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

Origin of Deities

     Every identifiable culture since the beginning of time has created a multiplicity of gods to forge history and traditions in molding races and languages of people.  Gods that possessed the same characteristics of the cultures they were associated with.  Gods married (sometimes several wives) and had families; the Gods fought among themselves for superior positions;  the Gods even committed murder of other deities and humans to enhance their powers.  Gods mirrored the culture of their creators.  There have been thousands of gods to guide and control the fate of their adherents, many of which continue to exist even today, too many to enumerate in a page.

     The earliest gods had only single focused powers of interest for which they were summoned by humans for aid or influence.  These multiple gods were called upon for their specialties concerning men, women, children, families, fertility, domestic animals, wild animals, seas, war, peace, earth, sun, rain, seasons, crops, under-world, etc.   Later, many of these deity specialties were combined into single gods as their powers of influence tended to overlap.  Today, some single gods have inherited the powers of all previous multiple gods.  Although most Western cultures use the same texts to define a single god, they continue to pursue the aid of multiple gods.  There are multiple Baptist Gods, there are multiple Methodist Gods, there are multiple Jewish Gods, there are multiple Muslim Gods, there are multiple Catholic Gods, etc.   Many of these gods share a common history but have become separated by political, cultural, and ritual practices.

     Today, there is a new god and her name is “Science”.  She has become the whipping-dog of all traditional gods, not by her aggressive nature, but by the presentation of a new knowledge and reality of the universe.  Science has provided verifiable answers to natural cataclysmic phenomena, superstitious curses, threatening plagues, miraculous healing, seasons, historical creation, and the eventual destiny of our solar system.  This new god has provided mankind with an alternate philosophy to traditional ignorance, making ritual prayers to powerless demagogues of ancient texts obsolete, which is upsetting to the traditional religious community.

     Science has opened “Pandora’s Box” to verifiable information.  She has answered the age-old question, “where did we come from, and why are we here – now.”  Answers which conflict with traditional information produced in the vapor of superstitions and ignorance.  Cultures and traditions are experiencing an impending sense of finality and terminal anxiety.

     The knowledge-bank produced by Science is growing by leaps and bounds.  Her High-Priests are forging answers about the universe from the sub-atomic world, and using it to enable a vision into the past 13.8 billion years. 

     Just as fish are condemned to live their lives in the confinement of water, so are we condemned to live our lives in the confines of this planet.  We are products of this planets characteristics, its gravity, its seasons, its chemistry, its atmosphere, its protective Ozone layer, and are condemned to remain prisoners of this realm for as long as we shall live.  Although we dream of establishing biological life on a Planet B, we are unable to make the necessary transition required to do so in only single generations.  To say this transition is impossible is to deny that we (humans) have made a similar transition from single cell origins.  It can be done, but will take many generations of biological adjustments.

     Until then, I wish you to, “Live long, and prosper”.

Here's what I Think !

     One day, several years ago, a man named Gronk said, “Ugh grok wiiny,” and he picked up his club and spear, and set off from the shelter of his cave to slay a beast for dinner.

     Since that day, man’s language, tools, occupation, skills, neuroses, and gods have become increasingly modern.  These, as well as many other accoutrements, have evolved to enable Gronk to exchange his cave, for a 4-bedroom, 3.5-bath, 3-car garage (which will probably never see a car), and a 20 year mortgage, to become the sophisticated, debonair, dandies we are today.  Even though all of mankind has not yet reached a uniform communication, i.e. “the red house,” “la casa roja,” “La maison rouge,” “cave, red,” we can still get the picture in some rudimentary form.

     

     When we examine the trappings man has brought with him through the past 3 million years, we find the level of refinement has evolved with man’s growth from a Gronk to an Einstein.  The language, tools, occupation, skills, neuroses, and gods have become refined in each culture through their confrontation with the environment in which they live.    

