An Interfaith Dialogue

Keith Crowe

     One of my nieces acquired a “robot” floor sweeper for her house. It is a disc about the size of a large platter and about 3 inches thick. It’s only purpose is to sweep her hard-surfaced floors. It came with a “charging station” which is mounted on the floor, against the baseboard in some remote part of a room. At a programed schedule the sweeper will detach from the charging station and begin sweeping in straight lines until it encounters stationary objects (furniture), at which time it will randomly change directions and continue until it encounters another stationary object, etc., all the while, recording its movements and location. When its battery becomes almost depleted of energy, it consults its memory data to locate and return to its charging station until such time it is programed to begin its appointed cleaning cycle again.

     When a door is opened to an adjacent room from which the sweeper is located, it will also include the additional room in its duties and add it to its memory, the new room size and location of stationary objects, as well as the route necessary for its return to its charging station.

     If, second and third sweepers are installed in other rooms of the house, they will map out the description of their environments as well.  If all 3 sweepers are given access to the whole house, the 3 sweepers will undertake to clean and map all of the rooms they are permitted to access, before returning to their respective charging stations.  If, and when, the sweepers encounter each other, but do not engage a second time at that location, the meeting will be classified in their memory banks as a “temporary” barrier, such as a pet, someone’s foot, etc.  When the memory data of all 3 sweepers is compared, there will be a different descriptive map of the house by each sweeper. Each will be correct, but from the perspective of different charging station locations, in the same way an elephant is described by several blind persons touching different parts of its body. Each description may be accurate, but does not describe an accurate picture of the whole. As efficient and intelligent as the robotic sweepers are in their given tasks, they can have no knowledge of other sweeper’s perspectives or the essence of their designers or creators.

     For billions of years, life forms, both flora and fauna, have been evolving and expanding to occupy every niche of this planet. Humans, like the organisms, molecules, and atoms which have combined to construct our bodies, have become cultural organisms. We, like all life forms, are herd animals living and thriving in fields, groves, flocks, pods, herds, villages, tribes, and nations, experiencing and learning the ways of the valleys, deserts, forests and jungles, we live in. Our experiences have been recorded in a common knowledge bank that contains a history and tradition of our story. None of these histories tell the whole story, nor are they a full description of the whole house, or an accurate description of an elephant.

     Hominid man has existed on this planet for over 3 million years (i.e.: Lucy – AL 288-1). There were approximately 200 to 400 million people living in tribes and cultures all around the planet during the period when the religious canons of three major cultures were compiled. The sources of these canons occurred in a very small corner of the planet, during a very brief period in the history of mankind, addressing traditions peculiar to Middle-Eastern cultures in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Roman, and Arabic languages. These canons used the deities, Yahweh, God, and Allah as their “authority,” in vague interpretive languages to address rules and laws of social relations and human behavior. The obvious question then is; why would any deity(s) elect to converse with mankind, so late in the history if mankind, and to only a handful of Semitic people, while 200 to 400 million people lived all around the world?

     Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammad (the Big Four), were certainly not the first, nor the only persons throughout the history of man, who have invoked disciplines of tolerance, peace, humane treatment, health or hygiene. The Torah, New Testament, and Koran were not written or compiled by the “Big Four” who have been traditionally credited with their origins. Information contained in these books was collected, edited and compiled by hundreds of likeminded, but fallible humans, primarily from oral traditions. Within the cultures, for which the books were compiled, people have found comfort and support in their creation stories, but beyond their culture of origin these books have become weapons to be used against other cultural legends. The will to live, traditions of survival skills, an impetus to be treated fairly, are all far more ancient than any cultural concept of deital invocation.

     Although our knowledge of forests, jungles and plains from which we originated and where we were preoccupied in a primitive daily survival, has expanded into a sophisticated universe, we still do not have a knowledge or words to describe a Creator of it all. The definitions and words used by religions, suggest their Gods are little more than jealous genies, and disagree on a definitive concept. How is it possible for any created entity to ever know or even define its Creator? That we are aware of a Creator beyond our Mother’s womb is miracle enough. To imagine anything beyond that is speculation based on myths and legends of cultural experiences.  The robotic floor sweeper couldn’t begin to imagine its maker; the animal kingdom cannot imagine a creation of 13.7 billion years; neither can we ever know a definitive creator. Are the deities of different cultures, Yahweh, God, and Allah, the same or equal to, the Creator of the Universe? The words used to describe these Deities by the various canons do not aspire to a Creator of the Universe. They sound more like a distant friend or relative in whom we are to confide, and make our requests for things we have no power to provide for ourselves - or else there may be consequences.

     All life forms exist only briefly in the spectrum of time and space, from the few frenzy minutes of the Mayfly, to the thousand years of Giant Sequoias, all for the sole purpose of supporting the wave of life rolling through a universe of time. All multicellular life is composed of only the same few types of atoms, configured by a common DNA Spiral produced by two parentally donated chromosomes, and exists for only a brief spectrum of time before all the building blocks are returned to the environment, waiting to be used again, and again. Everything in the universe is subject to the same fate, planets, stars, galaxies, all live finite existences. The only thing that even remotely endures to resemble an eternity are the elements of which the universe and all life forms are made, from dust and gas produced in the death of ancient stars.

     The largest man-made tool in history, the Large Hadron Collider (CERN), is buried underground near Geneva Switzerland, and has been created in part as an attempt to a peek behind the curtain that veils the initial cataclysmic event that occurred 13.7 billion years ago when energy was transformed into matter, in the remotest possibility of seeing the Face of our Creator.

     Cultural perspectives can never describe the “whole” picture, or purpose of creation.  For humans to continue to quarrel about the existence of which we know so little, is the epitome of illogical logic. So, let us begin a new culture.

Afterlife Concepts

          At almost every Funeral I’ve attended, the most common condolence expressed is, “He/she is now in a better place.” I have often wondered what this expression is meant to convey. Does it express relief that the departed is now immune to whatever pain and suffering this life has to offer? Or, does the expression imply that the spirit of the departed has gone to a heavenly reward?

