Archive for July, 2009

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Raising Lazarus

Posted in Atheism, Atheist, belief, Bible, Christianity, culture, enlightenment, faith, logic, Occult, random, religion with tags , , , on July 27, 2009 by chouck017894

In Egyptian myth, Horus the god of the sky and light, son of Osiris, god of the productive force in nature, must travel to Bethanu to raise his murdered father.  In that tale there was presented two sisters named Meri and Merti, as well as their brother El-Azar-us.  The Egyptian name Bethanu means, “house of Anu,” and in its Sumerian origin Anu was the “first among the gods” and was recognized and honored as a god in Egypt.  This tale was well known throughout the ancient near-east world.  It is from this ancient Egyptian story that the alleged incident of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead was adapted.

In Gospel myth, Jesus allegedly traveled to Bethany—a place that did not exist in Palestine in that time  period of history—but it is a name that was obviously altered from the Egyptian location of Bethanu.  But in St. John 11:1 (remember, John was not written until c.105-106) it is declared that in “…the village of Mary and  Martha” (the Meri and Merti of the Egyptian tale) “…a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany.”  There was no great attempt to alter the Egyptian name El-Azar-us, probably from the assumption that few but the literati and aristocrats of the  Roman Empire would know of the Egyptian story.

According to Gospel, Jesus did not go directly to Bethany upon hearing that Lazarus was sick.  His response upon being informed of the man’s sickness was, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God…”  It seems a bit callus to shrug off a person’s pain if it actually referred to some living person’s suffering.  Remaining divinely indifferent, “…he (Jesus) abode two days still in the same place where he was.” (John 11:6)  Only then did Jesus say to his disciples that he would attend to Lazarus’ “sleep,” and that “…I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.” (11:11)   At face value, we have to deduce that the sickness had been “unto death” after all, for in verse 17  it says that Lazarus had “…lain in the grave four days already.”

There is much ancient occult meaning behind all these claims that would take too much space to include here, but suffice it to say that it all had to do with prephysical energies moving into matter manifestation.  The “sleep” from which Lazarus was to be “awakened” concerned the four prephysical states of development into matter life.  This meaning is confirmed in verse 16 where it relates, “Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.”  Say What!

Why the curious use of the word “which” in reference to Thomas instead of who?  And the suggestion of doubting Thomas Didymus saying they should go that they might die with him is comprhensible only when one knows the ancient teachings on the energies of Creation.  A hint of the answer is the fact that the word Didymus refers to the Zodiac sign Gemini, the twins, and represented the ancient lessons of mental matter.  Therefore the “grave” in which Lazarus had allegedly lain “…four days already” is occult terminology for the energy planes out of which matter life is risen.  Further clarification is provided in stating that the “grave” of Lazarus “…was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.” (John 11:38)  In ancient teachings on Creation, the pre-matter energy planes—the void out of which Creation takes place—was always allegorized as a cave.  The stone that is said to lay upon it simply symbolizes this dimension of Creation activity that we experience as physical life.

  • This article is abridged from The Celestial Scriptures: Keys to the Suppressed Wisdom of the Ancients, pages 319-320.

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Inner Relationship of All Things

Posted in Atheist, belief, culture, environment, nature, Pantheism, random, religion with tags , , , , on July 27, 2009 by chouck017894

The ancient world, much more than the modern world, recognized the intimate connection that all life has to what we speak of as Nature, and they respected that connection as the direct and active part of Creation’s life-sustaining principle.  In the modern world shaped upon priest-written scriptural concepts of an imagined right of  dominion by man over Nature, this truth has been virtually discarded and the result has been the brutal rape of Nature and the disturbed planetary environment.

Our religions, at least in the western world, certainly have never taught respect for a fundamental law of  “god’s” Creation, which is that organism and environment always define each other.  If we remove the blinders imposed by the faith merchants, we can witness that fundamental law of Creation everywhere in the universe.  A galaxy, for example, cannot exist without the environment of its enclosing field of energy.  Likewise, human culture exists and flourishes in the environment of Earth only because Earth evolved an energy-network of mutually interdependent organisms—which may be symbolized with mineral  ores and plant life.  This truth happens to be the reason why early scriptural myth gives such value to “gold, bdellium, and the onyx stone” as having been in Eden even before “man” was created (Genesis 2:11-12).  Certainly it is absurd to regard these minerals in an economic meaning if there was no one around to covet them, so they were clearly used as examples of the value of the “lower” mineral kingdom to the maintenance of life.

