DIVERSITY AND FRAGMENTATION — HILARY L HUNT M.D.

You may or may not be aware of the diversity and fragmentation which exists in the so-called Christian community worldwide. But likely, you would be startled to learn that, according to the Center for the Study of Christianity, in the year 2014 there were 33,000 such denominations. More startling yet, that same organization reports that in the current year, 2023, the number has risen to an amazing 45,000. Why do you suppose that is? I would ask you to give that question your most serious thought and analysis and see if you can reach a satisfactory conclusion. In addition, I would humbly ask you to share your thoughts with me in the ‘comments’ section at the end of this presentation. In the meantime, I will offer you my observations and conclusions.  

In the beginning, as Christianity spread from the Middle East through and along both shores of the Mediterranean Sea, there was no specific ritual associated with it except for Baptism and the agape meal which was intended to mimic Jesus’ last meal. In addition, each settlement had its own bishop who had been consecrated by Paul and later associates. The bishop was the supreme voice and authority about all things religious within his domain.  

By the year 325 AD, there were 1800 bishops within the domain of the Roman Empire. Many of those bishops seemed to have a somewhat different understanding of Jesus, and what he said and did. Some of those differences were major prompting squabbles and occasional outright hostilities. In the meantime, the productivity of those squabbling Christians was severely diminished. That caused great concern for Emperor Constantine — both his army and treasury had become severely depleted by recent wars, and he needed all the productivity he could get. Rather than further exhaust them by attempting to settle continual disputed, he had a better idea – make Christianity the official religion of the Empire. Accordingly, he called a council of bishops at Nicaea. That council resulted in the formation of the official Roman Catholic Church which later became the official religion of the Roman Empire enforced by the Roman army. 

The Church thus formed was complete with hierarchy of pope, bishops, and priests. Things went fairly smoothly as long as Constantine and his son were in power. However, with the fall of the Roman Empire, that protection was lost and the Pope, who had been essentially the ‘supreme ruler’ of the entire world except for the Far east, suddenly became sequestered in a tiny area known as Vatican City. The official creeds of Christianity were as yet only partially developed. There remained much room for the theology to develop, and that development continues to this day. With the fall of the Roman Empire the protection for the church was lost, heresies were frequent, and there were constant arguments among church authorities about one concept or another. Many of those centered around concepts of the Trinity, and specifically, the Holy Ghost. Others were concerned about the specific purpose of Jesus, and more specifically, about the concept that he died for the forgiveness of sin. It might be noted here that nowhere in the Bible does Jesus make that claim. 

As time progressed, a major power struggle developed between the Eastern Church and the Roman Church culminating in the first major split, The Great Schism in the 1,054. Abuse in the Roman Church became so rampant and theological differences so great that eventually, Martin Luther rebelled— Protestantism was born — all hell broke loose. The cat was out of the bag and major branches of Protestantism rapidly developed. Fragmentation was beginning and apparently is still accelerating at an astonishing rate. 

The Roman Catholic Church, spreading through sub–Saharan Africa, soon learned that they could get nowhere attempting to dictate specific rituals to the ‘spiritualistic’ Africans so, the Church allowed the Africans to incorporate some of their own rituals into the Catholic liturgy. Furthermore, they allowed them to exercise ‘local control’ rather than control from Rome. The net result was further fragmentation as each tribe had a different slant on things. In the meantime, the protestants missionaries were busy converting many Africans to their way of thinking. 

Based on my definition of God’s essence as ‘A Perfect Rational Being’, it is obvious to me that the very foundation of Judaism and its mimicker, the Roman Catholic Church was/is ill-grounded. Moses threatened his people with the wrath of God if they did not obey him. Later the Hierarchy of Judaism devised a scheme which became very lucrative — God must be appeased with perfect offerings which could only be provided by and offered by the High Priest, albeit at an enormous cost to the everyday Jew. Religion became a money-making machine. I am convinced Jesus’ purpose was to ‘liberate’ his people from that scourge of guilt and the financial burden imposed by Judaism –he preached ‘an all-loving’ God who needs no appeasement. The Bible is very careful not to directly disclose why the Jews wanted Jesus dead — one must extrapolate between the lines. 

