A Multitude of Saints

Posted in "saints", belief, thoughts on December 2, 2017 by chouck017894

Invoking “saints” to gain Heaven’s ear was a faith practice even before the origin of Christianity; Hebrew scriptures, for example such as in Psalms 31:23.  “Saints” commonly referred to the dedicated faithful of a priest-concocted faith system.  As the Christian movement gradually evolved into a corporate structured.system the “fathers” recognized the value of elevating specific characters from their literature as “servants of God”.  The word “saint”, after all, was derived from the Latin sanctus, meaning “holy” or “consecrated.”  Thus the “fathers” composed formal rites that magically transposed those dedicated pioneers of the faith into the rank of protectors of the Christian faith.  With dramatic theatrics the Roman Catholic Church virtually took over and monopolized the sainthood style of marketing.  Of the many, many “saints” that Catholicism has installed over the centuries, a staggering amount of the earliest ones have absolutely no recorded support for their alleged divine power; there is only a name.

Sainthood, as we now accept it, therefore is a theological premise in which a departed person is canonized (promoted, advertised) as having been steadfast in their belief and thus attracted God’s especial attention during life.  Thus a “saint” is a person of whom the man-made faith system certifies as being entitled to public veneration, and since he or she is on such intimate terms with God he or she is supposedly capable of interceding on behalf of the suppliants.  It is not accidental that the title of “saint” is customarily bestowed  upon prominent men or women in sacred texts or newsworthy events.  The much hyped martyrs of Christian faith were logical early candidates, as were the “Fathers of the Church.”  It is their assumed virtues and graces which elevated them in God’s sight, and that sanctity is said to be proven by miracles that are said to be worked by them through interaction on behalf of random lucky seekers.

Thus saints are priest-selected personalities who were/are used for marketing of the man-devised  faith system, always of departed persons who are held up as having been virtuous in an exceptionally heroic degree and marketed to promote and advance the faith system.  And since those saints are speculated to have been gathered up to Heaven they are held to be capable of interceding for us sinners.  It’s something like an adaptation of ancestor worship.  Thus saints are categorized according to selected refinements for church utilization and promotional needs.  These categories are:  1) Apostles and Evangelists;  2) the Martyrs:  3) Confessors [explained as those who suffered pain and imprisonment but not executed, which also included later believers of the faith system who were distinguished for sanctity]; 4) Doctors, [explained as those who were renowned for sacred learning];  5) Virgins;  and 6) Matrons and Widows.  These are all the categories under which saints are canonized.  Comparatively, Virgin saints are few and far between. 

The most extensive list of “saints” to be found is the sixty-first volume of a massive work compiled by the Bollandists* –the editors of the Acta Sanctorum (Lives of the Saints)–which is an official Catholic hagiology which was begun by Jesuits in the seventeenth century and is edited and published to this day.  This work mentions around twenty thousand departed “saints”.  *(Jean de Bolland, 1596-1665, was editor of the first five volumes.)

In the gathering of worthwhile saints  there is the self-serving democratic nod by Christian saint seekers to Old Testament characters with the inclusion of about twenty of them commissioned as “saints.”  Oddly, in the very earliest saint category even some Pagan gods were once included.  But the highest ecclesiastical authority has always held to be that of the “Martyrologium Romanum” in which some 2700 saints are listed by the dates set aside to celebrate them  That makes for a lot of celebrating.  A few of the better known saints among the more than two thousand include: Augustine, Bartholomew, Christopher, Ignatius, James, Jerome, John, Luke, Mark, Paul, Peter, Stephen, Thomas, etc. etc.

The designation of “saint” was originally utilize in the New Testament in reference to followers of the early Christian community.  As Christianity began to expand, however, this advertising ranking became restricted by the faith system’s “fathers” and employed only in ecclesiastical usage to designate members who reportedly had been virtuous in their heroic ardor.  The status of the departed “saints” and their relationship to the church, not surprisingly, thus became a belief factor that had to be categorized (as noted earlier).  Image worship then gradually became an important factor in Catholic practice with use of alleged relics of saints and imagery.  In effect the saints served the same capacity as Pagan’s minor gods.  By the fourth century even some of the church’s saints whose interest was in some specific region were assigned as its patron.  Professions and trades and healers were also picked up as patrons for similar church recognition.  It was just good commercial business.

Church promotional art almost always depicts the saints as being distinguished by a nimbus, an aura, or glory.  And there was usually included some emblem of intercession which the saint allegedly provided.  These attributes hold a curious similarity to how the scorned Pagans had depicted their gods; Zeus with his lightening bolt, Thor with his hammer, or Poseidon with his trident, for example.

Around the fourth century the promotional tactics of using saints for marketing appeal (advertising) had been pretty much standardized.  The Church of Rome proclaimed at the Council of Trent (1545 until 1563–yes, eight years of haggling) that the saints reign with Christ to offer to God their prayers on behalf of mankind, and so that it is good and useful for a seeker to call upon the saints to gain additional notice.  Such marketing tactics didn’t hurt the church treasury either.

 

 

 

 

 

Leave a comment »

Loss of Spiritual Comprehension

Posted in belief, biblical "values", By-the-book belief systems, ego and belief, faith, Fundamentalism, life diversities on November 7, 2017 by chouck017894

The three corporate structured faith systems of western cultures are pretty much monuments that have been raised to spiritual paralysis.  Being male-founded and male dominated the three by-the-book faith systems of western cultures bristle with masculine rigidity and combative schemes for seizing possession of the keys of Heaven.  In other words, these are faith systems which counsel believers to will themselves to believe in certain attack strategies which influence the unthinking believers to perceive soul-threatening weaknesses within themselves.

This mode of operation which is used in these three western corporate style faith systems thereby deliberately and with forethought inject into the faithful seekers a subliminal lack of self-acceptance.  When “sin” and hatreds of life’s many diversities are used as the pivotal points of spiritual understanding–and everyone is deemed to be stained with sin–self acceptance is made into a scapegoat sacrifice for that particular faith system.  In any other human endeavor this would be regarded as a con-job.

Western faith systems are notorious for their rejection of spontaneity or allowance for any serious questioning of man-conceived dogmas.  Once a person gives up their self-acceptance under such pressure there is cunningly installed within a seeker a self censuring impulse, and the believer has then been rendered divided within their awareness of what they feel themselves to be and an uneasy suggestion of unworthiness or even evil within their nature.  A mind that is mesmerized by such “holy” propaganda, which asserts that their soul is contaminated with sin, has been purposely injected with negativity toward themselves.  Self-acceptance is thus effectively sabotaged and the seed of doubt that was thus implanted leaves the believer incapable of living their life with a full degree of sincerity or tolerance with themselves or with others.  Under such implied holy guidance all natural spiritual spontaneity gets smothered down.  The greater “sin” then actually rests squarely within the faith system itself for intentionally short-circuiting the very creative energy that opens a person’s soul to cosmic consciousness.

