Saturday, October 31, 2009

Human Identity

The Human Identity:


In the world of nature there are four major kingdoms, namely, the mineral kingdom, the vegetable kingdom, the animal kingdom, and the human kingdom. Beginning with the mineral kingdom and progressing through to the human kingdom it can be observed that each is an evolutionary step up the ladder and contains all the qualities of its predecessor but with added new and unique qualities all of its own. The vegetable kingdom contains all the qualities of the mineral kingdom from which it derives its existence but has the added qualities of growth, flexibility, and softness but is still rooted in the soil from which it derives its nourishment. The animal, which feeds on both mineral and vegetable contains both of their qualities but with the added qualities of freedom of movement, the senses of sight, hearing smell and touch, and the ability to vocalize. The human kingdom contains all of the other three kingdoms but with the added qualities of a moral conscience and a sense of shame, a belief in a power outside itself that is responsible for all creation, the power of discovery by which it unearths and unlocks the jealously guarded secrets of nature and then creatively employs them to its own advantage, the intellectual capacity to distinguish between right and wrong and good and evil, and the capacity for compassion whereby it can both empathize and express pity and concern for the plight of all other living organisms.

The human kingdom is the crowning point of creation for it contains all the qualities of nature’s kingdoms and yet possesses qualities of which nature itself is bereft. Where in all of nature, except in the human species, can be found the attributes of justice, mercy, compassion, a belief in God, a belief in an afterlife, altruism, and the ability to discover the secrets of nature and then turn that discovery upon nature itself? Man was created by God but he was created to evolve as are all the kingdoms of nature. Nothing is static but merely has the appearance of being so. All matter in whatever form it is clothed either progresses or regresses, composes or decomposes, advances or retreats, grows or withers. All other species in the animal kingdom are helplessly chained to the environmental dictates and whim of nature. All, that is, except man. It is true and self-evident that his body must conform to the dictates of nature, but only his body, not his conscious, self-aware, intellectually penetrating mind.

The bird must evolve feathers and wings in order to gain flight but man discovers the laws of aeronautics and builds machines outside himself that carry him higher, further, and faster than any bird can hope to achieve. The land animals are superior to man in every physical aspect, that is to say, they are faster, have better sight, more acute hearing, and greater reflexes. Man, however, has no real need of these physical attributes for he has a quality by which he excels any and all of them combined. He builds vehicles that are faster and stronger than any land animal. He constructs weapons that can bring down game at distances unimagined by the cleverest animal. He builds instruments that can see farther and more clearly than the sharpest sighted predatory bird. He constructs ships that float upon the water and penetrate its depths without ever having to change his physical form any further.

He develops a device that can process information at the speed of light and do in seconds what all the brains of the world combined cannot do in months. The physical form of man has evolved only until it reached that point of development whereby those inherent qualities by which it is in the ‘Image and likeness of God’ were finally able to emerge and exert their irresistible impact upon the further direction of his progress. At this point in time, however long that may be, he became aware of a Creator outside of himself, ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and right and wrong, and by virtue of these emerging qualities was forever cast out of the Eden of ignorance and was destined to assume dominion over nature.

Whatsoever in nature fails to progress ultimately dies, that is to say, the form dies since the constituent elements that combine to produce that form are indestructible and simply will eventually recombine in some other progressive and evolving form. The human body dies for it is formed from nature, survives in obedience to the dictates of nature, and eventually returns to it as its components decompose, however, those unique and distinct qualities responsible for its form and which are the motivating force that have shaped it so that it best expresses their needs are immortal and indestructible, are not a product of matter and can exist outside of matter and, hence, will survive in some other sphere of existence or, put another way, will transfer from this world of God to some other world of God appropriate to the unabated emerging needs by which it is in the ‘Image and Likeness of God’. God is infinite, the worlds of God are infinite, and the progress of the human soul is equally infinite. Were it not so, the entire universe, all of its wonders and as yet undiscovered miracles, all of the abundance of life forms within it, and humanity itself would be a pointless and useless exercise in futility. We would have life without purpose, a universe without cause, death without meaning, struggle without justice, sacrifice without reward, creation without destiny, intellect without direction, and a God without love, compassion, or forgiveness and a God unable to finish what He started. Such a concept, of course, is ludicrous, preposterous, and flies in the face of all science and religion and the manifest evidence to which they are both privy. The more the human species progresses and evolves the more certain does it become evident that he possesses qualities that extend far beyond the frontiers of nature and that the extent of these qualities show no limitation or boundaries.

It is self-evident and an undeniable fact, which even the most rudimentary human intellect can grasp and cope, that there is only one human species even though it may be clothed in superficial differences that have arisen due to the necessary adaptation to environmental surroundings. They can be tall, short, thin or pudgy. They can have red, blonde, black, or gray hair. They may have blue, brown, gray or green eyes. They may have white, yellow, brown, red, or black skin. They may speak a different language, clothe themselves in different robes, follow a different prophet, abide by a different set of Sacred Scriptures, view the universe and its mysteries from a different point of view, choose a different course in the pursuit of their individual and collective destinies, adhere to the Creationist theory or believe in the Evolutionary theory. They may believe that all life ends with the termination of the human body or they may believe in the infinite nature of the soul and the inevitability of an afterlife. They may be pro-life or they may be pro-choice, but in each and every case, without exception, they are all distinctly human and represent a single species having been created by and evolved from a Single Source.

The differences, out of which arise, racism, bigotry, prejudice, discrimination, war and bloodshed, cruelty and hatred, have no basis in reality and are nothing more than the vain and superstitious attempts by the individual or special groups to elevate their own status and advance the conviction, either in their own eyes or in the estimation of others, that they are a unique and distinct breed and are superior to all others from whom they intellectually, politically, or ethnically differ. And yet, even this perverse group, out of which so much pain and suffering, division and segregation, slavery and poverty have ensued cannot, even with the combined weight of their most eminent and scholarly proponents, argue either with scientific evidence or cogent reasoning that those they most consider vile and beneath their contempt are not in fact members of the human species. The pitiful and mean spirited attempts to advance their own cause at the expense of others is, without doubt, the most ill-fated, reprehensible, and shameful activity to which the noble human mind and spirit can be addressed and serves only to advertise how little they have allowed themselves to rise out of the Eden of ignorance.

To be human does not mean to clothe ourselves in the attributes and imitate the activities of the lower order of animals to which we are inherently superior by virtue of our intellectual and spiritual gifts. To be human means to cultivate and till the human soul so that in the fertile soil of the human spirit the seeds planted there by which we are in the ‘Image and Likeness’ of our Creator may successfully germinate and eventually blossom into tall, straight, and healthy trees from which the fruit and flowers, it is our destiny to bring forth, may populate the earth and the universe and express the very finest qualities by which we are distinguished as human.

