WHAT ARE YOUR BELIEFS?

AGNOSTIC, ATHEIST, THEIST

WHAT ARE YOUR BELIEFS?

What are your beliefs? A question I’ve been asked more and more of late. Are you an Agnostic, an Atheist or a Theist or a mixture of all? I hesitate to answer. I can’t say, without a doubt what I am. It seems people have a dire need to know the slot where someone fits in. You must be labeled, put in a category all snug and comfy. “There goes George. He’s a Catholic, or a Baptist,” of which there are a blue million different denominations, or, “Old Sambo there, he’s an Atheist, Agnostic or Theist.” Immediately one knows exactly what your beliefs are as though it makes a difference. It isn’t so.

First off I don’t like a label placed on my forehead. Besides I don’t fit wholly into any one of these fields. Yes I’m a back-sliding, non-believer, but I don’t consider myself to be a Theist, nor an Agnostic or an Atheist. I gave up my beliefs a long time ago, before I knew what these labels meant. Maybe there is a god out there somewhere, but it’s surely not the god conjured up by man thousands and hundreds of thousands of years ago and then changed, modified to fit his needs over time. These changes are still taking place. And man still thinks his conjured up god is the only true god.

I read an article this morning about the different beliefs of Agnostics, Atheists and Theists and different combinations of the three, and I still don’t see a place where I would fit in, thank goodness. There are so many different beliefs and sects out there, I don’t think anyone has an accurate count. Is this what a god would want. Especially when each sect is fighting and killing the other over whose god is the true god.

I can emphatically state that I don’t believe in the man-made god depicted in the bible. There is too much out there proving otherwise, if one only opened h/her mind. I would never attempt to show or sway a true blue Christian or believer otherwise. Neither do I ardently dispel that a god of some kind exists somewhere. If there is and we all don’t agree that he, she it is the true god, we as a human race are doomed without an afterlife; the one thing we all are striving for. No god is going to abide by what we are doing to ourselves, and all in the name of a god that doesn’t exist. It’s truly ludicrous.

The god of today, the one divided into thousands of gods, each fulfilling the beliefs of one sect or another, is no better and probably worse than the one prehistoric man conjured up to praise for providing him with food to fill his empty belly, and for providing him with light and warmth from the Sun. Mother Earth and Father Sky are the ones we should still be giving thanks to. In the end they are the ones that are going to determine our outcome.

If there is a god out there, he surely provided these for our benefit. Another question is, does he rein over the universe, the galaxy, our small solar system or is there something more expansive out there, something our greatest telescopes, as of yet, are unable to view.

Maybe we ought to have a book burning like the religious leaders had in the past, i.e. burning anything contrary to their beliefs or that might threaten what they have decided was right for man. The GOOD BOOK, plainly, under close scrutiny, is a plagiarized writing of previously pagan gods and stories that came long before someone decided there should be only one god, needs to be destroyed, or, at least rewritten. Take out all the horror stories, all the threats of facing hell and damnation for not following THE WORD to the letter. No true or loving god would use such scare tactics. Leave in the positive things, the love thy neighbor, do good, spread happiness. Remember honey attracts more flies than vinegar. I remember my dog training days; a soft gentle hand and voice accomplishes much more than harsh words or the whip. It’s so sad I didn’t apply this to raising my children.

No one can say they follow all ten commandments and there probably has never been such a person. This world would be one big monastery if we had.

Live healthy, do good things and love each other. The hippy movement of the sixties never really caught on like it should have. If there is a god out there, he, she, it will notice. And you don’t have to spell his name with a capital g; just plain God is so impersonal, especially when there are so many out there.

YULE TIME CHEER . . God’s Gift

YULE TIME CHEER

God’s Gift

 

The house stood cold, dark and fading. Red lights, attesting that life still lingered from within, twinkled bright in the large picture window of its façade. Isabel lay stiff, her right hand caressed the emptiness beside her. She had helped Adon install that window twenty some years ago. They built the house themselves, one loving board at a time, two years after their late-in-life marriage. They finished the nursery one week before Matea blessed their lives.

Matea arrived the 20^th  day of March at 12:34 AM, red, squirming and squalling, truly a gift. They had so many plans for her, but someone else had other plans. For three years, pale and frail,  Matea endured an illness that couldn’t be fixed. In her seventh year, she was taken on the eve of Christmas day. For another seven painful years, at Yule time, she placed a solitary light in the window in remembrance.

Grief stricken and isolated, Adon threw himself into his work. On that Easter morning he lay cold beside her in their bed. For another seven years she placed two lights in the window.

This year, she did something she hadn’t done for many seasons. She opened Matea’s door, lit a fire in the fireplace, made a drink and slipped into bed after fluffing his pillow.

The next morning three lights lit up the picture window. Cold dank smoke still lingered low throughout the quiet house.

SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH, IS THE BIBLE FICTION OR FACT

SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH

IS THE BIBLE FICTION OR FACT

While searching for more truth on whether the Bible is fiction or fact, I stumbled on something else that surprised me.

