Our literature is a substitute for religion, and so is our religion.
T. S. Eliot
*********************
This is not a sermon. I am not a theologian, not even an amateur one. But I am a reader and student of theological works as I am of philosophy and history. What follows is not a manifesto or testament of my personal religious beliefs nor a scholarly paper subject to peer review, it is a meditation on some very ancient religious ideas, gleaned from many different sources.
In ancient times, before Christianity, before Islam, before even Judaism, there were in the Holy Land Patriarchs and Prophets who lived in proximity and coherence with their deity, a divine spirit expressed in the sounds EH, OH, AH, which became Jehovah, which became Joshua, which became Jesus, and Yahweh when spoken in reverse. These were names for the nameless.
These Patriarchs lived in the years from before the Flood until the dawning of Abraham. They left a cosmology, codified, arbitrarily or not, in a system of 7 days. The poet who saw and described the myth of the Garden of Eden prophesied what would become the great hubris of man, seen again in the Tower of Babel and the 40 years in the wilderness.
After the Flood, the hidden and difficult (for me) to understand doctrines of the Noachic tradition which symbolically added wine to the bread and meat sacrifices of Cain and Abel, but which did much more to establish the ground work for a return to Jehovah which had been prophesied as coming after the Fall.
These ancient Patriarchs left the world many important lessons, treasures buried in the ground, to be dug up when the need was greatest. Among them are these three: Atonement, Certainty. Empowerment.
Atonement. Many mistakes and erroneous concepts are gathered around the subject of atonement. It is believed that the human race must attone for it's sins in order to be worthy of God's love. But as the Patriarchs declared God loves all of His creation absolutely, unequivocally. He hates none of it. And He pours forth His love upon it in abundance. God sheds more love upon us than we take. Why is that? Because we have set up barriers against it with our erroneous thinking and behavior. We have constructed walls by thinking that we can exist without the Spirit, we can eat the forbidden fruit of our own interpretations, sacrifice the unholy fire in place of the truth. Atonement is the process of cleaning up the mess, tearing down the barriers and realizing the abundance of divine affection that is coming to us non stop from it's infinite source without questions.
Certainty. Certainty is more than belief and stronger than faith. Faith is needed to bear upon an outcome of which we are not sure. It ties itself to hope and a sense of righteousness. Certainty, on the other had, is the quality the Patriarchs held up as the right of man in his real relationship with God. Certainty was tested on Noah when he was told to build the ark. It was tested on Abraham when he was told by God to leave his home and go into a strange land. It was tested at the Red Sea when God refused to answer the prayer of the Israelites except to say in essence, "You have the right to cross the sea. Do it." It is said in one tradition that a Certain Man, named Nacshon, wadded into the water and as he did the sea gradually parted for him. The lack of certainty is what kept the Children of Israel wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. The Patriarchs were certain of God's Word and it never failed them.
Empowerment. The Patriarchs had a daily, conscious, one to one relationship with Deity and that enabled them to receive directly the Divine word and the power that accompanied it. They had no churches, temples or synagogues They had no religions. They had a simple worship of a Deity they understood to be theirs. Moses provided the Israelites with the Ten Commandments which some treat as rules for living (which is not a bad idea) but they are more than that. They are prophecies of what life will be when perfection is reached among the human expressions of the divine, the image and likeness of God, the Kingdom of Heaven Earth. Through the years the ancient lessons of the Patriarchs has shown itself to be present in power, a strength given to man by his adherence to the Divine principles spoken by the Patriarchs and left for the world to own. It was with Joshua at Jericho, it was with David when he met Goliath. It is the power given to man that is greater than the power of wrong.
The history of the Fall, Atonement, Certainty and Empowerment of man is written in the Book of Job, probably the earliest book of the Bible. It is also written in the lives of the Christian, Muslim and Jewish prophets through the centuries.
As I said at the top, this is not a description of my own personal religious beliefs, but a gleaning from various sources of literature on religious subjects and my meditations on them. Thank you for taking the time to read it.
DB - Vagabond Journeys
***************************
SUMMER QUESTION
It's a long, hot, sticky summer, so here's a hot, sticky question for you. Don't let the recent New York State decision rob you of your thunder.
Same sex marriage. Should it be legal or not? If so, why? If not, why not?
dbdacoba@aol.com
8 answers so far.
You have until the last day of summer, but don't dally.
I eagerly await your answer.
DB
************************
WEEKEND CONTEST ANSWERS
Your task was to supply a different word or words in the place of "noodles." Enter as often as you wish. As usual the decision of the ornery, highly critical judge was final. The winner will receive an autographed copy of the recipe for Armadillo Fettuccine.
Answers:
This is easy. Love with home grown Jersey tomatoes is better.
Love with bacon is better.
Love with pasta ala Italiano is better.
I prefer the minimalist approach: Love with canoodles is better.
"Love is good. Love with Listerine is better."