The purpose and destiny of the human soul is to journey through the infinite worlds of God, ever ascending and expanding until it has attained its full potential and, in that sanctified condition, to rejoin with and to take its place at the feet of its Creator in a state of self-effacement that most befittingly expresses its unconditional adoration. This condition and state cannot in this lifetime be either imagined or comprehended due to the limitations imposed upon it by this earthly existence, nonetheless, this sphere of existence is replete with overwhelming evidence that attests to this journey not the least of which is the human intellect and its insatiable appetite for knowledge and its relentless drive to penetrate and unlock the secrets of both the known universe and whatever lies beyond.

Every act of racism, every thought of discrimination, every gesture of bigotry, every sign of prejudice, every manifestation of hatred, every expression of cruelty, every example of abuse, every display of unkindness, every intent to injure, every impulse of greed, every show of contempt, every look of mockery, every moment of scorn, every denial of justice, every suppression of equity, every refusal of fairness, every wish for tragedy, every desire for grief, every nudge to despair, every step that crushes, every attempt to humiliate, every urge to shame, and every lust that rapes, rises like an unassailable obstacle that impedes the progress and retards the advance of the soul on its journey to the destiny for which it was created.

This world is neither the beginning nor the end but is simply one stage in an infinity of stages through which the soul must pass on its journey. God does not make mistakes nor does He fail to reward praiseworthy conduct and punish the froward. Retribution is built into the system He created which is perfect because He created it and it is without need of His direct intervention. We see inequity because we view all actions as if they begin and end exclusively in this world which is but one in an infinite sea of worlds. Retribution is built into the system and is inherent in the makeup of the soul, which by its very nature will, if not in this world, exact its own punishment upon itself in one or several of those to follow. This is truly the law of karma. This is the process of re-incarnation by which a soul is born into another world after it leaves its present one in a state and condition appropriate to its conduct and subject to the rewards or punishments it has earned. The soul does not return to the world it has left but continually advances through all the worlds of God but, let there be no mistake, retribution is certain and unavoidable and there can be no escaping the consequences of actions in a preceding world. Good begets good and evil begets evil and this is a universal spiritual law from which there is no escape and which expresses itself throughout the infinite worlds of God.

What greater or more precious gift could God possible extend to man than that He should create humankind in His own ‘Image and likeness’, confer upon him this inestimable honor and endow him with such incalculable treasures. To fail to employ these abilities and to refuse to act in accordance with their promptings is an act of betrayal and ingratitude of the highest order that will activate a form of retribution fitted to the degree of the transgression. Whether that retribution is enacted in this world or the next is not the issue. What is without doubt and without exception is that retribution will be forthcoming and the soul will bemoan its plight, wail at its neglect and intransigence, and weep at the loss that its reprehensible behaviour has cost. To fail to recognize and to act upon these self-evident truths and follow only the sordid and self-serving promptings of one’s base animal instincts is to condemn oneself to the recoil of spiritual laws that can be bent only so far before enacting a payment in return. This is a universal truth inherent in the design that assures that the soul arrives at its inevitable destination in a state and condition appropriate to the presence of its Creator.

Friday, October 30, 2009

The Fear of God?

There are no justifiable or warranted reasons to be evil but there is every reason to be good.

Those who wish to absolve and justify their mean and despicable ways will argue that life has dealt them a harsh and cruel hand and that they are only responding in kind and that if there is a God that He too must be inherently cruel and harsh for He looks down with favour on some and on others with malice and perversity.
If God is All-Powerful, All-Loving, and All-Encompassing, they say, then why does He not intercede on behalf of the innocent and helpless who through no fault of their own are victims of cruel treatment, merciless conditions and punishing deprivation? How can a kind, loving, and generous Creator stand idly by and allow such suffering and torture to continue? The world abounds with cruelty, brutality, and injustice so why then does God not bring an end to these tragic and pitiful symptoms of imperfection in a creation for which He alone claims credit?
Man creates nothing! He merely discovers that which already exists and then creatively employs it to his advantage. Man has the power of discovery but not the power of creation, hence, from whence comes cruelty, torture, hatred, treachery, betrayal, lying, cheating, and theft? Humankind may exhibit these symptoms but cannot rightfully claim credit for having created them. This dubious distinction must be laid at the doorstep of He Who is the Creator of all things both visible and invisible. If evil exists then God must have created it. How then can the Creator of evil condemn and punish His creation for having fallen prey to insidious forces that are not of their making?

We most certainly can fear a God Who possesses such overwhelming power and Who can impose terrible anguish and retribution against all who would rebel against Him but how can we be expected to love and worship such a biased and whimsical deity? We cannot help but fear Him for He is Omnipotent and we are helpless and powerless pawns in the face of His irresistible Will, but, in the same way that a bag cannot contain more than it can hold, so too is it true that there is no room in a human heart for love when it is filled to overflowing with fear and outrage.
When confronted by the inescapable reality of all the pain and suffering that surrounds us, these observations and criticisms are unavoidable and expected, nonetheless, no matter how easily these complaints and queries roll off the tongue and occupy the mind, an answer capable of subduing the bitterness and of instilling a serenity of attitude into a troubled soul does lie within our grasp, nonetheless, the conditions for its discovery require that we observe with an eye that is not clouded by imitation, that we listen with an ear that hearkens to the exquisite sounds of harmony and is not deafened by the discordant cacophony of shrieking ravens, and that we listen with a mind that is uncluttered by the clamor of the misguided, uncontaminated by the blemish of enmity, and unsullied by the stain of bias.
All the elements for securely grasping and resolving this perplexity are well within our reach and require only that we approach them with a purity of motive, sincerity of intent, and earnestness of heart.
What then is meant by the ‘fear of God’? Indeed! The phrase is both a contradiction and a riddle. On the surface it would seem to be a contradiction for it flies in the face of our conception of God as being All-Loving, All-Merciful, and All-Forgiving, and yet, all of the Founders of the Great Religions have instructed Their followers to arm themselves with, and to exhort their fellow man to observe, a proper fear of God and to dread and beware of His wrath.

