[GJM] Fw: Fw: Is God Dead? Response by Peter Challen and futhercomment by Mary Rose
mary rose
maryrose333 at att.net
Thu Jun 5 13:31:04 MDT 2008
----- Original Message -----
From: Dr.Muhammad Mukhtar Alam
To: Discussion Forum for Global Justice
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 1:19 AM
Subject: Re: [GJM] Fw: Is God Dead? Response by Peter Challen and futhercomment by Mary Rose
Dear Mary,
Happy birthday...May we all have grace of Almighty, the creator of men and women and all that we see and that we do not see..
You wonderfully record the wars..let us also record the peace time bounties that would be ecologically sustainble for
children of 40th century...
Dr.Muhammad Muhktar Alam
Dear Muhktar, Thank you for this. While society has moved forward in some ways, please tell me how we have moved
forward with "peace time bounties.". One need only to look again at what I write: "Robert Sobel in his book: "The Great
Boom" shows how the U.S. became the most prosperous country in the history of the world, while at the same time doing
more environmental damage than at any time in past recorded history. Every year the State of the World report shows
that our ecological condition is disentegrating. The ocean has become so polluted and overfished that, at best, it may have
10 years left before total collapse. There are currently 147 dead zones in the world's oceans at present, the one off the
coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico being the size of the state of Louisianna. Once the ocean became so polluted, the
great coral reefs began to become ill as well. This is very sad because around the coral reefs is where the food chain
begins. And as the coral reefs die, so does the plant and aquarian life that feed off of one another.
The U.S. has depleted all but 4% of the forests that once covered this beautiful land. The forests were cut, of course, for
agricultural purposes. But now what has happened once the tilling of the fields began for agriculture purposes, the top soil
began to disappear. It is upon topsoil that civilization is built, for it is from this layer that the rich nutrients that make up our
food chain are found. The same thing is happening in the rainforests of Mexico, Central and South America as areas the
size of three football fields disappear every minute. Worldwide top soil is disappearing at 17 times faster than it can be
replaced. Dependent upon location, it takes anywhere from 500 to 1000 years to replace one inch of topsoil. In order to
try and reinvigorate the topsoil, farmers pour ever increasing amounts of nitrogen fertilizer, mainly derived from oil, on the
land in order to increase production. But when the fertilizers, coupled with sewage, run off into the ocean, this is what
causes the dead zones to occur. Now as production has increased, this has allowed for great population increase.
Since it was the forests that served as the lungs of the Earth and took care of the carbon problem, once this delicate
balance was so severely disturbed, the Planet began to heat up and the Green House Effect took place, and as it did so,
the glaciers around the world began to melt. Much of the forest land was used, either to raise cattle for beef production
or to raise grain with which to fatten cattle for market. And as we have discussed previously, this cycling of grain through
cattle to produce nutrition is a very inefficient means of obtaining calories. With the increase in population has arisen the
need for more jobs with which to pay people in order for them to be able to purchase the "stuff" deemed necessary
today to live a full and happy life. But, in order to employ everyone in this manner, it is necessary to create "make
work" jobs that result in luxury goods far beyond what is actually needed, so much of what is manufactured ends up in the
world's dumps as waste products. At the same time that population is increasing, advanced technology has come along
and decreased the need for human labor. Due to this factor, the statistics now are that it only takes 30% of the worldwide
labor force to produce all the goods and services needed by the 6 plus billion of us on the Planet. However, the U.S.
has been employing 75% of the laborforce by producing luxury goods and services. In so-doing and creating this
luxury economy, the U.S. has been using 40% of the world's oil resources with only 5% of the world's population. By
coincidence or not, we have also used the same amount of the world's illegally produced drugs and goodness only knows
how much of the world's legally produced ones. Is there some correlation here?