That religion money-machine has continued throughout the centuries. The world is filled with beautiful monstrous edifices built on the backs and meager resources of the masses under the guise of ‘making God happy’. Protestant seminaries are turning out new preachers by the dozens and guess what— each needs a new Church so he/she can ‘make their fortune’, again under the guise of ‘appeasing a wrathful God’. Furthermore, to gain attention and hopefully, constituents, not only a new building is required but also a ‘new denomination’ with a slightly different slant on various religious philosophies. Of course, each of those 45,000 in the world claims to be, either the only, or at least, the best way to heaven.

So, the obvious question would seem to be, why? I believe there are two main reasons. First, not one of them can define the essence of the God of whom they teach and preach. Second, there’s too much money to be lost by acknowledging a singular God who resides in everything. God must remain a wrathful God who demands appeasement — for most Christians, Jesus offered that appeasement, at least partially. Everyone talks about God as though they know what they are saying, but I’m here to tell you that ‘there is a different God for every person’. Without an essential definition, nothing has meaning including God — they all are myths.  

I’ve said it ten thousand times before and I’ll say it again. If there is a God, and I believe there is, it is a perfect rational being. Notice I said, “I believe there is”. Absolutely no one can prove the existence of a God. Neither can anyone disprove it — it is simply a matter of faith. However, faith must be based on something tangible. That ‘tangible’ for me is the perfect rationality exhibited by the perfect truth system that exists in this universe. There is no truth in this universe outside that perfect truth system. Then Philosophically, I am justified in accepting the concept of a Perfect Rational Being. 

Contrary to all Christian belief, God cannot change nor be changed. God cannot be pleased nor displeased. God cannot be hurt nor helped. God is Perfect love — he must, by his very nature, love (accept) all his creation the way it evolves in ‘perfect fashion’. We humans change, we hurt and help each other, we are pleased and displeased — God is Divine Love. That, my friends, was Jesus’ message to us — they killed him for that heresy. 

Now, I’m no dunce. I know that most of you who have read thus far are bowed up in the back like a fighting tomcat, incensed immeasurably by what I have said about your ‘perfect religion’. In fact, many of you might even scorn or avoid me the rest of your lives for belittling your religion so. Just as I, you were taught by your parents and preacher/teachers that adherence to your religion offered the only absolute perfect pathway to heaven — all the other 45,000 were/are dead-wrong. To you, I may be a scoundrel beyond all toleration. Likely, that very picture has been painted for you — the very bulwark of your existence —the very audacity of me to criticize it. 

Very few are open-minded enough to engage in meaningful discussion of exploring different concepts of our existence rather than the ‘fairy tales’ we all have been taught as factual for one very specific reason — power, control, and money.  Just let the money well dry up and see how much your preacher cares about your salvation. Just observe the world as it stands at this very minute.  It is on the brink of total extinction over differences in religious and ideological beliefs — and we all share the blame. Will that condition ever change? Not likely, because until now there has been no pathway to likeminded thinking and understanding — everyone’s God is different. 

The God presented to us in the Bible represents the collective imagination of those who dreamed it up. He is a strictly human-like God whose existence and attributes are based on mythology, astrology, and imagination. Without the benefit of one bit of scientific knowledge, that’s all those dreamers had to go on. Of course, as we have seen, without the benefit of an essential definition of that God, everyone is left to conjure up his/her own individual concepts. That is the reason for my justification in saying “there is a different God for each human who has ever lived — and that, my friends, has made ‘all the difference’. With that understanding, like-mindedness among us is a total impossibility. Therefore, peace is a total impossibility. 

So, how do we have like-mindedness about God? We must have a heretofore unavailable definition of his Essence. 

Throughout the centuries many great minds have pondered that question unsuccessfully. The one essential ingredient missing from them was a knowledge of the basic makeup of the entire universe. None knew that everything in this universe is made of identical perfect particles of energy known collectively as quanta (pl. For quantum). A quantum is the smallest particle of energy with the following characteristics: it cannot be subdivided; there are several varieties with names such as photon, electron, quark etc.; none can be distinguished from its counterparts; each is perfect in both form and function; none can be either created or destroyed by man; and collectively, they represent and contain all truth (knowledge) in this universe;  they constitute the ‘perfect truth system’ in this universe. 

A few years back, I was fortunate enough to come upon that needed scientific information, and instantly knew that I was able to irrefutably define God’s essence—God is A Perfect rational Being.  I can’t prove it, but I accept that those quanta represent the Perfect Rational Being which we call God – they are God. 

