A Wonderful Thing

We have 6.5 billion or so companions living with us on Planet Earth. Although we did not choose them, we still have to live with every single one of them, even the one's that we don't like very much.

Of course we are absolutely free to choose to murder someone that we don't like, and there is no higher-power that will prevent us from doing that deed. Our wonderful intelligence which elevates us above every other species, is perfectly capable of justifying deeds which harm others. Up to and including genocide occasionally. No threat of punishment has ever been enough to deter us from doing the crime. But if we are able to say that we felt very angry, then perhaps the crime is pardonable in every case. This deed has been rationalized many times over the course of human history, whatever our reasons may have been hardly makes much difference.

If the assassination of Osama Bin Laden should be viewed as justifiable; then perhaps the destruction of the World Trade Centers can be justifiable as well. The men who committed that crime against the American people all died in the act, but still felt some conviction knowing that they would sacrifice their lives to a cause.
I fail to see how the American President is any better than our terrorist companion, he just has more and better organized followers. Ultimately, death should not be viewed as a punishment at all, it only frees us to whatever comes after our mortal ends. And if that fate happens to be unconsciousness, then we fail to be punished. Individually and collectively, none of us has ever had the power or authority to change a single past event, it doesn't matter how many of us vote on it either. If we are to be held accountable for our mortal deeds beyond this life, it's likely better for us not to be too demanding on other lives. We might have enjoyed some satisfaction in life, acquiring the material goods and the faith of our companions, should we be due any additional favor in the future? It's good to be able to write our own terms and conditions, we will usually choose terms most favorable to ourselves of course. In a capitalist society, we get our personal gains at someone else's expense, our pocket can only grow deeper as another person's is emptied. The great movers and shakers take a lion's share of the profits for themselves, which suggests that people in their employ were not compensated well enough. But we think that competition is a good thing, profit is a fairly decent motivation to innovate. People who compete well at sports can sometimes earn a decent living, well above average at least. People who fail to be competitive are left behind, they are not well served by capitalism. The separation between the wealthiest individuals in our world and the rest of the population continues to grow. I can see how people deserve to be rewarded for their own original work; although it appears some people have been rewarded too well. At the very least a person should receive some recognition for their efforts, but do we really have the right to demand more than that? A simple pat-on-the-back for a job well done is all some people ever seem to get. To the best of my understanding, we are inspired by a power that comes to us naturally from a single source. The source is the same for everyone, but we often exercise some exclusive rights to our ideas, we have intellectual property. We may have done some work to develop those ideas into practical applications; if we deserve nothing for original thinking then at least we must deserve something for our efforts. But do we really have a right to exclude others from garnering benefits from our work? If there is a technology that can improve the general welfare in some way, shouldn't we take full advantage? Often we choose to withhold from others those things which give us an advantage over them, least we lose some of our authority over the world. We demand that other nations create no weapons of mass destruction, but choose not to sacrifice our own weapons of mass destruction. Then we think ourselves the responsible world leaders, making the world safe for democracy, the better form of government we think. In my opinion our representative democracy has failed to prove itself incorruptible, it is primarily governed by the wealthy. And in many cases I think that popular opinion does not represent the best course of action. Should we vote on the matter of who should love whom, or whether or not a partnership should be formed between two people of the same sex? If that partnership involves spousal benefits, then it would seem that the common answer is yes we do vote. I find it somewhat disheartening that for many our moral guide is a document that's over 2000 years old, we justify our beliefs because that's what it says in the Bible!
People do not seem to think for themselves very much, always looking for a greater authority that they can trust and follow. Most of our opinions are off the shelf items that we purchased, and many of those items are well supported by numbers, but who can be an authority? I for one believe that there is such a thing as absolute truth, although it is mostly unknown in the events of the past. Some fundamental principles seem worthy of doubt in the face of my observations. For example it's unclear to me that Happiness should be considered a basic human right. If Happiness is guaranteed by a Creator, some people never seem to get any benefit from that guaranty. Although in the long run of eternity perhaps happiness is guaranteed, I think that may be the truth. I don't believe in Karma but I do believe in accountability, I think that we need to be forgiven by others and by ourselves, although it's something that we may have to work to earn. Judgement is guaranteed, primarily the judgement of our peers, whom we often believe are not equal to us. I do not believe that there is a God who intends to judge and punish us. I do not believe that there is such a thing as an unmanifest spirit of pure evil, nor do I believe that we can exist in an unmanifest form. The only place that we can live is within this Universe of manifestation, which can in no way ever be separated from God's presence. Without God's amazing power, we would never experience consciousness I think, and we can not exist separated from that power. I do trust this God of my own beliefs completely, that I will never be deprived of it's companionship, and it serves as a witness to everything that I have ever experienced. I hope that we will all have the opportunity to learn more of the absolute truth as a first-hand experience. I hope that I will have the opportunity to benefit from your personal experience of life directly, as if it were a personal experience of my own. This is true meaning of wealth and the great and buried treasure of the Earth, in my humble opinion. By claiming it for ourselves we must experience much suffering without exclusion, it is not our place to pick and choose from the truth. We will see for ourselves who was honest and trustworthy, and hope that we are not disappointed to have chosen to trust the dishonest person. But we lack knowledge in making such choices, so who can be blamed for having been fooled? Life is so much better for us if we are able to find a few things trustworthy, and to know that we've had companions who shared our beliefs. If there is a Creator who guarantees anything to everyone equally, at least we are guaranteed to never be truly alone. Clearly there are and have been a great multitude of individual person's, each with a unique experience of life and Universe. I think that's a wonderful thing.