     The following text expresses a time when the departed will enter into a heavenly realm:

By the word of the Lord, we declare to you that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.… 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17

     Life after death is a concept that has evolved from legends, myths and folk lore, through oral traditions of many cultures. Early humans had no concept of a heaven described by today’s Western Religions. One early concept of life after death consisted of the spirit of a departed tribal member entering into an animal that reflected the departed’s personality in life. The bravest human spirits would enter the fiercest animals such as lions, bears, bulls, eagles, etc., whereas lesser human spirits would join less threatening animals such as small mammals, birds, butterflies, etc. The occupation of human spirits in animals would last only as long as the animal lived. When the animal occupied by a human spirit died, the human spirit was released to become trees, stars, rains, storms, or any of the many natural environmental objects and conditions that humans revered.

     The Jewish culture, from which Christianity has originated, had no canonical tradition of a reward based afterlife. The incentive to live a righteous life was motivated by the desire to remain obedient to the God they honored and worshiped in return for his protection. Altar sacrifices were practiced for a wide range of purposes, such as gifts to God as a blessing, or atonement for the transgression of disobedience. The type of sacrifice to be offered was specified for each purpose ranging from grains of wheat, baked goods, animal entrails, birds, or flock animals (cattle, sheep, goats, etc.)

     Christians developed their concept of an afterlife during the 1^st century CE, and was based on legends surrounding the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth, alleged to be the Son of God. When the “Jesus Followers” broke away from their Jewish roots, they made a transition from making sacrifices on an altar in “THE” Temple for atonement of transgressions, to the sacrifice of a human, Jesus, on a cross to atone for the “sin” of being human which was allegedly inherited from Adam. The incentive for believing this story was the philosophy of a reward in an afterlife. With the “Belief Key” you would enter an idyllic paradise in an afterlife, without this “Key” your spirit would be banished to the punishment of an eternal Hades.

     The theories of an afterlife and its description have taken many forms over the centuries, from no concept of an afterlife, to the concept of an eternal place where only Christians may enter, with streets paved with gold where residents live in mansions sized by the measure of the departed’s obedience and devotion during their life on earth. The Islamic description of an afterlife reward is similar. The difference being, only Muslim Believers may enter a paradise that is an eternal garden of physical pleasures and spiritual delights.  Suffering will be absent and bodily desires will be satisfied.  All wishes will be met.  Palaces, servants, riches, streams of wine, milk and honey, pleasant fragrances, soothing voices, pure partners for intimacy; a person will never get bored or have enough!

     These philosophies provoke a question concerning animal’s knowledge or thoughts about an afterlife. Do Chimpanzees, Wolves, Elephants, Whales, domestic pets, etc. have any concept of an afterlife? Or do they live in the moment by instinct and opportunity? There doesn’t seem to be an overwhelming evidence that animals have a concept of an afterlife, although some pet burials might indicate otherwise.

     According to the history of mankind, the earliest break with our animal ancestors branch of the evolutionary tree occurred approximately 8 million years ago. There is further evidence of bi-pedal Hominid existence and tool making as recent as 2.8 million years ago. Assuming animals do not have a concept of an afterlife, it would be appropriate to surmise that our earliest Human ancestors had no concept of an afterlife either. These concepts seemed to develop as early humans began to develop an increase in social interaction and coalesced into the seeds of early cultures.

     As man’s knowledge of his world increased, he began to overcome his primal fears of “natural events”, i.e.; earthquakes, volcanos, tsunamis, lighting storms, etc. by reasoning these super-natural events were somehow being controlled by invisible forces which were given names such as, Aphrodite, Apollo, Ares, Hades, Poseidon, Zeus, Fire, Volcano, etc. Gods that could be useful or destructive to humans, who lived in elevated realms in the sky, on top of mountains, or deep in the sea or earth.

     A proscribed behavior became a standard as humans attempted to appease the Gods which often threatened human existence. If humans behaved in ways proscribed by Medicine Men, Witch Doctors, or Shaman, it was supposed to please the Gods. If any proscribed behavior was violated, the Gods became displeased and punished the humans with some natural event. When this happened, the guilty party(s) had to ferreted out and made to pay for their transgression, sometimes with their life, or the life of someone else if the guilty party was not identified.

          Today, our knowledge of the universe and its properties present us with a new set of concepts of how eternity is defined. This is based on the common building material throughout the cosmos – Atoms. The entire universe is made up of approximately 118 types of atoms. These atoms behave and are controlled by a common set of physical laws. All atoms were produced in the Big Bang or in subsequent explosions of mega giant-stars. Consequently, these atoms have existed for billions of years. Every galaxy, solar system, and planet is made up of atoms that are billions of years old. The characteristics of atoms never change and are as near to an eternal state by any definition or concept can describe.

      Atoms that compose inorganic compounds such as rocks, granite, crystals, sand, minerals, etc., if not disturbed, are locked into place until the planet is destroyed. Atoms which compose all organic compounds of biology, flora and fauna, are locked in only as long as the biological component lives. At its death, the atoms are eventually released by deterioration and decay, back into the environment to become free atoms again and available to be recaptured and used as building material to form another biological life form of flora or fauna. The atoms used to compose your body have previously been used to compose some part of an insect, a tree, another human being, a flower, an animal, and will continue to be used to compose other biological life forms after your demise. The recycling of atoms will continue until the end of time.

     Another example of physical recycling of atoms in multi-use situations is a very familiar process because of today’s knowledge of the universal cycle of atoms. Billions of years ago, ancient ferns and palm like plants soaked up millions of gallons of water (H2O) through their roots, and absorbed tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) through their leaves to use the atoms of these two molecules to construct plant material. Today we harvest these long dead plants in the form of “fossil fuel” and burn it to release and use their long stored energy. In the process of burning, hydrogen and carbon atoms are released back into the atmosphere in their original form as water (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2, while contributing to the depletion of today’s oxygen (O2). Unfortunately, the increase of these two compounds in today’s environment is contributing to the detrimental side of the environmental equation, one to our global warming, and the second to increases in ocean levels.