How can we, on the one hand, embrace the concept that God is loving, merciful, generous, and forgiving and, on the other hand, recoil from Him with a heart that is filled with fear and dread of His wrath?
The answer lies in the reality that these are two entirely different positions of the mind whereby our heart is moved and our actions dictated. These are two very different vantage points and each cultivates praiseworthy behaviour and promotes commendable conduct by appealing to very different perceptions entertained in the minds of very different individuals.
In general, when we think of the word fear it conjures up an image of limbs quaking, knees knocking, loins cramping, bowels sagging, and kidneys emptying in response to some imminent threat of injury to body, mind, or cherished possession and, generally, this is true. However, there is also the fear that arises when we consider the consequences of our actions by which our behaviour is molded, our conduct is guided, our emotions are harnessed, and our passions are restrained, thereby either liberating our innate abilities and loosing our inherent talents to soar to the heights for which they were intended or, conversely, bringing about the shackling of our treasures and the loss of that which we deem to be precious.
Nothing is more pitiable than to waste time and energy rallying our talents and abilities in the pursuit of that which is worthless and profitless. Man was not intended to be a fig tree that bears no fruit and that is only fit for the fire. The meadow of his mind was meant to blossom in a dazzling spectrum of floral beauty and the orchard of his heart was meant to abound in a succulent array of unblemished fruit from which all succeeding generations may partake. The sound of his voice should carry a melody to delight the hearing of the lover of song and cause all the atoms of his limbs to dance to the ecstasy of its exhilarating harmony. Joy and gladness are gifts of God the absence of which brings anguish to the mind and the prospect of the loss of which brings fear to the heart.
Why then would any person persist, with an intransigent mind, to disregard these self-evident truths and to indulge their most corrupt inclinations? Why does the intelligent and perceptive mind construct battlements to enclose and protect its selfish pursuits and to shut out every effort by the Emissaries of truth and reason to bridge the moat of their self-imposed isolation from reality?
Is it, perhaps, that they fear the loss of that which they already possess and are unable to perceive any substitute of equal or greater value that could impel them to relinquish their hold on it? Or is it, perhaps, that they refuse to gaze beyond the moment, and in the narrow and confined prison of their ignorance, have no fear of consequences that they refuse to acknowledge and, hence, no motive to curb their appetite?
Each and every person throughout the limitless expanse of the universe has been created to know God and to worship Him and each soul from the moment of its birth embarks on a journey the ultimate destination of which is reunion with its Creator and asylum within His loving embrace. When, however, a soul resorts to and employs torture, cruelty, betrayal, violence, cheating, lying, and theft as a means to gain their fortune or advance their position, so too do they attract to them forces of a similar nature with an effect equally as fearful, since the daily practice of these contemptible actions forces them to exist at a level that is immeasurably beneath the station that they are destined in the fullness of time to occupy. They have every good reason to fear the consequences of such flagrant misconduct because this spiritually criminal behaviour does no less than rally the forces of the universe to resist their perverse actions and automatically invokes its self-regulating safeguards to ensure that all the elements within it are properly disciplined for all attempts to disrupt the harmony and unity of its existence.

Both fear and the wrath of God pre-exist our awareness of them and whether in this world or the next the inescapable effect of our transgression will exert its influence and be brought to bear upon the soul.
By the wrath of God is meant cause and effect and should not be construed to mean that God sits idly upon His plush throne surveying His creation while at the same time correcting mistakes that have not gone according to His Will. God does not make mistakes that He must at a later date correct. The universe does and is unable to resist unfolding according to His Will. In other words, the entire universal system, all of God’s creatures including humankind, and all other universes presently unknown to us, have been created by Him completely equipped with all safeguards and universal laws that, if ignored or transgressed, will bring retribution to bear upon the transgressor. If you disregard His instructions to you, or if you deliberately and knowingly act in opposition to His laws and teachings then you will pay the price for your transgression whether it be in this world or the next. That is one of the immutable and universal laws that underlies His entire creation both visible and invisible.
Two innate guardians that serve as protective champions to the soul are, the sense of shame and, the sentinel of conscience, neither of which exists in every persons heart or occupies every persons mind.
There are some who are not endowed with a sense of shame and whose sordid existence is a reflection of this absence and there are others whose heart and mind are deprived of conscience and for whom torture and cruelty are instruments of delight and for whom pity, mercy, and remorse, are deemed to be the attributes of fools. Their hardened hearts are unmoved by the cries of their victims, the pleas of their captives, or the tears of the grief-stricken whose agony arises out of the loss of a loved one at the hands of evil butchers. Such as these are parasitic organisms whose behaviour is not regulated by ethics or morality and who respond only to the fear of retribution by outer social forces designed to safeguard the whole of which they are a destructive part. Justice, not personal revenge, demands that laws and the means for their application be put in place to protect the innocent from the parasites that seek to feed upon them. A flock of lambs must be safeguarded by a shepherd to protect them from the insatiable appetite of the wolf against whom they have no defense. The shepherd harbors no ill-will and his protection is not motivated by hatred for the wolf, rather, while recognizing that the wolf is a victim of its predatory and carnivorous inclinations and cannot be blamed for pursuing its prey he, nonetheless, also recognizes that the lambs have neither the strength or the faculties to stand against the wolf who, if left to his own devices, will steal into the pack and devour them all one by one. The shepherd would prefer that the wolf never approach his flock for it is not his wish to bring harm to it, however, his first duty is to his flock and if necessary he will destroy the wolf if it threatens the safety of the innocent lambs in his custody. Punishment should never be motivated by revenge lest it descend into the abyss of brutality and cruelty and in so doing transform the guardian into a mirror image of the perpetrator that they condemn so that no distinction can be detected between them.
If the actions of the heart and mind are conditioned by the sense of shame then it becomes unthinkable to entertain any idea or course of action that would redound either to your own personal dishonor or to the dishonor of those things that you hold most dear.
If the actions of the heart and mind are faithfully served by the sentinel of conscience then it becomes equally unthinkable to knowingly and deliberately perpetrate acts that would bring injury and suffering to the innocent and harmless or that would inflict savage, brutal, and merciless torture and revenge upon those who are deemed to be guilty.
The sense of shame and the sentinel of conscience are the twin pillars upon which the canopy of justice is supported and they are the secure foundation upon which the institution of justice is erected. Within the hallowed sanctuary of their embrace, that is an asylum for the righteous and the innocent, can only be inhaled the fragrance of equity and the scent of freedom.

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Carbon is the most abundant element of the earth and no living organism has yet been discovered that does not rely upon it for the integrity of its existence. When carbon is placed in the crucible of fire and subjected to the rigors of extreme pressure it emerges as the hardest substance known to man and when this same substance is refined and polished its beauty and brilliance cause it to be diligently sought after as a source of wealth and adornment. The many faceted diamond expresses its luster no matter from which vantage point it is viewed and has long been the symbol for the journey of that which is crude, in its earliest stages, to the eventual zenith of its potential.
From the bowels of human history and out of the earth of human understanding have been extracted two unique diamonds pre-eminent over all others, both of which are pursued with passion, and each of which is the reciprocal counterpart and adversary of the other. One is a prodigy to be admired and emulated whereas the other is a prodigal to be distrusted and avoided. In a contingent world life does not exist without both since the presence of one depends on the presence of the other. The knowledge of one requires the knowledge of the other since only in the Eden of total ignorance does the presence of either remain undetected.
These two paramount diamonds that dominate the activities of humankind are Love and Hate, out of which all other qualities and attributes arise and they represent, on the one hand, the conditions of heaven and hell and, on the other hand, the two compelling forces that propel humankind either to soar to the heights of greatness or to descend to the depths of shame.