My bubble has been busticated, my steam valve opened, my whole soul deflated into a puddle of sap beneath the soles of my feet. And yet, I’m overjoyed. For the past few months, I’ve been researching and writing about my latest passion. Religion and my renouncing of it. This morning I came across an article written 114 years ago expressing all that I want to write about, and pretty much, how I want to say it.

If I believed in reincarnation, I would say I’m this gentleman’s reincarnate. He had all the same ideas, all the same feelings and a religion history as I have. Only one item proved to dispel my reincarnation theory. He was a lawyer, and as most who know me will attest,  I have a strong dislike for lawyers. I could never have been one nor could I ever in any future life be one. But he was an Agnostic as am I.

His Name was Robert Green Ingersoll. Back in 1896, he wrote an article,  Why am I an Agnostic. It is quite an extensive article and it took me all morning to read it and check out a few things.

I cannot believe these things were known that long ago and not have been expounded on. Maybe they were and I just never noticed them. I know they were the things that kept me from becoming a blind faith believer. In fact they drove me from it.

What do I do now? I have a lot of time invested in this project, and I hate being wasteful. Time is one of my treasured commodities. I fear I don’t have much of it left.

Have you ever seen a church sign with this on it. YOU CANNOT FIND EVERYTHING ON GOOGLE, or words to that effect. Big smile. These poor blind sheep. I really do hate to denigrate another’s beliefs. However, this brings me to something else I’ve noticed on the religious programs I monitor. My religious brethren are now accepting the big bang theory as created by the hand of God, and yes, He also had His hands in the long evolution period of mankind. This too brought a smile to my face. I think they are running scared.

And again, man meddles with their god’s infallible  words. I’m finished. . .  No. I’m not. You can’t have it both ways people.

IN THE BEGINNING, THE BIG BANG OR SPLASH

IN THE BEGINNING, THE BIG BANG OR SPLASH

In the beginning, was it a big band or a big splash? Maybe, there was nothing, at least nothing we, we being us here on this speck of dirt floating in what we call the universe, could, can and probably will never conceive. Maybe there was or is a colossal laboratory. In this laboratory there was, and maybe still is, someone or something preparing an experiment of some kind, to find out who knows what. You make up whatever you think it is. This is something we as a human race are good at. We can conceive of many things, but seldom, if ever, can we as a solidarity agree on any one thing. Good or bad, this is our nature.

He, she, it, they make ready a Petri dish filled with what we here on our speck call dark matter, then dropped in what is now us here in the middle of our universe on our microscopic glob in a nondescript galaxy, thus creating the ‘big splash’. Think of a drop of oil splattering onto the surface of water. That drop of oil is our universe expanding.  What represents billions of years to us is less than an eye blink to this lab tech who hasn’t had time to adjust his microscope yet.

Now, can you understand that to us the end of our universe is a long, long way off.

What we need to do is put aside our faithful fears and undying inspirations. We still have time to party down. Brush away the small stuff. Forget the inconsequential and focus on what matters. Do good things for others. Keep a smile on our face instead of a knitted brow. Lend a hand instead of a push. Nearly everyone has heard it, but very few practice it, i.e. DO UNTO OTHERS.

Maybe we are what this lab tech is searching for, maybe not. Maybe we are his experiment. Maybe there are other specks in this or other galaxies out there with more of us or something similar to us on them. Maybe they are more successful than we, more suited for what the lab tech is seeking. Maybe he will pluck us from his Petri dish and cultivate us into something that will do good things for his culture too. This is a lot of maybes. But, what if we keep going in the direction we are headed, i.e.  destroying ourselves and each other as well as our little crumb we call Earth before he can even find us? If we have come this far in one blink of an eye, imagine where we will be and what we might accomplish in several blinks.

Envision what it might be like if we all agreed on one god.

In time we may find the edge of our universe, look into the eye of the lab tech and pray that he saves us from ourselves. By then, it may already be too late.

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WHAT’S IT LIKE GROWING OLD, PART 3of 3

WHAT’S IT LIKE GROWING OLD, PART 3of 3

THINGS I DISLIKE, STOP THAT OLD MAN

I don’t like to be called ‘young man’ when it’s so obvious I’m not a young man. Do people really think it’s complimentary to address an elderly person as ‘young man’ or ‘young lady’? Now, if they were to say ‘you look like a much younger man,’ I’d eat that up. Maybe my distaste for this term stems from me not liking to be fooled or deceived, even if I am an old fool.

 Last week I had my yearly physical. The doctor and I were talking about my age and how physically fit I was. “I see you are seventy-one years young,” he said.

A funny feeling fell over me. I felt slighted. I knew he meant to compliment me, but, for some reason this dislikeable, distasteful, feeling seeped over me. I wanted to scream at him, that’s not me, buster. I sat there glassy eyed for a moment before I smiled and felt my face flush.  I thought you only said that to people in their nineties or someone over a hundred when their age starts over at one again. I want to live that long, but I don’t want to be there yet.

