God Bless America (and maybe a couple of other countries)

“God bless America.”   Ask yourself, why would the Creator of The Universe bless just one country?  Why wouldn’t it be all countries?  Perhaps the whole universe!  Or, do you believe that even America is really too big?  Just you and your family might be the right group.  Or, you could include friends and the folks that go to your place of worship.  The people with Grace. 

Is there any chance that God has already blessed America and that there is no further action necessary?  We were given fresh water to drink, clean air to breath and abundant food.  The weather is fine.  Perhaps the stewardship is ours now.   Maybe it is our job to care for the gift.

I was a Harley-Davidson dealer for a decade and saw quite a few t-shirts being worn that said, “Harley is best, F*** the rest.”  Most of the bikers wearing this shirt, did so in jest.  But I don’t get the feeling that the “God Bless America” bumper stickers and t-shirts are in jest.  No, a good percentage of these folks mean: “America is best, F*** the rest.”  The H-D t-shirt is politically incorrect.  The God Bless America bumper sticker and t-shirt is religiously incorrect.

If you were visiting Canada and you saw a bumper sticker that said, “God Bless Canada” would it make you slightly uneasy?  If God blessed Canada would She be blessing America as well or would Her focus be on Canada?  I mean who the hell do these Canadians think they are, that God should be blessing them?  They seem selfish to me.

I don’t want to be telling God who or what to bless.  Can’t be giving God orders.  I think that She can decide for Herself.  God, Bless Whatever You Please.  I have faith that You will make good decisions. 

How could anyone imagine that God has a favorite zip code, a favorite nation, a favorite religion, a favorite motorcycle or a favorite sports team?  No wonder Atheism is running rampant in our places of higher learning.  Universities with their logic and history and reason are a breeding ground for Atheists. Religion has given God a bad name.  What if the word “God” meant: the system under which the universe functions?  Would anyone find this definition offensive?  Those who would argue that there is no system, no gravity, no energy have a tough row to hoe.  But, more power to them.  It’s a nice mental exercise.

If you have to use a bible, then the first sentence needs to be: “We Are All God’s Children.”  And, the mythology that follows should all support this concept.  This might lead to peace and understanding rather than war and injustice. 

Apply Reason

While in a French prison, charged with aiding the French Revolution, one of our founding fathers wrote a book about religion.  It wasn’t a bible.  Bibles require faith.  This book called for reason.  The book was Thomas Paine’s, “Age of Reason”.  As you know, he helped foster our Revolution with his “Common Sense”.  Paine felt that this young nation, and for that matter, all humans, were ready to treat the religious mythology that they had been indoctrinated into, as just that, mythology.  It was time to use the mind that God gave us, reason, and knowledge, to understand God and our world.  In his view, the birth of our new country would ignite an age of reason.  So much for great expectations.

In the mid 1960’s, Newsweek Magazine published a poll indicating that fewer than 40% of Christians believed in the virgin birth.  Today, fewer than 40% of Christians believe that there wasn’t a virgin birth.  Faith is making major gains over reason.  Are science and education accomplishing as much?  

Paine considered himself a Deist.  He said, “I believe in God.  I believe in the goodness of God.  And, I believe anything else that I can reach through reason”.  One can reach a belief in God through reason.  The universe we live in does not seem random.  There is an organization to it.  But goodness?  Goodness and evil are our words.  Could they relate to a God that we credit with creating a universe fifty billion light years across, and growing as fast as telescope power and our skills in astronomy.  So, reason might lead to a belief in Paine’s Deism, less the qualifying God as good or evil.  This is not to say that there is no good or evil.  We see them every day.  But, good and evil may only be man’s values.    

The use of the word “God” should not make any of you who are Atheists or Feminists uneasy.  The God referred to here is not the male god of any bible.  I will use He and She interchangeably as pronouns for God.  I would be uncomfortable using the word It.  If you are stuck on God being male, try to picture Him pissing on a urinal.  Taking the books literally, the god of any of the bibles (Old & New Testament, Book of Mormon, Koran) flies in the face of reason.  To believe in these books requires faith, not reason or logic or history.  It has been said that faith is the gift required to believe the unbelievable.  That is a good working definition for faith in any bible.   

The above does not imply that those who have faith are not capable of thought or reason.  But they do not apply their logic or intellect to a literal form of their religion.  I went to Loyola University of Los Angeles in the sixties.  The Jesuit teachers, of liberal arts, were as fine a group of college professors as one could experience.   They were bright and shared their immense knowledge freely.  Wonderful men.  How could  these brilliant men see the Bible’s content as historical truth, or the word of God?  I recently asked a friend of mine, a Methodist minister, with a doctorate in religion, if these brilliant men believed what they preached or if they were feeding the chickens.  My friend (who kept a little grain in his own pockets) believed that the priests fed the chickens, but did so for the good of the chickens.  If his conclusion was correct, I’d say, sharing truth and knowledge is always more beneficial to a follower than sharing fantasy and ignorance.                              

United We Stand

My country, right or wrong, my country.  Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.  One nation, under God.  God is on our side.  God Bless America.  United we stand.

“United we stand” was used to back our attack of Iraq.  It was prominently displayed in every post office I visited.  Our local newspaper flew a 25 foot banner stating “United We Stand.”  Many businesses flew the banner too.  And, of course the bumper stickers did abound.  The question is: what does ‘united we stand’  mean when applied to starting a war in Iraq?  It meant back the war, even if you don’t agree with it, because divided we fall.  What is wrong with this message?  Well, primarily it says, screw democracy.  It says if you have an opinion which differs from the administration -- keep it to yourself.  Support the troops; no matter what they are doing.  But supporting the men and women that compose the “troops” would involve not sending them in to harm’s way without a clear, imperative reason to do so.  And a true believer in democracy states their well thought out and researched opinion. If we don’t truly believe in democracy, why are we trying to force it on Iraq?  Is “force democracy” an oxymoron?   

President Bush revealed that he knew there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq when he pulled Hans Blix and his UN inspectors out of Iraq before the inspection was finished.  He had to stop our inspection, and start the war, because he had a strong feeling that the inspectors would find nothing and this finding would have stopped the march into the mire.  Neither the people of the United States nor the people of Europe desired to be involved in nation building.  It was not a popular war.  We and our representatives folded in the wake of “United We Stand.”  We have created a giant national debt, removed a leader capable of holding his nation away from civil war, murdered over 100,000 innocent people and destroyed a small country’s utilities and roads.  We may have started a fire that will singe the world.  Better to apply reason to the news you are fed, and stand for truth and justice, than to march lock step with the administration.  You earn an effective democracy with your voice and your vote.  United, we can also fall.

