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Tuesday, 10 November 2009

  • Spectrum

     

    My friend wrote: 

    Strange how things are working out

    It is odd learning of the situation of people who I had dealt with in the Unification Church go in their own directions. People I had come to sink into the Unification life with. Several of my friends from the infamous BTA have come to return to their old habits and form their own opinions. It is good for those kids to have breathing air to think and not drown into that propaganda. Several of my friends from Jr. STF are dating or drinking or simply have lost their faith. A lot are still stuck in it, but a good amount are falling out of the Unification Church mold. It is good to see kids think, but it is a shame when they go off into a different shade darkness. But at least they are thinking.

    Some people get so lost in the Movement. The titles, the names, the practices, the community, the events, the "world". There is no room for common sense or questioning. All doubts are sent up to God as on offering to burn up or melt away. But where does true conviction come from?

    Lord, oh Lord, be merciful and kind to Your children. May the Light shine bright unto all hearts of those deceived. May You guide those making a path out of the Movement. I pray their hearts may desire You and come to the
    True Light in Jesus Christ.

    So I write:

    Everyone has a different path.
    There is no "only true church". There isn't any "whole truth" or "full gospel".
    There is only what we can grok from our experiences and the re-tellings of others' experiences.
    Which also means no path is entirely false, and no "Law," "Gospel," "Principle" is without some truth.

    In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
    And God said, "Have fun!" (In a good way, place, and time, of course.)
    "Do something exciting. Have fun. Help each other.
    Afterwards, let's all get together for a really long time, and have some really great fun."
    To gives us time to stretch our wings and maybe figure out one or two things before leaving, he said,

    "Be seeing you."

    "True Light" is probably brighter than even the apostles, prophets, buddhas, saoshyants, and messiahs, don't you think so?

     

Sunday, 15 February 2009

  • The Sumerian Testament

    Here we are in the present, trapped between everything that ever has happened and everything that ever will happen.  And who's the better?

    Is it more likely that a person living nearer the time of Creation understands Creation, Life, Love, the Universe, God better, or one who has the benefit of generations of Thinkers and Experimenters?

    If the first parents really did have an experience with God, then surely they would have told their children.  Modern civilization goes from one sit-com episode to the next, from one new story to the next propaganda piece.  But less technologically burdened cultures repeat the same stories over and over.  While the first parents who told their children stories may have invented new stories from time to time, some stories they would have repeated.  "How we found each other", "What you were like as a baby", "Where the best huckleberries are to be found", "What God said to us in the Garden of Eden". 

    Some of these stories, such as a direct visitation from God, or a talking serpent, or a friendly angel that stabbed me in the back, would have been so riveting, the children would never have forgotten them.  Even if they didn't tell them often, when they needed a new story to entertain, challenge or scare their children with, they would have repeated this remarkable tale.   The nearer to those first generations we get, shouldn't we expect to find increasingly accurate accounts of what really did happen?  Isn't that reasonable?

    The further we get from the source, as the stories are told generation after generation, how likely is it that there would be absolutely no elements dropped out, embellishments added, or details rearranged?  Surely much would be changed, however slightly. 

    Then should we give more credence to the earliest Sumerian accounts of, for example, a great flood, or to the later versions?  When the Semites conquered Sumeria, they adopted not only their government structure, pottery technology, irrigation and farming methods, writing system, commerce, and architecture, but also their myths and legends. They changed those myths and legends in ways that can be traced backwards to the Sumerian original (with gaps).  Without recognizing that collection, readers of the Old Testament see symbols, metaphors, and poetic license rather than the literalness originally intended.  If one accepts that the Semites took the Sumerian religion, incorporated significant Egyptian elements, then one can see how Judaism itself developed into the religion of Jesus' day. 

    I believe one problem Jesus faced was how to present True God to a people whose religion was based on other (Sumerian, Egyptian) cultures' religions.  There would naturally be contrasts.  But since everyone believes their religion is "the most true," "the only true," or "absolutely true," any new teaching that contrasted with theirs would meet strong opposition. 

    Getting close to the origin of humanity hasn't yet gotten us to a pre-Sumerian state of affairs which recognized only a single God.  That may not be bad.  Today, religions teach of angels, and some of demons.  The early Igigi and Anunaki could have been spiritual beings.  So the early civilizations that revered a primary God and allowed a number of hearth or nature gods may have merely been misidentifying angels or other spiritual beings.  Another possibility is that every god in a pantheon may have been merely a different manifestation, or a different way of looking at the True God.  For example, the Old Testament recognizes El-Shaddai, El-Elyon, and other gods.  As monotheists, we say they are the same God.  But did the peoples before Moses see them as a single God, or as a plurality of gods? 

    Coming fresh from their Sumerian conquests, having embraced the Sumerian pantheons (and then edited them), and then having adopted Egyptian wisdom tales, proverbs, and language styles, the most likely answer is that the Jewish people recognized a number of gods besides the two national gods Elohim and Yahweh.  The religious writings of the Sumerians are relatively few.  But they are closer to the original humans than the much later Semitic religious writings.  Therefore, shouldn't the Sumerian texts be considered more credible than what came after?  It is unfortunate that writing developed so late in human history.  It was still thousands of years after the founders of Sumerian civilization had introduced agriculture and pottery technologies, till records could be written which lasted to our day.  Surely there is something in these records to tell us of their predecessors and of their predecessors' relations with deity.

Thursday, 12 February 2009

Friday, 16 January 2009

  • Currently: first chapters of City of God by St. Augustine.

    WHen Adam and Eve had soup, where'd they get the bowls they used?
    Or did they eat everything raw?
    Did they like fish?  Were the allergic to shellfish?
    How many different words did the first person have for interpersonal relationships?

    When Adam talked to God, did he raise his arms, bow his head, or kneel?
    When God spoke to Adam, was it from above, or from somewhere else?

    If Adam and Eve were supposed to be "naked and unashamed,"
    why, after the fall, did God bother to give them clothing,
    and why, for their clothing, did he choose dead animals?

    If Adam and Eve had a choice in taking the Tree of Knowledge,
    why is it called the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil,
    rather than the Tree of Knowledge of Good or Evil?

    If eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil would result in death,
    and eating of the Tree of Life would result in life,
    why wasn't the former called the Tree of Death?

    Why should we believe that perfection will ever be possible in a world where change is an absolute condition?
    Whom will a God of perfect compassion, a heart of unconditional love, a readiness to forgive even before asked  - not forgive?

    If "the things that are" give evidence of the eternal power and deity of God,
    why would we need angel messengers and revelations?
    If "the things that are" are evidence of God,
    why can't people figure out God's will and purpose by considering "the things that are"?



Epigonus

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  • Tired of being told conditioned absolutes (!).

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    The world gets too harsh sometimes. Am I sure this is the right planet I was supposed to be born on?