With that understanding, it is quite obvious that God is in all his creation. God is not the imaginary grizzled old man-like figure sitting somewhere in the sky overlording his creation. God is his creation. God resides in every quantum of his creation; otherwise, it could not be. 

 That knowledge and understanding would instantly allow us all to become like-minded. Of course, that knowledge and understanding would instantly invalidate all known religions. Will it ever happen? Not in our lifetimes – too much loss of power, control, and money.  

If you have not read my books, Wilderness Cry, Peace in Spirituality, and Provocative Catholic, I strongly urge you to do so – hopefully, you would become likeminded with me and others, and spread the word. Those concepts and understandings are mandatory for peace. All my books, including Growing Up in Fancy Farm Kentucky are available from me (handg@comcast.net) autographed and from Amazon-Kindle.

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You might view this article’s heading and scream in outrage, horror, and disbelief, “blasphemy”. Then, on the other hand, if you are an open-minded, inquisitive person, you may say to yourself, “I wonder what this guy is up to? I think I’ll stick around and see what he has to say”. Very likely, there are many of you who, for one reason or another, have some doubts and questions about religion and particularly, so-called Christian religions. I am allowed to say ‘so-called’ because, from my perspective, no so-called Christian religion is valid.

So-called Christianity is patterned exactly after the oppressive religion of the Jews. The perpetrators of that religion wanted to use Jesus’ fame as support of their ‘new’ oppressive religion while totally ignoring his basic message of God’s perfect love. They totally ignored Jesus’ teaching about God’s love which was so foreign to the Jew’s way of thinking. They had been born into a world of a ‘vengeful God’ who demanded recompense for their misdeeds.

Jesus, on the other hand, perceived a different kind of plan which ultimately would have replaced the Jewish concept of a vengeful, punitive God. Jesus’ subversive plan was to implant the idea that God was all-loving and, therefore, could not possibly react negatively to any of his creation — ‘See the lilies of the field. they neither sow nor reap. Yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory is arrayed like one of these’.

 Jesus could clearly see the corruption of the Jewish government and religion which was bilking the masses of their meager hard-earned existences under the guise of making expensive ‘perfect offerings as appeasement of a vengeful God.  Moses had planted that idea of God several hundred years before for purposes of control. As time went on, the hierarchical elite determined that their God must be appeased with offerings, both animal and vegetable. Those specimens must be ‘perfect’ and, for that reason, not only must they be offered by the High Priest, but they must be provided by him also — always for a ‘pretty penny’.

At that point in time, Judea was under Roman control. Even though the Roman empire was a pagan nation, the emperor reasoned that it would be less costly to allow the Jews to continue with their corrupt internal government than to attempt forcing paganism on them.

Jesus seems to have been the first human to recognize the presence of God in everything — God is in everything and everything is in God including Jesus, himself — ‘Split a piece of wood, and I’ll be there. Lift a rock and find me there.’ He wanted the world to know that ‘God is  all love — with that understanding and acceptance, Judaism would have eventually disappeared — the terrible persecuting ‘blanket of guilt’ would have finally been yanked from the Jewish people — they would have become free to honor, love, revere, and thank their all-loving God rather than attempt appeasement of an irate, vengeful God.

Those who formulated the gospels decades after Jesus’ death were very careful, not to overtly disclose the cause of Jesus’ crucifixion. He was already a legend but a legend in a different way. They wanted to use his name and more importantly his title, Christ, as a footing for their new-found ‘sacrificial religion’ which mimicked the Jewish religion. Of course, they positioned themselves and their progeny in positions of authority and power with Pope, Cardinals, Bishops, and priests.

With that backdrop, we see what happened. Constantine gave the new Catholic hierarchy absolute control and power backed by the Roman army. Quite obviously, in the minds of the hierarchy, they had special powers which no one else had — they could recreate Jesus’ body and blood and, not only that, they would also offer it to God the Father as an ‘unbloody sacrifice’ of appeasement. Therefore, the oppressive religion of the Jews was replaced with a new oppressive religion labeled Christianity. One must wonder why they didn’t label it ‘Jesusanity’ or something of the sorts. I think I know why — the chicanery would have been too obvious. This was a ‘King’s religion’ — Jesus was the exceptionally notorious ‘fall-guy’. They did not want to recognize the real Jesus. They simply wanted a newer version of Judaism. Even today, most Churches I’m familiar with spend as much, and sometimes more, time honoring the God of the Old Testament rather than honoring the God of love about whom Jesus taught.