Material based religious practices,  particularly in western organized religions, have never taught reverence for the elemental aspects (which could be said as used by god) that create and sustain life.  Instead they choose to foster the illusion that human consciousness and intelligence is unique not only in Nature but in the universe as a whole.  Such religious interpretation is designed only to gratify human ego, for it ignores the truth that intelligence as a life organism becomes intelligible only in relation to its environment.  Remove the life forms and the environment from each other and both become meaningless.  What this attests to is that intelligent perception exists only because it is part of an intelligent environment—for an intelligent fraction cannot arise out of an unintelligent whole.

Then there is the plant kingdom which, even though inanimate in its energy form, embodies and contains energies of material life just as does the more advanced biological life.  Western religions do not teach that lowly plant life illustrates an existing inner relationship that is ever-present in all things.  The plant kingdom itself exists because it is an extension—an outbudding—of an energy dimension that is even more elemental–the afore-mentioned mineral domain.  Vegetation is the innocent life that is, allegorically speaking, martyred by and for biological life.  This was recognized and honored in the maligned Pagan observances held at the time of the vernal equinox—the same general time that became adapted as Passover and Easter.

Reverence for the elemental foundation of life as demonstrated by Nature has thus been stricken from god-the-creator-religions that fail to acknowledge that intellectual life can develop and evolve only when infinite energy combinations are incorporated.  This means, by extension, that in the overall creative environment nothing is ever called upon to “justify” its existence.  This truth is not exactly a feature of Creation that material minded religious manipulators want people to know.   Instead they choose to focus upon surface differences, such as diverse physical forms or colorings or emotional drives that various life forms may possess.  The mental environment that is thus established and accepted as spiritual understanding is subsequently rendered sorely deficient in the quality of compassion, the very factor that elevates the emanations of consciousness into wisdom.

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Humans’ Place in Nature

Posted in culture, ecology, history, humanism, humanity, life, logic, nature, Pantheism, random, religion, science with tags , , , , on July 25, 2009 by chouck017894

Nature, the bearing principle of what we think of as material reality, has become strangely alien to western thought, and that mutant insensitivity has increased across the world—a situation due partly to religion and partly to science, the two answer-seeking indulgences which often rear up as opposing qualities.

Western religions have, by and large, pursued the notion that the creature man is meant to have dominion over nature and that humans are called upon by some divine overseer of the universe to control that life-sustaining organism we speak of as nature.  Science, drawn more to exploring how things work and evolve,  does so not in a drive to dominate nature but to (ideally) learn how to cooperate with nature and utilize the powers from which we became manifest as conscious life forms.

The western religious assertion that we must take control(dominion) over the wisdom that functions as nature and which produced our physical being is a rather infantile stance considering that as a complex species of nature we humans too often fail in even understanding or controlling ourselves.  We should take into consideration that western religious philosophy which professes to know so much about the nature of a supreme being remains curiously vague about the nature of man’s relationship to creative forces.  That vagueness attests to weak theology, and that lack of insight has infected humankind with a sense of estrangement from his natural being and his natural environment.

Science, which may be described as theoretical naturalism, customarily professes faithfulness to an indulgence in  rational consciousness which, unfortunately, is almost as indefinable as the mystical soul.  Both science and religion can only theorize from a state of limitation because the studies of both use humankind in nature as the object that is studied as representative of the subject.  And because such a technique focuses on external manifestations it means that neither of those theoretical approaches can act as a subjective observer.

Through such theoretical  exercises of science and religion we continue to feel that we are estranged in some way from the inner workings that function as nature.  Nevertheless, everything that is active as conscious life and all events active as nature are mutually interdependent.  Man cannot rightfully be understood as an object that stands apart from the subject nature.  Such a sense of estrangement from nature then encourages the self-destructive exploitation of the resources of the planet that have led humankind into the present day environmental predicament.