THE FORGETFULNESS SYNDROME,  I CAN’T BELIEVE I DID THAT

I get up and start to the kitchen or some other room to get or do something. Before I get there, I wonder what it was I was going to do. An hour later and out of the blue, it slaps me upside the head. This syndrome happens far too frequently of late.

A thought pops into my head. I’ll write it down after I finish this sentence, I tell myself. It bleeps out and I sit here speculating what it might have been. A page or so later it may come back, or maybe on rewrite it will pop back into my noggin. That’s what I wanted to say before. Quick, get it down before it’s gone again, as I hit the replay button over and over.

I reach for something. What was it I wanted? I remember it when I can’t get to sleep that night. I turn to tell my wife something and just that quick it’s gone. Then she’s gone. I may or may not think of it again.

I set a routine for just about everything I do. Every morning when I make my artificial coffee drink sweetened with artificial sweetener, and my natural drink of apple cider vinegar  sweetened with molasses and diluted with warm water, I do everything in a specific order. If I don’t pay particular attention to what I’m doing, I end up putting my artificial coffee creamer into my natural drink, or the Vinegar in my coffee. Being an ultra conservative type, I never throw them away, I drink them as I made them. They taste terrible, but then they all end up the same place mixed together anyway.

Did I mention I’m dyslexic? I found this out when I was in my mid sixties; about the same time I noticed my mental lapses. Dyslexia is attributed to a malfunction or developmental quirk of the brain. My dyslexia seems to be improving as my memory deteriorates ; I think. What was I talking about?        

 

PRAISE THE LORD, YAHWEH HATH OPENED MINE EYES

Thank God, I No Longer Peer Into the Darkness

Praise the Lord, Yahweh hath opened mine eyes and I see a light shimmering brightly ahead. Thank God, I no longer peer into darkness and no longer do I fear my convictions. A heavy burden hath been lifted from my bosom and my path glows clearly ahead.

I have found the answers to my long search for truth.

Ever since I became a born again Christian on my 24^th birthday over 47 years ago, I have sought after proof positive to my many unanswered misgivings; something beyond blind faith, something beyond, because the bible tells me so. I have always been a Doubting Thomas, and telling me to, ‘just accept it’ has never cooled my fire.

Until a few days ago, when I stumbled onto the correct pathway, I had been searching in all the wrong places. Mainly the sacred writings of the Christian’s Holy Bible, that which I now have proof, to my satisfaction,  is a blatant plagiarized myth filled with fictionalized characters. The Book is a product of man’s desire to prove to himself , as well as others, that the god of his dreams is truly a living god.

When I first became a believer all those decades ago, I was no different than other believers. I blindly and faithfully followed the doctrine of the church I joined. As I studied the bible, things I anguished over became more numerous, answers less satisfying. “Have faith Brother Ray,” became dreaded words. I was told to continue my studies; this happens to most newbie’s, I was assured.

After a few discontented years of unsatisfied answers, I gave up and became a guilt-ridden backslider. I blamed my lack of faith to be at fault. Several years ago, my desire to find truth began itching again. Now armed with the power of the internet, I renewed my search.

Still, an unsatisfying cloud hovered over me. As I studied religion after religion and learned their similarities and differences, it only reinforced my doubts. The things I originally doubted; i.e. who is God, was there really a Jesus, why was God so jealous, why did he allow, and even encourage, his people to war against one another, why is a child born a sinner, why does it appear he answers the prayers of one and not another? And the list goes on and on. This god I claimed as mine, just didn’t fit the profile he sat down for us to follow. I couldn’t see the reasoning behind His Words. They just didn’t tally.

I became a disbeliever. I feared labeling myself, (a fear installed in me as a child and reinforced when I became a believer), as an Atheist, because I still believed there was a god out there somewhere, but probably not the one described in the Book. Therefore, I chose the safer belief and considered myself an Agnostic. I still felt out of place as though I put myself in limbo. I felt sure something was amuck, not only with the Christian religion, but with all religions, they all had a familiarity about them. What I sought was there. I  just couldn’t see it.

Then, behold, there it was. I was in the process of writing a book on how I perceived my newfound beliefs as an agnostic. I researched religion clear back to prehistoric man. I thought I had conjured up a new phrase, i.e. MAN MADE GOD. So just to be on the safe side I googled it. Surprise, someone else had beet me to it. When I recovered from my depression, I began checking out these sites. And low and behold my prayers had been answered, a first for me,  even though I knew not whom I was praying to. I found a fabulous site; a young lady who has been researching and writing articles on this subject since 1995. I mean, she has gobs and gobs of them. I couldn’t consume then fast enough, and I still have a long way to go.

Now I’m convinced beyond a doubt there is no true or original religion on this planet, and probably not on any other planet. I now consider myself a firm non-believer. I’m not trying to convert anyone, and I do agree the Book is a good guide to live your life, there’s something in it for everyone, and therein lies its fallacy. If you are interested, check out the site below. It’s amazing. I wish I had found it long ago. I tell you, I’m exhilarated. I’m more excited than when I became a born again believer. I’m as a kid with a new toy.

Click here if you’re interested.   http://truthbeknown.com