     We now know that all biological forms use the same types of atoms (approximately 8 to 12 kinds) as building material for both flora and fauna. The chromosomes which contain the DNA blueprints to form both plants and animals are nearly identical. The reproduction of all species requires two chromosomes to initiate a new organism. A supply of atoms to construct the determined life form is supplied in the nourishment consumed, and in the air we breathe. At the end of life, the organism deteriorates and the atoms are released into the environment to become available for another cycle of life. Our lives exist as long as we can maintain a viable organism to use the available supply of building materials. When the supply of raw material is diminished, or the blueprints (DNA) is corrupted by time, life ceases to exist.

     All life forms exist as an interim entity whose sole purpose is to procreate or support the species progressing, evolving, and adapting. We are nothing more than a wave of life traveling through time. We are made of eternal material which we acquired and will release again. All things come to an end, galaxies, stars, solar systems, planets and biological life forms. Their properties (atoms) will be released back into the cosmos to be recycled into new galaxies, stars, solar systems, planets, and biological life forms.

     The story of a man who was commanded by a deity to build a boat in order to save all species of animals from an impending flood 7000 years ago;  the story of a man and a deity who decided to begin a new and “favored” race of people 6000 years ago; the 3000 year old story of a man and a deity who liberated the favored race of people who had been enslaved for 400 years; the 2000 year old story of a deity who sired a son with a human virgin to become a human sacrifice for an afterlife of a heaven where only Christians may go; the story of a man who became a prophet and father of the Islamic culture and a story of an afterlife where only “Muslim believers” may go;  these are all stories created by mankind to define and promote a culture, not a deity.

     The concept of an afterlife that is described in human terms as a heaven or a hell, is the result of fears and superstitions of humans. All forms of flora and fauna have embraced life to its fullest and resist death by an innate will to live. Until recently, humans believed that: stars were lanterns that were turned on at night by the Gods; Gods used natural disasters to punish the disobedience of man; the world was flat and floating on the back of a giant turtle; the world was the center of the universe; we were the only life form in the universe. Now, we know what we are made of and how the Universe works. The only thing about us that is eternal are the atoms, dust from ancient dying stars, of which we are made. And our death contributes to recycling the supply of atomic material available to continue the wave of life rolling through time.

     The personality or character of each human can be defined as their “spirit,” and continues to exist after our demise only in the minds and memories of everyone who knew us, good, bad, or indifferent. The “spirit of our lives” continues to exist only as long as everyone who knew us, lives. The tradition of placing a headstone over a grave is an act to perpetuate the remembrance of a “spirit” of the departed, when all who knew them have passed away. The desire to be remembered is almost as strong as the will-to-live. Biographies and Memoirs are other ways in which humans attempt to perpetuate their memory and “spirit.” As long as a person can be remembered, even by strangers, there is a feeling that their “spirit” will continue to exist.

o

A Fork In the Road

     My religious upbringing was based on the one and only, Christian Bible. My Southern Baptist, and later my Methodist experiences, were similar by the use of the same Bible as the basic handbook and curriculum guide. As my community exposure and horizons expanded, I was to learn that many of the Faiths around me also used the same book, but with differing results. Thus began the origin of my quest.

     Eventually, questions regarding conflicting information and supernatural events contained in the Bible, moved me to my own study of who, how and when these stories were written, collected and compiled to produce a book the entire Christian world is based upon.

     During the period of history when the Bible was supposed to have been written, most of the population in the world was illiterate. Many of Jesus’ Apostles and Disciples probably could not read or write well enough to record information and stories attributed to them. Scribes were an honorable and a much needed profession in performing tasks of reading and writing for 95 percent of the population in all of the cultures living around the Mediterranean, and beyond.

     Old Testament stories existed in an oral tradition for hundreds of years before they were ever recorded by people who were literate enough to do so.  Most of the Old Testament, the Torah, as we know it today, was not written by Moses, but by Jewish Captives after the destruction of the Temple by the Babylonian invasion.

     The New Testament books and stories were not written until 50 to 100 years after Jesus died, and, for the most part, not written by the people whose names were used as their titles.  Almost all of these stories were written by unknown persons who were not first-hand witnesses to events recorded. Paul, one of the most prolific writers of New Testament literature, did not witness any of Jesus’ life.  Luke collected all of his material for the two books credited to his authorship, through the oral tradition. He too, was not a witness to the Life and times of Jesus. This alone should raise enough questions
concerning the traditional orthodoxy and practice of placing all of your religious eggs in one basket.

     The second condition that existed which raises questions concerning the legitimacy of information contained in the Single Christian Handbook, is the method and when it was compiled.

     The United States Declaration of Independence (1776) and the Constitution (1787) upon which this country was founded were written before we became a new country. Since then we have expanded from a young country located along the Atlantic seaboard with a population of approximately 2.3 million, to a current population of 319 million which has spread across the continent.

     At the time of Jesus’ death, there were very few devoted followers or disciples forming what has been described as “churches” (a secular Greek term Paul used to describe groups of Christ Followers).  Before this period in history there were no religious “churches,” there were only grand edifices with towering granite pillars, Monoliths, Temples, Tabernacles, etc., erected to a myriad of Gods.  Three hundred years later, a longer period than the United States has even existed, there were numerous underground groups of Christ Followers gathering in homes, stables, caves, throughout the Roman Empire.  Each group possessed their own oral stories and scraps of letters and documents from questionable sources, which contained information that was presumed to be about the legendary Jesus.