The result is fundamentalism.  Fundamentalism is more about hating the facts of material reality than it is any devotion to spiritual integrity.  So how do their interpretation of moral rules allow for such hatred of God-approved variety and diversity of life?

One characteristic of a religious fanatic is that they seem to always wax with hatred toward a hell of a lot of things.  Another characteristic is the pretense of conservatism, which they think grants them the freedom to attempt obstruction of other people’s rights.  This, in turn, opens the door for attempting to compel their narrow views upon everyone.  Racism, for example, is an ego boost for many faith system fanatics; and homophobia is another approved subject to practice spiritual injustice.  It must be a terrible burden for fundamentalists to confront all the God-approved variety and diversity which defines the radiance of Creation and have to tell the Creator that he made a vulgar mess in such an endless assortment of life activities.  That is ugly spiritual vanity, and spiritual vanity is far more soul destructive than physical vanity.

Knowledge and reason are seriously constrained when faith system representatives labor to impose preconceptions of any sort to hover over seekers interactions with others.  In tightly structured faith systems, for example, seekers are indoctrinated and continuously conditioned with claims that it is only through their particular man-concocted faith system that one can attain the favoritism of the Creative Principle which they personify as God.  But, curiously, the universe and nature do not reflect that alleged narrowly restrictive disposition in the extensive diversity and variety of life that Creative Power has formulated, made manifest and steadfastly maintains.

The creative, unifying force which is personified as “God” is too often imagined in biblical accounts to be mainly concerned with the dilemma of only one representation of the human species who dwelt in one small region on planet Earth, which just happened to be the author’s area of interest.  Biblical tales bristle with hatreds and the focus rarely strays far from the differences and the dissimilar features and characteristics that give life its radiant range of creative representation.  Such a narrow understanding of life and one’s spiritual significance in relation to the rest of the universe has resulted only in setting the stage for persistent and unnecessary conflicts.

Any man-concocted faith system which demands unquestioning obedience to its man-formulated practices is only fraudulent spirituality, for it has no sincere interest in teaching individuals how they may achieve personal spiritual ascendancy.  And rarely do these strict faith systems provide straightforward answers for solving day-to-day needs.  That is so because the objective of each system is to maintain unsupportable claims of special favor for the system’s believers and thereby manipulate as many persons as they can.  The objective of any such faith system is to keep attention upon the system itself.  Such indulgence inspires nothing higher than religious conceit, not reverence for the creative power which expresses its omnipotence through endless variety and diversity of life.

In every instance the approach of of any highly organized inflexible faith system is to always concentrate upon the system itself.  Priests, preachers, ministers, rabbis, mullahs and the like do not really serve as spiritual teachers or guides, although that is what they imply,  These corporate styled faith systems place stress upon man-invented rites, rituals, form, tradition, etc. with the implication that the Supreme Power of Creation which expresses itself through endlessly diverse ways nonetheless came to become highly prejudiced toward what it made manifest as defined life forms.  As a result these regimented faith systems are noteworthy for the spiritual void that they impose.  That is because each “faith” system has been designed and is marketed solely to gratify a seeker’s ego with a pretense of exclusivity.  All other similarly conducted faith systems are then dismissed as “godless.”  The blessings gained for mankind from such stifling orthodoxy are reflected in a world in constant chaos.

 

 

 

Leave a comment »

Origin of Savior Birth Myths

Posted in Astronomy, belief, corporate style faiths, savior births with tags on October 1, 2017 by chouck017894

Teachings from prehistory times once actually taught scientific principles regarding how creative energies manifest as matter and life.  These ancient lessons were, as noted numerous times in these postings, conducted using the panoramic stellar universe itself to illustrate the lessons, and this practice was the origin of identifying select groups of stars (constellations) with names which suggested some imaginary figure that was outlined with those stars.

Even into Roman Empire times there were those among the aristocrats and literati who still had access to fragments of those teachings which were regarded as ancient even then.  Virgil, the Roman poet (70-19 BCE), for example, knew of those ancient teachings, and his mysterious work Cumacan Prophecy, or pastoral poems completed in 27 BCE, drew upon that knowledge.  For example, a line within this literary work has puzzled scholars for generations, and some imaginative Christians have even suggested that it foretold the birth of Jesus.  The line from Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue of the Cumacuan Prophecy reads: “Now a new race descends from the celestial realm…” Other inventive scholars today have even dared to suggest that it indicates that unethical extraterrestrials had once imposed physical and mental alterations upon a young unwary Jewish female.  Virgil’s famous Eclogue did indeed happen to celebrate the birth of a child who was destined to usher in a new golden age.   But that portrayal was inspired from the four ancient lessons that were once given with constellation Cancer, and those lessons taught how creative energies involve as energy substance, which was defined as astral matter which was explained as being the second of four energy dimensions that involve and form as physical forms.

The ancient star lessons taught a scientific explanation of energies amassing in a developmental process which involves/evolves as Creation.  Out of these self-generating energies (out of the quantum or virginal void) there is created the energy identities which progressively assumes matter forms.  Thus Virgil’s referential line states that such an identity “..descends from the celestial realm.”  It is at this point of energy development which is amassing as a matter form that the responsibility for refinement of these creative energies is taken up by each matter form.  The evolutionary potential is within each energy form and it is this ancient star lore which contributed to the rise of all “savior” birth tales of various faith systems, such as Mithras, Tammuz, Attis, Thules, Odin, Hesus, Krishna, Indra, Jesus, and others.

Other story features that always accompany the savior birth stories of those various faith systems were also presented in Virgil’s Eclogues, for they all portray a “divine” being entering or passing over into the matter plane from the same primordial conditions which had once been taught with the Cancer constellation lessons. Astronomical (celestial) lore was always a passion of shepherds for the simple reason that they spent so many long nights beneath the celestial canopy. Thus it is valid that shepherds always served as the heralding elements in the many myths that tell of guiding stars, angels and savior births.  The features in all these various savior birth myths were therefore constructed on pastoral conventions, and because of this the myths focused on shepherds, their good-natured banter, love songs, dirges, and singing matches. 

One of the galactic clusters within the Cancer grouping of stars which were known to the ancients is today listed in astronomy texts by the name Praesepe. from the Latin word  prae, meaning “before” and sepire, meaning “to fence” (fence in).  This came to be mistranslated into “Manger.”  Well, you can see where this leads.  But there are two nearby stars associated with the manger which are often used to mark the “eye” of the Crab symbol of Cancer.  Among old-time astronomy buffs these two stars became known as the Ascelli Asses.  In prehistory lessons they symbolized the lower energy involvement upon which self-aware consciousness is carried –or passes over–into this limited energy dimension of matter.  Is it coincidence then that Jesus just happened to ride into Jerusalem upon a gentle donkey?