Obviously, they took Jesus’ words at the Last Supper of. “Do this in remembrance of me”, to mean what they assumed to have happened at the Last Supper — Jesus turning bread and wine into his own body and blood. I think they ‘missed the boat’ completely. I believe, without doubt, Jesus understood that God is present in everything in existence including his own body. He was simply telling them to remember that fact and to remember him when they ate — to recognize that everything they ate was God, himself. Jesus knew that God is all love and is in all things which he had created — he could not possibly reject any part of himself.

Jesus knew nothing of the scientific basis for his assumption of God’s love — neither did his illiterate associates. Had they known, it seems very likely that a different version of Christianity would be the only worldwide religion in existence. Neither would we have the fragmentation we see now. Furthermore, and more importantly, it would be a religion demonstrating our understanding of God’s Loving nature. It would be a religion of reverence, praise, and thanksgiving to God rather than the sacrificial religion patterned after Judaism. We would be thanking our all-loving, all-accepting, God rather that attempting to appease a ‘vengeful God’ as did the Jews. WE would be reverencing a book which clearly demonstrates Jesus’ all-loving demeanor rather than a book which continually speaks of a vengeful God as do all so-called Christian religions in one form or another.

Clearly, God is a Perfect Rational Being. That perfection is exhibited by the perfect rationality which pervades ever existence in our universe. All truth is exhibited in that perfection and is contained in a ‘perfect truth system’. Scientifically, it is exhibited by, and contained in the perfect particles of energy (quanta) which are the substrate of every atom which make up every gravid existence in the universe. That perfect state of God means; he cannot possibly be helped, hurt, pleased, displeased, bargained with, or influenced in anyway by anything. Therefore, all religions past and present are invalid and, ultimately are hoaxes. They represent the collective arrogance and or ignorance of a few who wish to control, and leech off the masses for their own personal gain.

However, there was no unanimity of thought and understanding among those bishops about who Jesus really was and what he really taught. So, they squabbled among themselves and even came to local blows at times. Of course, that distracting demeanor greatly reduced their productivity for the empire.  As a consequence, in the year 325, Constantine, who was emperor of the Roman Empire, decided upon a course of action for increasing their productivity. Instead of attempting to force them to work and produce, he would make Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. But first, he had to have unanimity of thought about the religion. So, he called a council of the world’s bishops at Nicaea. Of the 1800 bishops, only three hundred or so attended. Constantine presided, and after a few months of haggling with some unrelenting bishops being excommunicated, a consensus was reached — the Holy Roman Catholic Church came into being. A few years later, it was declared the official religion of the empire.

Simply observe the world as it is at this very minute. Literally every nation is aligned with others in either instigating hostilities or defending against hostilities all of which are generated by religious and/or ideological differences —all for power control and, ultimately, riches.

The entire human race must rapidly become likeminded about the ultimate nature of our universe or likely it is doomed to extermination by some irrational authority with a ‘red button’ — it only takes one —then it’s game over. The only way we can become like-minded is for our educational systems to begin teaching truth about the ultimate nature of things. It is not mandatory for one to believe in God to recognize the ‘perfect rationality’ which pervades all existence — I prefer to believe that Perfect Rationality is a living being. We can still be like-minded about the Perfect Truth system which invalidates all known religions. In light of that recognition, a few years ago, I called for the Worldwide Communion of Spirituality which is the ‘only way’ the earth and its inhabitants can be rescued from total destruction.

Peace is possible but not if current religions and ideologies are in play. We must recognize that each of us is in total communion with every other existence. I prefer to see that existence in the Perfect Rational Being whom I call God. By the way, it seems logical to me that ideologies came to be because men saw the ultimate failings of religion and were attempting to replace it with a reasonable alternative. However, there again, their efforts led to organizations of oppression which basically worshiped a domineering system rather than a system of like-minded people who understood and ‘cherished’ their communion with all existences. Will it ever happen? Not in our timeframe. The reason being the universal evil of selfishness.

As I have shown in my little book, Wilderness Cry, ‘selfishness ’is the universal evil shared by all existences. To our knowledge, homo sapiens is the first and only entity in existence to have the ability and know-how to produce weapons capable of mass destruction. Currently, there seems to be enough of those weapons in existence, that if all were deployed in a relatively short time frame, to destroy every living thing on this planet. Again, I have oft repeated that ‘anything which is possible to happen in this universe, will eventually happen’. I am not an alarmist, only a realist. It takes only ‘one irrational person’ with a finger on the ‘red button’ to trigger a chain reaction of retaliatory nuclear weapons to produce that total wipe-out.