Democracy Overturned!

Tomorrow's Headlines - Democracy Overturned, World To Be Governed By New Monarchy.

Within this blog I theorize about a powerful male figure assuming authority over the whole world.
This person is somehow able to produce a believable threat of Mass Destruction, without the aide of armies or material weapons. This Righteous King chooses not to defend your current civil rights and dictates that none will have the right to take another human life for any reason, even in self-defense. And if you break this rule he will take a tithe of flesh and bone from you; which he is able to get from any distance.

If it happened tomorrow, how would it make you feel?

Guns Into Plowshares

    If I knew there was something I could do to get all the people to destroy their weapons, I would certainly make the effort. If I could force the world into it, I would do it at the risk of being hated and despised. For all the nations of the world to disband their military forces is a dream which seems impossible. But if the vision of John is truly inspired by some God with a plan for Humanity, it would seem to be a necessary event. So that the millenium of Peace on Earth may commence, and direct our fates onto the path which leads to our resurrection. I expect that there would have to be some clear and present threat to the survival of our species on Planet Earth, in order turn the people onto that path. A Great Tyrant may be needed to do that job, and a person with access to a greater than worldly power. Prepare for peace, not with superior fire-power but with trust in the power of faith and the aide of a higher-power. So many of the world's problems seem to be solvable through violent means, even when the application of violence is more civilly applied. The threat of violence is often enough to curb some human behaviours; but the threat of punishment from a God after we die, has never been very effective. And of course the more worldly threat of incarceration seems ineffective for some people; who might be perceived as victims of a genetic pre-disposition. If we believe that we serve some great and noble cause, even our own life is a sacrifice that we may be willing to make.

   I'm inclined to believe in the durability of the human spirit beyond our mortal ends, and believe in an enduring accountability. Yet I have considered the possibility that God's unconditional love is so great, that it has the power to eliminate all accountability. I think we do not need to be forgiven by God so much as we need to be forgiven by other individual person's who exercise an independent judgement. And of course we need to be able to live with ourselves; thousands of years into the future can we look back upon the things that we've done in mortal life without regrets, or at least with the ability to say that "We did not know better." Who among us would be willing to live forever with an accountability to torment us indefinitely; knowing that it would somehow serve a great and noble cause? It's easy for us to give up our lives, hard to give up our happiness or the desire for happiness. According to the founding fathers of the U.S. Constitution, everyone enjoys a God given right to pursue happiness, but should we obtain that at the expense and suffering of others? I don't think that anyone deserves to be punished, instead I think that some people should be favored more or less. God certainly hasn't guaranteed us equal opportunities in life, or equal favor in terms of endowed intelligence or the circumstances of our nativity. Perhaps God does guarantee our happiness in the long-run of forever, so long as he's willing to grant us the strength to endure that long. I think it's within the realm of possibility that God does love some people more or less than others. But in the long run of forever we may take turns at being most loved, there is a time and a place where each of us would take a turn at being in authority. The world is very good to those people who get to make the rules, and define their own terms and conditions, of course we will chose the conditions which are most favorable to ourselves. If we can command a fee for our life's work and then demand compensation from everyone, we could take our turn at being wealthy too.

