other way other than by virtue of choice or option,
then love would essentially mean nothing, and mean anything else but love. Conscious emotions, cognitions and behaviours
to love provide the essence and ingredients of the love that is transmitted by
the ‘lover’ and received by the loved.
This experience of love can become the most powerful spiritual energy in
the universe. This energy of love
experienced between peoples, is never forgotten, but always remembered. It
never disappears, but always exists, in minds and hearts and has the spiritual
characteristics of transcending all time, all places and all spaces. These new and overriding commandments
(concepts) of love for the Creator, and love for Self, and others, from Christ,
undoubtedly may resonate as an inner song within the innate spirit, and in
fact, and in principle, mirror each other.
Because the image of the Creator is in all of us, and because, it has
been said, whatever we do or say to others’ we do and say it to the
Creator. For we are all made from and by
the Creator so the Creator is in all. These commandments read, firstly:
1. “First, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul, and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
(Matthew 22:37)
This is the first of the two great
commandments given to people from God through Jesus Christ. This is a commandment to love the
Creator. But we can only really love the
Creator if we know what the Creator stands for, and we can only really love the
Creator if we understand that the Creator has first loved us. God has first loved us, firstly, through the
creation of creation and human existence and immortality, and secondly, through
the Creator’s Son’s birth, life, death and resurrection. Our experience of the Creator’s love may be
direct. That is, through belief in the
knowledge of creation, and belief in the knowledge of the Creator’s Son’s
birth, life, death and resurrection, or indirect, that is, through the loving
relationships we may have experienced from others who reflect the Creator’s
love and who appreciate and accept our uniqueness, experiencing the Creator’s
image and likeness within us.
It behooves the author to explain
that this commandment (concept) to love the Creator must be an act of free
choice made out of personal and intimate knowledge and understanding. Just as the Creator respects the sacredness
and dignity of human integrity and sovereignty through the gifts of
consciousness, free-will and personal and private thoughts and emotions, so
knowing and loving the Creator needs to be an act of genuine choice made out of
a personal and intimate spiritual knowledge and understanding. This does not entitle anyone to be
condescending or judgmental towards those who choose not to know the
Creator. Relating with and knowing the
Creator is a uniquely personal and intimate experience between Self and The
Other. A relationship formed by
intimately personal experiences, awareness and understanding.
Secondly:
2. “You
shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
(Matthew 22:39)
This is such a powerful commandment or
concept and must be considered a wonderfully constructive component of the new
law of relational love and compassion.
This commandment states and emphatically requires all of us to love
others as we love Self, to do unto others, as we would have them do unto
us. This commandment assumes therefore
that we need to love Self in such a ‘good enough’ way – good enough way, for no
one is perfect - that we are able to also love others in an equally ‘good
enough’ way. This commandment therefore
requires us to love Self so that we can, in turn, love others, thus love others
as Self loves Self.
This commandment, which encourages Self to love others as
Self loves Self, implies that if Self doesn’t love Self ‘well enough’ - because
Self needs to love others as Self loves Self - then Self won’t love others
‘well enough’. Indeed, we could say that
Self is required to love others as Self loves Self, and thus Self, should love
Self so that Self can love others. And
when Self loves Self with the psychological characteristics of a good sense of
self-worth, self-identity and self-esteem, Self would also want others to love
Self with the same quality of love. When
Self loves, accepts and respects Self, Self would also appreciate others to
treat Self with this same respect, acceptance and dignity. So, this commandment asks Self to treat Self
with love, respect and acceptance, so that Self can, in turn, treat others with
the same attitude of respect, love, acceptance and dignity.
So Self is asked to
love others as Self loves Self, and so the more Self loves Self, the more Self
is able to love others, so the more others can then love themselves, and in
turn, love, respect and accept others. The
more Self loves Self, and the more others love Self, the more Self would want
to love Self and others. Consistent
psychological research has proven this human behavioural phenomenon to be
credible. This may be explained by Self needing to realistically and genuinely love Self
before Self can realistically and genuinely love others. Self cannot realistically and genuinely love
another whilst hating and/or not loving Self.
Self might think they can love others and not love Self but
this would be a distortion of the true definition of love. This is because the subjective and perceived
degree and depth, quantity and quality - described as characteristics - of the
love Self has for Self, whether experienced and expressed implicitly and/or
explicitly, definitively defines for Self what love is per se. Therefore, the characteristics that comprise
the definition of love Self has for Self are the only characteristics available
to Self for Self to love others by.
How can
Self, love others if Self does not love, accept and respect Self first? Indeed, if Self dislikes Self, Self will
consequently dislike others, disliking others as Self dislikes Self. If Self dislikes and can’t love, accept or
respect Self, Self will not really expect others to treat Self with love,
acceptance and respect, neither will Self be inclined to treat others with
love, acceptance and respect that Self is unable to experience from Self or
others. If Self cannot love, accept and
respect Self with Self’s own imperfections how can Self then navigate a 360
degree turn and love, accept and respect others with all their
imperfections? Would it not be
psychologically and practically impossible?
The
power of the behaviour and act of loving and accepting Self is based on
psychological rationale that to love, respect and accept Self with all of
Self’s own personal limitations, weaknesses and imperfections will in turn
allow Self permission to love, respect and accept others with all their
personal limitations, weaknesses and imperfections. If Self cannot accept Self’s imperfections,
weaknesses and limitations, it will be impossible to accept the limitations,
weaknesses and imperfections of others.
In addition to knowing the rationale of the cause and effects of the
characteristics of loving or not loving,
respect and acceptance for Self and others is also the notion that if
Self loves and accepts Self with all of Self’s personal limitations,
weaknesses, and imperfections Self possesses, then Self can become positively
motivated toward change. This is,
opposed to not being motivated at making the desired and/or necessary changes
to improve Self’s personal limitations, weaknesses, and imperfections. If Self cannot love and accept Self with all
Self’s imperfections, weaknesses and limitations, Self will find it almost
impossible to muster the psychological energy and strength required for the
personal motivation to materially improve on Self’s imperfections, weaknesses
and limitations. So to improve the love
and acceptance for Self and others, Self needs first, to love Self with all of Self’s
imperfections, weaknesses and limitations.
This
new divine decree or concept or advice regarding relational love can be defined
as putting into practice through self’s constructs of cognition, emotion and
behaviour the acts of compassion and reconciliation for Self and others. So this divine ‘advice’ states that we need
to love, forgive and accept Self first so that we are able to move towards the
process of loving, accepting and forgiving others. Importantly however, this law does not state
that we have to like everyone, everywhere, and then have them live on our
doorstep, but rather, to harbour and center within Self, a sense of value,
respect, acceptance and peace towards Self, so that Self may sense the same
value, respect, acceptance and peace towards others. However, if we can’t forgive others because
of perhaps the enormous abuse others may have subjected us to, and perpetrated
upon us, whether it be in the present and/or past, we can instead, try and
forgive Self for not being able to forgive others. For whether the truth is ‘good’ or ‘bad’,
Self’s personal truth will set Self, free.
This sense of personal and dignified freedom may possibly eventually
allow Self the forgiveness of others for Self’s personal sense of closure.
This
attitude of intra-personal forgiveness and acceptance for Self will help
facilitate the stemming of bitterness towards Self, and in turn, towards
others, whilst encouraging spiritual and psychological healing within, that
will also enhance Self’s ability to heal and grieve at the loss of personal
justice and dignity. This may in turn
prohibit any feelings of shame and guilt brought about and by any acts of
intentional abuse and destructiveness towards Self by others. So Self needs to give Self the dignity Self
deserves under particular circumstances and forgive Self for not being ready,
able or having the capacity and resources within, to forgive others. These psychological mindsets may help Self to
make the necessary choices needed to forgive others and thus take back Self’s
personal sense of control and power that has been taken. In turn, this personal action of forgiveness
to Self and others will allow Self to move on with Self’s life, without the
repercussions of becoming psychologically disempowered, disenfranchised and
maligned, with the possibility of carrying the acquired and compounding painful
experiences into new relationships, events and situations. This will allow the spirit of goodwill and
peace to flow within and through Self, and allow Self to come to accept any
offending perpetrator as being spiritually
and/or
psychologically sick/unwell. It will also allow Self to move on with
Self’s life, allowing the possibility of Self to increase the love, respect,
acceptance and dignity for Self, so that Self can continue to treat others
constructively as Self treats Self.
This concept or commandment, to love,
is perhaps the most important behaviour for people to embrace and live their
lives by. Upon this law of love for Self
and others, shall, by its intrinsic definition, hinge and underpin the
consciousness of thoughts, emotions, values, attitudes, beliefs and speech and
behaviours towards Self and others.
As the author’s of
these scriptures prudently reflects:
“On these two
commandments should hang all future spiritual laws and the agenda and directives
of the prophets.”
(Matthew 22:37-40; Romans
12:9-21; 1 Corinthians)
This new law of
Mystical Relational Love is described, emphasised and confirmed, in ‘The Letter
to Romans’, which reads:
“If you love your
fellow then you have carried out your obligations. All the commandments: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not
kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and so on, are summed up in
this single command: You must love your
neighbour as yourself. Love is the one
thing that cannot hurt your neighbour; that is why it is the answer to every
one of the commandments”.
(Romans 13:8-10)
Jesus also says in
John’s Gospel:
“As the Father has
loved me, so have I loved you: abide in my love”.
(John 15:9-12)
“This is my
commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you”.
(John 13:34)
So
we are to behave in a certain way, in a way that does not hurt the inner spirit
of feelings and thoughts of others. But
as we have discussed above, this love must go further, for to love others as
ourselves, we first need to love Self, so that Self may have the psychological
and spiritual depth and strength to love others. So the more we love Self the more we will be
able to, and be inclined to love others, thus living the Creator’s new law of
love. By living life in and with an
attitude of love, respect and acceptance, Self will also learn to experience
self-acceptance and self-respect, self-love and self-forgiveness. Self will experience Self as a unique and
special Being with the attributes of personal freewill, independence,
sovereignty and dignity. Self also needs
to be gentle on Self, particularly in the areas of self-judgment and
self-incrimination, whilst restraining Self’s temptations for feelings of
personal pride, arrogance and self-righteousness.
Through actively living life in the
way of relational love for Self and others, Self will be enriched through the
reciprocation of this intra-love of self-acceptance and kindness for Self,
because Self can then give this acceptance and kindness to others, and in
return, others will give acceptance and kindness to Self. Self’s and others’ personal happiness and
sense of peace, will be initiated and sustained through relational love, charity
and, compassion. From this interpersonal
relational love of charity and compassion comes the warm inner psychological
sense, cognition and feeling of spiritual well-being for Self and other Self’s
which could be considered to be the Creator’s ultimate intention for all
peoples.
The Apostle Paul has
provided an eloquent and incomparable depiction of charity in his letter to the
Corinthians:
“If I have all the eloquence
of men or of angels, but speak without love, I am simply a gong booming or a
cymbal clashing. If I have the gift of
prophecy, understanding all the mysteries there are, and knowing everything,
and if I have faith in all its fullness, to move mountains, but without love,
then I am nothing at all. If I give
away, all that I possess, piece by piece, and if I even let them take my body
to burn it, but am without love, it will do me no good whatever. Love is always patient and kind; it is never
jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it
does not take offence, and is not resentful.
Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth;
it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But
the greatest of these is love”.
(1 Corinthians 13:1-13)
Incidentally, the above passage of
verses is a good example of the diversity of language nuances used experienced
in Bibles of different denominations.
The different Bibles use slightly different words to describe and convey
what Paul had said in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.
Christ
died out of love for us, while we were still “enemies.” Jesus asks us to love as He does, to make
ourselves the neighbour of those farthest away, to love the most vulnerable, as
if they are Christ, Himself (Matthew
“As you did it to
one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”
(Matthew 25:31-46
and Mark 12:28-34)
The Creator of the universe has been
termed as being akin to the analogy of both a ‘Father’ and ‘Mother’ to all
peoples. But this description of the
Creator is perhaps inaccurate, condescending and superficial, ‘pigeon holing’
and genderising that which nothing greater can be thought. Human fathers and mothers are by definition
imperfect but have been created in the Creator’s image and therefore, although
imperfect, independent and sovereign beings.
If God is the creator of humanity and God creates with the will and
purpose of divinity, then humanity has likely, been made in the image of this
Creator. Humans made in the image of the
Creator that may be defined by Self’s experience of the invisible spiritual
personal constructs of consciousness, personality, freewill, intellect,
cognitions and emotions. Just as the
information in the genes (genetics) of parents creating new life transfer to
their offspring, so their child is partially created in their image, and so the
partial mirror and reflection of their ‘physical’ and psychological parents. The parents will always be there for their
‘child’, and will usually feel deeply for their child’s well-being, safety and
happiness. When children are in pain so
normally their parents are also in pain.
However, the child will grow and
develop into an adult, becoming its own sovereign and independent person, but,
will usually, always still be loved by its parents. If humanity is made in the image of God then
humanity partially mirrors and reflects God’s spirituality and personality as a
manifestation of the Creator’s existence and love. Just as parents hate to see their children
hurt one another, so the Creator, who must deeply care for and love each
individual, is offended and pained when people do not treat each other with
dignity, love and respect. So when we
hurt or love another we are hurting or loving the Creator in whose image we are
made. Respecting with dignity the lowly,
the lonely, the poor, the hungry, the sad, the abused, and the victimized etc.,
is particularly poignant because these are often individuals without a personal
sense of security, without a personal sense of high self-esteem, and therefore
more vulnerable to the dynamics of interpersonal relationships, particularly
with those who possess the balance of power.
So this same duty to love others as we
love Self extends to all peoples who are more vulnerable than Self, including
those who think, believe and/or act differently to Self. This love for others needs to extend to those
with different religions and cultures, and those with different creeds and
faiths, and those with different ethnic backgrounds. At the end of the day, we are all humans who
have evolved from primates and the animal species. We may have slightly different hair and skin
colours, different organs, different functions, and abilities and different
beliefs, attitudes and values, etc., but importantly, we all clearly share the
extraordinary gifts of consciousness, thought, emotion and speech. We are all vulnerable and sensitive –
manifest through our conscious emotions and cognitions - to the way other
people think, feel, and talk about us, and act towards us. We also share in common, the ability to
choose how to behave towards people and the ability to build personal
relationships with Self, others and the Creator if we so choose. We all share in common, through these gifts
of consciousness, feelings, thoughts and speech, the ability to develop
constructive relationships and thus the potential to invoke personal well-being
and the sense of peace
for others and Self.
The
teachings of Christ go so far as to require the forgiveness of offences. However, we need to forgive Self before we
can possibly forgive others. We need to
learn to forgive Self as a conscious act of the heart and soul, least we grow
bitter and twisted and angry from the tainting of the spirit, inducing the
interpersonal toxins of vindictiveness, vengeance and hatred. Forgiveness is a choice Self makes and not
the product of the waving of a magic wand.
Forgiveness is a choice Self makes from the mind, heart and soul. Forgiveness of Self also prevents Self from
carrying the debilitating thoughts and emotions of guilt and shame, anger and
bitterness, which could prohibit Self from further personal growth and from
productive and caring interpersonal relationships.
Christ throughout His life extended
the examples of the behaviours of love and compassion, being that of the New
Law, to all people, enemies or not, whether the conflict and tension is underpinned
by spiritual, ‘physical’, or emotional misunderstanding and differences. This does not mean we have to ‘wine and dine’
those who have offended us, or have them live on our doorstep, but means the
ability to forgive others, in due course, thus extending the personal and
private energy of inner peace, mercy and compassion to those who are less
informed or psychologically and/or spiritually incapacitated. This inner sense and attitude of peace and
acceptance of Self towards others will help create a more comfortable spiritual
and psychological cushion between Self and those by whom we have been
hurt. Giving the psychological space,
climate and time required for healing and the time to allow others a chance to
choose to reconcile, by apologizing with genuine contrition, if this is at all
possible for them.
This inner sense of self-acceptance
and forgiveness may enable one to live in the space of inner peace with Self,
and therefore with others. This may
reduce the build up of personal psychological, spiritual, cognitive, and
emotional tension and stress. Stress and
tension activates hormonal and biochemical toxins such as, corticosteroids and
adrenaline in the body, which in turn, suppresses the functions of the immune
system. This further increases stress
and tension within Self, building greater psychological and physiological
barriers preventing the development of constructive relationships and limiting
the potential personal experience of inner peace, harmony and well-being.
The letter to Romans
states:
“Live in harmony
with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of
low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of
everybody. If it is possible, as far as
it depends upon you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave
room for God’s wrath, for it is written:
“It is mine to avenge; I will repay”, says the Lord”.
(Romans 12:16-19)
We read in 1 Peter:
“And so to reiterate to all
of you, live in harmony with one another, be sympathetic, love as brothers and
sisters, and be compassionate and humble.
Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing,
because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing”.
(1 Peter 3:8-9)
Can
we refrain from arbitrarily judging others as we have all transgressed and
fallen short of the Creator’s intrinsic and absolute perfection, grace and,
mercy. As humans, we are limited in
fully understanding the love, grace and mercy of the omnipotent Creator. We are limited in knowing what the omnipotent
Creator knows. Therefore, it makes
sense, only the Creator has the power, love and knowledge to make judgments
about another person, about other human beings.
Only the Creator knows the full truth and circumstance about any one
particular situation. It makes sense
then that we don’t fall into the trap of self-righteousness and judgment, but
take care of the “log” in our own eye, rather than worry about the speck in
another’s eye (Matthew 7:3-5), so to speak.
So with the new law of relational love
comes the law of, “not judging.” If we
are to love others as Self loves Self, there is no room for us to commit
arbitrary intellectual and discriminatory judgments about others, or allow to
committing Self, to having feelings of self-righteousness. Value judgments are the personal and
cognitive decisions made by Self about others and are based on the limited (or
incomprehensive) information we have about a particular subject
matter. The information we may possess
about another person is always only partial to all the facts of that particular
subject. It is a known fact that in
criminal court cases innocent people have been convicted for crimes they did
not commit and others have been found not guilty for crimes they did
commit. As humans, we will never fully
know or understand all the complexities of the circumstances that go towards
driving another’s behaviour, only the Creator can truly know all these facts,
and so only the Creator can judge absolutely.
For instance, from a human perspective, we know creation to be in part,
both perfect and imperfect, but therefore must be extremely complex to
comprehend. But creation must be
perfect, because if we believe God created creation, and if ‘God’ is perfect,
then creation must be the outcome of the Creator’s perfect design, order and
plan. But creation could also be said by
humans to be imperfect, because we have all seen the destructive and painful
suffering caused by the anomalies and extremes of creation in nature, and
humankind. So to humanely reconcile the
anomaly between creations characteristics of ‘perfection’ and ‘imperfection’,
we could say that creation is perfectly imperfect or imperfectly perfect, for creation
has been created by the Perfect One.
We have seen the destructive affects of
Volcanoes, Tsunamis, Tornadoes and Floods that occur because of the Creator’s
specific design and order of the planet.
Where the Creator has desired, planned and willed the order and design
of the Universe, Galaxy, Solar System and planet Earth. Where the earth’s inner crust consists of
magma (boiling molten rock) and powerful Tectonic Plates, which continually
slide and move in tension against each other until resistance becomes so strong
that something gives, causing land and under sea earthquakes and as a
consequence, tsunamis and volcanoes that destroy life and humans. The Creator has willed the design and order
of creation whereby every so often asteroids randomly zero in on Earth
penetrating the atmosphere with the potential to create widespread destruction
of life and humans. Sharks, Snakes and
Crocodiles, etc., have been willed and desired by the Creator, creatures that
give much pleasure and joy to people, but which also have the potential to kill
and maim people. And don’t forget,
people maim and kill people too. We have
seen the Creator’s mysterious anomaly of creation in nature in the sickness of
disease such as cancers, viruses and bacteria indiscriminately destroying the
body and life of human beings. We have observed the human pain
of Creator’s creation of nature whereby babies are born with intellectual and
‘physical’ disabilities.
We can also begin to understand the complexity and
‘anomaly’ of the Creator’s creation of humans when we acknowledge that an
individual can be born as “Intersex”,
whereby a baby’s genitals are neither clearly male nor female. Indeed, the biological sex of humans at
conception is neither male nor female, until the complex mix of chromosomes and
sex hormones activate soon after conception and during pregnancy. Exposure to sex hormones in the early months
after birth is linked to gender identity.
Many different biological conditions can cause intersex. Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) is
another condition where the baby’s adrenal glands overproduce a male hormone
before birth, causing ‘virilisation’ of the genitalia and making a girl look
like a boy. It is also possible to have
the chromosomes of one gender, but the genitals of another; or a child may be
born with both male and female genitals.
That is, the ovaries and sometimes vagina of a female, in addition to the
penis of a male. The medical description for this condition is termed
hermaphrodite. Sadly people with intersex can be negatively affected
in many psychological ways by others’ harsh and discriminate judgments. If the Creator can allow it possible for humans
to be conceived and born with such diversity then what gives humans’ the right
to detrimentally question this difference.
So the Creator does not have a neat, tidy and ‘perfect’ archetype and
template for human physiology and mindset.
And so is not diversity and difference good? It must be ‘good’. It is ‘good’.
And if the Creator creates such diversity, albeit physically temporary
through Supreme intelligent design and order, cannot anything be possible?
An individual with
both male and female sex organs will tend to be bio-psychologically inclined to
think and feel like one gender or the other, think and feel like a male or
female, but which one? And so this
person may be gender identity confused, or may desire to live as either a male
or female, and may be attracted to who knows what gender? But who is capable of judging this person’s
gender transition or sexual preference as right or wrong, or good or bad? This way the Creator has chosen through the
particular design and order of creation, - what some people may consider
anomalies – the potentialities and possibilities of the characteristics of
nature and humans.
Research has also
discovered that during the development of the fetus in the womb unborn babies
are subjected to different degrees of testosterone and estrogen. These are the hormones that ultimately
influence the degree to which these individuals may feel psychologically
inclined and predisposed to behave and think in either a feminine or masculine
manner and to which gender they may be attracted.
However, some people consider themselves to be psychologically the
opposite gender to their bio-physical anatomy including genitalia. The word
‘trans gender’ describes a person who in essence, psychologically,
intellectually and emotionally, identifies themselves to the gender opposite to
their biological physiology. Transgender
occurs equally in both biological males and females. Trans gender can be caused by factors such as
the deviation of critically timed hormonal releases – sometimes caused by
stress - during pregnancy, or the presence of hormone mimicking chemicals
present during a critical development phase of fetal development. New research
has shown that a part of the brain is dedicated to the attribution of both
feminine and masculine traits and characteristics that contribute to their
‘balance’ in each individual. But at the
end of the day the psychological characteristics of gender are identified and
defined by bio-chemistry, physiology and socialisation. Research has shown that up to the age of five
children both male and female genders exhibit remarkably similar characteristics
and behaviours.
New research published
in the Journal of Endocrinology
(2004), found anatomical differences between the brains of rams that prefer
other males to rams that prefer ewes.
The part of the brain that controls sexual behaviour was smaller in rams
that preferred other males than in rams that preferred ewes. Thus, sexual preference is in part determined
biologically in animals and possibly also in humans. Studies showed that about 8 per cent of domestic
rams display preferences for other rams.
Same sex attractions are also widespread across many different animal
species. Another study observed a group
of cows in a confined space over an extended period, were also likely to be
‘attracted’ to each other. This same sex
attraction was attributed to the stress experienced from enclosed
confinement. So God’s creation of life
must be either ‘imperfect’ and ok, or perfectly imperfect and still ok. But humans are not in the all-knowing
position to make arbitrary value judgments, or any personal accusations and
judgments about anybody, or anybody’s particular situation, because only the
Creator has the divine and transcendent ability to know all of anyone’s
circumstances.
We have also seen
the reality of human life where some people are brought up in an environment of
love and others in an environment of abuse, and still others are brought up
somewhere within this inter-relational continuum, which undoubtedly interplays
on future behaviour. New research has
just discovered that there is a resilience gene. This gene they call 5-HTTT - depending on its
length - can influence a person’s reaction to traumatic events in terms of a
more positive or more negative stress response.
And there is research that indicates that people with schizophrenia have
a gene that prevents
the normal growth of the myelin sheath that is designed to insulate cerebrum
neurons from short-circuiting, disrupting the ‘normal’ process for processing
thoughts and feelings. New research by Vaughan Carr, scientific director of
the Neuroscience Institute of Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders, comprising a
team of Australian and international researchers studying the brains of people
with schizophrenia have identified a thinner outer layer of grey matter
compared with people who do not have this mental illness. This brain tissue loss occurring in people
with schizophrenia directly links to impaired brain function, thought
processing, and the abnormal thinking they may experience. Their impaired thought processes and an
inability to problem solve was directly linked to the reduced grey matter
thickness and the reduced activity of the affected part of the brain. Interestingly, new
cognitive therapy methods and concepts, suggest that the steadfast delusions
some people experience with mental illness are modifiable with Cognitive
Behaviour therapy, being on a continuum with the inflexible and deeply
entrenched political and religious beliefs, many ‘regular’ people hold. And the experience of psychosis in the
mentally ill can be related to ‘normal’ experiences regarding the intensity or
irrationality of beliefs in ‘regular’ individuals (Chadwick, Birchwood & Trower, 1997).
. Here
are some examples of how the origins and reasons for human behaviour can not be
explained simply, but are often the result of complex events and the
interaction between nature, nurture, human genes, hormones and
neurotransmitters, including the psychological outcomes related to the
experiences of trauma often associated through nature and nurture. But it should be noted that the effects of
nature and nurture are not irreversible in terms of their final destiny for
human behaviour, but can be modified through the power of an individual’s desire
and will to choose an alternative path.
It makes sense that only the Creator can ultimately and perfectly judge
the actions, thoughts and feelings of another human being, as only the Creator
has the ability to choose to know comprehensively the total and absolute
situation and circumstance of anyone required to make absolutely just and true
value judgments.
Self-righteousness may be
interpreted as the feelings and cognitions that generate the sense and notion
that we are ‘right’ and everyone else should be ‘right’ in the same way that we
are ‘right’. If others are not right
like we are, then they must be wrong and therefore bad. This attitude and spirit of judgment towards
others, this sense of self-righteousness, is often based on an inner sense of
personal pride, self-importance and arrogance that we posses, and which also
may be exacerbated and triggered by personal ignorance and personal fear of the
unknown and so, a fear of Self, others, the world and the Creator. In light of this information, we could make
it our business to choose not to judge others.
This notion of not judging others, is emphatically stated in the
teachings in Matthew 7:1-5 and the metaphorical parables of Matthew in Chapter
13, and Mark 4: 24.
Including the
writings in Romans 14:1-12, with its very powerful message, espousing:
“If a person’s
faith is not strong enough, welcome him all the same without starting an
argument. People range from those who
believe they may eat any sort of meat to those whose faith is so weak they dare
not eat anything except vegetables.
Meat-eaters must not despise the scrupulous. On the other hand, the
scrupulous must not condemn those who feel free to eat anything they choose,
since God has welcomed them. It is not
for you to condemn someone else’s servant: whether he stands or falls it is his
own master’s business; he will stand, you may be sure, because the Lord has
power to make him stand. If one man
keeps certain days as holier than others, and another considers all days to be
equally holy, each must be left free to hold his own opinion. The one who observes special days does so in
honour of the Lord. The one who eats
meat also does so in honour of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God; but then
the man who abstains does that too in honour of the Lord, and so he also gives God
thanks. The life and death of each of us
has its influence on others; if we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die,
we die for the Lord, so that alive or dead we belong to the Lord. This explains why Christ both died, and came
to life. It was so that he might be Lord
both of the dead and of the brother who treat him with contempt, as some of you
have done. We shall all have to stand
before the judgment seat of God; as Scripture says; “By my life - it is the
Lord who speaks - every knee shall bend before me, and every tongue shall
praise God. It is to God, therefore,
that each of us must give an account of him or herself.”
(Romans 14:1-12)
So can we all learn to accept
and love Self so that we may love and accept others? Can we learn to be forgiving and merciful
without a hint of judgment or self-righteousness towards Self so that we may
act in a spirit of good-will towards others?
Without the insight of Christ’s examples and teachings and without the will to be sweet spirited as opposed
to mean spirited, humans may behave ignorantly and arrogantly, cowardly and
fearfully. Giving in to their own
selfish desires, ignoring their destructive behaviours and/or behave with
intellectual, spiritual and emotional harm towards others under the pretext and
illusion of being and doing ‘good’ from participating in self-righteous
behaviours and value judgments, in turn increasing one’s sense of perceived but
distorted sense of self-esteem and self-worth.
Through the informed knowledge of
that which is necessarily required of Self, and with the will to succeed and
live a balanced, generous and compassionate life. And with the addition of spiritual strength
emanating from intuitive reflective spiritual discernment, we can surely carry
Self up the gold laden, but steep obstacle ridden path of relational love, hope
and charity manifesting in love for Self and neighbour. Acts of charity are one of the greatest
contributions humans can make to society.
Charity respects others’ rights.
Charity, by definition, requires the practice of responsibility,
accountability, justice and compassion.
Charity alone can make humans capable of all else. Charity inspires a life of integrity, a life
of self-respect, a life of self-giving and a life of self-loving, which by definition,
cannot but manifest in any other way than a life that radiates respect,
reconciliation, acceptance and compassion for Self and others.
In Christ’s words: Will You Gain or Lose Your
Life?
“Whoever seeks to gain his life
will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it’.
(Luke 17:33, Mat
In this verse, it is possible that
Christ is talking about how we might want to save ourselves in this life by
acquiring ‘physical’ comforts and a life experienced as blissful through the
acquisition of material goods and positions of ‘status’, often acquired at the
expense of more vulnerable others.
On the other hand, the idea of losing
one’s life a metaphor when generous and selfless towards others at one’s own
personal and material expense, and in the process, gaining a sense of personal,
emotional and spiritual satisfaction attained through the acts of selfless
charity and compassion towards others.
However, if we decide to pursue
emotional, ‘physical’, spiritual and intellectual selfishness and destruction
against others creating sadness and depression for the sake of satisfying our
material well being by way of selfishness, self-absorption and
self-centeredness, we will, in the process, feed and massage pride and
arrogance only to regret later when undertaking personal self-reflection.
This drive for material extravagance
and status will not only make selves unhappy but will never quench our inner
thirst for spiritual and personal fulfillment and the equilibrium of sense of
peace and personal well-being.
This base instinct for the need to gain
our life on earth denies the presence of spirit and to that which will live
eternally. We will lose our life on this
earth because our selfishness is ego-centric and often results at the expense
of others’ rights and dignity.
So we diminish not only our own dignity
and that of others, but also our emotional, intellectual and spiritual
awareness. We lose the ability to become
and be the best person we can, whilst making life uncomfortable for others whilst
living on this earth.
Thus, is it not
wiser to lose material selfishness but to gain your personal integrity and
dignity here and in the moment?
If the Creator
exists and Christ is the Creator/God then Jesus’ mystical relational love is a
reflection of God’s mystical relational love and therefore the ultimate epitome
of love. Jesus’ examples, teachings and
behaviour must be then the personification of pure and perfect mystical
relational love. This is a perfect love,
which humans strive to attain, strive to emulate, strive to give and strive to
receive. But although it does exist, a
perfect love that is unconditional is as elusive as the pot of gold at the
rainbow’s end, because humans are, by definition, imperfect. So what does it mean to love? Love,
love, love, what makes the world go round is love. The word love and its meaning can have
flowery and superficial connotations.
So what is love?
Does the meaning of love include intimate ‘physical’ acts mixed with the
associated cognitive and emotional responses that we may relate to and term
romance, or relate to and term lust, or relate to and term friendship, or can
love be a combination of these. Can the
meaning of the word ‘love’ be distorted and corruptly perceived through
interrelational misuse and abuse? Does
pure unconditional love exist? Has Self
ever experienced the phenomena of the thoughts and feelings that Self would
imagine would relate to the characteristics of unconditional love, maybe even
within a dream? Has Self ever
experienced what they envisaged to be unconditional love, from another human
being? What are the cognitions and
emotions experienced as an outcome of unconditional love? Is the level of love from a personal pet,
such as a dog may provide its owner, unconditional? So are there different levels of love given
and received? Are there different levels
of unconditional love? The meaning of
the word love can have many different meanings for different people as a
consequent to the mix and interaction of the unique Self’s higher constructs
interplaying with the unique Self’s past and present experiences. So in human terms the meaning and definition
of the word love is complex and varied.
Love for Self and others can mean having value, dignity, respect,
compassion and acceptance, etc.
What is it to love another with a
perfect and unconditional love, experienced towards the ‘perfect’ end of the
‘love’ continuum? What does it mean to
love Self and others? Unconditional love
like forgiveness does not come naturally.
But is essentially learnt and expressed by way of consciousness, through
cognitive, emotional, speech and behaviour choices. Love may be defined as choosing to help
another person attain something they need, albeit companionship, respect,
encouragement or informed information.
Love is choosing to support others in growing to their potential without
expecting anything in return. Loving
others is the reverse and opposite of hate and indifference. Rather than consciously seeking to destroy
another, the one who loves is working with the principles of compassion and
hope to foster the development of friendship, goodwill and wellbeing with and
within another. In this definition, love
is an act of the will just as hate and indifference are acts of the will. Consciously loving others helps to keep the
act of indifference in its rightful perspective. Loving others allows healing
to occur as a manifestation of the feelings of personal dignity, esteem and
wholeness. Love for others can lead to a
deeper understanding of the spirit of ‘God’, as we are spiritual brothers and
sisters connected to the spirit of the Creator.
Unconditional love, experienced as a sense of inner contentment and
peace.
There are at least three substantial
components to the definition of the act of love. The first could be the personal skills needed
in helping others to grow to their potential.
The one who loves is required to love unconditionally, without judgment
or the need for self-gratification. The
one who loves needs to consider the psychological assets and strengths of the
other and determine how best to foster another’s potential through
self-empowerment. Sometimes this is achieved
by teaching some form of skill and mastery, and at other times by listening
quietly as the other seeks to find Self.
At still other times, it may mean setting limits and boundaries as the
other ventures down a possible path of mindless personal destruction. With each step in this process, the one who
loves continues with the personal growth in their own life and is careful not
to be domineering or oppressive, but to act as a catalyst in helping the other
seek their goals.
The
second component requires that the one who loves must expect nothing in
return. In this time and age for
self-gratification, this may be difficult.
The one who loves is there only to facilitate and enable the other. Personal efforts are given freely to the
other with no strings attached and without reservation. It would be rewarding if reciprocity occurred
but often it does not and is not the motivation for one’s love. Nothing can be expected in return from the
other except for the satisfaction of knowing and experiencing that one is
giving unconditionally of Self.
The final component concerns the
‘physical’ and psychological well-being of those in relationships. A toxic relationship, where either party is
being ‘physically’ harmed, verbally denigrated, and where personal growth and
needs are neglected, is not a caring and loving relationship. One is required to try to love one’s
neighbour as one loves one’s Self. And
so the person who loves cannot neglect their own personal needs necessary for
one to love one’s Self. Abusive
relationships obviously do not meet the basic characteristics for love, of
safety, health, and well-being, and such relationships require psychological
and spiritual support through therapy or should not continue. In such cases, discontinuing the toxic
relationship may be the most caring thing to do, as the presence of a
relationship without love fosters the encouragement of human pain and misery,
and inter-relational acts considered malevolent, destroying the very growth
expected from a loving relationship.
True love results in increased personal growth and self-esteem, and not
the reverse.
A graphic example of these negative
dynamics of the love-relationship, where the one who wants to love is stifled
and thwarted to act, may be encountered in the forms of destructive behaviours
and relationships associated to those described by the term Domestic Violence
of ‘physical’, sexual and psychological abuse and ‘battered wife (partner or
husband) syndrome’. Where the woman or
man, is physically, and/or emotionally harmed, and yet, is unable to leave such
an abusive relationship. The inability
to leave an abusive relationship can be complex and may involve a number of
different reasons. The reasons that
prohibit the harmed (abused) leaving the perpetrator are many. And include a distorted and false sense of
“love” for the abuser, or that the victim is to blame, or an intense fear of
the abuser to inflict grievous bodily harm, or a lack of confidence in the judicial
system and/or a need for financial security.
And a real but distorted sense and need for “emotional” security as a
by-product of feelings of loneliness from isolation and oppression.
The same
could be said for people in co-dependant relationships, where a person is
subconsciously activated because of their feelings of worthlessness, low
self-esteem and emptiness, which feelings are reduced, temporarily, by the
sense of being needed and wanted. This
need to feel wanted often prevents the leaving of a toxic relationship. And the cycle of pain through relational
destruction can also perpetuate through the threat and reality of ‘physical’,
financial and emotional abuse. Genuine
concern for the welfare of others is an abstract concept, but becomes tangible
and meaningful in selflessly specific interactions with individuals. In seeking to love people, we make the
concept/abstract a reality. We eschew
potential loneliness and indifference that comes from alienation and ‘cut off’
from others. Remember, if people do not
always remember what you said or did to them, they will always remember how you
made them feel.
Can we,
through individual and collective free-will, choose to live in peace, kindness,
compassion and reconciliation with one-another?
Can we rise above the quagmire of destructive selfishness, and move
towards the higher transcendent characteristics, constructs and qualities
defining unconditional relational love?
Can we behave in the ways of the Way, and the truths of the Truth, and
the life of the Life? This is, can we
live by the behaviours and attributes that epitomize the person called Jesus
Christ, the person who claimed to be the Son of God? Jesus Christ, the person who, by definition,
is the Creator, if the Creator did indeed become the divine and human person
called Jesus Christ.
CHAPTER
8
The Creator’s Acceptance
The Affects of Transgressions
The Creator’s Mystical Relational
Love
The Creator’s Infinite
Compassion and the Cruel Trick of ‘Physical’ Death
Christ’s Love and Forgiveness
The Myth and Metaphor of Hell
and Satan
The Creator’s Acceptance
If God created humankind
and the Creator’s desire for humans is for humans to love others as one loves
one’s Self, then surely the Creator also wants people to live a full and free
life that encapsulates and encourages such sentiments of psychological goodwill
and well-being. When we were younger,
when we were growing up, we all experienced less than constructive or more
constructive defining moments, and ‘good enough’ or ‘not good enough’
experiences from pivotal and significant others in our lives. Some of us, through these defining
experiences and examples from significant others, may have been subliminally or
personally informed that the Creator cannot and does not exist. Others may have been informed with an
attitude of indifference, that the Creator may or may not exist, and yet
others, informed that the Creator is loving and merciful. Yet, others, may have learnt the Creator is a
very strict judge, and we will have to account for every idle word and every
transgression or fault committed. We may
have been taught to pray, “Our Father who art in Heaven ...etc.,” and actually
look upon the Creator as a loving and merciful Father. Others may picture God as a dictator or
tyrant, who sits on His thrown in Heaven with an adding machine, doing nothing
all day but totaling up sins and offences.
We may think He is impatiently waiting for the day when we will come before
Judgment, where He will show the black record of faults, so that He may cast us
into Hell with Satan.
Past
personal experiences for a particular individual colour and shape one’s ideas
and beliefs about what is real or perceived to be real, or not real, about a
particular subject matter. But Self’s
consciousness, intellect, cognition, emotion and freewill are the spiritual
precursors for modifying such beliefs, interacting with informed knowledge and
an innate intuitive and discerning spirit.
But such fearful images of a Creator
surely cannot be a true picture of God.
Yes, we can conceive that the Creator is Just, Powerful, Wise and Majestic, but the overall theme of the
Scriptures when interpreted in context declares that His mercies are huge and
of an indescribable magnitude. As the following scripture rightly says, and in
support of the general theme of love, compassion and forgiveness expressed in
verses in both the New and Old Testaments:
"Thy mercy is
great above the Heaven”.
(Psalms 107:5)
“The Lord is sweet
to all and his tender mercies are above all His works”.
(Psalms 144:9)
As we have explored in the above
chapters, about the miracles of the Universe, which are indeed magnificent and
almost incomprehensible to imagine, so perhaps the Creator’s compassion and
love may be as enormously vast and as equally magnificent and
incomprehensible. Often ‘good enough’
parents will overlook, forgive and forget, much their child may do that is
wrong, whilst still loving them notwithstanding their faults. If ‘good enough’ human parents can be
understanding and accepting, cannot the Creator be far more accepting and
understanding? For who has instilled in
humans the innate gifts of consciousness, freewill, intellect, cognition and
emotion, the attributes required for acceptance, understanding, compassion,
mercy and justice, but the Creator.
As Scripture interestingly
states:
“God is light, in
Him there is no darkness at all. If we
claim to
have fellowship
with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the
light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son,
purifies us from all sin. If we claim
to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will
forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
(I John 1:5-9)
It is said that the Creator’s
compassion and understanding are as infinite as the Spirit is infinite. If Self acknowledges Self’s shortcomings and
imperfections, weaknesses and limitations, Self is naming and claiming these,
and in so doing, casting aside Self’s pride and arrogance and opening the way
for personal change. To change something
considered maladaptive and undesirable within Self it is critical that it be
named. When Self names and acknowledges
Self’s imperfections, weaknesses and limitations Self can then claim them. When imperfections, weaknesses and
limitations are both named and claimed it is then that they can be
changed. As an analogy, if there is
something we do not like about our house, but can’t pin point what it is, then
we can’t do anything about it. But upon
reflection, if we understand that it’s the colour of the paint in the rooms
that is annoying us, we can then decide to choose to change the colour that is
not suitable, because we have understood, acknowledged and named that which
needs changing.
But although we may consider ‘God’ to
exist as the Creator of the universe, Self needs to be mindful that just as
children grow up and leave their patents and become independent, so do
humans. As conscious, intellectual,
emotional and spiritual individuals, humans develop and mature, and become
independent. That is, the Creator’s will
and love has created humans to be unique beings, to be individuals with unique
personality, but with this independence comes accountability and responsibility
as the defining essence of the gift to humans of human integrity, dignity and
sovereignty. It is also conceivable that
the Creator allows individuals the choice and right to or not to enter, into
any particular personal relationship with Him, without the fear or threat of
any impending retribution or punishment.
In the
parable of the prodigal son (Luke
Once we have named and acknowledged imperfections,
weaknesses and limitations and recognized their capabilities for
inter-relational destruction, thus providing the chance to choose to change, we
need not be over scrupulous and persevering, constantly worrying about the
past. All human transgressions can be
forgiven, cast aside as far as the East is from the West, because of, and by,
the Creator’s infinite mystical relational compassion. We can believe that all human indiscretions
are obliterated from the Creator’s mind vanishing in the blood and humility of
Christ’s suffering and death. If the
Creator forgets human imperfections, why should Self be so hard on Self by
constantly recalling such imperfections, perhaps perpetuating residual feelings
and thoughts of shame and guilt as a consequence of self’s flaws? Let us not doubt the Creator’s mercy.
As Scripture again
reminds us:
“I will not
remember thy sins”
(Isaiah 43:25)
Also:
“You, Lord, are
compassionate and gracious slow to anger and abounding in love. You do not treat me as my sins deserve or
repay me according to my iniquities. As
far as the East is from the West, so far have you removed my transgressions
from me.”
(Psalms 103:8-12)
Isaiah, prophesying
about Jesus Christ, says:
“He has sent me to
bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, to comfort all
who mourn, and provide for those who grieve, to bestow on them a crown of
beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of
praise instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for
the display of his splendour”.
(Isaiah 61:1-3)
The Hebrew
Scriptures also remind us that God is:
“Compassionate and
gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
He does not treat us as our sins deserve”.
(Psalms 103:8-10)
If a child is afraid of his/ her
parents, he/ she will not trust them nor will s/he confide in them his/ her
feelings, thoughts, problems, concerns, anxieties and hopes. He or she may live under the same roof, but will
grow emotionally apart from his/ her parents without a loving, happy and
intimate relationship. Such an
interpersonal relationship is not the normal definition and prerequisite for a
child’s healthy psychological and spiritual well-being and development. The child out of fear, frustration and anger
may run away from home, destroying this unique foundation of healthy
interpersonal familial relations required for the development of personal
psychological adaptation and identity.
If Self is afraid of the Creator, Self
will not recognise the Creator’s intrinsic ability to understand the Creator’s
creation, nor will Self consider contemplating the communication of Self’s
thoughts, desires, strengths, weaknesses and problems to ‘that which nothing
greater can be thought’. Self may be
independently living in this world, but Self may potentially live without
consciousness of voluntary spiritual intimacy, and thus, productive spiritual
awareness and personal self-reflection.
Instead, Self may consciously and voluntarily transgress ‘goodness’,
thrusting Self into an existence of unhappiness and discontentment.
Alternatively, Self can genuinely love and accept Self and others
notwithstanding self’s and others imperfections, weaknesses and limitations,
because Self can appreciate and understand Self to be intrinsically precious,
sovereign and unique. Self can genuinely
love Self and others and in so doing, love Self and the Creator, because the
Creator is in Self and in others. But
this love for Self and others will not be a love that emanates from the fear of
any anticipated or impending punishment and retribution or an eternity in Hell
that may be unleashed upon a Self that does not love. But Self can potentially love Self and others
because the Creator has first loved Self and others without conditions. Self can love Self and others based on the
freedom of choice, being a function of freewill, and not out of a belief and
faith predicated on fear, being a function of coercion and punishment. The act of love that arises out of fear is
but an involuntary love, a token love, and essentially, inherently
meaningless. However, although to love
out of fear may prevent others from being hurt, and so may be considered better
than not loving at all, it has the tendency to prohibit the personal and
spiritual growth necessary for Self to live a full life, to live an authentic
and satisfying life through the act of loving voluntarily.
Words used in a religious
context such as ‘sin’, ‘transgression’, ‘bad’, ‘evil’, ‘wrong’, ‘less than
good’, ‘imperfect’ and ‘maladaptive’ have been misused and abused for
centuries, by implying arbitrary spiritual judgments and coercion that conjure
up fear, so manipulating religious beliefs and behaviours of obedience of the
‘spiritually’ vulnerable by the ‘spiritually’ powerful. But the author has chosen to use these
particular words in this book to emphasise and describe human behaviours that
may be defined as the thoughts, feelings, attitudes and behaviours that in some
real or perceived way psychologically and physically hurt another human being,
including one’s Self.
Evidence of hurting Self may be
experienced when we feel uncomfortable from an inner personal sense of guilt
and shame manifest from the negative consequences that result as a reaction to
transgressing the intended purpose of the ‘physical’, spiritual and moral laws,
plan and design of the Creator’s universe.
The psychological symptoms from doing less than good through such
activities as expressing and articulating unkind thoughts, feelings and
behaviours, described by the meanings of words such as malice, hypocrisy,
deceit, envy, anger, hatred, jealousy and slander etcetera. (Titus 3:3, 1 Peter
2:1) can often manifest as the experience of guilt and shame and an inner
feeling and sense of psychological pain.
The maladaptive behaviours which people may choose to ‘act out’ can be
destructive to both Self and others, as they are materially incongruent to
God’s design, order and plan, and therefore the Creators desire and will for
humans made as beings
in His image. We have probably all
committed in our life transgressions against others, such as, discord,
jealousy, rage, selfish ambition, dissensions and envy” etc., (Galatians
5:19-21). These can be normal human
thoughts and emotions, but how they are acted upon or contained, will impact
directly on the way others are affected.
From such inner most thoughts, feelings and behaviours, both antagonist
and protagonist can testify to having experienced negative spiritual and
psychological consequences, which have the potential to impact destructively on
both party’s ability to enjoy life to the full.
All people deserve, as a right, to be special, unique and precious who
can live life to the full, whatever this may mean to the individual. We are human beings with the higher
transcendent qualities and characteristics to consciously think, reflect and
feel about our behaviours, attitudes and experiences, which are personally
shaped and formed through Self’s sense of personhood and spiritual and
psychological self-image.