Like it or not, humankind has a total  involvement with nature.  Ultimately inhumanity toward nature is to deny humankind a future that holds any higher potential.

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Time and Nothingness

Posted in Atheism, Atheist, belief, Bible, Christianity, culture, logic, prehistory, random, religion with tags , , , , , , , , on July 25, 2009 by chouck017894

Many people in what we regard to be prehistory were knowledgeable of the atomic structure of the universe.  Symbols of atomic energy have been found the world over dating from what we regard as prehistory.  Also there are passages from the Vedas, for example, the most ancient sacred writings of Hinduism, that allude to beings with such understanding.  And in cultures such as the Celts, Gauls, Mayans, and others there were what we might term “initiates” who demonstrated their comprehension of atomic structure.

As late as the fifth century before our Common Era (CE), the Greek philosopher Leucippus spoke of the atom and the “corpuscular universe.”  So too did the fourth century BCE Greek philosopher Democritus, whose name is associated with the  first exposition of the atomic theory of matter according to which all matter is composed of single, indivisible atoms.  His theory was that the atoms, the space within which they move, and their motions within that space, are eternal.  This would mean that there is no point at which it can be said to have served as a “beginning.”

Both religion and science pursue the theory that if the fundamental “law” of the universe can be discerned, and the initial condition of the universe could be discovered, then all purpose for Creation would be known to man.  What is steadfastly ignored is the fact that neither time nor space function as a principle of  Creation: they are effects, and the fundamental “law” and initial condition they seek is to be found in the eternal now.  Because the potentiality for everything has always existed within the primal energies we think of as Source, and which religion insists upon personifying as “God,” it is only the  fundamental energy particle active as Source that could ever authoritatively announced “I Am.”

In other words, Creation’s energies could never have evolved ex nihilo, out of nothing. Energy can exist without manifesting as form, but energy cannot be generated out of a state of non-existence.  As Stephen Hawking has proposed, much to the dismay of cosmologists and religionists, there really could never have been a point “t=O” to mark a “beginning.” 

A “Big Bang” does not explain the beginning  of Creation: the only thing that theory can be said to demonstrate is that energy is creative.  Energy has to be active in some capacity if anything like a “big bang”  could be initiated; it simply could not explode unless there was activity present to fuel it.  Religionists, of course, will say that it was “god” who stirred up the whole mess.  But any pre-schooler has common sense enough to ask, “Then who created god?”

We are faced with the reality that is always up to each individual pattern of energy as to where it wants to begin to measure the timely circle experienced as Creation.  To define Creation in terms of a time when everything “began” is an attempt to impose limitation upon that which is without limits.  That has left science in the awkward position of never having been able to explain what it is that we experience as time.  Indeed, science and religion simply accept that time just emerged ex nihilo, out of nothing.  That idea got kicked in the head when Albert Einstein introduced to the world the theory of relativity.  The paradoxes of special relativity was that time can be measured at a different rate by two clocks in different situations.  A clock moving in outer space, as compared to a stationary one on Earth, will measure involvement with Creation  forces differently.  That little discovery changed forever man’s concept that time was something constant, unalterable, and observed identically everywhere in the universe.  The indistinct qualifications of what constitutes “time” therefore casts serious doubts on any timescale that religionists claim from “revealed wisdom,” and even clouds the timescale that cosmologists theorize in an attempt to deduce the exact “time” of the imagined “big bang.”

Maybe we should rethink our concept of time.  Age-old concepts of  “time” did not regard time as a linear measure as we have been conditioned to regard it, but thought of it as a broadly arked, ever-shifting energy flow in which we each reflect our relationship with quantum activity.

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Revelation, Fraudulent Prophecy

Posted in Astronomy, Atheism, Atheist, belief, Bible, Christianity, culture, enlightenment, faith, freethought, history, humanity, life, logic, random, religion with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 21, 2009 by chouck017894

The book of Revelation, the  canonically approved conclusion to New Testament myths, cannot truthfully be termed “revelation.”  It was fashioned upon cosmological teachings that were regarded as ancient even in the time when Revelation was edited for propagandist purpose, c. 135-138 CE.  The alleged author, John, did not have to rely on visions or divine insight for his imitative version: he needed only access to the myths and cosmological knowledge of older cultures, the use of well-known Pagan symbolism, and a familiarity with the revelatory style from Ezekiel to fashion an ecclesiastical deception.

