Who are we? Really?
This question has been pondered thru-out the ages. The general consensus these days seems to be that we are beings created by God, but in whom he is not well pleased. According to many religions, we are so dis-satisfactory that God has occasionally seen fit to destroy us and start over. This really doesn’t seem to do much good since we go right back to our wicked ways no matter how much he threatens or punishes us. And we wonder why we can't discipline our children.
Allegedly, God created Humans and put us on Earth - with no instruction manual mind you - said we could do pretty much whatever we wanted to and then got mad at us because we did this one wrong thing.
We're not really sure what we did but there was a snake involved - who is really to blame - and some fruit tree, and now we're screwed! Or are we?
One time, he decided to send down this fellow named Jesus, who spent his rather short life trying to get it through our heads that we are ALL children of God, with the power to do miraculous things. With the exception of an occasional temper fit, he was a pretty great guy. He was so cool, in fact, that some folks took exception to him, and killed him.
As the story goes:
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, to save his children from eternal damnation. Jesus walked among us and taught us how to love and be acceptable in the eyes of God. One little quid pro quo - we have to accept Jesus into our hearts as our Savior and follow his teachings. So now that we have forgiveness - Thanks Jesus! - we can carry on however we please because, we are forgiven. But it's the fires of Hell for those who don't go along with this program because God has had it with us and our wicked ways!
In order to appease God, Jesus had to die a horrible death. But then, Jesus got to come back to let us know that he was okay. Some folks were ecstatic, some were pissed, but most everyone was confused and little traumatized. Jesus tried to console them and said, “Now look here, I told you we are all the same but you didn't believe me and some of you got really mad about it. I let you kill me so Dad would forgive you but this is going to take a bit. I'm going home to talk with him so keep practicing what I taught you and I'll get back to you. Keep practicing!” 2000 + years later, people are still waiting. Some of them are actually still practicing – sorta. Maybe Noah should have just thrown down the hammer, taken a vacation, and saved himself a lot of work.
Depending on statistics, humans need to hear a message 5-10 times before they can hear the words; then another 20-50 times to start to understand the message; and then maybe 100-1000 lifetimes before they actually start to apply it in their lives to make changes. Are we really that dense?
Humans are phenomenal creatures, actually. Give us a ball of mud, some string, and a few sticks and we can build a rocket that will take us to the moon and back. We have become so adept at manipulating the physical that we think we can do anything. Eventually, we'll even be able to fix everything we ruined in the process. We just want to see how far we can go. We haven't quite destroyed life as we know it – yet.
We have been lumbering along as a species for centuries, alternately trying to figure out how to be good enough to please God and then not giving a damn because it's just too complicated. Ever since we discovered oil and learned that technology can make our lives easier, our creativity has known no bounds. What we didn't realize were the consequences for our unbridled experimentation. Initially we didn't care. The world was so vast. How could anything we did hurt this huge planet?
As man has grown, the Earth seems to have shrunk and now we realize that it is not limitless. But we have become so intoxicated with our power, that we think it's ok. If we break it, we can fix it. We have the technology!
Some of us have even decided we don't need God and Jesus, nor anyone else. WE can control our destiny! We have taken the power of God into our own hands and in our benevolence, we have created great things! So advanced are we in the world of science, that to believe in God and Jesus has somehow become quaint and archaic.
Yet something is bothering us. Something is missing. There seems to be some great mystery to life that we just can't quite find the answer to. No matter how advanced we become, we cannot seem to create without destroying.
The deeper we delve into the world of science and the more we discover, the more mysterious life seems to be. The moment we think we have all the pieces, we discover there are these whole other dimensions we had never realized. As soon as we develop theories about anything, we have to start revising them. Life simply refuses to be put into a box or to be categorized beyond a point.
Oh, Ye Miserable Sinners!
The bible and its tenets go into a lot of detail about how sinful we are and how bad we're going to get it if we don't straighten up. There are hundreds of suggestions and rules about how we should act in order to be acceptable to God and a complete run-down about how bad thing are going to get in the end, and as far as I can tell, we're mostly all going to Hell. None of us is really following the rules very well and can't even seem to agree on what they are.
