What is Religion Coming to?

Over the weekend I was enthralled by another teasingly brief National Geographic show entitled “Secrets of the Revelation.” It started out telling the story of the author of the Book of Revelation, John. It first summarized the main points of the book literally – ten headed beast, the anti-Christ, the whore of Babylon, etc. Then the episode turned to the widely accepted interpretation of the symbolic meaning to the nightmare-like visions of John. It was all very ‘common’. What did get my attention were the following items.

One of the individuals commentating on the Book of Revelation was Pastor Carlton Pearson of the New Dimensions Church. I thought it was interesting since he was not one of the ‘usual’ authorities on theology (for example Professor Elaine Pagels, Princeton University). As I continued to watch it became evident why Pastor Pearson’s opinion was sought by National Geographic. He recently changed his views on the existence of Hell. In essence, he stated on the program that he could not believe that the loving god of Christianity would allow all of his children to suffer for eternity in a place like Hell. Because of this epiphany, the bishops of the Pentecostal Church have branded him a heretic. Pastor Pearson is no light-weight in the Christian Evangelical community. Eight years ago, Pearson headed a congregation of about 6,000 members and pulled an average of $60,000 a week to the church coffers. He had a national audience as guest host on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. He was on the Oral Roberts University Board of Trustees. He was among a handful of national black religious leaders advising then-President-elect George W. Bush. Pastor Pearson is still preaching with the All Souls Unitarian Church, although his congregation is considerably smaller. [http://thepopeofpentecost.wordpress.com/2008/09/28/carlton-pearson-closes-his-church-tulsa-ministry-closed-by-pastor/]

Wow! Christian thought is coming around to ‘there may not be a Hell – at all….’

The National Geographic episode also made mention that there has been theologists kicking around the idea that maybe the whole Book of Revelation should be removed from the Holy Bible! Removing a book from the Bible?! The Vatican would never allow it! Yet….

Towards the end of the program Mr. John L. Allen, Jr., of the National Catholic Reporter, stated:
“The International Theological Commission, which is the chief advisory body to the Vatican on doctrinal questions, is today working on a document – it will for the first time, in official form, say this: that Christians can hope that hell will be empty.”

The narrator responds, “The belief is that even the worst sinners may be redeemed and sent to Heaven.” [http://www.opensourcetheology.net/node/1340]

!!!

What is Religion coming to? Could we be witnessing the beginning of the end of cults who blindly follow the “Great-God-of-Thou-Shalt-Not”? Are we evolving a new concept of ‘god’?

Now Pastor Pearson’s opinion is just that – a theory. (Good for him for thinking – using the brain his god gave him!) And I could find no evidence to back up the ramblings of removing Revelation. And if the Vatican (the black hole for any esoteric knowledge which falls in reach of its claws) is working on a document proposing salvation through Grace alone, I guess we will have to wait and trust that it gets completed and PUBLISHED. But I have recently read something interesting.

In about 1135 C.E., a prophet by the name of Joachim devised a Theory of Three. He identified the Old Testament as the Age of the Father which was the time of fear and obedience. The New Testament was equated with the Age of the Son and ushered a time of the Church and faith. But he also predicted the coming of the Age of the Spirit which he stated will be a time when the Church will no longer be necessary and freedom and love would prevail. This is also known to many of us as the Age of Aquarius. [The Secret History of the World, Mark Booth]

Look around. Things are changing in the world at a phenomenal rate. We are no longer isolated groups of people stuck in our beliefs and thoughts. We are quickly becoming a united, global community sharing information and ideas at the speed of light. How long can ‘Religion’ be kept on life support?

2012 C.E. - - - ?

Merry Christmas/Chanukah/Kwanza/Festivus/Yule/Holidays/Winter Solstice!!! It is Christmas Day here in sunny Arizona (it is actually a little cloudy and rainy...). My household was a frantic buzz as Santa delivered a generous haul of loot to our Charlie Brown Christmas tree over the chilly Christmas Eve. One particular young one was very excited! He went around knocking on all the gifts declaring that he could tell which ones were toys and which were "non-toys" just by the sound - like thumping watermelons, I guess. And, in case you were wondering, there are really only two types of gifts - toys and non-toys. The older you get the more non-toy gifts are delivered by Santa. But if you are particularly naughty, Mrs. Santa will deliver adult toys! ;) Finally, Star was ready to begin the gift opening ritual with her big digital camera with CIA issued telephoto lens, laser target acquire enabled aperture, and internal organ revealing concentrated UV X-ray multi flash. We took three photos. Everyone with exposed skin will be using Aloe Vera lotion for the flash burns.

