The Ark of the Covenant

The Ark is still buried and hidden. Like Moses' body it is not going to be found. Even if it were found (which it will not be) it has no power in it, I mean, DUH, because God is no longer indwelling in it. Like the tent that the Israelites pitched so that God's presence in the cloud could be seen as being present among the Israelites, the Ark is the same thing: only a place to increase the people's faith by SEEING and thus believing that God is with them. Once Israel started to fall and was afflicted, with God's permission, by enemies, the Ark was hidden and of course God no longer indwelled in it, duh.

The ark in Ethiopia is a copy. Stop the ridiculous fantasizing that any King of Israel would give the ark to some woman he had nookie with.

Remember, Solomon's life was CUT SHORT by God as punishment for building worship places for idols to please his pagan wives and concubines. You have to stick with what is in the Bible, friends (and the Qur'an). No where does God permit the Israelites to do something as ridiculous as give away anything from the Temple, certainly not his seat. Solomon was punished in his old age as he became a fool and collected women like baseball cards, and thus collected idols accordingly. His foolishness was cut short before it became any worse than that. But even in his greatest folly, and that of his descendants, no one would even think of giving the ark away. Rather, people would have died around it if it came to that.

No, as you know in the Bible holy things are hidden under siege. That is what was done. It was well within their skills to make one or two copies to fool occupiers.

Bible Reading: Exodus 20:1-6

Then God delivered all these commandments:

"I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall have no other gods besides me.

You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their father's wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third or fourth generation; but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation, on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments."

Misplaced awe

This reflection and spiritual direction is particularly directed at the young people (hi there!) One reason is that I know you have many questions and have only gotten from the previous generations for the most part crap. The other reason is that while of course I hope the oldsters are reading what I blog too, and benefiting from it, so many of them are so brain damaged that I really wonder if they will ever get it and repent.

We have a problem. We have many problems but one of the fundamental problems with these modern times is misplaced awe. We (and I'm speaking in fellowship so you understand that I totally get the problem and the blockages people have) want to be awed and need to be awed. There's two types of legitimate awe. Well, really three, but let's look at the really solid forms of legitimate awe first. The top and ultimately only awe that one should feel is with God. One should totally be in awe of God, in totality, in awe with his All Knowingness, in awe of him as Creator, awe of him as the source of all that is truly Good, in awe of his mercy and his love, and in awe of his total power of Judgment and Reckoning. Being in awe of God is not only legit and understandable, but it is the smart thing to do because being in awe of God means that you are in touch with reality. If you are in awe of God and only God, in general that means you have a firm grasp on reality and how the cosmos is ordered and the place of humanity within it. This does not mean you are looking down on humans at all because genuine awe of God raises up humans due to God's awesome gifts (listed above), particularly as Creator and source of all Love and Mercy. Being reality based does not mean that you have to have self loathing of the human race and in fact that is part of the problem because self loathing of one's self or humanity is not reality based, since God did not create anything, including humans, that are inherently low and loathsome. Sin and unrighteousness and injustice are loathsome, not human beings.

The second form of legitimate awe is awe in God's creation. There is absolutely no problem and in fact it is Biblically founded (and alluded to in the Qur'an) as being scripturally correct. Before we go further here is the Big Caution. It is fine to be in awe of God's creation, but NOT to worship or attempt to sanctify any components of God's creation. In other words you can marvel and be in awe of a beautiful sunset, but must not worship the sun, as it is simply a creation of God's. You can marvel and be in awe of beautiful mountain ranges and love their mystery and perhaps even succumb to their challenge of being climbed, but you must not worship the mountains nor consider them a tool in achieving spirituality. That is idolatry. Again, one can have one's breath taken away in awesomeness by mountains and even feel a closeness to God in a symbolic way, but one absolutely must not have a relationship with the mountains that infuses them with any supposed power, for that is idolatry. You can be a scientist and marvel and be in awe as you study DNA and genetics, and admire God's creation, but you absolutely cannot be in awe of how you can play God and manipulate life. That is the path to hell that is guaranteed to take a lot of people with you.

You can fly in spaceships and photograph distant stars and wonder about as yet undiscovered planets and wonder, and this is the key, wonder if God created life on any other planets. All of the universe, seen and unseen, is God's creation, just as the Book of Genesis explains. One of my first career interests was astronomy (the science) not astrology (the occult practice), as a youngster, so I have spent many hours admiring and researching and just marveling about the cosmos... but any awe that I have is 1) rooted in the awe of God's creation, and not imagined powers or capacities of either material or energy beings and 2) dwarfed by the awe that I have of God, and that I never spend even one minute of my life being unaware of.

The third kind of awe that is OK, but a slippery slope, is to be in awe of the actions of a merciful and/or loving person. Every once in a while we read or hear about or even know someone who does something truly awesome. But only God knows the genuine circumstances and what is in the heart of that person, and so one can safely admire an awesome moment, but must stop short of being in awe of the total person. There are two reasons for this caution. The first is that unfortunately in this very ego centric and self conscious society, there are few genuinely real and awesome people but, rather, people who sculpt themselves to have a list of, well, "awesomeness" that is of the world and not of God. These are the people who just seem like, as their handlers put them, (and yes, of course, their genuine family members), "saints on earth" or "angels." Um, remember the Good Samaritan in the Bible? Notice when Jesus told the story to his disciples he did not say that the Good Samaritan was "like an angel," or "like a saint on earth," or "generous" or anything else. He was simply "good," and from Jesus that was the highest praise for it meant that the Samaritan naturally utilized God's, not his own, goodness. The best of "heroes" and other "awesome" people of today are infused with God, not a list of heroic talents and deeds. Just about everyone today is over produced and I must admit I know very few genuinely awesome people (I could probably count them on one or two hands). So the first reason to avoid placing a person on your "awe" list is that few people today are genuinely awe worthy (yep, those bubbles bursting everywhere) and second, awe directed at people inevitably becomes a stumbling block to your having genuine awe of God. If you have awe of God you can recognize the few people that do come along who do something awesome, but the reverse is NEVER true. If you are in awe of people you will never have genuine awe of God because you misdirect yourself as a result in your awe expectations.

This is why I, like most of you, probably roll your eyes when you hear someone described as a "Good Christian." There was a time when that meant a very good thing, which was when it denoted, as I described above, a person who was naturally infused with awe of God and thus lived their life accordingly. But now the "Good Christian" seal of approval is passed around from self praising Christian to other self praising Christian because they attend the right congregation and they follow all the right rules. God may or may not have anything to do with that person supposedly being a "Good Christian." You know what it is like? It's like when being a "lady" or a "gentleman" meant something genuine, and then it became a class thing, a matter of wealth, or even of irony. Perfectly good labels of admiration become something foolish in modern context. Being a "Good Christian" has become a foolish label, because a truly godly person does not seek or need that label as he or she is focused only on God, in awe of him and sanctifying themselves to his will.

Now I am not the spoiler of the party, young people, so don't worry, I'm not saying to drop using "awesome" in slang, as I do it myself! I am speaking of the genuine feeling of awe here :-)

Here is how I can explain to you the collective societal problem that has developed due to misplaced awe. People have fallen into idolatry by being "awe junkies" and "awe seekers." And the reason they do so is that they avoid having awe for God because deep down inside they do not want to obey God and stop sinning, stop being warlike, stop being violence junkies, stop abusing substance, stop being evil, stop being unjust and stop being dishonorable and stop being unrighteous. People think if they tear down and criticize the institutions of God that they have an excuse for not being awed at God himself. Wrong. Oh, how deadly wrong that is.

If anything one must only be in increased awe of God at his forbearance and giving of many (but not infinite) second chances. You could destroy every church, mosque, or synagogue that you feel is too "orthodox" off the face of the earth, and kill or humiliate every person who is genuinely a servant of God and you would not diminish God's awesomeness one speck. It only underscores how God will, at the end of each person's life, and at the Final Judgment, hold each person accountable and there will be nothing anyone can say in their defense, since as we know, God is awesome in his All Knowingness, and knows all that happened, what would have happened, and was in each person's heart. God knows when you deny him his due as the only one to be in awe of, to worship, and the only Deity to exist because you want to keep on having some sort of sin or presumed power/control over others in your life. No matter how much you tear down the religious edifices, no matter what their presumed "quality" in your mind, where you think you can critique how others worship in orthodox settings, God is always God and he knows not only what you do but your motivations at all times.

So, young people, this is what I most worry about for you, which is that the sinful generations who have raised and taught you desire to keep sinning, lying, being unjust, being vicious, being on power trips and lost in a fantasy world, is that they have dangled so much of the real or the imaginary world and universe in front of you as being "awesome," while trying to diminish God and thus they blind you to the truth and hide it from you. Awesome robots and "aliens" might exist, every day in cartoons and other entertainment, but a mention of the legit awesomeness of God is not only lacking but forbidden. Parents and teachers and the whoremongers of commerce fear that if you, oh consumers and spenders of dollars, realize how awesome God is and how pale everything else is in comparison, that they will lose their presumed power over you, over earthly events (such as politics) and most of all through commerce and the almighty buck.