So, from the Christian point of view, the bible is held up as the only written source of interpretation of what God and life is about. And while we thought, sooner or later, we would discover the secrets of the universe through science, we've discovered that neither the bible nor science is helping us on an intrinsic level to discover who we really are and why we are so destructive.
The bible also seems to be pretty concerned with who begat whom and their prowess and prodigy but the fact is, if you’re not from my church, you are going to hell. It doesn't matter how good you think you are.
Many of us attend church because it comforts us and gives us hope and a social outlet. It seems the right thing to do or perhaps we attend because we're afraid not to. Some of us find solace in nature, and some don't believe that there is hope or solace in anything.
So, here's a question -
If God created us, and we're so important to him that he would sacrifice his Son for us, yet we're so imperfect that he is also willing to let us burn in Hell – for eternity – what do you think was his original intent?
Also, what could Satan have done to make God so mad that even though Satan was his favorite, he caste him from Heaven. Satan landed on the Earth, took over, and now all of us puny humans are subject to damnation because we're too weak-willed to resist the devil. So God, in exasperation, sent Jesus down to save us. We killed him, of course - which was the plan – and this secured our redemption somehow. Wouldn't it have been much less trouble for everyone if God had just gotten over being mad at Satan; brought him back home and saved us all from damnation, without getting Jesus mangled in the process?
One thing most philosophies seem to agree on is that God gave us the freedom of choice. So, we have the freedom to do as God wills - which changes periodically, without notice - or to burn in Hell – AND, we are supposed to be grateful that we have these choices. It would seem that freedom of choice includes freedom of interpretation, although I'm not sure if that's actually written in the bible.
And what about Heaven? Neither the bible nor the churches give us much detail on what happens after we get to Heaven, I know we're supposed to be with God again and be all happy and everything – for eternity. But what will we actually be doing? What IS there to do? Most of the folks I know like a little excitement now and again. If everything is just going to be perfect all the time, where's the fun in that?
Another thing - if I have a friend or relative that I really care about who has been cast into Hell, do you think God would be negotiable about their release, or maybe grant them time off for good behavior? And if negotiable, what in Heaven do I have to negotiate with? Somehow, I don't think ‘Hail Marys’ are going to help much.
So apparently, we are pretty much doomed as a species, with the exception of a few saints, who I believe are going to be really bored and lonely living up there in Heaven by themselves - for the rest of eternity. If God is as perfect and powerful as we think him to be, why doesn't he just snap his fingers and make everything right? If he so loves the world and us, why does he feel inclined to destroy or sacrifice anything? Why did he ever create this planet or humans if it was all going to be such a miserable failure?
Now, this is just one avenue of speculation and a lot of you are probably offended because I'm stomping around on sacred ground here. Many are surely wondering - What is my point?
This story, or some version of it, is the elementary underpinnings for all Christianity. No matter how sophisticated we claim to be or how knowledgeable and wise, this story is the basis for the understanding of our origin.
Here's a recap:
God created the Heavens and the Earth and thought he did a pretty good job, until he decided to create Man. Things started getting pretty weird after that. I'm not sure when it was that he got mad at Satan and kicked him out, but Satan wound up taking over the Earth and Hell – or did he create Hell? If it already existed and God created it, along with Heaven and Earth, since he was supposed to have created everything, what the Hell was he thinking?! Was Hell God’s original burn pile for rejects?
Now man, hoping he is being good enough, is stranded between the place he most wants to be – Heaven - and the place he least wants to be – Hell - in this kind of seesaw existence that, in case you haven't noticed, is pretty stressful. The churches are forever teaching us about this wrathful/loving God whose mood seems to change depending on the sermon. We are told that we are sinners from the moment we take our first breath and that life will be a constant struggle and a disaster if we don't follow the ever-changing rules precisely. What hope, really, do we have of ever getting over it?!
Which occurs to me, did Jesus ever mention damnation – ever? I know he said that in order to get to God we had to go through him, or did he mean we had to act like him? Or was it actually God who came down in a Jesus disguise, and it was God himself that we killed? For some reason the churches have never quite gotten together on these details.