We have to give Santa some credit once again. All presents were personalized to the recipients’ particular interests. The older boys got 'cool' gifts. The younger one got 'awesome' toys (no underwear or socks). And Mom and dad argued that each spent too much on the other.

I did notice something in regards to the gifts I received. Of the five presents from various Santas, two were Star Wars items and two were Jack Daniels products. One Yoda dressed as Santa bobble head (cool), one Darth Vader bobble head (sweet!), a Jack Daniels baseball cap (Dude!!) that the official Jack Daniels website does not sell anymore (lame), and a 1.75 liter bottle of Jack Daniels (auzum!!!). Star Wars and Jack Daniels. This has been a very good Christmas! I hope everyone else's has been at least as Groovy!

PAGE AND DEATH

“LOS ANGELES - Bettie Page, the 1950s secretary-turned-model whose controversial photographs in skimpy attire or none at all helped set the stage for the 1960s sexual revolution, died Thursday. She was 85.
Page suffered a heart attack last week in Los Angeles and never regained consciousness, her agent Mark Roesler said. Before the heart attack, Page had been hospitalized for three weeks with pneumonia.” - - Associated Press (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28185814/ )
This story got me thinking about something that itched at the back of my mind for a while. I remember a time when people and news reports would simply state that a person died of “old age”; or that the person “passed away.” I think it has been decades since I can remember either of those two terms being used in relation to the death of someone. Now, when I hear that someone has died, the immediate follow up question is “what did they die of?” And modern medicine always has an accurate answer to that question: Pneumonia, heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, respiratory failure, or ‘heart complications’. No one dies of old age anymore. It appears as if the medical community (and the media) is saying “DEATH IS CURABLE!” And, I am sure money is somehow involved with that cure. Maybe this campaign is spreading a subliminal fear of death throughout the nation – if not the world. Now, please don’t get me wrong; dying of cancers, diseases, tumors, etc may not be the natural thing, but when I am finally too old I would imagine that I might have ‘heart complications’ or respiratory failure….

FAITH

I know that not too many people who read my blogs understand them let alone agree with any one of them to any quantifiable degree. I don’t have a problem with that. I would be greatly surprised to find anyone (other than Star) who might agree 100% with any one of the concepts I have put forth. And I think that this one is going to possibly be unpopular with a lot of readers….
But lately I have been thinking a lot about the word “faith” and what it means – both as defined by the dictionary and what people may perceive it to mean. I mostly hear people mention the word in two contexts: i. in terms of religious belief and ii. in terms of hopefulness. I have heard statements such as “I practice my religious faith earnestly…”, “I have faith things will work out…”, and “I have faith in that person…” It seems people hold that word in very high regard. “To hold true faith and allegiance …”, as part of a military oath goes. But once that word is uttered, should we all get a warm and fuzzy feeling in our gut, or should we take caution? I think that most people like hearing that word. I think that most people think they know exactly what the word means and what the underlying intent is of its usage. Well, that is the tricky part; ‘knowing’ exactly what other people think. But I can pick up a dictionary and read the ‘official’ definition based on collective agreement.
According to the Webster’s II New Riverside University Dictionary (1994): faith – n. (origin from Latin fides meaning to trust) 1. Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. 2. Belief not based on logical proof or material evidence. 3. Loyalty to a person or thing. 4 a. Belief in God. b. Religious conviction. 5. A system of religious beliefs. 6. A set of principles or beliefs.
The word that I see as defining faith is “belief” and therefore interchangeable. “I have faith/belief in that person, thing, idea.” To me that is interesting, because I have tried really hard to eliminate the word ‘belief’ from my vocabulary (in reference to my thoughts and feelings on people, things and theories). In my opinion, one should either know something or have a feeling about it. If one does not have an opinion/feeling/theory that is theirs, then that is alright. You don’t have to think one way or the other about everything. But to say that you believe in something (have faith) is to say that you don’t know one way or the other and that you are deferring to an already established system of theology that was developed without your input –or- an intangible force to cause things to work out in your favor (Luck). Faith is the same way. One is hoping, wishing, desiring, with no action on ones own part to know for sure or create the desired out come.
Bottom line: you either know something, or you don’t. If you don’t, find out. That may be easier done when dealing with people and things, but what about religion? Drive downtown and count how many churches there are. Go to a bookstore and count how many ‘holy scriptures’ are for sale (not just the ‘Christian’ ones) and in how many different versions or interpretations. If you’re brave and have plenty of time on your hands, do a search on the internet. So who truly knows? Which is ‘right’? Why? How do they know? How can you be sure?
Only you can answer that because only you know what you think and feel. Don’t ask yourself “What do I believe?” or “What do I have faith in?” Just pay attention to how you feel. Do you feel god/gods/goddess/goddesses in or around you? Do you feel that he/she/they are a part of you? Do you feel that this Universal Force is going to punish you if you don’t go to a church/temple/synagogue/mosque? Do you really need someone telling you what is the right thing to do and what is harmful to yourself or others?
You can take control over your life by taking back what you are responsible for – you. Your thoughts, your knowledge of your feelings for your relationship with your god(s)/goddess(es)/Universal Force, your place in this world. Don’t have ‘faith’ in something. Don’t ‘believe’ in something. Know it. Feel it. How? Know yourself. Learn who you truly are and be honest with yourself. If you can’t be honest with yourself, then no one will ever be honest with you. And whatever your thoughts and feelings are right now about deity(ies), the more you discover about yourself, your understanding of deity(ies) will evolve with you. No one can define god to you in one Sunday, one Saturday, or one Friday – it takes a life time – your life time.