How do you steer through this mess? By recognizing misplaced awe and putting it where it should be instead, as I described above. It's fine to call something awesome (like a great room styling) or even a person awesome (like if they did a really fabulous good deed) and to be in awe of sunsets or tornado chasing or mountain climbing K2, or the beauty of outer space, wondering what's in those other galaxies over there IF one reserves genuine AWE for God. If you remember that God not only created all that exists but remains and always will be in control of it, you can marvel alongside of God at the beauty of life and of the material world while never being in danger of idolizing it and putting pieces of it over God in your priorities. You can call it "guilt free awe," ha. If you reserve genuine awe for God by remembering God as he really is at all times (as I listed in the beginning of this), you need not fear being swept away into sin and neglect because people dangle inappropriate awe in front of you. Who wants to work on world peace if they secretly think there are imaginary forces more powerful than God and that "they" "control" them? Earth has become like an abandoned house full of neglect and ruin with grass that is unmowed and vagrants that sit around waiting for something to happen instead of maintaining their residence. They want to be "awed" by something other than God and they want to watch cartoons of themselves with their presumable "step in" "awesome" powers rather than be in awe of the one true God AND be able to enjoy the awesomeness of his creation.

I hope that you understand what I am saying. Until next time, remember, seek only God and all else will fall into place and be given to you that is good for you.

Understanding God

Reading, as many of you have, about the many problems of suicides, domestic violence, child abuse, murder-suicides and other signs of an increasingly sickening world, I thought of increasing one's understanding of God through the use of an old expression.

In English there is a traditional saying when describing someone who is mentally or emotionally unraveling, saying that he or she is "coming unglued." In that saying there is a tacit recognition that each human is "held together" by something, and that in trouble or illness there is a problem of falling apart.

For you to truly understand God you must recognize that God is the glue that holds individual persons and communities together. Without God (a genuine knowing of God, not idolatry) individual persons and communities as a whole risk coming unglued and falling apart.

Society, particularly relatively affluent Western society, has promoted "coming unglued" because not only is belief in God pushed out of the public square, but more fundamentally, society pushes the fragmentation of the individual and also of the society as a whole.

Let me repeat this. Even if God were still respected in the public square, society would still have tremendous problems because society has taken on a set of highly fragmenting values. Each person is evaluated with a list of scorecard types of attributes, for example, starting in their earliest childhood. Further, families have fragmented (become unglued), forcing even more individual fragmentation as family identity and safety net is lost. The home itself is often a dangerous place, even for the most helpless, the infants. It truly is "dog eat dog" and "every man for himself," even for the very young. With partially occupied residences and frequent moves, plus isolation from the community around a person (not being part of one's community by participation or emotional investment, and trust me, I know that's hard to do as they have become scorecard exclusionary) there is the fragmentation of the community and its social net too. With fragmented denominations even for those who still profess to believe in God, churches no longer have the gravitas to provide their share of glue, of community identity and safety net. Finally, marketers and media only speak to special interest groups, who they identify with, try to get money from by selling their products, and those they advocate and "relate" to, further fragmenting and ungluing individuals, families, communities and faith groups.

When one does not look to God to provide the glue that keeps body and soul together, individually and collectively, that is the wedge for then the lowering and lowest common denominators of society to fulfill the personal and community disintegration. That's why giving an alienated and depressed teenager, for example, information about God is not enough... the social and other environmental factors must also be addressed as a whole. Even a teenager such as this one in our example who values hearing about God, the true God, in their distress is not "cured" of their pain and alienation if the next day they go from their fragmented family to their fragmented school to be judged in the freak show society scorecard meat market.

Every few years or so researchers used to ask what kids want to be when they grow up, and then they'd analyze the results, looking at what occupations or interests raise or lower in popularity. But here is the problem. The past two generations don't want anything except to be "famous" with its twin non-vocation "get rich." That is the scorecard fragmentation I am speaking about. Young people want to be scorecard traits (famous, rich, "hot"), since that's what their parents, teachers, society, media and marketers have taught them, rather than to have occupations or vocations (including professions, clerical, labor, homemaker, parent, clergy, military...) They all want to do something or be something, rather than have an interest or a calling. It is not their fault: it is how society has become unglued, starting in the family and reaching its prime robotic programming in the classroom and the media.

So how does a sad and troubled teen "become famous?" Suicide. How does a teen escape a problem situation, from the most dire to the ones that in hindsight are only painful parts of growing up, when there is no safety net in family and community, and they've never been taught God as the glue? Suicide.

Now we also have the double whammy where a society that is only individual scorecard oriented now deprives individuals of their livelihoods. We no longer are a world where people can survive without a paycheck from somewhere. What do you have when someone lacks God as the glue, there is no church or community cohesion and safety net, and there is an economic desperation? Murder-suicide.

HOW LOW DOES HUMANITY, THAT HAS BEEN SO BLESSED, HAVE TO SINK?

What did anyone think (when they took a break from their hits on the bong) would happen when the glue of God, authentic self esteem, family, community and church was continually removed? What does any idiot think would happen if one removed the glue from any structure that is made up of parts held together by that glue? It all falls down.

Understanding prayer via faith and reasoning

In the news one reads that people ask for prayers in time of hardship, for themselves and for others, such as loved ones. Some if not many of those requests are sincere and justified. Some are sincere but not justified, and others are insincere. The great worry is who exactly are they recommending praying to? Here is where I want to use an analogy to help you to better discern what is really going on and to understand genuine, effective prayer.

Genuine, effective, justified prayer is directed to God alone. Now, some of you may ask, wait a minute, what about traditional cultural prayers that are directed to presumed divine entities other than God? Remember, as I have always stated, I am not critiquing traditional faiths that are not monotheistic. However, many, if not most, modern people, particularly those who have access to the media, are hypocrites who try to artificially cement together some sort of New Age "belief" where they believe in God when it is convenient, but they subordinate God's reality and primacy to pieces of crazy quilt chunks of "other faiths," resulting in pure idolatry that they punctuate with supposed belief in God. In essence while they state God on occasion with their mouths, they venerate the works and beliefs of their own hands and thus are idolaters. This is particularly true of those who claim (in Star Wars kind of voices) that the "force" is with them. That is a thinly disguised idolatry where they feel they can manipulate power that is "available" to them. So I thought of this analogy to help you, especially young people, who have been raised on a diet of believing in theoretical cartoon super heroes but not the real God.

When one prays to God, one can put in front of God your wishes for resolution of a matter, but you realize that God may or may not respond to your hopes as you may wish. So in this sincere and justified prayer, you know that God is in control, and that he will do what he will, and that even disappointing results will yield at some point that you cannot see good fruit and grace. Grace is given to those who pray in this way, with a sincere heart, to God, not as a "reward" for obeying, but because that IS the way it "works."

When one prays to some sort of "forces" in the "universe," and worse, actually perform deeds and works to try to invoke the powers of those forces, one is, of course, treading on the ground of witchcraft, sorcery, idolatry, fraud, self deception and danger. Here is the analogy to help you. Most defenders of such beliefs use the expression that they are "tapping into" this or that "force" or "gift." The English language idiom "tapping into" means to insert a device by which one can siphon off a flowing product. Thus people who harvest tree sap for making syrup "tap into" the tree. People who steal TV cable service "tap into" the legitimate cable with their own connection leading to their own TV. People who listen in on phone conversations "tap into" the telecommunications signal. New Age believers and other idolaters most closely envision themselves "tapping into" electricity, just like plugging an appliance into the electrical wall outlet.

So here are the two problems with that imagery. One is the obvious that they are all "tapping into" not divine "universal" forces but simply strongly concentrated manmade or otherwise created "forces," and by no means are they tapping into anything divine or of God, not even his smallest fingernail's worth. When one plugs an electric fan into the wall, one is using a manmade plug to insert into a manmade socket in a manmade wall to access manmade wiring that carries man generated electricity (that you receive manmade bills for and pay with manmade money) all generated by a manmade power plant. So their understanding of how the universe is bogus from the get go because they are mixing apples and oranges in their own verbiage and understanding. The "forces" of the "universe" are not "just like" "tapping into" "something." When one prays to "forces" and attempts to invoke them through works, deeds and thoughts, you are, by definition, working only with manmade devices. You are not surrendering to God your problems, your hopes, and your faith, and "allowing" God to respond as he will. You are simply juggling, fruitlessly, manmade concepts, devices and efforts.