So, now we have the U.S. emerging as a caricature of the Roman Empire, doing and making the same mistakes as the
Romans did, based on the same belief system that they put in place thousands of years ago when they created the Church
of Rome. And, granted many religious orders have moved away from this church, e.g., the Protestants, the Lutherns, and
the Episcopalians to name but a few, at the core of their belief system is still basically rooted in "Christianity.". And
Christianity and Capitalism go together like bread and butter with one hand holding the bread while the other butters it in
order to relieve the rest of the world of their holdings. And, so now, we have moved into the point where we are involved in
resource wars in a survival-of the fittest mode, having seemingly learned nothing over the centuries.
So, I see Western religion, including both Judaism and Islam, now in descendency. And the reason being, the Eastern
religions, which are for the most part based on the understanding of energy and how to effectively manage it, are now
rising as the rest of the world begins to comprehend that this is where its really at. And when we are talking about
Eastern religion and the knowledge included therein, of how to manage the "chi" ore the "energy flow of life," we must
also recognize that this is what the "spirit world" of Native Americans and other indigenous people worldwide is based on.
While Tai Chi, Qui Gong and Yoga are the study of energy flow and management in the Eastern world, the drumming,
dancing and chanting are the ways of managing the life energy flow in the indigenous world. And, when one contrasts the
Eastern religions with Western religions, I personally find the Western belief system to be very clumsy and gross. And, it
is, of course from out of the Western belief system that "modernity" itself emerged. And, as David Ray Griffin has written,
it is from modernity that we here in the Western world are now retreating. However, it is into the first stage of modernity,
that of industrialization, that the Eastern world, particularly China and India, are now hurling themselves with the rest of the
developing world not far behind, seemingly unaware of the false promises that lie within this trend of job creation in order
to pay people so they may purchase stuff in order to live. But this is a false belief -- it is subsistence farming that is key
to sustainable living -- it is not through the commodification and commercialization of everything. Modernization is but a
false dream, and it is back to the land, our source, as earthlings that we must return if we are to find ourselves once again
as a viable enterprise.
I would like to note also that it appears to be out the Western Belief System, that the modern medical system has also
emerged. But, let me quote from Dr. Bruce Lipton in this regard -- In 2003, "a new 10-year study of "iatrogenic illness"
(illness related to medical treatment) concluded that "iatrogenic illness is actually the *leading* cause of death in the
United States and that adverse reactions to prescription drugs are responsible for more than 300,000 deaths per year."
(Lipton - 2005, p. 108) Then, contrast this with the revelations of aurhor Greg Braden, that he and his wife as they viewed
a malignant tumor dissolving from a woman's bladder, shown on a video screen in real time. This came about by priests
using the vibrational frequencies of their chanting to accomplish the feat, much as other "shaman" have done for
centuries. And, many of you may have experienced healing by acupuncture as a therapist used needles inserted at
meridians in your body to redirect the energy flow.
So, this is the face of the so-called new energy science, which is not really new, but has been aorund since ancient times
and working quite well, just suppressed by the Hebraic-oriented "Kurgan Cattle Culture Consciousness" that has an
unrestrained desire to "rule the world.
At the present time, I do believe that actions of the Muslim world are directed toward "protecting their own interests" in
the face of excessive provocation. But, the way to do this is not through acts of war and aggression. Acts of diplomacy
designed to create a closer bonding between people, is the way.. Muslims need to remove the veil and come out of the dark
ages into the light where understanding of energy healing at all levels prevails. And, I see this happening as more
education becomes available to the people.
And, belief based in science is the neutral and peaceful way, whereas if we keep these literalist/fundamental religious
belief systems operating, we shall surely destroy the world. Isn't it time to get rid of the "ya - ya -- my God is better than
your God," ten-year old mentality and move into the future in health and wellness as responsible adults? Muslim culture
itself has much to offer the world;, let us dignify this by attempting to solve the world's problems from a scientifically-based
perspective. . .
With much love and gratitude for all that you do, Dr. Alam, and for all that we do together, and I feel that it is much. . .
mary rose . . .
.
. . .
5 . . . .