“My country, right or wrong, my country.”  Patriotism, is as evil a force as there is.  “Just give me a weapon and tell me what nation or people threaten my freedom and my family.  I will kill every man, woman and child in my sights.  I will nuke them or napalm them.  I will sit in a missile silo willing to press the button and kill millions of innocent civilians.  Just give me the word.” 

Patriotism is a blinding force.  Many will tell you that we had to get rid of Hussein because he was shooting at our airplanes.  Saddam was shooting at our planes, flying over his nation, that were not allowing his planes to fly over his nation.  Would we not shoot at foreign planes over our nation that did not allow us to fly our own planes over our own nation?  If you don’t think that you are prone toward this error, have you ever noticed that referees make more bad calls against your team than they do against the visitors?  If you won’t view the world from the other person’s shoes, at best, you will only experience half of it.  Next step, try to see it impartially, from above the dispute.  Nice view.

  

“God Bless America,” “One nation under God.”  Is that who we are?  Aren’t all nations under God?  Isn’t the Universe under God?  If God created or designed the universe, why are we his favorites?  I saw a sign on a church reader board that said, “If we aren’t all God’s children, then none of us are.”  God Bless The Universe.

I was born in 1940 and raised, by the media, to hate the Japanese.  We didn’t apply the propaganda machine as strongly toward the Germans.  At the age of 26, I went to Japan for ten days and met some of the warmest, most polite, kindest, most moral (very little sex crime and very little violent crime) and industrious people I had ever encountered.  It caused me to think back on two nuclear bombs dropped on two civilian populations.  We had beaten the Japanese in the Pacific.  If we couldn’t have gotten a surrender before the first bomb, we certainly could have before the second.  I have read that we dropped the bombs to let the Soviet Union know how tough we were.  Please let that not be true.

In the late sixties, I worked for US Suzuki Motor Corporation, for a couple of years.  I was a district manager, opening new dealerships and helping existing ones.  My territory was Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota.  Mr. Ito, a young Suzuki executive from Japan, traveled with me for a week or so, in my territory, to get a feel for the dealerships in the mid-west.  When I introduced him to the Dodge City, Kansas dealer, the dealer said, “I fought in the Pacific and many of my good friends were killed.  I don’t like you.”  Mr. Ito paused, then said, “My mother and father were killed by

your bomb in Nagasaki and I will not know if I like you until I know you.” 

When you enter a battle, the person you would kill is just like yourself, fighting in the uniform of his country (right or wrong, his country).  He fights for his family and his freedom from your dominance.  If you do not kill each other, he will go home to his family, his job, his friends and you will do the same.  Hopefully you will both still have all of your body parts.  And, little or nothing in the world will have changed or been solved.  Try to think of all the good things that war has brought.  Not many.  Couldn’t there be a better way to solve disputes?  Couldn’t there be a better way?  If you go to war, is God ever on your side?  Think about the men who won’t go to war because they feel that “Thou shall not kill” means just that.  If God has to pick a side, wouldn’t you guess He would have to go with the pacifists?

I am not a good enough person to turn the other cheek.  If a man jumps over my back wall and tries to kill me or my family, I would kill him with no remorse.  But I would not go half way around the world to kill a man or his family, in his back yard.  This would give me a lot of remorse.

The person who likes a military solution will now say, “Well we had to stop Hitler.”     Hitler was the last clear cut villain we fought and that was sixty years, and many wars ago.  But, “United Germany Stood,” and a lunatic led them united into hell.  The answer is on a bumper sticker, “What if our leaders scheduled a war and no one showed up?”  

A war will put a national leader in a history book, but that fact wouldn’t get me to go.

My country may be right or wrong.  I’ll try to keep it right.

Marry Your Own Kind

My folks wanted me to date Jewish girls, so that I would “marry my own kind.”  My own kind, is a tall male and they don’t appeal to me.  No offense to you tall males.  They would have had me marry within the faith.  I wasn’t raised within the faith.  My father was second generation, non-barmitsvad.  Both of my parents were what I would call non practicing Jews.  Mom did hold some of the traditions, like Friday night dinner prayers and lighting of the candles.  We had an in house, service for Passover.  As a family, we spent very little time in Temple.

When I was dating the argument went like this: 

“Why don’t you ever date Jewish girls?”

“Because I don’t care what religion a person is.”

“I think that you choose not to date them.”

“You aren’t listening.  I don’t prejudge people by their religion.”

“Yes you do.  You don’t date girls of your own faith.”

“Jews are three percent of the population.  Three percent is my random chance of dating a Jewish girl.  Besides, I am an Agnostic who believes that there probably is a God.  I have no faith.”

My parents and I were wrong on this one.  I married a woman of my faith.  I’m a non-practicing Jew and I married a non-practicing Methodist.  We both believe in God.  I feel closest to God at the ocean.  My wife feels closest to God near trees.  Our communication with God is personal and private.  Our beliefs are very close and so is our morality.  Our family values are in sync.

When asked if my wife and I have any problems with our mixed marriage, I tell the person we have an ongoing argument on whether our two children, are non-practicing Jews or non-practicing Methodists.  I hope for a laugh.  I believe that the kids were OK being raised with reason rather than faith.  I know it gave them trouble when they were asked what their religion was.  I have trouble with that question too.  I mean, Hitler would have gassed me if I were born in Germany.  He and his ilk saw me as a Jew.  But, I see your bible and mine as mythology.  So we are of the same religion, perhaps a different book.  I wouldn’t let that separate us.  I wouldn’t use religion to prejudge.  If you find religion, nationality, race, or sexual preference a helpful method of sifting people out, put the book down!  It’s not written in your language.

Several friends and I went to a Barmitzva when I was in high school.  One of our friend’s younger brother was going through the ceremony.  The rabbi, in his sermon, mentioned that we should choose our friends from the people of our own faith.  My friend, to my right, was of a mixed faith marriage.  His mom was a Christian.  His dad a Jew.  His mom and dad seemed to get along just fine.  He was a good friend.  The rabbi was an embarrassment to me and I still think about his sermon of fifty years ago.   While at Loyola, I heard a sermon on the same subject.  It was a parish priest, not a Jesuit and he agreed with that retarded rabbi.  We have had wars forever to try to enforce this separation.  There is no valid logic to it.  It’s all about ignorance.

