faith
Answering Readers…
From Zak:
zak
Southern California has been experiencing a number of smaller earth quakes lately. Should we be concerned that a “big one” is coming?
I’ve been feeling a big earthquake coming but not right away, down the road several years, probably in the next 2-4. I have a feeling this one will be on the San Andres fault and will be between a 7.8 -8.5. It will be here in Southern California. I’d have to meditate on Northern CA, I’ve had the feeling the last few years that a big one would strike there first and then we’d have one a few years later here, but I’d have to be up there to really get a feeling for it and haven’t been in the hood for awhile. I’ll keep you posted as I feel it is getting closer.
And…
I just want to address the last post from Javahaaa first.
It’s my belief that one can not think outside of the box if one lives inside it. There is a lot of debate about the genesis of the bible, both testaments. It is also true that depending on which side of the fence one is on, information can be read different ways. My research comes from sources outside the traditional framework of the church. I suggest reading Robert Graves very dense and scholarly book called, “The White Goddess.” There are many books I could recommend such as Merlin Stones, “When God was a Woman,” and the research done by Maya Gumbatis and so many others who came from either a feminist or archeological perspective to show the evolution and birth of the western religions. One can name all the types of trees in the forest and not see the actual forest. The details of how each testament was canonized is really not the point. The point is much bigger and if one gets lost in the minutia of information, then one losses the bigger perspective here.
I don’t want to keep going around and around about this, however, it’s not just the Burning Times, the Spanish Inquisition, the entire Middle-ages, the genocide of the Indigenous people from Australia where people were hunted for sport to our Native Americans who walked the Trail of Tears. One can say these atrocities aren’t related to western religion and I’m not being black and white about things here. I’m trying to make the point that the ideology of western monotheism (that means not just Christian but Judaism and Islam) is fundamentally toxic and why so many truly moral and decent people reject it in the form of atheism. It is toxic because these 3 religions who all believe in the same God, believe not just that their God is the only way, but that their interpretation of God is the only way. No one is more guilty (of the 3 of these western religions) then the Christians. And honestly I do think its fair to judge a religion based on its history, just as I would judge a person, an institution, a country or any ideology. An ideology has to work or it is useless to me. If a spiritual ideology is at the root of so much destruction, then one has to question if it embodies the core moral and spiritual values one has, and this is why so many of the most moral people I’ve met are atheists because they stop at the west and don’t bother researching any other form of spiritual teachings. And frankly they don’t need it. They have an intrinsic moral compass that they can always rely on, it’s called: compassion.
As I’ve said before in previous posts, the Creek never murdered the Cherokee because they believed in different Gods. They warred over resources and survival. I don’t think war is ever a good thing, but at least it makes sense to fight over scarce food sources, or over normal human stupidity. I’m sure they performed rights to their Gods before wars and begged for help. But they didn’t go into battle believing they had the divine right to kill anyone because that person was lesser than them. They went to battle for survival, to protect their homes, tribes and families; they went to battle to save face or to gain advantage. And they honored not only the people they killed in battle, but the animals they ate. Both with very elaborate rituals meant to release the souls of the dead to the next world. They would waste nothing of an animal, respecting the animals sacrifice for their survival. The structure of their psyches was shaped by an animate world were everything had value, everything was alive and part of the Creator/Great Spirit. And our consciousness is shaped by the idea that everything is inanimate except us which encourages a skewed narcissistic world view and one where we are superior to everything and can do as we please. We are man vs. nature. Indigenous cultures wouldn’t even know what that meant, it would be as absurd to them as buying land was to the Native Americans.
So I guess what I’m saying is we live in a western culture, and this ideology permeates not only those who are religious, but the way we govern, the structure of our government, our cities, our psyches. We are so enmeshed in these ideas that we can’t look at them objectively. We are literally living in a world created by a disassociation with nature, and look what we get, global warming, toxic waste everywhere. These are not coincidences, we have been at the control of world domination for at least the last 100 years and before us many other western Christian empires (the English, the Spanish, the Portuguese, the Holy Roman Empire).
