Do you have a conscience? If so, where did it come from? More importantly, why is your conscience different from someone else’s, and just what is a conscience anyway? Have you ever considered any of these questions before? I would suggest to you that all these considerations are extremely pertinent to the understanding of the concept of civility or lack thereof in our entire world community. Just as important or more so, the idea of a conscience determines our relationship with a God or the lack thereof and the blanket of guilt and accompanying punishment imposed by such a relationship.

So, likely, everyone has a conscience of some level. Conscience may be defined ‘as an inner feeling or understanding of right from wrong’. And where did that feeling or understanding come from? — parents, teachers, preachers, and religious leaders mostly. No human is born with a conscience – it must be developed from the instructions and teachings of others.

Every living creature is born with the same basic instinct which I have labeled the ‘universal evil’ called selfishness. And who caused it to be that way? If you believe in a creator God, then you must say God caused it. If you do not believe in a creator God, then you say it ‘just happened’, but always in identical fashion – a strange coincidence.

 That selfishness I refer to means that ‘everything is directed at self and self must be satisfied before everyone else’. Of course, everyone else has the same ‘selfish’ inclination, so what happens? In the untamed animal kingdom, the biggest and strongest goes first and is in control. Hence, when it comes to food, the biggest and strongest eats first and gets the most. When it comes to breeding, the biggest, strongest males get to breed the females. Neither is it hardly ever a peaceful process – almost always a battle of some sorts determines the winner. In general, biological terms that is called ‘survival of the fittest’. Needless to say, wild animals have no conscience.

So how did humans come to have a conscience? I’m not certain when the first remnants of conscience began but I am certain when it became firmly established. If we can believe and accept anything in the Bible, we must accept that conscience became firmly established by Moses and the Ten Commandments. Moses himself was a murderer and was forced to live in exile for many years to save his life. Then miraculously God appeared to him in a burning bush thereby assuring him of his dominance and again, miraculously, he became the ‘dominant’ leader of the Israelites.

You know the story. Moses, with the help of his brother Aaron, was guiding the Israelites through the desert as they fled from their captors in Egypt. Moses had told them about God and His guidance over them. But they seemed to be hopelessly lost, starving, and desperate. So, they gave up on their guiding God and began worshiping pagan gods and living a life of hedonism. That frustrated Moses because he could see clearly that he had lost control. He was no dummy — he sat right down and drew up a set of perfect rules for human civility, the Ten Commandments. Can you imagine his frustration and anger when they laughed at him and his ‘dumb rules’?

Immediately, he treks back to the hilltop and draws up an identical set. This time he presents them as God’s rules with the admonitions that all violators will incur the ‘wrath of God himself – sin was created, and conscience was firmly established. All humanity has been shackled with conscience since that time.

That collective conscience of the Israelites was seldom inhibited when dealing with hostile neighbors, as most seemed always to be, and strangely, still are. So, conscience had to be justified with concepts of just aggression, as well as self-defense.

 AS luck would have it, the Israelites were continually disobeying God’s rules and, sure enough, incurred God’s wrath — something had to be done. That ‘something’ turned out to be the greatest disaster the world has ever known — sacrificial religion. It became, and still is, the biggest money-making machine in the world. That ‘biggest machine’ still greedily wishes to control all others, and guess what – the wars go on – the ‘big bulls’ are continually fighting for the ‘breeding rights’ of the rest of the world. That will be the perpetual legacy of human history, and sadly, the archeological evidence of mankind’s ‘once upon a time’ existence.

From my perspective, the idea of conscience has absolutely no place in human spirituality – God is a Perfect Rational Being. He cannot possibly be pleased or displeased. He cannot possibly be hurt or helped. He is Perfect Love – therefore he cannot possibly look with disdain or wrathful brow on anything of his own creation. After all, he is in all his creation – nothing could be without his Will, The Holy Spirit, residing in it– he cannot possibly hate himself.

It should be noted that the Ten Commandments represent, as Moses originally intended, an excellent guide for good civil existence. Most of the Western World’s legal system, including punishment for breaches, is rooted in them— an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. However, I believe without doubt that our legal system is badly flawed because of the near total lack of understanding of how it is not only possible but rather, seemingly desirable, or even mandatory, for criminals to break our laws. That falls under the massive heading and understanding of personality development. No one is born a criminal—they develop that way from lack of proper guidance in civility. Threats from God (religion) may be likened to spitting on a red-hot stove — it evaporates instantly but always with a stench. That represents a discussion for another day.

If you have not read my little book, Wilderness Cry, and its sequels Peace in Spirituality and Provocative Catholic, I strongly urge you to do so – your eyes will be opened to a way of thinking and understanding you never thought possible. Growing Up In Fancy Farm Kentucky will likely ‘tickle your fancy’.

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As rational beings, we have the unique ability to investigate and know the whys and wherefores of many events in our lives. Much of that understanding comes from learned experiences and, for the most part, we don’t remember when, where, or how we learned them — we were too young and immature to record the exact circumstance or event involved. For instance, can any one of you say for certain when you learned from first-hand experience to avoid touching hot objects? Likely not, but I’ll bet you do have memory of a specific event where you accidentally got burned by one— I certainly do and likely will never forget. 

 It involved a quarter-sized third degree burn on my rear. I was five years old and rolled out of a frigid bedroom with my long handles on. Making haste to the red-hot wood burning heater stove in the family room, I accidentally backed up a little too close to it — took six months of fat meat and kerosene treatment before I completely healed.  

My loving dad, as was his usual wont, had arisen at four AM and had the fire roaring in our heater stove. So, because of another learned experience which I do not remember when I learned it, I ran to the stove which I knew would be warm (hot). My mother, five brothers, and I certainly appreciated dad’s dedication to his family. 

Experiences such as those I just mentioned are very specific and personal to each of us — ours and ours alone. Those personal experiences, coupled with billions of others, combined with our own individual interpretation of those experiences gradually and unceasingly shape our specifically individual personality — no two of us can possibly be identical because no two of us have identical experiences. 

Even our formal education is interpreted by each of us differently.  All of us have a slightly different personal relationship to known scientific and mathematical facts and, true to the system, that relationship helps shape our individual personalities. That, of course, does not preclude the legitimacy or factuality of any known entity — it simply means that each of us has a slightly different reaction to the relevancy of those facts. 

Now, let’s apply that same principle to religion. Most of us have been indoctrinated in the basic concepts of some religion or religious sect, be it Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hinduism, Buddhism, or any one of a myriad of native cultural understandings about God and the universe. As best I can determine, the formation of each of those religions was based purely on mythology, superstition, imagination, astrology, and self-interpretation without the benefit of any scientific facts. They each were based on the recognition of a ‘higher power’ than themselves and each assigned special attributes to that god or gods/goddesses. 

 Quite obviously, before the days of any literacy, those individual traditions were handed down verbally from adults to children. Now, just try to imagine the extreme diversity of understanding and personal interpretation of those ‘hand-me-downs’. Regardless of which sect one belonged to, absolutely no two of any group had identical understandings and interpretations. The bottom line is this, there were as many gods as there were people because none of them could define the ‘essence’ of their god. It has remained that way for billions and billions of people for thousands of years until 2016 when I finally defined God’s essence in my little philosophy book, Wilderness Cry – God is A Perfect Rational Being. Those six little words say exactly who God is – nothing can be added or deleted.  

The implications of that definition of God’s essence are staggering. One major implication is the total invalidation of all religions, past or present, because none knows the god they purport to worship – they all are worshiping a false god and furthermore, there are as many false gods as there are worshipers.  

The Israelites were the first to recognize a singular God who not only was in charge of the entire universe but also created it in the first instance. Again, with no factual knowledge about the universe except what they could observe, someone or maybe many dreamed up a legend about how the universe came to be and more importantly, how homo sapiens appeared and progressed into the troublesome, toiling life of starving nomads in a desert.  

WE all know the story leading up to the appearance of Jesus of Nazareth. The embellishment of his life’s story led to the creation of a new, heretofore unheard-of religion, Christianity, 300 years after his death.  

Those who purported to write and rewrite and rewrite ad nauseum Jesus’ life’s history, were very careful to avoid telling us exactly what Jesus was teaching that got him killed. That divulgence would have instantly killed their newfound religion which put them in charge of everyone’s life vis-a’-vis the Inquisitions, the Crusades, the perpetual torment of impaling guilt for being normal humans, and most of all, the visible hypocrisy of saying one thing and doing the exact opposite. As an example, if anyone of us Roman Catholics had openly espoused abortion as have Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, we would have been condemned to hell immediately. Furthermore, we would have been excommunicated from the Church post haste. However, both of them ‘trotted over to Rome’, where they, not only receive the blessing of the Pope, but were given Holy Communion by him – hypocrisy of the highest degree? 