--- On Thu, 5/6/08, mary rose <maryrose333 at att.net> wrote:
From: mary rose <maryrose333 at att.net>
Subject: [GJM] Fw: Is God Dead? Response by Peter Challen and futher comment by Mary Rose
To: FixGov at yahoogroups.com, "Discussion Forum for Global Justice" <discussion at globaljusticemovement.net>
Date: Thursday, 5 June, 2008, 4:08 AM
----- Original Message -----
From: Peter Challen
To: mary rose
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 12:20 PM
Subject: Re: Is God Dead?
Dear Mary,
Congratulations Mary on reaching 76.
I can vouch that the year ahead is a good one for the thinkers and the searchers! Can't be sure yet of the year after that;, but wiser and older friends sow seeds of a tentative conviction!
In relation to the piece below, despite your immense wisdom, methinks you do protest a tad too much!
Religion derives from both ligament and law and given the fact that all our language is metaphor, it is a recognition of a search for whatever meaning we can muster to help us hold all things together and order them in ways that work for everyone and protect the earth. Take the thought of an 'ineffable God' and the sexism, denominationalism, sectarianism and a few other isms appear to cause the dangerous slippage and its gross effects, while humility in the search continues in even some people as erudite as you.
It is a happy thing that this quotation arrived in the same hour:
"Where Science and Spirit Become One
In this excerpt from WIE's interview with John F. Haught, Georgetown University's acclaimed evolutionary theologian, Haught zeros in on the key point at which science and spirituality converge:
Something religious is going on even in scientific work, not in the scientific information itself but in the commitment to the idea that the universe is intelligible and truth is worth seeking. Those are religious convictions. You can't prove scientifically that truth is worth seeking, but it's the conviction that it is worth seeking that underlies all good science. Religion lifts this up and makes it more explicit. It symbolically names that depth, that truth, that meaning, and refers to it in Western theology as God or Allah, or in Eastern thought as Brahman or Tao."
I go back now too to feed my curious mind, to serve my servant ministry, on your profound reflections. Thank you.
So we flow on in emergent evolution, in the riches of scientific enquiry and by the grace of 'God' - ineffable - yet imaginatively described in a rich profusion!
Love
Peter
Dear Peter, Thank you for your words of wisdom. What I have a problem with here are the words "Religion lifts this up and makes it more explicit." This seems to indicate that only through religion can one find meaning, or bring meaning to science. And this really rattles my feathers as I know hundreds of what might be defined as excellent, moral and ethical people who do no harm, and have committed their lives in the service of all life in the Universe, including the Planet Earth.. Among them are scientists included who do not adhere to any religious faith, but carry their spirituality within them, recognizing that we are ALL part of the Oness, but that there is no "one god" as depicted by most religious organizations. Monotheism emerged out of the dominator paradigm. And the dominator paradigm arose from the need of the so-called Patriachial Group, mainly composed of Levites, to end the worship of The Great Mother. But then, "herstory" and the truth of what went on prior to the emergence of the One God has been suppressed for centuries. This suppression of the feminine has resulted in "male-dominant" religions which have held sway over society from the 1600's (Neolothic Age) until the present time. And, while The Great Mother societies were known as peaceful societies, the hell released on earth by the One God belief system has brought about more pain and suffering than any other cause.
In their book: "The Laughing Jesus,".Freke and Gandy write: "It is easy to blame the current crisis on mad Muslims and ato forget the horrors the West has perpetrated throughout history in the name of Christianity. Let us not forget th unspeakable suffering inflicted on Muslims and Jews during the Crusades. When Jersulem fell to the crusaders they butchered more than seventy thousand Muslims in the Al-Aqsa mosque alone. They also burnt thousands of Jews alive in the synagogues. A Christian chronicler recors our troops boiled adults in cooking pots and impaled children on spits and devoured them grilled.