ADAM AND EVE AS A DIVINE REFLECTION

There is a common saying that “God created man and man created religion.” Many people have viewed this as the theme for why religions are so tangled and often times non-sensical. The theory being that 1) there is a God; 2) god created man; 3) man was not given any direct guidance to the proper worship of God; therefore 4) man created rules; 5) man is fallible and the rules are stupid. There was a Gnostic Christian who lived around 140 C.E. who was follower of Valentinus who believed that humans ‘fell’ into error of projecting their own divinity into external objects or being, thereby creating gods and religion. He also took the above concept a little further. This writer stated:

In the beginning, God created humanity. But now humanity creates God. This is the way it is in the world – human beings invent gods and worship their creation. It would be more fitting for the gods to worship human beings!

[The above extracted from “Adam, Eve and the Serpent”, by Elaine Pagels; Random House, 1988; pages 65-66]

I am willing to go even further. If man created god(s) and then raised religions in which to worship these invented god(s), then it would be normal for man to have created these gods in mans own image. If you review any and all gods that you can think of, you may see certain human characteristics in these so called all-powerful, all-knowing, incomprehensible super beings. But they are all fallible in some way. Even the Christian god is often depicted with human emotions. The Christian god even wonders whether he made a mistake creating man to begin with (Genesis). This does not sound like a divine being, powerful and eternal as to baffle the human mind. That is because we, as humans, have created and defined a god we can comprehend. If all of that make some sort of sense, then, please, continue my mental trip…:

In the Christian Bible, Book of Genesis, Chapter 1, Verse 26 states: “Then God said, “Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness….” Then god set rules (see my previous entry “Did God Create Sin?”), thereby establishing a condition for abeyance - - or ‘religion’. If this is ‘true’ and it is also ‘true’ that man created god and religion in his own image, then could the following also be ‘true’. Man, full of inherent Divinity projected this divinity to external objects and created gods in his own image. Man established rules based on his own understanding of the known world and his own intentions. Could god have externalized his/her own inherent Divinity into external beings created in his/her own image and then established rules/religion? Whether you choose to perceive this information as possibly ‘biblical’ or allegorically, Adam and Eve would represent the Divine Reflection of God. God’s externalization of Divinity has imbued us with the ‘Divine Spark’ effectively connecting each and everyone spiritually to god. Our goal then is the realization of this through self knowledge…. But that is a completely different discussion. At hand is what I currently understand as a new theory of the Adam and Eve story (to toss on the mountain of other theories…) where god is not the perfect being most fear or find comfort in. Read, digest, tell me what you think.