Obviously the Pagans were not exactly the dunces that corporate-styled faith systems have always insinuated.  No, those Pagans who are routinely looked down upon were not Jews or Christians or Muslims.  But glowing patterns of stars carried traditions long before those by-the-book faith systems were contrived.  Pagans were exceptionally spiritual and recognized that the spirit of Creation was active not only within themselves but within every defined thing in the visible world.  They, not us, had the benefit of the unknown sages who had once taught our ancestors with use of the universe as their blackboard. And drawing upon the twelve major constellations and their neighboring constellations as illustration the entire spectrum of Creation and life’s higher potential had been more scientifically explained than any of the corporate styled faith system in vogue today.

 

 

Leave a comment »

Religious Deceits in US Military

Posted in belief, Military, politics, religious extremists, spiritual sabotage with tags on September 1, 2017 by chouck017894

How far will religious extremists go to exert control over those who do not subscribe to the beliefs that the extremists champion?  We do not have to look toward foreign nations such as Iraq or Syria or insanity of Isis to find examples of harsh, underhanded religious misconduct and deceit that the aggressively devout claim is carried out in the name of morality.  We need look no further than the halls of the US Congress to find religious guerillas, and in the tax-free charities, and even find religious fanatics contaminating the ranks of our nation’s armed forces.  How low these misguided faith warriors are willing to go is astonishing, for much of what they do to impose their faith upon others flies in the face of what their own scriptures teach.  Such conduct of religious extremists is also unconstitutional.

The United States rose to greatness because it extended the rights of personal freedoms to its citizens, which included the freedom to believe or not believe in some never seen deity.  There is spiritual strength in tolerance which is power beyond man-invented dogma.  Those blinded by some ritualized “faith” will always fail to understand that attacking others in acts of spiritual sabotage will not unlock the gates of Heaven.  One of the worst sins, if sins can really be graded, is to get swept up in spiritual pride for, if scriptural accounts are consulted, spiritual elitism has no place in God’s domain–for all things stand equal before the Creator.  Seeking to impose some brand of man-contrived “faith” upon others therefore is not to practice one’s faith, but is the indulgence in activist politics of this imperfect world.

So we may ask: How far will religious extremists go to exert control over those of  us who do NOT subscribe to self-serving belief systems that the extremists champion?  Apparently a sewer atmosphere offers the extremists their best view of Heaven.  Consider:  Not so long ago, back in 2009, the military was screening service persons through the “Comprehensive Soldier Fitness” test (CSF), an alleged “holistic fitness program” which purportedly employed as a means to reduce the number of post-traumatic stress disorder cases that often led to suicide.

The test was allegedly an experimental Army mental-health and fitness project which had a critical portion in it devoted to what can only be termed the spirituality measurement of the one being tested.  In practice it amounted to a religious test on service men and women who put themselves in harms way to protect what is professed to be the land of freedom.  Clearly this type of “testing” tramples on the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.  Indeed, Clause 3 of Article 6 of the body of the US Constitution explicitly declares  it to be illegal to use any form of religious test in correlation with any government service.  Perhaps we should note here that this so-called “fitness assessment” test happened to have been designed by the same psychologist who inspired the CIA’s torture program which was okayed with the blessing of the Republican administration of “born again” George W. Bush

In that sham of psychological practice, the standard for judging a person’s mental desirability was that the test required enlistee to believe in God or some similarly imagined “higher power” deity to qualify as “spiritually fit” to serve in the US military.  The questions in that test were specifically written to approve only those who believed in God or similar entity and bar any nonbelievers from training.  The test subjects had to measure up to the psychologist’s arbitrary level of spirituality.  In other words, the test had been intentionally (devilishly) designed so that nonbelievers (of which the psychologist disapproved) were discriminated against.  Military service persons were thus being entrapped and attacked for their asserted “lack of belief” as determined by religious fanatics who had wormed themselves into  positions to pass judgment.

Thankfully there are persons of conscience and genuine integrity standing sentry against such mockery of true democratic principles being practiced by those religious fanatics who entrench themselves within military ranks.  The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), which currently represents many hundreds of Army soldiers who were once subjected to the so-called Comprehensive Soldier Fitness test, stepped in and strongly objected to the Secretary of the Army and to the Army’s Chief of Staff in regard to that travesty of true freedom.  According to released Defense Department documents, after that registered objection the “spiritual” portion of the CSF test was then rated as being the Army Chief of Staff’s “third highest priority.”  That, too, is curious.

Just what seemed more important than combating the spiritual sabotage of service men and women and be positioned as “third” in  importance in its relationship to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to our Constitution?  In seeking to impose spiritual subjugation upon our service men and women who are willing to fight for our country’s freedom of religion or from religion was apparently trivialized as being of only “third in importance”.  Our Founding Fathers, who sought freedom from obligatory faith requirements, must be weeping.

Leave a comment »

Misuse of Spiritual Connection, re: Prayer

Posted in belief, By-the-book belief systems, corporate style faiths, ego and belief, faith, prayer, scriptures, thoughts on August 1, 2017 by chouck017894

This may sound strange, an atheist mulling over what is taught as prayer in man-contrived faith systems.  But what organized faith systems have claimed as their exclusive territory is actually a perverse perception of a principle of Creation.  Most of what man-concocted faith systems teach and practice as prayer procedure amounts to little more than a theatrical indulgence which is performed to elicit attention from an imagined being who exists in some outer limit domain.  That amounts to little more than superstitious indulgence and openly reveals that there is little familiarity in regard to man’s inherent and constant connection with the creation energies which surrounds everything which we speak of as Creation.

An overview of the world’s faith systems shows that each consistently struggle through their self-made labyrinths of theology, rites, ritual, dogmas and assertions of exclusivity with heaven.  With these they have lost focus on the underlying principles of Creation’s energy which continually activates into all manifested forms.  No one can pray effectively if the principles which are continuously active as Creation are not recognized and utilized, for one’s awareness of self can only direct and receive in proportion to how they attune themselves to the fundamental “laws” which activate the universe and all that is in it.

For a moment consider the brain.  The brain of each individual is assembled from a narrow spectrum of genetic material.  The physical body is itself composed of only about one hundred thousand genes.  This is a relatively small amount, and yet it is from this modest amount of genes that the brain is forged, and astoundingly there are in excess of one hundred trillion-trillion nerve cells.  And each of these nerve cells may in turn form as many as ten thousand connections with its neighboring cells.  It should be noted also that the physical brain is established and activated with polar fields.

Science has shown that human awareness functions through an interaction of seven levels of consciousness.  The scientific classification of the levels of consciousness show a remarkable similarity to the seven primary energy dimensions of Creation as was once taught in extreme antiquity: lessons which used the observable heavens as background to illustrate its instructions.  Those lessons became suspiciously lost, or suppressed, or destroyed by factions that sought to exercise authority over masses of people.  The recognition by modern science of the seven levels of consciousness presents strong evidence that the aware consciousness of every individual retains a link into that power which is the fountainhead of Creation.  What that means is that by heritage every person therefore possesses the right of consciousness–which is to say that each individual has the “divine” right to draw upon that unlimited power around them to define themselves.