    A Treasure of great and true value lies buried within this land; and within all the land, but who among us can possess all the land in order to claim that treasure? The man that can overcome his own mortality will claim it, is he a person of faith or material wealth? How can faith empower one man to produce a believable threat to the survival of his species on Planet Earth? What Righteousness is equal to the Strength to destroy the Earth, and thereby deprive the people of all their precious works? Only such arguments as these may persuade and justify that there is any value in "meekness" over the idea that strength and numbers will overcome all obstacles. Individually and collectively, human-beings exercise a power to influence reality. But is there yet one or more person's of even greater power within the Universe, with a will to aide one or all of us? In order to make the Earth and Sun last forever there would have to be an application of technologies beyond our ken. And if the Earth can't be made to last forever, where would our resurrected live? The nature of that wonderful treasure must be the human-experience itself, to have it all without exception. Because the true nature of wealth is all about personal experience, to have more and varied experiences makes us truly wealthy. Can we choose that for ourselves, or must we be chosen by someone else, a person of supreme authority perhaps? And if we can choose for ourselves; does it sound desirable, to experience all of Human suffering? It would seem that the Human brain doesn't even have the capacity to hold such a wealth of memories. If it were even possible for one of us to claim such a prize, our Ancient of Days would be produced as the result, our great patriarch, father of us all.

   But is it something we need, a patriarch and a resurrection? Or can we exist without flesh and bone? Perhaps the Universe holds greater opportunities in store for us than everlasting life as a human-being. Perhaps the vision of a resurrection is false and not God's plan, our friend John was merely a hopeful dreamer inspired by a story of a resurrected saviour. A story which itself may be untrue; hard to imagine a person ascending bodily into the Heavens, where would they be living if not here on Earth? Every male child must have a biological father, but where is the father of our saviour Jesus? Is he somewhere else or yet to come in due course of time? Is he also to be a born person among us, like the son? Or are all of those religious ideas nonsense? They inspire good feelings in us so we desire it to be truth so choose to trust the authority of our Gospel Storytellers and our modern day religious teachers. But can we trust our faith to all those things that inspire good feelings in us? Should we believe that our inspiration comes from sources external as an offer of guidance? Simply experiencing strong and good feelings about an idea may not be good enough to help us discern true and noble principles. As most Americans experience strong feelings about their right to defend themselves with firearms, taking a life may be justified if our own life is at risk they argue. Is that a true principle, is there truly a case where murder becomes justifiable? Peace on Earth is bound to make some people unhappy as they lose some authority that physical strength grants them. When men become unable to subdue one another by forceful means, how can the world be governed by such meekness as this? Is "Swords into Plowshares" a story that we can truly live with, or do genetic pre-dispositions guarantee continued conflict and division among us? Perhaps it's beyond anyone's ability to change human behavior to such an extent that meekness defines us more so than violence, neither God or Man can accomplish such a thing as this. Historical events have pretty much proven the matter, human rationality or divine authority has not the power to unite us. Extinction surly becomes inevitable and there can be no hope for more life in a resurrection. I would prefer to be able to write a more hopeful story, but my observations in life have made me cynical.