I was recently at a friend’s home for dinner, a dip in his spa and watching a U of A football game.  He is a right wing Christian, a doctor and researcher at the University of Arizona.  He is an intelligent man, but his religion has really screwed up his head.  Religion has damaged a portion of his brain!  He spent some time explaining to me that the only way to heaven is through Jesus.  In other words, God does play favorites.  If you don’t believe what he believes, your thinking children will go to hell.  Your parents, their parents, your family and a lot of good people you know are dammed to hell.  This didn’t offend or shock me because I’ve heard dumber things from equally smart men, when the subject is religion.  His position is that no matter how good a life one lives and how helpful they are to God’s world, it is off to hell if you don’t believe in Jesus.  A Jesus believing, baby raper goes to heaven (as long as he is sorry about the rape.)  Does the fundamentalist see God as an egomaniac?  Would the creator of the universe need you to recognize, thank, and have unquestioning faith in Him?  And, see it as more important than how you live your life?  No way folks.  Not possible.    

I asked my friend, in his spa, if Jesus was a good Jew.  This question really offended him. I don’t know why.  He about kicked me out of the spa and sent me packing, without dinner.  The question hinges on what is meant by, “a good Jew.”  If you interpret the question to mean, was Jesus a good man and a Jew?  The answer is a simple, yes.  That is the most logical interpretation of the question and should offend no one.  A less logical meaning could be, was Jesus good for the Jewish people, or did he faithfully follow the Jewish religion?  This is not as simple and many different conclusions could be drawn.  No matter how you interpret the question, it couldn’t be as offensive as, “you are going to hell, your children are going to hell and your parents went to hell.”  I think what offended him was a question of logic being brought into a discussion of faith, or perhaps it was my bringing up the fact that Jesus was a Jew. 

Who Will Teach The Children?

If you are walking on a beach with your children and you are next to a cliff of sedimentary rock and you point out a fossil at the base of the cliff and say, “This fossil could be well over a hundred thousand years old.”  Could you go to hell for teaching them the devil’s science?  As you know, in the bible it tells of the universe being created about six thousand years ago.  Plus six days for the creation itself, God rested on the seventh day because it wasn’t that easy to create a universe and I don‘t know what kind of help was available then. 

Suppose you are looking up at the stars with your kids and you say, “Some of the stars up there are many million light years away.  A light year is the distance that light will travel in a year.  That is to say, the light left the star on the way to your eyes many millions of years ago.  Some of the stars we see right now may have burned out millions of years ago.”  Are you once again on the fast train to hell?

As any well-schooled literalist Christian knows, both of these items are just tests given by God, of your faith.  The fossils were put in the rock at the time of creation and the light was already well on its way when the star was created.  The carbon dating of the rocks and the Doppler effect of the star light are just phony science.  A friend of mine pointed out how mistaken I was to believe in carbon dating.  If a scientist tells you that a rock carbon dates at about 26,000 years, it may be off by 163 years.  This wisdom from one who believes that Eve was created from Adam’s rib, the creator fathered a child (not all children), all critters were in Noah’s Ark in pairs and the lion laid down with the lamb.

Reason dictates that you can’t teach the children in a public school, creationism.  You will hinder their learning.  The fossils and star light are but two of a plethora of scientific knowledge that creationism contradicts.  I know that I have been a little hard on Christian fundamentalists in this book, but I don’t often deal with Jewish fundamentalists, Mormon fundamentalists, or Muslim fundamentalists.  Perhaps I’ll change my verbiage to fundamentalists.  By a fundamentalist, I mean one who reads his bible as a literal piece of history, each word true, and often, chosen text may be used as a weapon against the “others” or the “fallen.”  The fundamentalists that I have encountered are usually hypocrites.  Not so much the sheep as the shepherds (ministers, deacons, presidents, etc.).  I understand that Quakers are fundamentalists.  Any reading that I have done about them would indicate they are a kind people that walk their talk.  Pacifists, God would like that.

I believe that we should teach our children all that we presently know.  Not what we guessed four thousand years ago.  Has science no meaning to a fundamentalist?  How do they use a telephone?  Sending pictures through the air would have been the work of the devil back then.  Perhaps there is some truth in that today.  What would the quality of life be without TV?  Pardon my rambling.

After Death

Most religious people embrace religion as a route to heaven and a protection against eternal hell.   The churches and temples have very much pushed this concept.  Fear is a great sales tool. Do you fear the moment after death?  There is probably no reason to fear it.  Who are we kidding?  We don’t know what comes after death.  Haven’t got a clue.  You can’t use reason if you have no data.  So, I’m going to have some fun.  These, to me, are the possible scenarios for your awareness after death, in the order of their logical probability:

1. Nothing.

2. Freedom to travel the universe and time, no longer hindered by your physical body.

3. Reincarnation.

4. A more perfect dream than you are now encountering.

5. Heaven & Hell (The fundamentalists would be right.  God gave us reason, for no good reason.)

NOTHING

If nothing follows life, what is there to fear?  It’s not positive or negative.  It’s nothing!  So experience what you can, because this is it.  Chopra says that your awareness has always been and will always be.  I like what EST has to say: “Obviously the truth is what’s so.  Not so obviously, it’s also so what.”  A brave fool would say, “I fear nothing.”  Not being an English major, I would say, “I don’t fear nothing”.

FREEDOM TO TRAVEL THE UNIVERSE AND TIME, NO LONGER HINDERED BY YOUR PHYSICAL BODY

This scenario sounds like the most fun.  That’s why it got a number two rating.  I like it.  No logic points to it.  But since I am creating the order here, here it will be.  Infinite awareness and knowledge, what a great concept.  No pain, no sickness, no hunger.  Wouldn’t it be nice?  It would probably get your vote too.  Infinite awareness could not be feared.  I would not rush it because we are probably in this life for a reason.  But, I would look forward to it with anxious anticipation.

REINCARNATION

Sounds good, but it feels a bit like wishful thinking.  However, in its favor, the people that believe in it, in the Western World, are usually intelligent, reasonable people.  They have come to the belief, not through blind faith, but through their own reason.  In Eastern religions, which are the majority of the world’s population, it is dogma.  Again, it is a good one, because it does justice to the evil.  Good people would do well.