I have noted those events before and have pointed out what seems to be an obvious collusion taking place – ‘just turn a blind eye to all those Catholic immigrants from South America, and I’ll let you do as you please – we need the Catholic numbers upped in the USA – my eternal Papal blessing is yours unimpeded.’  

What got Jesus killed was his teaching of Love –love of God and neighbor. That teaching was a total contradiction of the guilt-driven money machine of the Jewish sacrificial religion – we must seek God’s mercy, never his unbridled love as taught by Jesus. The Church formed at Nicaea in 325 AD and later commissioned as the official religion of the entire Roman Empire, totally ignored Jesus’ teaching of love, but conveniently used his name in support of their exact duplication of the Jewish sacrificial religion. 

Whatever one may think of Jesus of Nazareth, one thing is certain. He was a genius who understood that God was in all his creation, not lording over it. He recognized that God could not possibly dislike himself – therefore his edict of love.  

Jesus new nothing about chemistry, classical physics, or particle physics. Had he known, his task would likely have been easier. But I have the advantage of being exposed to all three. While I am no expert in any one of them, my understanding of each is clear. At the risk of redundancy, I will repeat for you and your understanding. Everything in this universe is made of identical perfect particles of energy –no exceptions. Each particle of its own variety is perfect in both form and function, is indistinguishable from its counterparts, cannot change or be changed, cannot be created or destroyed by man, and cannot be further subdivided. Study those attributes and you will see they are the same as those attributable to our God. So, me must concede that they were envisioned by a Perfect Intellect, God The Father, and were accepted, commissioned, loved, chosen, willed by a Perfect Will, which maintains them as perfect. That Perfect Will is The Will of God, The Holy Spirit. Obviously then, all creation is the Son of God, a mirror reflection of our God the Father. Jesus was the first human to recognize that and, furthermore, he was willing to die that we, his brothers and sisters, might be liberated from the oppressive blanket of guilt imposed by the Jewish religion generated from Mosaic law. It should be noted that Mosaic law was a near-perfect set of rules for the good ‘civil living’ of loving God and neighbor. It should ‘go without saying then’ that the Holy Spirit resides in every existence. That is the definition of Spirituality – the understanding and acceptance that the Holy Spirit resides in every entity. Accordingly, four years ago I called for ‘The Worldwide Communion Of Spirituality’ as the only pathway for peace. That recognition allows us to realize that we are ‘in communion’ with every entity in existence. 

That brings me to another major ‘beef’ which I have with the Catholic Church. During the last few years, I have attended many funerals and weddings in Catholic Churches where many non-Catholic friends and relative were in attendance. Invariably, at Communion time, the priest announced to the non-Catholics that they are not allowed to receive Communion. One must be a baptized Catholic, indoctrinated in the catholic faith, and in good standing before receiving the host is allowed.  

Without exception, that announcement made me cringe – what would Jesus have said? Jesus welcomed all-comers, sinners and all. That exclusionary reminder from the priest to non-Catholics represents the most modern-day show of hypocrisy yet. It shows me clearly that we are being directed by the most ancient, ignorant, and possessive understanding of a dualist god yet. What a shame. 

Maybe Pope Francis was correct and Jesus-like after all in giving Holy Communion to Joe and Nancy – all sinners are welcome–what do you think? 

My philosophy is spelled out clearly in my publications of Wilderness Cry, Peace In Spirituality, and Provocative Catholic. For the fun of it you might be interested in my Growing Up In Fancy Farm Kentucky – all available Amazon- Kindle and autographed from me.  

handg@comcast.net 

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To many Christians, this question may seem ridiculous — most, if not all, of us have been taught to believe that Jesus has ‘always been God’. However, that belief was not always the case in early Church formative history.

I have just completed a video lecture course on that identical subject presented by Bart Ehrman PhD, professor of religion at North Carolina University. Dr Ehrman has written four books on this and related biblical subjects and is respected as a world authority on such matters. The course is presented in DVD format and made available through a publisher known as The Great Courses. It consists of 24 lectures, thirty minutes in length each. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in understanding the truth about the Bible in general and early Christianity specifically.

In that lecture series, Dr Ehrman spotlights major differences in both the Canonical gospels, as well as the epistles of Paul and others, regarding the beginning of Jesus’ divinity. It was the ‘verbal development’ of those differences which led the early followers of Jesus to have major disagreements about who Jesus really was and what he said and did before, during, and after his public ministry. It is likely also, that those verbal differences led the authors of the sacred writings to express explicit, diverse ideas about the timing of Jesus’ divinity.

The elderly of us who were raised in the Catholic tradition are well aware that we were discouraged from reading the Bible because we were not capable of understanding it — just study your Catholic Catechism, ask no questions, and do as you are told. In addition, I suspect that the so-called evangelical Christians were schooled in similar fashion, albeit with a different understanding of the requirements for salvation. Certainly, at least in the Catholic tradition, we were taught to believe that Jesus was God from all eternity but that he became man through the impregnation of a virgin by the Holy Spirit so that he may suffer and die for our sins.

Dr Ehrman adroitly points out that in the early days of Christianity there was no such agreement. He shows that Jesus became God in three different timeframes and by three different methods depending upon which Gospel one reads. Mark, who wrote the first Gospel some thirty-five years after Jesus’ death, suggests that Jesus became God at his baptism. Luke and Matthew, who copied Mark and embellished his writing with genealogy, birth, resurrection, and ascension into heaven stories some twenty years later, suggest that Jesus became God at his conception in the womb of Mary by virtue of her impregnation by the Holy Spirit. However, the composer of John’s Gospel, some sixty-five to seventy years after Jesus’ death, suggest that Jesus had been co-existent with God the Father from all Eternity. In other words, there had never been a time when God had existed without Jesus and Jesus was always God’s equal.

Dr Ehrman also points out that ‘orthodoxy’ was established, not necessarily by those ‘who were correct’, but always by those in the greatest number. Beliefs held in lesser numbers were deemed to be heresies, and their adherents were heretics. So, just as war doesn’t determine whose correct, just who wins, that’s the way Christian doctrine and dogma were established— the biggest wins.

Early history by both secular and religious writers shows clearly a number of major differences in belief and understandings and demonstrates why eventually, the Roman Emperor Constantine decided to call a council of the world’s bishops at Nicaea in hopes of establishing unity of acceptance in belief. That council occurred in 325 AD (CE) — again establishing who were the most numerous (orthodox) in a certain belief and not necessarily who were correct. Of the 1800 bishops in the world, only 320 or so attended. So, one sixth of the worlds Christian leaders determined what everyone was mandated to believe.

Remember, the Jews were expecting a Messiah to come and immediately restore the kingdom of Paradise just for them — the ‘Just dead’ would rise in their glorious bodies to a paradise of one big perpetual party of ‘human happiness’. According to Mark, Jesus had convinced his apostles that he was that Messiah and, he assured them that reestablishment would occur before the current generation (forty years) passed. Somewhere along the line Mark got the idea that Jesus was an ordinary Jewish man who had been deified by God at his Baptism, and that Jesus certainly knew what he was saying. Of course, Paul who was a mentor and companion of Mark echoed that sentiment and is likely the source of Mark’s ideas about Jesus. Now, one must ask the logical question; “Why, if Jesus was God, would he not have known when that event was to occur?” His apostles did ask him that exact question and he answered that he nor anyone, but God the Father knew that answer — direct denial of his equality with God. Yet he is quoted as saying ‘he and the Father are one’. It seems rather obvious to me that the writers of those stories were very confused and misguided by their informational sources and/or personal biases.

Matthew and Luke, who quite obviously copied Mark’s writing and embellished it with a genealogy, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension narrative some forty-five to fifty years after Jesus’ death and seeing that the ‘generation’ time had passed, seemingly ignored the timeframe for Jesus’ return and the Kingdom restoration. Instead, they busied themselves with Jesus’ wonder-workings, general teachings about salvation, his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension’. However, they contradict each other about what happened after Jesus’ birth, as well as what happened in the discourses Jesus had with the two insurgents who were crucified with him — more bad information or just different personal biases?