In My Humble Opinion

As Human Beings, we share a few common beginnings and a few endings as well, such things bind us together despite ideological or physical differences. As manifest persons within a manifest Universe, we exist in relationship to absolutely everything else. Surly there is a connection between ourselves and every other human being that has ever lived. The relationship is very real and personal, weather or not we choose to acknowledge it or desire. Every single one of us has been given the gift of judgement, in lieu of perfect knowledge. We each exercise some limited power to create the world around us, and to create the world as it lives within our beliefs. We practice judgement upon one another, and within many other facets of our lives where decisions are being made. Countless decisions are being made every day, and for most of these decisions we seem to have little to no influence. I can not make up your mind, I can at best offer up a few arguments, but I have not the authority to demand your attention. Such are our innate limitations, we have not the capacity of perception to be aware of everything that goes on. Even in our immediate environment there is much which passes beneath our notice, but is none-the-less a relevant part of our reality. Life is work 24/7, although much of it is unpaid work. Even while you sit at the PC and read, or play a game, work is being done. If your heart muscle fails to work, you will die my friend, so clearly you are doing some work even if we do it unconsciously. The simple act of putting food into our mouths and chewing is labor intensive, although if we did not make the food ready-to-eat ourselves, much of that work was done by someone else. And even though we believe that most of the people who have worked to make our meals convenient have been rewarded for their effort, we still owe them a bit of gratitude which can not be valued in terms of money. We should at the very least, grant some recognition to all those people who contributed some labor to make our lives more comfortable. Although in practice some people are rewarded too much and others not enough.

As individual persons, I think that we do not have the power to choose to exist in an unconscious state indefinitely. Therefore we do not have the power to choose our own end, nor can we choose an end for someone else. Although surely we will all suffer a mortal end, perhaps there is some truth in believing that another kind of life begins. And there is a measure of manifestation, which remains entirely invisible to us, and for the most part undetectable by even the most sensitive scientific instruments. Perhaps we do continue to manifest within the universe in some way long after our physical remains dissolve into dust. Such beliefs lend themselves well to optimism, I don't think it harms us in any way to believe in our own durability. However it is perfectly clear that the Earth and Sun were not made to last forever, even if we hope for the possibility of a resurrection to everlasting life. Some stars have already passed away, and we depend on that passing, we are formed of the remnants. The solid Earth could not be born without those prior deaths, but the end comes gracefully to the substance of creation which continues to take on new forms. All of that physical stuff that we know as our own flesh and bone, has been here as a part of the Earth since the Earth was formed. As I have said, we share a few beginnings in common, evidently even the Universe itself is a born thing and that is one thing. We are nothing more than potential until the moment that we are realized within creation, but the possibility of us is still something which we consider to be very important. We think our role as observers is the thing which grants purpose to everything else. I don't think its wrong to believe in our own importance, it's even good for us; but as we begin to think of ourselves as more or less important we begin to err. The smallest events are still a significant part of the greater whole, without that small part the whole would be incomplete. As self-aware creatures we often give some consideration to what we or others deserve, although what Humanity deserves altogether could as easily be defined by the least fortunate of us. In some way our fate has been bound together by a common heritage, in a way that defies all possibility of separation.

In mortal life we experience varying degrees of separation, and many perceive that they are separate from God's presence. Often this is because the person thinks of God as a physical person much like one of us, and clearly there is no such person present upon the face of the Earth. I think that there may very well be one great creator and/or physical person who is God-like to us within the Universe. We ourselves are creators in some way, but we do not believe that we are Gods. I think that there can never be more than one, upon which we all depend. Dogs and cats may worship us, but having the prayers of many followers has no power to elevate us to Godhood. For all that we are or can become, we can never become like God, God is unique. Perhaps even the great creator of heaven is an individual person who depends upon God in the same way that we depend upon God. Perhaps we have a multitude of peers and companions within the Universe, of whom we are not aware. Some with more or less power, more or less knowledge, more or less authority, and some very much unlike human beings. But for a few notable exceptions, such persons seem uninterested in conversing with us. To the best of my own knowledge, no such person has ever offered to guide and govern our species, we have been left to govern ourselves.