Wonder why the angels have never really helped sort this all out. Seems like they are always just sitting around in Heaven strumming their harps, or whatever, when they could be down here helping us. Occasionally, they're contracted to deliver a message or level a town but usually they only talk to one or two people and the rest of us are left to wonder why we're getting our asses kicked. Just having a few of them show up with their fiery swords ought to straighten most people out.
Now any good historian or biblical scholar could fill in the gaps to this story and make it sound plausible. Many of us have asked questions about these things and done some of our own research to get some peace of mind. So even if you think this is all very elementary, the larger part of us are still very unclear on what we actually believe about God and where the real fear lies.
- Is there a God or isn't there?
- If so, is he benevolent or a tyrant, or does he have moods?
- Is he a he; or a she; or an it?
- Does Hell exist and if it does, what is its true nature?
- Is it a fiery pit or is that just the worst thing anyone could think of to have to endure for eternity?
- Does Heaven exist and if it does, are there really pearly gates and streets of gold or is it just a place where we are all really happy all the time?
- Or do we create our own version of Heaven and Hell?
- And why do certain people get so angry with us when we ask for details?
There are a lot of questions here, all of which need answers if we are truly to make any rational decisions about our lives. We live in an age that information from around the world is at our fingertips and we still don't really know and can't really agree as a society who or what God is and why we're here.
So, at least one of my points in all this postulation is that we are operating an entire planet from a position of ignorance of who and what the whole scheme of things is, AND we are extremely reluctant to find out about what it is we don't know!
Now, many will rear up and claim they DO have some idea about many things and have spent tremendous amounts of time and energy documenting stuff to prove they are right. I've spent quite a bit of time myself in an attempt to sort some of this out. What I have concluded about much of it is that God - as we portray him - is not only mysterious, but a maniac!
The operative concept here being "as we portray him".
On the more positive side, some of what I'm discovering is beginning to make perfect sense, and there are those of you who are finding the same. If enough of us can get the following information past the guards in our heads, we might just be able to salvage some of our world.
OK – Here it is...
We've got to get that no matter what appears to be going on in our daily lives, what is manifesting physically is created through energy with thoughts. The bible says it and science can prove it. One of the problems with churches and their bible interpretations is that they always seem to be dwelling on just certain teachings that reinforce the concept that we are miserable sinners and must repent.
Yes, I know, not all churches and bible study groups focus on just that but I'm setting a premise here that this is the underlying message of many, if not most religious practices. They say a lot of other things too but the bottom line message is “behave or else” - right? Somehow, my friends, we must move past that concept.
Someone pointed out to me once that even though we have grown tremendously in our knowledge of almost all subjects of science, our religious concepts are still operating at about 500 AD. We just can't seem to get past the wrath of god and our fear of hell.
Science vs Religion
If our society stands on two legs – one being science and the other religion - the leg of science has grown beyond the wildest imaginations of our forefathers in just the past one hundred years[or so we have been told]. The religious leg has remained largely unchanged and though some of our understandings have grown, critical parts have atrophied and some are positively festering.
Growing up, I recall that the consensus of the adults around me was that science made much more sense than most things found in the bible because science could prove things. Whereas the bible was based on faith and belief and unless science could prove out what it was saying, it was all just a bunch of stories on whatever they were trying to make some point about – some more plausible than others. All the stories about God and creation and light was interesting but far too mysterious to be proven and certainly open to interpretation.
Here's the beautiful part. The leg of science has grown past atoms and electrons and micro-whatsits, until it is re-discovering that everything is made of ENERGY. Not different kinds of energy but all the same kind; vibrating at different frequencies, which creates different forms.
What this comes down to is that everything - every Person, Place, and Thing is made up of the same stuff - the same stuff that came from the same place. So, what science has discovered - so far - is that everything in the known universe is made of pure energy, or light.
Back to the bible...
If you look past all the parables, warnings, and begats, and narrow down all the superfluous folderol to the essence of the message of the bible, what it says is that God created light and with that energy it created all we see.
So, the two legs of society are grown full circle and each is claiming the same intrinsic message.
God – Light – Energy – Matter - Life!