Love, that is to say, the force of attraction and affection, without which solid form would cease to exist and the most minute component of the tiniest atom would suddenly vanish into nothingness, and without which, throughout the infinite expanse of our universe and all universes that extend beyond, all matter and all life that depended upon it would simply disappear with only a void remaining where life had once existed. Love is the central emanation from God and the surest sign of His presence.
Those who know God and worship Him are also those who love Him and whose hearts are filled with dread, not because of the expectation of His retribution against them, but because they fear that they may transgress His Word, earn His censure, and thereby fail to enjoy His approval. This fear arises from the need not to disappoint their Beloved and is a natural corollary to the sense of shame and the sentinel of conscience. This is the spiritual and emotional fear and is a healthy and necessary part of our existence and it is a fear that is capable of subjugating all other considerations, including physical fear, as is evidenced by those courageous and heroic martyrs who have shed their blood and their very substance in the path of their beliefs and who have stoically endured a persecution and suffering, the like of which we can but imagine, for the sake of their love for their Beloved.
Love is the essence of life, the cause of all attraction, the basis of all affection, the source of all bonding, and it permeates all things whether visible or invisible, and, though it is not a thing that can be seen, touched, or examined, nonetheless, the evidence of its existence is both undeniable and irrefutable and is the most eloquent testimony to the All-Pervading Presence of the Creator from whence it emanates.

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Hate, that is to say, the forces of division and repulsion, the source of chaos and confusion, the manifestation of corruption and depravity, the mother of sin and imperfection, the cause of decomposition and death, and the vortex into which all the engulfing snares of hell lure and attract us, is the adversary and counterpart of love that constantly lurks in the darkness and that is ever poised and vigilant and that, patient and tireless, seeks to topple us into the abyss of error and to dash our hopes, smash our spirits, and cripple the ability of our soul to attain the lofty position it was destined to occupy. It is both resourceful and opportunistic and will avail itself of any moment of carelessness to distract us from our purpose and will employ any occasion of weakness or mistake to divert us from our path. It ill behooves us to underestimate either the influence or strength of such a nefarious foe or to disregard the growing signs of its pervasive presence in the activities that surround us and that influence and manipulate our every move.
Hate, however, is not a being or a personality nor is it a living, conscious, and thinking adversary that with willful deliberation plots and conspires for our downfall. Nor can we, with picturesque simplicity, ascribe to it the various names of Lucifer, Satan, or the Devil, whereby it is transformed into a competitor against God. God has no peer, is without an equal, has no rival and is without a competitor. God stands alone and Pre-Eminent above His creation that includes all things living or inanimate and all things whether visible or invisible.
Hate is a condition, an emotion, a symptom, that fills the vacancy when love departs, when affection is discarded, when attraction vanishes, and it seeps into every fiber, occupies every niche, and takes up residency wherever and whenever the spirit loses sight of the purpose for which it was created. It is the soil in which the seeds of evil are nourished and cultivated and it is the germ that invades and infects the healthy organism. Hate can only exist in the absence of love in the same way that evil can only exist in the absence of good. Hate and evil do not have any substance in and of themselves but, rather, become manifest and exert their pernicious influence when love is abandoned. They tarnish the mirror of the human soul and form the dross that obscures the ‘image and likeness’ of God that lies potentially therein from appearing in all its resplendent glory.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Creation & Evolution:


Is it not strange, that the most highly developed organism and species upon the surface of planet earth, engages in a confrontation over the intent and activity of a Creator about which they know nothing? God is a word introduced into our vocabulary so that we can all agree and be in harmony as to that which we are discussing. We cannot see God. We cannot comprehend the essence of God. We cannot estimate or measure the range of His powers. There is nothing that we can know about God except that He exists and we know that He exists because of the overwhelming evidence that attests to His existence. God exists as far above our ability to know Him as the human intelligence exists beyond the inanimate rock to grasp the human mind. We ascribe all sorts of titles and attributes to God, not because we can ever grasp the extent of these attributes but, rather, to describe what God is not. God is an absolute, that is to say, He has no faults or imperfections and possesses each and every attribute to an infinite and immeasurable degree. This is what makes Him God. He is the only absolute and all else is created by Him, is less than Him and, hence, imperfect in relation to Him. No human can grasp or wrap their mind around even one absolute quality let alone all of them. The human mind is imperfect and limited and even if, as the Sacred Scriptures attest, humanity was created in the ‘Image and Likeness” of God, nonetheless, humankind possesses each and every attribute of God to a limited degree which is what makes him human. Humanity is not God but is simply a reflection of Him. Humans make mistakes but God does not.

The greatest gift of God to humankind is the ‘power of discovery’ by which he gradually unlocks the secrets of nature. The process may be agonizingly and frustratingly slow but is, nevertheless, constant and unfaltering. With each passing year, decade, or century we gain more and more knowledge of the workings of the universe and the laws and principles by which it operates and we creatively employ these discoveries to our advantage, however, we are not the cause of that which we discover but are merely the recipients of a previously undiscovered knowledge. Humans do not create anything. True creation, by definition, means to bring something into existence out of nothingness which is something that no human can do. This is something that only God can do. Humankind must have something with which to begin the process of discovery. The use of the word discover presupposes that something was there before our discovery of it but in no way advances the claim that we are the cause or creator of that which we discover. Only God can create, whereas, humankind is empowered to discover it and then to be creative with it and to employ it to his advantage.

All too often an individual’s concept of God interferes with the process of their reason and logic. Whenever we seek to portray an image of God we are immediately trapped in a self-evident oxymoron inasmuch as God, by definition, is unknowable and indescribable and far beyond any means we might employ to portray Him. Hence, anytime we attempt to describe the mind of God we become hopelessly mired in the swamp of myth and superstition the result of which is to distort and pervert our ability to process the realities which surround us each and every day.

Science and religion are, most assuredly, two of the most precious gifts of God to humankind of which all other organisms on the face of the planet find themselves bereft. An axiom, whether in science or religion, is a self-evident truth that any normal human mind can grasp. The existence of God is self-evident. The evidence that attests to the existence of God is ‘all existence’. Each and every person knows that they did not create either themselves or the universe and that something other than themselves is responsible for the existence, not only of all matter in the universe, but also for the laws and principles to which all matter is obedient and from which it is powerless to depart. This is what we call God or the Creator without ever advancing the mistaken notion that we can either understand the nature or grasp the essence of God. How is it possible for the limited to grasp the absolute, the imperfect to comprehend the perfect, the feeble to express the strength of the All-Powerful, or the ignorant possess the knowledge of the All-Knowing? We know God exists because of the overwhelming abundance of evidence which attests to His existence, however, we cannot know God directly or directly converse with Him. Our knowledge of God is indirectly acquired through His creation and particularly through the crowning point of His creation – the human temple, within which He has deposited a reflection of all of His qualities in the form of an intelligent soul and upon which He has conferred the ‘power of discovery’ to a degree found nowhere else in nature.

Where else in nature can be found an organism that has devised both a written and oral language? What other organism has developed both a written and oral science? What other organism has both the imagination and creative impetus to produce arts and crafts? What other organism can delve into its own past to discover the secrets of its own creation? What other organism constructs instruments to express the beauty and infinite range of music, organizes that music into an oral and written form, and then synthetically reproduces and stores it? Where else in nature can be found an organism that is consciously aware of the existence of its Creator and which is capable of entering into prayer and discussion with that self-same Creator? What other organism has ever, or will ever, lay claim to be both a physical and spiritual entity? What other organism passionately asserts that it is more than just an animal and further asserts that there is a spiritual life that exists beyond the grave?