A MORE PERFECT DREAM THAN YOU ARE NOW ENCOUNTERING

Could the universe be only your awareness?  “Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream.  Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a dream.”  This makes you The Author.  I wouldn’t bet on it, but it is possible.  Certainly more possible than, “Heaven & Hell.”  I don’t think that you can relate the dream to a fear of death, because if it is true, death like life, is not a material reality.  It is only your reality. 

HEAVEN & HELL

The vast majority of people in America would put this in the #1, not the #5 spot.  This alone is a good reason to put it last.  Calvin & Hobbs are easier to believe in than the bibles of the great religions of our planet.  One of the major religions offers you dozens of virgins.  Dozens of virgins for eternity!  It sounds like my adolescent years.  Heaven and Hell, the carrot or the stick.  If religion is truth, then come get me now Jesus.  I am ready.  And bring Wonder Woman with you.  I hope I’m ready for her too.

So there are my big five after death scenarios.  It really doesn’t matter if one or none are correct.  You would do your best between birth and death to make the world a better place for yourself and the other critters on the road to kingdom come.  That can’t be wrong for this life, or if there is one, the next life.

The result of belief through fear is not grace.  It is cowardice.

The Rhythm

I spoke with my daughter, last night.  She is an actor/director/teacher in San Francisco.  But right now she has the lead role in a play in Chicago.  My daughter was raised in Tucson, so other than her college years, she has not really experienced the four seasons.  It is spring in Chicago and she sees it as “glorious and invigorating.”  Neither of us could properly verbalize what spring meant to us.  To use a cliché, why is the “elephant in the room” of our awareness, the four seasons?  I often wonder why I miss the four seasons.

It’s the rhythm of the universe!  Stars and planets follow it.  The plants that live in the Midwest are born in the spring.  They grow up and become adult and at full strength in summer.  They wither in the fall and die in winter.  But, they are born again in spring and there lies the cycle.

You and the goose have a different pace to your rhythm.  Yours is much slower, but the steps are the same.  Systems in our world seem to repeat themselves.  The goose can’t live at the same rate as the annual seasons, so they fly south to a warm place where there is plenty of food.  Other animals, not on the annual schedule have different ways of adapting such as hibernating or building a home and insolating or heating it.

When the goose flies south she, after much effort and hardship, arrives in a warm world with ample food.  The question is, why does she fly back up north in the spring?  The answer is: It is Home.  It is who she is.  When the winter of her life comes she won’t be able to make the very difficult flight.  She will die.  No assisted living.  But, will she be born again in the spring, perhaps as a more evolved creature?  Nice thought. 

I love the four seasons.  They seem to feed my soul.  Living in Arizona, I miss them.  I now live in Green Valley, a senior community, designed for the late fall and winter of your life.  Life is easy.  No floods.  No snow shoveling.  Nice and warm.

Back to the rhythm, we are born in the spring and we gain power there.  In the summer we are strong and we reproduce.  In fall we wither and in the winter die.  But if we live by the rhythm, will we be born again in our springtime?  The elephant in my awareness says yes.  Make your own decision on this one.  It won’t affect the outcome.

We humans mess with the winter.  My mother and my wife’s mother each lived in assisted living long past their memory or thinking capacity.   There is no joy in that life.  Our forefathers had short winters.  Why add ten years to your winter?   Welcome winter and bring on the spring.   

This page is not written to compliment death.  It is written to appreciate life and its rhythm.

Sinners All

Fundamentalists, of the Christian Persuasion, believe that we are all born sinners.  That new born baby of yours, which you hold in your arms for the first time, is a sinner.  He or she can be saved by baptism.  So you can fix it early, but don’t procrastinate because the Vatican says it’s limbo if they die before baptism.  It would be hard on a soul to go to purgatory if all they ever got a chance to do in their life was laugh, cry, and poop.    

The belief is that it is the nature of man (or woman) to sin.  It’s in your nature Bunkey, so don’t fight it.  You can be forgiven at the church, but it might cost a couple of bucks or a bunch of Hail Marys.  Jesus will forgive you.  He died on the cross for your sins.  So, in a way, your sins have already been paid for.  It’s like a credit card for sins and all you have to do is believe and be truly sorry that you sinned.  It’s the believing part that trips me up.

I’m not sure that there is such a thing as a sin.  Catholics believe that a mortal sin is committed when you know you are sinning and know you will go to eternal hell for it. I don’t think that a sane person who understands that would do it.  One can do something wrong or evil.  No question about that.  With reason, I don’t know that you can prove or even theorize hell.  If churches didn’t have guilt to hand out, they would have less power. In other words, churches and temples are the hospitals for the disease that they created.

You weren’t born a sinner and neither was anyone else (except for the fundamentalists).  It is not your nature to sin.  I rarely do wrong or evil and when I do it is my decision or a mistake, not my nature.  I must make amends and ask for forgiveness from those I have wronged.  Don’t use the credit card.  Doesn’t exist for me.  It isn’t reasonable to assume that someone else should suffer for my sins.  Especially two thousand years before I commit them. 

If you believe that it is your nature to sin, you will sin.  It is so much harder to sin if it is against your nature.  No wonder so many serial killers get their marching orders from God or the Devil.  They take no responsibility.  They were possessed.  And they were born sinners.  Such a fine line between insane and fundamentalists.  Sometimes the line is barely perceptible. 

The faithful choose a religion that either believes in Grace or in Deeds to get you into heaven.  Grace is how you pray and Deeds are how you live.  Reason says let your life be your prayer to God.  Grace says you can be: a dog beater, a child abuser, a reckless driver, a bad singer, a home wrecker, a double parker, a butt grabber, a pyromaniac, a smoker, a bowler and still go to heaven if you have Grace and are truly sorry for your sins.

Could the creator of the universe have such an ego problem that he cares how you pray or who you pray to?  You were given awareness and a world to use it on.  Be thankful.  It is simple. If you need to pray, try: “Thank you God for this day.”  It is a good way to enjoy life as you live it.  You don’t know that God hears your prayers.  But your soul, spirit, conscience, higher self, inner god, awareness, hears it.  And if God hears it, it’s a bonus.

The Meaning of Life

My son gave me a paper to read last night on the meaning of life.  It stated that the meaning of life is Joy.  It is written very well and I find it true, for him.  He gives joy and receives it in large quantities.  He is joy.  But joy is not the meaning of life for me.  I see joy as the best possible goal in life.  This brings me to the conclusion that the meaning of life is not a universal concept.  It may well be different for each of us.  But, since I am writing the book, we might just as well deal with my thoughts on the meaning of life.

