Traveler

What have I known all of my life?

What have you known?

I’m not talking about normal things….rhetorical things……obvious things…∞

Normal, as in, breathing, blinking, texting.

Rhetorical, as in, am I really as ignorant as I think I am?

Obvious, as in, answer to aforementioned rhetorical statement.

I mean, something like this: How long am I going to keep struggling with faith?

I have been struggling with faith since I was 7 years old…..You?

Like a lot of you, well, maybe not a lot but a few, my childhood was spent in the deep south of the USA, so I have a little bit of every popular or every local denomination that resides there.

Whatever was kick’n at the time….

I was First Baptist Pentecostal Methodist Churh of God! Gimme an amen!

Sorry…sorry….force of habit.

Here are my struggle/s:

I’ve read.

I’ve learned.

I am growing older.

I question everything I have done throughout my life, recently, more now that ever, and do not like the man I am.

I reflect, I judge, I critique….

I regret.

I’m sick of religious guilt.

I am 51 years old. I will be 52 this year. I am scared of death and yes, like I said before, I am not a child anymore.

I have finally accepted the fact that I will never have the faith of a child or blind faith.

Maybe at one time I did, I don’t know.

I truly believe that there is a God of some type out there somewhere, everywhere…anywhere….elsewhere…..

Do I believe that God is an all-knowing being, the ultimate celestial prescence, the creator of the universe…Alpha, Omega, I Am that I Am, the bum in the gutter, that knock on your door….?

I used to, not anymore.

Wait, wait! Before you start getting all crazy and swollen up with righteous indignation hear me out.

I still believe that there is/was a God, at one time, as we picture him.

I believe he is eternal yes, but I think he’s somewhere else; if I may pronounce in my arrogance, thinking that I might possibly know the mind and will of God.

I think God created everything in our known and unknown universe/s, formed us, then set us into being on this one earth, amongst trillions of other “earths” I believe, with the only tools we would need to proliferate and prosper.

Common Sense
Rational, logical thought
Free Will
Free Agency

How arrogant we are to think that we could possibly know any of the “grand plan”?

How arrogant we are to think that we have the answers to what we believe this God intended for us?

It hasn’t been that long, people, since we were painting on cave walls, throwing shit at each other, eating termites off sticks, running in fear from fire, throwing rocks at the moon, marrying our relatives, not taking baths for fear of plague or, here’s one: how long ago was it that a man on the radio had us convinced martians had landed in the US?

78 years, people…..only 78 years.

How long ago was it that we built nuke shelters to protect us from the Ruskies?

How long ago was it that a Northern boy fought a Southern boy to the death?

How long will it be until we realize that slavery was NOT the reason we had a civil war?

I could go on and on and on…

How long ago was the Bible written? Approximately 3500 years ago.

Did you know that there is a 500 year gap between the “Old” testament and the “New” testament…? I guess they were too busy to write about a loving, protecting God while Alexander the Great was changing the face of the world.

How long ago was the Bible printed…in English?

Check this out:

William Tyndale’s Bible was the first English language Bible to appear in print. During the 1500s, the very idea of an English language Bible was shocking and subversive. This is because, for centuries, the English Church had been governed from Rome, and church services were by law conducted in Latin.

Most people in Europe were unable to speak Latin, and so could not understand the Bible directly. The Church therefore acted as the mediator between God and the people, with Priests interpreting the bible on behalf of their congregations.

By Tyndale’s day, vernacular Bibles (those written in local languages) were available in parts of Europe, where they added fuel to the fight for the Reformation, a political crisis that resulted in the splitting of Christianity into Catholic and Protestant Churches. But in England it was still strictly forbidden to translate the Bible into English.

Tyndale believed that ordinary people should be able to read (or listen to) the Bible in a language they could understand, but his Bible was highly illegal. The book was banned and Tyndale was eventually executed.

An astonishing number of Tyndale’s translated phrases are still in use today, including:

‘flowing with milk and honey’

‘the apple of his eye’

‘signs of the times’

‘broken-hearted’

‘eat, drink and be merry’

‘the salt of the earth’
*above by courtesy of some Bible website *

The Book you call the Bible….ain’t even close to the actual Bible.

Nicene Creed …….check this out, too.

Lost in translation.

SMFH…..

Told, what to believe.

How many dead languages do you think there are?

Hmmmm….

You know what I believe?

This is what I believe.

I don’t believe I have to tell anyone how, what, why or which I believe.

But I will, because I Loves ya!

I believe that “God” has created the universe but remains apart from it and permits his creation to administer itself through natural laws; the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.”

As what Professor Albert Einstein, a personal hero of mine, the first recognizable Citizen of the World, an imperfect man; once said, so eloquently and inciteful;

“I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own – a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. It is enough for me to contemplate the mystery of conscious life perpetuating itself through all eternity, to reflect upon the marvelous structure of the universe which we can dimly perceive and to try humbly to comprehend even an infinitesimal part of the intelligence manifested in Nature.”

I believe in “God” as being discovered through nature and reason, rejecting revealed religion and its authority over humanity. I believe that all humans are equal. Further, as God has never shown, nor would ever show, any favor for one people over another and has given us all that we need, as I stated before, that we should follow God’s example and give to others as we can.”

I refuse to believe in sin anymore, only consequences.

I refuse to believe in Hell, only a broken heart and regret.

I refuse to believe that a loving “God” would allow “his son” to die, when he had to have known that it would do absolutely no good at all, or make any difference.

I believe that God is not here.

We…are here.

We were left to prosper, succeed and fend for ourselves and the weak………and we’ve fucked it all up, big time.

Oh, yeah, I know, I hear the same old bullshit arguments floating back to me thru my laptop screen of people hollering and screaming at me that I should have faith, that I should pray and beg Jesus for forgiveness, or if I trusted in God, it’ll all be better.

Guess what?

“God” showed more trust in us when he placed us on this earth with the beautiful gifts I mentioned before and see how we repaid him.

I’d like to imagine him stepping back, wiping his hands off on his work apron and saying “That’s good, now….” and walking away to his next project.

He expected better from us you know, and we’ve let him down.

Ethan Allen, Revolutionary War hero, wrote “Ungrateful and foolish it must be for rational beings in the possession of existence, and surrounded with a kind and almighty Providence, to distrust the author thereof concerning their futurity, because they cannot comprehend the mode or manner of their succeeding and progressive existence.“

“God gave us reason, not religion”