So, here again, we see the parallel between religion and ideology — selfish controllers who care naught about others — only their lust for power and lavish lifestyles. You don’t see Cardinals of the Church living in shanties and preaching from log cabin churches. Rather, they live in mansions and preach from monstrous edifices which costs billions to build and maintain — all that under the guise of appeasing a vengeful God — nothing is too good for God.

I am convinced that Jesus, his identity, and his intentions have been sorely and totally misrepresented by the perpetrators of so-called Christian religions whose ultimate goals were/are power, control and money.

For a more complete understanding and appreciation of what I just said, please read my little books which explain this philosophy in detail from both a philosophical and a scientific point of view.

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Most Christians might be surprised to learn that the concept of Trinity God did not originate with Jesus of Nazareth. My understanding is that ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics depict a trinity of gods in play at the time of one’s death. When a person died, he/she had to pass across the Nebal Bridge to get to heaven. That bridge spanned Sheol, the nether world below. The Son patrolled the bridge’s gate that allowed people to attempt crossing into heaven. As people crossed, they encountered the Holy Ghost who determined if they could pass on across to the Father or if he would push them off the bridge into the netherworld below. Those who were allowed to pass encountered the Father at the other end of the bridge and were granted entrance into heaven.

It seems quite obvious then that Christianity borrowed the mythical concepts of Trinity, as well as virgin birth’s, resurrections, and salvation from the many such religions which had evolved around the Mediterranean prior to Jesus’ coming.

Today is the Sunday set aside each year by the Catholic Church to praise and honor Trinity God. It is called Trinity Sunday. In that light, in his homily this morning, I heard a young Roman Catholic priest note that innumerable great thinkers had attempted to define the Trinity but found it to be impossible to do so. Accordingly, the Church had declared it to be a mystery which no mortal could ever define. In that same vein, the young priest did offer a definition of God’s essence which he declared to be ‘love’.

As I listened with amusement, I was struck with the immediate question ‘why?’. Why had the Trinity and God’s essence not been irrevocably defined before? It seems likely that the answer to those questions is twofold. Number one, since Christianity in general, and concepts of Trinity God specifically, stem directly from Ancient Egyptian mythology and astrology, it would be impossible to define either trinity or essence of God using those parameters. Number two, it seems rather obvious to me that an explicit definition of either would instantly invalidate and eliminate any justification for the existence of their possessive, hierarchal religion — a religion which subjected everyone to their whims including the legal extraction of their hard-earned money whilst they lived in luxury and their empires expanded.

On the question of God’s essence which the young priest defined as ‘love’, one would be hard put to observe or hear that word, love, used in a Catholic Church. Seldom do we hear anything but ‘God’s mercy’ — a completely different concept from love. Mercy implies forgiveness of wrongdoing.  love is acceptance, choice, will — I ‘will’ to accept and cherish you the way you are, no questions asked.

Through my encounter with Quantum Mechanics (particle physics) I discovered there is a ‘perfect rationality’ in this universe. Not only that, but I discovered there is a ‘perfect truth system’ in this universe outside of which there is no truth. Furthermore, I discovered that perfect rationality and truth system to be embodied exclusively in the perfect particles of energy which constitute the substrate of every atom in existence. Collectively, they are known as quanta and individually as a quantum. The word quantum stems from the Latin quantus (how much).

Indeed, ‘love’ is just one of God’s innumerable attributes, not his essence. For sixty-five years, I pondered the essence of God and continually came up empty-handed. Then one day, I was fortunate to encounter the hidden substrate of God’s existence — the entities which irrevocably label and define God’s essence, quanta.

The attributes of a quantum are these: it is perfect in both form and function; it is unchanging and unchangeable; it cannot be distinguished from its counterparts; it cannot be created nor destroyed by man; it cannot be further subdivided; not one, more or less, is in existence now than at the time of their release at the instant of the ‘Big Bang’ nearly fourteen billion years ago.

So, with that marvelous knowledge, instantly I was not only able, but rather mandated, to define God’s Essence as well as the Trinity— God is a Perfect Rational Being. What a startling discovery! What amazing implications! What stupendous ramifications! Let’s review a few.