First, to ask the question, “What is the meaning of life?” assumes that there is one.  I don’t know that reason implies that there is.  You could be born, live, die with no meaning.  Nothing before life.  Nothing after life.  In this case though, the life itself could be the entire meaning.  If this is so, your perceptions and feelings (including joy and pain) during this brief moment in time would be the meaning of life.  Or, the meaning of your life.  That is to say, the meaning is held in the awareness. 

I believe that your awareness existed before you were conceived and will go on after your death.  And how do I arrive at this theory?  I like it!  Since we can’t know this or arrive at it through reason, I’m just going to accept it.  The eternal soul idea does not affect my present life or my present reality.  It just comforts me.  Unlike the belief that only faith in the correct god can give you eternal life, I believe that you got eternal awareness as a part of the creation.  Everyone did.  Don’t thank me; just recommend this book to a friend.

If awareness is the eternal soul or god in you, and is infinite, then it is important to feed it truth.  Werner Erhard wrote: “If you keep saying it the way it really is, eventually your word is law in the universe.”  Or, the universe is what it is.  It is not what it is not.  Try to stay as close to truth as you can.  The Hebrews that wrote the New and Old Testaments, wrote them as mythology.  There is beautiful meaning to be found in the books.  The truth is in the mythology.  They are not to be taken literally.  Abraham did not wrestle with God all night at the bank of a river.  He debated with his soul.   And it is but a story, in any case.  Jonah did not live in a whale.  Apartments were very cheap then.  Friend, at some level you know that bible stories are not history.

This raises an interesting question.  If a person knows, at some level, that their moral rudder is not true, how strong a morality can you build on that foundation?  Could this moral rudder allow a God-fearing pilot to napalm a village?  Why would you fear God, if He is on your side?  One would have to create the reason for the fear.

Back to my meaning of life.  If I am here for my awareness to learn, I must seek accurate knowledge and wisdom.  Seeing the world through the filter of religion does nothing to improve the accuracy of the observation.  Truth, reason and sound logic will lead to justice, joy and a correct image of the world into which you came.  Be in the world that is, and love it while you are there.  Improve it.  Care for it.  Appreciate it.  Peace.

A Gift

If you are weary of all of this reason, logic and balderdash, but have valiantly struggled this far; here is a gift from me the author, to you the reader.  The gift will save you a climb to the top of the Himalayas to visit the wise woman in her cave.

“THE MEANING OF LIFE”

Life is what you experience and what you feel.

If that is not sufficient meaning for you ……

Feel and experience more.

        

Life is What You Think

I called my friend and brother-in-law, the other day and he answered the phone, “Life is what you think.”  He thinks that I love philosophy and he is right.  The words just came together for him.  He had not been thinking about the words or their implications.  He was just joking with me.  Descartes spent many weeks in a closet pondering what he actually knew to be true before coming up with his famous, “I think, therefore I am.”

“Life is what you think,” is simpler and more basic.  It does not deal with existence as much as Descartes’ quote does.  He doesn’t deal with what “I” or “am” means.  There is no assumption of either.  I cannot add to or subtract from the quote without damaging it.

This I know: “Life is what you think.”

Another friend of mine made this comment on the thought.  “Sometimes I think that life isn’t what I think”.  My answer was, “Then it isn’t.”  What fun!  I don’t know how you could have more fun with your clothes on.  Perhaps you can on a motorcycle.  I’ll have to think about it. 

God The Author

How about the possibility of God being the author of “The Holy Bible“?  What language would God use to communicate with all of his children?  What group of people would be authorized to revise the book?  Who would translate it?  Is there any possibility of a chosen or favorite people, nation, sex, race, clothing or religion?  Reason would say no or none to any of these questions.  Back to the sign board that said, “If we are not all God’s Children, none of us are.”  Why on earth would God create one little group of his people as his little darlings and the rest as less?  Are the others, “Children of a lesser god?”  And, if God is so good at creating, how is anyone born, “in sin?”

I know the story of the Garden of Eden.  It was written as a myth.  Snakes that talk.  Kane kills Able; both of the second generation of man.  Kane is banished from the first family and given a medallion by God to wear, so that the people of other towns won’t kill him nor do him harm.  Is there a logical problem with these other towns existing?  Are they from a parallel universe?  Why are you asked to use this book as your moral rudder?  If you try to take any bible literally, it becomes silly and unbelievable.  Use the books as mythology and they offer some interesting thought.  Although, Kahlil Gibran did a better job with less words in his book of poetry, “The Prophet.”  It is a book about an imaginary wise man, who shares his wisdom before he returns to the land of his birth (or the world that preceded his birth.)

John Shelby Spong is the Episcopal Bishop of Newark, New Jersey.  He has written a book, “Liberating the Gospels” in which his research indicates the New Testament was a collection of Jewish midrashic stories (mythology) written to convey the message of Jesus; not to be taken literally, but to be used as a valuable moral guide.

Tom Harpur, a retired minister, takes it one step further in his book, “The Pagan Christ.”  Harpur’s research indicates that the authors of the bible lifted it from Egyptian mythology of five thousand years before the writing of “The Good Book.”  All of the major events are the same.  The crucifixion, the old testament, all of it.  Early Christian leaders, in 300-500 A.D., decided to make it literal, the word of God.  The Jews still treat it as mythology.  At least any Jew I have ever talked with on the subject, is not a literalist. 

As previously stated, in the sixties, Newsweek did a poll which indicated that less than 40% of Christians believed in a virgin birth.  Recently a Newsweek poll indicated that less than 40% of Christians don’t believe in the Virgin Birth.  Did you notice that I capitalized, “Virgin Birth” in the second sentence?  That’s because I believe in democracy.   Is American reason and logic improving?  What is happening?  Is it our diet?  Is it political spin?  TV?  Advertising?  Sports?  How do you dumb down an entire nation in less than fifty years?  Perhaps it’s all of the above.  Then, I guess it’s OK.

How many people have been murdered for a myth?  How many more are we willing to see murdered?  The weapons are getting too good.  Oh ye of little faith, step up and save our world.

Riptide

Is a riptide a force of God, a work of the creator, an act of nature, evil in the ocean or an ocean tide system?  It can be feared, because it can drown you.  Or, with some knowledge, some skill and some reason it is no threat at all.

Reason and prudence would tell you, if you are not a strong ocean swimmer, don’t go into the ocean over your waist.  Stay the shore side of the breaking waves.  Keep your powder dry.