2000 years of this ideology and we’re about to die off. And yet we’ve been on this planet for over 100,000 years (a conservative estimate) and probably more like 250,000 years. In 1 or 2% of our time here, with the western thought controlling and conquering the world we are on the verge of extinction.
Do you honestly believe this is a coincidence? Don’t you think there is something intrinsically wrong with the way we have been doing things? And don’t you think it’s a little deeper then just Capatalism? What spawned Capatilism? It was invented by the western mind. Would it have sprouted at all if we had remained in balance with the earth and continued to honor all living beings? I’m not saying our own greed and other monkey brain problems don’t get thrown into the mix here, and that we can’t be tricked by are darker natures no matter what period of history or culture, but we managed to keep these in check for a long time, granted not always perfectly, and by no means am I saying life was ideal for all before 2000 years ago, but we had one thing right and that was; we lived in harmony with nature and our environment and didn’t see ourselves as the only living creatures of value to the Creator here on earth.
I do want to say the 3 major western religions have also brought a lot of good to the world and there are many amazing and exceptionally spiritually evolved souls who use this path toward enlightenment. I’ve met so many people who fit that statement, probably the vast majority, these are the people who despite what the doctorine teaches, choice to believe in other people’s right to free will. These are people who have an internal moral compass which tells them there is something intrinsically wrong with persecuting others for not believing as they do. These are not the martyrs or the saints or the exhalted by their religions. But in my opinion these are the most enlightened members, people who can pick the truth and metaphor out of a book that has been tweaked and translated and within its pages been used to demonize others (like the reference to the ancient Hebrew Goddess Asatarte as Asatorth a demon). The whole thing is so absurd, that God is jealous, punishing and that we are all born with original sin because Eve made a mistake several hundred thousand years ago. All one has to do to eliminate that ridiculous idea (clearly put in place to put the fear of God into people so they could be controlled) is to look at a newborn baby and see how innocent and vulnerable that little being is. If God were truly like the God of the bible then heaven would be a pretty horrible and dysfunctional place. It would be like living with your psycho alcoholic dad on a bender. I really don’t feel God is anything like He/She is portrayed in the Old Testament. And after studying the Kaballah I don’t think any Rabbi does either. Just like most Priests loose their faith. The more one studies the good book, the more one sees the holes and looses faith. It seems the only people who can remain in those faiths are those who filter out the stuff that they intrinsically know doesn’t feel right. And there’s a lot of it in there.
Here’s just a tiny example of the insanity in the 10 commandments:
You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.
And then, huh?
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;
So being a slave isn’t good, but owning one is A-OK? As long as you don’t covet your neighbors slave then we’re cool. What? That’s just ridiculous.
And that’s just a little tiny mini-quark sized fraction of an example from a cursory look at the 10 commandments. There are even more within the 10 commandments that are insane.
Anyway, I want to let this go. So I’ve said my peace.
And as I’ve stated I believe any organized religion has the agenda to control people just as a government does. Within any organized religion however one will always find people who are truly spiritual and remarkable; those who use religion as a foundation for their spiritual connection, but are not enslaved by the literal words of their texts.
P.S. It’s said that Mother Teresa lost her faith in God by the end of her life. This seems to be a common theme for people who are sticklers for the rules set forth in the bible. I think more people would be able to connect with their spirituality if they didn’t feel the only way to do it was through fear of God which is what the Old Testament is all about, and unfortunately it sets the foundation for the New Testament although Christ worked against it with his sermons. I do believe Christ was a remarkable teacher and holy person, I just don’t think he explained how to get from where most people are to where he was, very well. Although that’s what he wanted people to do when he said, “I am the way.” It’s my opinion, he didn’t mean worship me as God, he meant do as I do. I am your example, love everyone. And who could argue with that message?That’s the highest spiritual lesson we can possibly ascend to.
There’s a lot more to talk about including something Juno said about similar dreams. I’m noticing more and more patterns. Interesting that she had a dream about being at Disneyland because I actually took my daughter there for her 1st birthday about a week ago. Anyway, maybe we’ll all share some more simultaneous dreaming.
Best wishes and many blessings,
Denise