     Not all of these “churches” were religious, many were groups of zealots believing that Jesus had been encouraging a secret revolutionary movement that was always seething just beneath the social surface, a reincarnated King David to overthrow the occupying Roman Empire to restore Israel to its former glory.  Many of the people who lined roadside when Jesus road into Jerusalem on a donkey were zealots hoping for a sign that would lead them in the overthrow of the Roman occupation of Israel. Consequently, there was a great deal of friction and quarreling between these many groups, not only over the intentions of the man Jesus, but over the authenticity of the letters and documents each group possessed.  Paul, in his numerous letters to the gentile groups he had establish, continually warned of interfering and meddling “groups” Jews and other sects who would attempt to change the instructions and practices he had taught them.

     Many of the Christ-Follower groups were involved in physical confrontations not only with each other, but with the occupying Roman Legions, which made the reigning emperor nervous that these conflicts could easily get out of hand and result in another uprising.  All other religious or secular groups tolerated by the Roman Empire were controlled by central governing bodies, (i.e., for the Jews there was the Sanhedrin) who was held responsible for keeping the peace among its members or culture. These trouble making and bourgeoning Christian sects had no controlling hierarchy which was answerable to the Empire for taking responsibility for the friction breaking out between the growing number of “churches.”

     During most of this 300-year period, Christians had been on the “okay-to-persecute-list” by the Roman Empire which kept most of the Christ Followers activities underground, except for occasions when physical conflicts erupted.  Constantine made an attempt to bring peace to the scene by co-enacting the Edict of Toleration in 311CE, in the hope that this would reduce the friction between the religious and zealot groups of Christians and bring them out into the open. Obviously, this did not have the effect he had hoped for.

     Fourteen years later, in 325CE, Constantine ordered representatives of each of the Christ Followers groups to meet in an ecumenical Council in Nicaea for the purpose of organizing a common leadership and governing body, and to reconcile all of the letters and documents being used by the 300+ “churches” as their authority and literature. The result of this mandated meeting was to establish a quasi-political/religious headquarters of the Christ-Followers, not in Jerusalem or Israel, but in Rome.  That was like establishing the headquarters of an organization dedicated to the perpetual memory of Dr. Martin Luther King and locating it in Canada.  How much sense would that make?

     After spending several years filtering through and editing all of the many letters and documents used by each of the 300+ “churches” in attendance at the Council of Nicaea, they settled on 27 documents which were canonized as the authentic history for all of Christ Following groups.  All of this was constructed 300 years after the death of a legend, by people who had for the past 300 years, been arguing and conflicted about the truth of a history that existed only in fragments. There were to be several more succeeding Council get-togethers for the purpose of “fine tuning” the story of who Jesus was. Questions were discussed and decided upon subjects such as: “Was Jesus human or divine?”; “Are any of the Miracles reported over the past hundreds of years real?”; “Was Mary a Virgin after Jesus’ birth?”; “Were the brothers and sisters of Jesus born of the Virgin Mary, or were they half-siblings from Joseph’s first marriage?” “The selection of dates for celebrating events.” Etc.

After the Council of Nicaea, Constantine had a central agency responsible for the control and behavior of the Christ-followers. And, with them out in the open instead of underground, they would be easier to monitor and control.

     The United States has existed a mere 240 years and was founded on distinctive documents and letters from the very beginning. Yet, we still experience a diversity of opinion concerning the intention and translation of these documents.  The Council convened in Nicaea in 325CE by the Roman Emperor, 300 years after events that purportedly was the reason for their existence, had no first hand witnesses to testify. All they had were exaggerated oral stories and pieces of letters and documents from questionable sources, fragments from which to compile a common guiding edict, 300 years after the fact, which was then arbitrarily declared inerrant.

     Two forces have controlled mankind since we became a life form, Chiefs, and Shaman. One became a decision maker and ruler by popularity or brute force for purposes of dispute arbitration, hunting and defense.  The other became a mystic and sorcerer founded upon human ignorance and superstitions by creating stories about supernatural forces responsible for natural disasters such as volcanoes, earthquakes, destructive storms, etc.  Rules, Laws and Gods have increased in number with clan size, populations, and generations.

     Supernatural explanations of events were an easy sell thousands of years ago. With today’s expansion of our knowledge bank concerning our past, present, and future of the galaxy we share with the universe, supernatural explanations don’t carry the same weight they once did. We have come to a century when supernatural hypothesis of ancient manifestos that teach its adherents to accept them unquestionably is colliding with hard facts and reality.

     A reality that everything in the universe is interconnected having a beginning and an end, Galaxies, Solar systems, Stars, Planets, flora and fauna, Y2K, the 2012 Mayan Calendar, etc. The only things that even come close to an eternal existence are the building blocks of which we and all things are made, atoms. Atoms are born in the crucible fires of stars and composed of an eternal triad which never expires or dies.

     The clearest graphic I can imagine of a Creating Power of the Universe is the Periodic Table of Elements, natural laws that have influenced and shaped every aspect of the evolutionary course of events throughout the cosmos. Our existence is not based on a supernatural events or fairy tales, it is based on definable and measureable facts discovered as our growing knowledge bank increases.

     At this point in my life, I have transcended the orthodoxy of the biblical stories of my youth. I accept these in the same literary vein as folk tales, myths and legends as in all other cultures. I recognize the purpose and corporate promotion of today’s congregations and religions as a stabilizing traditional function of social interaction for the common good of communities in which they exist. I do not accept the concept of original sin, or a necessity for a spiritual atonement. Neither do I accept the concept of an existence beyond this life. I do recognize the extremes of human behavior to be either beneficial or destructive, supportive or dividing.

     The quest has not ended, nor will it ever. We have not solved the ultimate equation, but have begun to view propositions with clearer eyes and objective minds. The curiosity of human nature will continually propel mankind in an adventure where no one has gone before, to explore that which lies beyond our current knowledge or reach. Religion, like art, is subjective in the eye of the beholder and exempt from facts or reality. The clarity of truth is continually emerging by the enlightenment of discovery and knowledge.

     Any hope we may have for ourselves and our future is to live each day as if it will be our last, as one day, it will be. When that day arrives, the atoms of our bodies will begin a process of release whereby they become free to join other atoms in the formation of molecules for continuing biological life on this planet. This force of truth will continue forever.