If you swim beyond the breakers, you need to know this about riptides.  They are stronger than you are and they will take you out to sea.  If you try to swim to shore against a riptide, the score will be riptide - one, strong swimmer - zero.

This is where scientific knowledge and reason comes in handy.  You need to know that riptides aren’t very wide.  Usually twenty-five to a hundred feet.  The surface of the water will be very choppy, compared to a normally smooth surface between waves.  So you can see a riptide if you are observant.  But let’s assume that you were looking at the beautiful sky and watching the gulls circle above.  You suddenly notice that the surface of the water around you is filled with small choppy waves and your friends on the shore are looking smaller and smaller.  You could panic, pray to the lord, swim hard for shore and be an item in tomorrow’s newspaper.

But that is not who you are.  Remember, you are a person of knowledge, skill and reason. You remain calm because that is what survivors do.  Remember that riptides aren’t very wide.  Which edge of the choppy surface are you closest to?  Swim to the closest side, not to the shore.  The tide will carry you a little farther out, while you swim to the side.  No problem.  When you get fifteen or twenty feet out of the riptide, take a relaxing swim to shore.  Keep your eye on the riptide and stay clear of it.  Tell your friends about your adventure.

The best place to get the official version of the above knowledge would be a Red Cross Lifeguard class.  It should be offered at a local high school or junior college.  It is knowledge that may enable you someday to save your own life or the life of another.  As a young man in Southern California, I had the chance to use this skill and knowledge to save the life of a young woman.  That was a good day.

God and all of his laws like: gravity, inertia, centrifugal force, molecular structure, aging, survival of the fittest and oxygen/carbon balance are not to be feared.  They are to be understood, obeyed and applied reasonably.  A study of God’s Laws is the study of science. 

Feeding The Chickens

When you listen to the best clergy of various faiths, you rarely hear thoughts that reveal that any one of them believes in a literal translation of the Bible.  They don’t always refer to it as mythology, but they don’t see it as literal, historical truth.  These are highly intelligent, learned people.  As noted earlier, Jesuits are the most intelligent group of liberal arts professors I have encountered and college professors are a pretty good group.  So why would any minister treat their flock like mushrooms (“keep them in the dark and feed them bull sh--”)? 

The answer is, to give them peace, and hope, and faith, and the answer, and the way, and the road to heaven, and freedom from doubt, and belonging, and joy, and a home, and a family, and superiority over those of the other lesser faiths.  A friend of mine, we’ll call him Phil (since that is his name), once told me that his belief in Jesus has brought him a sense of wellbeing and many good events in his life.  I told him that if I had the same faith in my wrist watch as he has in Jesus, that my watch would do the same for me.  Phil responded that he believes heaven can only be reached through Jesus, and if he is wrong, he has nothing to lose.  But, if I am wrong it means eternal hell for me.  I answered that God, the creator and designer, gave me the ability to perceive, question and reason.  And, I honor His gifts.  As you well know, neither of us heard the other.

If you are a person who believes that without religion, you would do a great deal of evil, that is, you would drink in excess, beat your wife, cheat in business, cheat on your wife, abuse your children -- you need to remember the rule, “God does not make junk.”  But, if you are that believer; you are once again the exception to the rule.

Phil was a sheep, not a shepherd.  The shepherds know better.  The good shepherds use the Bible as a moral guide, not to be applied literally, but to be used for the wisdom of the mythology.  The church fathers, in 300-500 AD literalized the Bible for power over an illiterate, superstitious people.  They wanted faith, not thought, from the flock.  But what of the literal preachers of today?  What is their motive?  I would guess, very few, if any, are gullible enough to believe it themselves.  Refer to paragraph two.

In the end, feeding the chickens for their own good is not good enough.  Telling someone something that you don’t believe, is not sanctioned by any religion or philosophy.  You may not be judged in the end, but your little voice inside judges you every day and taking away any part of another soul’s journey through life, just can’t be right.  Offer your pure light, not a tinted filter.  Parents should know this well.

Back to the meaning of life.  It has to be the journey itself.  What comes before, comes before.  What comes after, comes after.  But keep your eyes and your mind open now, or you will miss some of why you are here.

For feeding the chickens, preacher, God will forgive you, but you have sinned.

The Pledge

I wrote these thoughts, to myself, on June 26^th, 2002 after reading about the US 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals decision on the pledge of allegiance.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, (under God) indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”  If you remove the words in parenthesis, “under God” you have the Pledge of Allegiance as all Americans gave it, before 1954.  In signing the above modification into law, President Eisenhower made me a second class citizen.  I was an Agnostic at the time.  I was in junior high school and I questioned just about everything.  I now believe there is a system to the universe, it is not random, but I still don’t believe in the 1954 modification.

The pledge was written in 1892 and did just fine for those of most any belief or philosophy.  Atheists and Agnostics can be perfectly good citizens, and what is the justification for making them hypocrites when they give the Oath of Allegiance to their flag and country?  I presently choose not to say “under God,” but remain silent for that portion of the oath.  Other than the pause required, I say it as I have always said it.  But before the change, I was able to give the oath as it was meant to be given and I liked that.

Today, the US 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the 1954 Act of Congress that added “under God” to the pledge, saying the words violated the basic Constitutional tenet of separation of church and state.  Bless them, for they follow the path of truth and justice.  I believe that they will be overturned by the Supreme Court, for I have little faith in the present Supreme Court and a great deal of faith in the power of the Christian Right.

Should God be a part of our Oath of Allegiance?  I think He’s a little too big for it.  Are we a nation under God?  Or, is the whole universe under God?  Are we all the children of God?  Or, is it just we Americans?  If any nation is under God, wouldn’t all nations be?  What does it mean to be a nation under God?  Do we do things God’s way?  I suspect we pretty much follow the Dollar in our nation today.  And what doesn’t follow the Dollar, pretty much follows Power and Ego.

What has been the effect of our adding “under God” to our pledge?  Are we a more moral nation than we were before 1954?  Are there fewer children born to unwed mothers?  Do we use less drugs?  Has income distribution become more even?  Is healthcare available to a larger proportion of our population?  Have our men of the cloth become more moral individuals?  Are our politicians better people?  Do we no longer torture our enemies?  Do we, as a nation, no longer turn a blind eye toward genocide?  Do we have less crime? Adding God to the Oath of Allegiance certainly hasn’t caused any of the above problems, but it certainly hasn’t helped either.