The affects of, ‘less than good’ behaviours,
perpetrated by people upon people, can have far reaching ramifications for both
the perpetrator and the victim. Just
like the domino effect, it only takes one domino, to affect an infinite number
of other dominos. And we can imagine the
impact of our actions when illustrated by the analogy of the increasingly
widening ripples of water occurring from the result of one stone being thrown
into a calm and serene pool. And the
massive tsunami generated from an under water earthquake. So maladaptive behaviours, which we may
choose to execute on Self and others have many destructive qualities and have
the potential to affect many people, including Self, those we encounter, and
the people who we and they, may in turn, come into contact with.
Why is the devastating impact of
transgression so insidious and pervasive?
Because ‘sin’, expressed as less than good, being that which is hurtful
and painful behaviour from one person to the other, formed from the
consciousness of free will and choice, promotes the festering of a sense of
inner worthlessness, shame and guilt in the victim. Feelings of the victim may include feelings
of self-inadequacy, discord, and disquiet.
These are experienced, because less than good behaviours from the one to
the other are acts of spiritual abomination and incongruence, distorting the
rightful and proper functioning of one’s intrinsic essence of being, spirit and
humanness as the higher transcendent qualities and characteristics from whom
humans were made, and for which they are intended.
These transgressions against Self are
an affront and aberration to the truth of the soul, and to the truth of the
spirit manifest in conscious cognitions, feelings and emotions, and have the
potential to adversely change Self’s nature, identity and personality. This less than useful alteration to our
cognitive, spiritual and emotional functioning can subsequently change one’s
behaviour in an escalation and cyclical process. Acting negatively onto not only the
personality and spirit of Self, but onto the personality and spirit of the
individuals who Self comes into contact with, and so in turn, the individuals
the other comes into contact with. This
ricocheting and domino affect occurs with dramatic, reverberating, and adverse
repercussions for Self and others.
This negative psychological process may
ultimately have a strong influential impact on the way Self views Self, and
others, and can affect the future manner in which we live and act out our lives
here on Earth. This spiraling negative process from the perpetrator to the
victim, from Self to the other, from within one to another, will accordingly
affect and impact heavily upon the spirit and psyche of all involved. Hence, it is a fundamental and imperative
need and requirement for all humans to do good things to others in the spirit
of love and generosity. To do good
things to others starting from the very important child-parent relationships we
all experience, and which are a necessary part for the healthy psychological
development into adulthood and throughout life.
Although infancy and childhood are the initial and originating building
blocks for an individual’s personal and spiritual well-being, we need to
remember that it is never too late for anyone to start loving others and/or to
start loving others more such is the power of love.
The
affects on us of transgressing can potentially reduce Self to personal and
spiritual incompetence in the situations and activities that encompass our life
which may require us to act in a diligent and dignified manner. Ongoing acts of “doing less than good”, can
precipitate, pre-empt and predispose Self into acts of further transgressions
against Self and others as we become desensitized from the perpetuating
destructiveness. The escalation of
negative behaviour in turn may drive one to desire endorphin producing
activities of promiscuity, drugs and alcohol as defenses and aides to help
block and numb the painful feelings of guilt, shame, worthlessness and
hopelessness, brought about by doing to others that which was not
intended. These psychological pseudo
aids and defense mechanisms may occur in not only the transgressor but also the
transgressed as the victim’s way of pain reduction creating further complex
issues and problems.
These pseudo aids and defense mechanisms are, needless to
say, compensatory indulgences inappropriately used to facilitate
self-healing. These activities may
initially help filter and numb the unpleasant and depressing feelings and
thoughts brought about by the experience of emotional pain in both the
transgressor and transgressed. But they
are really only a temporary and superficial solution to the internal spiritual and
psychological pain being experienced by one as a result of doing that to others
which one is not ideally made to do. So
the root causes and sources of any internal spiritual and psychological pain
manifest in the feelings of hopelessness, worthlessness, guilt, grief and
helplessness needs to be addressed within the realms of inter-personal and
intra-personal relationships.
Our indiscretions and transgressions
against Self and others may cause us to lose our sense of Self, lose our sense
of dignity, lose our sense of worth, lose our sense of reality, and lose our
sense of appreciation of Self and others, as unique and special beings. In short, our sense of spirit and psych may
become distorted, disorientated and confused until we counter and stabilize by
living life with compassion. This is,
living life for which humans were ultimately made, ‘perfectly’ achieved through
living life with compassion for Self and others. This does not mean that we should, or can be
perfect, as it is impossible to be perfect in an imperfect world. But it means to live life to our fullest
potential, as best we can, with whatever resources we have, including the
giving of dignity, respect and encouragement to all people for their betterment,
whilst, also continuing to strive for self-betterment. Perhaps this, in reality, is all that is
required. In this way, we can
potentially will to live life to the full in harmony with Self and others.
Christ offers a solution
to the problem of human imperfection, limitations and weaknesses that may
transpire into interpersonal destructive transgressions. He removes the burden of human guilt and
shame. He reverses and changes despair
into hope, and He provides the spiritual and psychological power to live a
victorious life. Importantly, we do not
need to burden, overwhelm, and demoralize ourselves with the concept of a world
that Self may perceive to be dominated, controlled and powered by acts of evil,
or believe in a supernatural being of absolute evil (Satan/devil). As victory over all these ‘evils’ including,
“world malevolence”, has already been achieved through Christ’s life,
suffering, death and resurrection. The
salvation of the world, has been guaranteed by, and through, Christ’s death and
resurrection.
(Rom 6:4,
God’s love for the
world:
“For God so loved
the world that He sent his only begotten son.”
(John 3:16)
God’s ultimate sacrifice:
“And greater love than this no man has, that he lay down
his life for his friends”.
(John 15:12)
So the Creator perceives and
experiences all humans as His friends, His children, His sisters and brothers.
With a love such as this, is there any reason to be afraid of the Creator/
‘God’, to be afraid of punishment, to be afraid of evil? With a love such as
this is there any reason to believe in and/or be afraid of the concept of a
super natural being of absolute evil.
Let us remember why
we humans can truly love:
“We love Him because He first loved us”.
(1 John 4:19)
So if we
choose to relate to the Creator it would be helpful if we understood who the
Real ‘God’ really is so that we can relate to what the Creator in essence means
and represents, rather than relate to the Creator because we are scared and
fear Him. ‘God’ the Creator never intended retributive and threatening
ultimatums towards “sinners” in which non-compliance to His laws would result
in the excruciatingly painful and eternal destiny of Hell with Satan, which
many people may believe, where the pain of fire burns forever. We love because Christ’s teachings, examples,
and life on Earth were given to us for our benefit. God’s teachings, examples,
and life on earth through Jesus are something good for us to copy, follow,
achieve and aspire to. We love because
of love, and out of knowledge that this loving life of Jesus shows us THE WAY,
THE TRUTH and THE LIFE. We need not
despair, for God knows our weakness and human frailty. ‘God’ knows that the
times in which we live are ‘peppered’ with the obstacles of human selfishness,
hatred, and pride, as they were in His time.
He knows how difficult it is to do, that which is ‘good’.
For it is said:
“He knows our
frame; He remembers that we are dust”.
{Psalms 102:14}
The Creator knows and ‘understands’ all
of these things. Perhaps all the Creator
wants and asks of human beings is to make every effort to avoid hurting others,
and emulate in trust, His mercy and compassion, as exemplified and taught by Christ.
Is it conceivably
possible that the Creator who has brought forth billions of Galaxies and
trillions of Stars; who has created animals that are programmed to kill - to
eat - to live, where animals kill animals, humans kill animals and sadly humans
kill humans, is a Creator we should unnecessarily fear? To digress, this necessity for animals to
kill - to eat - to live, design of creation, which has been used as an argument
to question ‘God’s’ motive and the general definition of an all loving and all
good Creator is more complex than it at first appears to be. We see pictures of writhing and screaming
animals in their death as they kill each other for the food they need to live,
as they fight and kill each other to protect their territory and young. But we tend to project our own human
experience and imagination of pain and suffering onto these animals, perhaps
unnecessarily embellishing the pain that these animals may experience in
death. It is widely known that human females,
when giving birth, experience much pain, but do animals giving birth experience
similar pain without the constructs of consciousness, self-awareness,
meta-cognition, thought, and emotion?
Some research suggests that possessing the construct of mind increases
the experience and awareness of pain. So
we really do not know the extent of an animals experience of pain, but we do
know that mammals are designed with the hormone adrenaline and the polypeptide
opiate endorphin, which are natural ‘physical’ pain relievers blocking pain
receptors in the brain.
In humans when extreme threats of
personal harm are perceived, neurons in the brain release endorphins, which
then inhibit the release of the pain-signaling neurotransmitter called substance
P. This results in pain signals being
‘blocked’ from reaching the higher ‘levels’ of the brain. Thus, soldiers who are severely wounded in
battle, may not actually feel any pain until they are safely out of the
battlefield situation and in the hospital many hours later. In such a situation, the brain’s powerful
painkillers are activated to prevent pain signals interfering with escaping
from the severe threat. ‘Physical’ and
emotional pain is also a protector factor in that it rings the warning bells
that something is not right or healthy ‘physically’ and/or emotionally with
us. We may often try to understand
creation from a human perspective and intellect, but the Creators’ intellect by
definition and virtue of creation is that which nothing greater can be
thought. This is not to deny human
suffering and minimize pain humans can experience, but this is perhaps how the
Creator has designed humans with the capability and purpose to experience life
through both extremes of ‘physical’ and emotional pain and ‘physical’ and
emotional pleasure.
Is it conceivable that a ‘Power’ who
has designed nature with killer floods, killer earthquakes, killer tsunamis,
killer volcanoes, killer bacteria and cancers, and killer illnesses. And a ‘God’ who has also orchestrated the
intrinsic and intricate complexity of humans through evolution, with
consciousness, cognitions, emotions and freewill. And who has designed humans with such a short
lifespan from birth to death – although each hour and day of this short life
can feel as if it’s eternal if we are bored, depressed or stressed – is a
‘Force’ that people should unduly worry and angst about at the contemplation of
their own death? And at the time of
their own physical death? Is it
conceivably possible that a Creator who created life, and humans that
experience the living of life. And a
Creator who created physical death, the cruel trick of death, a death without
which humans have any natural power and control over, the human physical death,
a horrendous tragedy that ends an individual’s ‘physical’ life here on
Earth. The end of an individual’s life
through death is the cause of much human grief and psychological pain and
suffering among relatives and friends.
Human death, a death that invokes the horrifying prospective of the
possible inevitable transition into the unknown world of the
‘afterlife’ is the architect of a Creator who would not possess unconditional
love? Is the architect of a Creator who
would not have infinite compassion, and judge infinitely justly? The Creator of human sickness, pain,
suffering and death, a ‘God’ who made such human experience, would be a Creator
who would not be infinitely sympathetic?
Is it conceivably possible that a
Creator who created human consciousness and as such the ability to anticipate
the reality of one’s own eventual ‘physical’ death as being frightening through
contemplation of the unknown of one’s personal death and the death of those we
know and love. The death of the body, an
inevitable reality for everyone in which no human has any say, authority, power
or command over, would or could infinitely condemn humans for their
imperfections? Is it conceivably
possible that a Creator, who, through the creation of human ‘physical’ death
has forsaken the ultimate ‘physical’ earthly independence of a human
being. A ‘God’ who has through design,
order and plan, created the limited and mortal ‘physical’ existence of every
creature and individual on this planet, and as such, has potentially and
indirectly been the catalyst for human distraught through emotional and
cognitive suffering of Self and others, would look malevolently upon inevitable
human imperfections and vulnerability?
Is it conceivably possible then, that
this Creator, having created and designed a complex mysterious human existence,
could then turn around and be meticulously petty and strict towards those who
have fallen short of perfection and the glory of the Creator? No, No, No, this image of such a petty, strict
and vindictive Super Natural Being is not conceivably possible in and to this
mind. It is more likely that in life,
and in the afterlife, we will be far harder on ourselves and critical, than
anyone else will, including ‘God’.
We may have personally experienced the
tremendous loss and grief from a loved one’s death, a loved one gone forever,
as if an extinct dinosaur. But having
said this, the cruel frightening and scary thought and anticipation experienced
by many contemplating one’s own death, or a friend’s death, is of course mightily
mitigated by one’s belief in the reality of a Creator. In the belief in the reality of a Creator,
because something can’t be made from nothing, and in the reality of an
intelligent, benign and spiritual ‘God’, because human consciousness, emotion
and cognition are, by definition, something uniquely and transcendently
wondrous and mystical that cannot be visibly seen, and yet cannot be made from
nothing. The fear of one’s own death can
be mitigated by the informed belief of the reality of Jesus Christ as the Son
of the Creator, because the Creator also allowed His Son to suffer and
‘physically’ die. So the Creator’s
creation of human immortality may inevitably be expressed and experienced in
the reality of the Son’s Resurrection.
The resurrection of Christ allows the belief,
and represents the phenomena, that Self, that is, individual human
consciousness, personality, spirit and soul – and thoughts, emotions,
attitudes, values, beliefs, behaviours - can never die, can never be
extinguished, but will live on forever.
The fear of one’s own death is mightily mitigated in the belief in the
reality of one’s real but invisible essence of one’s being, because the Self’s
personality, spirit and soul can only be definitively and infinitely
experienced and expressed as an invisible entity, a spiritual invisible entity,
providing evidence for the possibility of one’s immortality. Which together with the evidence of the
Creator’s creation and Self’s inherently intrinsic value and uniqueness as a
sovereign and sacred person, provide the conceivable possibility of the reality
of Self’s immortality. To further
support and consolidate the viewpoint of the Creator’s infinite compassion is
may be evident in the following evidence.
We read in the New Testament that one day the ‘pious’ Pharisees brought
to Jesus a woman taken in adultery, waiting to hear Him say that she should be
stoned to death as the law commanded.
But Jesus said:
“If any one of you is without sin (no degree
of severity mentioned), let him/her be the first to throw a stone at her”.
(John 8:7)
Christ’s comments suggested to the
Pharisees that their hidden sins of pride, arrogance and self-righteousness
were just as significantly debilitating as the woman’s sin of adultery. Christ’s response to the woman was quite
gentle. He didn’t say to her, “Aha! These men caught you in the act. You know what the Law says about
adultery. Confess what you’ve done, you
wicked woman”.
Rather, He turned
to her with compassion, and asked:
“Has no-one accused
thee?” When she replied, “No-one, Lord”,
He answered, “Then neither will I accuse thee.
Go now and leave your life of sin.”
(John 8:11)
Another woman who was known for her
‘promiscuous’ lifestyle received similar caring, non-judgmental and
compassionate treatment from Jesus Christ.
Although Christ knew that the woman at the Well had had five husbands
and was living at that time with a man she had not married, the Lord did not
act shocked, and He didn’t shame or condemn her. Instead, he shifted the emphasis from her sin
to the living water of the new life that He could give her. In Christ’s non-judgmental and compassionate
love, this woman was able to change. She
found her individual personal identity, purpose, and worth. She found truth, love, hope and peace. In Christ, she found forgiveness and
compassion for all her faults. In Christ
she found happiness, fulfillment and meaning to life, which she had been so
desperately searching for.
These wonderful parables about Jesus’
understanding and compassion, and His relationship with vulnerable humans as
expressed through the messages and comments made to these women, as recorded in
the New Testament can be extrapolated to the male gender, and other races and
cultures. Therefore, these teachings are
equally relevant to all peoples living on this Earth, including males who may
be arrogant and proud and/ or vulnerable and desperate. And
didn’t Jesus tell His disciples that they must forgive the transgressions made
against them seven times seventy?
The disciple Peter asked Jesus:
“Lord, how many
times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me, up to seven times?”
And Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times”.
(Matt. 18:21-22)
It could
perhaps be deduced and implied from Peter’s encounter with Jesus that Jesus’
reply should be interpreted metaphorically and that Jesus would forgive
transgressions and indiscretions a million x million if we asked Him, wouldn’t
He? It could be considered then that
Christ’s/ God’s mercy towards humans is infinite. His mercy then is greater than the greatness
of the miracles of creation. His mercy
is as great as “that which nothing greater can be thought”.
The general theme of love
described throughout the New Testament comes to us in stories of Jesus’
mystical relational love, compassion and reconciliation (forgiveness) for those
He lived with, and
came into contact with, during His time on Earth. He forgave His close disciple Peter, for
denying any knowledge of Him three times and He forgave the other apostles for
running away. He extended His relational
love and compassion to the woman at the Well who had had five husbands and was
at the time living with another man in an unmarried state.
In the Gospel of James (
“In the same way, was not even
Rahab, the prostitute, considered righteous for what she did when she gave
lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so
faith without deeds is dead”. (James 2:25-26)
The
word ‘prostitute’ is overly derogative because it is often used with the
meaning to label, define and measure an individuals personal identity,
self-worth and sense of being, rather than used to describe a person’s
particular behaviour, a behaviour which is no different in value to the
particular behaviour of a ‘client’.
In terms of
infinite compassion for humans, Christ asked the Father to forgive those who
killed Him:
“Forgive them
Father for they know not what they do”.
(Luke 23: 34-35)
Perhaps
the most decisive and poignant message derived from the “Passion Of The Christ”
is that the Creator potentially wills to unconditionally love all peoples
notwithstanding their personal transgressions, or their political, cultural,
ethnic and religious persuasions and affiliations as explicitly exemplified by
Jesus Christ’s outcry, “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:
34-35).
This was an outcry to the Creator by Jesus Christ on His death
cross, having been psychologically humiliated and ‘physically’ abused. A sublime supplication to the Creator from
the Son after being jeered, insulted, spat upon, punched, beaten, scourged,
crowned with thorns, nailed to the cross and speared, such that He was fatally
wounded by Roman soldiers, Gentiles, Jews, Pagans, Elders, Teachers of the law and Chief Priests.
The crime of torturous ‘physical’ and psychological brutality leading to
a person’s suffering and death, no human being deserves, let alone the innocent
Christ. Yet, regardless of their
behaviour, Christ pleads to the Creator to forgive these perpetrators for the
actions that precipitated His murder.
And if they were not practical partakers in His death, forgiveness for
their vicarious and voyeuristic complicity including both individual and collective
transgressions as an outcome of their destructive, obsessive and irrational
cultural, political, ethnic and religious beliefs.
No, they
did not ask their ‘God’, or anyone else to forgive them, for their abominable
barbaric behaviours. And no, they did
not believe in the sacredness and dignity of humanity. They did not believe in Christ as an innocent
human, or Christ as the Son of the Creator.
Yet the Creator forgave them.
Yes, by all accounts we can acknowledge the fact and believe that the
Creator forgave all these people. They were
forgiven despite them not believing, and they were forgiven despite them not
asking to be reconciled. We can rest
assured that the Creator forgave all of them through and because of the
sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
“Forgive them
Father for they know not what they do”.
(Luke 23: 34-35)
Vulnerable human
beings may find encouragement, solace and inspiration within the meaning of the
following wonderful and beautiful verse of 1 Corinthians 1:27-31. But
perhaps the sentiments and messages within this verse and others are also very
relevant to those individuals in society who are overwhelmingly self-absorbed
and self-obsessed manifest in the characteristics of selfishness, greed,
arrogance and pride. All humans are
imperfect, with personal limitations and weaknesses. But it is those personal imperfections,
limitations, and weaknesses, that contribute to humans psychologically and
‘physically’ harming and hurting others, and which requires urgent personal
attention.
1 Corinthians
1:27-31, reads:
“God chose the
foolish things of the world to shame the wise.
God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of
this world and the despised things and the things that are not, to nullify the things
that are, so that no one may boast before Him.
It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus…Let him who boasts
boast in the Lord”.
In Psalm 51: 1-7,
we read the prayer of forgiveness and joy of David after he had committed
adultery with Bathsheba:
“Have mercy on me,
O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion,
blot out my transgressions wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my
sin”.
We too may choose at some point of time
in life to reconcile with the understanding and merciful Creator, by privately
acknowledging in humility, and with remorse, Self’s personal acts of
transgressions and imperfections, as David did.
We read in Psalm
103:2-4 about David’s proclamation:
“Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not
all His benefits, who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who
redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion”.
The ‘God’ or Creator we have explored
and possibly discovered this far, must be possibly considered from all the
available evidence, a ‘God’ that possesses the attributes and characteristics
of an unconditional mystical relational love, mercy and compassion of
reconciliation, and not a ‘God’ motivated by revenge, hate and
retribution.
The thief Dismas,
turning to Jesus on the cross, said:
“Lord, remember me
when thou shoult come into thy kingdom” and Jesus responded: “This day thou
shoult be with me in paradise”.
(Luke 23: 39-43)
We read a rather frightening message in a verse written
in the Gospel of Mathew:
“The
good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man
brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on
the day-of-judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words
you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
(Mathew 12:35-37)
So where does the reality of the
concepts of Hell and Satan fit into the real world and universe? Where does the reality of the concepts of
Hell and Satan fit into the spiritual world?
How does peoples’ belief in Hell and Satan fit into the story of the
unconditional mystical relational love, intelligence and power of a Creator? Hell is described as eternal post-death punishment. In Christian and Islam theology, Hell is an
eternal place of punishment, but Judaism does not propose such a punishment as
the word Hell only appears in the New Testament. In Buddhism and Hinduism, hell is considered
a transitory stage in the journey of the soul.
But in contrast to the place called
hell, in Christian, Jewish and Muslim theology ‘Satan’ and ‘Devil’ are the
names given to that concept traditionally said to be the supreme spirit of
evil, the supreme spirit of the anti-God/ or Christ. Essentially then, the meanings of the words
‘Hell’ and ‘Satan’ become juxtaposed, or symbiotic, just as ‘a pea in a
pod’. We imagine a Devil called Satan in
a place of pain called Hell, and Satan the Devil, who has the flexibility and
powers of the Creator/ or ‘God’.
Perhaps in our minds we are able to
reduce the power of the human meaning of the word Satan to that of the meaning
given to the word Satan by Jesus, when He called the apostle Peter, Satan. If Satan was in fact an eternal and supreme spiritual
reality, it is most unlikely that Christ would have used such language on any
human being, let alone on His apostle Peter.
Peter the imperfect ‘rock’, upon whom Christ wished to build His church.
“But when Jesus turned and looked at His disciples, He
rebuked Peter. “Get
behind me, Satan!” He said. “You do not
have in mind the things of God, but the things of men”.
(Mark 8:31-33; Matthew 16:23)
Yes, Jesus called
Peter, Satan. If Satan actually existed
as some eternal and infinite evil supreme super natural spiritual being, it is
inconceivable that the extremely influential Christ would have labelled, branded, maligned and aligned Peter by
associating and stigmatising him with such a dire and horrendous entity. Furthermore, considering the fact that the
word Satan is written 15 times in the Old Testament, particularly in the book
of Job where Job explores his afflictions with regard to his relationship with
God. So we are unsure what meaning the apostles
drew from the word Satan. The people of
that time feared far more God’s wrath and punishment, which to them comprised
of the existence of an eternal Hell.
Their fear of Hell essentially being a place where one would burn
forever in the flames of a fire that would never extinguish with a spirit
called Satan, rather than fearing alone, a spiritual being, called Satan. So if the meaning of the word Satan didn’t
unduly concern them, God’s ability to throw them into Hell to be eternally
burnt forever, by fire, did. From this
powerful scripture verse we may extrapolate the meaning of the word ‘Satan’ to
being a metaphor for acts of human indulgences, imperfections and
indiscretions.
Moreover, if Christ was/is truly the
Creator, then His crucifixion, death and resurrection has not and cannot have
been in vain. But rather, has been
unequivocally and categorically without a whisper of doubt, transcended all
transgressions, winning victory over all that which may have been perceived as
originating from any super natural and supreme evil being. We may consider believing that the events
pertaining to the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ have opened the gates of
‘heaven’ for all peoples, regardless of their imperfections, regardless of
their beliefs and regardless of their attitudes.
Finally, it is surely intellectually
and spiritually inconceivable that an all-good, all-powerful and, all-knowing
Super Natural Being that we may term ‘God’, or the Creator, the Creator of all
that exists, and is ‘that which nothing greater can be thought’, can create and
allow to exist such an entity as, His absolute antithesis. Can allow to exist an intrinsically eternally
evil Super Natural Being that has limitless and unrestrained evil powers and
influence. Yes, another Super Natural
Being, but a Being who is in essence, intrinsically and inherently evil. A Being who is the direct opposite, converse
and reverse to all that which the Creator stands for. A Creator, who by definition, has an
unfettered and uncompromising transcendent influence and power over all that
Is, over all that exists, and over everything that ever was, and over everything that
ever will be. It is also surely
intellectually and spiritually inconceivable that an all-good, all-powerful and
all-knowing Super Natural Being, being the Creator of all that exists, and is
‘that which nothing greater can be thought’, can create, and allow to exist,
such an entity as a place called Hell. A
place called Hell, a word meaning a horrific place where the flames never go
out, where the fires burn the skin and body forever, and where the spiritual
pain continues unbearably forever.
So we can consider that there can be no
place in Self’s thoughts for a place called Hell, and there can be no place in
Self’s thoughts for a supreme evil spirit called Satan. In the authors mind, the conventional and
traditional beliefs and conceptual meanings of ‘Hell’ and ‘Satan’ in terms of
the eternal punishment of fire, and the super natural power of the ‘devil’, is
not spiritually, intellectually and/or rationally conceivable.
With the above sentiments in mind, and
with information espoused by philosophers and theologians together with Self’s
innate consciousness, common sense, and a reflective introspective and
intuitive spirit. And with the knowledge
from the gifted mediums and afterlife channelers, John Edwards, and George
Anderson of
The idea and image of a ‘Hell’ and
‘Satan’ may indeed be a metaphor that adequately expresses the evil of the
horrors and pain inflicted through the choice of behaviours visited upon humans
by humans. But spirits called Satan (the
devil) and places called Hell could be said to be essentially biblical
metaphors to describe humans’ choice to behave evilly. Words like Hell and Satan, have been given
literal meanings, creating myths invented and given credibility and life
through their misinterpretation by preachers’ over-zealous interpretation of
the stories in the Bible. These stories
have given power and authority to the writers and the priests as they describe
how God’s anger from human disobedience, and sin, will be expressed in harsh
and unforgiving punishments. Therefore,
these threats of eternal psychological ‘afterlife’ pain inflicted by a Creator
should not be taken seriously. To the
authors mind the human concepts of Hell and Satan do not, and have never
existed, for ‘God’ is Absolute Mystical Relational Love. ‘God’ is
Apart from being a biblical or
religious metaphor turned myth, rationally the concept of hell does not fit
into the character of a ‘God’ we that we could understand and relate to or
would even want to know. Further, the
idea of Hell is, by definition, conceivably simplistic, gratuitous and
convenient as a spiritual ‘tool’ used for spiritual abuse and the oppression of
Self. The concepts of Hell and Satan are
spiritual ‘tools’ that can, have been and are, used as leverage for personal
compliance and conformation to cultures, cults and religions. If the eternal fires of Hell did exist, all
people would intellectually, spiritually and emotionally suffer, if indeed Hell
was a reality, because if a son, daughter, sister, brother, wife, husband,
partner or friend were to be eternally punished in the fires of Hell, wouldn’t
this also represent eternal excruciating pain for everyone relationally
connected.
However, having said this, instead of
being sent to Hell send ourselves to a place of “just purification” - through
our actions on Earth - where we experience temporarily, the ‘physical’,
cognitive and emotional pain and suffering we have inflicted upon others. Although, there may possibly be a position or
place, after death, away from the love and light of the Creator for those who
wish to remain isolated, proud, arrogant and full of their own
self-importance. There may be people who
wish to go to a place without the good, a place without the truth, a place
without the mystical relational love of the Creator. But if this stubbornness and arrogance exists
it can only possibly
be conceived as being short term and temporary, until the unconditional
mystical relational love, compassion and light of the Creator is experienced,
and thus, personally desired and willed by Self though free choice.
However, the beginning of the afterlife
may also be the time and place to have the chance and experience to change and
shape aspects of Self’s personality from what one was, to what one wants or
wishes to be, in light of experiencing first hand the reality of the
Creator. If we have been partially
selfish and destructive, we will understand what our potential may have
been. We may more fully realize and
understand how we could have behaved differently to Self and others. We will see and understand what our true
potential could have been, and this understanding will be personally
challenging in itself. We will ask
ourselves, “Why, why, why did I feel, think and behave like “that” towards
“this” person,” and “Why, why, why didn’t I feel, think and behave like “this”
towards “that” person”.
So Self
should never, without reflection and thought, do anything - if ‘physical’ death
should unexpectedly visit upon Self tomorrow or in the next week – Self would
regret. After Self’s ‘physical’ death previous selfish
and inconsiderate behaviours may be now exponentially experienced by Self’s
Self, because these past experiences will incongruently contrast strongly with
the mystical relational love inherent in the experience of life on the “other
side”. The “other side” being the
personal real time experience for Self must also include experiencing that
which must be inherently fulfilling and satisfying regarding intra-personal and
interpersonal relationships between Spirits.
But the spiritual difference between what Self was and what “is now” (in
the afterlife) may necessitate the need for Self to be personally ‘purified’
proportional and parallel to any anguish and pain that may have been caused by
Self to others. This personal experience
of Self’s self-reflection and assessment will most likely be embraced warmly as
a function of the essence of creation through the internalization of the
informed experience of the reality of the Creator. This may in turn, allow Self to become
consciously authentic, but without changing the intrinsic dignity and essence
of Self, Self’s sovereignty and Self’s personality, but for the better.
But it is never too late in
this world to change, to have a change of heart, to have a change of attitude,
to change Self’s perceptions about Self and how Self treats others. Realistically, if we wait till we ‘pass over’
to change (if we need to), it may take longer and be more painful in the next
world, than it would on Earth, to work through Self’s personal transgressions,
such as pride, arrogance and selfishness, etc.
It may take “eons” - only the Creator truly knows - in the worst cases
of abuse to others, to reconcile one’s spiritual and personal attitudes that
enable the Self’s spirit, soul, and personality the chance to choose to partake
in personal reflection and thus, self-awareness and personal
‘purification’. The Other Side, a place
of personal consciousness, where Self grows is in ‘tune’ with the ‘tune’ of the
Creator’s kingdom. The Other Side, a
place that amplifies Self’s personal consciousness, for the capacity to
acknowledge the true spirit of relational love and compassion over and above a
personal spirit of selfishness, meanness and ill will.
Believe it or not, being in this
‘world’ on this Earth may be the best place to come to terms with Self, to work
through Self’s deficits and shortcomings, to learn to do ‘good’, to be kind,
and be compassionate towards others.
This is because this world can be so difficult to live in with its many
challenges and stressors. But changing
Self in this world is perhaps also more rewarding, because we have not yet seen
the Absolute Truth, we have not yet seen the Absolute Light of the
Creator. We have not yet seen the
Creator face to face and at first hand.
Nevertheless, whichever ‘side’ we’re on, Heaven or Earth, it must be
considered that the Creator still gives us the chance to change, grow and
reconcile with Self and others, which likely, everyone desires, not
withstanding that desire may possibly be subconscious, deeply hidden and/or
resistant. But the choice to change, the
chance to change to do better, the decision to change to improve, is always
one’s own to make. Christ’s life
portraying His teachings of compassion and forgiveness, was not driven by force
or coercion, to compel others to comply with Him. But based on mystical relational love and
understanding as the motivation for voluntary personal change. We have evolved with a brain that allows us
to experience the gift of consciousness, intellect, emotion, freewill and
choice. Enabling us to contemplate the
existence of a Creator and voluntarily behave as we choose to.
We are now able to make the decision to
love Self and others, because we have been loved. Perhaps because we are loved, firstly, by the
Creator through the creation of the universe and creation of the existence of
the sacredness, dignity and sovereignty of human existence, and secondly, mystically
relationally loved by Christ Jesus’ (Son of the Creator) birth, life, death and
resurrection. Through the existence of
Christ’s birth, life, death and resurrection we have the potential to
experience knowledge of the Way, the Truth, and the Life, being that which is
unconditional compassionate, and being that which gives hope and confidence in
Self’s immortality. Through Christ’s
sacrifices, miracles, examples and teachings we can perhaps understand more
fully the way, the truth, and the life of living life to the full. Through Christ’s life we can perhaps
experience the essence and meaning of the words ‘unconditional love’ as a
reflection of the mystical relational compassion of the Creator. Through Christ’s miracles, examples and
teachings, we can perhaps experience the Creator’s mystical love for Self, so
that Self in turn can love Self and others, so that others can also love
themselves and so, others. Because they
have first been loved by Someone and/or by someone.
Mystery of Suffering and Pain
Insight to ‘God’ the Creator
Order and Design Cause and
Effect
Scripture and Suffering
Puppets on a String
Pain and Relationships
In light of the above information in which has been
discussed the description and concepts of ‘God’, which may have allowed the
intellectual and spiritual experience to internalize in some small way ‘God’s’
incredible and fathomless love and forgiveness for humankind, it now seems
appropriate to explore the reason and meaning of the perceived contradiction of
human suffering. This investigation into
suffering may thus help to disabuse the frequently held notion that the two
verbs, “His love,” and “our suffering,” are irrational and contradictory in
terms and diametrically opposed in meaning.
So then, how do we answer this age-old
existential question about the reason and meaning of suffering? Is there a rational answer to why humans
experience pain or is it a mystery, and/ or the Creator’s idea of a sick joke
or weird sense of humour? We are surely
mystified and often shocked by the magnitude of suffering, pain and tragedy
experienced by humans in this world. We
are justifiably mystified, by the incongruence associated with the concept of a
loving God, a benevolent Creator who seems to allow painful human experiences
of suffering. Human suffering from
horrendous barbaric and bloody wars, including World War II, where alone, up to
70 million people were killed, many of them civilians, but soldiers too. Soldiers, who are trained to kill, and
who are trained to be killed are human beings too. We are psychologically distraught, by ‘life
taking’ killer famines, devastating floods, and catastrophic diseases, such as
the Spanish Flu, which killed up to 40 million people. We are psychologically devastated, by the
human destruction from killer earthquakes and tsunamis. We are psychologically mortified, by
atrocious and indiscriminate acts of violence, rape, murder, robbery, despot
dictators, corporate and individual fraud and involuntary accidents, which all
prevail without any evidence of God’s intervention or concern.
And why would a loving God, allow also
to exist, inter-relational and intra-relational pride, arrogance and violence,
personal greed and selfish gratification, arbitrary sexual abuse and ethnic and
racial discrimination and cleansing.
Why would God allow all the pain and grief that accompanies such
impropriety? Indeed, we could go on and
on, describing the acts and events that cause pain and suffering to humans on
this planet. The suffering in the world
caused by people to people may rightly stifle and/ or contradict our belief in
the existence of a ‘God’, let alone our belief in the existence of a loving
‘God’.
But as humans in search for the truth,
and who may believe in the possibility of the existence of a God, we want to
know why this God allows people to suffer such psychological trauma, such
emotional and physical agony and grief.
It is interesting to note, that if we
have decided we do not believe in a ‘God’ for what ever reason, or because of
the dilemma of the contradiction of a “loving God” in relation to human pain
and suffering we may, or may not, have the problem regarding the question of
the existence of a ‘God’. Because this
belief in a ‘God’, may be predicated on the belief of a ‘God’ who is by nature
or by divine reason indifferent to human suffering. But if we do not believe in a ‘God’ solely
because of our incomprehension to the existence of human suffering, we would
not now have the need for this question about a ‘loving God’ allowing human suffering. Now that we do not believe in a ‘God’, we
have no Creator to blame and who could we be angry at?
If there were no Creator, no Designer,
and no intrinsic Order of and in the world, life would be nothing more than a
random collection of meaningless events and fate that just happens. There may be no such thing as the concept of
fairness, no such concept as truth, and no such thing as a sense of love and
compassion, or goodness and badness.
There would be no absolute values and no ultimate purpose to life and
living. Life may be a futile existence
without reason and ultimate purpose. We
could not feel angry or bitter at a non-existent ‘God’. We would live life as if we will live
forever, forgetting that every day may be our last. Or we may live life as if it were our last
day. We may behave in a way that would gain us
as much as we could get, to satisfy our desires, needs and wants, bringing us
pleasure, despite such behaviour being at the expense of others, whilst
disregarding the negative affects of our gratuitous actions upon others. And when we are eventually dead and buried,
or cremated, that would be the end.
There would be nothing more and nothing less, for there would be nothing
else. There would be no consciousness,
personality, thought or emotion. No
accountability or responsibility would be expected or required. There would be no experience of love, no
spark of light, no feeling of spirit, no memory of life, no experience of past,
present or future, there would be absolutely nothing and no existence at all
But we are human beings with invisible,
but real consciousness, thoughts and emotions and may believe that we (spirit
and personality) were made in the image and likeness of the one who
created. We want to believe in the ability
to possess these unique and innate qualities and characteristics with their
specific higher transcendent purposes as the core and essence of Self’s unique
and special consciousness, awareness and being.
Therefore, we want to believe in a ‘God’ and Creator, we want to believe
in a ‘God’ and Creator of truth, justice, mercy, love and eternal
immortality. So as part of our informed
journey to finding evidence of God’s existence we seek a rational answer to
this cognitive dilemma caused by the incongruent and contradicting concept of a
“loving God’ as creator, and the pain and suffering experienced by the
created. We too will experience pain and
suffering at some point in our lives and we want rational and sensible answers
that are compatible with our belief in the possibility of a fair, just, caring
and loving ‘God’ and Creator.
But
unfortunately, it is true. Thousands and
thousands of people die every year through the natural disasters of floods,
volcano eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, accidents, diseases and
illnesses. Millions of people die every
year through malnourishment and starvation.
Hundreds of thousands of people die ever year from wars, genocide,
ethnic and religious cleansing and arbitrary violence. Yes, millions of people die in one-way or another,
through the voluntary hands of humans, or through the design and order of God’s
creation of the Universe, Solar System and planet Earth. Human beings are, as is all creation,
including the universe, designed and ordered to have a temporary, limited, and
finite ‘physical’ life. We will all die
sooner, or later. People leave the face
of this Earth, leaving their friends, relatives, and families to mourn and
grieve the trauma and distress of their death, and their physical extinction
from this planet. ‘Physical’ death is
visited upon humans indiscriminately.
‘Physical’ death can ‘cut’ people down at any time, in any place causing
devastating sadness, grief and trauma to friends and family. But remember the universe is made from atoms
which consist themselves of subatomic particles of energy. All existence is made from atom-energy, which
when our body ‘dies’ means that the atoms are restructuring their energy
resulting in a change in their intrinsic function.
Can we gain insight to
‘God’ from suffering and pain? If we
believe in a ‘God,’ in a Creator, as the provider and designer of life, then we
can rightfully blame the Creator, placing the event of death right at the feet
of ‘God’. So how can we reconcile ‘God’
with love and creation, with the trauma, suffering, pain and tragedy of abuse,
suffering and death? Perhaps we can
reconcile ‘God’ and these events by asking about what inferences can be made
from the perceived incongruity of ‘God’ and the experience of grief and pain,
of life and death, of living and dying, of existing and not existing, of being
alive one minute and dead the next.
Perhaps we can infer from the diabolical harm towards children and
humans from acts of rape, violence and murder, the Creator does not intervene
in human choice, and human freewill, no mater how sick, evil and depraved these
actions are, no matter how much pain and suffering is caused by these human
choices. From this mysterious relational
experience between ‘God’ and humans, perhaps we can anticipate ‘God’s being,
God’s truth, God’s essence and God’s will in the potentiality of the sacredness
and integrity of human independence, freewill and sovereignty that has been
bestowed on humankind.
Perhaps we can infer from
the reality of human ‘physical’ death that human life, by design and order, is
relatively short within the context of the timeframe of creation, the planets,
solar system and universe. We can infer
that generally, although we perceive life and humans to be precious, ‘physical’
death is inevitable and often comes unexpectedly causing much distress and
sadness. We can infer from the
inevitability of human ‘physical’ death that life on Earth, was not designed
intended to be a permanent and infinite state but temporary and relatively
short. We can infer that the Creator’s
intentions are often not the same as ours, and the Creator’s ways are often not
our ways.
It could be said that most
people, given the opportunity, given a comfortable and satisfying life, would much rather live longer, perhaps live life forever
without growing old, without getting sick, without ever dying, driven by the
fear of ‘physical’ death, the fear of the unknown, and the fear of the loss and
cessation of consciousness and Self. But
this is obviously not the Creator’s idea, will, or design and order of
creation, and perhaps through belief in the birth, death and resurrection of
Christ, we too can have some significant insight into the ‘mind’ of ‘that which
nothing greater can be thought’. Through
the acknowledgment and awareness of the design and order of creation, and the
reality of Christ’s resurrection, we may perceive the possibility of the
immortality of Self and therefore, Self’s consciousness and personality, as the
defining reason for human creation. And
from this insight, allow Self to unshackle the burdensome chains of personal
fear driven by misinformation and innocent ignorance manifest through Self’s
thoughts and emotions regarding personal annihilation, obliteration and
disintegration.
So at face value, from a
human perspective, we may also infer from the event of human ‘physical’ death,
where humans are born, build a life and then grow old and die, that the Creator
is unkind, malicious, unjust and irrational.
But if we can delve a little deeper into the Creator’s mind, if you
will, into Gods intentions of design, order and plan, we may come to realize
that conception, birth, life and death is really just the beginning of Self and
Self’s conscious existence. We may come
to appreciate that it is only the ‘physical’ body that grows old and dies, and
not the invisible spirit, a spirit characterised by Self’s consciousness,
awareness, thoughts, emotions and personality.
We may have personally experienced that our invisible spirit never grows
old in relation to our chronological demographic age, but always feels younger,
but it may become depressed or tired, and the spirit can undoubtedly mature
with knowledge through the time of life’s experiences, but is yet, also
immortal whose existence is eternal and will live/ exist forever on.
The concept and idea of the
immortal invisible spirit’s life after ‘physical’ death may be supported by not
only the evidence depicted in the events of Christ and His ‘physical’ death and
spiritual resurrection, but by the definition of spirit, and personality,
etcetera. The Creator Himself allowed
His Son to experience ‘physical’ death and the pain, suffering and humiliation
inflicted by others, but not to personally and spiritually perish. Christ’s invisible and immortal consciousness,
spirit and personality rose from death, rose from the dead, a spirit and
personality embodied by a glorified body.
This may give us hope and optimism of the existence of a life after
‘physical’ death if we so choose to consider in the reality of such an
experience.
Design, Order and Plan,
Cause and Effect
When we go in
search for the answer to the question of ‘God’ in relation to pain and
suffering, we come to realise that because the world was created with the
phenomena of design, order and plan, there is a result and reaction for every
action and a consequence for every deed and behaviour. The affect of this design, order and plan of
creation is primarily the cause of the natural tragedies and disasters we
experience in catastrophes such as diseases, epidemics, floods, earthquakes,
tsunamis and volcano eruptions. However, there is not a lot we can do about
natural disasters that cause catastrophic havoc and chaos, suffering and
death. Although through science, we are
slowly gaining the upper hand through control, prevention and intervention with
new remedies, resources, medicines, ideas and concepts, and the improved
ability to pre-warn of impending disasters and diseases and advanced strategies
to immunize against these.
The design, order and plan of creation,
is primarily the cause of, and the reason why ‘human made’ suffering has such
an influential psychological impact on people.
Indeed, not only do the consequences of the dynamics of creation
influence the ‘physical’ world of atom-energy with all the “acts of God” we
experience with their particular repercussions, but the consequences of a world
created with “design, order and plan” also carry through to the metaphysical
and spiritual world in terms of our psychological well-being and interaction
with others. But there is one big
difference; natural disasters that cause pain, suffering and death, are usually
involuntary and uncontrollable. They are
not relationally vindictive or malicious.
Whilst, human behaviours causing pain, suffering, and death, are more
often voluntary and controllable acts that are relationally vindictive and
essentially personal. Once we humans
choose a certain course of action or behaviour the principles of cause and
effect take over at will with regard to the suffering of others caused by such
behaviours.
We are either directly or indirectly
responsible for the course of actions we decide to embark on and therefore
responsible for the consequences of harm or well-being that inevitably result
from these ‘human made’ actions of doing good, or less than good, to
others. So as people with freewill and
choice we control and have power over our actions and therefore the ability to
cause happiness or unhappiness for Self and others. This is, we have the capability to cause hurt
in another person, who like us, has a fundamental essence to their being, an
essence, which consists of consciousness, thoughts, and feelings. It has been said that “hurt people”, “hurt”
people – because they live the way they have learnt - but although this may
explain some peoples’ maladaptive actions it is in no way an acceptable excuse
to justify the continuation of an escalating spiral of human destruction and
devastation.
We need to take hold of our senses and
with the support of others, pursue counseling if need be, and be determined to
choose, that which is good for Self and others.
Otherwise, we will surely feel less than ‘good’ within, and experience
the pain and suffering inflicted by us upon others as part of our personal
purification when in the next world of the afterlife. As an alternative to the chaos caused from
the destruction of others, let us instead choose to learn to love others. Can we learn to love Self so that we can love
others? Because loving others is
predicated on loving Self and loving others is about others loving us, and
others. If we have never been loved and
so can’t love Self or others, perhaps we can begin to think about loving
because the Creator has loved us first.
‘God’ loved us first, firstly, by
creating creation and creating the existence of human beings with
consciousness, and secondly, by creating their immortality evident through the
birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of the Son of ‘God’. Perhaps we can love Self and others because
without love there is nothing. Without
love, life is nothing. Without love,
would there be anything left in life, but sadness, isolation and despair. Perhaps we can love because we can relate to
Christ as the Son of God, and therefore to His teachings. Because as Jesus said, “What you do to the
least of these my brethren (sisters and brothers) you do to me”. So everything we do to another person,
whether it be based on kindness, hatred or indifference, whether it produces
pain or joy, we are in fact doing it to the Creator, because, we are all made
through and by God, in the Creator’s image and likeness of soul and spirit.
Christ says in the
Gospels that natural tragedies including disabilities also show the power and
majesty of God and are in themselves not a result of transgressing or doing
less than good. Christ also uses pain
and suffering to emphasise the reality of human spiritual existence.
When the disciples
asked Jesus why a certain man was blind, Jesus answered:
“So that the power
of God’s work can be displayed in him and not because he or his family has
sinned”.
(John 9:3)
We often see in those with disabilities
the gift to strengthen their other senses that compensate for those that are of
little use. Disabilities can encourage
people to excel in areas where others haven’t dared to explore. So God’s gift to humans is diverse, none of
us are the same, we are all unique, different and imperfect, and all have our
own personal journey to travel in this life, to do the best (with the support
of others) we can with what we have been given.
In the Gospel of Luke we read about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had
mingled with that of their sacrifices and where Christ said:
“Do you suppose
these Galileans who suffered like that were greater sinners than any other
Galilean? They were not I tell you, no,
but unless you repent you will all perish as they did.”
(Luke 13:1-5)
Although this statement seems to be a
very harsh one if read literally, Jesus Christ is perhaps saying in a
metaphorical way that unrepentant sinners will suffer in a way that humans
perceive death as being painful. The
human perception of death, the experience of ‘physical’, intellectual and
emotional suffering, envisaged to be perhaps experienced at one’s death. And so, this perceived experience of pain at
death may be revisited as a response to doing harm to others, and include, in
the next life, the propensity to experience for ourselves, the pain we have caused
others to suffer.
When the tower in Siloam fell on 18
innocent people killing them, Jesus said to His disciples; “Do you suppose that
they were more guilty than all the other people living in
The same sentiments about there not
being a correlation between suffering imposed by God because of ‘sin’ are told
in the Old Testament’s story of Job, which protests against the belief at the
time that prosperity was a sign of God’s favour for good living, and that
trouble and adversity were the sign of God’s judgment upon bad living. However, as we have perhaps discovered on our
journey in the quest for information, transgressions against others and Self
create their own pain and suffering, because of the laws of cause and effect
that are affiliated to the unique design, order and plan of the Creator in this
world.