1. Like the perfect quanta, God the Father is Perfect in both form and function; he is unchanging and unchangeable; his Perfect Intellect is ‘set in stone’ — he cannot be bargained with nor have his perfect mind changed; there is no truth in this universe outside the Perfect Truth system generated by God’s Perfect Intellect and exhibited by his Perfect particles of energy which reflect his perfection perpetually.
2. The Reflection of God’s Perfection is registered (visualized) in every gravid object in existence — it is the Son, the second person of Trinity. Nothing could be without God the Father visualizing it and choosing loving, willing it into existence.
3. God is all Love which represents the perpetual relationship of Love, Acceptance, Choice, Will, Spirit between the Father and Son, and is, in fact, the Holy Spirit — The Will of God.
4. All religions which purport or attempt to appease God or change his Perfect Intellect are invalid and blasphemous — God’s Intellect and Rationality are Perfect and cannot possibly be changed.
5. The ideas of the Ancient Egyptians, generated through ignorance, mythology, astrology, superstition, and wild imagination, were passed on to the Israelites as recorded in the Old Testament. Their contortion and embellishment through the façade of Jesus in the New Testament, are obviously invalid.
6. God is ‘all Love’. Therefore, he cannot possibly reject himself, who constitutes everything in existence. Therefore, concepts of Hell, Purgatory, Limbo, Indulgences, and prayers of petition are nonsense, and furthermore, if done with deliberate intent of deceit and control, are blasphemous — but strangely, God doesn’t care — his love for all never changes nor ceases.
7. God is All Powerful. However, that Power is limited to the Perfect Truth System which God is. It cannot be altered in this universe. If it could be changed, God would no longer be perfect and furthermore, God would no longer exist in eternity, a state of no change (time).
8. God is All Knowing. Again, there is no truth in this universe outside the Perfect Truth System which represents Gods Perfect Intellect and Will and is exhibited by all the quanta in existence. Collectively, all quanta represent God exhibited in the physical universe. I am aware of only three people before me to recognize God’s physical presence in all things and all things in God — Jesus of Nazareth, Francis of Assisi, and Meister Eckert, a German Monk. Most likely, there are others who have escaped my attention. Many, many more likely recognized it but withheld that proclamation for fear of reprisal.
9. Our only justifiable prayer is this: Thank you dear God for my life, my sustenance, and my eternal existence in you. Any other prayers are superfluous and demonstrate a total lack of understanding of God.

10.Simple observation will demonstrate clearly how all religions in the civilized world have been used for the financial benefit of their perpetrators, as well as the control of the rationality of their subjects. Some may be well-meaning — I suspect most are self-serving just as in Jesus’ time.

11. I have no doubt that Jesus has been sorely misrepresented, misunderstood or both. Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus say he came to die for our sins. He did, however, give us two commands — love your God with your all and love your neighbor as yourself. It was that preaching of ‘A Loving God’ and not a ‘vengeful God’ that got him killed. Jesus’ purpose in his teaching and preaching was to ‘liberate’ us from the terrible persecuting blanket of guilt which Moses had thrown over us for purposes of control, and which later was used by the hierarchy to ludicrously extract our hard-earned money. Jesus wanted us to know that God loves us each completely and perfectly. Jesus wanted us to know that God cannot be hurt or helped. He wanted to convert the thinking of the world from that of ‘a God demanding recompense as appeasement to a God of all-accepting love’. Of course, that thought process would have eliminated the need for High Priests and perfect offerings — certain demise of their money machine. You will note that the Bible is very careful not to explain that because those who wrote the Bible were not about to expose their cunning —they left it up to us to expose their ill intentions if we could. They incited the crowd to demand crucifixion of Jesus with no details of why.

12.The church formed 300 years after Jesus’ death totally ignored his command of ‘love’ and continued to perpetuate the sacrificial religion of appeasement of the Jews. God’s ‘mercy’ must be pleaded for — never his love recognized and accepted — all for power, control, and money. I can see no changed since the day of Jesus’ crucifixion — can you?

I have outlined, expanded, and explored this philosophy thoroughly in my three books, Wilderness Cry, Peace in Spirituality, and Provocative Catholic. For your peace of mind and elimination of guilt, I strongly urge you to read and reread them extensively until you grasp their concepts completely. If you would like to know more about me and my upbringing, Growing Up in Fancy Farm Kentucky is for you. All are available from Amazon-Kindle, and autographed, directly from me — handg@comcast.net

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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 45,000 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.

Updated 1-28-2025

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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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