Let’s allow the Atheists and Agnostics back into the arms of America.  Go back to the original oath.  I think that God would appreciate this kindness to our fellow Americans.

Under G---d

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States of America

And to the republic for which it stands

One nation

Under Greed

With liberty and justice for all.

Would this not be a far more realistic pledge than our present one is?  The same President Eisenhower that signed God into the pledge of allegiance to the flag warned us against the military/industrial complex.  He said that it could gain too much power over our nation.

There is a lunatic fringe that believes that corporations are entitled to first amendment rights of freedom of speech.  You should have the freedom of speech that a corporation does.  One citizen, one vote.  One large corporation, a million votes.  With elections having multi-million dollar cost campaigns, it is the big donors that have the ear and the vote of your representatives in government.  The representative cannot win without the big bucks behind them.  They won’t get past the two party primaries. 

Corporate legislation allows them to be treated as quasi-persons in certain business transactions.  It never gave them the rights of citizenship.  They aren’t US citizens.  A good percentage of the big ones have moved off shore to avoid taxes.  Do they lose their first amendment rights?  The aggressive corporations get their labor from off shore to avoid paying a living wage or health insurance to the real citizens of this country.

Neither corporations nor unions should be able to contribute to a political campaign or party.  What would be wrong with the individual members or shareholders giving limited donations to the representative of their choice?  Why should a Republican union member have his dues donated to the Democratic Party?  Why should a Democrat share holder have his money given to the Republicans?  Why can’t we limit the cost of a political campaign so that we pull the money out of politics?  If a TV or radio station is allowed to use our air at no cost, why not require them to donate limited equal air time to all candidates.  And why not require a reasonable number of candidate debates so that the voter can make an informed choice based on real issues?  What if it were a crime to mislead the voters (still innocent until proven guilty)?

Have we any interest in “justice for all?”  Will the best (most expensive) legal team usually win?  If a billionaire gets a $100 fine for 10 over the speed limit and a single mother, working at a quick mart, gets the same $100 fine for 10 over the speed limit, is that equal justice?  To the billionaire, $100 isn’t a penny.  To the single mother, at minimum wage, it is a week’s groceries for her family.  Would anyone call this equal punishment?  Does anyone care?  A day in jail is the same punishment to anyone.  Let’s get rid of the fines.  And, no jails for profit.  It’s just no way to run a jail.  The goals of a corporate jail would be hopefully different than the goals of a just society.

Lobbyist

In the 80’s, I spent a couple of years as a lobbyist to the Arizona legislature.  I represented the Arizona Motorcycle Dealers Association.  I filled this capacity until our association could afford a professional lobbyist.  I experienced the near making of a law which illustrated how we truly do have “the best lawmakers that money can buy.”

At the time, copper was the number one industry in Arizona.  Cattle was number three. About eighty per cent of Arizona land was government owned.  Much of that land is leased to cattlemen and for very little money per head.  The idea is that the grazing land is multi-purpose.  For the public as well as the cattle. 

The proposed law basically stated that a motorized vehicle may only be used on a paved roadway.  This was opposed by: The Automobile Dealers Association, The Motorcycle Dealers Association, Rock Hounds, Audubon Society, hikers, campers and any outdoor enthusiast.  This group had no financial clout compared to cattle.

The bill was presented by the majority leader as an ecology measure.  I called the head of The Sierra Club to get his opinion of the legislation.  He began by informing me that the majority leader had never voted for the Earth and that the leader’s full time job is the loan officer, in charge of cattlemen loans for a large Arizona bank.  The cattlemen wanted to turn multi-purpose land into cattle land.

There was a public hearing.  I went to the legislature with cartons full of petitions and gave a speech against the legislation.  All those who spoke were against the bill.  Not one voice in favor.  The leader of the minority party informed me that his vote count indicated we were still losing badly.

Toward the end of the day a gentleman got up and said, “I represent Anaconda Copper and if this bill is passed, as written, we will no longer be able to prospect in the state of Arizona.”  My lord, it was number one against number three.  The cavalry had arrived.   A legislator popped up and said, “Mr. Chairman, I move that we table this bill and send it back to committee.”  There were about thirty seconds to the motion.  The chair called for a vote.  All were in favor.  None opposed.  The bill never again saw the light of day.

Do you think that you live in a democracy?  The people had no influence.  Money was the entire influence.  Do you want your democracy back (if there ever was one)?  We need a well informed electorate, that votes.  We need honest voting machines and honest secretaries of state.  We have to remove the money from politics.  Allow about ten dollars, in political donation, from each voter and no more from any voter, political group or corporation.  How would this come about through legislators that have sold their souls?  It won’t.  We have to get out and vote for the campaign reformers.  And they have to be the real thing.  Not easy.  But it would be nice to have our government represent us.

God’s Trinity Commandment

This book is probably the last place you would have expected to discover the most recent Divine Revelation, in the last 2000 years.  She woke me up at three AM and commanded that I type Her Trinity Commandment.  Here is The Word:

LOVE MY CREATION

ENJOY MY CREATION

BE KIND TO MY CREATION

                        - God

These Three Commandments are actually one commandment, but we lack a verb in the English language that properly encompasses the three concepts.  Know then, that the Three Commandments are a trinity; therefore 3 = 1.  Accept this on faith.

The Trinity Commandment is revealed to replace The Ten Commandments because the Ten offer lots of what “Thou Shall Not” do, while Trinity guides you on what action to take.  Constructive action taken on good thoughts is always preferable to inaction on destructive thoughts.

God is revered for Her Creation and Her Deeds, not for what She did not do.  She lives Her Word.  And, would applaud you living yours.

Since the practice of the Trinity Commandment would prevent one from violating any of the Ten Commandments, or any multitude of valid rules that may follow, the Trinity Commandment is both simpler and more effective than the Ten.

As of this point in time, you may forget the Ten Commandments.  One needs only to look at our world today to see that they obviously did not work.  Had they truly been God’s words, they would have worked.  The Ten Commandments are not God’s words.  She was misquoted.

If you doubt any of the above, thoughtfully repeat the Trinity Commandment to yourself, two or three times.  Then do the same with the Ten Commandments.  Your God-Self will give you The Answer.  (If you don’t believe that you have a God-Self, try the exercise.)

As you follow the Trinity Commandment, you will find yourself living with less guilt, your step will lighten and the world will be a better place where you have walked.

“Notice The Light”

                - Buz 

Kurt Vonnegut, quotes from, The Books of Bokonon:

     I:5   “Live by the foma* that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.”