But why doesn’t the
Creator intervene and prevent the horrific and painful accidents and tragedies
originating from both natural disasters and voluntary human behaviours in our
daily lives? Firstly, there appears to
be no concrete evidence to suggest that God intervenes in any way on a daily
basis to prevent suffering in the world.
There is enough evidence to entertain the possibility that ‘God’ created
the universe, and created it for a specific purpose by His will, and through
His “word”, designed, ordered and planed through cause and effect. And the outcome of the dynamics of the
process creating the characteristics of evolution, including, consciousness,
personality, free will, together with the possibility of the Incarnation, and
thus, the resurrection.
These phenomena must be, in and by
themselves, sufficient evidence for the answers, as they have been considered
by ‘God’ to be the ultimate and necessary intervention required by the Creator
for humanity. Without the threat and
reality of pain and suffering, we may live life in total comfort, in utopia,
without the need for developing our strengths and acknowledging our weaknesses
with regard to interpersonal relationships, or even the need to develop
interpersonal relationships, or the activity of intra personal self-awareness,
and retrospective and real time personal reflection.
Further, without knowledge of the
resurrection we would perhaps be unable to conceive the possibility of an
immortal afterlife. Apart from humans
being conscious and independent individuals, as opposed to animals or robots,
would there be any other way humans could experience emotions of pain and
suffering, thereby appreciating also, the cognitions and emotions of joy and
happiness? Would humans ever be able to
grow and develop as conscious, spiritual, emotional and cognitive beings made
for greater things, than existing as inert biological entities living life in
this world, without pain and suffering?
If the Creator intervened in our daily
lives, interfering with those gifts of consciousness, cognition and emotion,
would there be any need for the ability of our being to make choices and for
humans to possess the power and freedom of free will and choice? Without consciousness, cognition, emotion and
freewill, wouldn’t we be incapacitated as if puppets and plastic dolls that are
unable to learn from experiences, that have no feeling, that have no sense of
Self? We would be inanimate, as good as
dead, unable to appreciate Self and life, unable to learn and grow from Self’s
and others’ mistakes. Without these
‘gifts’ of freewill and choice, of consciousness, we would be living in a
vacuum, a static equilibrium, unable to think or feel, unaware of any feelings,
pleasant or painful, unable to choose not to inflict suffering on others and
unable to choose to do good to others.
We would be unable to exercise the higher transcendent virtues and
qualities of goodness through the characteristics of relational love,
reconciliation and compassion. We would
be individuals who could not enter into beneficial, productive and significant
relationships with others, including Self, and the Creator.
However, much suffering could
be avoided if it wasn’t for human vices, vices of greed, hatred, jealously,
selfishness, arrogance, and pride.
Ultimately, sadly, it is men’s and women’s ability and desire to choose
wrong and evil over ‘goodness’ that perpetuates much of humankind’s
suffering. Evidence may suggest that
‘God’, through Jesus Christ, has taught us what ‘God’ is like and what He wants
us to be like, as people made in His image and likeness, made with ‘His’
transcendent qualities and attributes.
No matter how you
look at it, meaning cannot come from the pain and grief suffered through the
knowledge of children and loved one’s, being abused and murdered, except for
the realization that humans have the ability to treat other humans in ways that
are far worse than the ways animals treat each other. And that humans have an inner strength that
they realise they never possessed.
However, in less traumatic experiences of suffering there may come
meaning. In the parable about the blind
man, Jesus shows that suffering can provide new perspectives on life in the way
we look at the world and ourselves.
Without life’s contrasts and challenges there would be the risk of
living in an emotional and intellectual vacuum, a plane of spiritual boredom
without the opportunity for personal development.
If we had never seen or experienced
disabilities in Self or others, like sickness, it is likely that we would not
appreciate the gift of health. If we had
never experienced blindness in others we would never know the existence of the
ability of those who are blind to deal with the pain and inconvenience of not
seeing, their courage and tenacity, and their ability to compensate through the
heightening of other senses. We would be
unable to appreciate in those with disabilities the ability to live in courage
and bravery rising, above and beyond, their adversity. If we had never experienced or seen hunger,
we would not appreciate a satisfying meal and the gift of food and water on the
table. If we had never been ‘physically’
or emotionally sick we would not understand or appreciate our health and the
gift of a healthy mind and body and the realization that humans are materially
and in essence fragile and vulnerable with a ‘use by date’, so to speak. If we had never been lonely, perhaps we would
never appreciate the companionship and friendship of others and the need for
others’ support thereby realizing the fact that we are social beings. If we have never had a “bad” day, we would
not appreciate a ‘good’ day and the contrasting difference between the two contributing
to personal and psychological well-being.
It seems that perhaps we can only
appreciate the wonders of creation and the Creator because of our personal
perception of the world from the experience of all the contrasts, challenges,
joys and pain it has offered and dealt to us.
We can only really comprehend others’ pain if we have ourselves, also
experienced pain, and through this adverse experience, we can acquire the
virtue of compassion. As survivors of
suffering, we become wounded healers, as our own suffering brings forth
compassion. Through the experience of
pain comes the ability to radiate genuine empathy, support, love and friendship
to the sick, aged, helpless, lonely, depressed, oppressed and exploited, just
as Jesus did 2000 years ago. Just as
Christ still does today, through the spirit of His followers and the individual
and collective behaviours and attitudes of love they disseminate.
Suffering and pain also sharpen our
awareness of happiness. We are much more
joyous about the things we regain that were lost than if they had never been
lost. It is with special joy that we
hear how the lost sheep is brought home upon the exultant shepherd’s
shoulders. And when the storm tosses the
sailors from side to side and threatens to wreck the ship, all are pale with
the threat of death. But as the sky
grows clear and the sea calms all are much more wild and ecstatic with
exultation than they were before the fear.
When a friend is sick and his/her pulse threatens danger; all who want
him/her to be better feel as if they shared his/her sickness. He/she begins to recover, though he/she
cannot yet walk as strongly as before there is more joy than there was when
he/she was still well and could walk properly.
We have seen this emotion in the story of him who had been dead, and
brought back to life. We have seen it in
the story of him who had been lost, and found. So we could say that perhaps,
universally the greater the experience of pain potentially the greater the
experience of joy.
A New Zealand woman, and film producer,
who was viciously attacked and beaten by an intruder in her home, says that
suffering and pain can be likened to the pearl syndrome. When an oyster incurs an irritant, like from
a piece of sand, it turns it into something beautiful, a pearl. She says that when bad things happen, we have
to take hold of them and turn them into something that is the reverse of what
they are. Otherwise, Self may not move forward but
become depressed or bitter and twisted.
Instead, Self needs to attempt to move forward by turning bad
experiences into good experiences and not dwell on things past, but on Self’s
ability to be creative, artistic, industrious or simply ‘just being’ with
extreme personal challenges. Through
pain and tragedy comes the ability to acknowledge the gift of life, comparing
the contrast of pain with the gift of potential joy and happiness expressed
through the gift of human emotion and intellect that can identify the
differentiation of thoughts and feelings about good and bad experiences. Negative things happen, but we could die
tomorrow, so we should concentrate on the positive things.
Heather
Gemmen, 33, in her book Startling Beauty, tells of her horrific, filthy,
petrifying ordeal at being savagely raped in the dark with a knife at her neck
by an intruder in her own bed, while her husband was out at an evening
meeting. But the rape had left her
pregnant and a morning-after pill she had taken on hospital advice had not
worked. Although Heather is fervently
anti-abortion, she could not tolerate the thought of having her violator’s
baby. Her husband wanted her to have a
termination and, after days of agonising, she agreed. Privately, she could not bear the thought of
killing the innocent by-product of a terrible crime. In desperation she tried to find parents who
would adopt the baby, but the thought of another couple carrying away her own
flesh and blood brought the lightening-bolt realisation that she had to keep
the baby. The value in the decision to
keep the baby is, underpinned by the fact that, because Heather’s attacker was
black and she is white, Rachael is of mixed race. Heather describes Rachael’s existence as
having a healing power. She wants other
victims (survivors) of rape to know that rape need not be the end of their
life; that beauty can come from ugliness.
Rachael says to her mother, ‘I’m so sad about what that man did to you’,
and Heather says, ‘Yes, it is sad, but I’m so glad I have you’.
It
is a paradoxical enigma that these real human life experiences are evidence
that perhaps it is very possible that good things can come from bad/ evil
things, that good can be made from bad/ evil, and that something bad and evil
can be turned and become something good.
David Watson an
English preacher, healer and cancer victim, says, that in suffering maybe God
is trying to tell us something, perhaps trying to give us a chance to get our lives in
order, to consider new perimeters and horizons, to grow and develop and make
adjustments, to put wronged relationships right, to put our house in order.
Mary Magdalene is a good example of how
one’s personality and psychological well-being of ‘physical’ and emotional
torment can be changed, reinvented and redefined through the love and support
of others who have a genuine and unconditional concern. Her psycho-spirituality was ‘crippled’ by the
possession of seven ‘demons’ which were cast out by Jesus (Luke 8:2). Although the meaning of the word “demons” is
most likely a metaphor, or misunderstanding by the writers in relation to
perhaps depression or a defense mechanism resulting from the distress from
being chastised, discounted, persecuted and minimized, because of her standing
as an unmarried woman in the culture of the community of those times. Another example of psycho-spiritual change is
from the Samaritan woman at the Well (John 4:7-42) who had lived with many
husbands and men, and who may have been a slave to the devotion of false
intimacy.
In Jesus, however, she found a new
dimension to life, a potential dimension that was dormant while her limited
human Self struggled for personal and spiritual ‘love’ by fulfilling her
immediate emotional and ‘physical’ needs through spontaneous and superficial
carnal encounters. But through her
encounter with Jesus, her perception and experience of love, trust, compassion
and genuine relationship, exceeded that experienced by her from the instant
pleasure and satisfaction that she endeavoured to procure from the act of
repetitive superficial ‘physical’ intimate encounters. It may be that her experience of true love
and trust from the One who loved her first was far more inspiring, rewarding
and meaningful. The love she experienced
from this interrelationship with Jesus was significant enough to be
internalised and processed within, fostering a personal, emotional,
intellectual and spiritual sensitivity that realized and quenched her thirst of
that which she had been seeking in ‘physical’ encounters and of that which she
was intended and made.
This spiritual and relational
experience of love sourced through her interpersonal relationship with the
perfect love and compassion of Jesus, was the basis upon which she was able to
recognize and identify within, a sense of inner peace and joy. From the interaction of Jesus’ mystical
relational love, acceptance, compassion and forgiveness for her and all that
she outwardly represented to Him, she was able to instill in herself the desire and ability
to attain the higher transcendent qualities and virtues required for peaceful
living. The experience of this authentic
relationship between herself and Jesus fostered within her the ability and need
to feel worthy, confident and independent, thus building her sense of dignity
and self-esteem. Further, from this
experience with Jesus, she identified within herself a new sense of integrity
and an increase in her capacity to love, accept and forgive herself, and
others. She also found within, a spirit
of genuine intimacy, warmth and care, for Self and others. These newly found virtues of doing that for
which she was made replaced the debilitating spiritual characteristics of guilt
and shame generated from the residue of past experiences. Of course, these personal experiences of
transformation from these women’s personal encounters with Jesus obviously
would apply to men as well.
No matter how you look at it, you
cannot extract an ounce of good from the blatant abuse and murder of children
and humans. The only thing we learn from
these abominations is the realization of how bad humans can treat other humans,
acting worse than the animals they evolved from. However, in many instances of tragedy and
trauma good can come from bad, and so a depth of personality and sense and
awareness of spirituality can come from pain and suffering. This is because pain and suffering can
emanate the process that drives the strengthening of attitudes characterised by
courage and integrity, and as a result, growth of the spirit, which allows the
discovery of new perspectives on living life that may include the psychological
characteristics of compassion and reconciliation.
Pain and suffering can have the
potential to transform personal arrogance and pride into humility and emotional
and spiritual integrity. From the
perceived sense of personal meaninglessness and psychological frustration from
the experience of pain comes the desire to search for an answer to alleviate
the state of spiritual and ‘physical’ trauma and alienation. Ultimately, the inevitable transformations
arising from that which is ‘less than good’ and that which is painful, has the
propensity to transform into personal development and spiritual refinement,
strengthening a loving relationship with others and perhaps also with “that
which nothing greater can be thought”.
The power of belief, and having an authentic relationship with the
Creator is illustrated by Augustine, when he says of his pain:
“My best friend died and my heart was black
with grief. The things we had done
together were shear torment without him, my eyes were restless looking for him,
but he was not there. I hated all places
because he was not in them. But blessed
and happy is the man that loves thee, O God, and his friend that dwell in thee,
for he alone loses none that is dear to him if all are dear in God who is never
lost,” (Sheed & Ward, 1978, page 53).
Without the unique and specific
dimensions that activate one’s personal spiritual resources for a belief and
hope in an eternal immortal after life, particular problems of our existence
related to our existence here on earth could fill us with despair. Indiscriminant pain, suffering and death in
this world could easily be experienced as infinitely and desperately tragic if
there were ultimately a final and definitive cessation of Self and Self’s
consciousness at the point of ‘physical’ death.
Pain and suffering in this world would be unbearable if there was an
arbitrary termination of all emotions and thoughts, an arbitrary termination of
Self and Self’s consciousness and personality when ‘physically’ dead and
buried. Our response to pain, suffering,
and death could be exacerbated by, the thought and concept of a meaningless and
temporal life without immortality. And
with which particular perception, we would perhaps be impelled to savor the
pleasures of the world, and to save ourselves, at the expense of the
consideration of others, together with all the imbibed pride, arrogance and
selfishness needed to achieve such ego-centered goals. Sadly, resulting from wanting to save Self in
this life, possessing all the perceived material pleasures of this world, the
end would come justify the means; and human beings would become used and abused
as the tools and the means to attain such a materially desired end.
But perhaps we do believe in a
Supernatural Being, a ‘God’, a Creator, and so with this belief perhaps come a
belief in a life of hope, a life of meaning and a life of purpose. Needless to say, humans were not made to be
used as a means towards an end, but are perhaps beings made in the image and
likeness of ‘God’ who possess the gifts of reason, emotion, and free-will as a
function of the dignity bestowed them.
All people therefore, have the natural right to be recognised as unique,
free, and independent beings, with the integrity to be both responsible and
accountable juxtaposing individual rights.
So it makes good sense that all humans owe to one another a duty of
respect and care through acceptance, respect and non-judgement with regard to
each other’s personal differences and individuality, including cultures and
beliefs. Rather than being fearful and
threatened by the differences and diversities in and of others, choose to
personally celebrate and embrace any differences by interacting with others in
and with ‘love’ and compassion and thus subsequently honouring and respecting
the sacred integrity of every individual.
Choosing to live in ‘love’ and compassion towards others, perhaps in the
same way Christ 2000 years taught, exemplified through His flawless teachings
and examples as recorded, sometimes less than flawlessly, and read in the
Bible. And choosing to live with others with a sentiment
and mindset guided and framed by ‘love’ and compassion as exemplified by Christ
first mystically relationally loving humans.
Indeed choosing to live life by living with ‘love’ and compassion for
not only others, but for Self, as the Creator may well have communicated by the
following sentiments; “Doing to others
as you would have them do to you”, and, “Love others as you love yourself”,
and, “Love others as I have loved you”.
Indeed, the
centering of Self, where Self looks and reflects within Self’s consciousness,
personality, attitudes and values, with self-pride, acceptance and love, notwithstanding
self’s ability for imperfection, but instead embracing imperfections as being
the inevitable part of the human condition from having evolved from
primate. But also acknowledging Self’s
ability as a unique intelligent and autonomous being to choose to improve on
Self’s thoughts and emotions, and thus, Self’s attitudes, values and behaviours
as a manifestation of being an intrinsically feeling thinking person with
freewill and choice. So that ultimately,
when we perceive other people, when we perceive other human beings with Self’s
consciousness, with Self’s eyes, with Self’s emotions, with Self’s thoughts,
and with Self’s ‘heart’. And when Self
looks into another’s eyes. When Self
looks at them externally, and perceives others as mere superficial
veneers. Or when Self looks at their
existence through Self’s frame of reference,
rather than Self internalizing, projecting and overlaying these
personally perceived attitudes, values and judgments onto how Self feels and
thinks others should be and exist in relation to Self, can Self look without
Self’s judgmental, expectant, preconceived mind’s eye. But look beyond a person’s particular shaped
body, or particular looking face, or particular position or status, or
particular culture, or particular gender, or particular religion, or particular
race, or particular skin colour, or particular ethnicity, as is expressed and
exhibited in life. But instead, whilst
being respectively mindful of the potential impact of these many varied
experiences upon people, acknowledging the potentially intrinsic relevance such
experiences may have had on an individual.
Look instead at another, through, above, and beyond these multi diverse
differences in others, by way of the deliberately chosen, honed and developed
attributes of Self’s intrinsic Spirit of goodwill, patience and kindness.
Can Self look transcendently at and
through others without personal judgment, look transcendently at and through
people with different attributes and experiences? Can Self look with Self’s mind, spirit,
emotion and intellect, through and at people with understanding and
compassion. Can Self look with Self’s
mind, spirit, emotion and intellect, through and at the real Person, the real
Personality, the real Spirit, and the real Soul within an individual’s
‘physical’ exterior and perceive the real Person, the real Personality, the
real Spirit, and the real Soul notwithstanding an individual’s personal
experience and personality and subsequent expression of? Yet, can Self also celebrate, embrace and
acknowledge the unique differences in others as being the partial essence,
identity and integrity that makes another and is thus, by definition,
inherently personally sacred.
Can we perceive other human beings as
being real Spirits with real thoughts and real feelings as a consequence of
their humanness, and being, being in part ‘that for which they were intended
and made’, being in part the ultimate outcome of the process of an individual’s
evolution as a manifestation of the “word” of the Creator?
And
finally, if one’s life one day turns upside down, and the pain becomes
unbearable, and when there seems no more hope, and when one feels unloved and
seems to have lost control, when one just wants to lie down, give up and die. Maybe we can help prevent such pain and
suffering, maybe we can help prevent the addictive crutches to life being the
crutches of life that are perceived to lessen the sometimes painful experiences
of life. Maybe we can help Self by not
being too embarrassed or ashamed of asking for help and obtaining genuine
support from the community, family and friends.
For everybody needs somebody sometime who is essentially genuine, honest
and trusting. Maybe Self can let Self
meditate and reflect upon Self by listening to Self’s thoughts and emotions
within the consciousness of Self’s Spirit, Soul, ‘Heart’ and ‘Mind’ thus
effectively consciously centring on the reality of Self’s consciousness in
relation to Self’s Personality and sense of Being whilst intrinsically accepting
and affirming Self as Ok.
If we
have enough information to believe in a Creator, and believe in the Christ,
perhaps we can self-advocate by understanding and feeling the genuine
relational love and compassion that the Creator incarnate - the Christ – gave
personally to humans and perennially continues to do so, day to day, moment to
moment and second to second. So that
Self can both ‘love’ and accept Self and others, without any overburdening
feelings and thoughts of guilt or shame brought about by Self’s limitations and
imperfections as a human. But instead,
strive to continue to both improve as a person and ‘love’ and accept Self and
others as Self would want and wants to experience being accepted and loved and/
or has experienced being accepted and loved.
The author hopes
that by sharing this extensive research, material, information, and the
subsequent insights and perceptions, this may provide, in some way, considered
guiding evidence and rationale, both through the uncharted waters of life, and
the uncharted waters of ‘physical’ death - the change in structure and function
of our atom-energy. And possibly provide
some guiding evidence and rationale to the possibility of a Creator’s
existence, and some guiding evidence and rationale to the possibility of the
existence of the Creator’s Incarnation, and some guiding evidence and rationale
to the possibility for the existence of a Being, a Being which is ‘that which
nothing greater can be thought’.
However,
ultimately, life on earth and ‘physical’ death, presents Self with the
undeniably unequivocal cognitive and emotional mysteries that includes
questions around the uncharted waters of the imminent and very real experience
of Self’s future life and ‘physical’ death – change in structure and functions
of our atom-energy we call a body or anatomy.
Finally, this book will close with a few thoughts and ideas on the
dynamics of prayer.
It is perhaps appropriate to end this book with a final
Chapter on the dynamics of prayer.
Prayer is the name used to describe the event of a human’s communication
with a Supernatural Being, Creator or ‘God’.
Prayer is a private, personal and intimate internal interaction and
communication between the realities of two spirits, this is, between the
created and the Creator. There are
numerous types of prayer expressed in all shapes, forms, languages and sizes. Prayer can be vocal, silent, or loud, or
expressed in quiet meditation through thoughts, feelings and imagery. Prayer can be conducted individually, or
within a group, or through community that encourages a sense of spiritual,
intellectual, emotional and ‘physical’ belonging, solidarity and friendship.
Prayer may be personal, intimate and
creative, yet also focused on the structured and traditional prayers, as when
one reflects and meditates on the ‘Lord’s Prayer’; which reads:
“Our Father, in
heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as
in heaven. Give us our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who
sin against us. Lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the Power, and the glory are yours, now and forever”.
(Matthew 6: 9-13)
Prayer, in part, may be defined by the
characteristics of individuals who think and feel for those strangers, friends
and relatives who have lived on earth and died, celebrating their existence and
remembering and acknowledging their life here on earth being unique and
special, however ‘bland’ or ‘successful’ they and others may describe it.
Prayer may involve the celebration in
remembrance of Christ’s Last Supper. While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks
and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying:
“Take and eat;
this is my body.” Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to
them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you.
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the
forgiveness of sins”.
(Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:12-25; Luke 22:7-20)
Prayers can consist of requests to
‘God’ for anything and everything.
Personal requests from the divine may be relatively frivolous, or more
serious, or used to worship, to give thanks, or to invoke individual, communal
and/or international peace and harmony.
Perhaps prayer is the personal intellectual and emotional sense that
allows the acceptance of being responsible and accountable for one’s actions,
thoughts and feelings, whilst acknowledging the Creator’s respect for human
integrity, independence and sovereignty manifest in the creation of human
consciousness, intellect, emotion, personality and freewill. Therefore, prayer may include one’s most
intimate, private and innermost thoughts and feelings manifest and expressed
through one’s unique personality, freewill and life experiences. Perhaps prayer is about meditating and
reflecting on life, Self and relational love.
Where reflective prayer may enhance Self’s acknowledgment of Self, life
and relational love experiences through Self’s personal self-awareness,
self-consciousness and sense of responsibility and accountability. Where Self meditates with an intuitive
reflective spirit on Self’s past experiences learning about Self in conjunction
with informed information. Where perhaps
prayer may be about being personally reflective, encouraging personal ‘growth’
through self-awareness of Self’s strengths and weaknesses and the challenges
that arise out of Self’s motivation and practice towards personal
improvement. Personal improvement
acquiesced from personal awareness of Self’s characteristics and
personality.
Prayer may be simply living life where
life is love, and love is life, where everything living is loved, and
everything loved is living, because it is infused with and contains the Word,
the Soul and the Spirit of that, which may be considered absolute LOVE. Perhaps prayer is synonymous with having
‘faith’ and ‘trust’ in the nature of creation, where creation, is created, with
a particular nature and where, this nature is the particular creation of the
Creator. Trust and faith in the
Creator’s nature and characteristics of creation where the Creator gives birth
to life, yet who also dictates death – or when one’s atom-energy will change in
structure and function which humans term ‘physical’ life. But who also may be considered to be the
master architect, intentionally endowing the creation of human life with the
construct of Spirit. The Spirit of Self,
where Self can never die, but exists forever in immortality.
Perhaps prayer is a conscious belief in
the nature of life, whereby life’s nature in essence, is the product of
creation’s evolution and evolution process of creation is the willed and
desired design and order of the Creator.
Prayer, a belief in the particular nature of life and creation; whereby
the particular nature of life and creation is a reality, a reality made by the
Creator from the creation and evolution of sub atomic particles. Sub atomic particles, which at their very
origins could not have been made from nothing, but by something transcendent,
something that can possibly be defined as, ‘that which nothing greater can be
thought’, something that we may wish to call a Super Natural Being or
‘God’.
Perhaps prayer is about life and about
relational love, where living life is about loving and loving is about living
life, and where both living life and relational love are constructive because
they are about learning about Self.
Where Self is conscious with the ability to be self-aware of Self’s strengths
and weaknesses. Living life with
intra-personal and interpersonal relational love where Self can give Self
permission for self-acceptance for Self and others. Where Self can aspire to the goals that are
personally constructive including intra-personal and interpersonal
reconciliation, patience and tolerance.
Prayer is perhaps about learning to
accept Self’s imperfections in Self, in others, in those that are ‘physically’,
emotionally and intellectually challenged and disabled, and in those that are
maligned, disenfranchised and marginalized.
Because the Creator mystically loved, and mystically loves, mystically
valued, and mystically values, all peoples equally. So we too, through this example and
information, may decide and choose to become voluntarily sensitized to the
flight of those who are disadvantaged.
So that we too, may decide and choose to celebrate voluntarily the
diverseness of those who are different, and those who aspire to different
beliefs, values, cultures and religions.
Perhaps prayer is about the belief in
Self, a belief that there is a time in everyone’s life where one reaches a
point of cognitive, emotional and spiritual awareness. Where one reaches a psychological precipice,
or the edge of a psychological cliff, where Self decides and chooses to make
decisions and choices that will make everything that was ever bad or wrong in
one’s past, now good and right. And the
positive philosophy that relates to the idea that where one who has made a
wrong decision in life, one can decide to make that wrong decision
right. Where there are particular
moments in life that one decides to put one’s past life’s indiscretions in the
past, so as to be forgotten and not remembered, to start again, to move on, to
start from the beginning and to start life afresh.
It has been the author’s personal
experience and the experience of others that prayer is almost never answered in
the way that is expected or hoped.
Therefore prayer has often been considered to be a waste of time, or
without efficacy, or it has been considered that ‘God’ does not listen, or that
‘God’ does not want to help, or that ‘God’ does not exist. People pray but
still eventually ‘physically’ die, people pray, but still succumb to cancer,
people pray but still die from natural disasters. So perhaps prayer is not so much about
personal ‘physical’ well-being as it is about cognitive and emotional
well-being, and as such, being that of the invisible and spiritual. It has been the author’s experience that
acknowledging the possibility of a Creator’s existence, and the possibility of
the Creator’s relationship with Self, in times of adversity and joy, has the
potential effect of instilling a significant sense of personal inner strength
and courage - albeit ever so subtle - over the fear and vulnerability of the
specific moment. Imagining, meditating,
and reflecting on the mystical relational love of the Creator can give one the
strength to change things that one has control over, and come to terms with any
changes that may instill anxiety, and help one to accept that which cannot be
changed, but which is nevertheless causing grief and consternation. The content of the Serenity Prayer seems to
reflect this experience, so for some, may be considered an appropriate form of
prayer or meditation. The Serenity
Prayer reads; “God give me the strength and serenity to accept the things I
can’t change, the courage to change the things I can change, and the wisdom to
know the difference”.
New psychological research in relation
to the effects of prayer, has found that thinking good things about another
person, meditating or praying over someone who is sick does not have a
statistically significant effect for increasing the speed of recovery from
illness, or heart surgery, etcetera. If
these results are repeated and the studies shown to be methodologically valid
and reliable, then perhaps prayer can not influence in some way the intensity
and direction of some human events. Many
people will attest to the power of prayer and this may be individually so, but
at the end of the day, ‘God’ has the final call about what will happen. The Creator predominantly does not choose to
intervene in any specific way in natural disasters, accidents and
illnesses. Hey, this is how the universe
is created, it has been created temporarily, it is not permanent. Just as the sun will eventually burn out of
fuel, so the human body ages and eventually dies. However, the jury is still out on the power
of prayer and its influence on the body and mind and the interface between body
and soul, mind, spirit, intellect, emotion and personality. But, ultimately, prayer is an inherently
personal interaction and communication between Self and who Self perceives
Self’s Creator or Higher Power to be.
Perhaps prayer is not only what one would think prayer to obviously be,
but is also the particular mode in which Self lives one’s life in terms of
benign and compassionate thoughts, emotions, behaviours and contents of speech,
directed as being that of the truth manifest between the interface of Self’s
freewill, personality and Will of the ‘Creator’. Maybe it is possible that prayer has the
ability to communicate with another’s spirit and soul, either directly through,
for example, spiritual energy of the spirit, or indirectly via the
Creator.
Perhaps prayer could be considered to
include both explicitly and implicitly reflecting upon Self’s experiences and
knowledge of Self in relation to Self, others and the world in terms of Self’s
personal weaknesses and strengths, and thus, personal acceptance and
improvement. Prayer may constitute
living life to its fullest potential, living life in relational acceptance,
compassion and reconciliation and living life in interpersonal peace. Perhaps prayer is having the knowledge that
gives the confidence, faith and belief that we are, notwithstanding our
imperfections, OK. Knowing that although
imperfect, we are acceptable, and that happiness flows from within, all things
being equal - i.e. you are not dying from emotional or ‘physical’ pain - and
that happiness is not a product of material assets, but of meaningful
relationships whilst also striving for betterment. Perhaps prayer is appreciating the miracle of
creation admiring the beauty of a flower, or the sacredness of humanity, where
the miracle of human evolution and the miracle of creation, with all its
imperfections, were necessarily, designed, ordered, and planned ‘perfectly’ by
the ‘Perfect One’. Where the
‘imperfections’ (defined by human perspective and perception) of creation have
been designed so ‘perfectly’ that it would be more mathematically probable for
a Jumbo Jet airliner to be built by random chance from a whirlwind winding over
the debris of a junk yard than it would be for the universe to be created
indiscriminately, from chance or chaos.
Perhaps prayer is contemplating
the idea that human ‘physical’ death, rather than being shocking, traumatic and
terminal, is in fact the Creator’s perfect ending to the miracle of ‘physical’
(atom-energy) human existence through the design and order of creation,
evolution and nature, this is, in fact the beginning of Self’s transcendent
transition into the next life. The
particular nature of creation being the mechanics of creation for the
transformation of human ‘physical’ life from the ‘physical’ world of human
existence, to the spiritual, angelic and ‘*****’ world of the human Spirit, as
only the Creator truly understands and knows.
Perhaps prayer is a personal reflection of the knowledge and
understanding of the miracle of the creation of humankind through evolution,
and the endowment of Self’s transcendent immortal consciousness and
personality, being uniquely sacred and sovereign, and which, by definition, can
never die. Perhaps prayer is about
faith, not a blind mindless hysterical faith, but an informed and educated
faith underpinned by the interaction between objective knowledge and spiritual
intuition. Perhaps prayer is
contemplating the notion that it is as easy, or as hard to believe in the
miracle of ‘God’, a Creator, as it is to believe in the miracle of the
existence of creation and the miracle of the existence of human beings.
Perhaps prayer is the spiritual and
intellectual energy that allows the wisdom and understanding that ‘God’, the
Creator, could never bring forth such life, such sacredness, such complexity,
such wonder as defined by the unique and special characteristics of human
beings. Human beings who have been
created with the incredible capabilities of consciousness, thought, emotion,
intellect, personality, spirit and freewill, who have attitudes and values and
who experience personally unique thoughts and feelings such as relational love,
happiness, sadness, joy and anger, etc.
Including the trials and tribulations of relationships, and the positive
and negative experience of friendships, whilst living on a round green, brown,
and blue ‘rock’ in space, where they were born, where they will live, and where
they will die. To just be forgotten, to
grow old, to get sick, and die, to just be wasted, forever to exist no
longer. With all individual human
personal experiences vanishing to the gasses of the cosmic atmosphere in the
universe, and the unique and individual human intellectual, cognitive and emotional
existence of experience just ceasing to exist when the ‘physical’ body dies,
and the universe finally extinguishes, its self to exist no longer.
Perhaps prayer is the inner spiritual
reflection that drives the discernment of a particular faith that instills the
comprehension to conceptualise the profound magnificence of the Creator of the
universe. Thereby allowing the
extrapolation of this conceptualisation of such Mystery and Complexity, and
such Might and Power to the reality of ‘God’ the Creator, which albeit only in
part, can be defined by Self, but nevertheless can be defined. Prayer, a considered faith, that allows the
comprehension of insight to internalize an image of ‘God’ the Creator that
would allow ‘His’ Son to ‘physically’ die on a cross in emotional and
intellectual anguish, embarrassment, humiliation and pain. And as such, incur the ultimate degradation
from the human race as the ultimate sacrifice for the payment of all dues owed
by all humans. Prayer, perhaps a
considered discerning and intuitive faith that allows the comprehension of the
resurrection of Christ as being the ultimate miracle that has the potential to
provide the ultimate source of hope for all humankind. And for setting the precedence for human
immortality, culminating in:
·
The continuation of intimate and personal human life
·
The continuation of intimate, personal experiences
·
The continuation of intimate personal human thought
·
The continuation of intimate and personal human
emotion
·
The continuation of individual human consciousness
that
embody the continuation of Self,
Self in essence being Spirit
A Simple Prayer When Times Are Tough
You know where we
are at Lord.
You know we are
broken and can’t handle this anymore.
You know the pain
and grief we are suffering.
You know our
depression, our desperation, our despair.
You know our
hopelessness, frustration and confusion.
You know we need
the weight off our shoulders.
You made us as an
autonomous being and we now need you to share in this burden.
You know we need
your help.
You know we need the
help of those who give your love unselfishly to others.
You know it is hard
enough to know you God.
You know it is hard
enough to believe in you God
You know we need to
experience your love, today, right now, You know we need the love of others,
others that can love us because they have first been loved by you.
You know that God,
you know us!
You know
everything!
You know you can
help us carry on and live life the best way we can with the support and help of
friends, family and the community.
You know we need to
love and forgive Self, and others.
You know we need to
live in love, in peace, and in harmony.
Another Simple Prayer
That we
too Lord,
because
you first loved us,
may
become witnesses to others,
witnesses to the Spirit , to the Word and to Jesus
witnesses
of Faith, of Hope and of Love
witnesses
to others through our entire life,
witnesses
to all those we meet,
witnesses throughout the new millennium
and beyond.
Finally, I
would like to share with you a collection of philosophical and spiritual
Phrases, Poems and Lyrics from a variety of (unknown) authors discovered over
the years and which for me have been somewhat thought provoking and emotionally
stimulating.
Always be prepared
to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that
you have.
But do this with
gentleness and respect.
1 Peter 3:15
The Rev Dr Norman
Vincent Peale author of the best selling book The Power of Positive Thinking when asked, “What is a successful
person?” said, reiterating his teachings of a lifetime. “A successful person is one who is well
organized, who has some purpose in life, who is master of himself, who has self
control, who has direction and who has love in his heart. I believe Christianity can make that kind of
person.
The Golden Rule of Love
Is
Kindness in the home
Honesty in business
Courtesy in society
Pity towards the unfortunate
Help towards the weak
Resistance towards the wicked
Forgiveness towards the penitent
Congratulations towards the fortunate
It is a
Human responsibility to give this love
and a
Human right to receive this love
For every dream that fades away,
A new one grows.
For every star that falls to earth,
A new one glows.
For every receding tide,
Bright seashells on the sand are left behind.
For every sun that sets,
There’s a sunrise.
For every song that ends,
There continues sweet refrains.
For every joy that passes,
Something beautiful remains.
And in a land we cannot see,
There’s a place of hope,
And a place of love,
It’s called eternity.
Friendship is a
priceless gift,
That cannot be
bought or sold,
But its value is
far greater
Than a mountain
made of gold.
For gold is cold
and lifeless,
It can neither see
nor hear,
And in the time of
trouble,
It is powerless to
cheer.
It has no ears to
listen,
No heart to
understand,
It cannot bring you
comfort
Or reach out a
helping hand.
So when you ask God
for a gift,
Be thankful if he
sends,
No diamonds, pearls
or riches,
But the love of
real true friends.
The heart in its hardest trials,
Can gain the purest joy of all.
And from the lips
that have
tasted sadness,
The sweetest songs may fall.
For peace comes after suffering,
And love is the reward of pain.
So after earth comes heaven,
And out of loss comes gain.
When the night has been too lonely
And the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only
For the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter
Far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed that with the sun’s love
In the spring, becomes a rose.
Life is but a stopping place,
A pause in what’s to be,
A resting place along the road,
To sweet eternity.
We all have different journeys,
Different paths along the way,
We all were meant to learn some things,
But never meant to stay.
Our destination is a place,
Far greater than we know,
For some the journey’s quicker,
For some the journey’s slow.
And when the journey finally ends,
We’ll claim a great reward,
And find an everlasting peace,
Together with the Lord.
Life is eternal
And love is immortal
And death is only a horizon
And a horizon is nothing
Save the limit of our sight.
Look to this day, for it is life,
For yesterday is already a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision.
But today, well lived,
Makes every yesterday a dream of
happiness,
And every tomorrow a vision of
hope.
I would like
to share with you the motivation and inspiration for this writing besides that
which I have already expressed in the aforementioned forward. Although growing up in a loving ‘Christian’
family and environment, the realization occurred after leaving school at 17,
hitchhiking around New Zealand solo – on the road for months - at 17, and then
joining the NZ Prison Service at 21, that philosophical and scientific
knowledge desired about proof of God’s existence was wanting in addition to my
existing faith. Around the age of 20
there was an inquisitive and innate desire to learn more about “faith” and
‘God’. And how such a belief may be
clarified, justified and strengthened.
The existing belief in faith I had at the time did not seem to inspire
any particular incentive to improve myself dramatically as a person. The notion of not ‘growing’ as a person was
supported somewhat by activities which did not reflect, in particular, any
attitude or intention for personal betterment, at least as much as perhaps one
could have expected and wished for. My
personal belief was that this spiritual inertia was the result of a lack of
fundamental knowledge and understanding of the transcendent reality of the
Supreme Being in relation to Self and therefore a corresponding lukewarm and
superficial relationship with the Creator.
This seemed to be the predominant and determining factor for this
essentially intellectually and emotionally static and limited spiritual
day-to-day existence. Upon reflection,
an intellectual and informational vacuum could more than likely have been the
cause for this so-called spiritual ambivalence.
I decided that more facts and information that would provide evidence to
underpin an understanding for the reasons, purpose and meaning of life and
existence of a ‘God’ and Creator were required.
To resolve this informational drought and spiritual vacuum I perceived
myself to have I deemed it necessary to become a student of Theology and
Psychology as the basis for the first step in the search for the answers to
these enduring existential questions. It
is now my pleasure to share this information and personal insight. May living your daily life of trials and
tribulations be interspersed with inspiration, vision, hope, peace, love,
warmth, courage, joy and happiness.
Stephen Clark B.Theol Grad Dip Soc Sci B.Psych. (Hons)
Prayer of Apology
‘God’, through Jesus, you are the perfect and
ultimate identifier, counter and collector of all an individual’s – no matter
what status, power and position they hold - life of behaviours, thoughts and
emotions towards Self and others. These
behaviours, thoughts and emotions involve any rubbish regarding individual’s
illegal acts, and the rubbish of human acts that intentionally and
unintentionally hurt others in one way or another.
Supreme Being, You are also the Perfect One that
enables every human being, beings that will inevitably and eventually enter the
‘other-side’, travelling to another dimension - to reflect on their past life
of behaviours, thoughts and emotions that have been both productive and
harmless, and destructive and harmful, to others whilst living life on
earth.
You are the Perfect overseer of this personal
self-reflection and self-judgement, so that perfect justice is perfectly served
by Self through the increase in self-acknowledgment and awareness of both
destructive and productive behaviours, thoughts and emotions manifest in
apologetic reconciliation, where appropriate, and expressed through an overall
improvement of Spirit - consciousness, attitude, esteem and knowledge - being a
satisfactory outcome.
I reflect every night on all past behaviours,
thoughts and emotions in my life that have selfishly or unintentionally hurt
others, and apologise to these people through you, ‘God’, and your Son, Jesus
Christ. These frequent and personal
reflections and acts of apology are carried out in the full awareness that no
human action is greater or more powerful than that which is through You – The Supreme
and Super Natural Being.
Amen
The Milky
Way
The Milky Way is only one galaxy of about 100 billion galaxies in the
universe. The Milky Way is the galaxy
within which human beings reside. There
are over 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, the Sun being one of those
stars. The Milky Way is so vast that
light, traveling at the speed of light, takes not 10 years, not 100 years, not
1,000 years, but 200,000 light years to traverse it!
The Star Betlegeux and the Sun
This picture
demonstrates the enormous and immense size of some of the stars in the Galaxy
of the Milky Way and Universe. This star
is a super-giant called “Betlegeux” situated in the Orion Sword. Betlegeux has a diameter of 220 million miles
and its size is seen here in relation to the Sun’s diameter of 1 million
miles. The Sun has a diameter of 1
million miles and the Earth has a diameter of just 8 thousand miles.
Planet Earth
The American
astronaut James Erwin, said after viewing the Earth, the Moon, and the Galaxy
simultaneously, as his spacecraft traveled back to Earth between the depths of
outer space and the Moon, that he had just seen the world as ‘God’ sees it, and
that ‘God’ must love humans very much.
Snow Geese
Here is an example
of one of the Creator’s beautiful living creations. The swans (Snow Geese) of
The Rainbow
The Rainbow is an
amazing reality exemplifying the wonderful and complex creations in the
universe. The Rainbow, throughout time,
has been regarded as magical and capturing the imagination of all peoples. We have the saying synonymous with the
paradoxical enigma of such existence, “The pot of gold at the end of the
Rainbow”. Perhaps the colours of the
rainbow are symbolic and analogous to the beauty, strength and synergy of human
diversity, illustrated by the electromagnetic spectrum, which creates light
from its many diverse colours.
Bibliography
Anderson, George Berkley Group
We Don’t Die New
York 1988
Anderson, George Berkley Group
We’re Not Forgotten
Barlow, D. H., &
Durand, M. V. Brooks/Cole
Abnormal Psychology 2005
(4th Ed)
Chadwick, Birchwood John
Wiley
& Trower. and Sons
Cognitive therapy for 1997
delusions voices and paranoia.
Charpentieur, E. SCM Press Limited
How to Read the Old Testament 1981
Charpentier, F. SCM Press Limited
How to Read the New Testament 1981
Collins
Harper
Collins
Paperback Encyclopedia Publishers 1995
Comby, J. SCM Press Limited
How to
Copelston, F. Doubleday & Co
History of Philosophy New York 1961-65
The Descent of Man and Press
Selection in Relation to Sex 1979
Dow James, M.A.
(Rev) William, Collins & Sons
Dictionary of the Bible 1984
Ford, Adam
God, Universe, Man & Science 1985
Gilson, E. Victer Gollance Ltd.
The Christian Philosophy
of St Thomas Aquinas 1957
Harey, Peter
Consciousness Mysticism in
The Routledge,1995
Discourses of the Buddha.
In Karel Werner. Ed; The
Yogi and
The Mystic; Studies in
Indian and
Comparative Mysticism
Kolb, B., & Whisher,
I
Fundamentals of Human
Worth Publishers
Neuropsychology 2003 (5th Ed.)
Kumar, S. Dr. Foundation for Life
Answering the Counterfeit Mocking
Bird 1992
Lodish and Berk et
al. W. H. Freeman and
Molecular Cell Biology New York 2004
Moody,
Life after Life
The Light Beyond 1988
Moore, P. Mitchell Beazley
The Astronomy Encyclopedia Publishers
1987
Meuli, P. Rev. Fr.
PhD. Saldomi Publishing
Hortus Conclusus - 1990
The Enclosed Garden
Myers, D. G. McGrath-Hill
Social
Psychology USA 2005
Strobel, N. McGraw-Hill
Astronomy Notes USA 2004
Weiten, W.
Psychology: Themes Wadsworth Inc
and Variations 2004 (6th Ed.)
Wikipedia Encyclopedia World Wide Web
VOLUME 2
EVOLUTION, SPIRIT,
SOUL
Stephen Clark
ISBN 0-473-03715-7
Copyright © S.
Clark 2009
Across Publishing
Second Revised
Edition 2011
Brisbane,
Australia
Any comments about the
contents of this book please direct to:
Preface
Volume
2
Have You Ever Asked These Questions
Does Intelligent Design Drive The
Process Of Evolution
Introduction
CHAPTER
1 The Mix of
Theology, Philosophy,
Psychology and Science
Information from the Mix of Academic Disciplines
Meaning of the word ‘Creator’
Meaning of the word ‘Transgression’
Meaning of the word ‘Love’
Meaning of the words ‘The Word’, ‘Self’, ‘Spirit’, and ‘Soul’
Putting
it all Together
The Uncharted Waters of Life, and ‘Physical’ Death
2 Who Are We
Early Life Experiences
Absorption of Stimuli
Power of the Mind to Believe as True in
Fantasy and Fact
Language and Speech
Informed Knowledge
Self, Consciousness and Freewill
3 Science, Evidence,
Beliefs and Myths
No Scientific
Evidence
The Discipline of Psychology, Investigates Parapsychology
Belief, Memory and Cognition
In Conflict With Reality
4 Miracles of the
Universe
Creation as Scientific Evidence
Humans Are Fragile
Light, Stars and Galaxies
Termination of the Sun, Life and Time
Black Holes
5 Proof of a Creator’s Existence from
Subatomic, Quantum & Nano Physics
Only 118 Natural Elements in the Known Universe
Atoms,
Cells, Genes and DNA
Meaning
of ‘The Word’, Soul and, Spirit
The
Brain, Neurons, Neurotransmitters, and Self
How
Could ‘God’ Have Always Existed?
6 The Miracle of Evolution
We Continue Our
Search
In a
Nut Shell
Have We Forgotten
Genetics and Evolution
Evolution of Humans
More about Evolution
Reconciliation between Science and
Scripture
7
Human Atoms and
Spirit Energies Similar
But Different
CERN, Antimatter,
Stephen Hawking, and Chance
Design,
Order and Plan, Cause and Effect
Self, Consciousness, Cognition, Emotion
and Speech
Human Personality, Spirit and Soul
Attributes for Personal Growth
Charles Darwin and the Last Word
The World is Not as it Appears
Proof of a Creator’s
Existence through Reason and
Science
Atom-Energy,
Spirit-Energy and the Soul of Self
Amazing Attributes of Atoms
Subatomic Energies of Atom-Energy
Einstein’s ‘Theory of Relativity’ (E =
mc2)
A ‘Creator’ of Atom-Energy and
Spirit-Energy
DNA – The Building Blocks of Life
Light, Photons, Atoms, and Subatomic
Energies
The Big Bang in the Scheme of Things
Life as both Atom and Spirit Energy
Electromagnetic Charges and Complex
Subatomic Interactions
Matter and Mass is but Atom Energy
Atom-Energies with Structures and
Functions, and Spirit-
Energy
Non-Living Atom-Energy Evolves into
Living Atom-Energies
Atoms, Soul and Spirit are all
Different Energies
Atom-Energy of Living Cells and
Spirit-Energy of People
The Atom-Energies of Non-Life into
the Atom-Energy of Life
with Spirit-Energy
The Differences and Interactions of
Atom-Energy and Spirit-
Energy
A Shift in Personal Mindset
10 The ‘Word’. Soul and Spirit
The Need for the ‘Word’,
Soul, and Spirit
Energy from Nothing
Changing DNA of Atom-Energy Through
Spiritual Energy
Made in the Likeness and Image of the
‘Creator’
The Interaction and Disconnection
between Atom-Energy and
Spirit-Energy
The Interactions of Atom-Energy
Structures with Spirit-Energy
Creator’s Soul and Spirit Lies within
the Creation
The Fingerprints of Soul and Spirit
in both the Non-Living and
Spirit-Energies
Atom-Energy and the Spirit-Energy of
Self
First and Second Laws of
Thermodynamics
What Does the Word Atom Mean?