Bringing the seven levels of consciousness into harmony with Creation’s energies is what the practice called prayer should accomplish.  Unfortunately organized faith systems do not identify with that Creation principle and therefore fail to teach followers that prayer fulfillment always abides by the same sequence of application as once taught in ancient lessons on Creation which explained how energies involve to manifest any definable energy configuration.  This means that in  order to accomplish a desired manifestation it is necessary to establish a harmonic field within the seven levels of personal consciousness which is a person’s true identity.  This “law” of amassment through harmony is the generating factor in how prayers are answered.  Any negative intent (greed, anger, envy, hatred, revenge, etc.) which is included in prayer energy automatically distorts the outcome.  Such negatively framed prayers are offered up more to indulge one’s ego and therefore do little more than short circuit the connection into the universal creative powers.

This is not something that organized by-the-book faith systems acknowledge due in part to the fact that those regimented systems were invented, built and are maintained by the faith system’s self-serving dogmatism.  Consequently, they are incapable of teaching proper prayer technique which requires the personal vibratory attunement which can be achieved only by putting aside all the trappings employed for the purpose of exercising worldly influence.  Thus one of the saddest things about organized faith systems is that they teach their seekers to look for answers to personal questions outside themselves.  That practice ignores the power of the Infinite Presence which is not only around all things but is also within ourselves and all things.  Ego-centeredness, as religious systems teach as prayer, fails to recognize and address the very power which is the true means of finding answers to personal questions.

Organized faith systems encourage group involvement.  Indeed faith systems cannot survive without it.  But attempting to blend the scattered thoughts of a congregation is often counter productive for it is only within each individual self that the universe responds.  This truth is subtly admitted in holy accounts where the lead characters of various holy story lines retreat to some isolated place (wilderness, mountain, cave, etc.) to commune with universal principles and thereby bring about desired change.  Successful prayer requires assessment of purpose–which is better achieved in the deeper process of meditation.  When, for example, followers of a faith system are gathered together to pray for finances for a new church, synagogue, temple, etc. the purpose is not exactly concerned with responsible coexistence with the world, but has to do only with their own outer display of a regimented style of belief.  The altar that they thus raise (and every such structure is figuratively an altar) through such manipulation therefore satisfies only their own spiritual vanity and has no genuine noninterventionist value to advance every being’s aware consciousness.

The potentiality for any positive development is always present within the unlimited Source, and how that power is edited by each person’s self-aware consciousness determines the circumstances which accompany any manifestations in our experience.  There is always a response from universal powers when one attunes themselves to the principles which are constantly active as Creation.  The shaping factor of any prayer is always determined by the limitations which personal purpose imposes.  Thus any un-harmonious self indulgent emotions determines the quality of what becomes manifest.  There can be no disguising of one’s true purpose from the inner universe of one’s being (Infinite Presence), and so the manner in which prayers are “answered” always mirrors the quality of the person’s ultimate purpose.

Prescribed or mandatory prayers imposed by a by-the-book faith system sometimes seemingly go unanswered, and this is largely due to the congregation’s scattered and unchecked thoughts of material advantages.  Ultimately, every thought which an individual entertains is much like a rudimentary prayer, for even a passing thought exerts a degree of influence upon what is experienced as life, for the habit patterns of your thoughts mirrors what you expect.  To pray for health, for example, while lamenting how unhealthy the body feels is accepted by the unlimited creative energy pulsing through the universe as the expectation of that condition.  This simply reaffirms the Creation principle which holy world openly states that like must reproduce in its own likeness (Genesis -:

Leave a comment »

Commanding the Faith

Posted in belief, ethics and morality, faith, Moses, religion, scriptures, Ten Commandments with tags on July 16, 2017 by chouck017894

This web post was motivated by an article in the LA Times, “Ten Commandments slab toppled” (June 29, 2017) regarding a newly installed monument on Arkansas capitol grounds and literally forced it upon all people.

Once again a few overzealous religionists who have inserted themselves into US political offices (as in Arkansas) keep trying to prove to God that they are higher caliber believers by trying to impose their beliefs upon everyone else.  Case in point, a multi-ton monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments placed on the Capitol grounds in Little Rock, Arkansas.  The Ten Commandments, also known as the Decalogue, refer to the alleged injunctions conveyed by god to the Hebrew “prophet” Moses on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19:1-25).  This priest-written legend served as the basis for Mosaic Law of the Hebrews and is contained mainly in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament.

The Arkansas Republican Senator, Jason Raperi, who sponsored the Ten Commandments Monument Display Act, spoke of the “history” that the monument allegedly represents.  Unfortunately, what he referred to as “history” is more accurately religious tradition which is based solely upon priestly writings penned two or three thousand years ago–a timeframe in which it was common belief that Earth was the center of all Creation.

The timeframe generally accepted for Moses’ birth is c. 1576 BCE., but mythic characters are suspiciously hard to track down and other birth dates have been suggested.  Moses is speculated to have been around 80 years old when he trundled off to the Sinai rendezvous with god.  That would have apparently happened around 1500-1486 BCE if we use that accepted speculated birth date.  Even earlier and during that period of time our solar family (especially Mars and Earth) was being buffeted by electromagnetic instability caused by the passage of a  planet-sized comet’s movement through our solar system.  In that generations-long time span many great cities of the world fell in ruins.  The royal city of Ugarit, for example, was destroyed by fires; Troy, Knossos, even the great walled cities in the Indus Valley were destroyed; and many of the Phoenician trading partners with the Hebrews fell into decline due to the disturbances to Earth’s rotation.  That instability did not abate until the 8th century BCE.  The Roman Empire historians such as Pliny the Elder and Lucius Annaeus Seneca wrote about those earlier events and how interplanetary lightning exchanges had totally destroyed the “entire richest town in Tuscany.”  Seneca drew directly upon Etruscan records for his accounts.

Verifiable history c. 2600 BCE. (in the Age of Taurus 4380 BCE – 2220 BCE)                       A ruler of Sumer (oldest known recorded civilization), named Urukagina, found so much immoral activity in his kingdom that he found it necessary to crack down on it. The king had a monument erected upon which was inscribed a long list of laws.  A few of the injustices that Urukagina addressed included the unfair use by supervisors of their power to take the best things for themselves, the abuse of one’s official position, and the practice monopolistic groups to extort unbearable prices.  Sounds like USA-styled Republicans were at work even then.  This monument is regarded as the first ever recording of social reform, and it was founded on a noble sense of freedom, equality and justice.  Interestingly, King Urukagina claimed that the laws were given to him by the god Nannar.