This “judgement day” mishmash of godly retribution upon wicked humanity is the deliberate perversion of ancient teachings regarding the different energy aspects involved as the creative process responsible for matter manifestation.  These ancient cosmology lessons had once been taught by using imagined figures outlined upon various groups of stars, i.e. constellations.  Hence, in this propaganda for the young Christian faith, the source-clues pop up everywhere: the symbolism and the repeated use of the number seven, for example, are  common to all ancient Creation myths, not end-time prophecy.  Elsewhere, in chapter four, a “throne” is described with “…a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.”  But the “throne” that is referred to is not the seat of some divine being; it refers to green Earth, and the “rainbow” round about it refers to (gasp) the Zodiac!   In the verse prior to this, other gemstones were mentioned: jasper, sardine stone, and the emerald–the stones associated with the constellations Gemini (emerald), Pisces (jasper), and Cancer (sardonyx-alternated bands of brown and white).

With chapter five of Revelation the propaganda for the Christian version of faith really takes off with reference to a book that is sealed on the backside (prephysical conditions) with the usual seven seals.  The only one worthy to pop open the seals and read it is “…the Lion…” of Judah (the undisguised symbol of Leo), “the root of David,” and therein stood a Lamb (symbol of Aries).  Only this “lamb” had been slain (from the foundations of the world), “having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of  god sent forth into all the earth.”   In the ancient teachings from which these symbols were taken, the “lamb,” or  Aries lessons, had taught of the life principle that rises to preside in the four energy dimensions of matter and was explained in seven lessons on energy manifestation as matter.

Only one more example, out of many, of  “John’s” theft from ancient sources to be used as scare tactics to inspire conversion to Christianity. Chapter six of the twenty-two chapters of Revelation contains the well known “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”   The “lamb,” of course, opens the first of the seven seals and what is seen?—a white horse.  There is here an abrupt jump to symbols associated with Sagittarius, where Centaurus aims his arrow at the center of galaxy energy.  There are four horsemen rather than seven, for the ancient lessons on Creation and cosmology taught of  four energy planes that combine as matter.  The colors given the horses charging into John’s nightmare are given as, 1) white, 2) red, 3) black, and 4) pale.  These are intentionally mixed up to present a tale of calculated slaughter of non-Christians by the Prince of Peace.

In the ancient Creation lessons from which these images were taken, the four colors represent the amoral energies that involve in the process of matter manifestation, and so properly represented stages of energy amassment in which life arises as once taught with the contellation lessons Leo, Virgo, Libra, and Scorpius.  The original and proper order of the four colors was: 1) pale, 2) red, 3) black, and 4) white.

  • The word pale signifies no given color, which corresponds to the stage of Creation activity where energies are not fully defined as discernable form.  The closing lesson given with Leo concerned the pale framework of light that slowly manifests into matter forms.
  • Red, a primary color, represents the earlier matter-forms—mineral and plant life; this dimension of rising life was taught with the constellation Libra.  The reference in Revelation to wheat, barley, oil and wine clearly refer to Libra.
  • The color black results when every band of light is reflected back from a surface, and thus indicates the lessons of Virgo, which were concernd with dense matter.  In Revelation the rider on the black horse carried a balance and would seem to indicate Libra.  However, when Revelation was  penned, the constellation signs Virgo and Libra were commonly intermixed and regarded as reciprocal (inseparable) units.
  • White symbolizes purity striven for and attainable only through establishment of harmony with creation forces.  This inspiration for life continuance was in the lessons given with Scorpius.  Thus the use of the white horse in Revelation to symbolize the Life Principle “going forth conquering and to conquer” is an intentional defilement of more scientific, more honest understanding of the role of conscious life in the universe.