It is evident that God created all things and, in this regard, the ‘creationists’ are correct, however, it is also evident that God created all things to evolve and, in this regard the ‘evolutionists’ are correct. There is no inconsistency in either of these views except in the intransigent mind of the ignorant literalist who is addicted to the outer shell of the ‘word’ without ever perceiving the inner significance thereof. God created all things and He created all things to evolve. This is not a mystery. There is no confusion in this regard. This is an axiom of existence that should be self-evident to even the most diminished intellect.

The Sacred Scriptures of the major religions are replete with stories designed to reveal spiritual and intellectual truths. It is not the literal shell of the words employed in relating these stories that is of importance but, rather, it is the inner significance of the story as a whole to convey a spiritual truth that is intended and which is the most effective means of illustrating a non-physical concept through physical description.

In the case of the ‘creationists vs. evolutionists’ it seems that each side strives to dismiss the relevance of the other. How sad that the self-evident truth of their complementary existence is subject to denial and confrontation. How tragic that cruelty, torture, and violence should be the means devised to resolve this difference of opinion. Tears must flow in abundance in the heavens and hearts wring in despair at the foolishness of those who profess to speak in God’s name but who violate every principle of His justice in their dealings with His creatures.

Who amongst humankind would have the arrogance or audacity to advance the claim that they have greater wisdom or knowledge than God? And yet, there are those who profess to speak on behalf of God and who perpetrate moral and ethical atrocities upon their own kind the like of which even the most bestial and predatory of the lower order of animals could not imagine or devise. Such persons are shackled in the prison of their myths and superstitions from which they are unable to extricate themselves and have abdicated their privileged position as humans and entered the abysmal abode of the egomaniacal beast.

We have but to examine the two words involved in this dispute, ‘Create’ and ‘Evolve’, to realize how ludicrous is this confrontation between these two schools of thought.

To ‘create’, within the framework of this argument, means to bring something into existence out of nothingness. Humans are incapable of this whether individually or as a group effort. Only God can create.

To ‘evolve’, within the framework of this argument, means to change from one condition or state to another, regardless of whether that change is in a forward or reverse direction, and irrespective of whether the end result is positive or negative. Evolution is the natural order of things and is a direct result of the creation of God. To argue against and to oppose this self-evident truth is to argue and dispute with God. God creates and that which He creates evolves. How simple and undeserving of confrontation and hostility is this axiom of science and religion.
Axiom #15:

“All life struggles to advance from the simple to the complex.”

All life either progresses or regresses. It moves either forward or backward. Nothing is static. There is only the appearance of stillness or lack of motion. What the eye cannot detect the electron microscope can. Where there appears to be no motion there is a constant bustle of activity at a level below the perceptive ability of our sight or touch.

When we examine the universe of nature we find that it is comprised of four basic kingdoms. There is the mineral, the vegetable, the animal, and there is the human kingdom. The mineral is the simplest of these four and the human is the most complex. In the human kingdom we discover the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal kingdoms with the added complexity of abstract and intellectual attributes not present in the other three. In the animal kingdom we find the vegetable and the mineral. In the vegetable kingdom we find the mineral and in all of these kingdoms we discover the universal laws of nature are in operation and from which none can escape.

Each of these kingdoms can be reduced to common constituents that exist in the microcosm, however, at this infinitesimal level none of these kingdoms exist in fact but exist only potentially. These microscopic elements can only be reduced so far before their detectable presence as a form of matter vanishes and all that remains is the energy that animated them and which is then available to animate some new expression of matter as it emerges to begin its journey from the simple to the complex. The building blocks of matter are never destroyed but, rather, dissimilate to their most rudimentary existence. The conservation of matter is a fundamental proposition of science. Matter may decompose and return to its constituent elements but only the particular form is destroyed not the matter itself. Matter will always begin a new journey in a new form, from simple to complex, until some external force is brought to bear upon it to disrupt this process and reduce it once again to its original existence.

Even when we observe some organism embarked on a journey from the complex to the simple, i.e. the virus, we are, nonetheless, compelled to admit that at some stage in its evolution by which it achieved that complexity that it had been in a more simple stage of existence while on its journey and that, at the present time, although still quite complex, has devised a new and more energy conserving tactic by which to replicate itself, i.e. penetrating and hiding within the cell of some other organism and adapting its DNA to replicate itself geometrically thereby eliminating the need to carry the extra burden of this self-same DNA on its own journey. An energy efficient plan within which it still remains highly complex. You cannot become complex unless you have first been simple. There is no such thing as instantaneous complexity. Complexity is arrived at gradually through evolution which is consistent with those principles inherent in all nature created by God.
Axiom # 14

“There exists in the heart and mind of humankind
the irresistible and pressing need to render explainable,
the facts and circumstances that surround it
in both the visible and invisible universe,
and that it is to this end that the human mind constructs models
to account for the data that it uncovers and encounters
in its journey from crib to coffin.”

What then is your model?

And

On what data is it based?

And

To what extent is it your model rather than a copy of someone else’s?

The journey of the human soul, on its odyssey through the material world to its ultimate destiny in the spiritual world, is exposed simultaneously to the inescapable influence of both of these worlds, each of which with unrelenting and often ruthless perseverance, battles for the dominant share of its attention.

The mind can be shaped and its inherited, God-given, resources rallied and trained to serve whichever of these two worlds is successful in occupying the drivers seat. The lessons of history and the present-day expressions of its activities are, sadly, an ignoble testament as to which of these worlds is generally in charge, and which is wastefully expending the priceless pearls of our humanity, by which we are in the ‘Image and Likeness of God’, on worthless and corrupt pursuits that redound only to the dishonor of the noble human temple.

It is self-evident that we live in a material world, that our existence here has a purpose, that we are the rightful recipients of all the bounties and joys that this world has to offer, that we have been provided with tools to uncover the hidden gems of nature and to discover the laws to which it is subject, from which it cannot deviate, and by which it operates, and that humankind is the only creature on this planet that is endowed with these special and unique tools.
Axiom # 13 – Singularity & Multiplicity, Creation & Evolution, are the expression of a single phenomena and occur when Pure Energy is transformed into matter or vice-versa:

Pure Energy, (which is just another term for God) gives birth to matter and all the phenomena associated with it, exists outside the physical universe, is infinite in expanse and possesses neither boundary nor limitation. Pure Energy ( which is just a physical term seeking to describe the indescribable and whose reach far exceeds its grasp) exists beyond space and time, is compelled by it’s very nature to give birth to matter and to precipitate the phenomena to which all matter is inextricably subject and, because Pure Energy is both infinite and creative, is the likely womb out of which an infinite quantity of separate and distinct universes have been born one of which is that in which humankind exists.