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Where Faith Went

I was born and raised in a King James, Southern Baptist brotherhood. Saturday night was prep time for Sunday, and Sunday mornings and evenings were spent in church; also, Wednesday evenings and all other unscheduled times the church was open, i.e., visiting Missionaries, Revivals, etc.

Today, I could be described by several tags, but would prefer Possibilian or Skeptnostic. How did I arrive here? There was no “One thing or event” that brought me into this arena, it was a series of many questions and experiences.

At an early age I began to wonder about stories contained in the “Christian User Manual,” (the Inerrant, King James Version of the Word of God). One of my first questions pertained to the Bible itself. It seemed to be a collection of ancient stories compiled during a short period of the geological time period during which Modern Man has existed in a traceable history. The chronology of the main events seemed to be separated by hundreds of years; Noah (2500BC), Abraham (2100BC), Jacob (2000BC), Exodus (1300BC), David (1010BC), Jesus (35 CE), etc., none of which were recorded into a final written form for hundreds or thousands of years. The Old Testament was not canonized (adopted and closed to the addition any other material) until 550BC. The New Testament did not begin to take shape in its current form until three centuries after the crucifixion of Jesus. Again, none of these stories were written by the “first” person, they were all authored by people who were not present at the events and usually many decades and centuries after they occurred.

When you purchase a set of encyclopedias, you normally subscribe to an Annual Edition, an updated single volume in an effort to keep the reference information as current as possible, and to correct any discrepancies made in the original editions of the encyclopedias. Sometimes these discrepancies consist of new information or discoveries that supersedes the original edited texts of the encyclopedias, others were to correct errors that were overlooked in the original proofing process. Although the Bible was canonized with numerous discrepancies and contradictions it has never been significantly changed or updated for thousands of years. New translations from various sources are reborn every few years, however, most of these translations are produced by groups or persons who desire a translation that fits their particular theology. Its original stories, admonitions, commandments, etc. of ancient cultures has not been altered, consequently, it has been interpreted in as many differing ways as there are religions who use it as their basic information guide.

Many of the stories contained in the Old Testament have been found to exist in many much older writings by earlier cultures. The Biblical account of Noah and his Ark filled with animals, exists in an earlier account of the Mesopotamian Epic of Gilgamesh, composed about 2500BC, contains a flood story almost exactly the same as the Noah story in the Pentateuch; in Greek Mythology, Deucalion, like Noah, is warned of a flood by Zeus and Poseidon, and builds an ark to save a multitude of creatures; the Hindu Lord Vishnu orderd King Manu to construct a huge boat filled with animal and plant specimens of all forms, to escape the Great Deluge. Many cultures possess stories to address the natural curiosity that children have about where everything came from when sea shells can be found on hill and mountain tops, coupled with stories of great floods.

Today, countless stories such as these continue to abound. Images of Mary, Jesus, and many Saints found on bagels, potato chips, biscuits, tree trunks, windows, cloud formations; tears and drops of blood from statues, persons who claim they have seen or talked to heavenly hosts of some sort or another, etc. Many of these are very old and have developed complicated stories of miracles related to them. Even in these modern sophisticated societies, supernatural stories grow and grow, and most of this has happened during the past 50 to 100 years. When you have 2 to 4 thousand years to develop a story its aura will take on more and more of the unexplainable and supernatural qualities.

The nucleus of all ancient stories begins with an event that is unexplainable, but requires some sort of answer, reasonable or not. Superstitions were the order of the day and imagination had little or no bounds when it came to providing answers to questions by early cultures. Without the ability to produce an accurate or written record for these events, stories existed first in an oral tradition for hundreds of years before they were ever written in a form that could be codified. During these hundreds of years the stories were retold and passed on by several generations and cultures who modified the stories to meet their contemporary need for that particular information. Stories that were begun to describe an event did not end with the same accuracy of that original event.

Just as in today's game of “Secrets” where the first person tells a secret or story to a second person, who in turn passes the story on to another person, and is repeated several times with several people. The last person in line then reveals what he understood to be the initial story. Very seldom does the final version even resemble the initial story generated in the beginning.

Oral traditions possess the same inherent flaw, they have a way of producing a new life for the original story that may or may not resemble any truth of the original story. This is especially true when 2 or more languages are involved and the story is very long and detailed.

An evolution of truth.

An Evolution of the Spirit

      At what point in the evolution of life did an awareness of the repeated cycle of seasons begin? An awareness of a repeated cycle of motion in the night sky? An interest in cave art? The concept of a deity? None of these occurred over night, but gradually over a very long period of time to become an accepted consensus of the tribe.

     Migrating animals (geese, monarch butterflies, gray whales, wildebeests, etc.) demonstrate a knowledge of changing seasons. Although some migrate due to extreme temperature changes or climatic conditions, others migrate in an oft repeated pattern in search of food and water resources initiated by climatic changes between dry and wet seasons.

     Mankind has followed some of these same migration patterns. Very early hominids seemed content to remain in one place as their comfort and security were supported by the knowledge of the locale and accessible sources of food and water. As family populations grew in number and encroached upon each others territory, it became necessary to search out new and less contentious competition for food, eventually spreading all around the world. In temperate climate zones, the tendency was to remain semi-permanent residents as long as food and water sources were accessible. In more hostile climactic zones of both cold and hot, the tendency was to constantly migrate following the sources of food and water.

     During cloudless daytime hours, it is relatively easy to determine directions of North, South, East, and West and the time of day. During a cloudless night sky, and the recording of star patterns over a period of time, it becomes possible to determine one's location and predict the change of seasons. These were the rudimentary methods which allowed early hominids to expand their living and migrating areas. Over many seasons and annual cycles man's observations and knowledge of the heavens and the earth continued to grow. Much of this early knowledge was documented in oral traditions of stories, myths, legends and experiences of the family groups and tribes. Early methods of physically recording this information took many forms. Objects such as stones, sticks, wood, etc., were used to mark on which aided in remembering stories of their history and ancestors.