11 Humans Interface with Different Energies
The Human
Interface between Atom-energy
and Spirit-energy
Interaction of Subatomic Energies and
Self
The Infusion/Impregnation of
Atom-energy
and Spirit-energy with Soul
Human’s Interpretation of Atom-energy
Nuclear Fusion
How We Live
The Fertilised Seeds of Spirit and
Soul Infused
at the Time of Creation
Achieving New Personal
Characteristics and Behaviours
Soul and Spirit of Life
Giving Meaning to Life
12 Human Personality,
Intellect, Reason
And Freewill
Visible Body, Invisible Mind
Conflict between Body and Spirit
13 Intellectual and Spiritual Confusion Revisited
Human Suffering from the Misinterpretation of Scripture
Gnostism, Apocrypha and, ‘The Da Vinci Code’
The Evolution of Scripture
Interpretation
The Human Spiritual Journey
14 ‘Physical’
and Spiritual Worlds
Visible and Invisible Worlds
Think Of Absolutely Nothing
Humankind Made in the Creator’s Image and
Likeness
Why Do We Exist
Learning from Experience
Humans Potential for Relational ‘Love’
Possibility of Life after Death
Possibility of Multiple Worlds
Living the Gift of Life to the Full
Never Too Late
The Sanskrit Proverb
AXILLARY
Do You Know Who I
have Become
References to Chapter 3
religions,
traditions and cultures?
This book, GOD
Does Intelligent Design Drive the
Process of Evolution?
The answers to the questions
about the origins of the existence of life, and the universe, are not solely
answered from the perspective of the academic disciplines from science without
the inclusion of and in conjunction with philosophy.
Why?... Because you can’t
make anything, including life and the universe from nothing, which such thought
processes derive from the components we call philosophy.
The question “Does Life and
Universe exist as a result of the bio-chemical mechanisms that relate to the
scientific theory of evolution”?….must also be asked and include questions structured
and asked from the perspective of the academic discipline of philosophy:
Thus, we now have the
question, “have the bio-chemical machinations of evolution from which Life and Universe
continue to process and exist initiated from the origins of Intelligent
Design”?
To answer questions relating
to the existence of life and the universe there necessitates the incorporation
of theories that include both the academic discipline of science, “The Theory
of Evolution” and the academic discipline of Philosophy, “The Possibility of
Intelligent Design”.
Without Intelligent Design
there would be no existence and so neither would there be the process of
evolution.
This is, to incorporate the
questions that emanate forth from the scientific theory of evolution with the
questions that emanate forth from the philosophical theory of intelligent
design as an intelligent process to answer the questions relating to the
existence, maintenance and sustainability of life and the universe.
These interacting hypotheses
require discussion and contemplation between people in all science classes at
every levels of education if students are to obtain a bona fide and broad
educational base and perspective to theories and possibilities that ask
questions about life and the universe.
INTRODUCTION
If you have an aversion to, and limited time to spend reading
introductions, the above Content pages of information, will, per Chapter and
per Subsection, provide you with all the subjects in this book extensively
researched and discussed.
The title of this book GOD
This book emphasizes the fact that what
seemingly appears to be fact, is a perceived illusion. However, this perception of illusion is
because we are still to change our mindset and shift it to what we now know it
to exist of – and that is energy - from scientific research. When we look
around us there is predetermined order, design and purpose everywhere. The Will and Soul of a ‘Creator’ is manifest
in subatomic particles, atoms or atom-energy, that not only make up the pages
and print of this book but everything in the universe, including inanimate
objects (non-life) e.g., stars, galaxies, water, rocks, etcetera, and animate
living life, for example, plants, animals, birds, insects and humans
etcetera. Only 0.4% of the universe is
made of structures with functions made of atom-energy we observe, such as
stars, with 3.6% made of gaseous atom-energy.
The other 96 % of the universe is made from an energy that is atom-less,
and perhaps more akin to the spirit-energy of the Creator. Physicists call this unknown ‘matter’ ‘dark
matter and energy’. The world is not
made of what it appears to be made of as it is made of atoms, which are in
essence energies without mass. Atoms are
defined as electrical and electromagnetic charges, and are measured as
electrical volts (eV). Atoms have no
weight but feel heavy because of the electromagnetic energy between the larger
planet earth attracting smaller parcels of electromagnetic energy.
This tension is what we call gravity,
which constructs our perception and experience of weight. Atoms are in essence invisible, but we see
because our eye, brain and interpretation are based on the reflection of light
wave–lengths into our central nervous system via our eyes. If we think about how hydrogen and oxygen
make up ice, water and steam-gases, we can understand how everything in the
universe possesses different structures and functions even when made with the
same atoms, but with different atom configurations.
As the functions of atoms changes e.g.,
as in the different structures and functions of ice, water, and steam, although
made from the same atoms, are but structured differently, as in tightly packed
atoms of ice, as opposed to the less-tightly packed atoms of steam-gases. Atoms interact with other atoms of the same
(elements), and different atoms (compounds), that make up the universe.
There are only 118 different atoms that
together, or combined, make up all that exists in this world. The exception is the Self, which by
definition is spirit-energy of consciousness, thoughts, emotions,
self-awareness, personality and will, etcetera.
References in this book to the word ‘physical’ are defined as
atom-energy, referring to all that exists, including the body (anatomy) or the
‘physical’ environment, food and shelter, and all that we observe around us,
other than Self and others, which are spirit-energies and include
consciousness, thoughts, emotions, self-awareness, personality and will etcetera
.
These matters are
explored more deeply in the Chapters.
This book also explores credible evidence that
individual human existence is about living one’s life to its fullest potential
whatever that may mean for each individual.
Whilst the death – the change in structure and function of atom-energy
we all eventually encounter, but often ignore and deny, should not be feared,
but celebrated as the natural progression of Self and Self’s intangible, and
therefore, invisible consciousness.
Self’s invisible consciousness being a part of Self’s spirit, and thus,
by definition, immortal living eternally forever.
The
information herein is a product of the knowledge ascertained from the mix of
perceptions and facts interwoven and interpreted from dedicated and peripheral
components and elements of the academic disciplines of Science, Philosophy,
Theology and Psychology.
The art of Science consists
of the study of subatomic particles that
make up atoms, and molecules or atom-energy.
This is quantum physics that studies atoms that make up the different
structures and functions of the ‘physical’ world, in essence essentially made
of atom-energy. The methodology used for
scientific work uses systematic and methodical observation and experiment.
Philosophy is about asking and answering questions
from a rational and logical point of view about anything and everything that
may mean something valuable to someone or everyone.
Theology is
the study of different religions, rituals and scripture with their
interpretation of ‘God’ and then ‘God’s relationship with and to Self, others,
and the world.
Psychology is the scientific
study of the human brain and human behaviour in relation to different mental
states of thought and emotion arising from diverse and individual personal
experiences. Psychology may also include the study of human awareness and
meta-cognition, where Self thinks about what Self is thinking about.
Through the objective and
rational analysis of peripheral, vicarious and insightful intrinsic information
sourced from the academic disciplines of Science, Philosophy, Theology and
Psychology come together to explore unsubstantiated and mythical beliefs, such
as the literal interpretation of every word in every verse in all
scriptures. This includes the research
based exploration of parapsychology and astrology as being potentially
psychologically and spiritually adversive to the human spirit and soul.
The human embracement of
such inaccurate and illogical ideologies and beliefs can be seen to the result,
which originates from the complex mix of human characteristics. These characteristics have evolved from both human base instincts
that influence and vice-versa with the higher quality constructs of
consciousness, intellect, cognition, emotion and freewill, which are
interactive with the individual’s personal experiences and choices.
The innate human need to arbitrary adhere obediently to
particular religious, cultural and/ or political ‘beliefs’ and ‘faiths’ in relation to their laws,
rules and practices, is seen in part, to be driven by the need for the individual’s
sense of personal security, psychological comfort and personal acceptance. Including the subconscious and conscious
crave and desire to manipulate in some way the experienced existence of Self’s
anticipated and ‘hoped for’ immortality and therefore the perceived
prerequisite and requirement to ‘be right’
and ‘good’ with ‘God’. The above
premise can then be exacerbated by innocent ignorance, the quest for what is
true and real, personal fear, and individual arrogance and pride. These related
thoughts, attitudes, emotions and behaviours can then be subconsciously
mixed with the misinterpretation and misapplication of particular secular,
cultural and religious policies, laws, rituals and traditions, which are
required by Self to be perceived as infallible and ‘true’, and ultimately
expressed through thoughts, emotions, values, beliefs, attitudes, behaviours
and contents of speech.
The selective human adoption of particular religious,
political and cultural beliefs and practices may also manifest because of the
synergistic power created by the human psych.
A psych created and operated through the higher constructs of personal
spiritual, intellectual, cognitive and emotional forces, both consciously and
subconsciously, can be manipulated and influenced by base human instincts of
greed, power, survival and aggression.
Self’s higher constructs of spiritual and psychological abilities and
needs then interact with Self’s innate primate base instinctive desires
potentially resulting in personal spiritual and psychological discomfort and
vulnerability. This spiritual and
psychological discomfort and vulnerability can lead Self ‘open’ to the possible
exposure of irrational and inaccurate beliefs and faiths of particular
religious, and political and cultural persuasions with their exclusive rules
and practices, procuring an outcome of individual and collective spiritual,
psychological, intellectual, emotional and behavioural confusion and abuse.
As a partial defense against the irrational and inaccurate
beliefs and faiths of particular religious, political and/ or cultural laws and
practices that can precipitate individual and collective human suffering,
destruction, turmoil and indecision, the investigative analyse of spiritual
literatures is undertaken. The
identification and interpretation of contradicting verses in religious
scriptures are explored, in particular those verses that have the potential
‘power’ to impact destructively upon human cognitions, emotion, values,
attitudes and beliefs, and their subsequent expression through mindsets,
behaviours and contents of speech.
Principles for the reinterpretation of religious scriptures
are described, which can be applied to other sacred scriptures. How could a loving Creator allow such human
suffering? The general theme and message
prescribed by the New Testament writings are identified as emphasising the
integrity and sacredness of human sovereignty and independence manifest in the
invisible and intangible – which therefore can be described as Spirit –
constructs of Self. Self in turn is
described and defined in part as containing the attributes of human consciousness, personality,
freewill, intellect, cognition and emotion, which can be expressed in
particular personal beliefs, values, attitudes, behaviours and contents of
speech.
The identified general theme and message prescribed by the
New Testament scriptures is about practicing the human-to-human expression of
compassion and reconciliation. This is
essentially about valuing and accepting Self and others ‘where you and they are
at’ at a particular moment in time.
Particularly with respect to personal imperfections, and others with
different and diverse beliefs, values and experiences as ones Self. A belief in Christ’s death and resurrection
could be potential evidence identified as being credible for the consideration
of the reality of human immortality.
Traditional biblical beliefs about creation and the creation
of human beings are reconciled with the scientific evidence of evolution, but
evolution as an outcome of pre-programmed DNA as opposed to
The
rationale and logical proofs of Theist-Philosopher’s in relation to rational
and logical ‘cognitive’ evidence for the existence of a ‘God’ are
discoursed. The ‘miracles’ of creation
as discovered and identified by technologies of
modern science and articulated as is the wisdom, both spoken and
unspoken, emanating from the general theme prescribed and articulated
throughout scripture specifically regarding Creator-to-human and human-to-human
relational love.
Combining all the above
information together may provide the reader with enough resources to
contemplate and consider the possibility of the existence of a Creator. An explanation regarding the difficult
concept of comprehending that a ‘Creator’ must have always existed if a
‘Creator’ does indeed exist, is also offered.
The reality of Parapsychology is exposed by science as being, at best,
magical beliefs based on myth, potentially exploiting the spiritually
vulnerable and, at worst, encouraging the occurrence of cognitive, emotional
and behavioural self-fulfilling prophecies.
Self-fulfilling prophecies can prohibit the necessary intellectual and
emotional processes of Self’s decision making, that in part, drive Self’s
desire to seek informed knowledge, and ultimately, understanding of Self, and
the desire for personal change. This
mindset relating to ‘predestined fate’ inevitably affects Self’s ability for
self-acceptance, procurement of informed knowledge, and the ability to
personally choose to voluntary change particular aspects that Self believes
needs changing.
The powerful influence
generated by personal beliefs and faiths in a particular religion, culture and/
or politics must be considered such that they cannot afford to be beliefs and
faiths based on a blind and hysterical mindset and mentality. But beliefs are required to be predicated on
an informed, considered, and educated premise so that choices are underpinned
by the interaction between Self’s objective informed knowledge mixing and
interacting with the reflective introspection of Self’s innate spiritual
intuition.
Christ’s examples and teachings
relating to living life on earth, His miraculous, resurrection from the dead,
together with the miracles of creation, including the intangible components of
Self - consciousness, meta-cognition, thoughts, feelings, attitudes and beliefs
- may be viewed as events that provide
a source of hope for the real possibility for the eternal and immortal
existence of Self. So together and
addition to the scientific complexity of creation, and the scientific and
logical premise that you can’t get ‘something’ (the universe and life) from
‘nothing’, and the existence of the intangible components that make up Self,
and the considered belief in Christ’s resurrection, together, have the
potential to set the precedence, and be the evidence, for human immortality.
The continuation of Self being the
eternal continuation of Self’s experiences of consciousness; the eternal
continuation of Self’s intimate thoughts, memories and emotions; the eternal
continuation of Self’s relational experiences with others, and the eternal
continuation of Self’s individual personality.
CHAPTER
1
Information from the Mix of Academic Disciplines
Meaning of the Word ‘Creator’
Meaning of the Word ‘Transgression’
Meaning of the Word ‘Love’
The Words ‘Self’’, ‘Spirit’, ‘The Word’, and ‘Soul’
Putting it all
Together
The Uncharted Waters
of Life and Death
Information
from the Mix of Academic Disciplines
The information shared in this book endeavours to instil through
the academic disciplines and theories of theological, psychological,
philosophical, and scientific paradigms informed information and knowledge
pertaining to the understanding of Self and Self’s Spirit in relation to
others, the world and a Creator. This
understanding founded on rational and logical thought processes formed from
evident based information within and from the peripheral knowledge ascertained
from the academic disciplines of Theology, Philosophy, Psychology and
Science. Such knowledge and information
underpinned by the synthesis of the facts and theories produced from research
and integrated with the Self’s reflective, introspective, intuitive and
discerning spirit. That is, considered
existential information for the personal motivation that drives Self’s (human)
behaviour and contents of speech, rather than the personal motivation that is
drawn from mass hysteria, or based simply on the personal convenience of
fictional beliefs and myths driven by historical rituals and traditions of
‘powerful’ and ‘dynamic’ cultures and religions. Herein, the word ‘existential’ means Self’s sense of
psychological and spiritual well-being as an outcome of self-reflection and
introspection with regard to Self’s sense of identity as an immortal
being. Self’s sense of identity and
personality encompass consciousness, thoughts, feelings and emotions, and
particular values, beliefs and attitudes, including Self’s sense of personal
value and esteem as a product of Self’s sense of intrinsic existence and
inherent purpose in relation to Self’s existence in this world and beyond.
Arbitrary emotive and faith driven beliefs
have the propensity to encourage and stimulate significant destructive human
attitudes that often manifest in diabolically oppressive human-to-human
anatomical and psychological behaviours and contents of speech. This destructive human oppression and
aggression expressed between individuals through the psychological mechanisms
of emotional and anatomical abuse and harm.
And, also expressed collectively in society and between groups, manifest
through tribal, sectarian, national and international behaviours of extreme and
irrational politics and/or religious fundamentalism within destructive cultures
and traditions that culminate in human-to-human anatomical, psychological and
spiritual destruction, because of psychological and anatomical acts of
repression, oppression and tyranny.
The author has
taken special and particular care to write objectively with the intent and
purpose to investigate these subjects from a rational and ‘value free’
perspective, this being an unbiased, just, sensitive, respectful, fair and
non-judgmental method of transmitting and disseminating such information. In particular, this writing hopes to explain
some possible answers to existential questions, shedding light on the
possibilities of the mysteries of the universe, creation and human life and
immortality. This exploration includes
those essentially necessarily deep and perennial mysterious and partly
unanswered universal questions about particular universal truths, which can
tend to gnaw away at our most vulnerable senses. This is, Self’s particular thoughts and
emotions that undoubtedly have the ability to underpin and determine Self’s
personal sense of worth and value, and the degree to which Self consciously
experiences Self, and thus Self’s spiritual and personal self-awareness and
being. Such personal awareness, or lack
of, can have the potential to manifest a ‘rule’ for measuring one’s sense of
self-worth and shaping one’s sense of personal identity. Lack of knowledge (epistemology) and the
misunderstanding of important universal principles, by definition, may disrupt
and undermine the fragile senses and feelings of Self’s inner being of peace,
having the potential to foster an element of personal disquiet. The
contents of this book cross many multifaceted subjects that are related to
Self, others and the world and the potential possibility for the existence of a
Creator and human immortality. This is, the possibility for the existence of a Creator, who may be
defined as both a Spirit and, a human, through incarnation. If Christ is in fact ‘God’ and if ‘God’ does
in fact exist
The objective and analytical investigation of
Scripture in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible is undertaken. The deconstruction and reconstruction, and
subsequent re-interpretation of biblical literature executed. Some of these same principles used to
reinterpret particular verses in biblical Scripture are also applicable to
other Holy Scriptures such as Islam’s Qu’ran (Koran). Contradictions from opposing scripture verses
in the bible are identified as having meanings that are, by definition,
conducive to misinterpretation. Such
misinterpretation of particular scripture verses can carry a psychological
power that may potentially impose and promote staunch institutionalised and
religious fundamentalism and extremism, whilst stealing intended spiritual
messages about human relational love, forgiveness, compassion and
immortality.
In addition, evidence for the legitimacy of Christ’s
claims as being the authentic Son of the Creator are extensively explored. And evidence for the prescribed meanings of
particular Scripture verses are, when interpreted in context, identified as
being compatible with the ‘general thematic teaching’ expressed throughout
scripture for human-to-human relational understanding, forgiveness, and
compassion. The exposure and
identification of this general theme within Scripture of human relational understanding,
love, forgiveness and compassion, and the academic,
historical and rational processes of the interpretation of ancient text, both
explicitly and implicitly, contribute towards the possibility of declaring
Jesus Christ as the Creator (God) Incarnate.
Including human relational understanding, acceptance, and charity for
Self and others, as being alone the fundamental criteria of the Creator’s new
message for all peoples to live. Indeed, we may consider the notion that
the world will know that Self is ‘loved’ by the way Self ‘loves’ Self and
others, including those with different and diverse values, attitudes, faiths
and beliefs. For the new message, ‘To
Love’, is nothing less, but the Number One and Number Two imperative messages
(Commandments or laws) espoused in scripture by Christ, whom we may also come
to consider, was/ is the authentic Son of the Creator. The problem with the words ‘commandment’ and
‘law’ suggest the requirement of a behavior that is driven by fear, coercion
and threat, and thus involuntary. Such
involuntary driven behaviours are in essence,
spiritually and psychologically self-limiting.
So for the purpose of this book, the words ‘commandment’ and ‘law’,
regarding ‘relational love’, can be interchanged with ‘the new law’ or
‘imperative message’.
From the discourse of the ‘five rational
(logical) proofs’ of the great Philosopher and Theologian Thomas Aquinas, in
addition to the scientific description of the miracles of creation, ‘God's’
existence, power and mystical relational love are assured to be at least, seriously
considered.
Parapsychology, including Astrology, is
exposed by science as being at best, no more than personal fun and
entertainment from the sense of invoked ‘magic’, and at worst, serious beliefs
based on myth and superstition being the shams that have the potential to
shamefully exploit the spiritually vulnerable.
This is not to deny that there are many people who have experienced in
some way or another forms of spiritual connections with the ‘other side’, but
few people have the gift to involuntarily, but legitimately, connect with
people from the ‘other side’ on behalf of others, and whose credibility has
been authenticated through the tests of science.
So through the objective, critical and
unbiased analysis of factually derived information from the academic
disciplines of Science, Philosophy, Theology and Psychology, traditional human
existential questions, superstitions and myths regarding Parapsychology, ‘God’,
Creation, Evolution, Reincarnation, Karma, Heaven, Hell and Satan, and the meaning
of life are explored in both Volume 1 and Volume 2 of this series. The distorted and fundamental interpretation
of biblical scripture is exposed through methodical deconstruction and
reconstruction. The creation and existence of the universe and humans is
surely mysterious and miraculous, so considered the premeditated design, order,
and plan of a ‘Creator’. However, the
process of evolution, being the dynamics that matures and changes creation per
se, is defined by many as a procedure based purely on random chance. But evolving creation can also be explained
as a miracle predetermined and predestined by a ‘Creator’ from which the world,
life, and humans have transcendently evolved.
And so science and biblical scripture is reconciled between the traditional
incongruence of biblical verses in the book of Genesis and scientific
evidence. Through the investigation of
the miracles of creation and the universe, we may come to understand evolution
as more than the outcome of natural selection and chance, but that creation
must include the possibility of the component of DNA pre-programming. DNA pre-programming being the Creator’s
planned design, order and process for the creation of Self and development of
Self’s consciousness, freewill and personality with
the ability to think, feel and speak about Self’s values, attitudes, behaviours
and beliefs,. The creation of these
conscious human invisible spiritual/psychological constructs can be viewed as
the transcendent characteristics that allow humans to possess the ‘unique’,
‘sacred’ and ‘spiritual’ attributes of the integrity and dignity of
independence, sovereignty and freewill.
Indeed, these are the higher transcendent qualities that allow humans
the capability for developing significant and meaningful relationships with
Self and others. The ideal
characteristics for human relationships then, will be defined as being
experienced as relationally benign, accepting and compassionate.
As an outcome of the information acquired
herein, from extensive research and insight, it may be possible to believe that
human suffering and pain is not a punishment from any Supreme Being. That the meaning of life is about living life
as a gift to the fullest with compassion and acceptance for Self and
others. That it is possible to consider
the reality of a ‘Creator’; and the reality of Christ as being the Son of
‘God’. That humans have evolved from
primate animals through pre-programmed DNA as the Creator’s intended plan for
humans to possess the gifts of consciousness, freewill, cognition, emotion and speech, and as an outcome
of these gifts, Self’s spirit and individual personality. That ‘evidence based’ knowledge about Self
provides Self with information that allows serious consideration of the
possibility that spiritual life after anatomical death does in fact exist.
Considering the limitations of human
intellect and existence, which by nature, defines Self’s ability to comprehend
the depths and breadths of these universal mysteries, the prospective answers
to these profound existential questions may become surprisingly clear as they
are contemplated through Self’s spiritual and intellectual dimensions of consciousness.
The information espoused through this
manuscript, intends to at least, attempt to share and inform the reader of the
extensive research on these existential concepts, which may culminate as a new
positive outcome in the phenomena - if not already achieved - to “live the gift
of life to the fullest in unconditional acceptance and compassion for Self and
others.” To live the gift of life to its
fullest, because once we are anatomy dead we cannot ‘come back’ for another go
or chance. The author has experienced,
as might the reader, a challenging but increased sense of personal peace and
well-being accomplished as an outcome of the digestion and internalization of
this information. And through the
intuitive and internal cognitive and emotional interactive psychological and spiritual
reflective processes that can occur within Self. In addition to and in conjunction with Self’s conscious honest self-reflection
of the intimate, private and personal ideas, images, feelings, beliefs,
attitudes, values and, subsequent behaviours and contents of speech relating to
these considerations. The consequences
of the information absorbed from these internal processes through Self’s
informed reflective intuitive spirit may have the ultimate capacity for some to
inspire and motivate the aspirations of Self towards a new, exciting, and
invigorating or just an accepting, psycho-spiritual journey on planet
earth. Living the challenging and
sometimes difficult life of life, with the potential but positive traits of
selflessness and transcendent unconditional acceptance and compassion for Self
and others.
In the final analysis, GOD
Again, considering the defining nature of both the
limitations and potentials of human consciousness and intelligence, the ability
to grasp some understanding of this informed exploration to the answers of
these profound existential questions and some comprehension
to their depths and breadths in relation to the integrity of Self’s spiritual,
intellectual and emotional capabilities, may come surprisingly easily.
The information espoused in GOD
The meaning of the word ‘Father’ may have
difficulties for readers in terms of the potential authoritative connotations
it may portray, perhaps conjuring experiences of less than pleasant thoughts
and feelings relating to past and present parent-child relations. Moreover, the word ‘Father’, for some, may be
gender biased, and therefore sexist, whilst also inadvertently ascribing the
Creator as having the gender of a male.
This is a human depiction of ‘God’, as the Creator can be neither male
nor female because ‘God’ is, and has, always been Spirit. However, for all intents and purposes, the use
in this book of the meaning of the words ‘God’ and ‘Father’ may be deemed as
being interchangeable with the meaning of the word ‘Creator’.
The Word
‘Transgression’ or ‘Sin’
Other potentially powerful
words used in a religious and spiritual context, such as ‘sin’,
‘transgression’, ‘bad’, ‘evil’, ‘wrong’, ‘less
than good’, ‘imperfect’, ‘indiscretions’ and ‘maladaptive’ have also been
misused and abused by religions and individuals throughout the centuries. The meanings of the above words have in the
past, been used in abusive terms by the ‘spiritually powerful’. This is, by those in religious positions of
authority but who are sometimes spiritually ignorant, to invoke psychological
coercion through arbitrary personal and spiritual judgments. This inevitably conjures up fear, thus manipulating
personal religious beliefs, behaviours and speech through by the need for
obedience and compliance of the ‘spiritually vulnerable’ to particular
religious and cultural practices, laws and rituals. But the author has chosen to use the above
words that convey these different meanings and nuances of human behaviour to
emphasis and describe behaviours and speech that may manifest as a product of
Self’s conscious and/ or subconscious human thoughts, feelings, attitudes,
values and beliefs. And that these
psycho-spiritual constructs, together, interact in a particular way to
precipitate some real or perceived psychological, spiritual and/or anatomical
pain and suffering to others and one’s self.
Love, love, love, what makes the world go round is
love. The word ‘love’ is perhaps one of
the most frequently used words by humans, and has been expressed and received
by people in multiple ways, in movies, theatre, books, songs and real
life. People have personally experienced
and expressed the meaning of the word ‘love’ in both a positive, and negative,
and deep and shallow, archetypes. It is
not surprising then that the word love can often produce cognitive and
emotional connotations that have a positive and/or negative meaning, including
that which is flowery, insipid and superficial.
So what is love? Does love relate
to loving Self as well as loving others?
Is the act of loving the same as ‘being in love’, and the same as
unconditional love? Does the meaning of
the word ‘love’ for humans include, intimate ‘physical’ acts mixed with the
associated cognitive and emotional experiences and responses that we may relate
to and term romance, or relate to and term lust, or relate to and term
friendship. Or can the meaning of the
word ‘love’ be interpreted as being a single and/ or combination of these above
ideas and interpretations. The defining
characteristics of the interacting behaviour of ‘love’ between friends, or
between parents and siblings, or between romantic partners are obviously very
different in terms of the interactive relational, cognitive, emotional and
‘physical’ inputs and outputs experienced by these different ‘love’
behaviours. Can the meaning of the word
‘love’ be distorted, corruptly perceived, and include interrelation misuse and
abuse? Does and can a ‘pure’
unconditional platonic ‘love’ exist between individuals? Or can and does only a non-platonic romantic
‘love’ exist between individuals? Does
the concept of the term ‘being in love’ per se, even exist as either singularly
a platonic or non-platonic relationship, or a mix of both these two relational
dynamics? Does and can the experience
and expression of ‘love’ exist and mean different things at different times to
different people?
Has Self ever experienced the phenomena in reality of
the thoughts, feelings and behaviours that Self would imagine would relate to
the characteristics of both an unconditional platonic relational love and an
unconditional romantic relational love, or of ‘being in love’, maybe even
within a personal private ‘spiritual’ moment, or even within a dream, or
perhaps in real life? Has Self in
reality ever experienced what Self envisages to be unconditional relational
platonic or romantic love with another, or to be ‘in (platonic or romantic)
love’ with another? What are the
cognitions, emotions and behaviours experienced as an outcome of
unconditionally platonically or romantically loving another, or being
unconditionally platonically or romantically, loved by another? Are particular personal characteristics
required to be exhibited by another for Self to unconditionally platonically or
romantically love another, or to platonically or romantically ‘be in love’ with
another, and if so, what are these personal characteristics and traits of
personality?
Is the level of received and expressed love from and
between an individual and their personal pet, such as a dog or cat, a form of
unconditional platonic love? Many would
say yes. Is some platonic and/or
romantic love between individuals, conditional, that is, a love which is
predicated on some particular conditional activity or behaviour for one to love
and be loved by another? So people
experience different forms and levels of platonic and/ or romantic love that is
given, expressed and received. People
experience different forms and degrees of platonic or romantic love described
as unconditional or indeed conditional relational love, because everyone has
different personalities and different experiences, and thus, everyone is
different, individual and unique.
So the meaning of the word ‘love’ can have many
different forms and meanings for people as a consequence of the mix and
interactions of the unique Self interplaying with the unique Self’s experiences
with others and the world. Therefore, in
human terms, the meaning and definition of the word ‘love’ can be complicated
and varied.
However, for the purposes of this book, the meaning of
the word ‘love’ for Self and others will mean the same as and be
interchangeable with the meanings of;
And the word ‘love’ herein dose not include the love
that has a meaning that relates in any way to human ‘anatomical lust’,
‘physical’ intimacy, or an anatomical/physical and sexual attraction. The meaning of the word ‘love’ in relation to
the Creator’s potential love for the created is obviously far more
complex. For the purpose of this book,
the meaning of the Creator’s potential love for the created will mean the same
as, and be interchangeable with, the meaning of the term ‘mystical
unconditional relational love’. The
Creator’s potential mystical or mysterious unconditional relational love for
the created is indeed a phenomena that is partially experienced within aspects
of human love, such as the intellectual, emotional and spiritual unconditional
love of a platonic love experienced between individuals. This is, a ‘love’ primarily based on
intellectual, emotional and spiritual sense of interpersonal interactions. This is a love that is unconditional and
compassionate, a love open to intellectual, emotional and spiritual
interpersonal reconciliation. But the
Creator’s mystical unconditional relational love for the created must be for
humans, by definition, not absolutely and transparently comprehensible. However, as we investigate the possibility of
the authenticity of Christ as being the Son of the Creator, the Creator’s love
for the created may become clearer. But
clearer within the boundaries and confinements of human limitations.
The Word
‘The Word’
Moreover, for the purpose of the
information espoused in this book, the meaning of the word ‘The Word’ may be
defined in part, as that part of the mystical Creator that initiated the energy
and the design and order of the creation of the universe. The ‘Word’ then may be defined and expressed
by that contribution to the universe’s complex biochemical structure and
pre-programmed DNA that enables the creation and maintenance of the universe
and life. Which includes the galaxies in
space, life, and the process of evolution of life it self through the
pre-programming of DNA initiated by the Will and Desire of a ‘Creator’. The event of the initial production of the
amount of energy required to create the universe has been termed by scientists
as ‘The Big Bang’. The energy required to initiate and sustain such an event as
the ‘Big Bang’ may be partially explained by Albert Einstein’s equation E = mc2. This is, E = mc2, where
Energy (E) is light and heat, being part of the electromagnetic spectrum,
transforms into mass (m) being atom-energy at rest, and converted at the speed
of light squared (c2). The
velocity of light is the fastest entity known to exist in the universe and to
square such a speed is both naturally - by design - and humanly, impossible,
and thus an understanding that is incomprehensible to humans. But describes the potential energy releasable
within a structured atom when it is split and importantly the amount of
unstructured energy required to create the structured atom of energy. To understand the equation we must remember
we are dealing with a very large number only, which is incidentally the same as
the speed of light squared. However, it
could be that ‘The Word’ is unequivocally required as a necessity to initiate
the existence of the amount of Energy needed for the occurrence of such an
event as the ‘Big Bang’ and the subsequent process. Vast amounts of Energy therefore have
transformed into what we term mass, or structured atom-energies we also call
elements such as Gold and hydrogen etcetera.
The Word ‘Self’
The word ‘Self’ is ubiquitous in this book because the
information in this book is essentially about increasing and improving the
knowledge and awareness of the experience of Self in relation to Others, the
World, and a Creator, if one so decides a Creator exists. So what is Self? In this book the word Self
may also be interchangeable with the words ‘we’, ‘one’s’, ‘one’s self’, ‘our
self’, ‘our’, ‘ourselves’ being intrinsic essence of human consciousness and
personality. The meaning of the word
Self includes the invisible, intangible and spiritual constructs of
consciousness and personality manifest in an individuals particular and unique
pattern of cognition, emotion, behaviour and contents of speech. Which, in turn, are both a result and
manifestation of an individual’s particular self-awareness, intellect, sense of
values, attitudes and beliefs. So the
meaning of the word Self means You, You are Self, and You are You, and Self is
Being, and You are Being, and Being is Existing, and You are Self Being and
Existing. Self is not Self’s anatomical
and visible big toe, or foot, or leg, or torso, or arms, or hands, or face, or
head, or brain, or body. These are the
anatomical ‘physical’ visible and tangible parts of Self, which Self resides
in. But Self is in essence, and in
reality, invisible and intangible. Self
cannot be ‘physically’ touched or seen, yet Self is aware of Self and
Being.
Self includes Self’s consciousness,
where ‘consciousness’ is about being conscious of Self and Being, and Self is about
being conscious of Being, and being conscious of being conscious. Consciousness is having a sense of Self and a
feeling of Being, of knowing and being aware of Self’s personality, intellect,
cognitions, emotions, values, attitudes and beliefs in relation to others and
the world. Self is also about having a
history of narrative, a story, made up of a continuous flow of experiences
expressed through the consciousness of thoughts, feelings, behaviours,
attitudes, values and beliefs produced from the personal interpretation of the
personal interaction between Self and the dynamic stimuli of others and the
environment.
Consciousness is self-awareness about how it feels to
be Self. Consciousness, Self and Being,
are by definition, invisible and intangible to the human eye and touch as is
the concept of personality. An
illustration of a broad definition of the meaning of the word ‘human personality’
is presented in the following flow chart, but not necessarily in this
particular serial order. Individual genetics (nature) and human experiences
(nurture) can be described in the narrative of words with personal meaning of
thoughts and feelings and freewill to choose decisions based on values, beliefs
and attitudes culminating in particular behaviours, contents of speech, habits,
and personal characteristics.
Today, scientists, neurosurgeons and
medical doctors have achieved amazing advances in
medicine, medical techniques and bio-technology, and the use of high powered
electronic instruments, such as, PET, CAT and fMRI scans. These scans can scan the brain and measure an
individual’s degree of cerebral blood flow and electrical impulse activity, but
no scientist, neurosurgeon, or medical doctor has ever been able to detect, let
alone dissect such phenomena as Self’s consciousness, cognition and emotion
regarding a particular encounter Self has experienced.
No scientist, neurosurgeon, or
medical doctor has ever been able to detect, let alone dissect, such phenomena
as Self’s personality and, Self’s personal experiences and, Self’s unique
attitudes, values, beliefs and faiths regarding a particular matter pertinent
to Self, whether it be in the past or whether it be in the present. And we can say with some conviction and
certainty that scientists will never be able to detect and/ or dissect the
constructs of Self because these entities must be considered to be, from
personal experience and logical and natural definition, constructs that are
both invisible and intangible, and so which only can be defined, described and
considered as Spirit. The entity and
construct of Self’s personal consciousness and personality, can therefore be
definitively described and defined as being a Being of Spirit. Self can be considered as Spirit, because the
constructs of Self are invisible and intangible to the eye. But Self can also be considered to initially
have been made in and of the image of the Creator’s Spirit. But which Spirit of Self, including
consciousness and freewill, is nonetheless created to originate, become, and be
maintained as an infinitely definitive, independent, autonomous and unique
personality and identity.
The Word ‘Spirit’
‘Spirit’ is that particular
existence, which is not ‘physical’, but which is invisible, and intangible. The
entity and construct of Self’s personal consciousness and personality is Spirit
because it is neither ‘physical’, nor visible, or tangible. Self is a Spirit because Self’s consciousness
and personality is by definition and experience, both invisible and
intangible. Self can also be considered
to initially been made in and of the image of the Creator’s Spirit, which is by
definition neither ‘physical’ nor visible.
But which such Spirit of Self is nonetheless created as an original
Being to become and be maintained as an infinitely definitive, sovereign,
independent, autonomous and unique identity.
Furthermore,
as discussed later, the Spirit is expressed through the integrity of Self and
Self’s consciousness and personality as that which never ages or grows old, as
that which is invisible, as that which is timeless, as that which is spaceless
and as that which is immortal and continues to live on forever in infinity and
eternity.
The Word
‘Soul’
The
meaning of the word ‘Soul’ may be considered defined as being that part of the
mystical Creator that both directly, and by proxy, creates, maintains and
sustains the inherent design and order of all that encapsulates every component
that comprises the creation of the integrity of life itself. Soul therefore resides in creation, which
includes all that can be experienced by Self to exist as life in the
world. This includes the intrinsic
existence of all visible and invisible creation, and the living and growing
creation defined as alive, being, and life.
And includes the dynamics of biochemical materials and the physics and
pre-programmed interactions that propel the evolution of the universe and
living life as being the particular and unique manifestation of the Desire and
Will of the ‘Creator’. The Soul then is
the rachitic and artist part of the ‘Creator’ that the ‘Creator’ wills to exist
as an artist of pictures leaves their will ‘thought-patterns’ within their
art-work produced. So the ‘Creator’s’
creation is inextricably linked to the created, because through the process of
creation the soul is infused into and with that which is created. So the Soul exists in all creation as an
invisible but real connection of will, thought and action between the created
and the Creator.
Back to the Meaning of the Word ‘Self’
So Self,
by logical and natural definition, may be considered to credibly comprise the
transcendent components of the mystical Creator that consist of ‘The Word’,
‘Soul’ and ‘Spirit’. But just as a new
born babe becomes an adult, and so independent in and of its own right, so Self
develops through the powerful synergy of the transcendent interactions and
additives of the mystical entities of that described by ‘The Word’, ‘Soul’ and
‘Spirit’. The word ‘synergy’ means a
powerful and dynamic experience/response and process whereby the impact of all
the parts of the different constructs come together to interact as a whole, and
which response is far greater than the parts of the constructs added together.
So Self
comes into both anatomical and spiritual existence with the potential to
develop into a complete, unique, independent and sovereign being. As an outcome of
the phenomenon of the predetermined, pre-programmed process of human evolution
and the very real, but invisible, entities of Self’s Being and Self’s Consciousness, Self can realistically
consider the important concept and attitude of personal self-acceptance. Self may also
accept the reality of the transcendent processes for the birth of Self from
‘physical’ birth and the potential refinement of Self and Self’s personality as being the intrinsically inherent and inextricably intentional
components of what it means for Self to be both anatomical and spiritual as the
terms that define human beings being human.
Putting It
All Together
So, human
consciousness is part of that unique but invisible entity and construct that
makes us human. Invisible human consciousness interfaces with the ‘physical’
neurons, neurotransmitters and electrical impulses of the physical human brain
(atom-energy) whilst here on earth. The
complexity of the human brain allows consciousness and personality and so Self,
which in turn enables the invisible constructs and attributes which allow
humans to think, think about thinking,
feel, plan, process complex information, and
choose what to think, believe, behave and speak. As a manifestation of pre-programmed DNA, the
human brain is larger than the brain of primates’ from which it evolved. But
how did a ‘physical’ brain come to exist with the constructs of invisible
consciousness? Or how did invisible
consciousness come to exist within a ‘physical’ brain (atom-energy)? As all things exist as a manifestation of the
Creator (Word, Spirit and Soul), then all living things, by virtue of their
creation, exist within the essence of The Word, Spirit and Soul. Soul considered as that essence within the
entity of life that mystically connects the created with the creator by virtue
and fact of the created being a creation of the Creator, and thus, infused and
fused with the Creator.
Because of
pre-programmed DNA, the human brain has evolved as a superior and complex
biological entity to the primate brain.
As an analogy, a shark’s brain is the size of a tennis ball, its
function is entirely dedicated to smell, smelling food, and picking up the
electrical signals from the muscles of prospective prey. However, the evolved human brain is now a
more refined living biological catalyst enabling the Soul of the created to interface
more completely and complexly with the Created.
The Soul, being that essence and part of the created resulting from
being, created by the Creator. The
concept of the Soul explains the transcendent connection with the Creator.
Now, because of
a more complex, larger human brain, the human Soul can now exist more fully and
completely as being part of the essence and image of the Creator (Word, Spirit
and Soul), so now includes consciousness and freewill, and the other invisible
constructs of thought, attitude, memory, planing, emotion, belief, speech and
behaviour. So Self’s invisible, but observable, consciousness, personality,
freewill, meta-cognition, emotion, attitude, belief, behaviour and content of
speech perse, is not a derivative or creation of the ‘physical’ brain but
derives as a consequent of the Creator (the Word, Spirit and Soul) creating
creation, which by definition must be created within the essence, attributes
and parts of the Creator. Just as a
painting or sculpture is an expression and manifestation of the essence,
attributes and parts of the painter and sculptor.
We perhaps genuinely believe that we have never heard
in the answers given by others to our questions, the unambiguous, categorical,
unfettered, evidence-based and potentially legitimate information to the
existential questions we have asked. And
require answering, regarding what information is necessary to guide ourselves
through the yet uncharted waters of both life and death. We have heard interesting and fascinating
stories and gleaned such information from the experiences of many great
religions, cultures, leaders and teachers.
We have read about the wonders of creation and the universe, and we
ourselves, have experienced our own unique reality of life. Moreover, we have heard of and experienced the simultaneous splitting of history and
time into two within the Christian Western worlds; brought about by the birth
of the man they called Jesus Christ. We
have heard of and experienced the splitting of history and time into BC and AD,
- Before Christ and, After Christ. We
have heard that Christ’s followers today number at least one third of the
world’s population, believing that Christ is the Son of the Creator/God. We have heard of Christ’s simple but profound
teachings of mystical relational love and compassion and the amazing and
astounding miracles purported to been performed by Him. And we know the Bible has been documented to
been read by more people than any other book.
The astounding proclamations made
about and by the man they call Jesus Christ.
Who claimed that He was the Son of God, together with the miracles He is
purported to have performed, including His resurrection and ascension (John
3:13; 20:17), deserve, by virtue of their potential authenticity and impending
merit to become the catalyst and basis for part of the investigative and
driving force of this book’s inquiry.
With the
informed knowledge and theories acquired from
the academic disciplines of Theology, Psychology,
Philosophy, and Science investigating the authenticity and legitimacy of
the contents of both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. The Bibles central figure Christ, together
with the ‘miracles’ of creation and the concepts of Self, become the starting
points, impetus, and terms of reference for the content herein. Thus providing through lateral inquiry and
thought provocation, potential answers to those perennial existential questions
we may possess about Self and Life, the existence of a Creator, and ultimately,
the existence of personal immortality.
Ultimately,
Self’s unique personal understanding of the complexity of these transcendent
concepts through the internalisation of considered and informed information
herein, may be in itself both empowering, enlightening and liberating.
CHAPTER 2
WHO ARE WE
Early Life Experiences
Absorption of Stimuli
Power of the Mind to Believe as True in both Fantasy
and Fact
Language and Speech
Informed Knowledge
Self, Consciousness and
Freewill
The
necessity for acquired information on the above subjects is imperative, as
humans are a fragile, vulnerable and sensitive people. Yet, who possess invisible constructs that
include consciousness, thoughts, feelings, attitudes, values and beliefs that
result in both positive behaviours and contents of speech, and negative
behaviours and contents of speech. These
human constructs are exhibited in personal traits and actions such as kindness,
charity, compassion, and acceptance, etcetera, and alternatively, in
aggression, selfishness, greed and prejudice, etcetera. It is a scientific fact supported by evidence
from empirical psychological research that humans are consciously, cognitively,
emotionally and behaviourally influenced and shaped both positively and
negatively through the stimuli they absorb from others and the environment they
live. For example, because of early
child ‘nurturing’ or ‘attachment’ interactive experiences, or lack of ‘nurturing’
or ‘attachment’ interactive experiences, Self inevitably responds in a
psychologically healthy or unhealthy manner to Self and others. This healthy or unhealthy psychological
interaction towards Self and others, in turn, has the potential to impact on
the world in a neutral, constructive, or destructive fashion. Self’s individual identity, idea, and sense
of Self is formed through the process of construction beginning in the early
childhood years. Self’s identity is
then, in essence, determined by a balance of positive interactive attachment
experiences (care and closeness), as opposed to negative interactive
experiences of neglect and abandonment, and positive interactive autonomous
experiences (independence and self-definition), as opposed to negative
interactive experiences of enmeshment and attack. These positive and or negative interactive
experiences are predominantly experienced from parents, caregivers and
significant others, being the interactions which are fundamental to a person’s
psych in terms of constructing a sense of Self that is both valued and
authentic. The valued and authentic
sense of Self are constructed by the Self, from positive interactive
experiences that are voluntarily absorbed as opposed to the negative
interactive experiences that are involuntarily imposed. A sense of a valued and authentic Self is an
intrinsic human need and passion. For
example, when we envy others we tend to stifle their spontaneity, when we
criticise others we can crush their enthusiasm, and when we fail to affirm
others, we may stunt their capacity to love.
The development of the personality
of Self involves at least two dynamically related motivations:
1.
Relatedness (attachment) is the capacity to establish increasingly mature and
mutually satisfying interpersonal relationships.
2.
Self-definition (autonomy) is the development of a consolidated, realistic,
essentially positive, differentiated and integrated self-identity.
These two motivations are contingent on each other,
and evolve together, that is, in order to attach closely to another person, one
risks temporarily sacrificing autonomy, whereas to develop and explore one’s
autonomy and self-definition, one must separate from an attachment figure.
The disruption to the integrity of the sense of Self
can be a core component and reason for many psychological and mental illnesses.
It is likely that humans genetically inherit potential vulnerabilities towards
personal experiences such as, anxiety, paranoia and depression, etcetera, and
that their positive and/or negative interactive experiences serve to maintain,
enhance or diminish these individual propensities. Early childhood relationships have a profound
impact and for the majority of patients it is here that the origins of their
problems lie. For people with
psychological disabilities or disorders great importance is placed on the
rediscovery and reconstruction of a dynamic sense of Self as being part of the
process for rehabilitation. One’s
personal awareness of Self is a component that people with psychological
disabilities often describe and see as a core factor in the factor and process
of both their illness and their change (Chadwick, Birchwood & Trower,
1997).
As human beings, we have an extraordinary drive to
seek, establish and maintain intimacy with other human beings, and yet, there
are many who have been so psychologically hurt, burnt and damaged they become
conditioned to withdraw from any social interaction. They cannot trust other people as an outcome
of their personal negative interactive experiences, although within they are
pining for trusting, honest and caring social interactions. As children growing up individuals face two
major fears, the fear of attack, and the fear of abandonment, and these two
fears are the two greatest vulnerabilities in both adolescent and adult
interrelationships. Many people fear
being psychologically controlled or violated if they get too close to someone,
or psychologically abandoned if they get too far away from someone.
True friendship and psychological intimacy is about
finding a balance and understanding that there is a time and place for being
psychologically close to someone, and a time and place for psychological space
from someone. However, children who grow
up with a message from one or more parent, or significant other(s), that they
are unloved, unwanted or a burden, will more than likely believe this message,
blaming themselves for this negative interactive experience and not their
parents. These destructive messages
experienced from early childhood can become negative characteristics in
relation to how they perceive themselves in terms of their self-value and
self-identity. These destructive
messages can also become a major part of the content of the script of their
personal self-talk. As adults, these
people may crave from others the acceptance and compassion they never received,
but when they receive this attention, there is the possibility that they will
withdraw and/ or push it away. Because
psychologically, Self believes that Self does not deserve to be accepted or
cared for, or cannot bear the pain of potential betrayal, thus perpetuating the
pain of abandonment or enmeshment.
Unloved,
misunderstood, unaccepted and hurt
people, feel unloved, misunderstood, unaccepted and hurt, and as a consequence,
the propensity to psychologically withdraw from the world with the potential to
hurt Self and others.