Singularity and/or Creation are the point at which Pure Energy is transformed into matter in accordance with the irresistible forces inherent in it’s nature and, Multiplicity and/or Evolution are the expanding universe whose infinite journey arises out of this particular phenomena. Einstein in his general theory of relativity predicted both the expanding universe and the Singularity from which it evolved and in his formula E=MC² stated mathematically that energy is interchangeable with matter and vice-versa. Edwin Hubble, the eminent astronomer in the early nineteen hundreds advanced the theory that the universe is expanding and that the further away a nebula was, the correspondingly greater its speed, therefore, the universe is also accelerating. Stephen Hawkings theorized that there is no singularity as a single point into which all the matter of the universe was at one time compressed but, rather, that the universe has no boundaries, has always existed, will always exist, and will continue to expand infinitely. It would seem that they are both correct even if from different vantage points and even though they are both celebrated physicists who state their theories mathematically. Edwin Hubble’s Law which states that the speed of receding Galaxies is in direct proportion to their distance would seem to imply that at some distant point in time that they should be far enough away to achieve the speed of light and according to Einstein’s formula it would be at this time that their mass would convert to energy and that the cycle of transformation initiated by the singularity of creation would be completed. The inference that may be drawn from the sum of these theories, if accurate, is that creation is a dynamic force without beginning or end and that humankind’s universe cannot and will not end. It may also be inferred that humankind’s universe is self-perpetuating, that is to say, when distant and accelerating galaxies achieve the speed of light and convert into energy that the balance of the universe is maintained by the conversion of energy into an equivalent mass of matter at some reciprocal point in the universe.

The universe, no matter how large it may appear to be is, nonetheless, an enclosed system with indeterminate boundaries within which all the laws, behaviour, and properties of matter are constrained and outside of which none of these exist. Creation and evolution are simultaneous. Time and space are properties of a physical universe but are not properties of Pure Energy. Singularity and multiplicity are extensions of each other. Relativity and quantum mechanics are specific characteristics of separate conditions that have no need of consistency with each other. It is not necessary to reconcile two different behaviours that operate under different conditions. The attempt to construct a single theory or formula that will explain all phenomena is an exercise in futility and simply panders to our inherent wish to simplify. Although it may well be true that every particle of matter influences and is influenced by every other particle of matter whether individually or in group organization and that neither time nor distance can neutralize this influence it nevertheless remains unalterable that their existence depends upon their presence within the universe and that matter that leaves the universe is annihilated and converted into pure energy essentially in the same way that a particle of matter when colliding with a particle of anti-matter results in the annihilation of both in an explosion of energy.

If it is given that all the foregoing theories are correct then it necessarily follows that we can never directly measure, detect, or occupy Pure Energy. Pure Energy is the stuff out of which universes are created and since we inhabit, are immersed in, and cannot escape an enclosed universe, we are limited to the exercise of inference and deduction by which to establish its existence. It may be possible, however, once we have uncovered and gained control over presently hidden laws of matter, to gain access to and communicate with other physical universes as yet undiscovered but whose creation and evolution mirror our own and whose matter obeys the same laws of physics that operate within our own universe.

It would be both arrogant and presumptuous of the theologian, philosopher, or scientist, in much the same way as our ancestors assumed that the earth was the center of the universe, to assume that our universe is the only ‘Big Bang’, that there was only one ‘lump of matter’ from which all phenomena has descended, and that the laws of physics acting upon all matter and which theoretically precipitated the ‘Big Bang’ miraculously appeared out of nowhere to provide dynamic impetus to what otherwise would have to be a static system held in perfect balance and which would be incapable of change. It further remains for science to explain how the ‘lump’ came to be in the first place and how, if all its forces were held in check up to the ‘Big Bang’, why it exploded. Both the ‘Lump” and the ‘Big Bang’ contradict each other and are a scientific oxymoron. The theory postulates that something that was in perfect balance suddenly had a fit. The theory also fails to account for the appearance of the lump and does nothing to explain why there may not have been an infinite number of lumps each of which would undergo the same ultimate result and produce an infinite number of expanding universes. Space is not something that exists outside the physical universe but is a characteristic of it and expands concomitantly with it, therefore, an infinite number of universes may exist without ever coming in contact with each other. Time too is a characteristic of a physical universe subject to its same laws and principles and exists only within its enclosed system however infinite that may appear to our limited perception of it. The theory of the ‘Conservation of Matter’ and the essential underlying harmony of the universe would seem to be more consistent with the data and with Einstein. It seems reasonable in an enclosed system that is in balance that when matter achieves the speed of light and is transformed into energy that there is a corresponding emergence of matter from energy somewhere within that same enclosed system. When a body dies the atoms that held its form together do not die but simply are redistributed to become part of some other form. Only the particular form is lost but the essential building blocks of that form cannot be destroyed and, in this sense, are eternal and imperishable.
Axiom # 12 – Creation is not an accident but, rather, a purposeful phenomena and humankind, as its most advanced organism, is the apex of that purpose.

The arena of science holds as one of its general tenets that life is an accident of nature, that nature is a byproduct of the inherent laws of physics to which all matter is obedient and from which it cannot escape, and that all matter originated as a single lump having infinite mass, infinite density, and infinite gravity, either surrounded by infinite space in which to expand or, conversely, by creating the space into which to expand and when, in the natural order of events, the ‘Big Bang’ occurred, time began, and all matter moved away from all other matter as parts of an expanding universe in which there is no observable or detectable center.

The theories and philosophies of science, that is to say its reach, far exceeds its grasp and its theories and philosophies when pushed as far back into time as it seeks to explain fall pitifully short of their objective. Great and wondrous achievements have been accomplished by the inventive, creative, and intuitive genius of scientists the grateful benefactor of which is humankind itself with even greater bounties and wonders yet to come.

What the scientist as an individual, or science as a whole, cannot explain is from whence came the original lump of matter, who or what created it, and who or what created the laws to which it is so obedient and from which it cannot escape. Science agrees that the universe is orderly but cannot account for that order. Science discovers what is already there but is not so presumptuous as to claim credit for creating what it discovered. All our discoveries presuppose that something other than us created it and, further, that we have no means by which to encompass this Creator. As beings that have evolved out of nature we are firmly held in the grasp of all of its laws and since nature is a contingent world of which humankind is its choicest fruit it follows that we are subject to the same limitations to which all products of nature are subject and it is these very limitations that deny us from ever grasping and coming to terms with an absolute. The data that we compile attests with irrefutable certainty to the existence of God but the inherent limitations of that same data deny us the ability to grasp His essence.

It stretches the credulity of even the simplest of minds to advance the concept that all of our science, all the order of our universe and all universes beyond, and that all sentient beings, in whatever universe they exist, are nothing more than the accidental result of random chance, without any predetermined purpose, and without being part of an overall and purposeful scheme. It matters not whether the purpose or the scheme is immediately apparent to us because we cannot discard the data or deny the evidence of our own discoveries. There are no accidents in a world of cause and effect or in a world of contingency in which everything depends on everything else.

When science wishes to express an abstract concept or to explain the behaviour of invisible phenomena it constructs a model that is intended to accommodate all the known data and laws and principles and effects that are associated with the concept or phenomena. This is a very sensible and extremely useful practice that enables the scientist and researcher to maintain their focus while at the same time maintaining an overall view of the subject under their scrutiny so that they do not become lost in the jungle of detail. In the case of the ‘Big Bang Theory’, however, it would appear that the overall view was lost in the attempt to explain the details and in the process details were either ignored or overlooked as not being germane to the model. In this case the procedure would seem to be predicated on the rule that ‘if it doesn’t fit then discard it’ rather than on the practice of altering the model to accommodate all of the data.

