ARCHAIC- Wilderness Cry- Hilary L Hunt MD

ARCHAIC: It’s been a while since I was able to post; been running everywhere for graduations for last several weeks, plus working hard in my charity vegetable gardens. Things have settled down now, finally, and my time can be shared as desired. The prompt word of the day, “archaic”, caught my eye in a flash. I am no dummy. I have total awareness that each of us has been indoctrinated with some form of religious belief usually associated with a religious book (Bible, Quran, etc.). With that understanding, simple perusal of history plus observation of everyday events, shows us clearly that our methods have failed miserably. My contention is that our reference books of Spirituality are extremely archaic. I can hear you now shrieking in anger and dismay; such heretical language. Each person and/or group is dug-in like badgers protection their turfs while all the time attempting to expand their domains. With that observation, the simple question immediately arises. Why? My humble opinion suggests that the original premises upon which those books were written were terribly mistaken and misguided. The writers of those books had absolutely no scientific understanding of our existence nor of the universe in which they lived. Their superstitions led them to conjure up all sorts of ideations and perceptions which became reality to them. Later on, when Jesus appeared on the scene, they neither understood nor wanted to understand what he was telling them. Different writers about His life and sayings contradict themselves repeatedly, and usually about subjects used by the Church as doctrinal teachings. A couple of examples: In describing the circumstances surrounding Jesus birth, Luke says the Holy Family returned to Nazareth almost immediately while Matthew, describes astrologers (Magi, Wise men) coming in search of the New King after observing His star. This triggered an entire list of undesirable events including the “murder of the holy innocents”, Joseph and Mary being warned in a dream fleeing the country for as long as maybe twelve years. Consequently the Church created an entire set of rituals and feast Day of The Epiphany: in describing Jesus’ crucifixion, Luke presents a picture of two insurgents crucified with Jesus. One of them kept berating Jesus while the other asked Him to remember him when He came into His kingdom. Jesus says to him; “this day you shall be with Me in paradise”. Now during Lent and certain other occasions, the “sacrificial” Christians say the Apostles’ Creed which clearly states that Jesus died, descended into hell, and rose again on the third day; Matthew’s version shows both insurgents continuing to berate Him: Luke wrote the Acts of the Apostles (mostly what Paul did) some fifteen-twenty years after Paul had written very descriptively  his own activities in multiple letters to his constituents. When put side by side for comparison, Luke writes a “romantic” version to his own liking. Garry Wells, Emeritus Professor of History at Northwestern Univ., in his book, What Paul Meant, shows that Luke is a veritable liar. Hardly a single word in Acts is the correct account of activities as they actually occurrerd.  These few but very meaningful discrepancies in biblical writing discredit the Bible as a reliable source of Jesus’ activities and/or teachings.  Furthermore, it has been copied so many thousand times, all from one singular copy of copies surviving 200-300 years, there could be little doubt that multiple errors both intentional and unintentional have been made in the process. Also, we know from reliable sources, that the Quran has been reinterpreted to suit the desires of certain groups. In my opinion, to expect that multiple versions of Jesus’ life and words could have been written by multiple individuals and preserved in exact context is pure idiocy. Bart Ehrman, Professor of Bible, NCU, in one of his books (I believe, Jesus Interrupted), states matter-of-factly, that the KING JAMES VERSION of the Bible is the most corrupted of all. My point is this. If we are ever to have understanding and peace we must get off our archaic understanding of “sacred scriptures”. WE must all come to a rational understanding of common sense. The very first, and most important thing that must be done is to change our child-like understanding of the nature of our Divine Creator. Until that is done, peace can never come. Our Creator is not some Grizzled old man exotically robed and sitting on a throne in some inexplicable place “somewhere up-there”. Our Creator is simply and most importantly “a perfect rational being”. That understanding of the “essence” of our Supreme Being leads to no possibility of misunderstanding of who It is. I use the word It advisedly; our Creator has no “gender”. The word and description of God as our Father is the very, very, very prejudicial patristic attitude held about women forever. Men were the “superior” species; females were the enticement to all sin and, indeed, the first sinner, according to the simplistic ideation of creation as spelled out in the book of Genesis. The essence of the creator and manager of our entire universe must, by necessity, have a perfect intellect and a perfect will. Perfect means unchangeable, and for that reason, we have been duped forever into believing we can actually change Its mind. The Hebrews actually believed that they were bargaining with God, and consequently, dreamed up all sorts of schemes and scenarios to account for their delusional thinking. When Jesus came along with His message of Love (acceptance), they were dismayed, disappointed, and ultimately, disparaging. They had no interest in His message. All they wanted was their childish (Santa Claus), selfish, idea of a new paradise just for them alone to be fulfilled immediately. When Jesus told them that He had come to die for forgiveness of their iniquity, they were flabbergasted. Their Messiah had double-crossed them. So when they killed Him by hanging Him on a tree, they had to continue the drama by conjuring up a “second coming”. The Apostle Paul believed it to be imminent, maybe tomorrow, and told hid followers so. When it did not happen immediately, John Mark, Paul’s sidekick, who wrote the first Gospel fifteen to twenty years later, kicked the can down the road somewhat. He describes Jesus as saying it will all happen within the current generation (forty years). Well, can anyone bear the truth? It has been almost two thousand years since Mark wrote those words and no “second coming” yet. What does that mean. To me it means that the entire selfish idea was a myth from the beginning. It “aint” gonna happen. The reason is very clear. The basic premises upon which all those Old and New Testament stories were based are false.  As stated before, I’m no dummy. Anyone with “one eye and half sense” can see clearly that Religion is the largest moneymaking business and the most divisive business that the world has ever known. With 33,000 so-called Christian denominations in the world, and each claiming absolute and separate authenticity, it is clear that they are the culprits. Having said that, I am totally aware that, to many, religion is their most precious possession, because they have been told so and made to believe. Unwittingly, deep down however, most hold those of a different faith in some form of disregard, and, in many case downright disdain and even hatred. What a pity. And all profess goodness and kindness in the “face of the Lord”; a pure sham. I have heard snide remarks about other religions uttered from the pulpit of my church hundreds, maybe thousands of times in my eighty four years. How is that possible? Simply because the basic understanding of our Supreme Being has been in gross error throughout all recorded history. Now, I am aware that each of you will continue attending your church services because you have been disciplined to do so. However, as you listen to the constant haranguing over each little word of the “good book”, remember that your Creator is inestimably “greater” than anything you are hearing. The image of our Supreme Being is imprinted on each of us, and indeed, each entity in existence, just as free range cattle are branded. Jesus, our brother and representative, recognizing His and our inner being as a mirror image of our Creator, realized that it befell Him to “pay the price” for all the iniquity (selfishness) in the universe. He did so willingly but not without great fear and trepidation. That was the message He tried so desperately to get through the “thick skulls” of His apostles and others. Because He was human, He failed miserably on that attempt. He did not fail in His most important endeavor, the salvation of the entire universe. So, if genuine peace (acceptance of our fellow man as our equal) is ever to come, it is imperative that the ARCHAIC ideation of God instilled in each of us must be discarded. It must be replaced with “GOD IS A PERFECT RATIONAL BEING”. Ponder that for a while. While pondering, you will find great assistance in understanding those concepts in my little book, Wilderness Cry. I strongly urge you to read it; Amazon, Kindle et al.  All comments welcomed, handg@comcast.net.