Approximately 875 years later (c. 1725 BCE, (in the Age of Aries) the Babylonian ruler, Hammurabi, would decree a similar code from which the Hebrew/Jewish myth of Moses and the Ten Commandments would in turn be fashioned.  On the Babylonian monument Hammurabi was depicted as having received the laws directly from the god Shamash.  The laws are noteworthy in seeking to protect the weak and the poor against injustices at the hands of the rich and powerful.  Aah, if only those ancient gods were hovering over the United States Republican Party today.

Back to religious tradition                                                                                                        Even priest-written scriptures admit that what we today know as the Ten Commandments are not as were allegedly given as instruction to Moses (Exodus 20).  Biblical myth-makers adeptly covered this by saying that Moses broke the first list in a fit or rage when he returned to his followers and found them worshiping a golden calf (a hangover from the Age of Taurus).  The second version of Commandments (Exodus 34) which Moses supposedly received (and which believers have long accepted as holy instruction) concerned entirely different matters, that being moral conduct, not Creation powers and how to use them.

The character of Moses is anchored in the Age of Aries (2220 BCE – 60 BCE) when the Ram/Lamb became the prime icon of faith.  As a crafty way to indicate that the priestly tale did not give credence to prehistory teachings of Creation/cosmology once given using groups of stars (constellations such as Taurus) as inspiration the priest writers had Moses destroy the original teachings.  These wily men who set themselves up to dispense the Creator’s orders for proper conduct then did what every cult and secret order group does: they first establish the rules of their “faith.”  Thus the first three “commandments” allegedly given to Moses just happen to be about submitting and  obeying an institutional system as conducted by self-certified administrators.

Of the Ten Commandments the first three (or four in some faith versions) stand out as operational demands made by any cult operation.  1) Thou shalt have no other gods before me. 2) Thou shalt not make unto them any graven images.  3) Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.   And in some versions:  4) Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.  These initial “Commandments” are clearly a pledge of adherence (submit and obey) to the authority of the priests, pastors, etc. more than they convey any godly enfolding or enlightenment.  As for the rest of the seven (or six) remaining Commandments, the bulk are predominately couched in negative terms of “Thou shalt not.”  How is this lack of constructiveness in any way spiritually empowering?    Aah, if only religious faith systems were bound to a Truth In Advertising commandment.

Leave a comment »

Scriptural Hints on Sin Dodging

Posted in belief, Bible, By-the-book belief systems, ethics and morality, faith, religion, scapegoats, scriptures, sin-dodging on July 1, 2017 by chouck017894

Sin, the alleged estrangement from God due to transgressing God’s “known will,” is the age-old whip of faith system chieftains.  The notion that some god could be directly or inadvertently offended and thus bring about disastrous consequences seemed plausible in the hostile conditions of primal forests or in the depths of gloomy caves.  That trait, born of fear of the unknown, is apparently cast into the DNA of animate life as a self-preserving attribute.  That natural preservation trait, unfortunately, can be mined like a vein of gold for crafty schemers.

By chapter three in the holy book of Genesis, after the the compressed account of Creation is dispensed with, the plot jumps rapidly into the introduction of sin with Eve nibbling fruit from the do-not-touch Tree of Knowledge.  For this alleged sinful incident not only was Eve, Adam and the serpent given a death sentence, but all life forms were condemned to experience God’s continuous indulgence vengeance.  Sin was then established as a vicious circle in Genesis 4:7 with God allegedly saying to Adam and Eve’s son Cain, “If thous doest well, shalt not thou be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.”  Cain, not understanding the concept of sin–perhaps because mom, Eve, had already tainted all life with “original sin” anyway–by the very next verse (8) Cain kills his brother Abel.  Now that is divine speed writing!  But God’s earlier condemning judgement upon what he considered to be sin was impulsively made amendable by God setting a protective mark upon Cain’s head.  Thus did “sin” become incorporated into “faith” and become the meal ticket for the CEOs in the business of belief.

The great pivotal moment in  “sin history,” according to 8th century BCE priest-interpreted accounts, hinges upon the Lord’s alleged call for Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering to receive special blessings.  In Jewish recognition of this momentous event of Abraham’s unquestioning obedience is celebrated with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.  Abraham’s devotion is held as representative of their faith system’s especial characteristics even through Judaism as such did not exist in that distant timeframe.  Never fully explained is why the son Isaac was to be sacrificed: to stimulate Abraham’s greed?   It is never clearly said why God would have asked for such a senseless act.  Some devotees have suggested that it was simply a test.  But if God is omniscient (all-knowing) what could God be uncertain about?  As this story is depicted by priest authors, neither God nor Abraham inspire any spiritual admiration. And why would Isaac be such a spineless wimp?  For some devotees Isaac is held to be the first Jewish martyr (again ignore the fact that Judaism as such did not exist in that timeframe).  Functionally there can be only one purpose for this tale: since God, the personification of the Life Principle, would never condone such child abuse the story’s purpose in the priest-written texts is aimed to encourage submission and obedience of seekers to the priest-manufactured faith.

In the later priest-written book of Leviticus (18:6-7), the priestly lust for control is highlighted in the supposed shifting of sin guilt–with God’s okay–by transmitting personal guilt to some hapless victim.  The alleged God-approved instructions read, “And he (a priest) shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the door of the tent of meeting.  And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats: one for the Lord, and the other for Azazel.”  We should note that the word “tent” in prehistory cultures was an occult reference to primordial energies of Creation which are to passed over into  manifestation as matter forms.  To retain their authority over the seekers the priests indulged themselves in the slaughter of one goat on the Temple altar, and sent the other ill fated goat into the wilds to be torn apart by predators.  Or, depending on site location, the other goat was hurled by priests from a cliff to be cruelly dashed upon the jagged rocks below.  The alleged reason for hurling the goat from a cliff?  Supposedly Azazel was imprisoned beneath the cliff.

Nowhere is it ever explained in Hebrew or Jewish texts why the “Lord”–a self-admitted jealous god–would ever sanction such a custom of equal offerings, for by presenting identical offerings it is openly admitted that Azazel was indeed considered the equal to God.  Consider also that the name Azazel is said to mean “God strengthens,” so the implication seems to be that one aspect of the creative Source, active as the Life Principle, cannot be Creative without the other (positive/negative generation).  What this tale inadvertently reveals is that the Source-power cannot create and bring anything into existence except through a process of positive/negative exchange and interaction.

Even in this twenty-first century of space flights and instantaneous communications around the planet there are still Orthodox Jews who practice the bloody ritual of slaughtering hapless animal life (such as chickens) in an appeal to God for personal forgiveness.  In Los Angeles, California, for example, there are Orthodox Jews who seek to sidestep ethical responsibility and save themselves from sin through victimizing defenseless animal life.