Many scientists seem to delight in astounding their listeners by asserting that all of the matter contained in all of the solar systems and galaxies throughout the universe was at one time compacted into a singularity of mass that could fit onto the end of your finger and then they advance the theory that approximately fifteen, or even perhaps fifty, billion years ago that the laws of physics, to which all matter is obedient and from which there is no escape, compelled this ‘lump of matter’ to explode and form all of the universe and to initiate the beginning of time and space.

It is implicit in this singularity theory that all forms of life, all laws and theories of physics, all matter, time and space, can only exist after the ‘Big bang’ and within the confines of whatever derives from it. It is also implicit in this theory that none of the aforementioned can exist outside or pre-exist the ‘Big Bang’ since they are an effect and not a cause. Unfortunately, this theory accommodates only the effect and not the cause and also fails to embrace several other factors peculiar and unique to humankind alone that are not present in any other form of life or exhibited by any particle of matter or any combination thereof that has been discovered, so far, in the observable universe.

Humankind exhibits the ability for abstract reasoning and intellectual ideation out of which has evolved a highly sophisticated oral and written language found nowhere else in the animal kingdom. Humankind has evolved a detailed written history not only of itself but also of all other forms of life with which it co-exists. Humankind has evolved an elaborate social, intellectual, and emotional network of laws, ethics, and morals that operate outside and which are not intrinsic to the laws and behaviour of matter as predicted and defined by the laws and theories of science. Humankind exhibits the ability to express laughter and humour the existence of which is absent in all other forms of life or matter.

Theologians, scientists, and lay people in general have always been aware of the dichotomy of humankind expressed in its spiritual nature and its physical nature and have always recognized humankind as the crowning point and flower of God’s creation that possesses qualities and expresses attributes that are believed to survive and exist beyond the confines of the physical universe.
Axiom # 11 – Death is an illusion

In scientific circles everywhere across the planet the universal principle of the indestructibility of matter is held as a fundamental axiom of science. It is only the shape or form that has arisen out of the composition of its constituent elements that dies, but the constituent elements themselves, are unaffected and simply recombine to construct some new shape or form.

If all the vegetation and living organisms that ever existed and died on this planet were to be gathered into a single mass it would be many times greater than the existing mass of planet earth today. If, therefore, when an organism or plant dies its constituent elements also died and did not live on in some other form then it necessarily follows that planet earth would have disappeared as well, many aeons ago, through the loss of all of its matter. It is self-evident, therefore, that matter is indestructible and cannot die but simply recombines to form new shapes and new complex organisms.

Humankind is the most complex organism in nature and is its crowning point and yet, humankind possesses qualities not found elsewhere in nature. How is it possible for nature to give birth to a creation that possesses qualities of which nature itself is bereft? The resolution to this perplexity is also self-evident and is previously advanced in the Axiom # 6 on Dichotomy. Only the physical body is born and arises out of nature whereas the soul, that is not composed of elements, that is eternal and indestructible, and that is destined to traverse all the worlds of God, simply moves on to another world and another dimension where it continues on in the same state and condition in which it departed from this world. Death is an illusion and is better described as the birth into another world and freedom from the fetters of this one.

An analogy that readily portrays this concept compares the birth from this world into the next with the birth of the fetus within the mother’s womb into this world. During its nine month sojourn from a single cell to a fully developed fetus ready to depart the protective world of the womb it was obliged to develop all the organs and limbs necessary to a successful and healthy life in the world in which it was to be born. If, as a fetus, it had decided, with a perverse and intransigent laziness of mind, that it could not be bothered, and was just too comfortable, to expend the time and energy forming eyes or ears or legs or arms or all of these then it would enter the next world severely crippled with its ability to express its inherent talents permanently handicapped. It would live through this world but in the same state and condition in which it left its previous world, but, and this is the hub of this concept, it would never be able to return and correct its errors. Each world allows us the opportunity to develop those tools necessary to our existence in the next world but once we have left this world that opportunity is gone forever. If we have been diligent and sincere, and have patterned and pursued our lives in accordance with the spiritual blueprint spread before us by those Universal Educators, Who appear among us every thousand years or so, and in the wake of which arise the Great World Religions and out of which arise those saintly teachers in virtually every decade who aid in carrying forward an ever-advancing civilization, then we shall have been true to our destiny and upon our birth into the next world will find ourselves happy, healthy, and adequately equipped to advance without impediment through its various pathways.

On the other hand, if, with a perversity and intransigence of mind, we reject, ignore, and neglect the spiritual body and deploy all of our resources to pander to and favour our physical cravings and demands so that we descend into the abode of the beast wherein corruption, cruelty, greed, and bestiality abound and, in this condition are, without warning or ceremony, cast from this world into the next we shall throughout its duration wail and bemoan our plight for we shall have lost the physical body that we so carefully indulged and shall be left only with a deformed and decrepit spirit thrashing to and fro in brambles of its own making. Nor can we, in order to escape this frightful circumstance, deliberately terminate our existence in this world in an effort to arrive unscathed in the next since this too would leave us crippled and handicapped for we would not have developed those qualities necessary to our new existence which can only be developed in the previous world. There is no escape and there are no shortcuts. The only safe passage into the next world is through obedience to God’s plan for us and this can only be known through the Teachings of those Peerless Emissaries Who appear on His behalf and Whose sacred Writings guide and instruct us according to His Word.

Death is an illusion of the physical world and is nothing more than the reduction of the complex to the simple in the case of the physical components and the transfer from one garden to another in the case of the spirit. Nothing really dies and nothing is ever static. There exists only the dynamics of change either from one state to another or from one dimension to another.
Axiom # 10 – The beauty and inherent intention of nature and all it contains is variety not uniformity.

As beauty is in the ‘eye of the beholder’ so too truth is in the ‘mind of the interpreter’ and, sad as it may be, the mind too often slumbers while truth is twisted and distorted by the vanity and arrogance of the ignorant. There is enough chaos, befuddlement, and misinformation in this world without the need to clothe what is self-evident in the garment of narrow minded delusion and self serving fantasy.


We live in a world where the generality of humankind views distinction and difference as a threat and a mark of inferiority rather than as a natural advantage that has arisen out of the need to adapt and accommodate and thereby survive amidst the surroundings in which they find themselves.


Why would a gardener, on the one hand, tend with loving care and an appreciative eye, a dazzling display of multi-coloured floral beauty in which each colour, hue, and tint by its very contrast enhances and lends charm to every other colour, hue, and tint and then, on the other hand, with brutal indifference to the rights and suffering of his victims, persecute, torture, and even murder someone for no other reason than that they are of a different colour, come from a different country, speak a different language, or pursue a different philosophy, and in so doing completely disregard the self-evident reality that it is these very differences that bring beauty and attraction to society?