So, Self learns to love others and
Self, initially and primarily as infants, internalizing the things done and
said to Self as scripts of cognitive and emotional tapes that Self listens to,
day in and day out. How Self’s
significant other(s) in Self’s younger years responds to Self through their
gestures, facial expressions, attitudes and vocalizations, determines what
these scripts and cognitive and emotional tapes will say to Self. We listen to, reflect on, and believe these
internal psychological tapes of internalized thoughts and emotions, which
continue to subliminally and subconsciously inform us about the responses of
‘significant others’ towards Self. These
internal subconscious psychological descriptions of Self to Self, may take a on
a negative form where Self feels detached, unhappy and anxious from the sense
of not being valued or accepted. Or
these descriptive scripts may take on a more positive form where Self feels
happy and joyful from the sense of being valued and accepted.
Ultimately, this sense within Self of
being valued and accepted, or not valued and accepted, as an outcome of the
quantity and quality of value and acceptance shown to Self in early
relationships, develops through cognitive and emotional internalization and
rumination, into particular psychological and physiological responses. Until the full consequences of these
psychological processes are realised in Self’s psych as Self journeys
throughout life. Self views Self and the
world from birth to death, through the psychological prism and filter of Self’s
personal life experiences, which can certainly be changed through the choice of
conscious effort. Self’s early life
experiences have the potential to create both good and positive, and or bad and
negative feelings and thoughts about how Self perceives Self in terms of these
early interactions of either having security and safety, or not having security
and safety from and with one’s caregiver.
These positive or negative experiences are processed and internalized
within Self to be carried through the world within Self as a source of comfort,
or otherwise. But remember, ultimately
we are all the authors and artists of our own destiny, and therefore require a
sense of personal responsibility within for our behaviours.
As a child develops and grows in age,
the brain develops as does the brain’s capabilities and processing powers,
including understanding, perception, vocabulary and language skills. A young child’s brain is a work in process
until adolescents. As a child’s language
skills increase so
they can name and articulate more clearly personal experiences. So increases the understanding, knowledge,
and awareness, of the appropriateness of reality of past inter-relational
experiences, particularly in relation to positive, and/or negative interactions
regarding trust, acceptance, harm and betrayal, etcetera.
So the internalization of these early
life experiences, and how they make Self think and feel about Self, and others,
consequently affect how Self continues to perceive Self and others. The importance of early childhood nurturing
and experiences cannot be underestimated, evident in the outcome of people, who
as infants, have been abandoned, abused and/or left for dead. For example, two infants, children of chronically
drug-addicted parents and literally abandoned had to live outside by
themselves, only to be ‘cared for’ by their pet domesticated dogs. This is the sad story of Oxana Malaya and
Edik of the
In another sad case of gross neglect,
Sujit Kumar a Fijian, was caged in a chicken coop living with chickens until
the age of eight and imprinted to the degree that he pecked food from the
ground, folded both arms at the elbow into ‘wings’, and slept in a roosting
position. He spent the next 22 years
tied to a wall in an old persons’ home, until discovered by a qualified
behavioural therapist. Now after a
number of years he is learning to run, climb, eat with utensils, sleep
prostrate, use a toilet, and interact with people, but will probably never
learn speech as the neurological window to speak closes at the age of three as
do the pathways for attention, perception, memory, motor control and modulating
emotion.
As said, we live what we learn. We live what we know. We live what we experience. We live what we learn through the knowledge
and experience of others, but which maybe maladaptive, bogus, and/ or
inaccurate, or on the other hand, adaptive, factual and accurate, or a mixture
of both factual knowledge and ‘knowledge’ tainted by ignorance and
mythology. Ultimately, we live what we
learn, by choosing what information and knowledge we decide is ‘right’ and
‘right’ for us.
The positive and/or negative feelings
and thoughts from past experiences continue to be internalised and introjected
into Self and projected onto others, culminating in a love, acceptance or
disdain for Self, others, and the world.
This love, acceptance or disdain etcetera, for Self and others may
eventuate into a possible belief or disbelief and/or an understanding or
disdain for the Creator. If Self has
experienced understanding, compassion and acceptance for Self from others, then
Self can love and accept Self, and Self can love and accept others, and Self
can appreciate the experience of ‘love’ and ‘acceptance’ itself. If Self can understand the Creator to be the
spiritual personification of unconditional love, understanding, compassion and
acceptance, then Self has the potential to also understand and accept the
potential characteristics of a potential Creator. If Self and others choose to consider in the belief that
they are made in the image of the Creator, and Self can value and accept Self
and others, then Self and others can value and accept Self and others as unique
and special beings potentially made in the image of the Creator.
But if a Creator is suppose to be the
ultimate and universal symbol and expression of truth, acceptance, compassion
and love. Then a Creator, that is, or was,
or should have been, the experience and essence of compassion, acceptance, love
and truth, as culture and religion has taught and Self will wish to acknowledge
can, through personal suffering and cognitive and emotional pain from negative
interpersonal interactions become the object, representation and symbol for all
that is distorted, incongruent, ‘evil’ and corrupt. Which such experiences are personally and
collectively experienced in the world, yesterday, today and tomorrow
So within Self’s mindset, it may be
that ‘God’ cannot possibly be considered to exist, or on the other hand, ‘God’
may exist but become the object, representation and symbol for all that is and
has been psychologically and spiritually experienced by an individual a ‘God’
that is abominable.
Absorption of Stimuli
Every millisecond
of the day we are absorbing millions of sensations from information
predominantly through hearing, sight, and touch from immediate stimuli
(information) in the environment. This
stimuli or information is information acquired from both interpersonal and
non-interpersonal sources, which includes Self’s experiences with people in
relation to their comments and behaviours, etcetera, or from the environment
such as a beach or mountain etc., or from the texts of books, etc. The stimuli and information absorbed from
these sources formulates personal understanding through the processes within
the faculties of the brain.
Specifically, in the pre-frontal and frontal cortex of the cerebrum,
which is used in thought processing, planning and making sense of Self in the
world from all the information gathered from these different sources. Most of the information and stimuli from
these sources, particularly information from personal relations and
interactions, are assimilated into existing knowledge and encoded and expressed in human
memory manifest in the individuals’ thoughts and feelings, positive and/or
negative, with regard to the personal real, or perceived experience from this
information. Encoding of information and
stimuli occurs through neurological reconnections of the neuron’s synapses in
the cerebrum as they automatically analyse, synthesise and assimilate
information from newly experienced stimuli in relation to past experienced
stimuli. These personal experiences of
stimuli include both real and perceived interpersonal relations and events.
The individual’s unchanged, new, or
transformed feelings and thoughts, regarding the culmination of stimuli
generated by this process contribute to the manifestation of thoughts and
emotions experienced throughout the continuum of experiences described as
pleasant, indifferent, or unpleasant.
These particular feelings and thoughts from new experiences of stimuli
from others, and the environment can interact and compound with the feelings
and thoughts from past stimuli, eventually culminating into personal
experiences of how Self thinks, feels, behaves and speaks to and about Self and
others in the present and future. How
Self evaluates and perceives this ‘new’ and existing information from the
stimuli of implicit and/or explicit personal interactions and the environment
will be dependant on Self’s previous memories of experiences from personal
interactions, including stimuli from the sources of social, spiritual,
cultural, educational and familial inputs.
This natural but complex interactive process of absorption, integration
and assimilation of past and present stimuli and information from interpersonal
experiences can precipitate a significant psychological cycle of ‘cause and
effect’ regarding Self’s personal and interpersonal life.
Interestingly,
this process is the mechanism that drives the notion that past experiences of
stimuli and information cannot often be remembered as truly accurate and a fact
of absolute reality, but are reconstructed in light of the quality of present
memories of past stimuli, information and events that are integrated and
assimilated with the continuous experiences of new information. Ultimately, the culmination of past and present
perceived good/positive, indifferent and/or bad/negative thoughts and feelings
formed from the experience of the stimuli of information will partly
determine Self’s personality and beliefs, values and attitudes, and subsequent
behaviours and speech to Self and towards others. So the Self’s conscious and subconscious
absorption of experience from interpersonal and non-interpersonal stimuli and
information will influence Self’s thoughts and feelings and values, attitudes
and beliefs, and behaviours and speech.
Ultimately, such behaviours and contents of speech can impact upon
Self’s feelings, emotions, values, attitudes and beliefs, and vice-versa. This process in turn creates a dynamic and
complex web of interactive responses and experiences, which may be both
conscious and subconscious.
Power of the
Mind to Believe as True in both Fantasy and Fact
The power of the human mind in terms of belief is
twofold. Firstly, the mind has the power
to believe in anything the subject person chooses or wants to believe in, at
either a subconscious (towards ‘involuntary’) and/ or conscious level (towards
‘voluntary’). Human content of belief
can manifest regardless of whether the object of belief is real, unreal,
rational, irrational, true, false, fact, fiction, and regardless of whether it
exists or does not exist. Secondly, the power of the mind in relation to a
person’s belief system has power of dramatically changing conscious and
subconscious thoughts, emotions, attitudes, values, behaviours and contents of
speech and physiology. For example, we believe
and think we see a snake lying between the trees in the shadows of the night,
but which belief is incorrect because what we believe and think to be a snake
is in fact actually a twig. We will,
through this false belief, then think of our safety and feel frightened, and
either, move away from it, or attempt to kill it. But with these false beliefs come real
thoughts of danger and real feelings of fear and the body’s physiology and
physiological functions will be altered and affected as, the heart beat races,
the breathing quickens, blood moves to the periphery, the skin perspires and
the pupils dilate, all because of the false belief in thinking the twig is a
snake.
Witch Doctors (Witches) both male and female exist in
many cultures including
The power of human belief has credible scientific
proof through the phenomena of the placebo affect. A placebo is a pill made of sugar or some
other substance, such as coloured water, that is therapeutically inert with no
therapeutic chemical, biological or physiological interaction what so
ever. But miraculously, this placebo
does have an effect on humans. An effect
based entirely on an individual’s or groups’ personal need or desire to
belief. Such a belief it could be
suggested, is evidence of the Self’s powerful mind to believe in anything Self
chooses to, even if that belief is based on pure fantasy. The power of the mind to believe in whatever
it wants to, is illustrated clearly by the need for pharmaceutical companies to
extensively research, study and test new drugs for their authentic
efficacy. When new drugs are tested, two
groups of participants are required. One
group is administered a placebo or sugar pill and the other group, the new drug
under investigation. The two groups do
not know which pill they will receive, but anticipate the possibility of their
pill being the new drug. Considerable
and consistent scientific experiment and research has proven that there will be
a 30 per cent success rate in the group that receives the placebo. This is, 30
per cent of people in the placebo group get well just because of their belief
that they could have received the new drug and their belief that the new drug
could be effective. So the new drug
being tested, must at least produce a statistically significant efficacy rate
of over 30 per cent to take into account the placebo affect.
The therapy Homeopathy, extensively researched for
therapeutic qualities has consistently resulted in nil statistically
significant proof of efficacy. In fact,
the ‘potions’ used in Homeopathy are so diluted they contain not a single
molecule of the original substance. This
is akin to putting an eye drop of a particular substance into the ocean and
stirring it. But people believe they
feel better and may indeed become better entirely through the power of the mind
to believe they have received treatment that will cure them. The cure in this case is through the placebo
affect. The art of Hypnosis and the act
of Brainwashing also have an influencing affect on people’s beliefs, thoughts
and feelings by way of the principle of the placebo affect.
Therefore, it must be critical that
we receive all the pertinent and credible facts about important subjects that
affect how we live in the world, rather than just trusting, believing and
relying on unsubstantiated, false and misleading information that results in an
arbitrary and misinformed belief manifest in part as a function of the power of
the mind. We need to acquire sound,
evidence-based and informed knowledge on topics such as the meaning of
creation, life, and death including the intimate aspects of how Self lives life
in the world as this has the potential to impact heavily upon how we interpret
experiences involving Self, others and the world, and consequently how and what
Self believes about Self.
Therefore we need to be told not
parts of the ‘story of life and creation’, or bits and pieces of the story
about ‘God and the Bible’, or particular human biases and personal agendas
about these existential subjects, but we need to be told everything possibly
available about such important subjects.
We need to know the history about the construction of literature in the
Bible, information about creation and the universe and the scientific evidence
regarding human evolution. We need to
consider the integrity of rational logic used by Philosophers, about research
from Scientific and Psychological studies and about Theological theories. It is helpful to understand as much as
possible about anything that may affect us emotionally, intellectually and
spiritually.
It is impossible for the information
gathered from a single academic discipline to answer with a degree of clarity
such existential questions. We need to
explore, digest, integrate, internalize and discern evidence-based information
and logical theories from a wide cross section of academic disciplines so that
we are more fully informed and thus aware of the facts, ideas and theories
regarding all the enduring and perennial existential questions that Self may
have about the mysteries of Creation, Life, Death and ‘God’.
Language
and Speech
The words
‘language’ and ‘speech’ can be interchangeable, but for the purposes of
this book, it may be considered that language is the biological mechanics
constructed of the vocalizations of specific sounds and symbols that give
meaning to communication through the activity of speech. The mechanics of language communicate through
not only speech but also the written word and ‘sign language’. Bio-evolutionists
tell us that language is a human attribute that raises us above the animals. Animals do communicate with each
other, but at a very basic yet, real level.
Language is mystical and
spiritual as it expresses and articulates both perceptions and realities that
are unable to be seen by the eye or touched by the hand. Language expresses and articulates personal
experiences from both within the silences and secrets of the mind, and vocal
articulation from the noise of the mouth.
Language through speech and
the written word expresses and articulates things imagined, it expresses and
articulates things thought and felt, it articulates values, beliefs, attitudes
and behaviours, both benign and malignant.
Language is the most important tool used by people in any culture to
live life. The language used in this
book is important because it is the tool used to transfer and deliver
information to the reader through the written word. Language can be is formed from written
symbols called words and gives meaning to human experience. Language develops and evolves through
communities over many centuries, and learnt by individuals from infancy. Again, speech comprises of language made from
the specific sounds and vocalizations we call words. Words are the sounds and vocalizations that
create speech and/ or writings, and are, in essence, the symbols used to
describe reality and/or perceived reality of an individual’s
experience of the world.
The vehicle for the thoughts and ideas of any book is its writing. Writing is in essence, language, and language
is the form of communication originating from thoughts, feelings, attitudes,
values, beliefs and experiences humans have about interactions with Self,
others, and the world. The communication
of language can be and expressed through many human forms and modes, including
verbal speech, sign language, and written symbols and letters. Language advocates the integration of the
stimuli of the experience of personal perceptions and realities, which are
absorbed through the senses and processed in the brain, manifesting in the
individual as personal thoughts and feelings, and ultimately, as personal
attitudes, values, beliefs, behaviours and content of speech. Writing systems today with
alphabetical vowels nd consonants were preceded by proto-writing, systems of
ideographic (pictures) and/or early mnemonic symbols e.g 11111.
The
best known examples of these are: The Jiahu Script - symbols on tortoise shells
in Jiahu about 6600 BC; the Vinca Script – symbols on Tartaria Tablets about
4500 BC; and the early Indus Script about 3500 BC
The
Egyptian Hierogryphics are generally considered the earliest writing systems
emerging out of their ancestral proto-literate symbol systems from 3400–3200 BC
with the earliest coherent texts used from about 2600 BC..
The
Chinese Script was likely developed independently of Middle Eastern scripts,
around 1600 BC, as many writing systems originated independentedly influenced
by culture and geography.
It is thought that the
first alphabetic writing appeared around 2000 BC, as a representation of
language developed for Semitic (Arabic speaking) slaves in Egypt by
Egyptians. Most other alphabets in the
world today either descended from this one innovation or were directly inspired
by its design.
So in this book of language comprised of words, (named “English”, which
evolved from the languages of many cultures and countries over many centuries)
and the meaning these words symbolise, it hopes to communicate to the reader
informed information from the experiences of human reality and perceived
reality.
This book hopes to transfer to the
reader informed information from history and the academic disciplines of
science, philosophy, theology and psychology, the ideologies, concepts and
theories relevant to humans and humans living life in the world. This information in turn, may then be
personally processed and interpreted through personal consciousness and
self-awareness and the mix and interaction of Self’s intellect, cognitions and
emotions with the personal and intimate experiences of Self. Human cognitions and emotions are the inner
most thoughts and feelings that silently articulate and describe human (Self’s)
experience in relation to others and the world manifest in attitudes, values,
beliefs, behaviours and the contents of speech expressed in the language of a
particular people in a particular culture.
Without speech and language it would be impossible to name and reflect
on personal experiences. Without naming
and reflecting on personal experiences, it would be difficult to claim them,
and without claiming them, it would be difficult to change them, if so desired.
Informed
Knowledge
After acquiring
personal knowledge – not being presumptuous as this may already have been
personally achieved - from new information about these existential issues, Self
may digest and process this information, personally cross-referencing it with
the conscience and private language of Self’s Self. Listening to this inner voice of informed
language may enhance Self’s ability to make sense of past experiences and to
enable appropriate decisions and choices to be made in the present and future,
so intensifying Self’s sense of personal worth, peace and well-being. Such a personal mindset may empower Self to
make informed judgments and heightened choices in relation to the interaction
between Self and others, including the internalization of adaptive and rational
interpretation of Self’s experiences from the stimuli of others and the
world.
If we decide to believe in a Creator
and thus, in the Creator’s miracle of creation, then we may also believe that
we were made in the image and likeness of the Creator, endowed with the powers
of Consciousness, Discernment, Free Will and Choice, embodied and expressed
within the spirit of Self’s personality.
As an alternative to not understanding and believing in the possibility
of a Creator, or Soul, or Spirit, or Immortality, we may be subconsciously
disabled and incapacitated in making measured and balanced decisions for Self
and maybe others, now and in the future, ultimately affecting and determining
Self’s and other’s psychological and spiritual well-being.
And so to this end, Who Am I and Who is Self, is about the
possibility of the existence of a Supernatural Being that people may choose to
call ‘Creator’, ‘Father’, ‘God’, ‘Yahweh’ or ‘Allah’, or any other name given
by people to such a mysterious entity.
This book is about ‘The Power’ and ‘The Mystical Relational Love’ that
we can believe this Super Natural Being possesses if we choose to decide to
believe in the existence of such a Being.
This book is about the possibility of the existence of a CREATOR, or
‘GOD’, or “That Which Nothing Greater Can Be Thought,” or that which is
Omniscient (all knowing), that which is Omnipotent (all powerful), that which
is Benevolent (all good), and the fathomless and undying unconditional
mystical relational love that such a Creator may and/or must possess. This book is about the possibilities of the
existence of a Creator and about how such a Creator may desire, through
mystical relational love, to voluntary persuade a change in particular hardened
beliefs and attitudes and thus the transformation of particular human
transgressions, faults, deficits and indiscretions manifest in maladaptive
thoughts, feelings, behaviours and contents of speech. This is, a personal and voluntary
metamorphosis of maladaptive beliefs and attitudes, into benign, positive and
constructive beliefs and attitudes that can be realistically achieved with a
sense of satisfaction through personal practice and mastery. This book is about Self’s conscious thoughts,
feelings, attitudes, values, beliefs manifest in behaviours and contents of
speech that build productive and caring relationships, whilst simultaneously
casting hedonistic and selfish relationship destroying indulgences into
oblivion, indeed casting them, ‘As Far As The East Is From The West’.
There is the probability that the
Creator can persuade humans to perform such personal transitions when humans
can consider, through informed knowledge, a potential understanding of the
design, order, plan and Will of the Creator’s creation of humans. A potential understanding acquired firstly,
through informed knowledge of Creation, and secondly, through informed
knowledge in the possible reality of the Creator’s possible incarnation through
Jesus Christ. If Christ is the Creator
incarnate, then Christ’s Body, Blood, Dignity, Humanity, Humility and Divinity,
may seriously considered to have been shed for all peoples, because by
definition, a Creator must have an unconditional mystical relational love for
the created, and thus, all of humans.
“Though your sins are
like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson,
they shall be white as cotton”. (Isaiah 1:18)
The information herein is about
exploring and naming ‘God’s story’ and Self’s ‘personal story’ through words
and narration, which hopes to beckon and
reshape the personal and intimate world of Self and others into conscious
awareness. Such awareness of Self may
facilitate the transforming, blending, and centering within, the integration of
the stories between Self and the Creator, thereby identifying the authentic
Self with the understanding and knowledge about who Self really is in relation
to Self’s personal independence, uniqueness, sovereignty and dignity. This information hopes to enable Self to walk
easier through the life of the Creator’s mysterious world. Perhaps also enabling Self to name Self as
good and true, and view Self with dignity, tenderness and wonderment as a
sovereign and independent spiritual being.
A Being that lives consciously or unconsciously within the Creator’s
great story of gratuitous mystical relational ‘love’, but which ultimately
culminates in personal anatomical death, and perhaps also in personal
psycho-spiritual immortality. The
possibility of an immortal psycho-spiritual Self potentially may give Self the
impetus and the catalyst to seek, find and experience the personal and
relational happiness and peace within a wider context that Self obviously
desires and deserves.
Any acquired personal transformation is
facilitated through internalization, integration, absorption and synthesis of
the existence of the desirable higher transcendent qualities created and
intended for humans, including the virtues of love, joy, peace, patience,
tolerance, kindness, compassion, reconciliation and gentleness as proscribed
throughout the gospels, such as, Galatians Chapter 5 Verses 22-23, (which can
also be written as Galatians 5:22-23).
These are the perhaps the attributes for Self to live a true and
authentic life, bringing inner peace, which is predicated on an “in-to-outward”
activity, which radiates the above virtues to others from within, rather than a
materialistic, selfish and deceptive “out-to-inward” activity. These ‘activities’ try to achieve inner
happiness through greed and self-gratification at the expense of others’
happiness and joy. Such unjust and
unfair behaviours towards Self and others ultimately bring internal emptiness,
sadness and pain to those who practice these indulgences as well to those who
are unfortunate recipients of such misguided actions.
The concept of Self includes, Self’s interests,
passions, skills, values, beliefs, attitudes, judgments and aspirations,
etcetera. manifest in Self’s individual thoughts, emotions, behaviours and
contents of speech. Self’s experiences
include a complex mix of conscious and subconscious composite and assorted
thoughts and feelings, sometimes pleasant and sometimes unpleasant, sometimes
painful and sometimes joyful, public and private personal interactive and
inter-relational experiences with others, who are by definition, other
Selfs. Consciousness is about Self’s
awareness of Self and Self’s awareness of Self’s consciousness and Self’s
being. Consciousness is awareness of
Self’s thoughts, emotions and behaviours and Self’s values, beliefs, attitudes
and aspirations. Freewill is about
Self’s personal freedom to will the desire of Self’s personal and interpersonal
activities through Self’s voluntary choice.
Freewill is about Self being free to will the desire of Self’s
activities, behaviours and speech predicated upon Self choosing particular
thoughts, emotions, values, beliefs, attitudes and aspirations, etcetera. We
could go so far as to say that Self in relation to Self’s Freewill has the
potential to choose, control, influence, impact and manipulate the contents of
Self’s thoughts, the contents of Self’s feelings and emotions, the contents of
Self’s values, attitudes and beliefs, and the contents of Self’s behaviour and
contents of speech. And thus, the
contents of Self’s being and personality.
This
work hopes to impact, if has not already been achieved, on the personal
integrity of the reader’s unique and individual sense of authentic Self, Spirit
and Personhood. Inspiring within, a
thirst for personal acceptance, value, compassion and reconciliation for Self
and others, and consequently, a sense of contentment from an understanding of
the potential purpose and meaning for and of human life and existence. The personal process of exploration,
discovery and explanation through conscious cognitive, emotional and
intellectual faculties imbibing the cross-disciplines of Theology, Psychology,
Science and Philosophy, is perhaps the initial criteria required for informed
personal knowledge. This is, an
understanding that allows humans as unique and special beings to make informed
personal decisions and choices about who and what they are, what they want to
be, and about what they wish to do, and about where they wish to go with their
life. Indeed, the contents of this book
hope to disseminate informed information, which can then be internalized and
therefore psychologically crystallised through the spiritual dynamics of individual and/ or
collective consciousness, intellect, cognition and emotion that are the essence
of humankind existing in this chaotic and complex world experienced as, “living
life on Earth”.
CHAPTER
3
SCIENCE,
EVIDENCE, BELIEFS AND MYTHS
No Scientific
Evidence for Astrology
The Discipline of
Psychology Investigates Parapsychology
Belief, Memory and
Cognition
In Conflict With Reality
Just as it can be extremely dangerous
to our psychological well-being to believe in the literal interpretation of
Scripture’s meaning, manifest in the misinterpretation of Scripture. So it is also unhealthy for our psyche to
naively believe the information given by those who proclaim themselves to
possess some supernatural insight or knowledge about the future of an
individual’s personal life. In this
chapter, we will look at the inherent flaw and fallacy of parapsychology
including Astrology, Tarot Card Reading and Extra Sensory Perception
(ESP). It is important that we explore
and discuss the potential abuse to people by practitioners of these popular
cults,
because
as spiritual beings we seek answers to existential questions and thus remain
potentially vulnerable to those who claim to possess the supernatural abilities
to see and read into the future. It is
the author’s belief that the majority of practitioners of parapsychology
provide false hope and information to others about their future either from
misguided ignorance from misinformation or as a means to seek self-gratuitous
fame and fortune. However, the author
also believes that a few people, have been specially gifted to give specific
service to humankind in providing evidence of the afterlife. Afterlife channelors, or mediums, such as
George Anderson, and John Edwards, seriously considered to authentically
possessing these supernatural gifts.
These two potentially gifted people, have been scientifically tested at
universities, and until further evidence suggests otherwise, they can maybe
given the benefit of any absolute skepticism and doubt. Based on the current evidence it is possible
that they do possess these transcendent skills for the service of others, to
receive information from people who have died and crossed over to the ‘other
side’, as tangible proof of the continuation of life after death, for Self’s
immortality.
Adam Ford (1985)
the astrophysicist, along with many other influential astronomers and
scientists say regarding horoscopes, “Astrology is a good example of a theory
or cluster of theories, which seem to avoid the reality of their falsification
at all costs. The claim that the fortune
of each of us lies in the stars is purported by followers and practitioners of
parapsychology to be empirical (experienced reality) but is, in scientific and
real terms, pseudo-science. A basic proposition put forward by such people is
that birth signs influence our day-to-day experiences and personal characteristics
and that the stars rule all facets of our life. Many well-educated people are
still unclear about the distinction between the science of Astronomy and the
art of Astrology, and more columns in journals and newspapers are devoted to
'what your stars foretell' about you today, than at any time in the past.”
Although, some research has
gone into testing the link between birth dates and professions with interesting
results. It appears, for instance, that
university teachers are more likely to be born in May than in any other
month and that people in top jobs tend to have birthdays in the spring than in
the autumn. A close inspection of
sun-sign astrology, however, does little to back the claims that our destinies
can be ‘read’ in the stars. Although,
seasonal or climatic factors may provide the scientific basis for explaining
the trends just mentioned, more rationally and satisfactorily.
The usual vague way of testing
a daily horoscope is to accept those predictions that seem to support our own
experiences, and to forget about all the others we cannot relate. It is remarkably easy to read a description
of a Capricorn character, and to assent to all those general elements that seem
to suit the character in question. This
then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
However, a theory supported by such a selective use of evidence deserves
to be superstition rather than science.
But the biggest piece of evasion of falsification in
astrology is quite interesting. The
fundamental foundations of birth sign Astrology have shifted to such an extent
that the whole edifice of astrology should have come tumbling down long
ago. When the rules of astrology were
laid down over two thousand years ago, a fixed point of reference was the
spring equinox. The spring (or vernal)
equinox is that time in the year when the Sun in its apparent path across the
sky (in fact the Earth travels around the Sun) crosses the celestial equator
from south to north and the days and nights are of equal time/ length. The
celestial equator is an imaginary sphere above the Earth’s equator. The location in the heavens where this
happens is known as the first point of Aries, because it used to lay in the
constellation of Aries the Ram. Modern
day astrologers still take this to be so despite the fact that due to a
phenomenon called the “precession of the equinoxes” the first point of Aries
has moved backwards into the constellation of Pisces the Fish.
Every Sun sign is nowadays a whole constellation out
of step, and increasing to two constellations out of step as we move into and
through the 21st Century.
This is because the Earth's axis is not steady but is subject to a slow
wobble, just as a spinning top while spinning will also begin to sway drunkenly
as it moves around the floor. The
Earth's axis takes 26,000 years to complete one ‘drunken’ sweep. The result is that every couple of thousand
years the point where the ecliptic crosses the celestial equator slips back a
constellation.
In other words, because of
this recently discovered wobble, the Earth’s speed as it orbits the Sun is
slower than originally predicted. So the
Earth takes a month longer every 2,000 years to orbit around the Sun. Every 2000 years then the constellation seen
in the night sky in a particular month is now the constellation (group of stars
in the sky) before that of the constellation calculated when the foundations of
birth sign astrology were laid down more than 2,000 years ago, named by the
astrology and birth signs we know them today.
This change to the association between a particular month and a
particular constellation happens not suddenly but slowly over 2000 years. Also the earth never passes through a
constellation in exactly a month, but sometimes half a month longer or
shorter. So to define astrology and
birth signs by the months of the calendar is scientifically and factually
erroneous. So because the speed of the
Earth is slowing down as it orbits the Sun, the Earth is at a different point
in the sky every calendar month than it was 2000 years ago. So everyone who thinks he or she is an Aries
is now today really an Aquarian, and Virgos are really Cancers, Leos are really
Geminies, and Cancers are really Tauruses, and so on. Astrology is thus, stuck with an old
time-table, and blissfully ignores this major shift in the sky in relation to
the Earth passing particular constellations at any given time during the year.
Dr. Jacqueline Mitton of the Royal
Astronomical Society also confirms that stargazers have been using the wrong
dates for the Sun passing through the constellations of the Zodiac. This is the line of the Earth in relation to
the Sun as the Earth orbits the Sun. The
‘star dates’ used in astrology today were formed about 2,000 years ago by Greek
and Roman astronomers who named the Zodiac signs after the mythical gods of
those times. They divided the year up
into roughly twelve equal chunks still used to this day by astrologers for
their predictions.
Dr. Mitton also describes how
astronomers have now discovered a thirteenth constellation in the Zodiac called
Ophiuchur ‘the god of healing’. But
importantly, because the constellations cover areas of varying sizes the Sun’s
time in each constellation differs and so the Sun moves through the sign of
Scorpio in just seven days, which makes a-nonsense of the monthly ‘star signs’. It spends much more than a month under Virgo,
Taurus and Pisces. At the beginning of
this century, the International Astronomical Union agreed on an exact position
for each constellation, used by all the world’s scientists. But, says Dr. Mitton, astrologers ignored
this and stuck to traditional ‘Sun signs’ for analyzing people’s character and
predicting the future. So if you add the
problem of the inconsistency in the differing lengths of time the Sun’s line
with the Earth is in each constellation, with the factual scientific account of
the “precession of the equinoxes” you have an
unsystematic and changing zodiac system undermining the scientific
credibility and importance given to people’s birth signs. If you look at where the Sun is when you were
born you will find it’s in a different constellation from the one the
astrologers say it is in. So then, Dr.
Mitton, 46, born on July 10 and once a Cancer, said to be cautious, home loving
and introverted became a Gemini in the 20th Century and so is now
impatient, enthusiastic, and butterfly-minded.
But, now in the 21st Century, is slowly changing, if she
lived over the next 2000 years, to the ‘Star’ sign of Taurus. She goes on to say, “Astrology is pretty
unscientific. It is a brand of the entertainment
industry. I just wish people wouldn’t
confuse it with science and take it so seriously”.
D. Myer’s book, Social Psychology
(1993), provides us with some of the latest information concerning the
scientific research on astrology: “It’s
important to realise that some popular claims about biological rhythms are not
supported by empirical data.
Particularly, there is no measure or data proven that allows anyone to
make predictions about fluctuations in an individual’s mood, or intellectual,
emotional, social or caring ability based on their birth date. In other words, the biorhythm advice given
about individuals’ future, and found in newspaper columns, and elsewhere, is
pseudoscientific nonsense without any empirical basis (Palmer, 1982). Nothing that researchers have found lends any
credibility to the speculation of links between birthdays and biorhythms.”
With all this scientific information
coming to the fore, astrologers are realizing they are fighting a loosing
battle with such emphatic scientific information. We hear recently that Senior Astrologers
faced with this evidence now claim and acknowledge that astrology is not
scientific or based on science, but that astrology is but a way for people to
indulge in a little mystery and magic. Bravo, perhaps now we are hearing some
common sense from those that practice, preach and administer a branch of
entertainment called astrology.
David Marks (1986)
in his article, ‘Investigating the Paranormal’, writes, “Few fields of inquiry
capture the attention of the public as much as the paranormal. Newspapers,
books, films and television have all cashed in and promoted it. Yet, after millennia of experience and more than a century of controlled investigation since the founding in
1882 of the Society of Psychological Research, the paranormal remains as
controversial as ever. While credence in
parapsychology including extrasensory perception (ESP) and precognition appears
to be widespread, parapsychology has failed to produce a single repeatable
demonstration of its supposed and purported supernatural abilities. In the face
of such a dearth of hard evidence how can such widespread belief in the
paranormal be accounted for?”
The Committee for the Scientific
Investigation of Claims of the paranormal (CSICOP), was established in 1976,
with the aim of increasing the quality of scientific investigations into the
paranormal by constructive criticism and the exposure of invalid or fraudulent
claims. Over this 10-year period an
inordinate amount of fraud, error and incompetence in paranormal
investigations, have been brought to light. But pseudo-sciences are
unfortunately, remarkably stable, and tradition-bound and their presence on the
edges of science can be, sadly, expected indefinitely.
Here are some descriptions and
examples of effects which until recently were claimed to be produced by the
paranormal but which can now be explained from within orthodox science. They
include:
The failure of paranormal
investigators to produce a single repeatable effect despite 100 years of
published research is a serious matter.
The ‘hoped for’ results described in reports, have never been repeated,
or replicated, in scientifically controlled environments. The most systematically investigated area is
undoubtedly parapsychology. This field
is professionally organised, with its own associations of accredited members
and journals. Since 1969, the Parapsychology Association has been an affiliated
division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. On the surface, the research sophistication
of many parapsychologists seems to be as high as that of other professional
researchers. The
How close are we to a repeatable
paranormal finding? Examination of the
literature suggests, not very close at all.
In systematic reviews of
Human memory,
cognition and thought processes are achieved through a complex array of
cognitive processes including the processes of ‘expectancy’ or ‘mental set’
driven by ‘internal cognitive working models’ or ‘scripts’ developed over a
life time, which provide the framework within which Self organises new
experience. So human cognition is not a
simple ‘copying’, or ‘right or wrong’ process of reality, but entails a
constructive ‘striving for’ or ‘effort after meaning’ to personal
experiences. What we experience is often
more a confirmation of a deep inner and personal belief than a matter of plain
fact. Beliefs in essence are not
‘updated’ automatically by available evidence, but have an active life of their
own and fight tenaciously for their own survival. Beliefs evolve from our past and shape and
form our identity, describing and driving who we think we are! They tell us what to read, what to listen to,
who to trust and how to rationalise contrary information. (4, 5, 57)
A further problem regarding the truth of
belief is that when we are exposed to relevant information that contradicts
Self’s beliefs, our opinions and beliefs, are reviewed and revised, at less
than optimal levels. We cognitively act
conservatively within a confirmation bias that congruently affirms what we need
to believe in relation to personal requirements and experiences. We look at information in a biased and
selective way so that it will agree with or fulfill our individual expectations
thus becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In a recent ‘ESP’ demonstration to a class of 226 psychology students,
David Marks presented as an exercise in observation, five mentalist tricks,
consisting of:
·
Correctly naming a colour written out of sight.
·
Correctly transmitting a colour name to a volunteer
who, like him, had not previously seen it.
·
Helping a volunteer to correctly read messages sealed
inside envelopes or to appear to transmit messages to him.
·
Producing bent keys which he had not previously
touched.
·
Moving or stopping the hands of a watch in a
mysterious
manner
Although at no time did he claim to be
psychic, 90 per cent of the class stated that David Marks had demonstrated
psychic ability. When the results from
subjects who had been previously classified as either ‘believers’ or ‘skeptics’
were analysed separately, 79 per cent of believers thought at least three of
the five effects were psychic compared with only 43 per cent of skeptics.
Naturally, we often encounter
information that is unexpected or ambiguous. In such instances, there is a
second line of defense of the data being selectively perceived, or even
misperceived, so that it still appears to support our beliefs by ‘subjective
validation’. Human beings never behave
randomly. Our experiences contain many
culturally shared elements, such that particular items are associated with
particular verbal contexts. This causes
associative networks to be set up and a tendency towards non-random,
stereotypical responses even when there is freedom to choose.
So then, what factors differentiate
believer from skeptic? Psychologists
down the ages have puzzled over the question of what motivates different
world-views and the so-called will to believe.
Research conducted by J. Waugh, used Kelly’s personal construct
theory. In this framework, people vary
in the quality and extent of their investigatory procedures, so that while some
may be working to establish an ordered and meaningful world for themselves but
which is not necessarily highly predictable or readily explained, others may be
content that they already have all the necessary explanatory constructs to live
life fruitfully and with meaning.
The following
chapters will indirectly explore in part the reasons, which provide a clearer
understanding why future telling and all its categories are in conflict with
the Creator’s design and order of creation and the Creators Will for human’s to
possess integrity of independence and sovereignty manifest in consciousness,
intellect, cognition
and emotions, etcetera, and ultimately, freewill. A belief in parapsychology, fortune and
future telling, belief in the ability to predict the future, and a belief that
all experiences should be considered as fate, can significantly compromise and
distort human behaviour and contents of speech as outcomes of personal
attitudes, values and beliefs, and therefore, the future personal applications
of Self living life in two significant ways.
Firstly, through belief in sectors of
parapsychology being viewed as credible viable sources of esoteric knowledge
regarding one’s fate, any intuitive intuition, any spark of innate
spirituality, and any belief in a ‘Power’, ‘Supreme Being’ or ‘Creator’
originating from outside one’s terms of reference, no matter how fragile or
seemingly insignificant, can be inadvertently snuffed out or redirected. To the worship, belief and adherence of ‘man
made gods’ and ‘systems’ that purport to quench human thirst for answers to
existential questions the human spirit possess to desire. A belief in parapsychology has the
propensity to encourage the instigation and misdirection of intellect and
cognitions, and attitudes and behaviours of Self, instead of searching for the
answers to these existential questions through the journey of personal
discovery, and the process of the investigation of knowledge underpinned by
consciousness, intellect and rational logic and reason. With all the personal, emotional and
spiritual challenges and intellectual growth this may entail, whilst learning
about Self and Self’s strengths and weaknesses.
Secondly, parapsychology, including
astrology, future and fortune telling can encourage and propagate the belief
that all experiences are predestined (predestination) and/ or predicated on
arbitrary fate, such as being accidentally or willfully hit by a truck, which
may or may not have been under the control of the person injured and the driver
of the truck. If we wish to walk in
front of a truck this is a choice we make and we will be hit, so this incident
for the walker is predicated on choice and not fate, but for the driver this
can be considered ‘bad luck’ rather than fate which is a word that means one’s
destiny or predestination. If the driver
wishes to, or chooses to drive into us this is a choice the driver makes, and
we will be hit and run over. But this
event is ‘bad luck’ for the pedestrian, rather than the individual’s
predetermination and predestination. A
persons belief in fortune telling then, can by definition, severely limit a
person’s potential scope for future personal development and change, for an
attitude of hope, and for a belief in the ability to change one’s circumstances
in any way one might wish to. This is
because if Self believes in fate and future telling Self will become drawn into
a type of self-fulfilling prophecy, because Self believes that Self has no
control over any interaction with life and so lives to the label of Self’s
belief regarding one’s fate based future.
Thus, this ‘easy fix’ for disregarding
transcendent and informed information seriously limits the potential power of
Self’ - spirit/soul - by diminishing the use of the inherent gifts of
consciousness, intellect, reason and choice.
This limited use of these intellectual and spiritual attributes has the
capability of reducing human kind’s worth to nothing more animate than
artificially battery powered toys or computer operated robots. Consciousness, intellect, reason and
freewill/ choice, facilitate and make possible the ability to control one’s
life and experience the disciplines of moral and ethical responsibility,
accountability and discernment. This in
turn allows for the virtues of love, compassion and reconciliation to operate,
by choice, in relationships with Self and others.
CHAPTER
4
MIRACLES
OF THE UNIVERSE
Creation
as Scientific Evidence
Humans
are Fragile
Light, Stars and
Galaxies
Termination of the
Sun, Life and Earth
Black Holes
We have discussed people’s irrational motivations and
destructive, thoughts, feelings and attitudes in relation to their faith,
culture, politics and religion and subsequent behaviours and speech. We have explored examples of diabolical
beliefs and practices with regard to the interpretation and misinterpretation
of Scripture. Such information may be a
resource for the reasons why we can or cannot choose to believe in the
existence of a Super Natural Being, or be the catalyst for a personal
understanding of the possibility for the existence of a Creator. We have explored the flawed ways people can
misinterpret Scripture in the Bible and other spiritual writings, and discussed
how misinterpreted Scriptures can be dangerous and therefore require
reinterpretation. We have explored the
power of the mind in relation to believing in particular ‘beliefs’ that are not
substantiated by evidence-based proof.
Pertinent to this exploration is perhaps the inferred question as to
whether or not we can believe in entities that we cannot see or touch? And does the Bible and other ‘Holy’/spiritual
writings, present laudable evidence of having been actually written by the
Creator, or if not, provide credible evidence that a Creator may exist, or
provide information about interpersonal relationships and life credible enough
to be adopted? The idea of these
explorations is to leave the answers to these questions up to the integrity of
the intellectual and spiritual discretion of the reader.
Next on our journey in the search for
proof of a God’s existence we shall explore the ‘miracles’ from the paradigm of
academic science with regard to the creation of the universe. This is, the exploration of the material
universe that has come into existence, in the quest to ascertain whether there
is enough visible and scientific evidence in the world to support the belief in
a Super Natural Being. Indeed, science
itself, states that you cannot create something from nothing.
And in the following chapter we will be
exploring proof of the Creator’s existence from the evidence provided by
rational and logical reasoning predicated on the ideas that are based on human
experience of the universe and the intrinsic logical reality that also states
that ‘something can not be made to exist from nothing’.
Now back to the
science of the miracles of the universe and creation. We humans have been around in existence for
less than 0.2 per cent of the time that life has existed on this Earth. Humans average a life span of about 75 years
for males and 80 years for females being the current conservative calculation
from the developed first worlds, although it has increased by 3 months every
year for the past 160 years. In
comparison, our Solar System, that is, the Sun, Moon, and Planets were, created
4.5 billion (4500 million) years ago.
The universe in its entirety began, according to modern astrophysicists,
about 13.7 billion (13,700 million) years ago from a mega explosion, or as
Darwinians describe it, from the “big bang”.
The ‘big bang’ is the word then used to describe the initiation of the
beginning of creation of the universe.
But before the ‘big bang’ happened it is considered by some that there
was nothing and because it is irrational that something can be made from
nothing then there must have been something greater to initiate such an
event.
Before the ‘big bang’ science also
states that there was nothing in terms of matter or existence as we know and
experience it. There was no space, no
time and no matter. Indeed, it is
difficult to comprehend this particular dimension of production of existence
because if there was something before the ‘nothing’ that must have initiated
the ‘big bang’ then that something must be some form of Super Natural
Being.
And as only 4 % of the universe is made
of atoms, 96 % is yet to be known, but could be considered the energy of the
‘Word’, Soul and Spirit. Physicists call
this unknown ‘matter’ ‘dark matter and energy’.
So what did actually happened during and after the ‘big bang’. A billionth (nano) of a second after the ‘big
bang’ both particles of matter (atom-energy) and antimatter (reverse charged
atom-energies) rushed around in all directions causing tremendous heat. These we call subatomic particles. At that time, there existed an almost equal
amount of matter and antimatter, which collided and destroyed one another
creating pure energy. Because matter exceeded
antimatter by one part per billion the ‘matter’ universe was able to exist. As the universe cooled and expanded, common
particles began to form called baryons containing photons, neutrinos, electrons
and quarks. As the universe cooled,
further composite particles of protons and neutrons called hadrons formed. Then lighter particles of electrons,
neutrinos and photons called leptons were able to join the protons and neutrons
of hadrons, which together became the atoms that make up the structure and
functions of atom-energy today.
After one to three minutes had passed after
the ‘big’ bang’ and creation of the universe protons and neutrons began to
react with each other to form deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen with one
proton and one neutron. This hydrogen
then collected another neutron to form tritium and after this reaction the
addition of another proton which produced a helium nucleus. There was now one helium nucleus for every
ten protons. After further cooling,
these excess protons would capture an electron to create common hydrogen. Massive gas soups would then form, their
intense heat and gravity the ingredients to form stars. From there on, the universe contains about
one helium atom for every ten hydrogen atoms.
Under intense pressure and heat,
hydrogen fuse and compress into helium atoms creating energy, heat and
light. When hydrogen runs out, and no
longer fused into helium, another chemical reaction occurs as the star explodes
into a supernova, before extinction, where the heat is so tremendous other
chemical reactions occur where heavier elements form, one by one, such as
oxygen (O), carbon (C), uranium and gold (AU) etcetera. Iron is the last element created, and because
it is the heaviest, it is unable to react in fusion. So the supernova now without any source of
‘fuel’ self destructs exploding and scattering its subatomic particles and then
collapsing into iron and gases that make up new stars and planets. The universe then continued to spread
outwards from the force of this initial burst of creation/energy into what we
now know to be the universe of stars and galaxies. Today stars in galaxies undergo these same
processes of rebirth.
After billions of years this material
and energy has slowly cooled and slowed down so that today astrophysicists can
pick up radio waves and signals coming in from all directions of the
Universe. This includes the ‘radio
signal maps’ of this energy just 350,000 years after the ‘big bang’. In human psycho-spiritual terms, it is easy
to forget how the hidden secrets of the Creator’s power and strength may
miraculously manifest in the visible universe.
For instance, sound travels at 760 miles per hour, but light travels at
an incredible 186,000 miles per second or 600 million miles per hour – that is,
1.25 seconds to flash to the moon and 8.5 minutes to travel 93 million
miles from the Sun to our own garden planet.
In one second, light can travel around the world seven times. In one
year, light travels (which equates to one light year) 6 million x million
miles. That is 6,000,000,000,000
miles. Light energy, is made up of
electromagnetic energy, which consists of wavelengths of particles (photons),
which move in waves with particles called photons. Light is one of the quickest phenomena in the
natural universe.
Alongside the miracle of light energy
is our very own brain, which is the most complex component of creation in the
known universe. The brain can filter out
100 sensations and stimuli from 100 million sensations and stimuli a second. These stimuli are, received in the reticular
formation of the brain, from sensory receptors like the eye (visual), ears
(auditory) and touch (body-kinesthetic).
This stimuli is subsequently processed in the frontal lobes and cortex
of the brain. The outcome of this
process is the provision of the information that tells Self who we are and what
we are to others and the world, and thus how we identify Self in relation to
others. The brain could also be the
central interface between the body and the personality/spirit, between the visible
and the invisible, between the ‘physical’ and the spiritual. All these concepts are discussed in a later
Chapter.
Yet, we sometimes forget how dependant
we are on these magical creations. For
instance, we can only survive 7 weeks without food and only 7-8 days without
water, even fewer days depending on our health and the environment, before our
organs start to dysfunction, pack up and die.
In the same way, we can only survive for two or three minutes without
oxygen before our brain and body suffocate and die.
It is easy to forget these wonders of
the universe that create and sustain humans and indeed impact on who and what
we are, just as it was for the ancient Romans.
"For
what can be known about God is perfectly plain to them since God Himself has
made it plain. Ever since God created
the world His everlasting power and deity, however invisible, have been there
for mind to see in the things He has made".