So that is the faith part of the faith and reasoning balance. Faith is understanding and believing that there is God alone, God who is in control and who will respond, even if you cannot see, cannot fully believe yet, and cannot comprehend his reasoning. As the man said to Jesus, "Lord I believe, help my unbelief." Faith is being at that starting point of genuine belief, even though one needs assistance, from God himself, and from others in the genuine faith community (which is why the pathway of the genuine saints is often studied by those seeking to develop and strengthen their own faith). "Tapping into forces" is not faith. It is idolatry, which is to attempt to give godly powers to devices and imaginings of one's own making. There is an entire industry and self delusion about "tapping into" "one's own" "inner" whatevers, including presuming one has one's own "godliness." I think not, and I have yet to meet a single person alive today who has had a genuine godly thought in him or her. Godliness comes only from God himself, I mean, duh. "Tapping into" forces or one's self leads away from God, not toward him.

Therefore, let's give the person who is "tapping into universal forces" some credit in this next part of the analogy. Let us suppose he or she (I use expressions like 'manmade' for brevity and also for ease of reading by those who do not have English as their first language) responds to my criticism of the plugging an appliance into the manmade electrical power generator and he or she says, "Fair enough, what you say is accurate. But what do you say if I change my thinking so that I'm not tapping into a manmade electrical outlet, but tell you that my imagery is tapping into the power of natural electrical forces in the universe, such as lightning, or the electric field of the planets, etc." You see, there is the problem. Even a sincere minded person such as this imaginary dialog partner continues to try to "tap into" something that is mindless. Do you really want to try to wield supposed power from a lightning bolt? Or imagine that you are gathering in your hands the electrical force field that is in theory emitted from Pluto or whatever? First of all, this person is assuming that like maple syrup that such fields truly exist and they exist in a divisible and usable way. How does a person using reasoning and logic respond to this preposition? Reply, "OK, all powerful one, hand me some gravity. Just break off a piece for me to carry around and use."

Quickly the logical person perceives that no power in the universe can be "tapped" or "utilized" without a manmade device. The only way someone can "hand you some gravity" is to build devices that allow you to experience forces of gravity, or punch you in the face and abuse you until your battered body hits the floor due to gravity. Neither is very godly. You see, using logic and reasoning you are able to not get swept away in a bogus analogy but say, "Well, hang on, how exactly would that work?" And you remember that the "forces" in the universe are emitted due to natural activities, and any "tapping" of them is not divine, but good old machinery if done in reality, and good old idolatry if done in one's mind.

Again, giving the person credit for being sincere, although totally lacking in genuine faith and understanding, imagine that he or she says, "Well, alright then. You've got me there. But that does not explain ESP." (What self puffed up people call being "psychic" nowadays). Erm, um, sorry, but oh yes it does. What do you "tap" into your supposed ESP or "psychic" power with? A human brain. And we all know the human brain is far from all powerful or divine. I mean, you can't even explain migraines but you think that because some ESP power is a reality that this is somehow evidence that you wield divine ability or "tap into" "universal forces?" I think not. Again, just like tapping the maple tree to get the sap to make the syrup, the human body and all of its parts are a created thing, not divine. Those of you who have been reading my God the All Knowing series understand how a human brain (no matter how presumably "smart" the person is) cannot be compared to God's All Knowing. See, a person cannot "tap into God consciousness" because the human brain is limited by not only its obvious size and other flaws but its structure as, like the tree, a created object. God exists outside of time, outside of matter, and outside of energy (aka "forces") and thus cannot be understood nor can he be "accessed" by any created object, such as a brain in a body, since those are totally in the world of matter, energy and time.

Just to go a little further with this, again, anticipating what the person might respond to this, consider angels, genuine angels. They were created by God and abide in his realm, where there is no matter, energy or time. That is why they are able to receive and share in God's beatific vision. But just suppose for argument's sake, in order to help you to understand this crucial point, for some reason, to show this to you, God took an angel from heaven and put him into a human body on earth. That angel would no longer be able to receive or share in God's inner being since the angel is now within "incompatible with God hardware," to use a computer term. Any created object, particularly the human body, is incompatible with "tapping into" God. Totally. Those of you who are geeks and wonks can probably best appreciate this understanding. God is outside of time, matter and energy, and humans would be an input/output device that is entirely bound by time, matter and energy. Angels are entirely outside of human and universe constraint in that they are created, but they are created by God outside of time, energy and matter.

So no, not even genuine powers of ESP demonstrates any "tapping into" of supposed "universal forces," since it is simply an evolved trait of animals too, akin to what we call animal instinct. It's a survival trait and what is a survival trait? An ability that helps a biological being (created not divine) to survive (its matter and energy continues to exist for a period of time). Voila!

The scales certainly should be falling from some eyes now. It is so abundantly clear that prayer is directed toward God and God alone, and can not and should not be confused with even impressive attempts, all of which are manmade or man controlled, to "tap into" natural energy in the universe (energy being created by God but not of God or angels at all) or to vaunt their own biological survival traits, such as ESP, which again are survival traits because they assist in achieving a measure of time (time) of life (matter and energy), again which is totally not of God. Created by God, yes, "of God," no. Prayer is the only I/O "device" that bridges the totally incompatible hardware of humans (time, matter, energy) and God (eternity, always being, no matter or energy, those being only some of his creations but not what he "dwells" within.) And prayer only "works" because you are not attempting to manage God's reply, his "output."

I hope you have found this to be helpful.

A creative writing and mental cleansing exercise

A creative writing and mental cleansing exercise

I’ve noticed that this modern society is very much into “cleansers,” usually for imaginary “detoxing” reasons, including the puzzling popularity of “colonics.” Well, detoxing and cleansing are of course worthy and important concepts in general, so here are a mental and spiritual cleansing exercise. Its purpose is to help people realign themselves into a more realistic perception of actual life and prudent separation from the depressive and paranoid imaginations that moderns now suffer from (and inflict on each other). This is also part of the faith and reason case studies, with a focus on regaining more authentic reasoning capabilities. Since it is a creative visualization exercise, you can also use this is part of my series on creative writing and arts exercises that focus on reality to provide positively imaginative and cutting edge creativity.

The basic premise of this story, this visualization, is that we are going to think of a scientifically and realistic, factual way to determine what actually happened each day in human history. In this story the reason that such a capability is created is that humans have lost the ability to look on their own past with any balance and reason. Here is an example of the problem. Some people are fascinated by ancient Indian cultures, such as the Aztecs, Mayans and Incans, because they consider certain segments of their culture to be either “cool” or “enlightening and mystical.” Thus they think that because there are certain cultural developments in their pagan mythologies and supposed forecasting of world events and so forth through their calendars that are exciting, mysterious and cool that the whole society had undue merit. By “undue merit” I mean that rather than just appreciating that they were fellow human beings who raised children and did the best they could, they are given, by some people, a numinous elevation in their importance. In fact, this elevation obscures the very unpleasant facts of their bloody torture and sacrifice of thousands and thousands of innocent people, including infants. As schools have become less judgmental and more “politically correct,” young people are less exposed to the mundane realities of human history and as a result turn to the imaginary entertainment media and other “soothsayers” who focus on the “cool” parts of human history and ignore the rest. This has led modern society into an awful mess and the ability to reason for millions of people has been polluted and damaged.

So let us suppose that there is a factual and scientifically valid way to take someone who has such a viewpoint, put them into a room, and turn on a television that allows them to see what actually happened on any given day in, let’s say, an Aztec city. This would be an actual viewing of the minute by minute genuine activities as they occurred. So there would be many hours of footage of watching people just do their day to day lives, raising children and slogging and toiling in the fields.

Here is the scientific principle of how this would work. It is important to understand that there is a way that pure factual science could in theory provide this capability. It is important to have a factual and scientific approach as part of the mental cleansing exercise so that one does not imagine that “aliens” or “seers” “provide” this “gift.” It is that mindset, both conscious and unconscious, that has gotten society into this dire mess of toxic mentality. So here is the science. Most people know that we are able to see and hear things because energy is reflected and/or emitted outward where the ears and the eyes then “catch” that energy and therefore perceive what is happening. We also know that the light continues onward into space. This is how we see the stars, because their light travels long distances until it reaches our eyes. Many jokes have been made on this principle that imaginary aliens will someday receive the first beams of our first television programs and enjoy (or puzzle over) “Howdy Doody” and “I Love Lucy.” So using that scientific principle, let’s take it a step further and build a system where not just television and radio waves but all waves, light and sound, are picked up in space to provide a real time image of what was happening on the surface of the earth.