"CHOCOLATE" absolutley!
love with compassion....
It was a difficult choice. At first the judge couldn't decide between Listerine or compassion. But finally after flipping 15 coins and consulting the gypsy tea leaf reader he decided. So the autographed copy of Sr. Fettuccine's recipe goes to.....
mrs. miss alaineus for -
Love is good. Love with compassion is better.
Thank you all
DB
***********************
Showing posts with label Abraham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Abraham. Show all posts
Monday, July 11, 2011
Friday, January 8, 2010
New Knowledge
Who controls the past controls the future.
Who controls the present controls the past.
George Orwell
********************
I have a lot of books and magazines about history. I enjoy reading them because an historical event looked at from different perspectives gives a many dimensional understanding of that event, of course. A single point of view about a time in history may have the strength of authority behind it, but it is never the whole story.
When I was in elementary school the text book on history gave the distinct impression that the Middle Ages, the so-called Dark Ages, was a long period of hundreds of years in which there were kings and illiterate serfs and, except for the Crusades, nothing much happened and nobody did anything. What a surprise to find out, when I finally got to do some reading on my own, how vibrant and active that time was.
One of the things people like to do and keep on doing is to rewrite history. There are two ways of doing that. One is the open minded manner of gathering together the confusing bunch of recently discovered facts, trying to organize them into a coherent whole, examining the possibilities, formulating theories about what actually happened and comparing them with the previous rounds of historical literature, present and past. Some statements by ancient writers are confusing to us because we don't know what they were referring to. When at last we do know a different interpretation of some event emerges.
The other way of rewriting history is the pernicious and closed minded method now being employed by the Texas Board of Education. That method involves rearranging the established facts, changing some of them and eliminating others. There is nothing new about this method. It has been going on for centuries. As a result it has kept historians busy trying to reconstruct what actually happened.
The most shameful part of this second method is that it influences the way people think and causes them to form incorrect opinions and beliefs, such as I did about the Middle Ages.
I've been doing a lot of fascinating research into the origins of western religions. And I've found out some interesting facts and probabilities.
The first book of the Bible ever written was probably Job, possibly written by him or one of his friends, or possibly dictated to a scribe by one of his friends. It predated Moses.
Abraham was not just a herder of livestock, but a powerful man who traveled throughout Mesopotamia and into Egypt as far as Heliopolis teaching as he went. What did he teach? (I will write someday about Heliopolis if I haven't already I may also write about the Templars the Merovingians and the Cathars, all of whom still exist on one form or another.)
There were, no doubt, several "Messiahs" crucified by the Romans. Some of the remarks Jesus made are right out of the Old Testament. Even the famous "My God My Go. Why hast thou forsaken me?" is taken verbatim from the book of Psalms. Was Jesus quoting David, or was it put in afterward by some historian or was the Psalm subsequently adjusted to accommodate? The possibilities are fascinating. And "The Da Vinci Code" aside, there is evidence that Jesus may have had children. There may be his blood line existing today in southern France.
There were many different versions of Christianity at the time and they didn't all agree with each other. The first Christian church ever built was probably the one in Cornwall, England. When the power struggle was over and Rome took control, the church fathers expunged from the literature everything that didn't agree with their version Sort of like what's going on now in Texas.
I continue my research. More bits of information are unearthed all the time. Facts lead to possibilities which lead to theories which lead to more facts. Uncovering the truth about one's religion should not diminish one's faith but should increase and strengthen it. for it removes one's worship from the realm of mythology and plants it firmly in the practical world of real knowledge and real life.
DB - The Vagabond
Who controls the present controls the past.
George Orwell
********************
I have a lot of books and magazines about history. I enjoy reading them because an historical event looked at from different perspectives gives a many dimensional understanding of that event, of course. A single point of view about a time in history may have the strength of authority behind it, but it is never the whole story.
When I was in elementary school the text book on history gave the distinct impression that the Middle Ages, the so-called Dark Ages, was a long period of hundreds of years in which there were kings and illiterate serfs and, except for the Crusades, nothing much happened and nobody did anything. What a surprise to find out, when I finally got to do some reading on my own, how vibrant and active that time was.
One of the things people like to do and keep on doing is to rewrite history. There are two ways of doing that. One is the open minded manner of gathering together the confusing bunch of recently discovered facts, trying to organize them into a coherent whole, examining the possibilities, formulating theories about what actually happened and comparing them with the previous rounds of historical literature, present and past. Some statements by ancient writers are confusing to us because we don't know what they were referring to. When at last we do know a different interpretation of some event emerges.
The other way of rewriting history is the pernicious and closed minded method now being employed by the Texas Board of Education. That method involves rearranging the established facts, changing some of them and eliminating others. There is nothing new about this method. It has been going on for centuries. As a result it has kept historians busy trying to reconstruct what actually happened.
The most shameful part of this second method is that it influences the way people think and causes them to form incorrect opinions and beliefs, such as I did about the Middle Ages.