     Much of early human's primary food sources consisted of vegetation, roots, leaves, fruit, berries, etc. many of which also produced stains and dyes of various colors that were used primarily as body paint for gender and tribal identification. It was not long until the scribes and artists of the tribes found these useful to mark on rocks and walls of caves for recording stories of tribal history. These drawings were used to identify territories and the types of animals that were best used for food, clothing and utensils. Some of these drawings illustrated hunting methods and identified animals to be feared and avoided. Many of these rock and cave drawings have been dated as old as 35,000 years ago. http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/08/cave-art-indonesia-sulawesi

      As early hominids evolved and their numbers spread over the planet they encountered ever new and often threatening conditions which needed to be remembered and communicated. Their rudimentary languages became more sophisticated in sounds, words and gestures as their need to communicate increased.

     Climatic conditions such as rain were a familiar experience to hominids as they grew up in these elements and were for the most part uncomfortable, but non-threatening. Lightning is a sometimes thing and did not always accompany the rains. When it did occur it was a fearful experience and recognized as a life threatening element from which one needed to seek shelter. Other natural phenomena that could not be explained and incited great fear were earthquakes, volcanoes, flash floods, grass or forest fires, tsunamis, etc. The hominid's and all animals' response to encounters of this nature was to flee as quickly as possible.

     Eventually, the consensus of reasoning hominids was that these disasters were caused by mysterious and unseen forces. Human characteristics were applied to these forces and they were believed to be content during peaceful times, and angry during times when disasters occurred. It was far better in the land when the mysterious forces were happy and did not cause disasters to plague the humans. So it was that humans came to believe that things which made humans happy might also make the mysterious forces happy, such as desirable gifts. Eventually the most desirable gifts were assembled from the group and presented to the mysterious forces at designated locations and times in the hope that they would appease and make the mysterious forces happy so they did not torment the humans with threatening disasters.

     Very early in humane history it was recognized that when an animal or person was killed and the blood drained from their bodies, the animal or person was dead, and unrevivable. It was assumed that the life of the animal or person was contained in the blood which had been drained from the body. If the animal or foe had been a mighty adversary, it was believed that to drink or consume their blood would would transfer and enhance the powers of the person drinking the blood. When desirable gifts presented to the mysterious forces did not spare the people from the wrath of natural disasters, they raised the value of the gifts to include the life (blood) of animals, enemies and/or victims of the tribe or culture. These practices of animal or human sacrifices became embedded in many cultures and are still practiced by some cultures today. If, and when, the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem is restored, the practice of animal sacrifice for the atonement of sin will also be resumed, as the Holy Temple was the only place blood sacrifices were allowed to take place.

     At some point in every evolving culture, someone, probably seated around the family or tribal campfire, would ask the question, “Where did we (humans) come from?” As each culture attempted to answer this question, there would be many great stories assembled from whatever fragments of memory, or imagination, the older generations could remember. The stories grew with each telling and retelling until they became a legend of heroic proportion. Some stories credited the forces responsible for the mysterious natural disasters with the creation of their world and all of its life forms, to elicit gifts from humans. Forces of lightning, earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, fire, etc., were given names with human traits. A few shrewd members of each culture claimed a special talent for being able to communicate with the mysterious forces and translating the desires of each deity to the tribe or culture. These became known as Shaman, Witchdoctors, Medicine Men, Holy Men, Priests and also became the recipients of the valuable gifts (first born, best of the herd, flocks or agriculture, etc.) presented to the mysterious forces. Through their alleged talents of communicating with deities, they became the official keepers of tribal history, traditions and knowledge that had been handed down from generation to generation through oral traditions to answer the questions of creation, etc. True to their human nature, these persons edited ancient creation stories in ways that would enhance their position and authority within the culture.

     When suitable methods were devised to record the history and traditions of a culture in a written form, the Priests (et. al.) would be the first to record this information according to their limited understanding and biases. Thus began the written theology of many cultures, with many deities, many creation stories and many rules of behavior to appease the deities involved.

     During these early times of founding deities, animals were recognized as having two distinguishing characteristics, its body and its life blood. Separate the life blood from the animal's body and it died. Humans were believed to have these same two basic traits, as well as a third – the first triune phenomena. The essence of a person, their character, personality, and intelligence constituted the third characteristic and was called a spirit. When death occurred for humans, the spirit departed the body and became a ghost which continued to dwell among the tribe for a time. The amount of time the ghost lingered was dependent upon the length of time the deceased person was remembered in story or deed. When the deceased person was no longer known or remembered, their spirit/ghost disappeared. In later cultures the spirit also became known as a soul and when separated from the body, proceeded to an everlasting spiritual realm where it was either rewarded or punished based upon the conduct of the person during their lifetime. Several cultures arrived at similar beliefs to answer the question, “What happens when we die?”

     There exists today over 50 different ancient religious texts, all claiming communication with a deity as its source, and as many religions to support these beliefs. Each expounds upon its own version of creation, Gods, rules/laws of behavior, and all claim to be founded in truth. Some of the oldest known religions (African Traditional & Diasporic) date back beyond 5000 BCE, while some of the most recent religious texts and religions have taken their current form during the mid 20^th century.

     Who can claim possession of “the truth” when all we see are only fragments of truth, as illustrated in the story of seven blind men who were describing what an elephant looked like from their limited perspective.

     Just as an infant of almost all species (bat, wolf, primate, human, etc.) is only aware of its immediate environment, breast, mother, a world limited to a mother's arm reach, or the safety of a den, its world expands as it grows and matures. As we grow in stature and knowledge our horizons expand to encompass a larger world around us. So it is with our historical maturity. Ten thousand years ago our knowledge of the world was very limited and the world must have seemed overwhelmingly threatening and mysterious. However, for humans, mysteries are challenges to be solved in the best way we know how. Early humans used their limited knowledge and applied it to producing what seemed at the time to be reasonable answers for which they had no adequate knowledge.