So imagine that a million light years from earth (the distance that light travels in a year) we had cameras that were so powerful that they could collect the light of everything that was actually happening on earth, and so refined that they could detect down to the individual human or animal’s activity. In other words it is like installing a powerful traffic live cam except the events have already taken place and these cameras are positioned far enough out in space to collect all this light. Similarly microphones would be installed so that all sounds that were ever emitted were captured and matched to the visual images. This is, of course, where the science breaks down since all light and all sound is not preserved indefinitely nor are they powerful enough to actually live on in space. If you drop a book in your house the people on the street do not hear it because the sound waves do not travel farther than the walls of your home. But for the purpose of this exercise, let us assume that it is possible to gather all of the light and sound waves that were ever emitted on earth and view/listen to them as a genuine live stream of what had actually happened minute by minute on earth.

Thus one could take an Aztec admirer and put him or her in a room that receives these transmissions and they could watch and see and listen to any particular day of events in a given location in that time. So the viewer could flip the dial and watch a selected location on a selected day. Remember, they are not “back there” “in time” as if in a supposed “time machine,” they are simply watching, like on TIVO, what had actually happened in the past.

Nothing would restore mental balance and sanity faster. Anyone could watch day after day of reality, the boring mundane existence of people who had to labor for the food that they ate. However, one would also see that the one joy that people had was their children. People could watch day after day, year after year of this “television into the past” and essentially observe as it happened the reality that life was difficult compared to today in that everyone had to labor long hours just to survive, growing their food, building shelter, obtaining water and heat and raising their children. People could then also observe that children were the one gift that everyone had and valued… children were the treasure that even the poorest could “afford.” Such observing would take the glamour out of the few minutes of prurient and occult activity and perception of the culture as a whole, and restore the luster of understanding that through the generations it was children that were the goal of all of day to day human activity. Children were the reward for living, and rich and poor both agreed and were able to share in that common perception of the priority of life.

Thus one could restore through this television into the past a dose of the day to day reality as it occurred, not as compressed summaries or sound bytes of the exciting and mysterious “bits.” Further, one can then debunk the mystery of how things happened. One would see that no alien spaceships arrived to “give” the Aztecs or the Mayans “their calendar.” They could flip the channel and watch those who worked on those labors scratch their heads and observe phenomena that they did not understand (such as the stars), and then assemble the “facts” of what they saw into theories of world view. We could see if maybe the calendar turned out the way it did because King Freddie the Stubborn was in charge and the palace astronomers knew that he wanted the calendar to turn out a certain way. We could see that maybe one of the court astronomers is nagged by his hag wife and thus is in a bad mood whenever he works on the calendar. He thinks it is funny that he carves one of the snake gods to look like her. And then flipping the channel the observer could see how very uncool the roundup of the month’s bloody sacrifice of village people really was.

So using this television into the past people could book time in the television room to see what really happened in life in the past. It would serve two purposes. One is the obvious exciting ability to see what is true. For example, one could dial in and see the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. One could see that slaves built the pyramids, not freaky aliens who flew in on a ship and told the slave masters what to do. So with the television into the past one could settle all sorts of debates about what actually happened and what did not. But more importantly, and you may not believe this but it is true, the second purpose would be to observe how human life is like watching paint dry. It is NOT about the supernatural and human power mongering moments that occur in a period of moments or days, or during the reigns of forgotten despots and kings. It is about millions of people at a time walking around doing what they have to do to survive in a day, and build a society where their children can at least live and eventually thrive.

This is why such a capability is so detoxing and mentally cleansing. It would counteract and refute the over stimulated and distorted “sound byte” and “visual byte,” say nothing of the “enlightenment byte” that has polluted modern faculties. Nothing would restore genuine balance more than watching, oh let’s say a million years, of early humans walking around picking berries and roots, hunting for animals to eat, finding caves to live in, and raising their children, and that’s it. A day of viewing would reveal exiting things such as what prehistoric animals existed and how humans got by in such a difficult life, but quickly one would see that the real message is the “typical day:” drink water where you can find it, lapping it like an animal, dig for roots, pick fruit, eat some leftover animal kill, shelter from the sun and from predators, carry your children. What an exciting “direct TV” package that would be! One could watch millions of days of people trudging along trying to survive and valuing their young (that’s their young, such as their children, not their youth, such as the lack of wrinkles).

One could see, as I mentioned, that Jesus Christ really existed. One could also watch the real Buddha sit under the real tree. One could see the miracles of Jesus, including, of course, his resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven. But the television would not ultimately give one faith in God, of course. All one can do is see and believe the reality of God’s prophets. One could look down on the Israelites and see the great Theophany of God on Mount Sinai as they did, where God descended like a thunderous cloud and appeared to Moses alone. But of course watching the real events does not infuse faith into one’s heart thousands of years later. That is the whole point of the scriptures: you have to have actually been there to feel that full infusion of belief. The Apostles repeatedly explain that in their writings that they saw all of this with their own eyes and participated. One of the early Church fathers wrote about people who had seen Jesus and been cured by him still being alive and witnessing to the reality many years later. When one is part of the day to day one receives the full infusion of belief because you are part of the reality. But even the most perfect TV that allows one to look back in time, even in the side by side minute by minute way, cannot give the same fullness of infusion of impact of the events and the faith that is engendered as having actually been there and participating. That is the entire point of genuine history: you study and believe the people who were actually there.

So now I’ve created almost a longing for this past TV capability among you, I would guess. That is a good thing even though it cannot be technically fulfilled. That craving can be satisfied as it always was traditionally, until these modern dreadful times, which is through study and discernment of the facts, using faith and reasoning. There is a plentitude of literature by those who lived, for example, during the time of Jesus, the decades after Jesus, the hundred years after Jesus, and the two hundred years after Jesus. Moderns can actually read the facts of what people said, saw and believed and then decide on the impact on their faith. Instead we have people running around thinking that either nothing can be believed or everything can be believed as having actually happened, or worse, “could have happened.” I’ve pointed out in this post and other previous postings that there is a vast difference between the facts of real people who lived and existed, such as Jesus Christ, the Buddha, the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), and giving equal credence to writings that are mythologies (such as the fictional Greek and Roman pantheon of deities) and even worse than that, not reading any of the facts of who lived and what happened and making up by pulling out of one’s own mind and paranoia imaginary scenarios of “aliens” and so forth.

Sane thinking and sane living involve this order of progression:

1) Read and study factual accounts where they occur, whether writings or scientific records, such as fossils and geological formations.
2) Identify correctly those productions of humans that are pure imaginary that are done for cultural reasons and thus have value, of course, but are not factual.
3) Develop theories (called “hypotheses”) for the missing gaps, for what is not understood, but starting with the firm foundation of what is known and what can be reasonably inferred and deduced.

This used to be the way that individuals, groups and societies used to think and perceive reality. I am horrified to the very roots of my hair at how fewer and fewer people think in a clear, cleansed and factual way in these dreadful modern times. The imaginary has overthrown and distorted the reality.

Why has this happened? The obvious two reasons are that prosperity has separated too many power brokers from the reality and tempo of actual life, life that used to center around survival first and prosperity second. The second reason is that entertainment media has taken over the thought process of the vast majority of people, also the result of prosperity. People no longer value facts and reasoning, all they care about is “imagining,” “escapism” (which then becomes their new and horrible reality) and artificial or extreme sensation seeking. Any given hour of modern media gives more stimulation than an entire year of actual life would have among even the Aztecs. That is what has been totally lost in the modern psyche and what our theoretical “past TV” would provide the instant cure for.

So what do we do? We have to get back to genuine reality of perceptions within a reasonable tempo of life. Humans never lived in a time where our children, for example, can experience a daily diet of overstimulation. Even in the most dreadful times of war, for example, in human history, the vast majority of people had to plod each day to the fields to tend to the crops, their herds of animals and their children. No human ever experienced a daily or even a monthly or yearly diet of over stimulation as do our children and adults in just one hour of video games, television viewing, celebrity antics or the news, which contains so much that is dreadful. I’m not calling for censuring, but rather an understanding of times that have passed. It used to be, when I was young, that one could go a year without hearing about, for example, a father or mother killing their entire family. Now one cannot go through a day without hearing another example. I’m not saying that the news should not be reported, by using this example. I am pointing out that the news all by its self is over stimulating because of these events in these awful times, so why in the world is fuel being added to the fire of overstimulation on top of the sad reality? As I said, even in the worst of human times no child or adult experienced a relentless hour by hour day by day exposure to tragic real or imaginary over stimulation. Even work has become combative in modern times, with people having warlike analogies for their every day activities.

Think about that. If you could watch our “past TV” you’d notice that it’s not like the Smiths who grew corn on their acre imagined “marketing war” with the Jones who grew barley on their acre. Rather, even the Bible documents rules for how farmers should lend each other their tools. Yet we have corporations who are structured in totally warlike “free market competition” and individual “competitiveness” (look at the torture of the “human resources” departments with their “performance review system”) and you’ll see what I mean. I've spent years in corporate America and it is unrecognizable from where it was in the 1950’s where one could be competitive on one’s own initiative rather than competitive based on principles of looting, torture and war.