Let us recall the thousands of men, women and children condemned for heresy and burned alive by the Inquisition. (Somewhere between six and eleven million people, mainly women. other records indicate). Let us hold in our hearts those placed in the Torture Chair, with its wrought-iron mechanism for clamping the head still to enable the inquisitor to remove the heretic's tongue or teeth with ease, and its cunningly designed set that allowed th insertion of torture instruments into the vagina or anus of the viReligion lifts this up and makes it more explicit.ersecctim.
ion of the
Let us not forget that the Catholic Church created the Inquisition in order to ethnically cleanse Spain of hundreds of thousands of Muslims and Jews, which it did with unimaginable brutality. The Inquisition then planned to put to death the three million inhabitants of the Netherlands simply because they had become Protestants, but fortunately it failed. One writer of the time declared the Inquisition to be a "wild monster of such terrible mien that all of Europe trembled at the mere mention of its name. But it was not just Europe that trembled before the tortures of the Holy Inquisition. When Columbus set out in his little boatd, the he had red crusader crosses stitched to his sails. Columbus may have discovered the New World, but this was just a happy accident. He was actually looking for a way to sail around the world and attach the Muslim empire in the rear. When he discovered the Americas instead, Columbus wrote that he had found enough gold to recapture Jerusalem. In the New World the Spanish Inquisition repeated on an even grander scale the genocide they carried out so effectively in Europe. Hundreds of thousands, probably millions, of innocent indigenous Americans perished in unimaginable pain and suffering. They were burnt alive or tortured to death as a glorious testimony to the triumph of Christianity throughout the world.
Let us remember the relentlesss persecution of the Jews by Literalist Christians. Among the relentless persecution of the Jews by Literalist Christians. Throughout Christian hisotyr Jews have been routinely burned alive by zealous mobs with the full blessing of priests and popes. It was the Catholic Church in the thirteenth century who first forced the Jews to live in ghettos and wer a yellow badge, a policy which the Vatican was still enforcing in the nineteenth century. In Eastern Europe the Inquisition used ovens to burn heretics, who were rubbed with grease and roasted alive. All that changed in the twentieth century was that the process was industrialized.
When the Facists and Nazis started persecuting the Jews by humiliating them, depriving them of all rights, herding them into ghettos, killing nd burning them, they were only doing what teh Church had done for centuries. When they introduced their racial purity laws they argued that they were merely following the lead of the Catholic's most respected religious order, the Jesuits. As a member of the Fascist Grand Council in Italy announced:
It comforts our souls to know that if, as Catholics, we became anti-Semites, we owe it to the teachings that Church has promulgated over the past twenty centuries.
Let us not forget that the Nazi SS who exterminated the Jews had emblazoned on their belt buckles: "God is with us."
To those of us who are not afflicted with the insanity of religious Literalism, it seems impossible to understand how human beings could inflict such horrors on other human beings. But to those unfortunate enough to be in the grip of religious madness, these terrible crimes against humanity are seen in an entirely different way. They are righteous acts required by God and justified by sacred scripture."
One of the problems being that too many popes and priests see themselves as politicians and use the pulpit in that sense. But whatever, it is time to end the reign of terror that accompanies religious beliefs. Recall that George W. Bush was heard to say that we must "fight in the name of God" for our country. That churches today condone war in the name of God has been revealed by We Hold These Truths and Straight Gate Ministries, as they picketed churches of all denominations nationwide here in the U.S., including a presentation by evangelist Billy Graham as well, asking attending parishioners about the stance of the church pastor on war, and urging them to stop attendance is the minister or priest was not against killing through war. For more on this group see here. www.whtt.org/ as C. E. Carlson was on a list to which I once posted. I am not a member of this church group, nor do I adhere to any of their policies and beliefs; however, I found it interesting that there was a church with enough guts to begin calling other religious orders on their position on war -- particularly the sending of young sons and daughters to the warfront to defend "the American lifestyle," which we are finding out today, served to pad the pockets of the rich and deprive the poor, many of them black and indigenous people, but with poor whites included.