     Today our world and knowledge encompass a much greater field of vision than that of the ancestors who first began writing philosophical or theological answers to unexplained phenomena. We can now explain why and how earthquakes, volcanoes, forest fires, tsunamis, rainbows, lightning, etc. happen, and even make predictions of these events to within some measure of accuracy. Reason is and has been a major factor in determining the direction we have taken philosophically, and reason tells us that some things are just not reasonable. It would seem unreasonable that a creator of the universe, who has demonstrated a power and knowledge so immense, would not have the ability to communicate with humans in a manner that did not create such diverse and conflicting versions of truth. Or, be limited to any meaningful contact or encounters with only a handful of humans extremely infrequently over a ten thousand year period, leaving humans to “fill-in-the-blanks,” as it were, with a very limited understanding and knowledge.

     There is nothing, and no place in the universe to remotely suggest the existence of an afterlife of a heaven or a hell. There is more than sufficient reason and evidence to recognize the possession of an innate drive in all life forms, both flora and fauna, of a fierce will to survive and attempt to delay the inevitable end that will come to us all. The theological stories of an afterlife was created by man (Witchdoctors, etc.) to influence personal behavior in this life and to convince their followers of a fabricated HOPE that they might transcend death to a destination that would not only relieve them from any physical limitations and access immortality, but to reap generous rewards for a life of obedient conduct.

FAITH is the firm BELIEF in something for which there is NO PROOF.

“Faith is a confidence in what we HOPE FOR and an assurance about what we do not see.”

      In the realm of reasonable theories, there is no evidential support for an eternal afterlife destination of a soul. There is, however, evidential fact that the dust from long dead stars, are the atoms used to compose our physical existence and will be released at some point after the occurrence of our death, to be used again and again by biological DNA to form molecules for the construction and growth of new biological materials, either flora or fauna. A cycle that is, like the atoms themselves, eternal.

     The spirit of man has all of the hallmarks of his physical and evolutionary development. From primitive primate ancestors to modern man capable of advanced reasoning and creativeness with a vision expanding into a universe larger than his imagination. A sequence of baby steps that are expanding to a full stride of foot prints that stretch from earth to the moon. None of which was ever foretold by any of the ancient texts.

The Reason for the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars

American casualties, March, 2003 to February 16, 2014

Iraq war = 4,488 deaths, 32,222 wounded

Afghanistan war = 2,229 deaths and 18,675 wounded

For What?

     Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. George H W Bush was president; Dick Cheney was Secretary of Defense. The USA along with a coalition of several allies, with UN Security Council approval, went to the aid of Kuwait to push Iraq back across the border and reclaim Kuwait. Dick Cheney and several high ranking Military officers wanted to continue the push all the way to Baghdad, but were held in check by President Bush and the UN Security Council.

     When Iraq was pushed back and Kuwait was secured, President Bush, his wife and two of their sons, with several cabinet members made a visit to Kuwait to offer support for the damages inflicted by Iraq. During the visit, an assassination attempt was made on President Bush by Iraqi forces, but was interdicted by Kuwait Security Police and 17 Iraqis were captured in the attempt. This further contributed to Cheney’s desire to invade Iraq and nail Saddam Hussein, not only for snubbing his nose at the US, the UN, and the rest of the world, but for trying to assassinate President George H W Bush.

    After completing his service as Secretary of Defense with President George H W Bush, Dick Cheney spent the next 8 years as CEO of Halliburton, a very large government contractor.

     When George W Bush became President, Dick Cheney was maneuvered in as Vice President. Both men harbored a deep seated hatred for Saddam Hussein, and would use any excuse as an opportunity to invade Iraq for the sole purpose of a personal revenge. They had little interest in pursuing the real perpetrators of the 9/11 attack, which became obvious events unfolded.

    After the Twin Towers attack by 15 Saudi Arabian citizens who were members of the al Qaida terrorist organization, intelligence reports were manipulated to indicate Saddam Hussein and Iraq as the country complicit in the attack. Erroneous intelligence reports were manufactured indicating Iraq was producing and hiding Weapons of Mass Destruction which were a threat to the USA. Both of which were later to be proven false.

    Against world opinion and without the approval of the UN Security Council, several allies were bullied into joining a US led invasion of Iraq in March, 2003. Halliburton was arbitrarily awarded a No-Bid contract for all military requirements, construction and supply for the war(s).

    After Saddam Hussein’s regime was toppled and his palaces and estates were captured, W Bush appeared on the deck of an aircraft carrier displaying a banner reading, “Mission Accomplished.” As far as “W” and Cheney were concerned, they had had their revenge on Saddam Hussein, for his arrogance toward the US and for attempting to assassinate “W’s” father, and their mission was completed. They weren’t interested in identifying or pursuing the real perpetrators of the attack on the Twin Towers, and the US. Yet the war has continued and expanded into Afghanistan. Hussein was later captured and hanged by an Iraqi court on December 30, 2006.

    “W” and Cheney’s personal revenge has cost the US unimaginable debt, and more than twice the number of casualties caused by the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Not to mention the untold number of civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    The cost for these wars during “W’s” administration has depleted the US treasury and was charged on a “credit card” to be paid by following administrations plunging the US into trillions of dollars in debt.

    During “W’s” administration we witnessed the worst greed by banks and Wall Street CEOs, Kenneth Lay of Enron, Bernard Madoff, Mitt Romney & Bain Capital, etc., all paying themselves million dollar salaries and bonuses and stripping pension funds, savings funds, mortgage funds, company assets, and putting thousands of people out of work while the American economy was going down the toilet.

    In the end, what has been accomplished by this act of reckless revenge? What have we settled by waging war in and on two Middle Eastern countries? What has been changed? So far the most we have accomplished is the uniting of all Arabic and Islamic peoples in a hatred of jihad proportions against America.