A Bokonist reading the quote of Buz, “Notice The Light” would likely conclude that the quote has a similar meaning to the Divine inspired words of Bokonon.

Not so!  While the quote of Bokonon is clear and inspirational, my quote is nebulous, ambiguous and open to individual interpretation.

I feel that an interpretation by me, Buz, should carry as much weight as an interpretation by any other analyst.  His thoughts have been one of my primary life studies.  So, I begin:

“Notice The Light” means center your attention on the positive aspects of that which you observe.  Record first those perceptions which give you a pleasant reaction or sense of well-being.  Try to construct the raw data you receive in such a manner that the resultant observation will enhance your perception of the world around you, rather than depreciate it.  Choose to appreciate, like or love those who share your world.  Give yourself and those who share your world the gift of joy.

This transaction does not involve deceiving yourself.  It does not ask you to ignore the dark.  Threatening or negative data must also be processed by your mind, in order to survive.  But a negative perception involves the changing of a path; not the construction of a wall.

Example: You errantly step onto a railroad track and a train, 50 feet away, swiftly bears down on you.  Choose between these two reactions…….

            1. “Shit!  I’m dead.”

            2. “I’m a hell of a jumper.  Shazzam!”

                                                                                    Notice The Light.

*foma = harmless untruths

A Gift For God

In the film titled, “Household Saint,” the heroine devoted her life to giving gifts to God.  The movie seemed to raise a question.  The televangelist implores you to give to God.  Can this be done?  It seems like the place to go for an answer would be The Good Book.

Early on, The Bible tells repeatedly of animal sacrifice as a method of pleasing The Lord.  Cain and Able had an altercation over God gifts.  It seems obvious that animals were given life on earth by their Creator.  A more self-centered view would see animals as a gift of food to man.  Either way, how would killing and burning be a gift to their Maker?  It feels like returning the gift to the sender.

Another popular gift was gold.  It was often given to The Lord in biblical times and is still a popular present.  Same problem!  God created the gold and, if He chose, could create a planet of gold.  How then can I give to God that which he has only loaned to me?  When I am gone, the gold will still be around and I know of no way to transfer to Him that which he already owns.

If I am but a moment in time and God is eternal, what can I give him?  How about a laugh?  I have heard it said, “If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans.”  I suspect that somehow your plans might also bring a tear.  When President Bush talks to us about freedom through bombing or peace through war, does God laugh or cry?

Who knows what makes God happy?  I know what makes Him angry.  Try making a golden idol or looking back at your house, when He tells you not to.  You can commit genocide and He won’t stop you.  But golden idols or looking back at the house.  Zapp!  Face it; He doesn’t mix in for the bad guys or the good guys.  Not in this life.  Never did.

The longer I ponder a gift for God, the more I realize that He is the giver and I am the receiver.  I don’t think that this relationship can be reversed.  I can give thanks for this day, and I do.  But an actual, material gift --- not possible.  UPS doesn’t go there.  The men of the cloth can’t make the delivery either.

You still want to figure a way to give a gift to God?  Let your life be a prayer of thanks.  Speak your understanding of truth.  Love and care for your family.  Care for the planet.  Pick up trash rather than littering.  Learn not to judge others (this is a really hard one for me).  Do quality work that you can take pride in.  Pride is not a sin.  It is the difference between good work and shoddy work. 

If there is a divine judgment of how you walked the journey of life it won’t include: the hat you wore, the trinket around your neck or what group you claimed membership in or what name you call God by.  I hope it will be based on our innermost thoughts and the motivations for our actions.  Could there be a better, fairer basis for judgment?

Grand Omnipotent DNA: G.O.D. - GOD

So a human has DNA.  So does a tiger and a chicken.  An orange tree does too.  What is DNA?  The unabbreviated name is deoxyribonucleic acid, a term which means little or nothing to the majority of ears.  But DNA is the blueprint or instructions, in every cell, used to guide the development of the cell structure for every living thing.

Your building blocks start out, in your mom, as a single cell that reproduces a-sexually.  That is, the cells split in order to reproduce and create two identical cells.  If this process continued without guidance and mutation, you would be born as something resembling pond scum without organization or differentiation of cell function.  It is your DNA’s job to see that you end up a cute little baby at birth, in your prime at twenty-six and hard of hearing at seventy.  It is the plan of your physical life and your health.

Drop a hair at a crime scene and the DNA on that hair will not only tell the investigator that it was a human, not a chimp, but will tell them that out of the millions of living humans it was you.  The DNA blue print is found on all parts of the body and it describes the whole body.  The cell of a jaguar comes with the plan for the whole jaguar.  By the way, you and the chimp are very similar, so don’t discount Darwin’s Theory.  DNA is the enforcer of Darwin’s Theory.  It sets the mold for the critter, past, present and possibly future. 

In high school science, in the fifties, we learned about sperm, eggs and genes, but we had not a clue about DNA.  It tells you who you are, where you come from and perhaps when we fully understand it, where you, as a species, are going.  And, it works for all living things.  Could there be a similar DNA for the Universe?  A blueprint.  A set of instructions.  A guide.  Well, systems do tend to repeat themselves in our universe.  Atomic structure is much like our planets and stars, only on a different scale.  The blueprint and the rules of the game are very much the same.  And as we learn more and are able to observe sub-atomic particles, I would predict that the game will repeat itself.

So what is the Grand Omnipotent DNA (or GOD)?  It is the blueprint or plan of existence for life, matter and energy.  And where does it exist?  Everywhere.  We just haven’t got equipment to read it yet.  Accept this on the basis of faith.  In the year 1800 did DNA exist?  Yes, but we didn’t have the technical ability to study it.  So it is with GOD (Grand Omnipotent DNA).

Intelligent Design has gotten a bad name because of the folks that propose it.  Their basis is in the mythology book that they see as literal truth.  But a little time spent researching DNA and its structure will convince you that it is no more a random chance design than a computer is.  Would the Atheists have you believe that it floated into the planet with the amino acids and happened to mix up a mash that started life and the DNA system for all living things?  DNA is not the result of a crap shoot and neither are you.  The intelligence in the design may be more than we will ever comprehend, but the Grand Omnipotent DNA (GOD) is my hypothesis for the underlying blue print.  Omit The Bible and observe.

 GOD did not write The Message to you in a Bible.

 It is found in your awareness.

  

 Enjoy the search.

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                                          "See what is plain to see.  Doubt what is not.”

                                                 - my son