A Secular Creed

Keith Crowe

Prologue

Thousands of traditionally organized religions, cults and political persuasions have been responsible for the separation of people into warring tribal factions capitalizing on their ignorance, superstitions and fears, and continue to perpetuate brands of separation with organizational interests and the proliferation of brick, mortar, steeples, stained glass, and the systematic practices of ideologies based on ancient racially-biased folklore and mythology.

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I believe the universe began in a cataclysmic instant of time initiated in an unknowable circumstance, resulting in a continuously evolving universe filled with developing forms flora and fauna that will never have a capacity to know or understand the initiating force(s).

I believe there will never be an evolving biological mindset that can encompass or imagine the infinite or the eternal.

I believe throughout the history of this planet, there have been and continues to be, many exceptional persons who have shared their special leadership skills, insight and knowledge of life and its relationships to nature.

I believe all life forms are instilled with an innate compassion and charity toward all living things through a common bond of respect that binds all life together.

I believe every molecular body in the universe from galaxies down to viruses, exist in a 3-cycle state of birth, life, and death; and are composed of material produced in the origin of the universe and in the death of stars.

I believe all biological life is composed of a common molecular material that is released back into the environment after death to be used again and again in the rebirth of more biological life forms of flora or fauna.

I believe death is the final state of all things when personalities and histories continue to exist only as a memory in the minds of those who were acquainted, for as long as they shall live.

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Can a Created object ever know the nature of its Creator?

I believe - the Force that is credited by religions for creation of the universe, exists in every atom that was, and continues to be created in the plasma death of stars.  It is manifested in part by what we define as "gravity."  All physical bodies, organic, inorganic, mineral, flora, and fauna possess this property in every atom of its body.  Some call this energy a "spiritual link " that exists between everything that IS.  All biological entities, including plants as well as animals, possesses a "sensory system" that gives us a consciousness, a will to survive, and a procreative mandate that is shared with the universe.

Humans have created names for invisible forces who are credited with things we do not understand or cannot control, which we call Zeus, Yahweh, Trinity-God, Allah, etc., but conveniently overlook that the character and nature of these deities only reflect the traditions of our own tribes, and do not begin to describe an Intelligence that created the universe.  As evolving products of this planet, it is unlikely that we will ever have or develop an ability to describe or communicate with a Creator of the universe we find ourselves in.

Even though we have developed only a limited knowledge of the universe it has allowed us to investigate deep space communities, and a sensory system that allows us to explore our origins from a cataclysmic event 13.7 billion years ago, we will never be able to comprehend the nature of infinity or eternity.  We can only say the words and define a fragment of their essence.  The closest thing that we have incrementally discovered regarding the realm of infinity and eternity, is the nature of Atoms which are used to construct a universe.  The extraordinary character of atoms is that they are born in the plasma environment of stars and never die, expire, or cease to exist.  On the last day of universal existence, a hydrogen atom will still be and act like a hydrogen atom, a helium atom will still be and act like a helium atom, etc. etc.

Every cell of every biological life form, both flora and fauna, is constructed by DNA/RNA molecules using the same 5 basic types of atoms; hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and phosphorus as tools to construct every body cell part.  Although trace amounts of 20 other elements such as, sodium, magnesium, aluminum, potassium, iron, iodine, etc. are needed in all biological life forms, the 5 basic types of atoms are the major building blocks.  We are more alike than our physical appearances would suggest and when we die, all of the atoms that compose our being are eventually released back into the environment from whence they came, unchanged.  Hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and phosphorus and the trace atoms will continue their original separate personalities, characteristics, and identities.

Sons and daughters born to the same parents are rarely identical in either appearance or behavior.  They are conceived at a different reproduction stages of each parent and are influenced by separate and different experiences while they progress from birth to adulthood.  Each begins life with an altered set of genetics and experiences to become new links in the evolutionary chain of life to cope with new and ever-changing environmental conditions.  Unable to do any less leads to extinction.

For 13.7 billion years an evolutionary event has been in progress supporting a wave of life that has rolled through time long before mythological legends were ever recorded on animal skins and clay tablets.  Every culture that has ever emerged from the Olduvai Gorge and Lake Turkana regions of East Africa over the past 3 million years, has developed stories about the creation of the world they live in, none of them accurately describing the reality of today’s knowledge bank, but representing points of interest to their tribes and cultures.

No matter how sophisticated and advanced our tribes may become, it is unlikely that we will ever be able to define, know, or understand the force(s) that is responsible for the creation of the universe in which we are only a very remote speck.

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