And, if the Global Justice Movement is truly a justice movement, then I call upon them to address this issue. NOW!
As revealed by R. Buckminster Fuller, in his book: "Critical Path," in which he reveals his foresight of what would happen today, and why, he writes as to how the people believing in "pagan" religions (pagan religions referring to those who worshipped the Goddess, The Great Mother) were able to access God in a natural way, e,g. meditation or communion with the Earth. However, as the aristocrats of that time saw so much money flowing into the pagan churches, and wanted control of it, they joined together with the priests to create what we now know as Christianity. And, they did so by decreeing that people could no longer access God directly, but must do so only through a priest accredited by the Church. Pagans had formerly donated gold to the Temples whcih was used as decoration. And this was what the aristocrats of that time and the priests coveted control over, as there was immense wealth flowing into the Temples. After formalizing the Church, they also decreed that relationships be made legal through marriage, and that births were recorded along with baptismal events, which brought in even more money to the Church. Thus, men took control of inheritance procedures, legally ensuring themselves of patrilineal "birthrights". And, they enacted other laws ensuring that women's rights were taken away from them. However for several centuries after this, women and others known as "Israelites" continued to worship in the Temples and accept the pagan rites of the Temple as their belief system. So, by carefully studying "herstory" we learn that Christianity did not come easily to the masses, but was enforced by The Holy Roman Catholic Church, through the Inquisition and in other ways. And, that the intent was solely to gain control over both the people and the money they held. Both the invention of God, the Father, and his Son, Jesus Christ, were inventions of those who demanded control.
That Jesus ever lived is doubtful -- it appears that He was more a work of fiction created by those who sought control at that time. A study of ancient history reveals that the story of Jesus closely resembles fables of numerous other dieties going back centuries before the founding of the Church. It was not until sometime between 45 and 75 years after his supposed cruxifiction that Jesus appears in the Bible. And numerous other incidents of omission lend credence to the idea that He was not a real historical figure.
As noted above, many priests and popes saw themselves in the role of politicans rather than as religious fathers taking care of a flock. It is my feeling that we should note, as responsible adults today, the caution written on the cover of the book: "The Laughing Jesus," asked through the question by Freke and Gandy: "What if the Old Testament is a work of fiction? Jesus never existed and Muhammad was a monster.
For too long, I fear the so-called "good book" has been accepted without question as "the word of God". We never hear the "other side of the story. We only mainly get the Church version -- and, of course, who could doubt God? But through investigation of "herstory" we learn an entirely different tale. Its obvious, that men (and perhaps women too) were as influenced by money as they are today. And, that the power brokers weilded much power over the masses. From studying history as well, we learn that there is evidence that drug use was very prevalent in that time. So, one has to ask: how many of the episodes in the Bible were tinged by intoxication? In a recent book by brain researcher, Andrew Newberg, M.D., it is revealed that religious visions and epilectic seizures produce the same brain states (of a hallucinatory nature), and there is a wondering as to how many of the episodes reported in the Bible fall into this category? and how many fall into the category of being under the influence of psychotropic drugs of which peyote is one. And evidence shows that peyote was used prolifically in the regions noted in the Bible. In fact, one researcher, questions as to whether the visions reported by Muhammad might have been the result of a grand mal seizure or drug use.
To wind this up, let me ask the question: "Before we begin taking these writings in the Bible literally, wouldn't it be wise upon our part to investigate more fully both history and herstory, and set the record straight before we go around creating any more massive murders "in the name of God?" Isn't it about time rather than acting in the name of religious we started using a little common sense?
mary rose
2008/6/4 mary rose <maryrose333 at att.net>:
The original article asking this question was published by
TIME magazine in the April 8, 1966 issue, and has ever
since been incorporated into an on-going international
dialogue.
This first link reveals the cover of TIME for this issue with
the question "IS GOD DEAD?" emblazoned on the front.
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19660408,00.html
msg truncated.
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