Book Review: "The Templars and the Ark of the Covenant"

The Templars and the Ark of the Covenant
By Graham Phillips; 2004

I recently completed reading this book. For those of you who know me well enough, I am an avid seeker of any ancient and secret knowledge. So anything about the Ark of the Covenant and the Knights Templar is an instant draw for me. Luckily for me Star got this book for me as a gift! Thanks, Star! This book was an easy read at only 212 text pages and a set of color photographs at the center section. I have read one other book by the author (Merlin and the Discovery of the New World – interesting…) and I was already familiar with the type of work he does. Graham Phillips is a researcher of historical mysteries and myths. He is very good at what he does, but there are times that I feel that he makes some leaps in deduction. One example is an introduction into his research of a person as a source of information for which no one can confirm this person’s existence. This person “appears” out of nowhere and provides Phillips some key information twice in the book and then “disappears”. Phillips attempts to identify this benefactor of information, but, alas, no one in the town knows anyone who looks like this person. Coming from an investigative background, it is hard to take that kind of source of information as viable. But that aside, Phillips provides some possible alternatives to some biblical mysteries; such as the true location of Mount Sinai, what the Ark of the Covenant might have been and how it worked. Compared to some far fetched theories I have heard in the past (extraterrestrial intervention… etc), the theories Phillips puts forth are plausible. I will not reveal those theories in this blog – if your curiosity is piqued, buy the book…

DID GOD CREATE SIN?

Did God create the first sin by creating a setting for sin? If God had placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden without any boundaries, how would the story have played out? “Be fruitful and multiply…” is a permissive/encouraging statement. “Do not eat…” is a restrictive statement creating a ‘this or that’ scenario. Now a decision making process must occur. One of two choices is available; not eat – carrying on without fear of the ‘threat’ (‘or else…’); or eat – and be in violation of the restrictive statement. Without the restriction (with out the tree…) there would not have been an opportunity to commit an error. God created sin through the establishment of ‘rules’ and restriction. God brought/introduced ‘evil’ into the world… The question is “Why?” and to what ends?

The Zero Point...!

Review
Awakening to Zero Point
By Gregg Braden

This book is for everyone who feels that something is about to happen. For those who have that feeling of being on a speeding train that is quickly coming up on its NEXT stop and they wonder “will I remain on board for the second part of the journey?”

The basis for this book is the concept that the earth goes through cycles just like anything else. These cycles are not only restricted to “ice ages”, continental plate drifts, tides, etc. These changes are expected to be the shifting of the magnetic poles resulting in what the author calls the “zero point”. Magnetics are interrelated to all humans as physical and spiritual beings. We are all connected to everything and we are all a direct reflection of the magnetic / energetic harmonics of the earth. As the earth changes its magnetic poles it will also change its vibratory harmonics. There will also be a reduction in the magnetic field, theoretically freeing our minds to greater thought and opening us to new perceptions of other realities coexisting with us now. Those of us who are “ready” will reflect that change and be given the opportunity to “ascend” to the next level of understanding and being. Those who are not may find life more and more confusing and difficult. The lead up to the zero point is a time of innovative thought and openness to more unified concepts. But along with this new thinking, come greater conflict among the humans due to those not ready for the shift. Confusion and friction will make the world a tortured place. But the end state will be a world of compassion and understanding to rival anything that humans have ever witnessed before.

Braden offers a guide in the way of explaining what is happening, when it may happen, and what signs you should look for to better put you in touch with the approaching zero point. There are parts of the book that have been shown to not be relevant to metaphysics or mysterious occurrences. But at the time that he wrote the book, many people were hopeful that the new activity was a message from higher beings, mystical or other worldly.

This book was last printed in 1997. I don’t know if this book is still available, but if you are interested look for it. It is an easy read and definitely has good info to make you think about where you are today and where you are heading…

In the Beginning...

"When Light no longer rose to kiss me,

I swore to tear Heaven asunder,

As flights of fallen angels wished me,

God's speed on the Devil's Thunder!"

"it is better to reign in Hell,

then serve in Heaven"

"And there was war in Heaven,

Michael and his angels fought against the dragon,

and his angels fought and prevailed not.

Neither was their place found anymore in Heaven.

That old serpent called the devil and satan,

which deceiveth the whole world,

he was cast out into the earth and

his angels were cast out with him!"

And here it begins....