Not all Christian representative were supportive of Revelation, being outright suspicious of its origin and connection to “pagan” teachings.  In the General Council of the Church of Nicaea, 324, there was considerable argument over whether or not Revelation should be included in Christian canon.  Bishop Cyril of Jerusalem in 340 omitted the book from his canon.  The Synod of Bishops in 364 elected not to include Revelation from the New Testament.  In 370, however, Bishop Epiphanius of Salamis of the Island  of Cyprus reinstated Revelation.  But then in 375 Bishop Gregory Nazianze in S.W. Cappadocia struck Revelation from his canon.  And in 380 Bishop Philastrius of Brescia also chose to omit Revelation.

It is notable that over 1200 years later (16th century) there was still rational objection to Revelation as not harmonious with Christ’s teachings. Luther, for example, advocated the removal of the book as well as three other books closing the New Testament; James, Jude, and Hebrews–all deemed as “inferior.”

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Blind Faith and Expected Bliss

Posted in Atheism, Atheist, belief, Bible, Christianity, culture, faith, history, humanity, Middle Ages,, random, religion with tags , , , on July 21, 2009 by chouck017894

There are those religionists that take every word of their “scriptures” literally.  Inconsistencies and contradictory pronouncements are shrugged off as divine mystery when in truth such things attest to the ineptitude of the human schemers that wrote them.  Avoidance of critical perusal of claimed revealed wisdom does not logically stand as respect to god; in reality that approach to “faith” is simply devotion to brain idleness and the immature expectation that mental laziness will be rewarded with bliss.  Indeed, there is even a slogan for this: Ignorance is Bliss.

Blind faith seems never to be shy of certainty, however; it is too often like the squeaky hinge that demands one’s attention and gets rewarded with a relieving squirt of oil.  An example of priestly unhinged squeaking was provided in 1654 by Dr. John Lightfoot (1602-1675) who declared: “Heaven and earth, centre and circumference were made in the same  instance of time and clouds full of water and man was created by the Trinity on the 26th day of October, 4004 B.C., at 9 o’clock on a Friday morning.”  Another version says Creation took place at 9 o’clock in the  morning  of the 17th of September 4004 B.C., also a Friday.  What’s another month, more or less?  Anyway, Dr. Lightfoot was a member of the Westminster Assembly and was vice-chancellor of  Cambridge University from 1654.  He was also one of the scholars who assisted the noted English authority on the Bible, Brian Walton, in preparation of the six-volume Polyglot Bible (1654-1657).

The renowned Brian Walton, by the way, received his B.A. degree in 1620, his M.A. in 1623, and his D.D. in 1639.  He was ordained in the Church of England in 1623 and culminated his studies by being consecrated as bishop of Chester in December of 1660.  Some versions of his six-volume Polyglot Bible drawn from a Hebrew original of the Old Testament, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and interpretations from other language works are printed in seven languages.  Okay, so he wasn’t ignorant, just unquestioning in his pursuit of what ancient myth-spinners had composed.

Also in 1654 an Irish archbishop, James Ussher, had two volumes published, Annales Veteres et Novi Testamenti, in which he also fixed the date of Creation as having occurred in 4004 BCE.  He was also certain that the return of Christ was imminent.

Well, that was the seventeenth century: dare we say that religious understanding has evolved?

Unfortunately, there are still fundamentalists who insist that planet Earth is only a little over six thousand years old and is the center of the universe.  And it is holy truth to them that dinosaurs and humans romped together in Eden before being expelled for dietary no-no’s.  Never mind that dinosaurs are not mentioned in scriptures (but whales and fishes are).  Even a female senator from one of the southern states recently addressed the U.S. Senate referring to Creation as having occurred six thousand years ago!   Yes, the Bible told her so.

Let us remember a line from Shakespeare: “In religion what damned error but some  sober brow will bless it, and approve it with a text.”

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Ezra’s Contribution to Sacred Writ

Posted in Atheism, Atheist, belief, Bible, culture, faith, history, religion with tags , , , , , on July 18, 2009 by chouck017894

Much of what the western world has accepted as explanation of what constitutes “holy” favoritism was framed by disruptive planetary events in the ancient past and a few power seekers who promoted themselves as being privileged to higher instruction.  Thus one’s holiness was determined by who could arouse and inspire the most people. 