Sixty-five to seventy years after Jesus’ death, someone writing in John’s name proclaims Jesus has always existed coequal with the father. Furthermore, they describe a cataclysmic, apocalyptic event with destruction of the world and Jesus coming gloriously to judge all humanity.

Objectivity demands that it is possible for one of those stories to be correct, but it is not possible for any two of them to both be correct. The likelihood is that none is correct — they represent the collective imagination of various groups who developed their ideas from hearsay and word of mouth communications over the years.

I would propose a specific understanding of their confusion and offer a foolproof solution for their dilemma. All their confusion stems from the simple fact that not one of them knew who God is — each had different ideas based on superstition, mythology, astrology and imagination. Therefore, none could possibly know or understand any of the events surrounding Jesus’ life and death. Had they known that ‘God is a Perfect Rational being’, they would instantly recognized Jesus as a Patriot of the highest degree — he was willing to give his life that his fellow countrymen could be freed from the guilt-driven, oppressive Jewish religion. They would know that God loves each of them equally and eternally. They would know that they could not possibly please or hurt their perfect God. More importantly, they would know that the Commandments Moses gave them were, in fact, good standards of civility — breaches were mainly offense against their fellow man and may entail corrective measures. As well, failure to accept and respect the God of the Israelites was a breach of Mosaic law also and demanded corrective measures according to the dictates of that law — human considerations only, and no concern of God.

Then, to answer Dr Ehrman’s question, “When did Jesus become God”, my answer is simple and straight forward. Jesus became God the identical instant we and all creation became God which is the identical instant God became God, and we understand that to be eternal. So, what does eternal mean? Simply stated, it is a state of existence in which no time, which is a measure of change, exists — we call it eternity. Since we humans exist in a universe which is undergoing perpetual change, we cannot fathom such a state of being. However, to accept the idea of eternity, we must accept the knowledge and understanding that everything material and changing in this universe is composed of particles of energy which are perfect in both form and function, are unchanging and unchangeable, are indistinguishable from their counterparts, cannot be further subdivided, cannot be created nor destroyed my man, and not one, more or less, exists at this moment, than at the time of their release nearly fourteen billion years ago — scientists call that moment The Big Bang.

Are not all those characteristics, attributable to those perfect particles of energy, mirroring their Creator who is Perfect in both form and function, is unchanging and unchangeable, is indistinguishable from its counterparts (the Son and the Holy Spirit — Will of God), cannot be diminished or augmented, and certainly cannot be created nor destroyed by man?  That mirror image is the Son, the Second Person of Trinity, Perfect in every way. The perpetual relationship of Love and Acceptance between the Father and his Mirror Reflection, the Son, is the Holy Spirit, The Will of God, the driving force which sustain and maintains that perfection. Quantum Mechanics (particle physics) clearly demonstrates a Perfect rationality in this entire universe. That Perfect rationality translates into a Perfect Truth System outside of which there is no truth in this universe — that Perfect Rationality is the essence of God.

 Now, I can hear you all screaming, pulling your hair at my blasphemy, and hollering, “What about Jesus?”. And my answer is simple, indeed. Jesus was the first person to recognize the presence of God in all things. He was the first to understand God’s Perfection including his Perfect Love which precluded any possibility of a hell, purgatory, limbo — only perfect love and acceptance of himself demonstrated by all his creation. With that understand and insight, it is obvious to me that Jesus felt a compelling responsibility to tell his brethren and the entire world about God’s Perfect love and, thereby, eliminate the oppressive guilt imposed on them by the sacrificial religion of the Jews. Jesus knew he would be crucified as a traitor, but his spirit drove him on — he has to be regarded as the most influential human the world has ever known. But I’d bet everything I own that he would ‘turn in his grave’ if he knew how his intentions have been thwarted and twisted by knaves to create a morass of 33,000 so-called Christian religions, all of which have dispensed his name illicitly.  Just look at the mess we have today and every day since Jesus’ death. They all use his name for legitimacy, but none knows either him or the God who created all.

For all the uninitiated and, at the risk of being repetitiously boring, my little book, Wilderness cry expounds this philosophical and scientific understanding of God and his universe quite succinctly. Its sequels, Peace in Spirituality and Provocative Catholic expand many of the implications of that essential definition of God to their logical conclusion. In doing so, they offer a ‘fool-proof’ pathway to permanent peace. If you care to know more about me and my upbringing, Growing Up In Fancy Farm Kentucky may ‘tickle your fancy’.

All my books are available Amazon-Kindle and from me handg@comcast.net. All comments and questions are welcomed, and will be answered.

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Magisterium and Changes

As I understand ‘Magisterium”, it refers to the teaching authority of the Church which directly stems from the apostles of Jesus. On the surface, all of that sounds very good until one does a little scratching into the deeper layers of that ‘presumed and assumed’ authority. A little historical review might be helpful in attempting to interpret the mismanagement of that Magisterium.

After Jesus’ crucifixion, all sorts of stories were fabricated concerning thereafter events. The bottom line eventuated into an interminable squabble and disagreement among the bishops who professed absolute theological power within their domain. It seems obvious that those who established the concept of those unquestionable domains presumed that all bishops would have identical understanding of Jesus-events. However, as is usual for most human endeavors, there evolved a situation whereby many differing views about Jesus, his words ,and activities existed among the bishops of the so-called Christian world.

Christianity had spread rapidly along both shores of the Mediterranean Sea, across North Africa on the south and  all the way to Rome, Spain and Portugal on the north. At the time all that territory was under the domain of the Roman Empire which was divided into two sections. Eventually one section fell to the other and the Empire became consolidated. All that territory from Judea to Portugal was under Roman control and rule. Rome had made a pact with the Jewish community which allowed the Jews to continue their form of religious sacrifice and control of their constituents. The Jews were allowed to punish but were not allowed to perform capital, punishment —that was strictly reserved to the Roman authorities.

Most of the 1800 bishops of Christianity resided in the Eastern section of the Empire. While the Christians were supposed to be producing for the Empire, they were instead squabbling, and at times, outright fighting among themselves about the ‘Jesus thing’— productivity was very low — morale was even lower — the peasants were being severely oppressed by both Rome and the Jewish hierarchy. Zealots who attempted to organize an overthrow of both governments were common in Jesus’ day — they all met the same fate, crucifixion.

Jesus, himself, was a zealot but in a different way. His method involved an attempt to show his brethren that the god they were worshiping was a myth. It was a ‘vengeful god’ who demanded ‘perfect sacrificial offerings of appeasement’ to control his ire. Those perfect offerings could only be provided by and offered by the High Priest — always at considerable cost to the peasants. It was a prefect money making scheme. Jesus’ plan was to educate his followers that the ‘real God’ was all love, and, furthermore, the only way they could have peace was by living that love through accepting their God and their neighbor as is. Jesus’ plan was subliminal — when enough constituents followed his teaching, the money-making scheme of the High Priest would gradually dissipate – a new government of love supported by good civil laws (10 commandments) could and would eventuate.

Jesus knew he was a traitor and what his eventual fate would be — that makes him the ‘hero of all heroes’. He mainly remained on the outskirts teaching in the hope that over time his followers would understand and accept his teaching of God and love and would perpetuate them across the world. It seems to me that Jesus was a total failure in his efforts, and here is why.

Three hundred years after Jesus’ death, because of all the squabbling which contributed to a lack of productivity, Emperor Constantine called the bishops into council at Nicaea. He commissioned them to form a consensus of Christian belief and practice — it would be the official religion of the entire Roman Empire backed by the Roman army — the Holy Roman Catholic Church was formed.

In complete disregard for Jesus’ teaching of an all-loving God, the bishops’ new religion was patterned exactly after Jewish sacrificial ritual with them and their designees (priests) as the only people who make those sacrifices of appeasement. However, despite completely ignoring Jesus’ teaching, they conveniently attached his name to their religion for obvious ‘propaganda reasons’.

Of course, in establishing their new religion, they set themselves up as ‘lord and master of all’ — they were the absolute authority concerning anything to do with faith, morals and/or practices — they were the absolute interpreters of God’s wishes and demands.

Early on, priests and bishops were allowed to be married unimpeded. Then there was a time when bishops could be married but could not sleep in same room with his wife —guards were posted to insure. Then priests could not be married at all. That fact was one of the factors resulting in the Great Schism between the Eastern and Western Church in the eleventh century.