If you watched our “past TV” you’d see that generation after generation tried to do better for themselves and their family, not compete, loot and over stimulate. Farmer Smith would hope that next year he could extend his field another few feet in one direction in order to fit in another row of corn, and thus do a little better. Farmer Jones would hope that she could extend irrigation to another part of her field, and thus ride out times of low rain better. They didn’t plot against each other and instead they supported each other. Their kids did not go home believing that aliens talked to bug eyed Egyptians and played video games of how many they could slaughter. Humans simply are not meant to be as they are today; they are not meant to be like the moderns are today either spiritually or biologically, as “past TV” could show what kind of lifestyle and outlook humanity is evolved to be part of. Humanity is meant to be in a reality based incrementally improving standard of living that is individual, family and community based, punctuated by moderate stimulation as needed (times of crisis, sports, adventurers), and all revolving around one’s treasure of investment which is children, the present and the future.

To summarize, therefore, “past TV” would provide the following mental cleansing:

1) It would remind people that factual evidence exists to discern between what actually happened and the imaginary works of humans.
2) It would remind people that there is a tempo of life that people emerged and evolved into, and have now totally lost in the vast parts of modern society.
3) It would starkly demonstrate that modern humans have become paranoid and combative by their own choice and thus the imposition now of society, particularly modern workplace and “entertainment” ethos and that such an attitude never existed in even the most pained and troubled times of human history.

It is of the most desperate importance that everyone, individually and in our systems such as schools, return to a reality based process of learning and thinking. I hope I’ve provided one small but helpful visionary tool, where people can once in a while stop and think, “What would ‘past TV’ show us about what actually happened and how people genuinely lived?” You will develop a much refined and truer taste for everything, from intellectual to entertainment, if you do this, without losing any of the benefits and pleasures of genuine imagination, including for diversion.

What a mess.
:(

Bible reading: Isaiah 44:14-17

How people foolishly make idols.


Isaiah 44:14-17

He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest; he planteth an ash, and rain doth nourish it.

Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto.

He burneth part thereof in the fire; with part thereof he eateth flesh; he roasteth roast, and is satisfied: yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire:

And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image: he falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me; for thou art my god.

***
Human plant trees like the cypress, the heavens water it, humans receive the goodness of heat, cooking food with it, and then with the leftover wood turns around and makes an idol and worships it, expecting the scraps to have "magic" power, a god, to "deliver" him. As line 20 says "He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside."

Bible Reading: Baruch 6:58-64

How much better to be a king displaying his valor, or a handy tool in a house, the joy of its owner, than these false gods; or the door of a house that keeps safe those who are within, rather than these false gods; or a wooden post in a palace, rather than these false gods!

The sun and moon and stars are bright, and obedient in the service for which they are sent. Likewise the lightning, when it flashes is a goodly sight; and the same wind blows over all the land. The clouds, too, when commanded by God to proceed across the whole world, fulfill the order; and fire, sent from on high to burn up the mountains and the forests, does what has been commanded.

But these false gods are not their equal, whether in beauty or in power; so that it is unthinkable, and cannot be claimed, that they are gods. They can neither execute judgment, nor benefit man. Know, therefore, that they are not gods, and do not fear them.

The problem with assuming heaven for anyone

I was reading an interesting commentary by a well known Catholic priest on his blog, and many equally interesting comments. It was stimulated by the death of a priest who had suffered a long illness. Apparently what would normally have been a funeral Mass had become a quite secular sounding "celebration of life," with much jolly recollection of his giving and his larger than life personality. This prompted the blogging priest to do some soul searching and wonder if that is really the right thing to do as he explained, correctly, that the purpose of the Catholic funeral or requiem Mass is to pray for God's mercy for the soul of the departed. Making the funeral a "nice guy send off" with the usual statements that we all hear at many funerals these days "surely he or she is in heaven with God 'already'" presents several problems. By the way, before I discuss any further, two points. I'm not linking to the discussion because it's easy to get caught up in extraneous detail about how nice guy/traditional or whatever he was, and that's not the point or, at least it should not be. The second point is that any truly pious and honest faithful believer who hopes to understand God at all, whether you are Muslim, Christian or Jewish, has, throughout history, never presumed that the deceased has done a "cake walk" straight into heaven. In fact, it is the solemn duty of the faithful in all denominations to pray at the memorial or funeral gathering for God's mercy on the soul of the departed. It is a modern innovation, and one that is not helpful to either the deceased or his or her family, to presume that the person is in heaven, to say nothing of assuming he or she is already wearing their halo and has special orders from God.



Now, I am not being insensitive. We do know, for example, that infants who perish of course are not judged and have no barrier to immediate presence with God. We know this from the implications of what Jesus said, which is to not harm children or lead them into sin because their angels always face God directly. In other words, there is a straight sinless channel between children and God, and this is why Jesus warned in the strongest imagery to not introduce sin to a child who is naturally in a sin free relationship with God. Thus one can infer from Jesus' own words with great confidence that the only group one knows with certainty who immediately achieve heaven, since they are innocent of sin by virtue of their youth, are children. (By the way, traditional Catholic doctrine believes that at the age of seven children become able to identify sinful behavior, and thus become responsible if they sin, and it is for that reason that children are at that age taught the sacraments of Confession followed by Holy Eucharist). This is why Jesus warned to, rather, cut off an arm rather than to lead a child into sin, because children do not have a "carte blanche pass to heaven until they are like eighteen or twenty-one because they are soooooo young" by any means, and thus the adult sinner who depraves children by teaching them sin is fully accountable to God, and Jesus implies that hell will be their reward.

The only adult who ever lived who one knows in total confidence resides in heaven and immediately achieved heaven upon passing, and in his case, by ascending, was Jesus himself. This is because heaven is the natural home of Jesus, and being of part of the Holy Spirit by birth, he had purity that cannot be impugned. Further, Jesus was in existence in heaven before he was born, as I explained in more detail in a recent blog posting, and thus, with his ascension, Jesus truly of anyone "returned home" directly to heaven.

The only adults who had an absolute guarantee of heaven, and they wisely did not rest their laurels on that guarantee, but continued to live in "hope" were the Apostles themselves. Jesus virtually guaranteed them heaven when he spoke of their being reunited there, obviously. One can also infer this guarantee from the famous event where the mother of James and John sought a promise from Jesus that each of her sons would sit in what she assumed would be Jesus' earthly kingship at places of honor at his right and left hand. He replied that only God can bestow such honor, meaning, only God determines who has what portion of heaven granted to them. You can safely read into what Jesus was saying that he was essentially stating they would be with him in heaven, but he cannot speak on behalf of God, who judges entry to heaven and then the placement therein. My point is, though, if you read what the Gospel authors, especially Peter, Paul, James and John wrote, you clearly see they take even their status most certainly not for granted, and continually live in "hope" of being redeemed and saved to join Jesus in heaven. Thus we know that while scripture teaches that Jesus redeems all believers from original sin, all humans are still accountable to personal judgment by God. No one "bypasses" being judged by God.

So to get to the heart of the matter, why is it a disservice to the dead, particularly those who seem to be most worthy and virtuous, to omit or breeze over the "praying for God to give mercy to their soul" part and just get right to the "celebration of life" with much mirth and joy about how good that person was and how surely they must be rewarded now in heaven. Well, as I said, ask anyone, particularly a Muslim, and they can explain to you that it is a solemn duty to not presume on behalf of God, and that it is the sole purpose of the last religious rites to expressly pray for God's mercy for the departed. The reason I say to ask any Muslim is because they retain the most of the three faiths contact with what was expected at funerals, which is exactly that, not a memorial party (which if held, no problem, but not as a substitute for the humility of the funeral prayers on behalf of the departed). This is precisely why Orthodox and Catholics retain a solemn funeral or requiem Mass.

All faiths recognize, even if they have difficulty remembering this in these modern narcissistic times of minimizing sin, that only the pure can enter heaven. Who is pure? No one but, as I've said, the youngest children who have not been exposed to sin. Muslims assume that God's mercy and acceptance of the worthy deceased into heaven renders them pure and worthy to obtain heaven. That is true, but based on scripture Christians (all of them, until the "Reformation") identified the process of rendering worthy deceased to be pure enough for heaven as the state of "purgatory." I explain the Biblical basis for purgatory in previous posts which can be found by following that label. Thus Catholics retain an understanding that praying for the dead is of benefit to them and Biblically justified, as it assists the deceased in their preparation for entry to heaven. Basically it all comes back to praying to God to have mercy on the soul of the loved one, overlooking and forgiving any shortcomings or sin that they retained at death. And that is the rub.

