What If . . .

What if Jesus’ younger brothers and sisters were typical of their day?  They would most likely have been married and had children of their own by the time Jesus, their eldest brother at the age of 30, left home and the family Carpentry business, to begin wandering the Jordan Valley.

Mary, like most mothers/grandmothers, would continue to live in Nazareth supporting her married children spending her days caring for and spoiling her grandchildren.  Would Mary have left her home, her married children and her grandchildren, to travel with her wandering son, Jesus?

After three years of wandering the Jordan Valley and living off of the kindness of strangers, Jesus was arrested by the only group ever threatened by his public speaking and actions, - the Sanhedrin and Pharisees.  Jesus was accused of sedition by the Sanhedrin and turned over to the Roman ruler, Pontius Pilate on trumped up charges guaranteed to result in his execution. 

Sedition in any country meant a speedy trial, and an execution by a slow death on a large wooden post erected in full view of a busy thoroughfare entering a large city to get maximum publicity.  To guarantee a maximum publicity, the victim was left on the post after he died for sometimes weeks with a sign to warn others of the results of attempting to overthrow the ruling powers.

Nazareth is 90 miles from Jerusalem. There was no public transportation or communication between the two towns.  Mary and her family would not have received the message of Jesus’ conviction of sedition and execution for several days.  It would then take several more days before the 50+ year-old, Mary, with support of her sons/daughters, made their way back to Jerusalem to beg Pontius Pilate for the’ body of Jesus for burial. 

In this likely scenario, Mary would not have been present at Jesus’ trial and crucifixion, and unlikely that she would have been allowed to consign his body to a Jerusalem tomb. 

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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Life is a “Crap Shoot ”

Life is a just a fractional link in the evolutionary DNA/RNA chain of time.

We had nothing to do with the initation of our existence and very little to do with the intention of our learning experiences which have resulted in who we are today.  It began as the result of a chain of innate biological programs that surface when a critical maturity level is achieved and is identified as the procreation sequence of all biological species, as well as our own ancestors.

The “will to live” begins when the progeny of a biological species is able to functionally survive in the environment they are hatched or born into, whether they be seedling, hatchling, larvae, or infant.  The quality and span of life of individuals or a species depends upon an ability to cope and adapt to environmental conditions.  Either the individual or the species survive and thrive, or they become extinct.  Between these two possibilities lies an infinite number of variations of “pauper or princes” possibilities.

The sensory system of single-cell organisms from which all biological life has descended, is necessary for survival by both flora and fauna, and are designed to detect the difference between pleasure and pain.  These two divergent conditions control our learning experiences and direct choices of seeking or avoiding conditions that produce any measure of these extremes.  Surprisingly, the same environmental conditions produce either pleasure or pain in both flora or fauna, i.e. climate, moisture, nourishment, opportunity to advance, opportunity to mate, etc., and favor genetic changes which are best able to seek the advantages and avoid deficiencies of these life requirements.

A simple algae is the very distant ancestor of all flora in existence today.  The thousands of variations from broad palm fronds to needle like leaves, from shrubs to towering giants, to a tolerance of wet, arid, and artic conditions has been accomplished by minimal deviations of the genetic DNA/RNA reproduction through succeeding generations, directed by the pleasure and pain responses of the sensory system to conditions of this planet.

The same evolutionary process has existed for all fauna of this planet.  We all had the same common beginning from a simple single-cell organism whose sensory system has directed it to grow influenced by a pleasure or pain mechanism, into the thousands of insect and animal species that exist today, influenced by; climate, moisture, nourishment, opportunity to advance, access to mate, etc.  Both flora and fauna are products of, and shaped by, the physical conditions of this planet.

Four sons are born to the same parents over a twelve-year period.  Each brother is different in physical appearance by the slight genetic variations of their ancestors.  Their lives are different based in small part to the slight genetic variations, but more so by the sequence of experiences each has had in their progress to maturity.  Even identical twins are not completely identical.  There are still genetic variations, but on a much smaller scale, and although there may be similar sequences of experience, one will possess a more environmental compatibility than the other.

Individual ability to achieve a level of maturity and procreation of both flora and fauna is only possible if each personal sensory system is able to direct the individual in a path between the extremes of pleasure and pain, the basic teaching and learning tool of a successful existence.  Creativity, compassion, and charity can only become a result when the sensory system experiences the dimensions of both pleasure (feeding the ego) and pain (for empathy).

The primary purpose of the existence of each generation of biological species is to extend and continue the links of the evolutionary chain.  Some will continue the propagation of the species through procreation, but all have a responsibility to support and protect the evolutionary development of every species that exists today.  To allow individuals or species to dominate the process by promoting its own selfish purposes (kudzu & oligarchs) is a criminal threat to the continued success of evolutionary life on this planet.

From star dust we are formed, and to star dust we shall return when our “link” in the genetic chain of life is finished.

Keith Crowe - 7/27/2019