(Romans 1:19-20)
Light, Stars and
Galaxies
Today we have the
privilege of being informed, and enlightened about creation, and the
complexities of the mechanisms of the Universe.
Biochemical scientists and Astrophysicists have never been able to tell
us so much about the universe as they can today. They now know that there are more stars in the
universe than there are grains of sand on all the beaches in the world. They tell us that looking at the night sky is
like looking into the past. When looking
up at the stars, we will see, depending on how far they are away and how many
years their light takes to reach us, some as they were in the 12th century,
others as they were in the 6th century, and others with the help of powerful
radio telescopes, as they were 13,700 million years ago. This is long before our solar system was
formed, our Sun and planet formed from the dense gas and dust of a nebula. Scientists tell us that there are over 100
billion stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and it is so vast that light takes
not 10 years, not 100 years, not 10,000 years, but 200,000 years to traverse
it. Out nearest star, apart from the
sun, is Alpha Centuri, a distant 4.3 light years away, or alternatively,
24,000,000,000,000 miles from Earth.
There are also about 100 billion galaxies in the universe, which
continue to expand from one another. The
furthermost galaxies continue to expand at 90 per cent the speed of light. It is believed the galaxies will continue to
expand until the galaxies and their stars are disseminated so greatly they
cease to exist but in their smallest atomic particles, which too will
eventually decompose, corrupt and disappear.
That is not all, our planet is moving
around the sun at 30km/second (72,000 miles per hour), taking 365.256 days to
complete one orbit, giving the calendar year.
And the Earth is tilted on its axis by just over 23 degrees from the
vertical, giving the four seasons of Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring. The Sun does not rise in the East, as it
stays still in relation to us, but instead the Earth spins around its self from
West to East, at 1,000 miles per hour every twenty-four hours giving us the
illusion that the Sun is moving. As the
Earth spins around itself - taking 24 hours to complete one rotation - it gives
us night and day. The Sun and Planets of
our solar system, together, are moving around the center of the Milky Way at 30
km/second, taking 240 million years to complete one orbit. The Milky Way is also on the move, taking us
with it and moving towards a remote cluster of galaxies at 600 km/second. Indeed, we are involuntary space travelers -
the room we go to sleep in tonight has moved millions of miles from where it
was in the universe this morning when we woke up.
Scientists tell us that when nuclear
fusion occurs within stars and the Sun, neutrinos - subatomic changeless
mass-less particles - are produced. They
are so unaffected by other atom-energies that they can move through dense
objects including the Earth and pass out the other side. As we lie in bed day or night billions of
neutrinos from the Sun, flash through the Earth, through our bodies, and back
out into space at the speed of light.
Neutrinos take 8 minutes to each us from the centre of the sun. Space is a place with movement of
atom-energies, which is the constituent of time. Space consists of the atom-energies of
structures we name as ‘dust particles’ and gases, including hydrogen and
nitrogen. Stars are entities with dense
atom-energy centers with nuclear atomic activities – hydrogen fusing into
helium – producing energy of intense heat, gases and, light. Light photons generated from this hydrogen
nuclear fusion takes a million years to reach earth, because light photon
particles bounce off other atoms as they travel through from the centre of the
Sun. The Sun is a Star and stars can be
incomprehensibly large. A star called
Beetlegeux situated in the Orion Sword is a super-giant at 220 million miles in
diameter. It is big enough to swallow up
the entire size of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. It also has the energy equal to 15,000
Suns.
No wonder it has been said that the
possibility of the Earth and Universe with its design, order and plan being
created by random chance, is about as mathematically probable as a Jumbo Jet
airliner being built by a tornado sweeping through the debris of a junk yard.
Three thousand
years ago the ancient poets were so inspired by the night sky and creation they
were compelled to write about a ‘Creator’:
Psalm 8 reads:
(1,000 BC.)
"I look up at
your heaven, made by your fingers
At the moon and
stars you set in place
Ah, what is man
that you should spare a thought for him
The Son of Man that
you should care for him
Yet you have made
him little less than a god
You have crowned
him with glory and splendour
Made him lord over
the work of your hands
Set all things
under his feet
Sheep and oxen, all
these
Yes wild animals
too
Birds in the air,
fish in the sea
Traveling the pith
of the ocean
Yahweh our Lord
How great your name
throughout the earth!"
The Sun is losing
four million tons of mass every second, as hydrogen atoms are fused and
compressed into helium atoms at over 14 million degrees Celsius. This process forms energy, heat and light
from which we are able to survive on Earth.
A grain of sand this hot would cook a person 110 miles away. At 1 million miles in diameter, the Sun is
twice as large as the size of the Moon's orbit around our Earth, and in
comparison, planet Earth has a diameter of only 8,000 miles. The Sun also has a ‘use by date’. It is estimated that the Sun can only exist
for another 5,000 million years before it will burn out. Although our world may continue for thousands
and possibly millions of years before the Sun burns itself out, it is very
possible that the Earth will radically change in some way or form in the
positive or negative at sometime in the future.
For example, Earth could dramatically
change through the impact of an asteroid collision, which has already occurred
250 million and 65 million years ago respectively, destroying 95 per cent of
life on Earth including the Dinosaurs.
Or the Earth could drastically and irreversibly change through the
consequences of an environmental or natural disaster, or through chemical or
nuclear war. It is perhaps prudent never
to forget, as we journey through life going about our daily business, nothing
in this world lasts forever, and nothing in this world can be ‘guaranteed’
except for the fact of the inevitability of our individual death. For physical death is an integral part of the
cycle of life, in general, and human life, in particular. In deed, we have all been ‘sentenced’ to
anatomical death. Human life on this
Earth is just a stepping-stone to perhaps an immortal spiritual life in an
eternal world. For none of our bodies
leave this planet in their original structure, form with function of the body,
but for invisible consciousness of Self and personality, this may be an
entirely different story.
The universe and the solar system were always
only a temporary creation, albeit seeming long term in human understanding and
human’s individual time-frame from minute to minute, day to day and year to
year, until death. As the second law of
thermo dynamics states, “All energies in the universe are in a continual
process of changing.” Apart from this
law emphasizing the fact that everything that has been created in this universe
and is thus, made of some form of atom-energy and therefore cannot exist
forever unchanged. This law is very
salient today with both the chronic and acute depletion of the world’s
resources. The energy of the universe is a closed system, and in essence, is
neither gained, nor lost. Resources of
energy with planet earth will inevitably will ultimately dissipate and
disseminate into the atmosphere as the remnants of changed energy.
One thing is sure, we are all going to
anatomically die in one way and at some time or another. As it has often been said and all are aware,
if not in denial, none of us get out of here ‘physically’ alive. We can with almost certainty, guarantee that
the end of our own life will be within the next 100 years with our anatomical
death, and much sooner depending on our individual age and health. Incidentally, those who believe in Christ,
and are familiar with the concept of the term “The Second Coming of Christ”,
need to be aware that the coming of Christ will most likely be manifest in the
form of their own individual death, and ‘going to Christ’. And, therefore, much sooner for individual’s
than is often contemplated and depicted by this phrase. The reality of ‘The Coming of Christ’, may
more than likely be explained by one’s own personal anatomical death, and be
more accurately described by the term ‘Going to Christ/ ‘God’.
It is ironic that as the Sun slowly burns out to close on
it’s lifespan of 10,000 million years - remember it has already been burning
for 4,500 million years - humans awaken as the electromagnetic rays of the Sun
burst down on the breaking dawn of human spiritual and intellectual awareness. The Earth’s “use by date” – for nothing that
is physical and tangible and visible lasts forever - we know is another 5,000
million years, because the Sun’s fuel will burn up and the ‘remains’ will
explode engulfing and destroying all its planets and the solar system,
including planet Earth. However, it is
necessarily inconceivable in the context of environmental destruction, that
natural influences and human-to-human violence, will render the Earth’s “use by
date” of 5,000 million years unattainable.
But if the Sun does miraculously reach its “use by date” it will have
burnt out of fuel, explode – destroying the solar system - and inevitably
become a cloud of dust and gas eventually to combine with cosmic material to
create another star through gravitational forces, pressure and heat from
nuclear fusion.
The Sun contains more than 99 %
of the total mass of the Solar System (Jupiter containing most of the rest).
The Sun is often said to be an "ordinary" star because there are many
others similar to it. However, there are
mostly smaller stars than larger ones, the Sun being in the top 10% by mass. The
median size of stars in the Milky Way is probably less than half the mass of
the Sun.
The Sun creates solar energy deep within its
core. In the core of the Sun the
temperature is an incredible 15,000,000° C, and the pressure is 340 billion
times the Earth's air pressure at sea level, and so intense, that nuclear
reaction or fusion takes place. This reaction causes hydrogen nuclei (four
protons) to fuse together to form a helium nucleus (one alpha particle). So this intense heat and pressure turns
hydrogen atoms into helium atoms. The
helium nucleus (alpha particle) is about 0.7 percent less massive than the
hydrogen nuclei (four protons). The
difference in mass is expelled as energy, carried to the surface of the Sun
through a process known as convection, and released as light and heat. Energy generated in the Sun's core takes a
million years to reach its surface.
Every second, 700 million tons of hydrogen gases become helium through
nuclear fusion, and in the process, 5 million tons of pure energy
released. When helium atoms, are no
longer sustainable, other atoms start to form, such as Oxygen, Carbon, Gold,
Uranium, and eventually Iron, until all the elements of the universe are again
manufactured.
At the end of its life the Sun will start to fuse
helium into the heavier elements such as iron and begin to swell. Ultimately, the sun will grow so large it
will swallow up the Earth. After a
billion years Earth will then become a Red Giant. This Red Giant will then suddenly collapse
because of its immense gravity, into a very small compact body known
as a White Dwarf. White Dwarfs are made of atoms of different
elements, which are then broken and packed so tightly together that an amount
the size of an eggcup would weigh 50 tons.
When a larger Sun/Star burns out it is termed a supernova. It explodes and shrinks by gravity so quickly
that the atoms are broken up and fused together so tightly they form neutrons. A Neutron Star is so dense a pinhead would
weigh more than a million tons! The
energy released in one of these supernovas is so great that for several weeks
the star shines with the brilliance of a billion of our Suns or more. As stated earlier the heat generated from
these supernovas is so great that heavy elements from the chemical reactions of
this nuclear fusion, such as gold and uranium, are produced. So the gold in every wedding ring was
produced and manufactured in the heat of the fires of a supernova. For nowhere else in the universe is the
temperature hot enough for such a chemical reaction to occur.
Black Holes are a
mysterious cosmic phenomenon, and have divulged till now little of their form
and activity. Astral-physicists now
believe they have discovered a black hole 15 million light years away. A black hole is created when a larger star
called a Super Giant, such as Betlegeux, which is much heavier and bigger than one
that explodes into a supernova, uses up all its fuel and then collapses
suddenly and violently from its gravitational force without the physics to
explode as a supernova. As the star’s
cosmic material collapses and shrinks from its immense gravity the escape
velocity of material entering the center of this cosmic wonder becomes greater
than 186,000 miles per second - the speed of light - so that not even light
escapes from its gravitational force and becomes a black hole.
This collapsed star’s gravitational
energy pulls into it, surrounding cosmic atom-energy and its ‘event horizon’
results from the recycled atom-energies, now vapourised, escape at the speed of
light. So this is the Black Hole created
from considerable gravity and now sucks in any cosmic material susceptible to
its atom-less force, which may be more akin to the spirit-energy of the ‘Word’,
as being part if not all of ‘dark matter’ and ‘dark energy’. Once material is pulled into its
gravitational force, it too becomes part of the infinite hole, but rather than
disappearing forever, it slowly seeps away as unrecognizable, deformed and
vapourised atoms at the ‘event horizon’.
A black hole recently discovered is 300 light years in diameter. A black hole exists at the center of every
galaxy. The Milky Way’s black hole has a
mass 300 million times greater than that of the Sun. (Strobel, 2004)
So there we have some of the scientific
miracles of the universe that can be both emotionally daunting and
intellectually fascinating. Indeed, this
information invokes concepts and dimensions that are incredibly interesting,
yet, difficult to comprehend from a human perspective. The miracles of the Universe can indeed be
described as just that, miracles, and poignantly demonstrate the possibility of
the existence of the Majesty and Might of a Supernatural Being and Creator.
The miracles of the Universe have the
potential to give us valuable insight into the sheer power and intellect of
such a creative, artistic and industrious being. The marvels of the Universe may indicate an
extraordinary and complex existence, with all the thought and feeling that
would be necessary to conceive and create such a vast and ongoing entity with
such exquisite design, order and planning.
CHAPTER 5
Only
118 Natural Elements in the Known Universe
Atoms, Cells, Genes and
DNA
Meaning of ‘The
Word’, Soul and, Spirit
Contributing a contemporary perspective to
this mix of rationale, philosophy and science may add credibility and potency
to their significance as evidence for the consideration that creation, by
definition, requires as a necessity to exist, the existence of a Creator or
Super Natural Being in some form or status.
All these rational, philosophical and scientific modes of thought of
perceiving the world, such as, the paradigms of Providence, Motion, Cause and
Effect, Contingent and Necessary Beings, Subordinate Series, Perfection, Order,
and You can not get Something from Nothing, can be experienced in the phenomena
reality. Science has determined that
there only 95 Elements making and producing all that exists in nature and the
universe. Elements are substances that
are ‘pure’ in that they consist of the same atoms which combine together to
form molecules, such as, Oxygen, or Carbon, etcetera. So Oxygen atoms combine to form Oxygen and
different atoms of elements, for example, Hydrogen and Oxygen atoms, combine
(as compounds) in a complex chemical reaction to form water molecules (H2O).
There are
only 95 elements that singularly or, in combination build everything and
anything that exists in the known universe.
The combination of the same or different atoms of these elements combine
to form either inanimate objects/realities which are nonliving and non-growing,
for example, rocks, sand, water and air, etcetera, or animate objects/realities
which are living and growing, for example, bacteria, plants, animals and humans
etcetera. However, there are realities
that can be considered to have not been constructed from the atoms of these
elements, such as the invisible, but real constructs of Self, consciousness,
cognition, emotion, attitudes, values, beliefs, and personality etcetera, which
we can refer to as Spirit.
We may
accept that there is some difficulty in understanding the complexity of the
creation of atoms, which are comprised of subatomic particles made up of the
nucleus, neutrons, protons and electrons as the building blocks of all the
elements. But the different structures
and functions of atom-energy – and non-atom spiritual energy - can not just
appear from nothing and just appear from nowhere. Atoms are the building blocks of human cells,
DNA and genes and similarly cannot just suddenly appear in their intricate
forms and structures without there being some form of transcendent design and
order. Atoms and their subatomic
particles do not just appear like a rabbit out of a hat, out of ‘thin air’, or
exist and evolve from nothing, out of nowhere.
So these
complex and sophisticated forms of existence called atoms that make up the
complex elements that make up the entire natural, but complex materials and
substances and living things that exist in the universe, must have been created
themselves by something other than themselves.
They must be created other than from nothing and nowhere for themselves
to exist. Furthermore, they must have
been created by something that does not require these same atoms or elements,
for itself to exist. Indeed, there must
be something that possesses something else, besides atoms and elements, for it
self to exist, and therefore for atoms and elements to exist. Atoms must have been created by something
greater than atoms for atoms to exist, perhaps something that requires nothing
else to exist but its Self to exist, whatever that may be.
So there
must be Something, Someone, Something Miraculous, Something Extraordinary,
Something Invisible, Something Incredible, Something Wondrous, Something
Magical, Something Awesome, Something ‘Impossible’ and Something *****, for the
atoms of the elements that make up all that exists in creation and nature to
exist. And we might speculate that this
Something ‘*****’ is what we might refer to as the Creator. And that this Creator comprises, in part,
‘The Word’, the Soul, Self, and Spirit, including the invisible constructs of
consciousness, cognitions, attitudes, values, emotions and personality,
etcetera. Invisible constructs as being
the phenomena that are invisible, and that do not consist of atoms that make up
the 118 elements that everything else natural in the known universe and world
consist of as necessary to exist.
When we look around us there is
predetermined order, design and purpose everywhere. Subatomic particles of atoms or atom-energy
not only make up the pages and print of this book but everything in the
universe, including inanimate objects (non-life) e.g., stars, galaxies, water,
rocks, etcetera, and animate living life, for example, plants, animals, birds,
insects and humans etcetera. Atoms, in
essence, are but energies without mass (because measured in eV - electrical
volts), weight (because electromagnetic energy between the earth attracts
smaller parcels of electromagnetic energy giving gravity) and visibility
(because we see the visible light wave–lengths that are reflected by particular
atoms). Further explanation of these
seemingly counterintuitive facts will be discussed further on. If we think about how hydrogen and oxygen
make up ice, water and steam-gases we can understand how everything in the
universe possesses different structures and functions even when made with the
same atoms. As the energy of atoms
changes e.g., as in the different structures and functions of ice, water, and
steam, made from the same atoms, but structured differently, tightly packed
atoms (ice) as opposed to less-tightly packed (steam-gases) - and so more
volatile. Atoms interact with other
atoms both similar (elements) and different (compounds) to make up the universe
and the world we experience.
There are only 118 different atoms that
together or combined make up 4 % of the world, 96 % being energy unknowen but
more probably akin to the energy of the ‘Word’.
Self, which by definition is also non-atom energy of Spirit
(spirit-energy) - consciousness, thoughts, emotions, self-awareness,
personality and will etcetera. Reference
to the word ‘physical’ (in essence, atom-energy) in this book can refer to the
body (anatomy) or the ‘physical’ environment -
food, shelter, life and all that we observe around us (atom-energy) -
except for Self-Spirit and the Spirit of others which is non-atom energy.
The sub-atomic particles of atoms include electrons,
neutrons and protons that make up atoms, being the building blocks of elements,
and are, therefore, the building blocks of cells. Cells are made of a complex combination of
atoms of particular elements. A cell is
the smallest unit of independent existence.
A cell is a discrete, membrane-based portion of living atom-energy. All living matter (atom-energies) consists of
one or more cells. Living bacteria and
amoeba (yeast and protozoa) consist of a single cell, whereas living humans are
made of trillions of cells. Within each
cells’ nucleus exists the ribosomes that carry out the protein synthesis which
are the materials used to produce genes – that exist within the DNA - that in
combination, combine to form the blueprint that is represented and expressed as
hereditary material. Chromosomes are the
structures in a cell’s nucleus that carry the genes. Each chromosome consists of one long strand
of a complex bio-chemical substance called Deoxyribo Nucleic Acid (DNA).
There are 46 chromosomes or strands of DNA in a normal
human cell and approximately 27,000 different genes in each chromosome or
strand of DNA. One gene may contain up
to 2 million nucleotide strands made up of a sugar group (deoxyribose), a
phosphate group, and one of four purine bases.
The order of the bases along each of these millions of nucleotide
strands in each gene gives the gene its genetic code. But the human genome (DNA/ genetic system) is
now believed to contain 3.2 billion "letters" or “base pairs” within its DNA and
which previously was called “junk DNA”.
So only 1.2 per cent of this long genetic code represents genes, being
the bits of DNA called nucleotides, which are the programs designed to order
the manufacture of proteins for specific body parts and organs. The body is,
both made up of proteins, and manufactures these proteins that make up the
body. So these genetic nucleotides are
the building blocks that make up life and all living things. The chromosomes are comprised of strands
called DNA, which house the genes, which are the hereditary genetics that
program the development of all the individual features and characteristics that
distinguish all living things from each other, including the differences within
and between humans. DNA house the genes
that are in every living cell, and this genetic material is the blueprint and
program which creates the features and characteristics that make up trees,
plants, bacteria, insects, animals and humans etcetera. The genes in every cell consist of all the
programs necessary to create all the parts of a living thing, such as the lips,
eyes, skin, lungs, teeth, organs, blood, bones, stomach, bowel, hands, feet,
legs, arms and face etcetera, which come together to form a particular animal
or human being etcetera. So all the
cells in the body contain a full set of genes, but in each cell type in the
body only some of these genes are active or turned on. For example, liver cells produce proteins
that produce the liver organ, which are not produced in the kidney cells that
produce the kidney organ, and vice-versa, and so on.
However, because only 1.2 per cent of this long
genetic code in DNA represents genes, the other 98.8 per cent of genetic
material traditionally dismissed as "junk DNA" with little or no
function, has been discovered by Australian researchers to also contain
thousands of small stretches of DNA that have been frozen in time for up to 400
million years. These bits of DNA are exactly
the same in people, mice and rats, which means that against all odds, not a
single "letter" of DNA in these stretches of DNA has changed over
millions of years of evolution.
"Nobody expected it. We were totally surprised," said John
Mattick of the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the
The sub-atomic particles of atoms then are the
smallest building blocks of existence, both inanimate and animate such as
living plants and animals, whereby plants made from atoms of specific elements need the fuel of minerals to grow
and animals made up of atoms of specific elements need the fuel of plants and
animals to grow. Atoms are the energy
with structure and function that build the ‘physical’ part of plants, trees,
animals and human beings, etcetera. But
on there own volition, fuel or no fuel, atoms of elements cannot create and sustain
living life such as a pulsating, breathing, thinking and feeling human being,
or any other living thing. Consider that
an original Super Natural Being was required to create the sub atomic particles
that make up atoms, which in turn, make up structures and functions, which in
turn, make up living cells. Consider
predetermined design and order as a requirement for such complex chemical
reactions and evolution itself, to take place, for creation and life itself to
exist. An invisible entity called the
‘Soul’ considered a necessity, being that part of the Will and Desire of the
mystical ‘Creator’ that maintains and sustains creation, evolving creation and
life. The Soul, in essence a part of the
Creator, is by definition infused into creation and life at the beginning of
creation and time, to sustain and maintain life expressed in and through the
life of living creation. Just as the
consciousness of an artist is infused into artwork so consciousness of the
‘Creator is fused into the created.
In addition to the invisible ‘Soul’,
there must exist an invisible entity that we may choose to call ‘The
Word’. The Word being that part of the
Will and Desire of a mystical ‘Creator’ that was required to initiate the
existence of creation for creation to exist, and the design and order of
creation subsequently evolving to produce both inanimate realities and animate
realities. Scientists term the birth and
beginning of creation as ‘The Big Bang’.
So a Super Natural Being provided ‘The Word’, Spirit, and ‘Soul’ that is
required for Self, and life itself, to exist.
The Word initiates creation and life, the Soul connects creation to the
Creator, and the Spirit constitutes the integrity and essence of the
individual. Self’s invisible
consciousness, and Self’s invisible attributes of cognition, emotion and
freewill exist as Spirit. Self is
therefore ‘Spirit’, which in turn allows Self to become Self and function as a
human being, a Being made akin to that of the spiritual Creator. So Self, although being an independent and
sovereign Being, has within, parts of the Creator described as the ‘Word’,
‘Soul’ and ‘Spirit’.
We may
decide now through logic and reason that material objects cannot be made from
nothing and need to be made from something, because you cannot obtain something
from nothing, because nothing produces nothing.
But what about the things and constructs that we know exist, but which
we cannot see or hold, but which can only be experienced? For instance, thoughts and feelings we all possess, but cannot be defined or described as being
either material or visible objects. The
brain is the bio-chemical mechanism for areas of human experiences, such as
language, cognition, vision, sound, and planning, etcetera. But, there are no neurons, or neural
networks, or white and grey matter, or cerebrum cells, or electrical pulses, or
neurotransmitters (for e.g., serotonin, dopamine, adrenaline, GABBA and
glutamate), that can be labeled, or identified with, or which represent one’s
specific thoughts or feelings about something or anything specifically.
There are
specific areas of the brain that process information sourced from the stimuli
of the environment, such as sound, movement and sight, etcetera, including
personal experiences with regard to joy, happiness, pleasure, depression, anger
and pain, etcetera. But there are no
parts of the brain, and there are no neurons, and there are no
neurotransmitters that represent the specific and personal thoughts and
feelings Self experiences about any specific or particular reality
experienced. For example, the image of
say, a tree lined and snow covered mountain, or a cool bubbling gently flowing
stream, or a dry hot sandy beach, or an ancient dinosaur, or a grey coloured
big-eared elephant. Or of Self, or of
Self’s particular personal beliefs, or of Self’s particular personal goals, or
of Self’s particular self-esteem, or of Self’s particular interests or passions
in a particular activity or hobby, or of Self’s intimate feelings and thoughts
about a particular relationship, etcetera, etcetera.
So, some
of the characteristics of Self, such as consciousness, personality, thoughts,
values, beliefs, attitudes and emotions, etcetera, could be described as being
invisible, and thus Spirit, created without material substances such as the sub
atomic particles that make up atoms that make up the the structures and
functions that we experience, observe and exist. Reason and logic may suggest that such entities
like consciousness, cognition and emotion lean more toward the spiritual than
the ‘physical’, lean more toward the metaphysical and the transcendent than the
earthly and the temporal. Just as it’s
inconceivable to create something physical from nothing, so it must also be
inconceivable to create something spiritual and invisible from nothing. So it must be therefore inconceivable for
consciousness, thoughts and emotions, etcetera, to exist without there
somewhere, being that which must have created such entities. And we can go further and suggest that the
Creator of such invisible entities and constructs must itself, possess the
ability to express and create the idea, the image, the reality and the
experience of such an entity, to be itself the master architect of such
phenomena for such phenomena to exist.
In
previous chapters, we have gathered knowledge from the mix of the academic
disciplines of philosophy and science.
Together with human logic manifest in intellectual and cognitive
reasoning and rationale in the attempt to prove through the evidence of the
reality of creation that SOMETHING must have created creation and the universe
for it to exist as we know it today.
Because no one exits in known existence that can produce something from
nothing. The contributions of Science,
Philosophy and Theology may be considered to provide us with such cognitive
evidence channeled through the logic of our intellect and combined with a
reflective, introspective, discerning and intuitive spirit, that a Supreme
Being, a Creator, might necessarily be needed as an existence for anything and
everything else in the Universe to exist.
It could
be said that this proposed evidence from logic and reasoning processes, which
always needs to be considered and contemplated through and within a reflective
introspective intuitive spirit, is an alternative path underpinning the
justification for the beliefs, faiths and values humans may have about the
answers they come to possess for those personal existential questions. This particular path of thought and contemplation
towards a personal faith, categorized as a form of cognitive logical reasoning
supported and internalized by a reflective, introspective, intuitive and
discerning spirit, must be considered to be a legitimate alternative to just
having a belief underpinned by arbitrary ‘faith’. And could indeed
constructively compliment the personal belief we acquire from that spiritual
construct called “faith” (which may be misinformed or informed) thus shaping
the direction and quality of the content to the answers we acquire about the
questions we may have to these personal existential questions.
How Could ‘God’ Have Always
Existed?
But before we move along to the next chapter regarding
the exploration of the miracle of evolution.
It is perhaps a very relevant time - if we are, through logic and
reason, contemplating the idea that a Creator must potentially exist - to
explore that very nauseating question relating to the necessary belief, that if
the Creator exists, that creator ‘must have
always existed’. Because by definition,
creation itself exists through the act of creation, that is, being
created. Indeed, the fact that a Creator
must have always existed is a huge question that can understandably limit the
depth and breadth of human ‘belief’, because this question increases the
complexity of the necessary information required to understand and believe in
the existence of a Creator.
If we can decide that a Creator must exist for
creation to exist, then we are left with other questions. Who really is the Creator/ God? What really is the Creator/ God? But questions such as, “how did the Creator/
‘God’ come to be” and “how could the Creator/ ‘God’ have always been” and “how
could anything exist forever”, are concepts in consciousness that belie a clear
and transparent answer. Of course these
questions are very relevant, but naturally, difficult to answer. But it must be considered that the Creator,
by definition, could not have had a beginning.
The Creator, by definition, could not have come into being. If the Creator had a beginning, or came into
being, the ‘Creator’, by definition, could not be the Creator, but be also the
created.
But to comprehend the concept ‘to have always been’,
and ‘to have always existed’ is undoubtedly beyond the reality of humans’ and
Self’s experience, as everything experienced by Self has been created, or has
been made. Everything existing in
relation to the Universe, by definition, exists as atom-energies, and this
Existence as we know it has a Beginning, a Past, a Present, and a Future, which
if contemplated equates to the concept of Time.
Together with the concept of Time we can explore these questions with
the notion of Self’s experience of Self’s invisible consciousness, cognition,
emotion and personality etcetera, and thus, Self’s Spirit. The Self’s invisible constructs that make up
Self’s Spirit, which by definition, are not tangible or physical. It is with these veins of reference in mind
that we may partly explore the above seemingly incomprehensible questions.
If we and the universe, and thus existence and
creation didn’t exist, we obviously could not ask such a complex question,
because there would be no Self to ask a question and no universe to ask a
question about. But before we were
born we didn’t exist, and perhaps upon this particular reflection this is as
close to the comprehension of the concept of the meaning of the
word ‘nothing’ we will ever experience.
But we now know through Self’s consciousness and intellect that we have
experienced life on Earth in both past and present tense, and we are aware
through scientific and natural information that the Universe has been in
existence for about 13.5 billion years before we were born, before our personal
entry into this world. And so we know
that something - being the universe, life and creation - existed before Self
existed. The question, “How can or will
anything exist forever”, is again, perhaps better understood through reflection
of Self’s personal experience of Self’s invisible ‘spiritual’ constructs of the
consciousness of Self and Self’s personal invisible thoughts and feelings
etcetera. Because now that Self has been
born and is alive in this world, Self may now feel as if Self could exist and
live forever. Indeed, it may seem as if
we have always existed, if we do not acknowledge the fact that we know we did
not experience the existence of Self and life before Self’s birth. But now that we do exist, and we are
conscious of Self and of Self’s experiences, etcetera, asking the question about
the existence of a Creator is relevant because we may understand that something
can’t be created or produced from nothing.
But if we now consider that creation with its complex
design and order must have come into existence not from nothing, but from something. That creation possibly exists because of a
Supreme Natural Being that exists without itself needing assistance to
exist. That exists of itself and that
itself has not been created. But which
may be humanly defined as containing some of the characteristics relating to
unimaginable, inconceivable and incomprehensible abundant forms of Intellect,
Force, Power, Mystical Relational Love and Energy, we may now ask the question,
“How could this Creator have always been”?
“How could there be an existence, a something that always existed,
without itself having to be created first for itself to first exist? How could this Creator have always been, and
how could this Creator always be?
Of course these
are questions shaped and formed by humans from human experience relating to the
design and order of creation, the universe life as we know and understand them
through personal experience. This human
experience of the design and order of the universe and everything in it
(creation) includes the concepts of the realities of Existence (atom-energy),
which by definition, must have a Beginning, Past, Present, and Future and thus exists within and through the reality we
choose to call ‘Time’.
Time, time, time, what is Time? Time is considered an elusive concept that
can possibly be defined as being relative to both physical objects and movement
(atom-energies). The existence of
physical objects or matter (atom-energies) are characterised with a beginning,
past, present, and future, which particular existence is experienced through
the continuum of what we term ‘time’. In
addition, the reality of the interaction between ‘physical’ objects in relation
to movement crystallises the human meaning and definition of the entity of
Time. Physical objects are tangible, and
mostly observable to the human eye and powerful telescopes and microscopes, and
include the contents of space (which includes spirit-energy) and physical life,
termed scientifically as different structures with functions of atom-energies. But this matter, these physical objects,
which are in fact structures and functions of atom-energy, cannot exist without
movement. The interaction between all of
these subatomic particles, different atom-energies of different structures and
functions move in different ways characterised, defined and overarched, in
part, by the umbrella of what we call ‘Movement’. Without movement there is no ‘Time’. The meaning of the word ‘Time’ is a concept
encompassing motion, with a beginning, past, present, and future, of all
objects and matter or structures with functions of atom-energy in
existence.
A simple example of the interaction of atom-energies,
and movement that produces time, is where human time, in essence, is based on
planet Earth spinning once on its own axis. And in relation to the sun’s rays of light on
planet Earth as it spins a full turn, giving us one day and one night, which we
define as being 24 hours. We then break
each hour up into 60 minutes and each minute up into 60 seconds. One revolution of the planet Earth around the
Sun gives us what we term one year. And
in one year the Earth spins on its own axis 365.256 times giving us 365 days
and nights. But if we lived on the planet
Pluto, one year would be 249 times longer than an Earth year, because it takes
249 Earth years for Pluto to orbit the Sun once. And one day/ night on Pluto would be over 6
times longer than an Earth day/ night, because it takes Pluto 6.387 times
longer to spin once on its own axis. We
see that Time is relative to the interaction between specific structure and
functions of atom-energies (physical objects) in relation to specific
movements.
If we can then represent these experiences of
Existence of the atom-energy of the universe as an equation, then Existence of
atom-energy of the universe not including spirit-energy requires as a
prerequisite to exist => a Beginning, Past, Present, and Future, and Motion,
which = Time. If we delete the component
of the human experience, concept and reality of Time from this equation, then
there could not exist the entities of Motion, Beginning, Past, Present, and
Future, neither could there exist structures and functions of atom-energy being
the universe as we observe it. So if
Time is deleted from this equation for Existence, therefore no longer existing,
then neither would the entities of the ‘physical’ universe (atom-energies)
existing in the Time of Motion, Beginning, Past, Present, and Future.
However, there may be something else in addition. We may be left with something that is spiritual,
something more akin to the reality of Time of the Present, the Now, and the
Moment. We may still be left with
something that is more akin to that which is not ‘physical’ or intrinsically
part of the ‘physical’ universe, but left with something that is invisible and
spiritual as experienced by the Self and Self’s consciousness and the conscious
Self’s invisible constructs of Self’s being, thoughts, emotions attitudes,
beliefs and personality.
Some of us may have experienced the psychological/
spiritual phenomena, where we have gone back after many years to a familiar
place. Or we meet again a particular
person we have known maybe, two, five, ten, fifteen or twenty years in the
past, but where the Time between the Past and the Now (Present) seems to have
collapsed, seems to have folded within itself.
Where this present experience of meeting a particular past experience
seemingly becomes the Present, the Now, and the Moment. Where Self may have the experience of
thinking and feeling (invisible constructs) that Self has never been away that
many years, has never been away so long, let alone a single day. Where everything appears to be the same and
unchanged. It is as if Time has stood
still, as if Time did not exist. It is
as if there was no such entity as Time, but just the Present, and the Now, and
the Moment.
Moreover, we may have experienced the personal
awareness that Self is conscious of Self feeling and thinking (invisible
constructs) much younger than Self’s chronological age. Although Self acquires experiences and
knowledge, Self per se does not age, wear out, and die (change structure and
function of its atom-energy) anatomical body does. These phenomenon may be explained in terms of
the Self - Self being Spirit - experiencing that which does not include the
components relating to the equation for Existence of the ‘physical’ universe,
and thus does not include the component of Time (ageing). Although Self was created and exists
encapsulated within a ‘physical’ body and had a Beginning, and the components
of Existence and Beginning are part of the equation that comprises Time, Self
and Self’s invisible consciousness and personality etcetera, and thus Self’s
Spirit, may now need not to include the experience of Existence in relation to
Time and thus ageing.
If we can understand one’s Self, and thus one’s
Spirit, to be essentially intangible and invisible, we may not have such a
problem with the question ‘has always existed’ or ‘will exist for ever’. Because now that Self consists of the invisible
constructs of consciousness, intellect, emotion and personality, etcetera, Self
can relate somewhat to the idea of Self being in essence, a Spirit, which can
potentially exist without Time, and thus exist forever. And if Self and Self’s invisible
consciousness and personality, and thus Self’s Spirit, is in part, made in the
mirror, reflection and image of the Creator’s Spirit, and the entity of Time
does not now necessarily exist for Self, then Time also does not necessarily
exist for the Creator. Time may not
necessarily exist for the Creator who created movement and therefore the
existence of atom-energy, and therefore time, as defined in human terms. Thus it is conceivable to comprehend in
principle, a partial answer to the question regarding the Creator ‘having
always existed’ and ‘will exist forever’.
So perhaps these questions need not only be
constructed, formed, asked and answered in relation to the ‘physical’ human
experience of Creation and Time, but in relation to Self’s possible experience
of Spirit, and thus, Timelessness.
Obviously Self is not an identical replication of the Creator, as Self
was created with a ‘physical’ body thus experiencing Time, but may be created
in the image of the Creator as Spirit (non-atom spiritual energy) and thus
experiences Timelessness as an expression and characteristic of the
Spirit. Although Self was made with
invisible consciousness, and the constructs of independence, personal
sovereignty and freewill, Self had a Beginning, whereas the Creator must need
not require, as a prerequisite, for itself to exist the entity of a ‘physical’
or spiritual Beginning. Because
Beginning is related to, and is part of the equation of the creation of
Existence of atom-energies of the ‘physical’ universe of Objects of Motion, and
thus Time. And if the Creator created
the Existence of the universe in relation to atom-energies, must encompass
Motion, Beginning, Past, Present, and Future, and thus Time, then the Creator
does not require, as a necessity, these components for itself to exist, or to
Be.
If then the Creator need not exist in relation to the
equation of Existence defined by terms of the universe, and therefore does not
exist in relation to Beginning, Past, Present, Future and Motion and Time, but
just Exists, then perhaps the Creator Exists as a Spirit. The Creator exits as a Spirit in the Now, in
the Present, and in the Moment. We can
perhaps then relate to and perceive the Creator as a Spirit that is and is
being. If we can understand the Creator
as Is and as Being without imposing upon the Creator the human experiences of
Existence in terms of the Universe and thus Beginning, Past, Future, Motion and
Time, then the Spirit’s/ Creator’s existence may not require any of these
components for itself to exist.
The realities of the human experience of Beginning and
Time, are by definition, part of the equation of ‘Physical’ Existence in
relation to the Universe. So without
imposing upon the Creator the realities of Time and Beginning, etcetera, but
envisaging the Creator as being Spirit (that just exists as Is and Being), and
therefore not requiring the need to be ‘physically’ created, then it is
conceivable that the Creator had and has no Beginning, or End, or Time. But always was, always has been, and always
will be. So if the Spirit is Timeless
and has no End and the Creator is Spirit, and is by definition, greater than
the Self’s Spirit, then Timelessness for the Creator could be defined as having
neither a Beginning nor End. Moreover, if the Creator created not only the
visible universe but also the invisible constructs of Self, that by definition
can be characterised as the invisible constructs of Spirit, then Self may now
also possess the characteristics of timelessness and infinity.
CHAPTER
6
THE
MIRACLE OF EVOLUTION
We Continue Our
Search
In a Nut shell
Have We Forgotten
Genetics of
Evolution
More about Evolution
Predetermined
Evolution of Humans
Reconciliation
Between Science and Scripture
We Continue Our
Search
We continue our search, perhaps armed with a new
awareness and insight for interpretation of Scripture, and knowledge that our
belief systems based on informed evidence and logical reasoning and a
reflective introspective intuitive spirit, rather than from a belief based on
misinformation, innocent ignorance, and arbitrary blind faith. We may also acknowledge that the inconcise
literal interpretation of Scripture in which we may base its meaning, can
potentially be a significantly dangerous way of interpretation, affecting how
Self may interact with Self and others.
But which verses can also be liberating manifest within imbedded truths
exposed through their appropriate metaphorical, literal and contextual
interpretation, and continual reinterpretation in the light of new personal
experiences and knowledge. This may
allow for the better interpretation of scripture meanings, unraveling deeper
literary and metaphorical meanings and ‘truths’ emanating from the mix between the
interaction of new scripture meanings with the Self’s intellect, experiences
and reflective spiritual intuition.
We continue the
search for the answers to our existential questions in the miracles of
predetermined creation and evolution. We
realize that the literal interpretation of Scripture verses has prohibited
those who advocate such a method of interpretation as the basis for their
beliefs from being able to reconcile the process of scientifically proven
evolution as a significant component of the Creator’s intended and predetermined
plan for the refinement and development of nature in general, and humans in
particular. The Biblical stories of
Creation identifies the Universe as being made in three different ways,
including the ‘six day story’ of creation and the Adam and Eve story as the
beginning of creation and humankind.
The appropriate
contextual and metaphorical interpretation of Scripture can replace the
perceived reality of pure literal interpretation of Scripture, allowing for the
reconciliation of the scientific evidence of creation with Scripture’s stories
of creation with regard to the predetermination of creation through evolution
originating with the ‘big bang’ or ‘the Word’.
We may now also be armed with insight into how reason formed from
intellect, formed from informed information and the inner drive of Self’s
innate, intuitive, reflective and discerning spirit can create the provocation
of such personally intimate and private existential thoughts. Through natural instinct of human
inquisitiveness derived from Self’s sense of spirituality we continue the
search for transparent and significant answers to these questions.
The universe as we know it came into existence about
13 billion years ago. Our solar system
(planets revolving around the sun) was created through the extraordinary
enormous and complex cosmic interactions 4.5 billion (4,500 million) years
ago. Planet Earth was covered thick in
ice until about 500 million years ago, when existing sea creatures provided
through breath expulsion, enough carbon dioxide to create an atmosphere that
kept the warmth of the sun in, allowing the ice to melt. This warming of the Earth enabled the
proliferation of numerous species to live and survive in a period called the
Cambrian Explosion. So simple ‘life’
first existed in the sea as simple cells such as bacteria and the amoeba 3 billion
years ago. The first animal was the sea
sponge existing about 570 million years ago and essentially has continued to
live and exist without further changes to its bio-physiological internal or
external design and function. This is, sponges have not evolved over millions
of years. The first hunting animal with
movement and a head and tail was a sea animal similar to the flat worm first
existing 540 million years ago. The flat
worm it seems, has also been designed and ordered to adapt to thousands of
different environments without much internal or external change to their
bio-anatomical design and function. But
in total contrast to these examples of ‘non-evolution’, humans have branched
off from specific primates as a result of the particular design and order of
their genetic DNA. This process of human
evolution we may describe as a form of customised or pre-programmed genetic
‘evolution’ from a specific and predetermined species of primate called Apes. But Apes themselves have continued over
millions of years to exist as Apes, as do monkeys, chimpanzees and
gorillas.
These primates continue to retain the integrity of
their original biological and functional characteristics, which must be totally
unexpected because of the expectation of change as a manifestation of the
process of evolution. The evidence
provided by these living species illustrates the finality of the process of
evolution as apposed to the infinity of the process of evolution for perennial
changes in ‘physical’ and functional characteristics as a need to accommodate
to diverse environments through physiological adaptation and the retention of
the fittest. So the definition of
process relating to evolution could be said to be structured, discriminate,
limited and ordered rather than global, disorganised, arbitrary and
indiscriminate. Therefore a greater
power may be at play here in the process of any evolution than just a species
adapting to the environment through the random chance of accidental mutations
of genes that create physiological and functional changes that by chance become
strengths out-surviving the same species with physiological and functional
weaknesses. This greater power, may be
understood, as being the creation and predetermination of the design and order
of DNA that has been, in essence, pre-programmed by a Creator.
We may have perhaps
been a little complacent in our respect for things natural. We may have forgotten to appreciate and
admire the wonders of creation. We may
have forgotten the miracle of pro-creation, humans as co-creators sharing with
the Creator in the creation of humankind.
We may have forgotten the miracle of life, the wonder of an egg and
sperm fusing to start the life of another human being. We may have forgotten the miracles of our
body, how intricate, fragile, vulnerable and complex they are. We may have forgotten the power of our minds,
how we can understand through our intellect, how we can visualise, imagine,
reason, perceive, reflect, judge, remember, make decisions, plan, organize,
solve problems and choose that which we desire, whether it has beneficial or
malevolent consequences for Self and others.
We may not be conscious of it, but our
consciousness, thoughts and emotions are invisible, transcending time and
space, flashing within and before us, almost instantly, faster than the speed
of light. Because can we not think a
thought about an image, of say, an apple and orange simultaneously?
We may have forgotten how insignificant
our own time frame here on Earth is – living up to 100 years - in relation to
the cosmic clock of time. To put our individual human existence into
perspective, a scrubby looking creosote bush in the
So we humans stand as newly awakened
creatures in comparison to other life, both living and extinct. Sharks have been hunting the oceans for 350
million years with little change to their anatomy. Cockroaches have been scrambling around
southern
Now, categorical
evidence provided by science over the last decades has shown that without
little doubt modern humans (Homo sapiens) have only been on this Earth for
about the last 180,000 years. There is
arguably enough proof to profess that humans have evolved and branched off from
the animal species, from mammals, from the Great Apes, from a distinct and
separate linage of common ancestor of the Chimpanzee between 4 and 6 million
years ago, into what and who humans are today.
True to all bona fide scientific
and methodological research, the pursuit for truth continues through the search
for new evidence of human evolution and origins of human existence, which will
help clarify, qualify, quantify and further develop existing understanding from
knowledge already discovered in the quest for information regarding the origins
of human beings. To date, the latest
evidence from archaeologists is that modern humans existed as long ago as
120,000 years. Discoveries of fossils
indicate that human species branched off from a common ancestor with the
Ape. As early humans evolved through
genetic modification through preprogrammed DNA, and adaptation to a new
environment, the human brain evolved into what we have today, containing over
100 billion neurons and more than 100 trillion synaptic connections between neurons
each connecting to thousands of other neurons.
Modern man’s brain has a capacity of about 2000cc (cubic centre meters),
which is more than twice the size of a chimpanzee, which is capable of only
simple reasoning and without the capability for speech. Sixty thousand years ago, modern humans are
said to have left
Although
early Homo Sapiens had the same brain capacity as contemporary humans they had
fewer neural connections, but were able to solve complex problems, make
decisions and reasoning, whereas other primates have only limited brain
capacity for more simple instinctual tasks such as hunting, eating, procreating
and sleeping. Biological, scientific and archaeological
evidence is slowly proving the theory that all living things have descended
from amalgamations of single biological cells, and so, from an original common
ancestor. Humankind has originated from
the beginnings of life shared with all the other creatures we share with in
life.
Genetic scientists
in their research of the genes in DNA, the building blocks of life, have shown
that genes, which program the biological cells in biological life to be either
a heart, lung, eye, mouth or leg etcetera, in the offspring of animals and
plants contribute to the presence of ‘throwbacks’, adaptations and mutations as
the basis for natural selection. Natural
selection is the process whereby mutations of genes result in minute structural
and functional (‘physical’) changes in an animal or plant over hundreds of
centuries, and the best or fittest of these changes in the animal or plant
survive in that particular environment.
The creatures with these changes, which best fit the environment, tend
to breed more and live longer, which together or singularly produce changes and
variations within a species over time, and which cumulative processes we may
term ‘evolution’.
However, this theory of the evolution
of creation and human beings from natural selection has been preconceived as a
definition that implies that the process of evolution is no more than the
affects of random chance, and as such, the product of an accident or mistake
that has become adaptive. But it is
practicably and theoretically impossible for random chance to create such
diversity, such beauty and such complexity as the creation of all that lives
that we experience today. Indeed, it
would be as mathematically probable for a Jumbo Jet airliner to be built by
random chance from a tornado sweeping through the debris of a junk yard than it
would be for the random chance of natural selection to be the sole impetus
behind the evolution of creation. In
fact, any mutations and adaptations of DNA that shape and drive the existence
of complex life, must be considered to be, at least in part, strong evidence
for the existence of a supreme being.
Because the complex changes of genes
within DNA strands required to create the entire process of evolution of all
the different forms of life on Earth, simply as a result of chance adaptations
to the environment, is a far too simplistic explanation for it to be
credible. The DNA ‘blue prints’ of such
adaptations must be considered as being part of the design and order of
creation and must have always been in existence, at least within a Creator’s
imagination and ability to will such creation.
As rational intellect decrees, you cannot get something from
nothing. As we may understand, nothing
can only ‘produce’ nothing, just as something can only be produced by and from
something.