The Roman Empire “fathers” and “saints” of Christianity (such as Paul, Jerome, Augustine, etc.) enthusiastically took up the sin ensnarement tactic.  As reworked by the “fathers” this aided the submit-and-obey features of the faith by relating how Jesus was sacrificed for the sins of the world (the Roman world).  On that alleged occasion (as with Abraham) God did not provide any reasonable explanation for substituting Jesus for the sake of the world’s indulgence in sin.  But in accepted texts, God so loved the world that he would allow it to sidestep immoral conduct by permitting his “only begotten son” to be sacrificed.  It seems a rather bizarre game move if God hoped it would teach that everyone must stand responsible for their own acts if they are to evolve.

Why should this implied God-approved torture and slaying of his own beloved son inspire the world with any spiritual love or trust?  Such a concept hinges upon a pre-Christian concept among societies of the Near and Mid East in which no rite was seen to hold more august power with the people than the sacrifice of the king or the king’s son for redemption of the king’s people.  That superstition was impressed upon Roman Empire culture around 60 BCE when the Roman general Pompey (106-48 BCE) captured Jerusalem, which was then weakened due to a power struggle between two sons of King Aristobulus.  Pompey installed one of the king’s sons–Hyreau–as high priest and took the other son, Antigonus (along with his sons), to Rome as displays of triumph.  Eventually, however, it was Antigonus who became priest-king, and in his short reign before being taken by Marc Antony in 37 BCE he had slain his own two sons–presumably as sacrifice for the welfare of his people.  The whole mystery ritual of redemption through such sacrifice then seemed to the Jews to have been played out again when Antigonus himself was publicly scourged, then bound to the stake, and then beheaded.  The Jews accepted that his extermination was to redeem his people.  It was this spiritual influence that colored the writings of Christianity’s early authors.

So the notion of using a scapegoat for dodging sin, as first promoted in the priest-written book of Leviticus, is subtly upheld throughout holy texts.  Unfortunately, the only thing that is set up for the faithful in using a substitute for personal guilty is that they will always seek out ways to sidestep personal responsibility for themselves.  However, passing the blame to another invokes only the illusion that such “sacrifice” frees one to fly to Heaven on a comfortable mattress of lies.  Makes one wonder if such a Heaven can be trusted.

 

 

 

 

Leave a comment »

Failure of By-The-Book Faith Systems

Posted in belief, biblical archaeology, By-the-book belief systems, corporate style faiths, faith, monotheism, religion, scriptures on June 1, 2017 by chouck017894

Genuine history shows that each of the three sister monotheistic faith systems of western cultures were launched as an insurrectionary movement against an established social order which had tended to honor a broad based tolerance for diverse spiritual practices.  The hard-line monotheistic faith systems which dominate western cultures today expanded and have maintained their power hold only by indoctrination practices which have included perceptible intimidation tactics and even terrorism (such as is brutally demonstrated by Muslim extremists this day).  The underlying fact is that the whole purpose of monotheistic practice was to establish a closed “spiritual” environment in which each person is doggedly conditioned to submit and obey an upper echelon of the system’s hierarchy.

The methods of any by-the-book faith system’s empowerment is to inject subconscious fear of godly retribution by withholding any promise of attaining a glorious afterlife if any seeker fails to obey the faith system’s representative.  With that improvable assertion of a paradisical afterlife for the alleged favorites of God the “flock” is persuaded to sheepishly submit and obey.  To keep faith system discipline the contention is put forth that the all-enfolding Life Principle (personified as “God”) favors them alone.  However, that assertion is the very antithesis of spiritual freedom, inner peace, tolerance, compassion, fairness, justice, ethics, morality, and all other true qualities which elevate spirit into an evolved state of existence.

As a consequence the formalized by-the-book religions that are today presented to us as spiritual guidance are faith systems which are man-constructed and characterized by constant arguments over artificial objectives, empty symbols, phony prophets, shallow judgments of others, prejudices over superficial and pompous ritualism which intentionally keep seekers blind to our interrelationship to all the rest of the universe. What this shows is that man-made faith systems are essentially geared to regulate material greed and self-promotional events, not to guide seekers into personal attuning with Creation’s forces.  When man-composed “holy word” texts are primarily assertions about godly nit-picking and jealousy, accounts of wars, invasions, killings and similar irreverent acts toward interrelated entities something is tragically inappropriate for authentic spiritual enlightenment.  Certainly the glorification of such provoked conflicts with life’s intended  diversity and variety only encourage the practices of prejudice and self indulgence, and should not be held as the foundation of ethical/moral attitude for social interchange.

Only in fairly recent times has the means been established to provide the capability to check the reliability and truthfulness of many “holy word” accounts.  That painstaking science is biblical archaeology.  For well over a century of digs throughout Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon there have been uncovered factual details of everyday life during the timeframes and events that make up the bulk of Hebrew Scriptures.  The discoveries have often stunned and dismayed the archaeologists, and the implications have horrified those who want to believe that the books thought of as “holy word” were God’s true revealed word.  The truth that is exposed is that the books of Scriptures were not even codified until the 8th/7th century BCE—or generations after the alleged events.  And the reason for that labor of codifying such works was the political crisis which loomed over Judah in the timeframe following the fall of the kingdom of Israel to the north which had fallen to Assyria.  Thus the origins and purpose for writing the stories of “God’s chosen ones” have to be reassessed with an eye kept upon the political crises that motivated them.

Likewise the New Testament, composed within the Roman Empire timeframe, should be reassessed with an eye on the political crisis that the Jewish fanatics in Palestine presented to the Empire.  During the Roman occupation of Palestine the Jews pointed to their priest-written “holy” works as proof that they were answerable only to God and therefore the Roman Empire had not authority over them.  That belligerent attitude of exclusivity with the Creator, not surprisingly, brought the Jews into constant friction with the Roman Empire and that characteristic is still at the heart of Judaism.

In assessing the “holy books” of western culture faith systems it should also be remembered that the Arab region had no prophet or written work to unite them in collective belligerence until the timeframe of Mohammad (570-632 CE).  The fundamental tenets of Islam are: 1) There is but one God (Allah); 2) Man must submit and obey Allah [as determined by select men]; 3) The world will end with a great judgement.  These tenets have direct and undeniable association with Judaic and Christian system beliefs–which Mohammad just happened to have been exposed to during his many caravan travels.

Lost in these by-the-book faith systems’ contrived rituals, unfortunately, is any means of perceiving one’s own personal spiritual alignment with the highest essences which are the foundation of our real self.  The exploration of our inner self with the motivation to establish meaningful balance with nature and the universe is not a feature of any of the three heavily regimented faith systems of the western world. Everything remains focused on the faith systems themselves, which subconsciously suggests to seekers that the individual is not of any particular importance to an imagined human-like deity.  Nothing in this form of faith system commerce is even suggestive of addressing the actual spiritual qualities which are inherent within every being.  Instead every seeker is instructed to submit and obey their man-written holy book instructions but are not shown any means of opening themselves for the experience of true enlightenment.  The difference between practicing a religion and making oneself open for spiritual vitality is as different as taking or receiving.  If the emphasis is on ideology and ritual, then it is just religion, for religious practice can only take its authority from those who relinquish their spiritual energy to it.  On the other hand, that essential spiritual quality which is the essence of each personal identity can align with Cosmic Conscience only by achieving a reflective state of consciousness, for what we term “spirit” is itself a reflective component of that higher Creative Conscience.  If personal attention is grounded in what is nothing more than a theatrical performance then the path into the higher state of spiritual awareness remains blocked.

