COST-When we think of ‘cost’, likely the first thing that comes to mind is how much money we have to pay for something—how much does it cost. However, costs come in many forms and fashions—some overt and obvious—others obscure and/or hidden.
When gasoline was $4.00/gal, a frugal person might ‘think twice’ before jumping into a big gas-guzzling car or truck and making a frivolous trip somewhere. On the other hand, with gas at $1.22/gal, that same person might say, ‘it doesn’t cost that much, so let’s go.
For the savvy, financial costs are always a legitimate consideration. There are, lamentably, many , many other costs not always so obvious. For instance, a cigarette smoker may, unwittingly, be perfectly willing to bear the increasing dollar and cents cost of a pack of cigarettes, while ignoring the ultimate hidden costs of smoking—chronic lung disease, heart disease, renal disease, all of which are associated with chronic disability and frequent premature death—a real cost. That is to say nothing of the momentous medical costs and family distress associated with such a habit.
Look at the cost of alcoholism and drunk driving—alcoholic beverages themselves are not ‘cheap’, but their dollar cost pales in the face of the frequent anguish, injury , disease and death incurred by reckless drinking.
How about the costs of a hostile or slothful attitude—getting fired from a good job—loss of friendships. More importantly, what about the influential psychological costs imparted to your children by an absolute determined attitude of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’.
One could go on and on about the various consequential costs of our attitudes and activities. Seemingly, most of those consequences are either not recognized or , for what ever reason, ignored.
To me, the most discouraging consequential cost of life and living is the lack of unity among people. I can say with certainty that no two people ever have been ‘like-minded’ about an understanding of their Supreme Being (God, Buddha, Brahma, Yahweh, Allah etc.). Each person seems to have a ‘vague’ idea about their SB, but no two ideas are the same—they can’t possibly be.
And why is that, you may say. Plainly and simply, its because no one has ever defined the essence of their deity—that is no one before me. Having no essential definition of our deity makes it %100 impossible for any two people who ever lived or who ever will live to have identical essential knowledge and understanding of their ‘God’.
So what does that have to do with ‘cost’?—everything. What that means is that each person, in turn, while earnest in his/her desire to know and understand their God, is being led down ‘the primrose path’ of religion. Religion, of course, is a cultist practice intended to ‘appease’ a hostile god who lords it over us. That is definitely a ‘trumped up’ attitude devised originally by divining the celestial bodies and elements fourteen thousand years ago.
Eventually, the Jews determined that it could be ‘profitable’ for a few—the King and the High Priest. That knowledge was not ‘wasted’ on Christianity. Strangely, while Jesus ‘despised’ religion, people used his name to make billions and billions, and billions—they still are. The ‘costs’ of religion are staggering. Furthermore, the financial costs pale in the face of the psychological costs of guilt, anxiety and depression caused by religion.
They learned centuries ago that the ‘sure-fire’ way of getting your pocketbook was to shame you into ‘buying your way into heaven’—neither have they ever forgotten that trick. It certainly didn’t start with ‘the widows might’—neither did it stop there. They would, in fact, take your very last copper cent under the ‘guise’ of pleasing God.
So how do we ever correct that evil and ‘eliminate that terrible oppressive cost’? I can assure you, there is only one absolute and mandatory method—we must all become like-minded in our understanding of God’s essence. We must abandon the mythology and superstition thrown at us for ages and ages.
I have defined God’s essence once and for all— God is a Prefect Rational Being. That perfection translates into ‘Perfect Love”— perfect Love means God accepts us the way we are—there is absolutely nothing we can do to enhance that love of God for us.
God’s Love costs us absolutely nothing—it is an unbelievable ‘gift‘.
All is spelled out succinctly and precisely in my two little books, Wilderness Cry and Peace in Spirituality.
906242_Press Release for Wilderness Cry
Press Release for Peace in Spiritiality
WILDERNESS CRY by Hilary L Hunt MD 