And this observation brings us to the biblical character of Ezra (5th century BCE) who was most likely modeled upon a man that had sojourned in Babylon during  “captivity” and had studied astronomy there.  Special understanding of the heavens is conveyed with the character, and that understanding had to be presented to the people in a manner that could impress even the lowest denominator of their clannish culture.  The character of Ezra is thus portrayed as being horrified upon return to Jerusalem at finding his people’s easygoing acceptance of  spiritual conduct–such as intermarriage with Hitties, Ammonites, Egyptians and other Pagan peoples.  He felt duty-bound to set about refashioning the religious literature to inspire the wayward Jews to return to the folds of their ancestral god.  An assemblage of priest-scribes thus set about dusting off the old Moses tale to rework and expand it into Moses-as-savior figure that would serve as the nucleus of Jewish faith.  In elevating  Moses into savior status, new rites had to be dreamed up: thus Passover was elevated to prime rite, and such things as the menorah from Babylonian religious rites appropriated, and the health practice of circumcision more strongly imposed as an alleged “covenant with god.”  Even the Jewish obserance of Sabbath came from the Babylonian word Sabattu, meaning day of rest.

Prior to and during this time of Ezra, planet Earth had experienced frightening episodes of disruptions due to interplanetary jostlings.  That the inspiration for the Moses tale is structured upon and refers to those past worldwide traumas come through in numerous passages.  For example, the fourth book  of Ezra (14:4) refers to the simultaneous changes in the motions of the Earth, moon and planets, with these being accounted for by saying that Moses had been taken to Mount Sinai.  And while Moses allegedly hobnobbed with god on Mount Sinai, god is said to have “…told him many wondrous things, showed him the secrets of the times, declared to him the end of the seasons.”  Another version of the fourth book of Ezra says, “Thou didst bow down the heavens, didst make the Earth to quake, and convulsed the world.  Thou didst cause the deep to tremble and didst alarm the spheres.”  Strangely, religion and science disregard the clues of world disturbances in BCE  times and of planetary turmoil that are hidden in such accounts.

The character of Ezra is thus presented by priest-authors as the veritable second founder of the Jewish nation, having shaped extensive codification of the laws, especially the laws governing temple worship and scriptural canon.  The books of Genesis, Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy were fully redrafted, and it is in this general time that the book of Leviticus was probably composed and jimmied into the scriptural lineup.

Leviticus is a glaring travesty of sacred instruction: its twenty-seven chapters were thrust between the books of Exodus and Deuteronomy, and is devoted entirely to priestly authority and the alleged godly prejudices that have no genuine connection to what was said to have transpired “in the wilderness.”

In the main, all the “laws” presented in this book are crude, shamelessly prejudicial and insensitive, being designed solely for the purpose of establishing uncontested priestly control over the people under the guise of divine installation.  The book labors endlessly on such details as priestly dress, rites, ceremonies, dietary choice, etc., and on the alleged prejudices to which god is prone.  An example of god’s prejudices: chapter 21 lists the physical “blemishes” that god supposedly found so nauseating as to disqualify such persons for priesthood.  Verse 18 says god detests the blind, the lame, “or he that hath a flat nose or any thing superfluous, or has a broken foot or a broken hand.”  Likewise, god is displeased with “…the crookback,  or a dwarf or (those) that hath his stones (testicles) broken” (verse 20). 

If we are to use the monstrosities in this book as our moral guide, we should also stone to death all adulterers and our unruly children.  The book of Leviticus is without question the most shameful excuse to ever be presented as divine word.

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Sacred Buck-Passing

Posted in Atheism, Atheist, belief, Bible, Christianity, culture, faith, history, prehistory, random, religion with tags , , , , on July 16, 2009 by chouck017894

Passing the buck—piling personal guilt upon an innocent victim and then punishing the victim—has a long bible-approved history.  In the book of Leviticus, for example (one of the most despicable texts ever passed off as “holy writ”), we are told: “And he shall take two goats and set them before the Lord at the door of the tent (or tabernacle) of meeting.  And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one for the Lord, and the other for Azazel.” (Leviticus 16:7-8)

This takes place when the Israelites were supposedly wandering around “in the wilderness,” and we should remember that a tent (tabernacle) is not a structure for permanent  lodging.  In prehistory lore, heavily banked with superstition, the term “wilderness” was used as an insider reference to prephysical energy conditions out of which material-matter forms are made manifest. Nowhere in Hebrew or Jewish myth is it ever explained why “the Lord”—a self-avowed jealous god—would sanction such a custom that offered an equal part to some entity named Azazel.  The answer rests in the fact that “the Lord” and “Azazel” represent the two polar energy exchange points between which everything is activated as Creation.  In fact, the name Azazel means, “God strengthens.”