To be blunt; A person’s genuine spiritual evolution begins to malfunction as soon as exterior authority is imposed upon it.

These website postings have often referred to ancient lessons which concerned Creation/cosmology and life purpose, and those prehistory lessons were illustrated by using the universe itself as background.  There, emblazoned upon the infinity of space, groups of stars (constellations) were used to illustrate the lessons.  That prehistory means of instruction was not corrupted with any pretentious claims that universal truths were accessible only through some regimented, club-like membership-only faith system. There was then no merchandising of our spiritual connection into that higher power: there were no claims of a monopoly on universal truths.  Unlike today’s by-the-book faiths those teachings did not distinguish themselves through hostile competition for material gain.  Mankind must awaken to the fact that there can be no expansion or attainment of spiritual enlightenment from corporate-style by-the-book faith systems when those systems are demonstratively superficial in the universe as a whole, and are too implausible and unnatural to technological cultures on the smaller scale.  Clearly what humankind is desperately in need of today is not the pretense of faith system exclusivity but a new dimension of consciousness. 

 

 

 

 

 

Leave a comment »

Ezekiel Saw a Wheel

Posted in belief, Ezekiel the Prophet, Hebrew scripture, Jewish trinity, religion, sacred texts, scriptures on May 1, 2017 by chouck017894

“…way up in the middle of the air…”

In the “good book”, famous for its peculiar tales of God’s prejudices and choosing favorite ones from all the variety and diversity in his creation, the character of Ezekiel is one of the most bizarre.   He is also regarded as one of the greater Hebrew “prophets.”  Ezekiel began his “prophetic” career during the later years of another prophet, Jeremiah (born c. 650 BCE).  Ezekiel was the son of Buzi, a priest, so Ezekiel’s youth was conditioned in a priestly environment, his father being a priest in the timeframe of Jehoiakin, 18th king of Judah (598-597 BCE).  Ezekiel therefore tended to be more fanatic than Jeremiah in regard to ritual practices of holiness than was Jeremiah who stressed moral behavior rather than strict ritual.

It was in this timeframe that Ezekiel was carried captive to Babylonia.  This was around eleven years before Jerusalem would be destroyed by Zedekiah and the bulk of Jews deported to Babylonia.  After years of exposure to Babylonian culture in which human and mixed animal composites were common motifs (bull with wings, for example), his visions were undoubtedly colored by such images.

While captive in Babylonia, Ezekiel became intimately familiar with the methodical study of astronomy.  This introduced him to how the story of Creation had once been explained with use of the revolving images that were imagined to be traced upon the various constellations during their yearly procession.  Thus the opening “vision” related by this prophet happened to rely upon Babylonian star knowledge (astronomy) to galvanize “the whole house of Israel.”  Consequently in the first chapter of Ezekiel, the prophet declares that a whirlwind out of the north (did he refer to his captivity?)  brought him an awareness (vision) of things to come.  By verse ten he descries the winged creatures he had seen.  Ezekiel declares, “As for the likeness of their faces, the four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right side; and the four had the face of an ox on the left side; the four also had the face of and eagle.”

Wow! What an attention-grabbing array of “visions.”  And to further raise awe of the exiles the prophet declared after long elaboration of the “faces” that they also had wings.  “The four wings of the four living creatures” described by Ezekiel are actually coded references taken from the prehistory lessons of Creation which used four quarterly divisions of the heavens as study illustrations.  We still reference those quarterly divisions of the heavens today with zodiac symbols of Aquarius (man pouring water);  ox (bull), Taurus;  lion (Leo); and scorpion (eagle was the Hebrew symbol for Scorpio).  As Ezekiel says, “…and they went every one strait forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went” (1-12).  (The stars retain their course.)  By verse 15 he saw a wheel “…upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.”  And their “work” (the established positions of constellations) was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.” (1-16)

Among Ezekiel’s prophecies it is this “wheel within a wheel” vision which is probably most widely known, and this first of his visions is what is concentrated on here.  This is because it was this extreme composite of figures and symbols which openly reveal the connection with ancient astronomy teachings upon which the Jewish trinity concept came to be established.  From this the “incommunicable name” of the Supreme Being was theorized which contains three elements.  That theorized name thus contained 1) Yod, which is the letter of the phallus; 2) He, representing the passive or bearing forth principle (considered feminine) within that Being; 3) Yau, representing the will to create; and 4) the passive He principle was repeated again to signify the creative power as the initiator.  Thus the name of the Supreme Being was theorized to be Ya-he-vau-he, or Yahweh.  The Jewish trinity concept expanded upon Ezekiel’s “vision” with the  Hebrew letters transliterated as YHWH or JHVH (Yahweh or Jehovah).

In Ezekiel’s Trinity the “first person”, “Yod”, or primal power, was the All-Father–the”Let there be light” Creator.  The second “person” (the “He” part) was regarded to be the enthroned passive principle by which and through which all diverse and varied manifestations become active as Creation.  This second “person” was regarded as either androgynous (asexual) or the fertilized virginal Source through which all become made manifest.  The third “person”, or “Yah“, is the Life Principle (the will to bring forth), which in Genesis 1:2 is referred to as “the spirit upon the face of the waters.”   The “He” or passive bearing forth of this creative power was then repeated again, for it must attend and fulfill the will to create.  Interestingly, the Christian version of Trinity has never allowed this much “feminine” identity with Creator power.

The events of the Ezekiel’s accounts cover approximately twenty-one years.  In truth there was little definable or visionary mystery about Ezekiel’s means of communication with heaven.  As noted, each of these four symbolic divisions of the heavens as seen from Earth was defined in prehistory lessons which used constellations as illustrations for Creation/cosmology and life lessons.  To recount, the “Man” of Ezekiel’s earliest “vision” came from the opening of the ancient lessons on Creation which began with constellation Aquarius.  There a naked male figure (his back  toward the viewer) poured water from an urn held on his left shoulder.  The ox,  the second alleged “face” of Ezekiel’s vision, represents Taurus (the Bull); the lion-face refers to constellation Leo; and the Eagle was the Hebrew symbol for constellation Scorpius.  Each of these four major “face” constellation symbols had two companion constellations of progressive study.  With Aquarius, for example, was Pisces and Aries; lessons with Taurus were given with Gemini and Cancer; with Leo were Virgo and Libra; and with Scorpio were Sagittarius and Capricorn.