In my short eighty-nine years, I have witnessed ‘God changing his mind’ innumerable times. Here are some of the most notable: from the time I made my first Holy Communion in 1940 until I was twenty or so, no one was allowed to take Communion without total fasting from both food and liquids from midnight on — taking Communion after breaking one’s fast was a ‘mortal sin’ and would send one straight to hell if one died before confessing that sin. Likewise, deliberately allowing one’s teeth to touch the Communion host was a Mortal sin with similar consequences. Of course, deliberately breaking any one of the Ten Commandments was a mortal sin. The ‘real hammer’ fell on breaking the laws of the Church, particularly those to do with attending Mass on all Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation and the Church’s laws concerning sex and marriage. Marriage to a non-Catholic was strongly discouraged and the ceremony could not be done inside the Catholic Church building. Divorce was out of the question, and marriage to a divorced person who had not obtained an official annulment from the Church carried the same dire consequences of mortal sin. Artificial birth control was ‘out of the question’ and, furthermore, it was the topic of most homilies during my childhood and early adulthood. Infant baptism within the first ten days after birth was mandatory for fear an infant would die beforehand and be sent directly to Limbo where it would ‘never see God’. Then, of course, there was the stain of sin which remained with us despite God’s forgiveness and that stain combined with the small (venial) sins we committed largely guaranteed that each of us would spend time in ‘Purgatory’ burning off the stain before entering heaven. We could decrease that time by reciting ‘indulgence bearing prayers. In fact, there was once a time when one could ‘buy indulgences’. That gave great hope for the rich since they knew from scripture that it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to get into heaven.

The foregoing examples are just a few of the shackling, tormenting, controlling guilt-driven edicts of the Magisterium— all intended to ‘keep the troops in line ‘and the hierarchy in total dictatorial uncontested control. Then suddenly the Magisterium changes in some areas: one only has to fast one hour before receiving Communion. Then, almost as quickly, one was not required to fast at all. Furthermore, the Communion hosts were being distributed by the faithful and in addition, the recipients were encouraged to chew the hoist vigorously— what a turnaround — God must have been in a drunken stupor to change his rules so abruptly— I don’t think so. The changes in God’s rules came when those who professed magisterium realized people were not heeding them and, worse yet, were dropping out of the Church — money-well going dry.

Fast-forward to today; not a word ever about birth control, abortion, divorce, mixed marriages — only an occasional sideswipe mention of a Holy Day — never a word about any Church Law. In fact, the only sin ever mentioned is sex sin — oh that lovely controller — it’s the Church’s last holdout.

So, what has happened? Just yesterday, Pope Francis publicly declared that he is seriously considering allowing priests to be married. He made mention of the fact that that rule prohibiting marriage is not rooted in basic theology but simply in the rules (magisterium) of the Church. So, again, the Vicar of Christ on earth is interpreting God’s mind and has determined that since the number of vocations to the celibate priesthood are tumbling and foreign priests are being imported from Africa and Central and South America to fill the void, it is high time to change the rules. That’s only common sense to me but it does not ameliorate one degree the torment that I and billions of other Catholics have undergone at the hands of an ‘almighty, ironclad hierarchy hiding behind the armor of Magisterium’ —that old dog is simply too tired to hunt anymore.

Of course, this commentary beats up on the Catholic Church but, believe me, it can be applied to all protestant churches just as well but in a different way. They revolted for just reason from the Catholic Church but, in doing so, they put all their eggs in one tattered basket full of holes — a book totally corrupted by both honest mistake and deliberate change so as to suit the whims of the writers and rewriters and rewriters ad nauseum — they have no more credibility. Like the Catholics and their near mimickers, they all worship a false god’. I am allowed to say ‘false god’ because not one of them has ever or can define the ‘essence’ of the god of whom they speak.

I can and have defined my and Jesus’ God. Our God is a Perfect rational Being who is ‘all love’. It cannot be hurt, helped, pleased, displeased, or changed in any way. If it could, it would not be perfect. There is a ‘Perfect Rationality’ which pervades our entire universe — it shows in every event that has ever occurred since the beginning of time at the moment of the Big Bang. The result of every event is and always has been perfect for its foregoing set of circumstances — direct evidence of God’s Perfection, Love, and Reliability.

Please read my little books, Wilderness Cry, Peace in Spirituality, and Provocative Catholic for as broader understanding. If you would like a humorous ‘Huck Finn’ rendition of my childhood, read Growing Up In Fancy Farm Kentucky. All available hard copy and digital from Amazon-Kindle and autographed hardcopy directly from me – handg@comcast.net.

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You may think this is a stupid question, but have you ever wondered why you think there is a God? I have, and my answer to myself is likely to be similar to yours —I was taught it by my parents and teachers in school. But just where did our parents and teachers come up with such an idea? Most likely, the same places as we did. But where did the idea come from in the first place? But also, there are some people who don’t think there is a God. Have you never wondered how that can be? As a small child who had been taught about God, I couldn’t imagine anyone not believing in God — nonbelievers had to be bad, evil people who would be condemned to hell forever — a terrifying thought — I felt so sad for them.

But then I wondered where information about God came from in the first place, and sure enough, I discovered  it came from priests and preachers who had learned about it from the Bible and were ‘duty bound’ to tell us all about it. I didn’t question that bible information as a small child but, when I reached age twelve to fourteen on and began to learn something of the history of Greek and Roman gods, as well as the many diverse religions in the world, I began to wonder how and why that could be.

Of course, being raised in a strict Roman Catholic tradition which overtly professed to be the only ‘true religion which worshiped the only true God’, I was amazed that there could be so many bad people in the world. My ambivalence toward them contained a mixture of distrust of them and, simultaneously, sorrow for their wayward ways— they were all likely to go to hell or, at least, have a much harder time getting into heaven than we Catholics would.

 It was about that age when I began noticing possible ‘cracks in the armor’ of my own religion. I had been taught that, when we prayed to God asking him for favors, he would answer our prayers. But what I observed was the complete opposite — he never answered a single prayer that either I, or our parish combined, asked for. It was so obvious and hurtful that I felt compelled to ask my parish priest why that was. He told me straight out ‘it was God’s Will”. I determined right that moment that my religion and likely all religions were ‘barking up the wrong tree’— God’s Will could not be changed. I didn’t know why but I determined right that moment to find out.

It took sixty-five years, but I did find out, and I discovered who the real God is. The God I discovered is a perfect Rational Being, not a wishy-washy, willy-nilly myth who could, not only be bargained with, but also could change his mind on a whim and give you a resounding thrashing for offending him. My God is perfect in all respects which means he cannot possibly change anything he has created. Neither can he change himself — no entity which is perfect can be changed. If it could, it would not have been perfect in the first instance and, certainly would not be perfect any more.

The implications of that understanding are staggering, not the least of which is the fact that ‘physical miracles,’ as depicted in the bible, are a pure impossibility and represent the mythical thinking of the ignorant, superstitious, and likely, biased people who compiled and rewrote the bible thereafter ad nauseum. We have absolutely no way of knowing what the original writings said — they could have, but not likely, given a correct assessment of God and events.

Those who formed the first official Christian religion were obviously ‘hell-bent’ on making their preconceived mythical ideas of a Messiah who would restore paradise just for them come true. So, it seems obvious to me that literally all their stories about Jesus’ resurrection, ascension, and expected ‘second coming’ are ‘fairy tales — God’s perfection demands it — physical miracles are an impossibility. A common expression among people is, ‘God can do all things.” That sounds good to the unsuspecting, but the truth is far different. God can do absolutely nothing that he has not already done, and, furthermore, that ‘something’ which he did 13.8 billion years ago was to release his Perfect Rationality in the form of perfect particles of energy known as quanta (plural of quantum) into our universe. He set the wheels of change into motion, and time began. Those are the ‘scientific’ facts.

So, the big question is, ‘why do we have a God anyway?’  All through recorded history, every group of people worldwide has recognized a higher power than themselves who controlled and influenced events in their lives. Some recognized gods in celestial bodies. Others saw god in other natural entities such a water, wind, etc. All, noting that both good and bad things happened in their lives, attributed those events to their imagined higher powers. So, they did the obvious thing. Since they had both good and bad happen in their lives, they assumed that god was responsible for both —pleasing god brought good things and displeasing him meant trouble. Most, then, came to the same conclusion —their god (s) needed appeasement —he needed his ‘feathers smoothed’ — sacrificial religion was invented.