No matter how worthy and wonderful a person seems on the outside, living a virtuous and outstanding life, I can absolutely assure you that there are flaw and sins of both omission and commission that no one knows about but God. Rather than being less true of a priest, that is even more true of a priest. A priest, like a physician, has a special burden and responsibility. Physicians, in theory, are giving and do great things. But to assume that a priest pops sin-free right into heaven is like assuming that a physician never abuses a patient or takes drugs because he or she is "so good" and "knows better." Um, not exactly. Studies show that physicians are particularly vulnerable to both drug and alcohol abuse, and the list of abuses by many is becoming quite long and shocking. I mention this comparison so that you better understand what I am about to explain about priests.

No matter how many specific duties of a priest you list, their responsibilities are basically only two, in the eyes of God. One is to conduct the worship of God. The other is to ensure the proper faith formation of their flock. All specific duties fall under those two responsibilities. Now, where does "being the most fun loving and generous priest, a real hoot to be around, who anyone can talk to about their problems, and who kids get a kick being around" fall under of those two? Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock... still waiting for your answer. I know far too many priests who fall for the "cool priest" popularity trap, and the more the flock celebrates at his funeral his cute personality and fun at athletic outings, the more God is simultaneously asking him to account for the missed opportunities where the priest was more concerned with being "Mr Cool," "Mr Popularity" or "Mr Administrative Whiz" rather than 1) conducting worship of God and 2) ensuring the proper faith formation of their flock. TRUST ME. Priests, like everyone else, do a lot of purgatory time and can use your prayers. Also trust me, you'd be surprised how many priests, pastors, preachers, imams, "bishops" (the Protestant and non-denominational variety), rabbis and etc end up in hell, sad to say. Not for the omissions that I mention above, of not being diligent in worship and faith formation of their flock, but for modern day idolatry.

I will confine my comments and severe cautions to Christian religious, both Catholic priests, nuns and other religious and non-Catholic "men and women of the cloth." I have blogged before and will repeat that God is fully aware of how many Christians proclaim God and Jesus Christ out of one sides of their mouth, while retaining pagan beliefs in ideas such as "reincarnation" and occult fortune telling on the other side of their mouth. Some of these beliefs are totally secret from others but their family and fellow believers, while others are shockingly open about it (still thinking, though, that people "don't know their 'secret learning'" and, incredibly, they think God does not know.) Some actually believe that their family members are "reincarnated saints" or members of the Holy Family (I cannot describe how high up the blasphemy scale those thoughts and worse deeds in fulfillment of that belief are in God's eyes). I've been insulted to my face by Catholic priests who engage in what they think are secret occult beliefs, and if I know, trust me, God who knows every subatomic particle that ever existed, or will, etc etc knows every thought and impulse by these men, and by the nuns who likewise are cultists. Those are not problems of purgatory (forget "going immediately to heaven") but are rather most dire perils of hell.

I have to be painfully blunt. It is such a prevalent problem that when I read of the death of a priest, a nun, or friar, or of Christian pastors of any denomination, I now always think, "I hope that they are not one of the ones who think that their aunt is reincarnated Mary Magdalen" or that Jesus is "channeling" them because they have a prominant Leo or Sagittarius horoscope chart. That's not purgatory material, that's hell material. When I was studying cultists undercover I was shocked to see that some of the worse blaspheming cultists constantly declare their love of Jesus Christ at the same time. I learned that this is because they think they *shudder* have actual reincarnationed connection "within" the Holy Family itself. Many of them have contaminated men and women religious of their family with that belief. They are modern Eves and even more shocking than that, lacking any shame or regret.

This is why one cannot assume that even the most beloved priest, for example, is absolutely assured of heaven because, in fact, only God knows what is truly in their heart. You cannot assume the best of priest goes to heaven any more than you can assume that the best physician never conducts malpractice, or has a secret addiction that impairs the welfare of their patients. I mean, you can't be paranoid, but that is why you don't judge, God does. This is why solemn prayers for mercy of God on each deceased one, including priests, is essential, because you do not know all that God knows, for which they may need a great forgiveness.

But back to the discussion of what we hope are the vast majority of friends, family and priests who are worthy and who will, with God's mercy, gain heaven. There is no human who does not need purification of the sin that they conducted, both through commission and omission, in their lives, period. If you read my posts on the subject you will see that Isaiah, the great prophet of God who foretold Jesus Christ, insisted on purification (from which the Church understands purgatory) before he would speak to God when God first called him. Angels brought hot coals with tongs from God's altar because this holy man knew he had "unclean lips" and lived among those of unclean lips. One cannot be human and free from sin, and one cannot enter heaven with any stain of sin.

So, in that discussion that I read, that initiated this long commentary, the usual case was cited of the Great Pope John Paul II. Surely he must be in heaven right now, having been so good, faithful and beloved? The answer is that surely we can have confidence that he will gain heaven, but yes, even for him, only after purification from sin, what we call Purgatory. Here is why. The Popes who so dearly love God, as did Pope John Paul II, are beloved in return, and can have confidence in God and Jesus Christ. But what do they mean by "confidence?" Confidence means these holy men understand that they are flawed, no matter how often they confess, and they trust that God and Jesus Christ will lead them to heaven. In other words, their confidence is not an instant passport to heaven, but knowing that God will take them through what they must go through to achieve heaven in purity. So, you might ask, what could JPII possibly be stained from regarding sin? Well, I can say with total love that he was one of the greatest servants of God, but as a result, he had a little bit of a vanity problem. Not about his faith, but because he allowed himself to be manipulated in his "media hound" weakness. He was snookered into some diversion from his image as the Vicar of Jesus Christ, not in his heart, which remained pure, but in his vanity he did not recognize when the media and some around him steered him into some very non-Vicar of Jesus Christ actions. I don't want to make more of it than I already have, but this is an example of what was unrealized by him, but became very clear to him when God revealed all. Pope John Paul II would insist on being the first in line to purify away from him the unrealized erring of vanity that he had unconsciously allowed to divert even an iota from the fullness of his work and image as the Vicar of Jesus Christ.

I guess the best way to summarize it is that assuredly JPII would have been the first to identify times when he was a bit lured away from being in a proper role and mindset as the Vicar of Jesus Christ if it had not been for his personal small, but real, weakness of vanity. The vanity I mean is not lack of humility, to the contrary, but the vanity that comes from thinking that being liked and being amenable to any and all proposed actions in order to be popular, to be loved, and to spread the genuine love of Jesus Christ is the same as being totally true to his role as Vicar to Jesus Christ. Sometimes Vicars of Jesus Christ have to say "no." JPII, to the frustration of those who sought to undermine Church doctrine, never deviated one iota from his purity of doctrine, thank God. But JPII allowed himself to be used in some less than pure agendas, which he did not recognize because of that dash of vanity. So yes, even the greatest and the most loyal to God, and the most loved by God (and Mary) as JPII most assuredly was still needs purification, because of the web of sin that all humans reside within, often so blindly.

I hope this helps. It's not one of my favorite topics, but its inescapable, as there is a terrible crisis of idolatry and hubris among all the faiths, western and eastern. Assuming the gravy train to heaven is one of the largest signs of this problem, and I continue to be astonished at how more have not realized it and the danger and disservice such presumption causes as consequences.

Back when women resisted idolatry

I really enjoyed this commentary on how the women resisted and would not participate in the idolatry of the Golden Calf, maintaining their faith and purity to God while the men lost theirs. This really is a very insightful analysis of both that event in the Old Testament and also a reminder that women used to protect, rather than threaten, piety. Unfortunately today many women are the "temptresses" of being false prophets, carried away with desire for power and "mystery" through new age and occult beliefs, and so they are often eager to destroy, rather than preserve, a family's faith, whether Jewish or Christian. (I admit I almost did not read this commentary because it's very "moon calf" new age sounding introduction. Puhleeze.) But this is a very worthy read for its analysis of a time when women were truly praiseworthy as leaders of the faith. I wish they set the example of orthodox humility and devotion more nowadays as they did then, in the example of the Golden Calf.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1225199607644&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Oct 30, 2008 11:51
Kol Isha: When the women refused to strip off their finery
By RACHEL ADELMAN

The writer lectures in Hebrew Bible and midrash at Matan, the Sadie Rennert Institute for Women's Torah Studies, in Jerusalem, as well as internationally.

snip

In the context of the Golden Calf, the women refrained from contributing their finery (edyan) Later, in response to consequences of the sin, the people stripped off their finery [edyam] (Ex. 33:6) as a symbol of mourning. According to the Talmud, these were the crowns that the Israelites had gained with their declaration of faith at Sinai: "We shall do and then we shall hear/understand" [na'aseh venishma] (BT Shabbat 88a). Because the women did not contribute their jewels to the making of the molten calf, they maintained a loyalty to the original experience at Sinai; they never lost those precious crowns as a consequence of participating in idolatry. The jewels of their words bound them. They were thus rewarded with the Rosh Hodesh festival as the ultimate symbol of integrity, despite the vicissitudes of time.