    Middle Eastern countries have been in conflict with each other for thousands of years. When America forces leave Iraq and Afghanistan, deep rooted cultural traditions will prevail and conditions will continue as they have been for centuries.

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Changing Concepts

    It would be difficult to enumerate all of the many erroneous assumptions based on superstitious experiences of early cultures. Beliefs and practices that have become antiquated in the light of a developing and emerging scientific accumulation of knowledge.

     Thousands of years before there were any organized cultural or sociological rules and laws, humans had made observations about nature that seemed rational and were commonly accepted as realistic for people to believe that the world was essentially flat. This assumption became woven into the fabric of their lives in such a way that any suggestion to the contrary would elicit immediate rebuke. This seemingly natural assumption was ingrained into cultural legends which included the presumed hazards that awaited anyone who ventured too near the edge of their world. Early sailors never sailed far from shore, always keeping within sight of land. Stories of ships and sailors lost at sea continued to fuel the flat earth theory and were assumed to have fallen into oblivion by sailing too close to the edge of the world. 

     For thousands of years, mankind believed the earth was flat until the Greeks began to master sailing across the Aegean and Mediterranean seas, when the notion of a round earth began to emerge. Pythagoras (6th century BCE) has been credited as the first to suggest the earth was ball like in structure. This was only a theory accepted by limited consensus for several centuries. It was not until Ferdinand Magellan's (1519-1522) circumnavigating the planet that Western European cultures finally began to accept the theory as a probable fact.

     The primary resistance to this new theory of a spherical world was led by cultures and religious societies which were either based on, or influenced by the superstitions, myths and legends of ancient religious texts.

     Another primitive theory that was very closely tied to the flat earth assumption, was the consideration that this world was the center of the universe. This too, was a very natural assumption based on early observations of the motion of heavenly bodies, i.e., sun, moon, stars, etc. The first notion purposed to conflict with these early assumptions was made in the 3rd century BCE, by Aristarchus of Samos, who suggested that the Sun was the center of the universe. It was many centuries later before this notion was to become supported by credible scholars.  Nicolaus Copernicus formulated his theory of a spherical orb in his thesis, On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres, in the early 1500s, which was widely circulated throughout astronomical circles and began to gain wide recognition as a credible theory and began to detail the position of not only a center of the universe, but positions of known planets.

     As improvements to scientific instruments became available, other pioneers such as Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) contributed further support to the Copernicus theory. In so doing, he incurred the wrath of the Roman Catholic Inquisition who placed him under house arrest for the last nine years of his life for suspicion of being a heretic of scripture. All publications of Copernicus, Galileo and others referring to the Sun as the center of the known universe were banned. It was not until 1992, 350 years after the condemnation of Galileo, that the Roman Catholic church officially acknowledged that Galileo was correct, and that the planet earth does indeed orbit around the sun.

     Today, our scientific knowledge has taken precedent over a previous belief of the Sun as center of the universe and has determined that there is a center of the Milky Way Galaxy, of which our Solar system is only a small part. Further, as there exists billions of Galaxies throughout space, there is no known center of the universe.

     Another phenomena that has existed for millions of years and has been considered an omen of various sorts, is the rainbow. For the most part, it has/is generally considered a good rather than bad omen. Rainbows occur in many ancient myths and legends as signs of good fortune or hope, as in the Biblical story of Noah, the Celtic legend of a location of a pot of gold, or the Greco-Roman mythology that rainbows are paths for messengers to travel between heaven and earth.

     Although many early scientists have attempted to explain rainbows, it fell to Sir Isaac Newton and his studies of optics to finally provide an accurate account of the prismatic rainbow effect. As a mathematician/scientist his contributions to the wealth of scientific knowledge of the day was immeasurable and has laid the foundation for much of what we know today concerning mathematics, optics, gravity, etc.

     These are but a few of the many myths, legends and mysteries which have been explained by a developing knowledge bank of scientific information about our universe. There still remains a segment of our population which will never understand nor accept the reality of these phenomena. They continue to embrace literal dogmas of fundamental religious explanations of the universe based on ancient texts that were written before cultures had any means of scientific discovery or theorems. The Six Day Creation believers, the Young Earth Theorists, and a Spirit world of eternal reward or punishment before and/or after a physical life on this planet, are only a few of the more familiar groups. These societies are reluctant to accept scientific explanations of events and phenomena, because they conflict with the myths or their ancient texts and perceive any intrusion of modern science threatens their fundamental concepts. Like the Flat Earth theorists of long ago, they will cling to archaic beliefs until they become extinct.

     The beliefs and concepts of religious societies are numerous. There is no limit to a combination of superstitions, myths, legends or ideas that can be assembled to support almost any belief system imaginable. Ten thousand years ago, the choices were limited to the natural events that challenged or threatened our ancestors. Today, these choices have been multiplied by an immeasurable factor to the point where almost anything can be conjured up to become a belief system to fit any situation, whether or not there are provable facts to support it. The variety of these concepts and the charlatans who use them are innumerable as there are cultures:

     The Branch Davidians, founded by David Koresh, 1959

     Heaven’s Gate, founded by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles, early 1970s

     The People’s Temple Commune, founded by Jim Jones, 1950s

     Scientology, founded by L. Ron Hubbard, 1952

     The Unification Church, founded by Reverend Sun Myung Moon, 1954

     Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, founded by Warren Jeffs, late 1990s

     The Twelve Tribes, founded by Elbert Eugene Spriggs, 1971

But to name only a few.

     It is true, as Leo Tolstoy suggests, there are as many minds as there are heads and each mind perceives life through its own unique vision. A common consensus of truth comes only through discovery and arduous testing. The “truths” of thousands of years ago are not intended to be the “truths” of today. Human minds were created to gather knowledge not only of the current universe, but to generate an ever clearer picture of the history of our past and the direction of our future. To remain shackled to archaic concepts and superstitions is to deny the purpose of our existence.

Keith Crowe

2 / 2015