Ezekiel’s prophetic “calling” is said to have begun c. 593 BCE, and his prophecies revolved around the concept that the future of the “chosen people” (Judaic followers) was to be fulfilled by the Babylonian exiles.  His strongest influence upon Judaism was his “vision” of a sacred nation which would be raised above all others.  This, in turn, influenced the Messianic sermonizing which developed in later centuries.  Ezekiel’s prophecies marked the transformation of the prophetic period of Jewish people into the priestly period, which was then phased out with rabbis (my master) in the general timeframe of Herod (75 BCE – 4 BCE).

 

Leave a comment »

Ambush of Spirit

Posted in Abraham, belief, Bible, Creation's democratic flexibility, ethics and morality, faith, random, religion, religious hatreds, sacred texts on April 1, 2017 by chouck017894

All scriptural “revealed” texts of man’s contrivance have a considerable amount of hatred ingrained throughout their scores of pages.  Early on even God is portrayed as bubbling with a degree of hatred at Adam and Eve for having been lured by the tempting trees which God had deliberately placed as the focus of his garden.  God chose to interpret the epitome of his creative handiwork as being disrespectful.  so he drove them away from the only home they had ever known after heaping a heavy load of guilt upon them.  The catch 22 to this original sin plot line is thus cunningly established early-on, which allowed the priest class a cautionary choke-hold on all subsequent generations of seekers.

All man-concocted faith systems have the tendency to pay tribute to themselves by routinely focusing on the differences and the dissimilar features and characteristics which give life its radiant and diverse range of Creation’s representation.  The creative, energetic, sustaining force in which life is expressed is too often imagined in “sacred” accounts to be mainly concerned with the dilemmas of only one narrow selection of human species in one small region on planet Earth, and which just happens to represent their particular man-invented faith system.  Such a narrow understanding of life’s intended diversity and spirit’s significance in relation to the rest of the universe has resulted in much carefully cultivated hatreds setting the stage for persistent and needless conflicts.

Reason and knowledge are seriously repressed when ego-serving faith systems labor to impose preconceptions of any kind to hover over people’s interactions with others.  In man-structured faith systems, for example, seekers are indoctrinated and continuously conditioned with claims that it is only through their particular dreamed up rites and rituals that seekers may ever attain the favoritism of that Source-power  which is personified as a human-like “God.”  But the universe and Nature do not happen to reflect that severely restrictive faith system’s disposition, for the Life Principle active within that Source-power continually formulates and makes manifest a broad diversity and variety of life.

Promoting the idea of godly hatred toward any manifested life expression by that creative Source is the greatest act of blasphemy that can be indulged in by any organized faith system.  An organized, highly structured hierarchical faith system inflicts orderliness, methodology, regulations, systematic posturing, inflexible rules, and narrow interpretations, most of which pretty much fly in the face of universal tolerance for variety and diversity within life experience.   But all these man-contrived faith systems take advantage of the fact that even their life-limiting posturing is tolerated in the democratic flexibility of Creation.

When the all-embracing creative Life Principle is imagined to be in man’s image, there is left scant room for any believer to ever attain their intended higher potential.  Since all man-concocted faith systems have long histories of indulging in each and every one of the alleged god-hated indulgences, the followers should remember that a spiritually wise man questions every extreme of passion.  After all, the creative Life Principle installed a brain in humankind with the expectation that humankind would learn and practice rationality for establishing his own relationship with that creative power.  It is alarming therefore that our personal connection to the Life Principle is so often negatively approached in the many man written “holy” books.  For example, as is in (OT) Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Ezra, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes hatred is barely disguised.  And hatred is expressed in (NT) Matthew, Luke, Ephesians, Romans, Titus, 1 John, Hebrews and Revelations.  And in the Quran there are well over one hundred verses of outright murderous hatred is encouraged.

Godly hatreds are cataloged as in Proverbs 6:16; “…six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination to him.”  The things that are subsequently listed by the priest-author certainly cannot be assessed as moral or ethical conduct, and so the list of God’s imagined hatreds are actually extreme negative social interaction practices.  Thus it is asserted by the authors that the Creator turns livid over: 1) a proud look; 2) a lying tongue; 3) hands that shed innocent blood; 4) a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations; 5) a false witness that speaketh lies; and 7) he that soweth discord among brethren.”  (*It was from this list that Pope Gregory 1, “the great”: [590-604] elaborated upon the “seven deadly sins,” which a lower priest had commented upon years before Gregory but who received no credit.)    All this carries a so-what attitude in Ecclesiastes 3 where divine insight is pretended by musing that everything has its appointed time, and thus lists “a time time to kill (3), and a time to hate “(8).

In the New Testament, Luke 14:26, even Jesus supposedly encourages hatred saying, “If anyone come to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own soul, he cannot be my disciple.”  That is rather disturbing validation that what was recorded in those avowed “revealed” tales is not divine disclosure which was relayed as coming from an omniscient being to a few privileged priest-scribes.  The words that were put into Jesus’ mouth by those power obsessed interpreters who had not witnessed the alleged incident is, however, the very principle which is routinely utilized in every cult style exploitation to keep seekers in   subjugation.

And in the Quran there are, as noted, well over 100 verses which irresponsiblly summon Muslims to indulge in violent hatred and outright murder of any diverse way of honoring the Life Principle.  Mohammad’s frequent “message” is the contention that everyone is an enemy of his spiritual tribe.  For example, in the Quran 8:65 it is averred, “O Prophet, exhort the believers to fight.”  No Muslim dares ask why, if Allah knows all, sees all and created all, he should have to relay his maintenance directives through a caravan merchant when he, Allah, could directly instill in every brain whatever he desired.  The overused excuse is that Allah uses a prophet or messenger as a means to test seekers.  This is the same empty “test” that God allegedly imposed upon Abraham by God’s alleged instruction to Abraham to sacrifice his own son Isaac as a test of devotion.  But an omniscient god (all knowing) would have absolutely no reason to “test” anyone.

For the most part the three dominant faith systems of western cultures fail to understand that genuine enlightenment value is attained only from the tolerance for diversity and variety which the Creator intentionally instilled in all life’s expressions. That failing rests within all man-concocted faith systems which function under the corrupt premise of submit and obey all the faith system’s manipulative, self-serving stipulations.  Their self-serving regulations are little more than disguised threats of brute force (by the Creator of diversity), not by true spiritual enlightenment, and it is brute force that is promoted and encouraged above the principles of harmony.

To the credit of humankind, however, that which is assessed as “spirit” within man is nonetheless sluggishly evolving among the broader masses.  The allegations that the Life Principle, personified as a human-like God or Allah, would hold hatred toward any of the diverse and varied manifestations of life which “he” intentionally created are slowly evaporating under the pursuit of true enlightenment.  Unfortunately it is Bronze Age tribal-style hatreds and cultured distrust of the Creator’s intended diversity which still flavor so much of all man-written “holy” texts and continue to negatively pollute “spirit” like malignant cancer cells.

 

 

 

Leave a comment »

« Older Entries