The idea of natural selection and thus,
random chance, solely driving evolution is intellectually unsustainable and
must incorporate and include the theory that evolution must include, in its
process, the predisposition of predetermined DNA. That is, the possibility that DNA has been
previously pre-programmed. The idea that
DNA has, as a pre requisite for complex change has been preprogrammed, is
surely far more intellectually and rationally palatable. If DNA has been preprogrammed to drive
evolution of creation, then it must be considered, at the very least, to be
some great intelligence as the designer, orderer, and planner of such
complexity. To this end then, evolution
per se, considered as predetermined creation and life, being the product of
predestined design, order and plan of creation and life. Whereby specific DNA have been pre-programmed
in advance, and whereby genes have also been pre-programmed to mutate, adapt
and change to particular environments, and then, through predetermined natural
selection of the fittest, survive.
Although, evolution may at the least be
a combination of these two mechanisms, of preprogrammed DNA, and natural
selection, both requiring as a prerequisite, intelligence, and design and
order, to exist. In fact, it is
intellectually plausible that the mechanisms of natural selection could only be
associated with the adaptations specifically observed in the changes and
variations within a particular species.
We may experience these adaptations in say, the many different types of
cockroaches and sharks that exist, but which overall, have changed little in
400 million years. There are many
different types of sharks and cockroaches, but essentially 400 million years
ago they biologically achieved their preprogrammed destination, accept for
small changes through adaptation and natural selection. They have reached their preprogrammed
biological goal. Preprogrammed DNA, per
se, on the other hand, is perhaps the impetus behind complex evolution manifest
in the dramatic changes necessary for the evolution of one species into
another species.
Different skin colours, facial features
and characteristics that we notice in diverse cultures through out the world
are perhaps the results of genetic changes through adaptation to various
climates and environments. Reproduction
within specific communities and populations tends to concentrate the specific
adaptation of genes to produce similarities of ‘physical’ characteristics
within communities, not to mention possible similarities in culture, traditions
and beliefs. So the varied and complex
mechanisms of evolution are the building blocks for similarities within
species, as well as the differences between species.
Anthropologists believe that the
different races of humankind arose from a single parental population branching
from a common ancestor that dispersed from Africa about 80,000 years ago,
having then, become rapidly differentiated through the concentration of gene
pools that we observe in today's diverse races.
Again it should be emphasized that it is intrinsically simplistic and
naïve to believe that ‘throwbacks’, adaptations and mutations, as the forming
basis for natural selection, are the only biological components that drive the
changes in a species to create different and diverse animals and creatures. It is far too intellectually limiting to
believe the concept that the unique biological complexity of the evolution of
different species, can be attributed solely to the chance of natural selection
as defined by mutations and adaptations, and survival of the fittest.
For instance, the complex differences
to the human brain from other mammals cannot be attributed to the mechanisms of
‘random chance’ to mutate biological genes that conveniently adapt to a
particular environment and then proliferate as a result of survival of the fittest
and which entire process is neatly termed ‘natural selection’. The intricate biology that allows sperm
whales to dive without breath deep into the depths of the ocean, and the
intricate changes in biology that allows the hibernation of frogs and polar bears
in winter, and the biological diversity between species cannot be just
attributed to natural selection, without there being some other important
factor(s) and component(s). Similarly,
the existence of the Cambrian Explosion is the period where many different
species of life came into existence 500 million years ago, simultaneously in
many different parts of the world, and during a relatively short period. And because these creatures from the
Cambrian Explosion formed one of each of the 35 body plans that all existing
living
creatures
are now based. This diverse, complex,
and simultaneous existence cannot possibly be attributed singularly, to the
process called natural selection but is due to pre-designed DNA affected upon
the increase in oxygen at the time through prolific plant life converting
carbon dioxide into oxygen. The extra mysterious biological component that
drives the complex changes in living nature, and witnessed over time may
plausibly explained by the existence of pre-programmed DNA. This is, DNA has been pre-programmed to become
the blue prints and engines of the design and order of life. DNA created necessarily by a Supreme Being,
Spirit, and Intelligence for the dramatic changes witnessed within and between
species over time, and through particular environmental circumstances, designed
to be ‘controlled’ and maintained by the cause and effect of nature. Just as the genes within DNA are
preprogrammed to form an eye, or a liver, or a kidney, etcetera, so too may the
genes within DNA be pre-programmed to evolve into different species. This intelligent and complex pre-programming
of life through the building blocks of DNA, could be attributed to the
premeditated and intentional design, order and plan of a Creator.
Dr Francis Collins,
co-author of the new analysis by the international group that decoded the human
genome says that it takes the same number of genes to make a human as it does
to make a small flowering plant, that is, about 25,000 genes. And a small flowering plant in the mustard
family, the Arabidopsis, has 27,000 genes.
But human complexity derives out of what specifically these genes have
been pre-programmed to do, such as the enlarged human brain. Apart from the necessary transcendent design
and order required for the complex bio-chemical reactions of creation to take
place. The addition of invisible human
consciousness, personality, thought, emotion, values, attitudes and beliefs,
etcetera, (Spirit and Soul), must also surely be required as an additional
component added above and beyond to that of the complex equation of atoms
(atom-energy) of the structure and function of living cells, genetics and DNA
that help make up life. The concepts of
a Spirit and Soul must be necessary to explain Self’s complexity, specifically
in terms of Self’s invisible constructs of consciousness, individual
personality, and all that comprises Self that emanates from and into Self.
So it could be suggested that a Creator
or ‘God’ has waited millions and millions of years, in human terms, for the
pre-designed and pre-ordered development of the evolution of creation to bring
forth human beings with personality, spirit and freewill. The Creator has perhaps Willed the design and
order of creation infusing creation with a Soul to initiate and maintain the
genetic and evolutionary pre-programming of DNA as the process for the human
species to eventually branch off from a common ancestor and develop into the
remarkable beings that humans are. We
are humans with a larger and more complex brain than our predecessors who are
now capable of executing the functions that can express life and personal
experiences through the processes of consciousness, thought, emotion
and speech. This exceptional and
extraordinary shift in the development of the brain allows humans the function
to think, feel and speak. As a result of
thinking, feeling and speaking, humans are able to make choices and decisions
in how they think, feel, behave and talk.
These human abilities are the prerequisites that underpin the building
of deeper and closer relationships with Self and others. These human abilities of relationship
building are perhaps what the Creator has planned as the ultimate purpose for
creation through predetermined evolution.
The creation of Self, the creation of humans, a people who are capable
of choosing to communicate and relate with themselves and each other, as being
the ultimate function of creation, as being the ultimate function of their
existence.
More about Evolution
The questions asked about
those ‘missing links,’ describing the continuity of evolution of modern humans
from other mammals and primates such as Apes, have now all but been
answered. But Paleontologists,
Archeologists and Anthropologists still continue the search to slowly and
surely piece together significant new discoveries that support the theory of
evolution (predetermined) as a solid mechanism for understanding the miracle of
the creation of human kind.
To give added weight to the ingenuity,
complexity and magnificence of the Creator through the process of predetermined
evolution, as opposed to the belief that God instantly created all living
things in six days, scientists and philosophers are (possibly unwittingly)
answering and understanding some intriguing questions regarding the development
of humans and the refinement of creation from the evolutionary process. They are for instance questions and answers
such as:
·
Why, if all species
have descended and evolved from other species, do we not everywhere see innumerable
transitional forms? Instead of all
nature being in confusion, we see and have species well defined? Generally,
this question can be answered in terms of the process of evolution occurring
gradually over millions of years, by way of small biological changes over
extended periods of time and more importantly from the notion that DNA has been
pre-programmed to create different species from different species.
·
How is it
possible that an animal, say, having the structure and habits of an elephant,
and an insect with the structure and habits of a fly, and a human with our
uniqueness all be created from the same original DNA and cells? Again, the concept of the pre-programming of
DNA and small changes, in new environments, over billions of years helps answer
this question.
·
Can ‘instincts’ be acquired and modified through
natural selection? What about the
instinct that leads bees to make a symmetrically combed hive, which has
practically preceded and anticipated the discoveries of great
mathematicians? Yes, instincts are
acquired and continue to change, and are modified over millions of years
through adaptation and DNA pre-programming, because instincts are genetically
based. Human natural base instincts
brought down from our primate ancestors, including, cohabitation, aggression,
fear, territorial control, power and sex drive, can now be, in the most part,
controlled and dictated through our ability to make relatively free choices
through the ‘gifts’ produced from the process of evolution, such as, superior
learning power and reasoning capacity.
Which are manifest as, and from, human consciousness, freewill,
intellect, cognition and emotion. The choices humans make can be influenced and
determined by their experiences, attitudes and beliefs and in terms of the
negative or positive consequences that their actions have on Self and
others. In contrast, animals behave
instinctively, for example, bees have no choice other than to make a beehive
and birds have no choice other than to make a nest, etcetera, whereas humans
can choose what
they do or not do, think or not think, feel or not feel and say or not say.
·
How can we account for the different species, that
when crossed are sterile and can't conceive, whereas when crossed with the same
species their fertility is unimpaired? This causation can be answered by the
very definition and nature of a species which changes so dramatically from its
origins over millions of years that they become intrinsically different to
compatibly conceive.
·
Clearly, there
is overwhelming scientific evidence proving the case for evolution as a
sub-process for the refinement and development of creation, and must be thus,
intellectually and rationally conceivable.
Undoubtedly the questions surrounding the authenticity of the process of
evolution and its development and outcome as we know it today as a result of
many millions of years, circa 4,500 millions years, indicates how sophisticated
and complex the scientific building mechanisms of evolution must be. So we could rightfully assume from this
information that the mechanisms of evolution are not simply a straightforward
biological/chemical/environmental random chance laboratory experimental
procedure. Predetermined evolution could
be said to be essentially an all or nothing process, but the course of
evolution cannot be easily conceptualised in a “black or white” image. This biological-chemical-environmental
intricate convolution of earthly creation we call evolution, gives added weight
and further credit to the possibility of the existence of a Supernatural Power
and Intellect as the designer of such amazing living architecture. This information can also give further
impetus for the conceptual possibility of a Divine and Transcendent Creator we
may choose to call ‘God’. A God that if
does exist, could be viewed to be nothing other than, “that which nothing
greater can be thought".
This is probably not the final word on
the evolving lineage of human beings, as we know Self today. New discoveries are being continually
unearthed, and Self and other humans, continue to grow in knowledge and
awareness, and so consciously, as conscious, intellectual,
cognitive, emotional and spiritual beings.
The belief in scientific information and evidence regarding creation is
possibly somewhat converse and contrast to the belief in the creation story of
Biblical Scripture. The scientific
information of evolution could disprove the theory humans were created instantly,
by a ‘God’, at the beginning of time, as many may still believe as being
literal biblical truth. But this flawed
biblical theory manifest in scripture, that women and men were created
instantly by ‘God’ should not be mistaken as evidence for the non existence of
a Creator and ‘God’. From the plausible
belief proposed and drawn from contemporary evidence, supporting the idea of
pre-programmed evolution. And the
hypothesis that the beginning of creation and the beginning of the universe was
in the form of an initial and instant explosion or ‘big bang’, comes the
possibility that the mega explosion originated from “The Word” of a supremely
intelligent Creator or ‘God’. This idea
of evolution as being the origins of creation and humans would thus support the
theory about creation as expressed generally in the Bible by the authors of the
Old Testament. As we have read and
understand from Philosophers, “you can’t get something from nothing,” so it is
plausible that there might be one ‘Power’, one ‘Being’, or one ‘Intelligence’
that instigated through desire, word, thought and will, this first explosion or
‘big bang’, and the subsequent design and order of evolutionary creation. This concept of a Supreme Being we may wish
to call ‘God’ or the Creator.
Furthermore, if we follow this thought process through in
a rational fashion to its logical end, it is perhaps not too difficult to
surmise that the ‘Big Bang’ and the evolution of creation is an outcome of “The
Word” and “Spirit”. “The Word” and “Spirit”
being the essential and necessary integral ‘components’ and ‘ingredients’ for
the Will and Desire to formulate such design, plan and order, and subsequent
development of the universe’s creation.
It is a fact of science and the premise of rational and intellectual
logic that you cannot get something from nothing. It is very probable that the scientific and
philosophical concept
of ‘nothing’ cannot exist if something, anything, exists, this being the
fundamental criteria or the possible existence of a Creator. Indeed, a Creator who if does exist must have
existed always, and must have always been.
CHAPTER
7
HUMAN ATOMS AND SPIRIT
ENERGIES SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT
CERN, Antimatter, Stephen Hawkings, and Chance
Design and Order,
Cause and Effect
Self,
Consciousness, Cognition, Emotion and Speech
Human Personality,
Spirit and Soul
Attributes for
Personal Growth
Charles Darwin and,
the Last Word
CERN, Antimatter,
Stephen Hawkings, and Chance
We have explored and discussed probable theories with
regard to the reality of the design and order of creation, human evolution, and
the necessary complexity of such planed existence. To add to the mix of creation as necessarily
complex, let us now investigate the reality of the opposite of atom-energy
(being a electric charge), and that is antimatter, the inverted charge of
atom-energies, but also being an intrinsic and necessary, yet mystical part of
creation.
Antimatter really does exist. Cosmic rays are a natural source of antiparticles. In 1932, Carl Anderson a young professor at the California Institute of
Technology was studying showers of cosmic particles in a cloud chamber and saw
a track left by "something
positively charged, but with the same mass as an electron". After
nearly one year of effort and observation, he decided the tracks were actually
anti-electrons, each produced alongside an electron from the impact of cosmic
rays in the cloud chamber. He called the
anti-electron a ‘positron’ because of its positive charge. So the electron's antimatter counterpart is
called a positron and has an opposite charge to the electron. Cosmic rays are arriving from all directions, but many are ‘thrown’ into
space by supernovae, the huge explosions from dying stars. Cosmic rays hitting the outer atmosphere of
earth are mainly fast-moving, high-energy protons, and as they hurtle towards
the Earth they collide with atoms in the air.
Some of this collision energy reappears as new pairs of particles and
antiparticles – being atom-energy. In October 1955, Serge discovered a negative proton or
antiproton. The common proton has an
antimatter counterpart called the antiproton.
It has the same mass but an opposite charge to the proton. So these antiparticles, positrons (positive
or anti-electrons) and antiprotons (negative proton) bind together as anti-atoms,
being the basic units of antimatter.
So antimatter is a fundamental particle of regular
atom-energy, but with its electrical charges reversed. Antimatter particles are produced from ultra
high-speed collisions between subatomic
particles. Within the solar systems’
Sun, flares of energy accelerate
colliding with slower moving particles in the Sun's atmosphere, resulting in
the production of antimatter. So
antimatter is created and annihilated immediately in stars every day, including
our sun. The Sun is in fact an
antimatter factory. When a high-energy
proton in a solar flare collides with carbon (C) it forms a type of nitrogen
(N) that has too many protons relative to its number of neutrons. This makes the nitrogen’s nucleus unstable
and a positron emits to stabilize the atom.
But positrons don't last long, when they hit an electron they annihilate
and produce energy as a product. For
this reason, there is little antimatter around at any given time. However,
antimatter is around us all the time,
although in minute amounts.
Interestingly, antimatter particles can be produced in
ultra high-speed collisions between subatomic energies in a manufactured
vacuum. But we are still talking about
the necessary existence of a vacuum and the particles within a vacuum, which
already exist and therefore must be defined as something, and something cannot
be produced from nothing. So we have
again the same issue arising of a Creator being necessary to create that
‘something’ and so scientists are working with that which has already been
created. A vacuum may be considered to
be mass less, but by definition, needs to be contained within that which exists
itself for the vacuum to exist. CERN (The European Center for Nuclear
Research) is the world's largest particle physics research center. Scientists at CERN use giant machines -
particle accelerators and detectors - to study the smallest particles in the
universe.
At CERN, they produce the antimatter of the hydrogen
atom because Hydrogen is the simplest atom, made of just one proton and one
electron combined together. Hydrogen
atoms make up three quarters of our universe.
To build the anti-matter of a hydrogen atom they trap an antiproton and
get a positron to stick to it. Contrary to an accelerator, the Low Energy Antiproton Ring (LEAR)
actually slows down antiprotons.
Physicists are now working on forcing a positron (or anti-electron) to
stick to an antiproton to make an anti-hydrogen atom, a real antimatter atom.
CERN's large accelerator resides 100 meters
underground along the French/Swiss border located just outside of
CERN’s new Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) Cannot and Will Never Disprove the Need for a ‘Creator’. Will science ever have the proof that will
require ‘believers’ to question the existence of a ‘Creator’? You don’t need to be a ‘rocket scientist’ to
answer that question. It has been said that the possibility of the Universe, with its design,
order and intelligence being created by random chance, is as mathematically
statistically probable as a Jumbo Jet airliner being built by a tornado
sweeping through a junk yard.
The $11 billion Large Hadron
Collider (LHC) in CERN Switzerland will send beams of protons around a 27 Km
underground chamber to smash into each other and hopefully recreate, on a nano
of a fraction of the scale of the big Bang a nano of the fraction of the heat
and energy of the Big Bang. But this
will never provide evidence against the existence of a ‘Creator’ or ‘God’,
because the ‘rocket scientists’ have conveniently ignored one piece of vital
rational and scientific information. And
that is something can never be created from nothing. Therefore, the protons of energy used to
smash into one another are, as a prerequisite for their existence, made from
something.
We may call this ‘something’
a ‘Creator’. And if as a result of this
experiment, smaller subatomic energies are discovered, these also by logic of
reason and scientific evidence, will not, and cannot, be the proof from
evidence that something can be created from nothing. All that exists, exists as a result of
intentional and intelligent ‘creation’….no?
Will science ever have the proof that will require Believers to question
the existence of a ‘Creator’? You
wouldn’t need to be a ‘rocket scientist to answer that question would you.
Light, per se, is a very interesting entity and part
of creation. Light consists of Photons,
which have both wave and particle like characteristics. Max Planck proposed that each light wave
must come in a little packet he called a "quantum": In this way light was not just a wave, or
just a particle, but a bit of both, existing as both carriers of energy and
light. But the photons of energy and
light have no charge and do not contain
inside objects that are charged. So
light and energy photons cannot be distinguished from an anti-photons. Photons and anti-photons are therefore the
same thing.
Interestingly, matter and antimatter are
identical. Looking at an object means
seeing the photons (energy and light) coming from that object; however, photons
come from both matter and antimatter. If there were a distant galaxy made out
of antimatter, you could not distinguish it from a matter galaxy just by seeing
the light from it. If indeed there is a
difference between matter and antimatter, it is very small. Matter and antimatter are so similar that
sound waves created from vibrations of matter or antimatter would be the
same. An antimatter guitar or violin
would sound the same as a matter one. Gravitational forces depend on the energy of
an object in relation to another object, and since matter and antimatter both
have positive energy, gravitation acts on them in the same way. This means that an object made of matter and
one made of antimatter would both stand on the floor.
Scientists theorise that in the first seconds after
the ‘Big Bang’ there was no matter, just subatomic energies (possibly created
by The Word or Spirit). As the universe
expanded and cooled, particles of regular matter and antimatter formed in
almost equal amounts. They suggest a
theory that a slightly higher percentage of regular matter developed - perhaps
just one part in a million - for unknown reasons, and that was the requirement
needed for regular matter to win over antimatter in the structure of the
cosmos. When the matter and antimatter
came into contact they annihilated leaving the residual matter to form the
current universe.
The quantum
physicist, Stephen Hawkings, cavalierly theorises that the ‘Big Bang’ could
have originally initiated through the law of random uncertainty (Heisenberg’s
uncertainty principle). Whereby the sub
atomic particles of atoms being electrons, protons and neutrons and their
anti-particles, which consist of positively charged electrons called positrons,
and negatively charged protons called antiprotons, and termed anti-matter, are
formed by chance. When antimatter
particles collide with matter particles, the result is total annihilation with the production of energy as a
result. But nothing can be formed by
chance and from nothing, but only from something and the design and order of
that something. So not only is the
concept of chance an irrational idea, but the non-scientific concept of chance
being the impetus for producing any form of material, by definition, is grossly
negligent and incomprehensible. This is
because the concept and definition of the word ‘chance’ can only equate to
circumstances, possibilities and opportunities that can only relate to that
which already exists, and so cannot relate to the creation of creation’s
existence.
Counter intuitively
in relation to chance, CERN designed to recreate miniatures of creation seconds
after the ‘Big Bang’ needs one million dollars of energy every month to
recreate the collision of particles with antiparticles in a vacuum contained in
a long circular tube. So CERN can only
attempt to recreate creation seconds after the ‘Big Bang’. This attempt at recreation not only requires
a vacuum, which needs to be contained within a material container, but also
requires massive amounts of energy for the particles to collide. So energy already created from power is
required, and a container already created from material is required, and
particles already created from matter are required to replicate a miniature
form of post-creation seconds after the ‘Big Bang’. Of course, the ‘Big Bang’ can never be
replicated by humans because humans cannot make something out of nothing, and
‘having’ that ‘something’ is a requirement of the existence of the ‘Big Bang’
and creation.
So it is likely to
be probable that some form of Creator is the necessary singularity required to
provide the energy, to create the ‘Big Bang’, to create subatomic energy, to
create the universe and all that it. A
Creator needed to provide the particles and antiparticles pre-required to
initiate creation (atom-energies) from vast amounts of energy instantly for the
creation of the ‘Big Bang’ and creation itself to exist.
As we take the time to look around us,
we can see evolution in its minutest form in all living things, in the
developmental process from conception and birth through to death. We see it in all things in creation
preprogrammed to evolve from an initial origin with an end towards a goal and
purpose as part of their design, order and plan. We have all experienced this sense of order
and design. These are the laws of the
universe. These are the physical
(atom-energy) and metaphysical laws (non-atom-energy) that also influence the
way we behave, think and feel and the consequences overarched by the umbrella
of preprogrammed evolution and what we may call ‘cause and effect’. We are all physically and psycho-spiritually
internally sensitive to outside stimuli, both physical, and mental/spiritual. How we, and others, choose to react to both
internal and external physical, psycho-spiritual stimuli will affect the
outcome of our daily lives, and the daily lives of others. Because as the third law of thermodynamics
states, “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction; for every
effect a cause”, and so for every decision and behaviour there is a
consequence. Indeed, in this world
governed by cause and effect, we cannot escape the inevitable results and
consequences of our own actions.
Incidentally, and importantly,
scientists underpin the basis and principles of their scientific research and
studies on the theoretical assumption that these laws of design and order, and
cause and effect, must exist.
Scientists’ work originates from rational theories that endeavour to
search out, define, and describe these hypothetical laws in controlled and
methodological studies and then explaining them in human ‘scientific’
terms. How much more complicated and
sophisticated creation is then, that it has not yet been fully explained and
discovered, with its complex design and order, and cause and effect, from which
the world developed and continues to develop precipitating the continued
evolution of nature and human life.
So we humans have
evolved from a particular animal species and have evolved possessing the
abstract constructs of invisible consciousness, cognition, emotion and speech,
which characteristics set us apart from all other forms of life. Where
‘consciousness’ is about being conscious of Self’s Self and Being, and Self is
about being conscious of Being and being conscious. Consciousness is having a
sense of Self and Being, of knowing the difference between Self and the world
around. Self is also about having a
history of narrative made up of continuos flow of experience expressed through
consciousness of thoughts, images and sounds.
Consciousness is awareness about how it feels to
be Self. Consciousness, Self and Being,
are by definition, invisible.
No scientist, neurosurgeon or medical doctor has ever
been able to detect, let alone dissect such phenomena as Self and Self’s
consciousness, personality and being in terms of present and past thoughts,
feelings, attitudes and beliefs about a particular personal experience Self may
have encountered. This is because Self
and Self’s consciousness, personality and being including present and past
thoughts, feelings, attitudes and beliefs about Self’s personal experience are
intrinsically and essentially invisible and intangible constructs, and thus,
may only be defined as Spirit. As an outcome of the phenomenon of these predetermined
pre-programmed evolutionary, but invisible entities, of Self’s consciousness,
personality and being, we come to understand the
reality, development and refinement of an individual’s personality, spirit and
soul as being the inherently integral and intentional components of what it
means for Self to be Self. And for Self
to be human, which by definition, must include both the ‘physical’ body, and
spiritual personality.
Consciousness of thoughts (cognitions)
and emotions (feelings include both emotional and somatic sensations), are a
phenomena and essence of the experience of Self, and Self in the world, that
drives and shapes Self’s personality, and in turn, the way Self relates and
interacts with Self and the world.
Invisible consciousness, thoughts and emotions involve the highly
complex interactions and connections between the ‘physical’ and visible neurons,
bio-chemical neurotransmitters, electrical impulses of the brain, and the
individual’s invisible spirit/personality shaped by both personal choices and
voluntary and involuntary life experiences.
Speech is also an amazing quality that humans exclusively possess, and
allows the creation of sounds or vocalizations named and developed as language,
and which comprise of the words (sounds) that symbolize the conscious thoughts
and emotions from Self’s experiences of interacting with stimuli in the
world. The words or sounds that are
expressed through speech and/ or writing are in essence the tools used to
describe reality and/or perceived reality of an individual’s experience of the
world. Language advocates the
integration within conscious Self of the stimuli of the experience of reality
for the individual.
Language allows consciousness,
self-awareness, reflection and planning. Language decodes the stimuli of experience of
the real world and environment and of the transcendent, for example, others’
perceptions, thoughts, feelings and behaviours, which stimuli are absorbed
through the individuals senses (sight, sound, and touch) and the
interpretational processes between the interface of invisible consciousness and
the ‘physical’ brain, manifesting as conscious and sometimes subconscious, thoughts,
feelings, and behaviours. Human beings
through this process are an example and result of the most sophisticated form
of creation, the most complex form of evolution. No other creature in nature has evolved so
rapidly in such a short space of time and in such an intrinsic and complex way
as humans have.
Surprisingly, as we have noted, many
creatures have changed little over 300 million years, but on the other hand,
sadly, millions of species are instead extinct, and in fact, 98 per cent of all
creatures that ever existed are now extinct.
We humans have progressed and evolved miraculously quickly without
parallel and precedence with any other animal in the last 120,000 years or so. Interestingly, Anthropologist’s tests on
primates show that chimpanzees have only a 1.24 per cent difference in DNA to
humans, and gorillas have a 1.62 per cent difference in DNA to humans, and a
1.62 per cent difference in DNA to the chimpanzee, making the chimpanzee the
closest living relative to the human and not the gorilla. The DNA of the gorilla, chimpanzee and human,
all differ from the orangutan by approximately 3.1 per cent, which makes the
gorilla and chimpanzee biologically closer to humans than they are to the orangutan,
or any other primate. But primates
although having similar DNA to humans making apes and other primates
anatomically very similar with their biological organs such as skin, heart,
lungs, brain, arms, legs, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, torso, hips, spine and body
functions etcetera, they are differentiated from humans by remaining in their
intellectual, cognitive and emotional ‘primitive’ primate unchanged state.
The difference between humans and other
primates regarding the time-frame of their rate and state of evolution and
diversity of brain complexity perhaps graphically illustrates the possibility
that the Creator’s plan is different for each and every one of these creatures
that inhabit the earth. And that each
creature on earth, on this planet, is diverse, unique, extraordinary and special, being
pre-programmed for not only anatomical differences but also for their specific
reasons and purposes.
No scientist,
neurosurgeon, or medical doctor, with all their high tech scanners and X-rays,
have ever detected or dissected a specific thought or feeling, such as a
particular person’s personal experience and perception in relation to say, ‘a
beautiful sunset’. Or a specific
personal feeling and thought, such as the angst, embarrassment and/ or fear in
relation to say the rejection or disapproval from a prospective or current
employer, or the joy and jubilation as a potential personal response to the
approval, adulation and respect given to Self by a particular person. No neuroscientist or surgeon will ever be
able to detect or dissect a specific personal attitude and belief such as the
sense of Self’s generosity, humility or choice to be nonjudgmental. Or perhaps Self’s personal sense of belief to
be arrogant, dominating, self-obsessed and selfish emanating from the personal
belief in one’s self-importance, sense of superiority and over inflated
ego. Or a specific belief that carries
with it the thoughts and feelings that Self would be much happier and important
when Self purchases Self’s ‘dream car’.
Or a specific personal value that carries with it the thoughts, feelings
and behaviours relating to the use or non use of illicit drugs. Or a specific personal emotion, thought and
behaviour such as the specific emotions, thoughts and behaviours experienced
and/ or expressed when Self says ‘goodbye’ to a close friend leaving on a long
journey, or leaving forever.
No scientist,
neurosurgeon, or medical doctor, has ever viewed or detected a specific unique
individual’s personal thought, emotion, attitude, value, belief and/ or
experience regarding an experienced
particular event by using any of the following hi-tech instruments; a
powerful microscope; X-Ray; Positron Emission Tomography (PET); Steady State
Topography (SST); or Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). Steady State Topography (SST) measures
electrical activity in the brain, and is able to track some of the faster
changes occurring in the brain which fMRI misses. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
works by using powerful rotating magnets that move hydrogen atoms which can
then be X rayed to obtain an overall picture through hundreds of ‘picture
slices’ of the brain. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) works by actually
producing antimatter for scanning ‘activated’ parts of the brain. In the use of Positron Emission Tomography
(PET) fleeting particles of antimatter i.e., positrons (the antiparticle of
electrons) come from the decay of radioactive nuclei incorporated in a special fluid injected
into the patient. The positrons then annihilate with electrons in nearby atoms
and the energy emerges as two gamma-rays that shoot off in opposite directions.
By recording several of the gamma-rays’ points of origin, an image of the brain
can then be produced
Although scientists using these instruments can indicate
where the electrical impulses, oxygen activity and neurotransmitter activities
occur during cognition, emotion, speech, sound and movement etcetera, in
different parts of the brain. This is
the extent of their ability. It could be
suggested then that the white and grey matter comprising the components of the
brain are merely the neural-bio-chemical pathways and mechanical vehicles by
which consciousness, emotions and cognitions function and operate in the
‘physical’ world. There is an
intellectual and scientific incongruence between the visibility of the residual
mechanical operations of the cognitive and emotional activities, etcetera, in
the brain, and the inability for these cognitions and emotions, etcetera, to be
actually visible and tangibly touched.
This intellectual and scientific incongruence and anomaly, may be
explained by the idea that these thoughts, emotions, values, attitudes,
decisions, judgments, plans, personal experiences and behaviours, etcetera, but
which indeed exist, are actually invisible.
If Self exists and entities of Self
such as, consciousness, cognition, emotion and personality, etcetera, are
invisible to the eye’s of science, but nevertheless known to exist, then
perhaps these constructs are integral components of what we might term an
individual’s Personality, Spirit and Soul.
We could further suggest that the raison
d’etre behind the invisibility of Self’s consciousness, thoughts and
emotions, etcetera, is that they are not constructed from any earthly material
that we experience, but are constructed from supernatural substances, which may
be termed ‘spiritual.’ So we could
suggest there is a complex interface between the ‘physical’ aspects of Self’s brain
and the spiritual invisible components of Self.
This is, the complex interface between the ‘physical’ and spiritual at
the point of ‘physical’ death, disconnect, or more precisely, their anatomical
(anatomy) energy changes in structure and functions. As human beings age, the body grows older and
the body becomes weakened, less healthy, and eventually dies. But before the body’s death, it is known that
people often suffer from diseases of memory loss and forgetfulness. So the body and the brain and all of its components age,
and become less efficient. But it could
be said that the spirit and personality do not grow old as such, but change and
develop through personal choices and life experiences. Perhaps this is the reason why people often
still feel ‘young at heart’ despite their ‘physical’ and chronological
age.
The spirit/ personality remains young
despite one’s chronological age, although one’s (Self’s) awareness of Self as a
particular person will more than likely change through personal choices, life’s
experiences and acquired knowledge. We
also know the power of thoughts and emotions in relation to their effects on
the body, because for every thought and emotion, there is a corresponding
physiological reaction, taking place.
For instance, if we are emotionally and/or cognitively stressed or
frightened about something, our heartbeat, blood pressure, skin conductance
(sweat) and breathing all increase as a physiological reaction of the
‘physical’ anatomy to invisible thoughts and feelings which are non-atom
spiritual energies. These are the same
scientific principles upon which lie detectors operate.
We know
that an individual’s personality embodies certain intangible thoughts,
emotions, values, attitudes and beliefs, etcetera, and so we may envision the
concept of personality to be invisible and therefore essentially spirit. Added into the complex mix of an individual’s
personality are constructs such as attitudes, beliefs and values, which are all
essentially invisible to the detection of modern science and therefore possibly
explained as also being part of the spirit and invisible personality. At the time of a person’s death, that is,
when the body dies and the brain is dead, there is no sign of the existence of
life or consciousness, and no signs of the existence of cognitions or emotions
or personality. Only the body remains,
the remains of the body in its dead state, without life, and therefore without
personality or spirit and soul. For the
Person, Spirit and Soul have now disconnected from the organic brain and moved on,
passing over to the ‘other side’.
As
mentioned, the meaning of the word ‘Soul’ is the part of the mystical Creator
that maintains and sustains creation, evolution and life. The Soul being a part of the Creator that
necessarily impregnates all that the Creator creates. The word Soul is used here because Soul and
Life are considered synonymous as Soul can be said to be the spiritual and
transcendent Will that maintains and sustains creation and biological
life. And the Self is defined as Spirit, and Spirit as Self and
Person, being that which includes Soul from created in and of the image of the
Creator. However, whereby each
individual person consists of their own unique Soul and Spirit, and so by
definition of being human, has the capability to execute personal choice, being
imbibed with personal sovereignty, integrity, uniqueness and autonomy.
It could be then that the individual
person with cognitions, emotions, attitudes and beliefs etcetera, that exist
interfaced within the body/brain, and through acts of meta-cognition which can
be observed and communicated, will at ‘physical’ death no longer exist as an
interface. At ‘physical’ death, the
person will have departed their body as the brain, being the ‘physical’ vehicle
on Earth for a person to exist as a conscious person now no longer exists as
the interface between the body and the invisible spirit. At this time, the interface between the
invisible and visible, between cognitions, emotions, personality and spirit,
and the physical brain have been detached and disconnected. It could be very possible that the
personality and spirit of consciousness, cognitions, emotions, attitudes,
values, beliefs and personal experiences are then, spontaneously released from
the ‘physical’ brain at death, but continue to live and exist in another world,
in another realm, and in another dimension to the earthly one.
Human beings are
creatures with many unique attributes for personal growth. Humans are capable of, through the power of
the activities of their cerebrum neurons and neural-biochemical transmitters
and in conjunction with the interface between consciousness, personality,
spirit and soul, expressing themselves through the communication vehicles of
writing and speech, the extent of their thoughts and feelings. These thoughts and feelings include
experiences such as, anger, joy, love, happiness and sadness, which we have all
experienced resulting from interacting in and with others and the world in
which we live.
Humans are in essence people defined by
their humanity and personhood. Humans
are people who, through the synergy of the interface between the bio-chemical
neurotransmitters of the cerebrum, and the transcendent characteristics of
consciousness, freewill, intellect, meta-cognition and memory, possess the
complex functions of self-awareness, introspection, reflection, contemplation,
reasoning, decision-making, problem solving, planning and perception. From these unique human abilities, we are
able to form attitudes, beliefs, and values that can redefine and reshape our
personality, and thus, manifest as present and new thoughts and feelings, and
in turn, the behaviours and contents of speech we exhibit.
Now can we get somewhat real? Let us be honest, notwithstanding the
difficulty humans may have in swallowing their pride, but instead consider
accepting the scientific evidence that humans have originated and evolved from
primates. And rather than viewing this
information as an affront to human dignity, consider that human evolution from
primates is perhaps a reality and thus liberating information. Human evolution from primates is information
that advocates some explanation and understanding of atrocious human behaviours,
but which can never justify such behaviour, but invokes human accountability
when adding it to the mix of human consciousness, intellect, thought, emotion
and freewill. Humans’ therefore, have
the ability to either manipulate their base animal instincts of control, power,
fear, aggression and sex drive etcetera, to their advantage and at other’s
expense, on the one hand, and on the other hand, to override these base
instincts through the proper function of the gifts of consciousness, intellect,
cognition, emotion and freewill.
Choosing instead particular actions and behaviours that will be
constructive for Self and others, and congruent with Self’s informed values,
attitudes and beliefs imbibed by Self, and thus part of Self’s
personality.
These spiritual (non-tangible,
invisible to the eye) constructs thereby enable human beings to rise over and
above base human (animal) instincts as an outcome of the human evolutionary
process, which evolution provides the invisible constructs of consciousness,
emotion and cognition, intellect and freewill thus allowing Self to develop
values, attitudes, beliefs and personality.
Yes, we humans could be said to be ‘little gods’ with spirit, intellect
and freewill, but who live within ‘animal’ bodies with inherent ‘animal’
instincts, but who have the power of choice to either act out much worse than
animals, or to act above and beyond the base instincts of the animals we
evolved from and have stewardship over.
So perhaps we were made in both the image being the Word, Spirit, and
Soul of the Creator, as well as from atom-energies created by the ‘Creator’,
“made in the image and likeness of the ‘Creator” and ‘to dust we shall
return’. Self is possibly made in the
image of the Creator that allows for the intangible constructs of
consciousness, emotion and cognition, attitudes, values and personality to
exist, which cannot be visibly seen, but inter-personally experienced.
These ‘spiritual’ constructs provide
the possibility for Self to choose constructive or destructive behavioural
options that are chosen following the subsequent anticipation and
conceptualisation of the feelings and thoughts that may arise and be generated
- being precursor thought processes to a particular behaviour - as a result of
contemplating a particular action. And
these ‘spiritual’ constructs provide the possibility for Self to then decide to
choose, or not to choose, to embark in a particular direction, or on a
particular behaviour.
These ideas of human evolution from
primates furnish some transparency into peoples’ sometimes despicable and
undignified activities towards Self and others.
These are the abhorrent base human acts resulting from the choice to
manipulate intellectual and emotional experiences which manifest as
intellectual, emotional and behavioural perversions against Self and
others. These are human activities often
culminating in destructive and diabolical behavioural perversions as an outcome
of choosing base acts of iniquity and malevolence over and above the choice of
transcendent goodness. The term
‘goodness’ used in this context can be defined as the chosen acts of
compassion, love, forgiveness and charity expressed towards Self and other
fellow human beings. Human to human
destructiveness, debauchery and depravity is sadly, illustrated by the
behaviours of individual and group base acts of abuse, sexual and physical
abuse, emotional, fiscal and spiritual, and corruption, racism and
discrimination etcetera, visited upon humans by humans.
Included, are base acts of absolute arrogance,
cowardliness, violence, aggression and hatred, exemplified by perpetrators of
‘physical’ and emotional abuse and terrorism.
Tyrannical dictators like Adolph Hitler have committed unspeakable and
reprehensible crimes and offences against humanity. These are the abhorrent base human acts
resulting from the personal choice to mix the desire to manipulate human base
instincts, expressed through base thoughts, feelings, behaviours and content of
speech, with the higher human constructs of intellect, cognition and
emotion. This will in turn, inevitably
manifest as intellectual, cognitive and emotional perversions, and therefore,
diabolically perverted behavious and contents of speech towards others. The diabolical synergistic outcome of such
manipulation of this mix, has unfortunately and sadly been observed in many
real life performances, which examples have been depicted in movies, such as
those acted by Anthony Hopkins who plays a human eating human and killing
deviant in the films Silence of the
Lambs, and Hannibal.
However, we are likely as
humans, to be at the dawn of human evolution in terms of future
psychological/spiritual abilities to surpass and surmount the influences of
human base instincts. Base instincts
including the seven deadly sins will have less influence on human behaviour as
the ability to make constructive positive choices on particular forms of
behaviour likely approached more diverse and sophisticated skills. This in turn will invoke personal choices,
because of evolutionary circumstances, less driven by surmounted base
instincts, which in the past have influenced environmental conditions and human
cultures, and more by voluntary choices and needs of complexity.
Charles Darwin's famous and controversial
theory of evolution and penned within, The
Origin of the Species and, the Descent
of Man and Selection in relation to Sex, is formulated and based on the
idea that all species have a common ancestor.
Which, have then evolved from the slime and primordial soup of a shallow
pond, or lake, over immense time through natural selection of the fittest. As discussed earlier, this theory may be a
gratuitously simplistic explanation. A
theory based solely on the behaviour of random chance for the creation of
complex and diverse life and humankind.
The scientific explanation of evolution put forward by
Today scientists are mapping the human
genes in DNA. And in some cases are able
to reengineer certain genes. Genes are
the blueprints of creation and the mechanism for change and evolution. But scientists are light years away from
being able to demonstrate or duplicate life as it exists today by reproducing
life from its origins, from the cell of a micro-organism living in a primordial
pond being the basis for the existence of life and humans today, although it
could be said that evolution, in essence, has been scientifically proven.
If complex life as we know it today,
such as all the different animals, birds, and humans, etcetera, evolved from
the single cell of a micro-organism within the proverbial slimy pond. And which micro-organisms in turn, evolved
from the chemicals, substances and materials generated from the beginning of
creation, from the collision of particles, from the ‘Big Bang’. Then we cannot exclude and ignore the fact
that a Supreme Creator and Designer was required as a necessary prior condition
and prerequisite for the creation of creation’s original point of conception,
evolution and the process of evolution through the pre-programming of DNA. For as natural law states and reason
confirms, “something can
not be made from nothing.” A. H. Strong,
the president of Rocheston Theological Seminary, wrote in his systematic
theology (1885), "We grant the principle of creation by way of evolution
as a possibility, as we would regard it as the method of divine design and
intelligence, but also whose intervention is necessary for the creation of the
human soul, spirit and personality.”
Unfortunately in the past, evolution
has often been sold, oversold, misunderstood and marketed as an alternative and
opposition to the obvious majesty, mystery and awesome power required by the
gentle and mighty hand of the Supernatural Being who has created such a
paradoxical enigma we call Creation and the Universe.
Whatever, and however, Darwin's theory
has been interpreted, and intended to imply in the past, it could never
conceivably succeed in opposing and discrediting the possibility that a
Supernatural Being, or a ‘God’, is the Creator and Designer behind all things
visible and invisible. We could say that
this evidence of evolutionary creation strengthens the possibility of there
being a ‘God’, and if this ‘God’ is the possible original instigator of the
beginning of creation, and evolution, then this ‘God’ would have, in this
instance the first and last word about everything to do with creation the
universe and life. For as science and
Scripture allude to; ‘God’ and the Creator is perhaps:
·
That Which Nothing Greater Can Be Thought
·
The Alpha and Omega
·
The Beginning and The End
·
The First and The Last
·
The Finite and The Infinite
·
The New and The Old
·
The Nothing and The Everything
·
The Nowhere and The Everywhere
·
The Time and The Timeless
·
The Yesterday (Past), the Today (Present), and the
Tomorrow
(Future).
CHAPTER 8
The
World is Not as it Appears
Proof
of a Creator’s Existence through Reason and Science
Atom-Energy, Spirit-Energy
and the Soul of Self
Amazing Attributes of
Atoms
Subatomic Energies of
Atom-Energy
Einstein’s ‘Theory of
Relativity’ (E = mc2)
A ‘Creator’ of Atom-Energy
and Spirit-Energy
DNA – The Building Blocks
of Life
Light, Photons, Atoms, and
Subatomic Energies
The Big Bang in the Scheme
of Things
The World is Not as it Appears
Structure of atom-energy are
in essence expressed scientifically in the following ways 1) interaction with
other atom-energies - gravity, 2) ability to reflect light-waves, 3) measured
as electric voltage (eV) and electromagnetism, 4) the change in atom-energy
structures with functions for eg., ice > water > steam and vice-versa. But spirit-energy is unique form of energy
that in essence is not affected by gravity, light-waves or electromagnetic
energy and spirit-energy does not possess atom-energy structure but maintains
its integrity. Integrity as a
spirit-being with personality, consciousness, awareness, thought, emotions,
independence, sovereignty, and will.
The world is not made of what it
appears as it is made of atoms, which are in essence energies without
mass. Atoms are defined as electrical
and electromagnetic charges, and are measured as electrical volts (eV). Atoms have no weight but feel heavy because
of the electromagnetic energy between the larger planet earth attracting
smaller parcels of electromagnetic energy.
This tension is what we call gravity,
which constructs our perception and experience of weight. Atoms are in essence invisible, but we see
because our eye, brain and interpretation are based on the reflection of light
wave–lengths into our central nervous system via our eyes. If we think about how hydrogen and oxygen
make up ice, water and steam-gases, we can understand how everything in the
universe possesses different structures and functions even when made with the
same atoms, but with different atom configurations.
As the functions of atoms changes e.g.,
as in the different structures and functions of ice, water, and steam, although
made from the same atoms, are but structured differently, as in tightly packed
atoms of ice, as opposed to the less-tightly packed atoms of steam-gases. Atoms interact with other atoms of the same
(elements), and different atoms (compounds), that make up the universe.
There are only 118 different atoms that
together, or combined, make up all that exists in this world. The exception is the Self, which by
definition is spirit-energy of consciousness, thoughts, emotions,
self-awareness, personality and will, etc.
References in this book to the word ‘physical’ are defined as
atom-energy, referring to all that exists, including the body (anatomy) or the
‘physical’ environment, food and shelter, and all that we observe around us,
other than Self and others, which are spirit-energies and include
consciousness, thoughts, emotions, self-awareness, personality and will etc
.
Proof of a Creator’s Existence through Reason and Science
In terms of science, science
has brought us along way in understanding the world as we observe and know it
today. But science still can't
deconstruct, define or describe the unique essence of energy making up 96 per
cent of the universe that scientists term as dark energy and black matter. The other 4 per cent of the world and
universe is that part of the universe and world we observe and see and consists
of atoms, and wave-lengths of energies categorised by scientists as being
within what has been called the electromagnetic spectrum.
So 4 per cent of the world
and universe exits of atoms and electromagnetic wave-lengths emanating into the
universe as a result of the complex interactions of atom-energies. Both atoms and electromagnetic wave-lengths,
essentially and in essence, have been scientifically deconstructed to be shown
as consisting of different forms of interacting energies. This energy is different determined by their
unique strengths, motions, positive, negative or neutral charges, their ability
to interact with other forms of atoms, their structure and functions and their
visibility and weight. Furthermore, it
must be emphasised that when scientists talk about atoms being in essence,
energy, they are defining and measuring energy in electrical voltage (eV). Atoms and their energies are electrical
charges.
I believe we have rational
thought including science to help us understand the world. Rational
thought suggests something cannot come, or be made, or exist from
nothing. Science till now states that something cannot be made, or
created from nothing. Something,
anything cannot be created or produced or exist from nothing, no?
Science suggests what we
observe in the world, including all that makes up the world such as the
environment, buildings and flora and fauna etc are made of atoms, and atoms are
made of complex interacting forms of electrical energy. Reason and
Science suggests that before the existence of what we term the Big Bang,
there was nothing. But there needed to
exist as a requirement of such energy forming the Big Bang, not only another
unique energy, but energy with intelligence that initiated design, plan and
order for atom-energy to pre-determinedly evolve into the world as we
understand and experience it today.
Indeed before the Big Bang
there was nothing except for and other than that that cannot be scientifically
defined or reconstructed, or even for some, rationally thought. But there had to exist a mysterious, another
form of unique energy, that always was, without the need for it to be created
by something and which also possesses intelligence.
Intelligence is required of
this unique energy for the existence of the organised universe and world as we
know and experience it today. That
without intelligence the universe and world as we experience it would
mathematically be impossible to exist through random chance. Indeed, this is the measure of intelligence
required over and above that of random chance, as in the designing and planing
of the capability of a tornado restructuring the material and contents of a
junkyard, into say, a high-rise building, Jumbo jet, and flora and fauna.
If we rationally follow this
line of thought through to its inevitable conclusive reasoning backed up by
science would strongly suggest some other form of energy with
intelligence created these first forms of subatomic energies that make up the
atoms that make up the universe. What would you call this unique form of
energy that must have intelligence and that must have always existed?
Atom-Energy,
Spirit-Energy and the Soul of Self
A Caterpillar Transforms
into a Butterfly – But with a Different Brain and Same Memory. New research has identified that the
caterpillar’s brain dissolves when it transforms into a butterfly, but the
transformed butterfly retains the laboratory-conditioned behaviours of the
caterpillar in terms of being aversive to the memory of a particular scent.