It is noteworthy that a respectable percentage of people do not accept the concept of a God. Also, it is noteworthy that no one can prove or disprove the existence of a God, but since I have defined the essence of such a God as ‘a Perfect Rational Being,’ I am demonstrating both a scientifically and philosophically sound basis for God’s existence— I still can’t prove it.

What I can show, however, is that there exists a perfect rationality which pervades our entire universe. That perfect rationality when ‘boiled down to its basics’ means that every event that has ever occurred or ever will occur in this universe always yields perfect consequences for its given set of inciting circumstances. If that were not the case, nothing could be predictable or trustworthy.

Our universe is so large that no human mind can visualize it in one scene — we have no yardstick. However, we are able to observe the same perfection everywhere we look. Therefore, we are allowed and even mandated to recognize that the entire universe operates under the mandate of a perfect truth system — there is no truth in this universe outside that perfect system.

Since I have defined God’s essence as Perfect Rationality and that Perfect rationality coincides with the observable Perfect Truth System in our universe, I believe it is not only allowed but also mandated that we accept a concept of God. Our God, however, is a far cry from the picky god presented in the bible — that god was wishy-washy who constantly changed his mind, whereas the God of our universe is perfect, stable, unchanging, and unchangeable. The biblical god is human-like because he represents the mythical imagination of his creators — human beings —beings which the ‘real perfect God’ allowed to come into existence.

So, certain conclusions should be obvious. Any and all religions which imagine that they can influence God in any way are both illogical and illegitimate. I do not know with certainty the details of other great world religion such as Buddhism and Hinduism but, as a cursory insight might dictate, I believe they are more contemplative in an attempt to understand the nature and desires of their gods, Buddha and Brahma. In contrast, the Abrahamic religions are in the business of appeasing and influencing their god— both for purposes of gaining favors and escaping wrath — their god can be really mean. Not only that, but there are at least 33,000 different versions of the Christian’s  god, at least two versions of Allah, and an unknown number of Jewish gods —several to say the least.

So, why do we have atheists? I don’t know anyone’s specific reason but, I suspect many have observed the conglomerate of gods and their associated admirers and have concluded those gods to be fairy tales — on that point, they are correct. Likely however, they are not familiar with our Perfect Rational God who has no mandates except that everything shall perform perfectly in this universe. That God needs no appeasement and makes no demands other than Perfect Truth. He accepts everything as it is because he is in everything and everything is in him.

From a human aspect, I believe it would do us good if we would recognize God’s presence in everything and express our gratitude to God for our lives, our sustenance, and our eternal life in him. I also believe that recognition would bring us closer to the capability of honoring Jesus’ command to love both our God and our neighbor. All other animal groups seem to understand that and have structured, ordered existences— we call that instinct — I wonder what they really know and understand about God.

I am fully aware that what I have just said cuts through the heartstrings of ‘devout people who have been led to believe they can influence God’ — truth seems to always hurt. However, it is truth which liberates. By liberating, I mean, just as Jesus did, ‘pulling from you that terrible blanket of guilt, imposed originally by irrational religion for purposes of control, but which ultimately transformed into power and money. Dr Martin Luther King said it best, “The truth will set you free”.

Many of you know I have expounded and expanded that philosophy in my little books WILDERNESS Cry, Peace In Spirituality, and Provocative Catholic. In addition, I have published a semi-historical, semi-autobiographical book, Growing up In Fancy farm Kentucky. All are available Amazon-Kindle and from me, handg@comcast.net.

All comments or questions appreciated and will be answered if requested.

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Everyone knows what fear is — if we are normal, all have experienced it. It is the natural emotion of unpleasantness which rational people experience when they perceive danger of any kind from any source. It can be applied to individuals, groups, organizations, or nations. As an example, I suspect that everyone living in Ukraine is fearful of Russian invasion and its potential consequences. Likewise, I suspect most fans of the opposing NFL Super Bowl teams are fearful their team will lose.

The fear I want to address today is the fear which religion has of science. Knowing that all religion is founded on ignorance, superstition, mythology, astrology, imagination, and wishfulness makes any religion shudder at the prospects of scientific knowledge undermining and refuting it basic fundamental tenets. In fact, Pope John Paul II once told Stephen Hawking to not study the beginning of the universe because it was the ‘work of God’.

So, what does that tell us? It tells me that science was getting too close for comfort by scientifically discrediting the Church’s fundamental belief about creation as outlined in Genesis — Adam and Eve story —all the creation story in Genesis. That story describes an infantile insight into the size and makeup of the firmament, which in my childhood bible, was depicted as a semi-globe extending from the edges of the flat earth in all directions, with the sun, moon and stars above. It represented their imaginary God’s six days of hard work. In fact, he was so tired after all that work, he had to rest an entire day —hence, we have Sabbath.

So, with that in mind, a few examples discrediting that mythology might help.

1. In 2008, a gamma-ray burst was observed. It was a violent cosmic explosion, 7.5 billion light-years away, which is halfway across the visible universe. It could have been seen with a naked eye from the surface of the Earth. People who saw it were looking billions of years into the past with their eyes.

Here is another discrediting piece of evidence:

2. The oldest and therefore farthest known galaxy we have discovered to date is over 13.7 billion light years away. It’s called z8_GND_5296. Its light has taken so long to reach us that the star which collapsed to form the gas that particular Sun is made out of wasn’t “born” yet. Galaxies this far away from earth help astronomers understand the very early universe and how it has evolved over time. Due to the expansion of space, that distant galaxy technically wouldn’t be there anymore and would actually be “currently 13.1 Giga (13,100,000,000,000) light-years away from us.

3.Galileo was placed under house arrest by The Holy Office until his death in 1642 for defending his views about the Earth not being the center of the universe. The Vatican formally acknowledged they were wrong, and Galileo was right in 1992 — can you imagine, 350 years later. Pope John Paul 2 also grudgingly admitted the Church was wrong in burning people to death for being witches, but in so doing he attempted to ameliorate the gravity of that activity by declaring that only a paltry few hundred thousand, rather than the acclaimed millions, had been burned at the stake.

4.The largest galaxy in the observable universe is an elliptical galaxy, IC 1101. It has 100 trillion stars and is 6 million light years across. By comparison, our Milky Way galaxy has a mere 100 billion stars and is 120,000 light years across. Can you imagine? — and light travels 186,000 miles per second through space.

5.Another astonishing observation reveals the nature of a neutron star which is the super-dense core of a collapsed supernova (megastar). It is so dense that if an object was dropped from one meter (39.37 inches) above the star’s surface, it would hit the surface at a speed of 7.2 million km per hour. One kilometer is equal to 0.62 miles. So, 0.62 x 7,200,000 means the dropped object from such a short distance would accelerate to a speed 4,464,000.00 miles per hour before hitting the surface — incredible. As a comparison, an object dropped from the outer reaches of the earth’s gravitational pull can attain a maximum speed of only about 120 mph before hitting the earth’s surface. Consider this then; it has been postulated that the big bang, roughly 13.8 billion years ago released all the energy particles in this universe from a spot no bigger than a pin head — some unimaginable density known as ‘The Singularity’. I think of it as God. Not a ‘personal God’, not a ‘whimsical God’, but rather a God of Perfect Rationality — a Rationality which cannot possibly be changed without total destruction of its own Perfect Truth System.

6.Also, there is a “one-electron universe” hypothesis which proposes that there exists a single electron in the universe that propagates through space and time in such a way that it appears in many places simultaneously. We know that there seems to be an inestimable number of electrons in the universe. In fact, each uranium atom alone has 88 electrons rotating around its nucleus. So, as Hawking proposed, there may be an inestimable number of parallel universes in existence.

As a consequence of the above astrological and cosmological observations, it should be rather obvious that those immensities could not be attributed to a God depicted as a grizzled old man sitting in the clouds somewhere above the earth, tired from his work but still willing, able, and eager to thrash us humans severely for breaking his laws.

So, with those few examples, the Church has plenty of reason to be very fearful of science (truth).

From the very beginning, the Church has proclaimed itself to be the unquestioned and unquestionable, ultimate authority in matter of faith and morals. That ‘faith’ encompasses the Genesis story, a flat earth, an earth as center of the universe, devils, witches, hell, purgatory, limbo, indulgences, and much more mythology. Eventually, attempting to shore itself up, it proclaimed the Pope to be infallible, and the Bible to be inerrant. That ‘old dog’ might have hunted once upon a time, but I believe without doubt ‘he won’t hunt anymore’.