Loving Math without risking idolatry

Loving Math without risking idolatry

As part of my continuing series on faith and reason, and improving skills in both areas, I’d like to offer more about a topic I’ve previously discussed. Previously I’ve written about mathematics specifically in the context of debunking the occult practice of numerology, and helping people to detox from both the occult and obsessive compulsive disorder of “counting.” Now I want to offer a quick “top down” or “bottom up” (either way, a foundational basis) for understanding God’s stance toward mathematics.

Everyone who is at all spiritual feels the mystical glory of God and his universe in certain settings. Often this setting is in the great outdoors, such as in the wilderness, mountains, seashore or just in one’s own garden or woodlands. Many people, however, feel that wonder in a different way. For example, the late great surgeon Dr. DeBakey said he was gripped with awe at God’s creation the first time he saw an actual human heart during surgery.

Likewise, there are many people who feel awe and a mystical draw when they study mathematics. This is very common and completely understandable. People are especially fascinated with numbers that seem foundational to the universe, such as Pi. They have both a sense of awe but also a sense of “peeking” inside “the secrets” of the universe, measuring and understanding its “inner workings.” And this is the slippery slope that poorly formed faith and reason can lead one upon, even to deliberate or completely unconscious idolatry. This is what I want to explain.

First of all, there really is no such thing as “mathematics” as far as material reality. God did not “create mathematics.” Wow, what could I mean by that? God created the universe (all of it, including “other universes” that some people like to fantasize are hidden from view. They aren’t there but that’s a subject for another blog posting). “What You See Is What You Get.” The reason people fantasize and claim to have calculated “other universes” is that they refuse to accept a physical reality of God’s influence, and so compensate for that “energy,” for lack of a better term, by making up the concept of invisible dimension and hidden universes. That’s an erroneous conceit that refuses to accept that there is a physical reality, motion and movement where the universe “intersects” (for lack of a better term) God’s realm.

So anyway, back to my explanation about God’s view of “mathematics.” God created the entire universe, which is by definition all of reality, comprised of matter, energy and time. God created the universe using three measurements: not enough, just right, and too much. It really is as simple as that: there is no mathematics, just that one measurement based on need and appropriateness. Once God created matter, energy and time, so that for things to exist and events to happen, there had to be “just the right” quantity of all of the three at any given time, God pretty much lets “the chips fall where they may” because natural law, which God created, takes over from there. Mathematics is simply the language that humans use to understand “not enough,” “just right” and “too much.”

Let’s start with the obvious everyday example, which is your car’s gas tank. Your car does not need 10.583393939344444 gallons to work. It needs “enough gas” in your tank to get you to where you want to go, or to the next filling station. Mathematics helps YOU to measure “just right” and avoid “not enough” or “too much.” For example, if your tank only holds 12 gallons of gas, spraying an extra 2 gallons all over the paint finish does not extend the driving range of your car. So “14 gallons” can be easily understood as “too much” for your car to hold at a given time. You may need 14 gallons to get to your planned destination, so you have to plan a gas refill stop at “just the right time” to get at least the additional two gallons. So there is absolutely no significance to those numbers except as a way for humans to measure and comprehend in any given situation “not enough, “just right” and “too much.”

That is why you get strange and mysterious numbers such as PI. It’s not that God started out with that number, “Hmm, what a cool number. That will drive them crazy and make me look really mysterious. Yeppers, I’m going to use that number to make circles with.” Nooooo… what God did was create the concept of a circle, or rather, God creates the physical reality of matter, time and energy that can produce a circle, and the formula that humans “discover,” such as the calculation PI, simply are a way for humans using the numeric system of their choice to measure “what was enough linear distance” in order to create a circle. The fact that it comes out to PI “every time” simply means that the universe does function using measurable quantities of observable things over constancy of time. Some mysterious force is not behind the scenes changing the physical reality of a geometric circle shape, so sometimes PI “comes out to be” 3.1415 etc and other times it is 8.888111, just to use some “numerologically significant” numbers for a giggle and to give occult readers a thrill. LOL.

But back to being serious. All of life, both sentient and inert, can be understood as being simple “not enough,” “just right,” and “too much.” For example, geologists and astronomers understand many of the principles whereby interstellar clouds and gas condensed to form stars and planets. No one needed to know any mathematics for that to happen. If is sufficient to know that when enough dust and matter condenses with enough pressure and enough energy, over enough time, and without an interrupting event, such as an exploding star (hence the quantity of time and distance is sufficient), that things will clump together and form a planet or a star. As illuminating case studies and to learn more about the physical forces and needs, sure, scientists measure using mathematics the raw data so they can better understand the quantities of, yes, you guessed it, “not enough,” “just right,” and “too much.” You don’t sit down to dinner (unless you are dieting and calorie counting, or diabetic) and measure all your food and eat only a “magic number” worth of it. You eat what is “good enough” (calories and nutrition) and “enough” in quantity that it fulfills your needs. For example, if you are going to be working all day and unable to have three meals, you might pack it in during the one meal you do have. There’s no magic number about that. “Oh wow, I’m going to be working all day so I better eat the holy number of seven pancakes instead of my usual holy number of three pancakes.” Er, um, nooooo…. You are eating and “calculating” using “mathematics” what you know you need to eat based on experience to be “enough” aka “just right” in order to get you through your day, in this example.

So why do numbers appear to be “mystical” in the Bible? Again, God creates and oversees events that are “not enough, “Just right,” or “too much.” Humans apply numbers to them by counting, in order to explain to others more precisely what they have seen. That is one extremely obvious and simple reason. When St. John saw the beast, he wanted to describe it in as useful a way as possible, so being precise, he counts what is on the beast (the horns and so forth). This is especially true when the quantity is unusual. For example, when a mystical goat or ram is seen, the Prophets rarely pause to add, “And it had the usual two horns.” Humans tend to count when something is of extraordinary importance to convey to others AND it is out of the ordinary.

The second reason the Bible authors would emphasize holy or extraordinary number is that they unconsciously realize (as modern humans have forgotten) that it is a way to measure how much something is imitating God, or not. So it is not the fact that seven is observed to be a holy number in heaven so much as seven of whatever quantity of item is being counted is “just the right amount” for its purpose. So the beast having “seven” of something does not mean anything so far as the number seven. It means it is mocking or imitating a quantity of what God found good and pleasing and therefore “just right” somewhere else. If you erased all human ability to count and perform mathematics, it would not change one iota the events and meanings of things experienced and recorded in the Bible. It’s not like if the number seven never existed that all things in sevens would never have happened. I mean, duh. It just means that humans could never have achieved a descriptive tool and device (and eventually an engineering capability) that would rely on people being exact about what they observed about the material world.

Because people get all irrational about prophecy, let’s back away from the beast example, but keep it heavenly and prophetic to remain interesting. Revelation 4:4: “Surrounding the throne I saw twenty-four other thrones on which twenty-four elders sat, dressed in white garments and with gold crowns on their heads.” OK, so St. John saw twenty four elders each with his own throne. That’s great! He is able to precisely convey to his readers exactly what he saw. Notice what he did not write. He did not say, for example, “And God told me it’s like this all the time, and that those same 24 are always sitting there for all eternity.” He did not say, “There are always 24 thrones with 24 elders because 24 is a really important number.” He did not say, “And those are the most honored people in heaven, and so it’s like musical chairs, and there are only 24 chairs for the most honored elders.” Um, no to all of that; St. John wisely just records what he saw and what he heard. He knew he was not authorized or given knowledge to speculate, and you will notice that St. John does not interpret any of the furnishings or events of heaven. So obviously you would ask, why where there twenty four elders on twenty four thrones? Because that was “just enough” for whatever God’s purpose was at THAT moment to have St. John present. “Enough” elders were there at that time doing what they do and being whoever they are for that purpose, that message, that tableau, and that vision of a part of the reality of heaven for St. John to be invited to observe. For all you know, “right after St. John left,” 124,333 thrones with elders on each could have been moved in! God is not bound by concepts that humans invent in order to communicate with each other. God did not “place 24 thrones for 24 elders” around his throne, God lets happen the events and participants that suits his will for the needs at the time.