    

     Just as the earliest tools were quite crude by today’s standards, so too were their gods.  Deitomical names given unseen forces to explain the mysteries of nature (volcanoes, earthquakes, storms, etc.), in the same way the word, “wiiny” was used to identify the “beast” usual served for dinner.  As natural threatening forces became better understood and predictable, deities became refined and re-associated with other mysterious events that continue to threaten, such as debilitating illnesses, misfortunes, the unknown, etc.    

    

     The sophistication level of gods has continued to grow within cultural limits.  Greek gods were worshiped and legitimized by Grecians;  Roman gods worshiped by Romans; the Buda adorated by Buddhists; Yahweh claimed by Jews; Allah created by Muslims; and the multiple configuration of a Trinity by Christians; and so on, and so on, ad infinitum – and, never the twain shall meet.  Each deity seems to reflect the traits of the culture by which they are embraced.    

    

     Gronk’s gods had a far simpler task in meeting Gronk’s daily survival requests than the gods of the 21^st century.  We have become increasingly neurotic and absorbed with multiple events that threaten our perceived daily survival, and have developed coping habits with ornate buildings, complex and organized social structures, prayer warriors, beads, incense, candles, etc., for things our deities can, or must do, for us.    

    

     In short – we, like the Gronks, continue to struggle against the perceived powers of darkness which we believe have been intentionally placed before us to threaten and interfere with our desires and destiny.  We want our path cleared of any impedance, and straightened for ease, and seek the gods who can do this for us - if we only believe in them.    

    

     The Gronks have succeeded in their created task, either in spite of, or due to, their belief in unknown powers they feared, by the evidence of our existence today.  Our created purpose is to continue to support the wave of life surging through time, and has been so successful that it is now pressing the limits of this planet to sustain us.  Will we resort to beseeching the gods to save us from ourselves and our imagined fears, as demonstrated by the swollen numbers attending church services the Sunday after 9/11?  Or will we, like lemmings, continue our rush into the sea.    

    

     After 80+ years of actively participating in religious life, all of which has been plagued with unsatisfactory answers to a myriad of questions, I can no longer accept the philosophy of a god who manipulates lives or answers prayers.   The ancient texts upon which religions are based were written hundreds or even thousands of years after the subjects of their texts (all of which were located in one teeny tiny corner of the planet), by men who fitted pieces of oral traditions together to answer Gronk’s questions – not the questions of an enlightened scientific generation who has measured, weighed, and defined the universe in which we find ourselves.    

    

     Where was Yahweh when unanswered prayers of millions of people were marched into Holocaust ovens?  Where was the Christian Trinity when thousands of prayers were unanswered when Allah inspired terrorists attacked on 9/11?  Where are the gods of the millions of unanswered prayers offered from hospitals, hospice facilities, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, and 100 other countries of abused humanity around the world?  Apparently, modern deities prefer to dwell in comfortable ornate and gold-laminated temples and enjoy incense, communion wine, candle light, and offerings (cash or sacrifices only).

I think - an unknowable Creator made the universe which began in an instant of unimaginable conflagration, commonly referred to as the “Big Bang,” 13.7 billion years ago. 

I think – there is no possible way a created entity, such as we are, has, or will ever have, the capacity to understand, know, or even imagine the essence of a Creator capable of initiating a universe.

I think – all life forms of this planet are the products of evolutionary development by influences of the physical characteristics of this island in the Milky Way galaxy, its gravity, temperature, atmosphere, daily cycles, annual cycles, and orbit.

I think – the closest thing to eternity, or an eternal existence we can imagine, are the elements (atoms) of which everything is made – organic, inorganic, biologic, flora and fauna, the cosmos.  The essence of atoms is eternal, unchanging, and the building blocks of the universe.

I think – gods were created and characterized by mankind to relieve our fear and anxiety of the unknown.

I think – our minds and bodies are capable of more natural healing than we know, compliments of our evolutionary development, and that dietetic abuse is a detriment not only to a healthy existence, but to the temples in which we dwell.