In the Roman Catholic Church, there are liberal and conservative factions. The so-called liberals, among whom are Pope Francis and many bishops, are trending away from old, hardline theology and pseudoscience to a more adaptive understanding and acceptance of science while, simultaneously, not budging on the basic theme of Eucharist — sacrifice of the mass. The hardline conservatives seemingly would still love to live in a universe with a ‘flat earth’.

 It seems to me that the liberal group have begun to realize that the Church can no longer defend its foregoing philosophy of a vengeful God who, not only allowed ‘hell, purgatory, and limbo’ to be created, but also, demanded that every human individual be functionally and emotionally attached to the overt sex into which it was born. They recognize the scientific truth that variations in sexual identity regardless of sexual tools, just as every other gravid entity in this universe, are an indisputable fact of life as observable by the bell-shaped distribution curve— not everyone is heterosexual, nor does everyone identify emotionally and sexuality with their birth sexual tools, as the hardliners would have it be. Pope Francis seemingly has condoned gay marriages and seems to be in accord with LGBTQs place in life.

As noted before, I have observed changes in the Catholic Mass consecration prayers which seem to be subtly moving away from the old Zodiac form to a more ‘modern’ form. However, it still depicts a God who is selective in his choice of adherents to him. In former days, that prayer read “from age to age, you gather a people unto yourself, so that from east to west a perfect offering may be made…..” Now it reads; “you never cease to gather a people unto yourself so that, from the rising of the sun to its setting, a pure offering may be made….”. That ‘perfect offering’ in the older version seems to be a direct holdover from Jewish ritual whereby the High Priest made a Perfect Offering to appease a vengeful God — does anyone remember Jesus running the High Priest’s money changers from the temple and overturning their tables? I do.

It should, therefore, be rather obvious that those who formed the Holy Roman Catholic Church in the first instance in 325AD, did so in direct disregard for Jesus and his dictates of love, but rather, formed a church directly patterned after the Jewish religion, with them and their successors in total control. They did, however, conveniently use a contrived version of Jesus as their purported pattern.

 It has taken 1700 years, but it’s finally catching up with them — science is displacing them and their mythology. They may paint a smug air but I’ll bet you those who truly understand the ‘gravity’, of their situation are ‘trembling in their boots’.

I’m neither stupid nor dumb but I am fully aware that I and my elder Catholic brethren, who remember ‘how things used to be’, will soon be gone. Then the gradual but subtle changes in the church to bring it into a closer conformity with realistic science, will go unnoticed by the majority — the church will conveniently sweep its dirt under the carpet, pretending as though it never happened, and very few will ever notice. That exact process has been going on already for centuries —it’s their only way out.

The next time you have an opportunity, ask your priest or minister; “exactly why did the Jewish hierarchy want Jesus dead? What was he preaching that precipitated such disdain for him?” I doubt many direct meaningful answers will be forthcoming. The bibles that we have now have been altered so much as to make that reason obscure. If the bible did tell us directly, there would be no need for any priests or preachers in their present capacity. We must ‘read between the lines’ to discern that truth. Certainly, if any one of them did know, it is very likely it would not be divulged to us — there’s a very specific reason for that. If they did tell us truthfully, they would negate any need and purpose for their existence in their present capacity.

What Jesus was preaching was in direct opposition to the Jewish sacrificial religion and their hierarchy saw it as a direct effort to undermine their livelihood. They were making a fortune feigning appeasement of a wrathful, vengeful, but merciful God while Jesus was teaching about an all-loving God who rejected no one. Jesus reportedly told us that our only duty was to Love (accept) God, and love (accept) our neighbor as ourselves.

 The Jewish hierarchy incited the crowd to proclaim Jesus a traitor deserving of crucifixion. He knew they would, but he was determined that his people would know the one, true, all-loving God. Just as important, he wanted them liberated from the terrible persecuting blanket of guilt imposed on them originally by Moses, but perpetuated by the hierarchy, all for power, control, and money. To this day, I have been unable to discern much real improvement. Oh, we no longer have people being burned to death as witches, or for denying the earth is flat. But we still have a God who is wrathful but merciful, rather than a God who is all-loving and accepting.

 As suggested in my little book, Wilderness Cry, If the church does not rapidly convert it basic tenets to coincide with known and accepted science, its ‘days are numbered. The church must heed my call for The Worldwide Communion Spirituality so people may become like-minded about a singular concept of God’s essence and the reality of his attributes. Then, and only then, can fear be eliminated from the Church, and peace and joy can prevail.

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You may wonder at the validity of this title – just what does it mean. Well, selfishness may be defined as ‘anything directed at self’. So, as we observe and investigate, we note that literally nothing escapes that singular notation. And, of course, as with every truth in this universe, selfishness is no different –God made it ‘to be that way’.

It is likely that, just as I, you were taught and led to believe that selfishness was a sin. That’s because we did not understand the parameters of selfishness or sin. We know that the concept of sin was introduced by Moses to help him in the civil management of his flock. So, considering that, let’s examine the parameters of selfishness.

Every living thing in this universe has needs —food, hydration, shelter, reproduction. For those needs to be fulfilled, it is an absolute necessity that those requirements be directed at self. So, are they to be categorized as sin? – I think not. Extremes of selfishness which we call greed has not been catalogued by the Catholic Church as one of the seven Cardinal Sins — Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy and Sloth. However, I’d bet a bunch that the cataloguers squabbled quite a bit about whether or not it should be.

Sin, of course, was/is considered to be an offense against God — we hurt God’s feelings — make him unhappy — displeased him. I have shown many, many times in my books and other writings that such ideation is pure foolishness. God is A Perfect Rational Being and, as such, cannot possibly be hurt, displeased, or pleased. Such change in demeanor or attitude would immediately negate God’s perfection and, would, simultaneously, bring him out of eternity — remember, change equals time — there is no time in eternity.

 What we are doing with extremes of greed, and any other activities known as sin, is hurting and displeasing our fellow man —we are sinning against our neighbor —we are violating ‘The Golden Rule” and Jesus’ command for us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Again, I have shown that we do not have to ‘like’ (like implies a pleasant sensual experience) anyone or anything, but we must ‘love’ (accept) our neighbor as he/she is.

Then, how is everything in the universe selfish? Again, I have shown in my writings how that even inanimate entities are perpetually selfish. Every grain of sand is constantly bearing down on its neighbors in an attempt to create a bigger, better spot for itself. Likewise, ever solid gravid object is doing the same. Gases will distribute themselves evenly throughout the extent of any space. The elements of wind and precipitation are gradually wearing away the rocks, mountains, and any structure which attempts to block their paths — in time, all will be reduced to a flat surface which offers no resistance. Why do you suppose that is? Without doubt, if there is a God, and I believe there is, it is because God allowed his universe to begin and evolve through a process of built-in imbalance called entropy. That imbalance ensures that change is perpetual — everything is changing in an attempt to come to an equilibrium.

That imbalance(entropy) creates a perpetual ‘need’ in everything. Those needs demand change, and change is measured in units which we call ‘time’. Consider this; if there were no needs, there would be no change; if no change, there would be no time; if no time, only ‘eternity’. We know that God exists in eternity. We also seem to know that at the moment of the ‘big bang’ God release his energy in the form of quanta of several different types. A quantum is the smallest particle of energy, which is perfect in both form and function, is unchanging and unchangeable, is indistinguishable from its counterparts, can neither be created nor destroyed by man, and cannot be further subdivided. As such, each exist in eternity just as God — collectively, they are God.

At the moment of their release, they instantly went about doing perfectly what they were designed to do — they formed the protons and neutrons which make up the nuclei of every atom, and together with electrons, they ultimately formed all the atoms of every element in the universe. Those atoms, of course, have needs and thereby react with other atoms to form compounds of all sorts and descriptions, and ultimately formed all the structures in our universe today. More importantly, at the moment of their release, change in the universe, time, began.

So, here we are nearly fourteen billion years later, and perpetual change continues. Knowledgeable physicists tell us that the universe will likely last another 75 to 100 billion years before it finally ‘balances itself’, and selfishness and time ceases — all will have returned to the ‘singularity (God) from whence they came.

So, you see, without selfishness, we, nor anything else, would be here. Likewise, do you see how ignorant, superstitious, and greedy men have created innumerable cultist religions, all feigning an attempt to appease an angry God?