When humans create or build
non-living atom-energy structures such as artefacts, artwork, or a culinary dish
etc we use not only the non-living structures of atom-energies in the form of
building materials, paint brushes, paint, and cooking utensils, harvest food
and cutlery etc but also living structures of atom-energies in the form of human hands, body/anatomy and brain etc. When humans create, we also use the non-atom
spirit-energies of thought, will, belief, ideas, images and design, order, plan
and then the execution of these as the goals.
These processes are encapsulated within Self and expressed as a
manifestation of Self’s soul and spirit.
Self, being the creator of
these creations must by definition then leave part of their Self, being the
will, design and creation of the artefact etc, and thus Self as and in part of
the creation, but with an independent and sovereign standing. Thus the Self’s creation is a part of the
likeness and image of Self’, as a function of Self’s soul and spirit. The soul and spirit now residing within the
creation is a part of Self and retained as soul and spirit-energy, being the
blue-prints and ‘finger-prints’ of the designer, planner and doer of the
artefact and creation.
This multi-dimensional
process of creation is perhaps a simple analogy of that described as ‘being
made in the likeness and image of the Creator’.
The artist’s creations of structures of atom-energy (paintings, houses,
etc) did not come into being by themselves.
But required essentially as a major contribution for production, both
the structural atom-energy of body, hands and brain etc, but also the
spirit-energy of the characteristics of Self in thought, will, design, plan and
execution, which must be the spirit and soul energy of Self.
Now if someone else
recreates what we have created, then that person too, will use both the
atom-energy of their body and the spirit-energy of themselves. But in recreating what has already been
created there will need to used similar structures of atom-energy as in body
parts, and use of spirit-energy as in the unique thought, design, order, plan
and will to execute that which has been previously created and brought forth
from consciousness.
Self’s creations of
artefacts from soul and spirit energy, and thus in a sense being part of Self,
can perhaps be a reverse analogy of the existence of atom-energy structures
created from the existence of subatomic particles brought forth by a Creator’s
thought, design and will, manifesting in the Big Bang, including the existence
of other forms of energies.
These energies include the
energies of atom-energy, electromagnetic energy, dark-energy, dark-matter and
spirit-energy, all designed and planned with thought, design and will of a
Creator and thus have within them a part of their Creator as does Self’s
creation has a part of Self, but with an independent and sovereign standing.
As the chemical formations
and interactions that initiated the beginnings of life through complex
interactions of particular atom-energy structures developed over time, so the
evolved atom-energies of life increased from one cell to trillions of cells and
with them, so the spirit and soul as a manifestation of the signature of the
designer.
The human brain has
developed larger and more complex in humans than in any other species. This development of the human brain gives
humans the ability to think, plan and do all the intellectual, emotional and
behavioural things humans can do.
Thinking and emotions are
part of the spirit-energy of consciousness being part-and-parcel of Self. Spirit-energy cannot be objectively measured,
and captured as atom-energy can. We may
consider the essence and existence of Self to be a divinely inspired outcome
from predetermined design and order of the Spirit/Word.
So we may be able to say,
that through the energy of ‘The Word’, was brought forth and embedded the Soul
and Spirit in the different energies within the universe including the soul and
spirit of life and Self.
Humans’ Spirit and Soul may
be inherited and passed on from species to species, from generation to
generation, through the soul and spirit-energies dwelling particularly within
all living existence, as the defining divine signature of the ‘word’ of
creation.
The energies of Soul and
Spirit may also exist within, yet on a unique dimension or plane, or exist
parallel to, or in symbiosis to the atom-energy structure of DNA. Atom-energy makes up the structure and
function of the brain, which is the vehicle for the interactions and existence
of the spirit-energies of Self.
All that exists in the
universe is made of what we call atoms of which there are only 115 different
variations. These variations we call
elements, such as oxygen, hydrogen, helium, gold, and uranium etc. These elements can combine to form other
variations of ‘matter’ such as hydrogen and oxygen, which by way of complex
interactions, forms what we call water.
The atoms that make up the 115 elements are only different and only vary
in the number of protons and neutrons that exist in the nucleus and, the number
of electrons orbiting the nucleus, other than this, atoms are identical. But the variations in these atoms determine
the strength and power of their electromagnetic energy and field and thus the
properties and interactive characteristics they possess.
So the entire universe is
made of atoms or the subatomic particles of atoms and their complex interactive
combinations. Atoms are made of
subatomic particles of electrons and a nucleus of protons and neutrons. The electrons orbit the outside of the
nucleus and interact with electrons of other atoms. These complex interactions bond both similar
and different atoms together to construct molecules and in turn other existing
structures. An atom is a very small
electromagnetic charge created by the interaction of positive charged proton(s)
and neutral neutrons in the nucleus in combination with the negative charged
orbiting electrons.
So the only difference
between different forms of ‘matter’ is the number of protons, neutrons and
electrons in the atoms that make up a particular entity. The parts of atoms or subatomic particles of
atoms are identical i.e. the gluons, quarks and leptons that make up the protons,
neutrons and the electrons of atoms. The
only difference between solids, liquids and gasses is the way the atoms are
structured and bound together, as for example in ice, water and, steam.
The ‘mass’ of an atom is its
electromagnetic energy and is measured in electrical voltage (eV). The energy that atoms consist of is very
small. A typical human cell contains
about 100 trillion atoms, but together, these atoms form the parts of’ both
inorganic or non-life and organic or living life.
Amazing Attributes
of Atoms
Atoms consist of neutrons,
protons, and electrons and, are in fact invisible, weightless and mass less,
although some physicists are still searching for the ‘Higs’ factor, or that gives us the ability to ‘see it’. This confound is similar to the universe
existing of 4 per cent atom-energy, and 96 per cent unknown non-atom-energy
(that keeps galaxies in formation and accelerates the expansion of the
universe. These, as yet, unidentified
energies are very possibly those of the ‘Word’, or spirit-energy, but which
scientists are still searching. But many
know that the atom is total energy and we perceive atom structures in the way
we do because of the complex interface between atom structures and qualities
and spirit-energy. The characteristics
of atoms are understood and described more easily when we observe the
characteristics of the structure we call ice, as in frozen water. Everyone would agree that ice is made of
water. However, in the structure and
function of ice the hydrogen and oxygen molecules are densely packed. Ice, water and steam are made of the same two
atoms at the same ratio, of 2 parts Hydrogen to every 1 part of Oxygen. But in comparison to the atom-energy
structure of ice, water and steam have the same atoms that are less tightly
packed, and so form atom-energy structures with functions that are different to
that of ice.
Ice when heated becomes
water, water when heated becomes steam and gases, but all are constructed of
the same atoms and molecules of hydrogen and oxygen, but with different
configurations of the same two atom-elements or energies. All ‘matter’ has the ability to change
structure and functions under the correct circumstances, as evidenced by ice
when it melts into water and when boiled into steam. When it comes to solid structures such as ice
and water, as apposed to gas, we in fact only perceive to be ‘touching’ and
‘seeing’ such structures of ‘matter’ because the atoms are dense enough that
specific wavelengths of light reflect off these different structures made from
different atoms.
The human ‘touching’ and
subsequent perceived ‘feeling’ of a particular structure can be accounted for
by the electromagnetic energy created by the atoms of a structure interacting
with the electromagnetic energy generated by the atoms of our skin and nerves
that send electromagnetic impulses to our brain (atom-energy) and mind,
intellect, (spirit-energy) to be interpreted.
The brain is the organic vehicle (atom-energy) that interacts with the
mind (spirit-energy) to allow us (spirit-energy) to function in the world and
interact with it. So the atom-energy
from the atoms of our skin and nerves (made of mainly carbon atoms) can ‘feel’
structures of ‘matter’ (atom-energy) through electromagnetic interactions of
electromagnetic energies that travel the nervous system and then analysed and
interpreted by Self (spirit-energy).
Subatomic Energies
of Atom-Energy
Subatomic particles of
atom-energy that make up living and non-living structures consist of two groups
of charges i.e. quarks and leptons.
Quarks make up neutrons and protons.
There are two types of quarks, the Up Quark and the Down Quark. The Up Quark has a fractional charge of +2/3
and the Down Quark has a fractional charge of -1/3. A proton is made of two Up Quarks and one
Down Quark giving it a positive charge of +1.
The neutron contains one Up Quark (+2/3) and two Down Quarks (-1/3)
giving it a neutral charge of zero.
Quarks are the subatomic
particles that form protons and neutrons and Leptons are the subatomic
particles that form electrons. At the
instance of the Big Bang there was voluminous plasma made from these subatomic
energies. Atoms of different structures
give form and a particular function to an existence, which humans experience
through the purposely designed interface of the characteristics of human
anatomy (atom-energy) and human spirit-energy, which are not made of atoms but
are what we will describe as Self, consciousness, awareness, person and spirit.
Einstein’s ‘Theory
of Relativity’ (E = mc2)
Einstein’s ‘theory of
relativity’ infers that Matter and Energy are essentially the same entities
rather than intrinsically different as some may perceive his equation may
suggest. For instance, if we heat wood
(carbon atoms) with enough energy, the atom carbons will increase in vibration
and a complex chemical interaction will pursue eventuating in fire. The atom-energy of the original structure and
function of wood will then convert into other forms of energy being specific
structures and functions with unique characteristics, such as ash, gases and
the photon energy of heat and light.
Einstein’s equation identifies that energy and mass both consist of
subatomic particles and emit electromagnetic energy.
Albert Einstein reasoned that
energy was equivalent to the mass-energy equivalence formula, E = mc2,
where 1 kg = 89.876 PJ). But the weight
of atom-energy is produced by the interaction of the electromagnetic field of a
smaller ‘body’ with the electromagnetic field of a larger ‘body’ (planet
earth). Mass is factually energy
configured as a particular structure with function, consisting of electrical
charge/voltage (eV). Electrical voltage
(eV) is ambiguous in its description as a unit of mass in subatomic particle
energy and atom-energy physics.
Indeed some physicists are
still looking for that part of the atom that gives it the ‘mass’ factor (‘Higs’
factor) as they find it hard to believe that everything is alone, energy. But they are coming to believe in their own
scientific results as they have come no closer to finding this ‘Higs’ factor or
‘God’ component. Can’t they except the
possibility that ‘God’ is about different forms of energy including atom,
spirit and ‘dark’ energy.
A ‘Creator’ of
Atom-Energy and Spirit-Energy
Because it is humanly
inconceivable that no one can create something (anything), from absolutely
nothing, it is rational and logical to think and believe that therefore there
must exist, another form of energy apart from that which already exists. An Energy or Force that always was, and
always will be, an energy that does not require, for its self to exist,
subatomic particles, but instead creates the structure and function of
subatomic energies.
The Energy that creates
atom-energy will be necessarily an Energy that is atom-less. This is, the energy of a ‘Higher Power’ and
the genesis of the origin of the Universe.
This is a form of energy that does not require the need for atom-energy
to exist, but however, created the formation, design and order of creation, and
the evolution of and processes of the complex interactions necessary to produce
the atom-energies of structures with their functions that make-up the world as
we understand it exists today.
Rationally, it is feasible
that a ‘mysterious’ form of Energy has created atom-energy and photons of
electromagnetic energy by Willing such design and order. Human energy with consciousness and
awareness, etc as characteristics of the Self are forms of energy, which are
without the structures of atoms or photons, but designed to interact with
atom-energies whilst maintaining the uniqueness of their own atom-less but
spirit-energy integrity. It is feasible
that the spirit-energy of Self be considered to be more in keeping and akin to
the image and likeness of the energy of the original ‘Creator’, ‘Word’ and
‘Higher Power’.
To personally come to terms
with the make-up of the world as being atom-energy structures with functions
and mind/person spirit-energies a shift in mindset is probably required similar
to that when the believed ‘flat planet’ was discovered to be a ‘the round
planet’ (earth).
If Self can be understood to
be made of non-atoms but spirit-energy, then this acceptance will most likely
involve a state of psychological change and mind-shift. And a mindset change will probably be
necessary to view and perceive the world from the perspective of atom-energy
rather than ‘matter’ and mass, but from different atom-energies with their
particular structures and functions.
Humans consist of much more than just the sum of their atom-energy
anatomical structures with features.
Humans are often guilty of using a person’s physical features as being
the ‘bona fide’ evidence required to hang our first impressions and judgements
upon. But rather, observing the body as atom-energy structures
with functions, and the person and Self existing as the non-atom Spirit-energy.
Rather than relating to a
person in respect of your judgement towards their body you may perceive as being
attractive or unattractive, skinny or large, and old or young, alternatively
view people as not only a body, but charges of tightly packed atoms. These atom-energies create particular
structures with functions, and then to view people as consisting not of
atom-energies but spirit-energies that can on earth, through divine design,
interact with the atom-energies of the world.
Because we are made from atom-energy - electromagnetic charges of energy
– which are mass-less, invisible and weightless,
The challenge is not to
judge or criticise someone incumbent upon how they appear anatomically. But instead, to make a shift in mindset so
that Self’s perception lies beyond the normal and traditional, instead
understands and communicates with people in terms of them being persons of
spirit-energy. It is now easier to view
Self as a person of spirit existing more akin to existing in the likeness and
image of the ‘Creator’ (spirit-energy).
Here is an example of how we
might view the world from one made of atom-energy. The construct of our hands is made from the
energy of trillions of tightly packed Carbon atoms with its particular
structure and functions. Atoms generate
an electromagnetic charge and field. Now
if we hold ice in our hand it feels solid, because ice is made of frozen water
consisting of hydrogen and oxygen (H2O), which are atoms/molecules
tightly configured. We perceive ice as
feeling solid because of the interaction between the tightly configured
atom-energies that make up our skin and nerves, which interact with the
atom-energy that produces the structures and functions of ice. The atom-energy formed as structures of skin
and nerves send electromagnetic impulses of that which it interacts with, to
the brain (atom-energy), whereby the Self made of non-atom spirit-energy is
designed to interface with the atom-energy of the brain, and all of its complex
neural connections and accompanying processes.
If we apply energy to ice in
the form of heat the ice melts into a liquid we call water, this occurs because
the atoms become less tightly configured and so more flexible or volatile. The feeling we perceive when our hand is in
the water now feels different to feeling ice.
We can feel the splash and swish of the water, and swirl the water around,
because the atoms are now less-tightly-packed together in the liquid form, and
ice presents with a different structure and function.
If we apply more energy to
water in the form of heat, other structures and functions will exist in the
form of steam and gases. The atom-energy
of steam and gases cannot be felt or held by human hands, because the atoms are
less-tightly configured and have changed their structure and function.
Considering the above
information of the configuration of atom-energy and their different structures
and functions, we may now shift our mind-set and begin to observe and
appreciate the world in this particular way.
The way we observe and experience the structures of the world, e.g.
apple trees, orange tress, mountains and fauna etc, may now be perceived and
appreciated with a magical and miraculous expression. The world is structures with functions that
the spirit-energy of human mind is able to, through design, naturally interact
with primarily through the human senses of sight, touch, sound and taste
processed by parts of the cerebrum and interpreted by the non-atom
spiritual-energy of the Self. The
non-atom spiritual-energy of Self is capable of perceiving and interpreting
atom-energy as having definition, structure, size, colour, shape and
utility.
So there is the ability for
the atom-less spirit-energy of the human mind to interpret observations of
stimuli from senses (atom-energy) through consciousness of Self with the
assistance of the bio-chemical structures and functions of the processes of the
brain. This entire interaction between
the atom-energy of anatomy and the non-atom spirit-energy of Self is the result
of the divine design and order of DNA which is pre-determined and
pre-programmed. DNA manifests itself in
all living life and humans have genetically evolved to possess a larger more
complex brain that allow the exhibition of higher quality characteristics such
as, and most importantly a redefining and elaborate formation of the seed of
the Spirit that has originated at the beginning of time, or the ‘word’.
This ‘seed’ of the spirit is
‘fertilised’ and maturated through the evolution of DNA in conjunction with a
more complex brain to enable the existence of an independent, unique, special
and sovereign human being with consciousness, and free-will. And because of divine design and order a
person has the ability for their spirit of consciousness to interact with
structures of atom-energy, perceiving and interpreting not only other
spirit-energies that dwells and makes another person, but atom-energies of
definition, size, colour, shapes and utility.
If ‘matter’ is, in essence,
electrical charges of atom-energy and, by nature, are mass-less, invisible and
weightless, then the atom-less energy of Self’s Spirit and Soul can intuitively
be understood to be mass-less, invisible and weightless, but having the extra
characteristics of consciousness etc which never grow old, can never die, but
lives on eternally. Self exists in essence
as Spirit, Soul and Consciousness and eternally maintaining its integrity.
Atom-energy structures and
functions eventually transform into other forms of energy such as a burning log
changes to the structure and functions of heat, light and ash. A similar process will apply to all
structures as they eventually evolve in structure and function such as the
decomposition of an animal, etc. But the
spirit-energy of Self surely maintains integrity and sovereignty in the form of
consciousness, self-awareness, thought, emotion, behaviour and experiences of
an individual.
The non-atom spirit-energy
of the Self cannot be measured or captured electrically or magnetically, but
interacts with the atom-energy of the anatomical brain, where this ability of
Self to interact with the world is conceived at their own conception as an
individuals’ inheritance from his or her parents and ultimately, the
‘word’. And when the atom-less-energy of
Self (spirit) is released from its interface with the atom-energy of the brain
with its structures and functions, the Self, Spirit and Soul being
spirit-energy that cannot be measured by scientists and cannot decompose or
change form, continues to exist as Self into definitive eternity.
DNA – The Building
Blocks of Life
Everything in the world is
made of subatomic particle-energy, including life cells that grow into the
structure, form, and function of their design.
The DNA of a cell as is the cell and everything is made of atoms with
the structure and functions with which they have been designed, in this case,
genes incumbent within linear chromosomes.
There are about 3 billion base pairs of genes of DNA arranged within 46
strands of chromosomes in each cell in the anatomy. Genes transmit genetic hereditary information
from parent to offspring.
It takes about 100 trillion
atoms to form the nucleus of one human cell.
Chromosomes if stretched out,, would form a very thin thread about 2m
long. Genes made of DNA instruct the
building of cells of skin, hair, eyes, lips and so on, of a particular
organism, as a particular structure with particular functions.
Light, Photons,
Atoms, and Subatomic Energies
In physics a ‘quantum’ is an
entity of energy or subatomic particle that is indivisible. For instance, a photon, being a unit of
light, is a ‘light quantum’ with similarities to an electron. Photons of light driven at speed into another
atom, forms an electron and positron (antimatter of an electron) and
annihilates a photon of light.
The photon is the elementary
particle and unit of energy responsible for the electromagnetic spectrum of
energy such as microwaves, radio waves, light waves, gamma rays and ultraviolet
and radiation, etc. All matter emits
atom-energy and electromagnetic fields.
In the presence of ‘matter’ or more correctly, atom-energy, this
electromagnetic energy of photons (of different wave-lengths) can be absorbed
and reflected – depending on the wave-length of the visible light - by a
particular structure and function of particular atom-energies creating what we
perceive to be different colours which gives definition and recognition of a
particular structure of atom-energy.
In fact, the atom-energy or
atoms of structures are colourless and invisible for the fact that they are
designed to absorb and reflect different ‘visible-light’ wave-lengths from the
electromagnetic spectrum. This reflection
and absorption of different photon-energies of light waves by atom-energy
structures gives it what we perceive to be colour. The human eye, brain and ultimately
consciousness, have been designed to interact together with other atom-energies
for the spirit-energy of Self to experience the world. So the human perception of colour, including
pitch black and white objects (total reflection of all light wave-lengths)
allows the differentiation of their structure (shape), size and utility
(function).
The Big Bang in
the Scheme of Things
A billionth of a second
after the beginnings of the universe, manifest as the Big Bang, ‘space’ existed
and expanded. And a millionth of a
second after the Big Bang, a plasma of subatomic particles (quarks etc.) and
free-floating electrons (leptons) evolved into existence. After a hundred odd seconds quarks came
together to form particles called protons and neutrons, and some of the protons
and nearly all of the neutrons gathered into bunches of nuclei containing 2
protons and 2 neutrons.
About 400,000 years after
the Big Bang, when the cosmic temperature had dropped it then became cool
enough for nuclei to capture electrons from ionized atoms in the plasma.
Each subatomic nucleus
captured 2 electrons to form a helium atom, and each remaining proton in the subatomic
plasma captured a single electron to form a hydrogen atom. The first atoms or atom-energies – the
building blocks of matter - had been born.
Atoms of hydrogen and helium formed abundantly. Hydrogen today makes up about 92% of the
atoms in the universe, helium makes up 7%, and all other atom-energies
(elements) make up less than 1%. These
atoms, through the gravity of electromagnetic energy pulled together to form
the beginnings of stars.
Hydrogen under intense heat
and pressure is the initial fuel of stars.
Within the nuclear process that formed helium from hydrogen, heavier
elements were formed through the process of stellar nucleosynthesis (nuclear
fission) and supernova nucleosynthesis when the star had burnt out of fuel, the
star’s process changed form.
The formation of planets,
like earth, were and still are formed
from the process of supernova nucleosynthesis, which is the process of creating
new atom structures from the breakdown remnants of previous atom structures,
such as when a star blows apart when its fuel burns out.
CHAPTER 9
Life as both Atom and Spirit Energy
Electromagnetic Charges
and Complex Subatomic Interactions
Matter and Mass is but
Atom Energy
Atom-Energies with Structures
and Functions, and Spirit-Energy
Non-Living Atom-Energy
Evolves into Living Atom-Energies
Atoms, Soul and Spirit are
all Different Energies
Atom-Energy of Living
Cells and Spirit-Energy of People
The Atom-Energies of
Non-Life into the Atom-Energy of Life with Spirit-Energy
The Differences and
Interactions of Atom-Energy and Spirit-Energy
A Shift in Personal
Mindset
Life as both Atom
and Spirit Energy
Life, defined as atom-energy
evolving into the structure and function of life cells defined by that, which
can reproduce its self through the complex interactions from information
transmitted by DNA and genes from a pre-existing living cell into a particular
structure with functions transformed from the atom-energy into other structures
with functions. Changes occur in the
structure of atom-energy through the evolution of cell DNA (predetermined and
designed) over millions of years produced a variety of species.
Life, per se, is defined as
the ability of life-cells - atom-energies - to absorb other atom-energies
through complex atom interactions that metabolise energy to produce ‘movement’
and ‘work’ such as growth and reproduction.
One of the more perplexing questions in this process, is how did
life-energy emerge from non-life or inorganic energy?
The sun that our solar
system orbits (planets) was formed 5 billion years ago, whilst 3.7 billion
years ago microscopic life in the form of single cellular amoeba’s began to
evolve. Logic and science drives the
belief that evolution, in all aspects, be considered as a fore-planned design
and order of a ‘Creator’ as the architect for non-life energies to evolve
through complex atom-energy interactions, into life energies. All of the structures with functions of
atom-energies exist in the universe as necessary to produce, firstly, simple
forms of life, and then more complex forms of life – humans - through
pre-determined processes manifest as evolution.
The fact that scientists
can’t repeat the creation of life energy from non-life energy in the
laboratory, alludes to the fact that begetting life from non-life is a result
of extremely complex interactions of atom-energy structures (chemical elements)
that have been pre-programmed by some ‘divine’ design and order. These interactions initially evolved from the
Big Bang, and the fires and furnaces of stars and supernova. These nuclear reactions within supernovas’
are the catalysts for the beginning of life through complex subatomic
interactions as the process that turns the structure and function of the
atom-energies of non-life into the structure and functions of the atom-energies
of life.
Life-cells consist of the
structure and function of atom-energies of DNA and genes, made from the
structure and functions of the atom-energies/molecules of proteins and amino
acids. Life exists in many forms, from
the simplest bacteria and viruses, to human beings who inherit their characteristics
from their parental origins, and originally as a new species branching off from
the Ape family.
Humans inherit their
physical characteristics (height, colour, facial features, etc), and personal
psychological (spiritual-energies) temperaments and traits i.e. introversion –
shy, or extroversion – outgoing, – from the combined genes of both their
parents. Humans, with their developed
larger more complex brains are able to possess qualities that exhibit higher
functions and the ability to experience and be conscious of spiritual relationships
and transcendence. This is a different
form of energy not constructed from the energy of atoms but exists from the
spirit-energy of consciousness, personality and self-awareness through Self.
Spirit-energy has been
designed to interact with the structures and functions of the atom-energy,
which includes the brain (atom-energy) as a vehicle to allow the ‘spiritual
meta-cognitive abilities, ‘to think about thinking’, including possessing the
abilities of self-awareness, consciousness, and make independent choices, all
things being equal.
Electromagnetic
Charges and Complex Subatomic Interactions
V. I. Lenin proposed to
define ‘matter’ as the objective reality, which is given in our senses and is
reflected by them. ‘Matter’ is a word we use to call everything we observe, but
in reality consists of atoms, which are in essence, electrical volts made from
the energy of neutrons and protons with orbiting electrons. An electromagnetic field is created by the
movement of electrons around its nucleus oscillating at right-angles to
electron energy. An electric charge
formed from the movement of electrons produces electromagnetic fields, which
interact with other atoms, hence, exists gravity. The energy of atoms interacting produces new
structures with functions
Matter is atoms or
atom-energy of structures with functions, but without the ability to absorb
visible light wavelengths would be invisible to the human eye and thus
unobservable. When we walk across the
floor, we pick up extra electrons, which discharge when we touch a door handle
or something electrically conductive.
These extra electrons are released and we call ‘static electricity’ as
the extra electrons we have ‘picked up’ jump to another conductive
structure.
Humans have believed that
matter is mass, but science instructs us that matter is in reality atom-energy,
and can be better explained when we describe atom-energy structures changing as
in ice atoms that can transform into water and into steam, with heat-energy. The electro-volt (eV) is a unit to measure or
quantify ‘mass’, but is in fact the measurement of the atom essence defined as
energy (AAAS Science Journal, 2006). The
idea of matter being mass is a misnomer, because in reality and in essence it
is but energy, atom-energy. So
structures with functions are atom-energies and so, by definition, are
mass-less, invisible and weightless.
Matter we describe as having
weight, but in reality matter is energy (atom-energy), which by definition, is
weightless. We describe matter as having
weight because structures of atom-energy feel ‘heavy’. But matter or structures of atom-energy only
feel they are ‘heavy’ or they have weight, because of the pull of the greater
atom-energy or electromagnetic forces of planet earth. These interactions are electromagnetic
gravitational forces that give a structure its force in electric voltage (eV),
which we reinterpret and perceive as being ‘weight’, which we call kilogram
force.
The energy charge of 1,000
Kg (1 ton) of concrete interacting with the gravitational force of the larger
charge of planet earth gives the smaller mass its perceived weight. In reality, the ‘ton’ of concrete is
weightless, evidenced when we observe it if it breaks through the earths’
gravitational forces into the outer atmosphere and on into space. In cosmic space there is no longer a larger
electrical force like planet earth to draw its energy upon the structure, and
thus the ‘ton’ of concrete floats randomly and weightlessly in space. Although it may be influenced by the
gravitational forces of the Sun.
So the idea and perception
that structures of atom-energy have what we describe as weight is an illusion,
as quantum physics expose the reality of atomic electromagnetic energy.
Matter and Mass is
but Atom Energy
All creation in the universe
– besides human consciousness and base instincts, which are more akin to being
of spirit and ‘soulful’ consist of energy other than that from atoms. Otherwise, creation in the universe is energy
brought about by atoms. As we have
discussed atom-energy changes in structure and function as we observe with (H2O)
were tightly packed atoms (atom-energy) form the structure and function of ice,
ice that you can walk on and skate on.
Changes occur with the addition of heat-energy where ice changes
structure to the structure and functions of liquid water, which is of course
consists of less tightly configured atoms.
The application of the energy of heat activates the ice’s atoms so that
their energy becomes less stable loosening the binding of their atom
configuration and changing the structure and function of ice into the structure
and form of liquid water (H2O).
Liquid water has the
structure with functions that we can push our fingers into, swim in, and
drink. Again, if more energy in the form
of heat is applied to liquid, steam and gases (vaporised water) are produced,
where the atoms are held together more loosely, becoming more volatile and
random. We can clearly observe the
structure and functions of ice, and water, as the wavelengths of light are
absorbed and reflected into and from the atom-energies of these different
structures and functions of H2O.
But we cannot see or observe the vaporised water as it changes into the
structures and functions of steam and then gas, because the atoms and their
atom-energy have become too dispersed for photons of light wavelengths to be
noticeably absorbed and reflected.
All atoms act in a similar
manner. For instance, if we apply energy
(heat) to the solid atom-energy of Carbon atoms, such as in the structure and
function of wood, the atomic structure, function, and nature of wood, changes
into different structures, including atoms and atom-energies of carbon ash,
heat, gases and the energy of light photons.
The vibration of atoms increases their volatility and can combust into
the structure and function of photons of light and heat and gases
(flames).
Where does the atom-energy
of all the different structures and functions that we observe and experience in
the world originally come from? In
addition to this question we can ask where does the non-atom energy of Self’s
spirit and consciousness originally come from?
Subatomic particles of energy bind to form different structures with
functions, from non-living structures, to living structures, including the body
or anatomy of Self, and importantly, embodied within these atom-energy
creations exist spirit energies, more akin to the ‘Word’ and as such, allowing
the potential existence of the Self with consciousness.
Of course it is practically
and rationally impossible, to get anything in the universe from absolutely
nothing. Logically thinking there must
have been some other form of energy that has always existed. Just as there are different energies such as
atom, photon and spirit energies, there are also the unknown ‘dark energies’
that make up 96 % of the universe and more akin to the spirit-energy including
the energy of the ‘word’. There needs to
be another form of Energy in existence, that exits more covertly, but which
emanates from the same source. This is
the same source of energy to which the existence of atom-energy (body) and
spirit-energy (Self) can be attributed to, which may be defined and described
as a ‘Creator’ and/or ‘Supreme Being’.
Atom-Energies with
Structures and Functions, and Spirit-Energy
Matter in essence expresses
itself as an electromagnetic charge, invisible, mass-less and weightless, atoms
which only differ from element to element, because of their different number of
neutrons, protons and electrons.
Neutrons, protons and electrons, and atoms themselves, are otherwise identical
except for the difference in the number of these subatomic particles. Subatomic particles of atoms like their
neutrons, protons and electrons are made from different forms of energy in
terms of their behaviour, movement, strength and quantity of charge, and so the
way atoms are designed to interact with other atoms particles and atoms.
Matter is energy expressed
in different structures with different functions. Subatomic particles of photon-energy can be
expressed as electromagnetic energy with different wave-lengths and frequencies
within the electromagnetic spectrum.
Certain wave-lengths in the spectrum are designed as visible light for
the human eye, brain and consciousness to interpret the world made of
structures of atom-energy. Subatomic
particles of energy expressed as invisible wave-lengths within the
electromagnetic spectrum are defined as heat and radiation, such as radio
waves, gamma rays and ultra-violet wave lengths etc.
What we consider as solids,
liquids and vapours are atoms of energy manifesting themselves in different
forms as different structures with different functions. Visible light as it is absorbed or reflected
in relation to atom structures allows humans to differentiate between the
different structure and functions of atom energy. These differences include both non-living and
living structures with their particular functions. As humans with consciousness and awareness we
have the ability to learn about and evaluate different structures and their
functions.
Non-Living
Atom-Energy Evolves into Living Atom-Energies
Elements made of atom-energy
over billions of years through complex interactions within the nuclear reactors
of stars – as the design and order of pre-programmed evolution – are the catalyst for the creation of the atom-energies
of all that exits in the universe, the solar system, planet earth, and
oceans.
The atom-energies of
structures continue to evolve with complex interactions and together with the
interactions of energy from the electromagnetic spectrum of energy as photons
of visible light, have produced structures of atom-energies in the form of
bio-chemical cells for the purposes of living life. Living cells of life have the functional
ability to ‘take in’ energy (fuel) and independently grow and multiply. Life has evolved from an original singular
cell created through predetermined design and order from atom-energy structures
of non-life to the many species of life that have, to date, survived today
including those that have become extinct.
Atoms, Soul and Spirit
are all Different Energies
It could be suggested that
in the beginning there was the ‘Word’ - a form of unique energy - that
initiated the plasma of electrons and quarks (protons and neutrons) and
electromagnetic energies emanating from atom energies created during the event
we call the Big Bang. If a unique form
of spirit-energy we may call the ‘Word’, created atom-energy, and the
predetermined evolution of atom-energy structures, then it is also plausible that
this Supreme energy or ‘Word’ has itself spread throughout the universe as
different forms of spirit energy, including atom, and invisible ‘dark’ energy
that makes up 96% of the universe’s energy.
The atom-energy of both
living and non-living structures are the artefacts of the ‘Creator’ and so
possess Soul because of their creation.
There are different forms of energies in the universe, atom-energy of
both inorganic structures (e.g., rocks) and organic structures (e.g., cells)
and also include the energy of Self, personality and consciousness, considered
to be spirit-energy, and understood to contain a higher level of Soul and
quality of function. We use trees for
wood and animals for food but we respect human beings as spirit and therefore
sacred.
Structures of atom-energies
will eventually cease to exist as these energies dissipate and deconstruct into
the smaller subatomic particles. As part
of this scenario the sun of our solar system will burn out of fuel and explode
in nuclear fission engulfing all planets until it contracts to non-reactive
iron. The atom-energies that constitute
the universe will continue to defy gravity and expand, ultimately making the
universe a materially unviable place of energy for human consumption and
accommodation.
The non-atom-energies we
call spirit-energy created by the ‘Word’, the Soul and Spirit of life and Self,
have been created to be independent, unique, and sovereign maintaining their integrity
continuing onwards, unchanging, infinitely, immortally and eternally.
Atom-Energy of
Living Cells and Spirit-Energy of People
The DNA within living cells
is organised into structures called chromosomes, a helix structure. The chromosome is a single large molecule of
DNA in a cell (deoxyribonucleic acid) which contains many genes produced from
nucleotide (a particular structure with function - we call amino acid or
protein - sequences.
Coded instructions of genes
within the DNA of each cell make up all the characteristics of a human
being. Human cells have one set of 23
chromosomes from each parent, totalling 46 single linear nuclear
chromosomes. Every cell has this DNA
except for red-blood cells.
Our DNA is 98% identical to
that of the chimpanzee (ape family).
This small difference in DNA between humans and chimpanzees begins to
ask and answer questions regarding the nature of evolution, and the probable
pre-existence of DNA programming, which ultimately directs and instructs
complex significant changes in a species.
Changes between species can be measured in percentages of DNA differences. These phenomenal changes from one species to
another are practically and rationally beyond the bounds of the simple
interpretation of
A genetic branching-off of
humans from the species of chimpanzee that supposedly replaces chimpanzees in
the interests of its survival, but which species (chimpanzee) exists mostly
unchanged today. A rationale method of
thinking to make sense of the significant branching-off of one species from
another is the possibility, or probability, that DNA has been pre-programmed
and predestined to evolve at a pre-determined time and place at a specific
cosmic time-frame.
The 46 chromosomes in each
cell are formed of millions of
genes. Genes are segments of DNA of
nucleotides that carry genetic information arranged as 4 letters, A, C, G, and
T. Between humans, DNA differs by only
0.2%. There is 6 feet of DNA in each
cell and parts of this DNA consist of genes that each carry the instructions to
make any organ in the body, but are switched to make up a particular organ. If one of these letters (complex proteins)
that make up a gene is out of sequence, or place, then the individual may be
born with some particular ability or disability.
Genes are inherited from our
parents and are the ‘blueprint’ that determines our height, hair and eye
colour, physique, temperament and facial features etc. These are the ‘physical’ or atom-energy
structures distinguishing us apart from one another. Inherited genes produce billions of possible
combinations to allow each individual to possess a unique set of
characteristics as a basis for their physique (atom-energy) and personality
(spirit-energy) to develop as a unique being.
These characteristics may include the propensity to be introvert (shy),
or extrovert (outgoing), etc. Characteristics
of personality are parts that make up Self and so are spiritual or
spirit-energy (non atom-energy) and cannot be detected and scrutinised under
any scientific tool.
For instance, the brain
circuits and pathways of billions of neurons in the brain, and their
bio-chemical transmitters like dopamine and serotonin (atom-energy), are
designed to interface and interact with the Self (spirit-energy), whilst the
spirit of Self exists in the world of atom-energy. For example, too little dopamine and serotonin,
and the Self can become more prone to depression. The amounts of dopamine and serotonin
produced in the (CNF) Central Nervous System, will be determined by the
instructions transmitted by their unique DNA.
Electron microscopes and scans will never detect the unique feelings and
thoughts of an individual, as they are a form of energy that is spirit rather
than atom-energy. However, the brain’s
bio-chemical transmitters and hormones, can be measured and observed in their
area of activity because they are atom-energy structures. Self’s personality (spirit-energy) can also
be influenced by the particular nature of the genes (atom-energy) in cerebral
construction, such as when some one has a disability.
Humans have evolved with the
largest and most diverse brain of all the species, and as such have the
capability of possessing and utilising a higher level of intelligence,
self-consciousness and freewill.
Importantly though, these higher quality facets in humans give them
their unique ability to overcome or change any part of their personality they
wish to change or develop.
The Atom-Energies
of Non-Life into the Atom-Energy of Life with Spirit-Energy
How did atom-energies of
only bare rock, water and non-living inanimate structures and functions etc
evolve further to produce the atom-energies of living life its self. And how did the atom-energy of non-life, form
bacteria, viruses and one-cell amoebae, to then evolve into multiple cell
bacteria’s, viruses, plants, insects, animals, chimpanzees and humans?
Does the broad structure and
function of atom ‘life’ also include energy we may call Soul and Spirit-energy,
being different forms of energy to that of atom-energy? But never-the-less being compatible.
Life is defined as
atom-energy structures and functions that can absorb energy, or fuel, allowing
that structure to develop, mature and multiply.
Pre-meditated pre-programmed design and order of evolution has changed
and morphed the structure and function of non-life atom-energy into the
structures and functions of the atom-energy of life. Life includes the structure and function of
the atom-energy of life-cells and their DNA, with genes that transmit potential
characteristics of the parents to their ‘offspring’.
Over billions of years
chimpanzees (apes) have evolved with larger more complex brains than their
predecessors, enabling them to form higher-level instincts and intellect, where
these animals are able to utilise ‘primitive’ forms of tools (sticks of wood)
to help them catch food, insects and fruit, etc. Other living creatures also have high levels
of instinct and intelligence, such as dolphins, cats, birds and dogs, and so
on.
Many animals are able to
give and receive affection, and enjoy human company, which may be closer to
spiritual-energy rather than atom-energy.
Other animals have been designed to remain unevolved as being more
‘primitive’, such as the Tasmanian devil, most insects, cockroaches, sharks and
crocodiles etc, that haven’t changed over millions of years, still exhibiting,
more often than not, antisocial and base instinct-like tendencies.
Humans, through the design
and order of predetermined evolution, have evolved with complex DNA increasing
the size of their brain, and thus, the capability of the brain to perform and
provide the human spiritual function of consciousness, and meta-cognition - to
think and reflect about what they are thinking.
Thus evolves a conscious thinking human being and a Self that is in
essence, an integral, sovereign, unique and independent ‘mover’ – all things
being equal, in terms of cerebral challenges and environmental
limitations. Consciousness allows Self
to think about what we are thinking about, and the will to choose how we think,
feel, behave and act. This in essence is
the non-atom structure of the human Spirit.
Structures of atom-energy
are visible because the both absorb various waves lengths of visible light
whilst also reflecting different wave-lengths of visible light. The reflected wave-lengths of light are what
our eyes, retina and brain and Self interpret as a particular colour giving the
structure 3-dimensional shape and form.
Super sensitive electronic detectors can measure the electromagnetic output
of atom-energies. On the other hand,
thoughts, feelings and behaviours are entwined with personal spiritual
experiences, which cannot be captured and measured by science, as they exist as
spirit-energy as opposed to atom-energy structures and functions including
photons of electromagnetic energy. But
the spirit-energy of Self is designed to interface with the structures and
functions of atom-energy. Self’s
body/anatomy is a structure with functions of atom-energy utilised by Self –
spirit-energy - here on earth.
The Differences
and Interactions of Atom-Energy and Spirit-Energy
How can our bodies
(atom-energy) and Self (spirit-energy) interact with each other? When we touch and place our finger onto
another atom-energy structure, we are placing our finger, made of carbon atom-energy,
onto the atom-energy of another structure.
Atoms or atom-energy are made of subatomic particle energies of protons,
neutrons and electrons, which in atom form are tightly bound together,
producing electrical charges of energy.
So the atom-energy of a particular structure can connect or interact
with the atom-energy of another structure, or the same structure if we are
touching one human finger to another human finger.
Different structures of
atom-energy are made from different atom-energy elements and so have different
electrical charges and electromagnetic energy.
Structures, both non-living and living, comprise of in essence, the
energy of atoms, which by definition possess no colour - when they do not or
cannot reflect photons of visible light of particular wave-lengths - e.g. in
the darkness of night, defining structures inherently invisible. Structures of atom-energy are also
weightless. A ton of concrete would be
floating around in space if it were not for the influence of the atom-energy pull
of planet earth, the sun and the solar system.
So what we may personally perceive to be the reality of our experience
in this world is in fact not what it appears to be.
Our experiences of the world
is brought about by an interaction of the subatomic workings of the structures
we call the brain with the ability of the non-atom spirit-energy of the Self to
make conscious interpretations.
Atom-energies are structures of stimuli ‘taken-in’ by the five senses of
sound, sight, touch, smell, and taste, and relayed to the brain for Self’s
spirit-energy to interpret and make personal sense of. What we understand to be seemingly the
reality of what we experience of the world, in terms of atom-energy structures
with functions, may require a major shift in mindset and conscious
perception.
Such an interpretation of
the world will require a significant mind-shift. A degree in mind-shift in out-look as would
have been required with the discovery of the earth being round instead of flat,
and the stars not literally the lights of heaven, but the burning balls of
nuclear fires atom-energy many light years away.
Opposite to the structure
and function of atom-energy as observed in the universe, the essence of Self
and consciousness of the human being is a spiritual-energy with function rather
than the structure of atom-energy. The
spirit-energy of Self, is of course, designed to interact with the structures
and functions of atom-energy, whilst Self exists as a unique, sovereign,
willed, and independent being, but with the designed capacity to interact and
interface with the structures and functions of atom-energies. The atom-energy of the brain is the designed
vehicle for the atom-less energy of the conscious Self of spirit-energy to
exist and function on earth.
Self simply defined as
spirit, consciousness and will, etc, surely must be, in philosophical,
theological and scientific paradigms, described as being a unique form of energy
with unique properties and characteristics perhaps much more akin to that which
created the energy brought forth to create the Big Bang, and so the universe
and life. So the spirit-energy of Self
could be more akin to being made in and of, or similar to, the ‘likeness and
image’ of the ‘Creator’. But which is
uniquely imbibed with the essence of definitive integrity, sovereignty,
independence, and free-will whilst possessing the characteristics of
immortality.
A Shift in Personal
Mindset
This information about
structures and functions of atom-energy cognitively and spiritually
internalised may be a new way for people to absorb and perceive all that exists
in the world, including other human beings.
As previously aired, this new way of looking at the world if you choose
to do so, will unequivocally require a willed and intentional shift in the
person’s mindset and perception of the universe.
A necessary change and shift
in mindset would be similar to the change and shift needed to believe and
acknowledge a change of thinking from the illusional belief of a flat planet to
believing – through scientific evidence – the planet to be round. This would not have been an insignificant shift
in mindset for people of that time by any means, from moving from the illusion
of a belief in a flat planet to acknowledging the reality of the planet being
round. Rather than perceiving what we
observe and experience everyday, such as solids, liquids and gases etc, at
‘face value’, but rather understanding them as structures with functions of
different atom-energies with the qualities and characteristics atoms
possess. This change in mindset will
also include the manner in which we view human beings as not only structures of
atom-energy, but more importantly, individuals that by definition, function and
exist as beings possessing the energy of Spirit and Soul
Intellectually perceiving
that the structures we observe and experience are that of atom-energies, which
are in essence, invisible, mass-less and weightless, but with electromagnetic
and interactive properties, will ultimately allow the viewing of the world from
this unique understanding and perspective.
This change in human mindset and shift in perception involves a new
understanding of Self, with functional dimensions that include, consciousness,
personality and freewill etc, which are ‘spiritual’ energies, rather than
atom-energies, but which all the same, can interface with atom-energies.
The structure and functions
of atom-energies, at any one moment, may change, for example, when the
structure of atom-energy in the form of the body changes in ‘death’ and
consequently decomposes but remains in existence restructured and with new
functions. But non-atom energy, or more
correctly, the spirit-energy of Self, maintains its sovereign integrity,
continuing immortally onwards throughout eternal infinity.
We are able to differentiate
the differences between two significant attributes of the human species, the
structure and function of anatomy (atom-energy), and the part, which is
spirit-energy of the unique Self, with consciousness, encompassing mind of
thoughts, feelings and will. These
spiritual attributes are used for Self, in interface with the atom-energy of
the brain, to function and experience, perceive and interpret stimuli in the
environment as well as interact with the spirit-energies of other people. Self and Self’s consciousness etc is a
spiritual energy made without atoms.
This is, atom-less energy and as such, a spirit-energy that maintains
its specific human sovereign integrity and identity, eternally and without loss
of energy.
CHAPTER 10
The Need for the ‘Word’,
Soul, and Spirit
Energy from Nothing
Changing DNA of Atom-Energy
Through Spiritual Energy
Made in the Likeness and
Image of the ‘Creator’
The Interaction and
Disconnection between Atom-Energy and Spirit-Energy
The Interactions of
Atom-Energy Structures with Spirit-Energy
Creator’s Soul and Spirit
Lies within the Creation
The Fingerprints of Soul
and Spirit in both the Non-Living and Spirit-Energies
Atom-Energy and the
Spirit-Energy of Self
First and Second Laws of
Thermodynamics
What Does the Word Atom
Mean?
The Need for the
‘Word’, Soul, and Spirit
The word ‘Word’, as we read
it in the Book of Genesis of the Bible, could be interpreted as meaning the
intentional Will of a Force, Supreme Being, Supernatural Being, ‘God’, ‘Allah’,
or whatever name or symbol tagged to the potential entity of a ‘Power’ we
ascribe to as being the potential ‘Creator’ of the Big Bang. And as such, the creation of the universe,
life and human beings.
The creation of the
Universe, being that which consists of Space, Time, Atom-energy, Photons of
light, and the Electromagnetic fields, generated by these omnipotent energies,
also include the energy of Spirit and Soul.
This is the creation of a universe that when its parts are
scientifically deconstructed, it is so unbelievably and incomprehensibly
complex, that rationally and scientifically it would be remiss to think that
such a universe could not have come into being by itself - created from
nothing. There is one scientific law
most of us will not argue with and that is, it is impossible to get ‘something’
from nothing. The Big Bang requires as
necessary, some form of deliberate, yet incomprehensible, omnipotent
intentional Will or Power to come into being.
The different of atoms of
structures are identical except for the composition of their different number
of protons, neutrons and electrons.
Atoms interact with one another to form the various chemical and
bio-chemical molecules of compounds (made of different atoms) and elements
(made of same atoms) of which the structures of the universe consist.
We may well ask about the
processes of the executive Will and Thought initiating from and through some
form of Creator that has produced the complex entities of Energy, Time, Space,
and atom-energy structures including Self’s Soul and Spirit. Scientists have undertaken research with the
118 different atoms (elements) to recreate the design and order of the process
of evolution to create atom-energy structures and life. But they have conceded to the realisation
that it would require the incomprehensible complex bio-chemical inter and
intra-interactions, inevitably necessary to create all components and
structures of the structures and functions in the universe, both non-life
(inanimate-inorganic) and life (animate-organic) which they are nable to
scientifically repeat.
Energy from
Nothing