In the scapegoat ritual conducted by the priests in this holy presentation, one of the two selected goats was led into an actual wilderness area to be staked out for some wild beast to devour.  This literal interpretation of older, more scientific understanding was a failure to understand the true principles that activate Creation.   Later, in Judea the priests interpreted Azazel as the unrepentant “fallen angel,” and in devotion to this corrupt interpretation dragged the hapless scapegoat to the Judean desert cliff where “…the scapegoat for Azazel yearly fell to its death on the Day of Atonement” (Leviticus 16:8-10).  Spoken of as a “fallen angel,” the priests could then sidestep the prohibition in Leviticus against sacrificing to demons under the pretense that Azazel had simply erred in giving proper respect to “the Lord” and was imprisoned beneath the jagged rocks at the base of the cliff.

In no way can this be legitimately called a moral act: the implication in the ritual is that god sees nothing corrupt in trying to pass responsibility of one’s acts upon an innocent victim.   This sanctioned and practiced denial of accepting personal responsibility for one’s acts is continuously expressed with most characters from the Old Testament.  In the priest’s understanding of the polar energy exchangethat is the operative means of matter manifestation, the principle became tragically misconstrued as one extremity being thought of as good and the other being evil.  That blunder in comprehension of how energy manifests as matter-forms has infected western religions to this day.  What organized religions must learn from science is that the creative forces responsible for matter and life are not now and never have been in hostile combat.

Tribal mentality in early biblical times felt no uneasiness in letting an innocent victim pay for their ignoble deeds.  It was a popular devotional indulgence not only among the Judeans but most neighboring cultures as well.  Unfortunately, as the Christian movement was being fashioned, that popular notion of an innocent life being sacrificed to absolve another’s guilt was the basis for the most devout rituals of the year, and often a human was slain to appease a god that was imagined to be disheartened by the people’s conduct.  From this widespread acceptance of sacrificing  innocence for the preservation of those responsible for moral failure, the emerging hybrid movement sought to lure new converts with the “son of god” who came forth as a willing sacrifice to atone for all mankind’s sins.

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The “Original Sin” Scam

Posted in Atheism, Atheist, belief, Bible, Christianity, culture, faith, freethought, history, logic, Middle Ages,, random, religion with tags , , , , , , on July 13, 2009 by chouck017894

Some private response to the article “Born in Sin” (July 10, 2009), a theory which is also alluded to as “Inherited Sin” or “Original Sin,” has prompted a few more notes.  Specifically, attention is drawn to the eighteenth ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church that assembled in Trent, Italy on December 13, 1545.  It was a tiresome affair that lasted intermittently until 1563!  Eighteen years!  Indeed, three pontificates, Paul III, Julius III, and Pius IV would sit upon the papal throne before the council would finally fold up shop.

Hammered out among god’s alleged representatives were such things as disciplinary decrees regarding Episcopal duties, the religious orders of the church, the education of the priesthood, and the censorship of books.  Doctrinal decrees were also issued on the Mass, purgatory, the veneration of “saints,” and the doctrine of indulgences.  Thus the long, dragged-out “council” set the corporate standards of the Roman Catholic faith and for practices that remain to this day.  Of course decisions set in place by that council infected even the religious reformation blocs.

For starters, it was in the fourth session (1546) that sacred tradition was put on a par with Scripture, as were also all the books contained in the Vulgate (edited by “saint” Jerome c. 392).  This version of the scriptural presentation is known as the Vulgate because it employed the language of the common people in Jerome’s time.  It contains not only the sixty-six books of the Authorized Version but also eleven books of the Apocrypha, which the Catholic Church holds as being divinely inspired, but which most Protestants reject as not in keeping with the most ancient authority.  In other words, of doubtful religious significance.