The native Americans and many other cultures recognized the presence of God in everything. They had no scientific knowledge, but their instincts told them so.

It is scandalous to say the least, but I’ll have to ‘cut the early Israelites a little slack’ — they were stone-cold ignorant — they knew not one basic scientific fact. However, the King, High Priest, and Sanhedrin soon discover how lucrative their religion could be. Guess what — they seized upon that discovery with selfish ’greed’. Remember what Jesus had to say about them? He called them ‘a den of thieves’ — a brood of vipers — he overturned their moneychangers’ tables and drove them from the temple — such was his zeal.

Three hundred years later, those who formed the Holy Roman Catholic(universal) Church at the behest of Emperor Constantine, totally ignored Jesus’ teaching of an all-loving God, and, while using his name as a shield, fashioned a church exactly after the format of Judaism — with them in total control, of course —I doubt their sincerity.

I cannot, however, cut modern-day churches any slack. The science has been exposed now — ignorance, mythology, superstition, astrology, and witchcraft have long-since gone ‘out the window’. They persist, however, in religion — I wonder why.

Have you ever taken note that power and control = money?  I have, and I’ll bet my last dollar that, if the ‘money-well dried up’, those who masquerade as our ‘spiritual caretakers’ would vanish like ghosts in the night. What do you think?

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You may be scandalized by what I’m about to say but “God’s power in our universe is limited”. It is limited by his own reflection of himself. For at least 13.8 billion years it has been limited by the Perfect Truth System which he designed and released into this universe. That system is composed of all the perfect particles of his energy known as quanta. More importantly, that perfect truth system contains all truth which exists in this universe. 

While we have no way of knowing, God may have trillions of other truth systems in other universes. However, we would not be able to recognize or understand any truth in any other system because it would be grossly different from ours — neither could we even know another system exists. The world-renowned scientist, Stephen Hawking, postulated that since a single electron can be in 10- to -the exponential -power -of- 50 (1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000) places simultaneously –some imponderable number, each of those places represents a different universe in existence — each with its own individual truth system different from ours. If it were the same as ours, it would not be a separate universe — it would, by necessity, be in our universe. 

When God designed our universe, he established it with Perfect Truth which means no truth can be changed and no truth can be added or subtracted. If any ‘truth ‘could be changed, it would no longer fit into our Perfect Truth System. Furthermore, any change would immediately disrupt the entire system and it would immediately and completely implode. Therefore, God is powerless to change anything. 

The implications of that understanding are staggering. They uproot, negate, and nullify all known concepts of God and religion — all are invalid because none ‘knows God’ — all have professed a God who can do whatever they want him to do. That represents pure child-like imagination which has been built on imagination, superstition, astrology, and mythology over the centuries but continues to be universally professed, promulgated, and practiced worldwide.  

In ancient times, they even professed that they talked with God, bargained with him, and created pacts with him — such was, and still is, their imagination. They proposed and believed that by begging God incessantly, they can coax him to ‘perform a miracle’ just for their selfish selves. The Bible as well as the history of so-called Christian churches have professed innumerable instances of physical miracles — all based on ignorance, superstition, and I suspect in many instances, self-serving interests. 

Here is why physical miracles are a philosophic and scientific impossibility. God is a Perfect Rational Being. With his Perfect Intellect, he envisioned all the perfect particles of energy which constitute the quantum substrate of every gravid entity in this universe. Everything in this universe is composed of those perfect particles. Those particles are perfect in both form and function, they are indistinguishable from their counterparts, they are unchanging and unchangeable, and can neither be created, nor destroyed nor further subdivided by man. Therefore, just as God is perfect and unchanging, they all exist in eternity — they are God’s reflection — they are God. 

So, suppose God attempted to honor one of our prayers and change his basic nature (perform a miracle) at our insistence just to ‘honor our will’ (our begging and pleading), what would happen? Well, in the first instance, God is perfect and cannot change, and secondly, assuming that he could and did, everything in the universe would instantly be destroyed — the Perfect Truth System would cease to exist because the perfect nature of everything would instantly become so distorted as to be nonfunctional — it would be instantly destroyed — not a chance. 

So where did these ideas of miracles come from anyway. I’ll tell you my conclusion. They came straight from the human imaginations which fashioned their ‘one true God’ after their own, very imperfect, nature’ — with pleasure, joy, anger, vengeance, wrath, befriending, scorning, loving, hating, accepting, rejecting, judging, bargaining, happiness, sadness, grief, greed, envy, jealousy, demanding, justifying, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. In simple terms, the image of God portrayed to us from all time carries the implications of every ‘human emotion’ known or imagined. 

Consequently, with that in mind, it is understandable that the Israelites would fashion a religion of ‘sacrificial appeasement’ based on their concept of God. As that religion evolved over the centuries, the Jewish hierarchy began to see how their religious practices could be profitable to them. Number one, only the High Priest could make the sacrificial offering. Number two, the offering had to be a ‘perfect specimen’. Number three, that ‘perfect’ specimen could be provided only by the High Priest, and he charged heavily for his specimens and his services. The poor peasants were being oppressed mercilessly by their own government and religion as well as by the Romans under whose domain they struggled. Their religion forced a perpetual blanket of sin and guilt on them, and the Romans oppressed them with taxation — a double whammy. 

By Jesus’ time, the oppression was unmerciful. There were zealots everywhere inciting riots hoping to overthrow both governments —they all failed — all were crucified. Jesus knew that. He also knew that the picture of God painted by the Jewish religion was a sham. He knew God was in everything and that God was all Love. He tried to educate his chosen apostles and followers to that fact in hopes they would spread that Good News (gospel) to all the world after his death. He knew he would be crucified but he was determined. It is very obvious that he was a total failure. 

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I am allowed and even mandated to say ‘total failure’ for the following reasons. Jesus despised religion and openly said so. He called the hierarchy ‘hypocrites’, a ‘brood of vipers’ and ‘a den of thieves. He overturned their money-changers tables and drove them from the temple. He knew his days were numbered but his zeal overwhelmed him – he knew the real God was within him and all creation and he was determined that all the world would have that knowledge also. He was determined to liberate his brothers and sisters in God from the guilt imposed on them by the Jewish religion for simply being the human animal God designed them to be.

During the three hundred years after Jesus’ death, all sorts of ideas and teachings regarding Jesus, his words, and activities sprang up. So determined were the Jews to have a ‘recreated paradise just for themselves’, they obviously fabricated all sorts of stories about his Resurrection, Ascension, and his expected return to earth to finish the job – two-thousand years and nothing yet — don’t hold your breath – ‘it aint gonna happen’.

As noted above, those events are an impossibility – God would need to ‘change his nature’ – not a chance. Emperor Constantine, noting all the discord and constant haggling among the 1800 bishops, which was contributing to the ‘Christians’ lack of productivity in his domain, wisely decided to make a Chirstian religion the official ‘State Religion of the Roman Empire’. Consequently, he called those bishops into council at the ancient Turkish city of Nicaea – only 180 or so attended. Constantine commissioned them to form a Christian religion of their liking –it would be the official State religion enforced by the Roman army. Any dissenter had two choices, instant beheading or banishment to the wilds. After much haggling, with some being excommunicated, they reached a consensus – the Holy Roman Catholic Church was formed.

 Totally ignoring Jesus’ teachings of love and acceptance, they formed a church patterned exactly after the Jewish God, a God of ‘Mercy and Justice’ rather than Jesus’ God of Love. They created a liturgy exactly as the Jews – a sacrificial ritual intended to ‘appease’ an angry God. They used Jesus’ name to give it authority, but they did not use Jesus’ teachings of love – Jesus failed – he is failing still.

Jesus keen insights told him that the Jewish God was nonsense. Their God was sitting in heaven ‘up there’ over-lording his creation, always ready and willing to wreak havoc on any and all parts of it which were ‘down here’. Jesus’ God was ‘in all things’ — all things were/are a reflection of their creator — ‘See the lilies of the field…..’.

It should be rather obvious then that God’s mind cannot be changed –it has been set in stone from/for all eternity. All the begging and pleading for God to change his nature and ‘bend his will’ to ours is senseless – we must submit our wills to him and willingly accept our fate.