I think – the sense of taste is a defense mechanism to warn us of nutritional harm, not a habit to be continually satiated.

I think – I shall never see, a verse as lovely as a tree.

Questions

­­­­­Questions to ponder . . .

     Throughout history, every culture has eventually developed a tradition of deities out of fear, superstitions, and ignorance.  Plural deities because ancient traditions bestowed each with special, but differing powers.  The Sumerians, Greeks, Romans, etc. maintained many deities for centuries. Today, there continues to be many deities, although some religious sects would claim, “there is only one God who is known by many names,” but is this true, or just a claim to bolster a position of dominance.

     Aboriginal beliefs of all continents are supported by plural deities.  Shintoism, Buddhism, and even Catholicism include many deities called upon to grant differing attendant services, Mary, St Christopher, St Francis, St Patrick, etc.  Although Christianity is a sect that claims their Trinity is the one and only true god, and all others are only colloquial variations, I doubt you would find much agreement of this claim among other religious groups.  Yahweh, or Allah would not be considered the same deity by their cultural traditions, as the Christian Trinity.  Although all three religions consider their deity to have creative powers sufficient to do, or create, anything, Jews and Muslims do not adhere to a deity that produced a noble son by human sexual concepts with a young Jewish virgin, in the same manner claimed by Kings and Pharaohs of the period.

How do religions respond to the proposition of one god, with many names?

     My personal position, (at this time because positions are influenced by gained knowledge) is that gods were created by superstitious and fearful mankind to answer the unknown and the unknowable.  As man’s knowledge of his environment increased, his early fears of gods of the natural world, i.e.. earthquakes, volcanoes, violent storms, etc., diminished while other gods of agriculture, rain, sun, fertility, war, etc. became more sophisticated in relation with man’s growing knowledge and cultural traditions.  Deities that reflect an evolutionary development to parallel the cultures from which they have emanated.

     Today, our knowledge of the natural world extends beyond the comprehension of our early ancestors.  We now know more about what lies beyond the distant mountains, borders, kingdoms, or oceans.  We have a knowledge of not only our world, but of the planets, galaxies and universe in which we live.  Now, we have an idea about how and when the universe came into being, and, I am inclined to believe the current scientific evidence of a universe created by an unimaginable conflagration of a ‘big bang’ which created the atoms of which the whole universe and everything in it, is constructed.

     My god, if I claimed one, would be the unknown creator that produced this universe and set it into evolutionary motion.  An entity which is beyond any comprehension of man or our gods.  How is man able to imagine, comprehend, communicate, etc., with an entity capable of creating a universe, when we cannot communicate with each other, and has resulted in 60,000+ versions of gods, religious sects and cults around the world?

Does any created entity, which includes mankind, possess an ability to know, comprehend or communicate with its creator?  How great is the span of ignorance between life on this planet and a creator of the universe?

     I have a niece who recently acquired an automatic floor sweeper.  It is a round robotic instrument about the diameter of a large dinner plate, and approximately 3 inches thick.  It came with a recharging station that is mounted against the base-board in a remote area of the room where it will dwell.  When it begins its duties, it will detach from its charging station and begin to scour the floor in straight lines, changing its course whenever it encounters an obstacle.  When its battery is almost depleted, it will make its way back to its Charging Station by consulting an internal map and attach itself for replenishing its battery.

     If the door to an adjacent room is opened, the sweeper will include it in its sweeping duties and proceed to include the new area in its mapping data storage.  If more robotic sweepers are installed in other rooms of the house, they too will sweep the areas open to them before returning to their respective charging stations. If all of the sweepers are given access to the whole house, they will each contain internal maps of the house, but they will be different with respect to the location of their charging station. 

     These diligent cleaning instruments were all made by the same designer and manufacturer, of which they have no concept or knowledge.  And, they will only have information about the rooms they are given access to, from their charging station; only in one house; only on one block; only in one community; only in one city; only in one state, etc., etc., etc.

Does this sound familiar?