I've been doing a lot of fascinating research into the origins of western religions. And I've found out some interesting facts and probabilities.
The first book of the Bible ever written was probably Job, possibly written by him or one of his friends, or possibly dictated to a scribe by one of his friends. It predated Moses.
Abraham was not just a herder of livestock, but a powerful man who traveled throughout Mesopotamia and into Egypt as far as Heliopolis teaching as he went. What did he teach? (I will write someday about Heliopolis if I haven't already I may also write about the Templars the Merovingians and the Cathars, all of whom still exist on one form or another.)
There were, no doubt, several "Messiahs" crucified by the Romans. Some of the remarks Jesus made are right out of the Old Testament. Even the famous "My God My Go. Why hast thou forsaken me?" is taken verbatim from the book of Psalms. Was Jesus quoting David, or was it put in afterward by some historian or was the Psalm subsequently adjusted to accommodate? The possibilities are fascinating. And "The Da Vinci Code" aside, there is evidence that Jesus may have had children. There may be his blood line existing today in southern France.
There were many different versions of Christianity at the time and they didn't all agree with each other. The first Christian church ever built was probably the one in Cornwall, England. When the power struggle was over and Rome took control, the church fathers expunged from the literature everything that didn't agree with their version Sort of like what's going on now in Texas.
I continue my research. More bits of information are unearthed all the time. Facts lead to possibilities which lead to theories which lead to more facts. Uncovering the truth about one's religion should not diminish one's faith but should increase and strengthen it. for it removes one's worship from the realm of mythology and plants it firmly in the practical world of real knowledge and real life.
DB - The Vagabond
Monday, October 12, 2009
Daring Do 10/13/09
Greatness is a road leading towards the unknown.
Charles deGaulle
**********************
Come along, don't be tardy.
_______________________
Star Trek
The bear went over the mountain to see what he could see.
Those who are given the opportunity and freedom to follow a line of study as far as it can take them are blessed with the possibility of discovering areas of unrevealed knowledge and understanding. It is what no one has ever encountered before, where no one has ever been. Mathematicians, astronomers, physicists, those practicing on the esoteric edges of science, anthropologists, architects, composers of music and, yes, also poets, when engaged to their utmost, may reach the end of the traveled path, step into an unknown territory of discovery, put down a marker for the future and try to describe what they find.
I don't know much about science, but I know something about art. The first and every time I see "The Piano Lesson" by Matisse I am taken gently by the hand and led into a world of painting I know nothing about.
I have heard Beethoven's "Grosse Fugue" for string quartet many times and it is still a mystery. What was it that Beethoven saw in his deafness and what was he trying to tell us about it?
On what obscure mountain top was Shakespeare when he wrote "The mightiest space in fortune nature brings to join like likes and kiss like native things."? And what was he saying when he wrote to lead us there "Impossible be strange attempts to those who weight their pains in sense and do suppose what hath been cannot be." ?
The air is thin and hard to breathe, the way is treacherous and the terrain frustratingly difficult to describe but though we may be standing on the shoulders of the great ones who went before us the experience of our own genius can only be won by moving off of the shoulders and placing a foot carefully but steadily down onto a step we cannot see.
"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing wither he went,"
DB - Vagabond Journeys
__________________
May you find the humor in it, whatever it is.
******************
Charles deGaulle
**********************
Come along, don't be tardy.
_______________________
Star Trek
The bear went over the mountain to see what he could see.
Those who are given the opportunity and freedom to follow a line of study as far as it can take them are blessed with the possibility of discovering areas of unrevealed knowledge and understanding. It is what no one has ever encountered before, where no one has ever been. Mathematicians, astronomers, physicists, those practicing on the esoteric edges of science, anthropologists, architects, composers of music and, yes, also poets, when engaged to their utmost, may reach the end of the traveled path, step into an unknown territory of discovery, put down a marker for the future and try to describe what they find.
I don't know much about science, but I know something about art. The first and every time I see "The Piano Lesson" by Matisse I am taken gently by the hand and led into a world of painting I know nothing about.
I have heard Beethoven's "Grosse Fugue" for string quartet many times and it is still a mystery. What was it that Beethoven saw in his deafness and what was he trying to tell us about it?
On what obscure mountain top was Shakespeare when he wrote "The mightiest space in fortune nature brings to join like likes and kiss like native things."? And what was he saying when he wrote to lead us there "Impossible be strange attempts to those who weight their pains in sense and do suppose what hath been cannot be." ?
The air is thin and hard to breathe, the way is treacherous and the terrain frustratingly difficult to describe but though we may be standing on the shoulders of the great ones who went before us the experience of our own genius can only be won by moving off of the shoulders and placing a foot carefully but steadily down onto a step we cannot see.
"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing wither he went,"
DB - Vagabond Journeys
__________________
May you find the humor in it, whatever it is.
******************
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