At this overly long ecumenical council, there was much haggling whether the story of Susanna and the Elders belonged in Scripture, for example.  Ultimately it wound up as an apocryphal addition to the book  of Daniel (which happens to be a Hebrew retelling of a Babylonian tale).  The Vulgate was then declared to be “authentic,” and affirmed to be canonical.

Now, back to the main point: it was with this council that the no-escape clause of “Original Sin” was heartily embraced.  Dressed in holy phraseology the council announced, “From the fall of man until the hour of baptism the Devil has full power over him and possesses him.”  What a perfect scam: holding all mankind as hostage as blemished from Adam’s nibbling fruit from the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Nothing much has been changed in the assessments made in the Middle Ages by the eighteenth council on what constitutes holy “truth.”  In the nineteenth century things were updated with insertion of clarifying additions: added were two definitions of the Immaculate Conception and the declaration of the infallibility of the pope.  It is on such authority that we are told that we can be cleansed of “sin” (life’s inevitable boo-boos) only by a religious business machine.

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Truth ala Juggled Scriptures

Posted in Atheism, Atheist, belief, Bible, Christianity, culture, faith, history, random, religion with tags , , , , on July 12, 2009 by chouck017894

If we are to place our faith in the armies of faith merchants, it would seem logical that god would allow no room for confusion over how we are expected to practice dogma or what we are to rightfully accept as true articles of faith.  But there are thousands of man-written interpretations circulating that purportedly convey directions on the proper narrow path we are to follow.  Holy Truth, apparently, suffered a relay glitch somewhere, for not everyone agrees on what books most accurately communicate holy truth.  Thus  various Christian sects have offered to them this broad menu from which to choose one’s poison.

BOOKS COMMON TO ALL JUDAIC AND CHRISTIAN CANON:  — Genesis – Exodus – Leviticus – Numbers – Deuteronomy – Joshua – Ruth – 1 & 2 Kings – 1 & 2 Chronicles – Ezra (Esdras) – Nehemiah – Esther – Job – Psalms – Proverbs – Ecclesiastes – Song of Songs – Isaiah – Jeremiah – Lamentations – Ezekiel – Daniel – Minor Prophets

DEUTEROCANONICAL:  BOOKS OR SECTIONS OF BOOKS IN THE OLD TESTAMENT THAT ARE ACCEPTED CANONICAL BY EASTERN ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN AND ROMAN CATHOLICS — AND CONSIDERED APOCRYPHAL BY MANY PROTESTANTS:  — Tobit – Judith – 1 & 2 Maccabees – Wisdom (of Solomon) – Sirach – Baruch – Letter of Jeremiah – Additions to Daniel – Additions to Esther

GREEK AND ORTHODOX CANON:  — 1 Estras – 3 Maccabees – Prayer of Manasseh – Psalm 151

GEORGIAN ORTHODOX CANON:  — 4 Maccabees – 2 Estras

ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX “NARROW” CANON:  — Apocalypse of Ezra – Jubilees – Enoch – 1, 2, and 3 Meqabyan – 4 Baruch

SYRIAC PESHITTA:  — Psalms 152 through 155 – 2 Baruch – Letter of  Baruch

A canon, we must remember, is an ecclesiastical code or “law” that is established by a church council and is used by it as a base for judgment or as the criterion upon which decisions on moral and disciplinary matters are interpreted.  In other words, a canon is a political contrivance by which spiritual theories are manipulated for church benefit.

One of the earliest examples of enactment of canon law is found in the New Testament, Acts 15:6-29, where it is related that the council of elders at Jerusalem framed rules of discipline for the Gentile converts.

As matter of note, canon law became the object of scientific research in the 12th and 13th centuries.  Of the compilations made through that time, the most prominent work was promulgated by Pope Gregory X c. 1234 and known as the Five Books of the Decretals.  A sixth book was added to this by Pope Benedict VIII in 1298.  Centuries later, in 1917 Pope Benedict XV promulgated The New Code of Canon Law (Codes Juris Canonici) which took effect in May 1918.  Think that canons are all about spiritual freedom and godly acceptance of diversity?  The New Code of Canon Law contains some 2414 canons in five books that theorize on how followers are to be judged and disciplined to be worthy of god’s conditional love.

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