Our only justifiable prayer is ‘Thank you God’. When we congregate, our eucharist should be a communal praising and thanking God for our existence, our sustenance and for our eternal destiny in him.  Our communion must be a recognition we are one with all creation – our spirit and the spirit of all creation are one in the Holy Spirit, the Eternal Will of God. That recognition and understanding is Spirituality.  In that light we could all become like-minded in God – peace could prevail. So, once again, I call for the acceptance of The Worldwide Communion of Spirituality which recognizes and accepts that understanding. It is our only hope for peace.  Irrational religion must be replaced with a rational understanding of God.

We must change – God is powerless to change.

As many of you know, I have written extensively about these subjects. In Wilderness Cry, I define the Essence of God. In Peace in Spirituality and Provocative Catholic, I elaborate on many, many subjects emanating from that definition of God’s essence — most importantly, I define Spirituality and its necessity for peace to prevail. In addition, Growing Up In Fancy Farm Kentucky, will give you both an historical and humorous insight into my upbringings and childhood exploits through my first year of Medical School.

Buddhaism Christianity Eternity Faith Future of Christianity God God's Will gods Hilary L Hunt MD Hinduism HolyGhost Holy Spirit Islam Islam Christianity Jesus Judaism Judaism Buddhism Money Philosophy Power Religion religions salvation Science The Trinity

 

How many hundred, maybe thousands, of times have we heard the term ‘God’s Will’? More importantly, how have we understood or interpreted that term? — just what exactly is God’s Will?

In my writings, I have explained God’s Will many times. However, I am dedicating this post exclusively to that subject. To understand God’s will, one must by necessity both understand and have a clear mental and philosophical picture of both the Trinity and rationality. Of course, we all have been told innumerable times that the Trinity is not understandable by us mere mortals — I can prove that idea to be completely erroneous.

I am not taking total credit for defining Trinity, but I am takin exclusive credit for both understanding and demonstrating scientifically and philosophically how Trinity works. The basic definition was presented to me by a young Jesuit priest who was retreat-master for our Saint Louis University Medical School graduating class in 1958. He explained to me and two of my classmates how Trinity God should be understood and visualized.

                God, the Father should be thought of as a Perfect Intellect.

When that Perfect Intellect reflects upon itself, it sees a mirror image which, being in the supernatural, is a living person identical to the Father — The Son — second person of Trinity.

Then, what choice do two Perfect Intellects viewing each other perpetually have except to love,

choose, accept, will, each other? — obviously none. That loving, choosing, accepting, willing each other carries the exact image of its generators and is The Holy Spirit — The Will of God.

Now we have three identical persons but only one God.

So, there you have an easy to visualize Trinity God — but how is that Trinity exhibited in the real universe? That is where the concept of Perfect Rationality coupled with knowledge of Quantum Mechanics (particle physics) enter the picture of understanding.

Let’s tackle Perfect Rationality first. We humans are rational, but our rationality is very imperfect because we do not know everything that is available to be known in this universe — its designer does. Brute animals and even one cell animals seem to have a rationality also — they act and react to stimuli also. It would seem, however, that they lack the ability to cipher.

Philosophically, me must admit that the Perfect Intellect who we call God, who designed every building block in this universe, loved, chose, accepted, and willed those building blocks into being. That loving, choosing, accepting, willing by that Perfect Intellect, the Will of that God, is the Holy Spirit— the driving force which, not only brought them into existence, but maintains them perfectly — they are branded, so to speak, with The Will of God. Those building blocks are a mirror image of their imaginer — they are the Son, the second person of Trinity.

Now, let’s apply that understanding to God’s Perfect Truth System—Quantum Mechanics. A quantum is the smallest particle of energy in existence. Each quantum has the following characteristics: each is perfect in both form and function, each is unchanging and unchangeable, each is indistinguishable from its counterparts, none exists today than at the moment of their creation roughly 13.8 billion years ago, and none can be destroyed or created by man. There are many varieties of quanta, each with specific duties and actions. Some you are likely familiar with — electron and photons — some less familiar are bosons, quarks, fermions, gluons, neutrinos, etc.  Because of their characteristics, just as God, they exist in eternity, they are a mirror reflection of God, they are God. Collectively quanta comprise the substrate for every atom in existence — atoms can be split, quanta cannot. Furthermore, quanta provided all light and thermoelectric energy in the universe. All truth is contained in them. Collectively, they constitute a Perfect Truth System — there is no truth in our universe outside the Perfect Truth System of God’s reflection.  That truth is there for us to discover. I seriously doubt we have discovered one ten-trillionth of that truth so far.

 No one can prove or disprove the existence of God — that is the only faith we must have. However, we can certainly demonstrate conclusively, the Perfect Rationality which pervades the limits of our universe. The great particle physicists, Stephen Hawking suggested that the universe could have just ‘happened’, Big Bang and all. And that may be true. However, Quantum Mechanics demonstrates clearly that a Perfect Rationality exists in our universe and that Perfect Rationality  encompasses all truth —it is a Perfect Truth system. Any consideration of God must encompass the concept of a Perfect Rationality as its designer and sustainer which negates the validity of all religion.

If there is God, and I accept that there is, it must be a Perfect Rational Being. A perfect Rationality encompasses Perfect Love. Perfect Love has no expectations — concepts of hell, sin, purgatory, limbo, an earth-like heaven, and the like are pure nonsense. All the Old Testament and most of New Testament are pure fairy tales emanating from some ignorant (not knowing), superstitious imaginations, and have absolutely nothing to do with reality.

 We have absolutely no way of knowing what Jesus actually did and said, but one thing seems clear — he understood that God existed in all things. Furthermore, he clearly saw the collusion between Judaism and Rome which collectively were oppressing his people. He recognized the Spirit of God within himself. It is possible Jesus was a mad-man, but his understanding and insight drove him to call the Jewish hierarchy what he saw — a brood of vipers — a den of thieves. He knew he would be hanged on a tree for his heresy, but he was determined to pull the terrible, controlling ‘blanket of guilt, imposed by religion, off the world. He had hoped to educate his followers so they might spread the word worldwide — obviously, he was almost a total, failure.

Throughout the centuries many great thinkers have recognized God’s presence in everything. As far as I can tell, Jesus was the first — ‘split a piece of wood and I’ll be there. Lift a rock and find me there’ (paraphrased). Other notables were Saint Francis of Assisi and Meister Eckart, a famous German theologian. Likely there were many others but for fear of excommunication or burning at the stake, they kept it to themselves.

I sincerely trust I have made this rather complicated subject clear for your understanding.

Now I shall revert to that ‘retreat’ in 1958. The young Jesuit who painted the picture of Trinity for me and two of my classmates cautioned us sternly to tell no one. I did not understand his cautious approach to such a startling understanding that day.  It was sixty-five years later when I encountered Quantum Mechanics, that I was suddenly able to do something never before done, define the Essence of God — Instantly, God became a Perfect Rational being — the young Jesuit’s definition suddenly rang true. That definition and understanding had devastating implications for all religion—all became illegitimate — all suddenly were cultist— none knew the mythical god they worshiped — all had false expectations and understanding of God — all were basically worshiping Zeus and Apollo.

That young priest knew what his fate would be if he dared to confront his Church and superiors with his knowledge— he would have immediately been excommunicated from the Catholic Church, as well as be expelled from the Jesuit Order of priests. But he was brilliant — I can never thank him enough for his candor and courage.

Most of you reading this know that I have written extensively about this and related subjects. My First book, Wilderness Cry was met with many emotions, including exhilaration by many, bewilderment by others, disbelief by a few, expanded clarification by others (still going on), but absolutely no attempt at refutation. Amazon Books basically called it a masterpiece of courage and understanding. Covenant Books called it a ‘Beacon of Enlightenment.’. My second and third books, Peace in Spirituality and Provocative Catholic, expand and expound on God’s attributes and offer a failproof pathway to world peace. It is only through The Worldwide Communion of Spirituality, which I called for three years ago, that peace can be achieved. That concept entails a like-minded understanding and acceptance by everyone that the Holy Spirit of God (God’s Will) is stamped onto every perfect particle of energy in this universe. As such, all are brothers and sisters in the Substance of God. Irrational religion must go. Rational Love and Praise of God, plus acceptance of each other must take its place.

Growing Up in Fancy Farm Kentucky was written under duress, so to speak — my hunting buddies kept insisting. So, I had to do it. I hope you will find it entertaining.

Buddhaism Christianity Eternity Faith Future of Christianity God God's Will gods Hilary L Hunt MD Hinduism HolyGhost Holy Spirit Islam Islam Christianity Jesus Judaism Judaism Buddhism Money Philosophy Power Religion religions salvation Science The Trinity