For my own gratification, I know that I am loved, in this I believe myself victorious. I think it is enough to know that I have been loved, I do not need to be sure of anything else. In due course of time, perhaps we will gain the capacity and opportunity to learn the fullness of truth. Any decision that I make today, I might make differently in the future from a more knowledgeable perspective. Or we might always be subject to some kind of limitations which prevent us from gaining perfect knowledge, we have to make the best of the personal experience that we have today. If i choose to trust or doubt the authority of another human being today, perhaps I will gain a vantage to view the matter more clearly. I have been taught or learned of many beliefs and quite often these things seem to conflict with one another. Our most noble ideals seem to conflict with actual human behaviour, but perhaps there is some way even ignoble deeds may be justified. I humbly submit that our world is a perfect place just the way that it is, if only we could be aware of every condition we would see it. But who says that it's not possible to improve upon perfection? In a popular song by the Talking Heads, David Byrne sings that, "Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens." I say that we are citizens of the Universe and citizens of Heaven today, and this is not a place where nothing ever happens.
I think that God's Kingdom must be characterized by Unity and Inclusiveness. None that have lived may ever be forsaken by God, God must sustain us because that is God's purpose. It's not God's intent to punish or judge, and no one can ever be removed from God's presence. To the best of my understanding, God is present everywhere within the Universe, and everywhere upon, within and above the Earth. We could not experience the gift of consciousness if it wasn't so, we are entirely dependent and we always will be. I have said that we share a few things in common which bind us together forever and ever, this is what I believe about us and our place within creation. If you are not at peace in the moment, just wait for it, it's on the way.

The Final Argument of Christ

Jesus believed that the cause of all of the bad behavior among the children of humanity could be attributed to a lack of knowledge. The person who acts in unrighteousness simply didn't know better. He used this argument in defense of the people who were having him executed, and by extension it can be applied to everyone else. On the basis of this argument he pleads with God the Father to pardon humanity from punishment, in his success he breaks the chains of death which bind us allowing for the possibility of a resurrection.

I believe that the final argument of our Lord may be incorrect; knowledge is not the main problem but the limitations of our biology play a greater role. In modern times we have found that some individuals may be genetically predisposed to violent acts. Our emotional lives are based largely upon a chemistry which we can not control directly through rational thought. And well educated persons with fairly superior rational minds are perfectly capable of justifying murder under certain conditions. Whether we call that murder, "Capital Punishment," or "The assassination of a political enemy," makes little to no difference. One act of violence can never be reconciled by another act of violence, violence can not be the solution to violence. In some, perhaps extreme cases, the rational mind is able to justify genocide. We may not all agree with the reasoning, but there is still a bit of reasoning involved in much of our bad behavior. Most of us don't believe that murder is justifiable in every case, but if we were able to consider all the contributing conditions perhaps it would be justifiable in every case. We can only hope that this is the nature of the truth, in modern times knowledge is more easily available to all people. We may have heard very good arguments from many of those people who we choose to have for our personal hero's in life. And of course we all believe in some kind of noble cause, which can justify a great deal. Personally I feel that a great deal of human behavior will be justified simply by saying that we felt very angry at the time, for all of the control we have over such feelings while they are in control of us.

If the final argument of Christ turns out to be invalid, I don't believe it will affect our ultimate destiny by much. I never believed in an Angry and Wrathful God; some of the natural events which are very destructive to life and property may very well be necessary for life to exist on a planet of any description. I would never believe in a God that commands one of us to take the life of another either; the person who hears such a voice is suffering from a bit of insanity and that is all. Every child of humanity comes into manifestation to experience life and universe from a unique perspective and set of conditions. Every child of humanity is rewarded in exactly the same way, with a mortal end and whatever comes after. Perhaps God's unconditional love will be enough to eliminate all accountability, wipe out our every grudge, and justify any hardship that we had to suffer. Perhaps there will never be a return to immortal life on Planet Earth for us, perhaps the truth is something completely different. And if it turns out to be something that we never expected, we can only hope that it's still something good for us. I for one choose to trust the God that I believe in, I know that I have been loved, and I think that I will continue to have a place within the durable Universe well beyond my own mortal end.