See, St. John lived the longest of all the Apostles, he was the one “who Jesus loved,” he became the son of the Blessed Virgin Mary in order to care for her during her lifetime, and he was the only one not martyred. St. John knew about as much about Jesus and God as anyone who ever lived. St. John did not need to be “given a literal tour” of heaven in order to bolster his faith. St. John only needed to see what was necessary to convey the messages, prophecy and warnings that God desired him to see. So obviously there are more than 24 of the highest and most honored elders In heaven, but God did not have to show St. John that or give him a tour to show him “where the other elders were at” or if indeed “there are only 24 seated by the throne for all eternity.” Maybe yes and maybe no, would be the answer, but it’s not likely to guess that God throughout eternity can be measured so simplistically in his actions. Therefore it was sufficient that St. John observe that 24 elders each with a throne were there, because it was a message that the elders, who are in significant quantity, accompany God in heaven. That is really all one needs to know. The fact that St. John counted the quantity was not because the quantity mattered, but in order to convey to everyone else who was not there, obviously, what he saw as accurately as possible.

So there is nothing wrong with feeling awe and satisfaction about certain numbers. If you ask me what I feel when I think about the event of the elders, I feel satisfaction and fullness because being a country girl, I think of 24 as being two dozen eggs, which represents an abundance. That does not mean that this is the “significance” of the 24 elders. It is a way to share with you that a human reaction to certain numbers is inevitable and completely understandable, and it tends to be related to the enculturation of our upbringing and surroundings. To old fashioned families, a dozen eggs was “an abundance,” while two dozen would be just a plentitude. So I like the number 24, just as I like all numbers, because I have sane and positive associations with all numbers and measurements.

For younger readers let me make an aside, as I enjoy doing about “the good old days,” just because it helps understand the broad range of experience humans have available to them, and how perceptions can be different but positive. I lived for a few months with my grandparents in Berlin, and they were in a semi-rural setting and had chickens, a vegetable garden, and fruit and nut trees. I would go in the morning to check if the chickens laid eggs, and it was always a thrill if one or two were there, or on the very rare occasion three. That was the usual way of families who had a few chickens. Imagine how many chickens they would need to have a dozen eggs at one time! So this is why America in the 1950’s and later was viewed as so incredibly prosperous and blessed. People could easily go into a store and buy a dozen eggs at a time. So “one dozen” grew to be a number that connotes fullness and even some excess. A dozen affordable eggs is “more than enough.” A “baker’s dozen,” which is the quantity thirteen, was even better because it means merchant generosity. The baker would sell to the customer a dozen pieces of bread or rolls, for example, and then throw an extra one in free. So a baker’s dozen is a “great” and entirely positive number, and what is that quantity? Thirteen!

See, people who become detached from farm life, small town reality, and the goodness of simple pleasure have too much time and neurosis on their hands, and so they make up things like magic numbers and numerology. I’ve made the point previously that there is no such thing as an “unlucky” or “bad” quantity of a good thing, and there is no such thing as a “lucky” or “good” quantity of a bad thing. One car crash is enough to kill or maim. So the number "one" is bad? In that case, rather, "one car crash" was "too much."

I mean, numerologists are literally unhinged from the well balanced perception of life. That’s why a very common mental disorder is OCD accompanied by compulsive counting. Farmers who hoped to find one or two eggs laid each morning for breakfast for themselves and their families were not mentally wired to obsessively count or view any quantity as anything other than “not enough,” “just right,” or “too much.” Too much meant you could sell the extra eggs to the neighbors! Anyway, humans have really messed up their wiring and I thought my younger adult readers would relate to the egg laying example since it’s also insight into why I have a “Little Mary Sunshine” attitude toward quantities. I love “Just right” or even more, “abundance,” of good human needs being met. That’s my wiring. I posted about how 3000 mango trees were planted in Qatar and yielded 30 or so cartons of fruit, and I glowed with pleasure and mentally preened as if I had grown them myself, ha. That is because it is not the “magic number” but the “Oh wow, what a great harvest and there’s plenty for everybody” vibe.

So to recap: God does not bless or withhold blessing from “numbers.” God does not manage the universe according to numbers. Humans invented numbers and mathematics so that they could manage the survival necessity of measuring “not enough,” “just right,” and “too much.” Humans are entitled to have pleasure and awe over the mysteries that numbers reveal, and yes, even the fun of number games and puzzles. But humans must be very careful not to be idolatrous and imbue their own simple creation with a magical significance, and certainly not as a mechanism by which to sin and do “identity theft” of God’s will and purpose. Too many people do this nowadays and I condemn it in the strongest terms. Other than that, have a nice day!

Bible Reading: 1 Kings 11: 4-10

When Solomon was old his wives had turned his heart to strange gods, and his heart was not entirely with the Lord, his God, as the heart of his father David had been.

By adoring Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the idol of the Ammonites, Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not follow him unreservedly as his father David had done.

Solomon then built a high place to Chemosh, the idol of Moab, and to Molech, the idol of the Ammonites, on the hill opposite Jerusalem.

He did the same for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

The Lord, therefore, became angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice

(for though the Lord had forbidden him this very act of following strange gods, Solomon had not obeyed him).

***
God had appeared to Solomon twice, had him consecrated King of Israelites, gave him long life and much wealth and knowledge. God even foresaw that Solomon's weakness would be to worship idols nonetheless and TOLD him of this risk from his many wives and women. Solomon still sinned and sinned big time, as you can see above.

This shows how even the great and wise King Solomon can actually have God himself appear to him twice, give him everything he could ever wish for, and yet he still worships imaginary and false gods, even though he saw God with his own eyes.

This also shows there never was another like King David, nor will there ever be again.

Eva sucks toe in photo; Red Cross aid ship sinks

Wow. *Said in unimpressed tone of voice.* Eva Mendes poses topless etc while sucking her own toe for Italian Vogue. At the same time the Red Cross can't even sail a boat of rice and water to the Burmese cyclone victims without sinking. (All four aid workers are rescued, thankfully). I guess people can take all sorts of amazing photographs but they can't land a single boat to feed 1000 people. Strange how it's all connected.

Too bad Eva is not actually biting her own toe nails. Then I could write a public health article about how to stop nail biting and it would actually be a public service. Lots of people nail bite (both fingers and toes, if they are lithe enough). What was a neurotic but mostly harmless activity should be discouraged even more as we are living in more dirty and disease prone environments. I took up nail biting as a child because my mother was deliberately painful and cruel when I was very young and she would cut my nails to the quick, causing pain and bleeding. So I figured out that if I could bite my own nails (not having access to scissors at that age) that she'd never "trim" them for me again, and it worked. It thus became a habit that I had to break. Two of my ex beaus bit their nails, though I never heard a specific reason for them to do so. It didn't bother me at all. However, as a counselor I have been advising people to stop nail biting because in our more hygiene conscious times it is wise to not put your hands in your mouth at all without washing, and biting nails is of course one way you could pick up a bug. Too bad that Eva didn't combine her "edgy" skills with some real *social purpose* LOL!

I don't have any advice about how to not sink an aid boat. I've given up trying to convey common sense and skills when people don't want to hear (or pay me for) my opinion either way. Maybe if Eva was on board the men would have been more careful? Boat overloaded? But the same thing happens with planes, where people overload planes who should know better. What can I say, it is human nature to continually err.

Enough with the "antichrist" moronic thinking

Here's my quote for the day.

"If you have to wonder if someone is the Antichrist, then obviously he isn't. Duh."

When the Antichrist arises in the far distant future, there will be no mistaking who he is. For one, he certainly will not profess any faith whatsoever. So you who believe in Jesus Christ can stop accusing people who believe in Allah or the one God under any other name of being the Antichrist. I cannot believe that anyone is so stupid as to not have understood that. The Antichrist would not be able to profess on his lips belief in God. Geez, I really despair of the intelligence of people in this supposedly educated society.

Second, there will be many false prophets throughout all modern times. These are the evil idiots who create their own religion or claim to be reincarnated holy figures. You just have to put up with them and denounce them. They are not "mini-Antichrists." In fact, many of them that I know are darn eager to see the Antichrist (they should think again about that). I really don't know why so many pseudo Christians are wanking with enthusiasm hoping for the Antichrist and the End of Time. Oh, that's right, you think you'll be raptured out of the ugliness while everyone else has to suffer. That is, as the Catholic Church has repeatedly taught, an incorrect interpretation of Biblical scripture.

The Apostles thought with joy about the coming of the Kingdom of God during the End of Times with pure motivation. They looked forward to the triumph of Christ, they looked forward to the resurrection of the body, and they yearned for a new Kingdom that is no longer stained by the sin and fall of Adam and Eve and their heirs. The Apostles did NOT yearn for the Kingdom of God so that "there would be really cool battle scenes," so that "their enemies would get their asses kicked," and that "bad unbelievers would roast in hell." The Apostles were the Apostles precisely because they would never have such a thought. The Apostles died trying to convert every last person and save every last soul, including those of the people who were actually torturing and killing them.

I cannot believe the bloody mindedness of certain pseudo-Christians who slaver at the mouth at the thought of fellow humans enduring the tribulations, being condemned, and damned. No Christian saint ever thought like that. It's one of the most shocking things I've learned about humans that are "into Armageddon et al."