When an expression is composed of a contradiction of terms it is called an oxymoron and when humans act with such a contradiction of behaviour they display the mind of an ‘ox’ and the reasoning of a ‘moron’.


Differences in colour, language, culture, perception, and thought are more often than not the direct effect of geographic location, geologic environment, and genetic adaptation and have absolutely nothing to do with the skills, attributes, or intelligence of the species in question. Talent and ability are distributed relatively evenly across the face of the planet without regard to geography, gender, culture, or heritage and only the most obstinately perverse and blindly intransigent of mind would seek to advance the view that human differences are anything but a basis for beauty or fail to recognize the empirical reality that because we are the product of a contingent world that we can only gain knowledge and perceive beauty through the process of comparison and contrast. Variety, with which the world is replete, is the intrinsic mechanism of nature by which we are enabled to know what we know and without which we would continue to be trapped in the Eden of ignorance.

Inherent in the world of nature and intrinsic to each and every one of its component parts is the irresistible and unalterable compulsion to create ever more complex and sophisticated forms and to act in consort with other simple components in the pursuit of this task regardless of the direction taken or the shape that arises therefrom. Experiment is the touchstone of nature and variety is the fruit of this process and the moment that any force is brought to bear, the end result of which is to arrest this process, then termination and decomposition of its constituent elements to their original simplicity and the death of that particular shape and form must inevitably ensue. In nature uniformity equates with death and variety equates with life and even in the tiniest of its particles can be found differences and distinctions, however minute, that attest to this universal axiom.

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Axiom # 9 – All structures whether mineral, vegetable, animal or human adapt and accommodate to the circumstances in which they find themselves.

It is inconceivable that an All-Loving, All-Knowing, All-Compassionate, All-Just, and All-Merciful God would create an organism, deprive it of the means by which to distinguish good from evil, withhold from it the means by which to identify right from wrong, fail to endow it with the ability to recognize that it had a Creator, and then condemn and punish it for having failed to exercise any or all of these qualities. It is equally inconceivable that any person raised within any society, who consciously and willfully abides to the best of their ability by whatever social, religious, and moral laws prevail within that community, regardless whether these laws conflict and are in direct opposition to those revealed by the Founders of the Great Religions and the major civilizations that derive therefrom, and despite what would seem to be the primitive, brutal, and irrational nature of these laws, yet would be condemned and punished by God for living exemplary lives in their own society and of being the unknowing victims of ignorance.

A very cursory and superficial examination of nature clearly reveals that each and every organism evolves and adapts itself to the forces and circumstances of nature made available to it and that failure to do so inevitably results in extinction. Survival of a species demands that it accommodate itself to its surroundings even if those conditions are in an irreversible state of change. The basic law of nature is ‘adapt or die’. This fundamental law of the universe applies equally to the spiritual world the only difference here being that the laws are moral and ethical rather than material. God does not condemn one society because it is in a different state or condition of progress than another. God is just, merciful, and compassionate and judges each individual on their own merits and how they behave in the face of what they personally believe and not on the basis of what some other person or some other society believes. It is the integrity of conduct in the face of opposition to beliefs and convictions held precious that is the determining factor in His judgment. You cannot bargain with God nor can he be deceived because His Omniscient Vision penetrates the darkest corners of the most secretive heart and mind.

Humankind occupies, for however temporary a period, the contingent world of nature and cannot escape the laws that govern its behaviour, however, because he occupies the spiritual world as well and must also abide by the laws that govern its behaviour and, because the former is transitory and the latter is infinite, humankind therefore, is compelled to place priorities in their proper order and, when a choice is required between either world must, of necessity, select the spiritual choice since this is the world he will pursue on his infinite journey toward his Creator whereas the transient world of nature embraces his spirit for but a brief moment in time.

Humankind is unique in that he occupies two worlds simultaneously and is placed in the position of having to adapt and accommodate to both. This is the challenge between heaven and hell in which each exerts its influence and submits its demands. Heaven is the realm of the spirit and hell is the abode of the contingent world that seeks to subvert the activities of our spiritual attributes to pander to and to become servants to the cravings of the physical world. If we succumb to these cravings then we become slaves to our animal proclivities and playthings in the hands of our lusts, that is to say, we lust for power, lust for recognition, lust for wealth, and lust for the flesh the inordinate pursuit of which leads to greed and corruption causing us thereby to rally all our spiritual qualities to this end while disregarding the self-evident truth that it is the edification and advance of the soul with which we should be occupied since this is what we carry with us throughout all the worlds of God.
Axiom # 8 – All created things whether tangible or intangible are endowed with the inescapable need and compulsion to express themselves.

If it is given that the above stated axiom is valid then it necessarily follows that it applies equally to each and every quality and characteristic of both the physical and spiritual worlds inasmuch as we inhabit both at the same time and are simultaneously subject to the prompting and urging of both.

It is inconceivable, therefore, that each and every member of humankind could be endowed with each and every attribute of God and that any or all of these qualities would fail to exert their influence or refuse to manifest itself within the makeup of any individual. It is equally inconceivable that each and every non-human organism, each of which has been endowed with at least one attribute of God, would with stubborn perversity fail to express this bounty. It is this inherent dynamic quality of each and every particle of matter, and of each and every attribute thereof up to and including every complex combination that arises therefrom, that forms the basic competitive and confrontational engagement between the spiritual aspect of humankind and the unrelenting demands of nature.

It is inherent in the makeup of all things that they evolve from the simple to the complex, whether it be the electrons that form the molecules, the molecules that form the elements, or the elements that form all the mineral, vegetable, and animal varieties that cover the face of the planet. It is irreversibly inherent in all things that they advance and evolve toward a higher and more complex form and that this dynamic attribute will express itself despite all opposition to the contrary. It is equally inherent that the moment this dynamic quality comes to rest that the dissolution of all of its component parts, that is to say, decomposition and death will ensue. There are no static particles in nature and action is either forward or backward without the allowance for indigence. Innate qualities allow nothing to stand still except as a balance of dynamic forces. This is the middle path, the equity of life, the justice of existence, the nicety of variety, and the lifelong and infinite battle for dominance between the spiritual and the physical forces of nature. However, only the physical form is composed of matter and is, therefore, the only aspect of humankind that devolves and returns to its original constituent parts through the process of decomposition and death. The spirit is not composed of matter and, therefore, cannot devolve and, hence, must act in obedience to its inherent attributes and will continue to advance and evolve even after the death of the physical form for which it was the temporary host and through which it was enabled to express itself in a physical world.
Axiom # 7 – Humankind is a dichotomy

We live in a contingent world which is to say that we know a thing because of some other thing upon which it depends. This may be described as a duality of knowledge or, stated another way, recognition through the two aspects or dichotomy inherent in all information.

Each piece of information that we acquire, each event that we observe, each particle of evidence that we analyze, each experience that we encounter, and each emotion that we undergo cannot reach the intellect until it has first been filtered through the process of comparison by which likeness and/or difference is identified and enables us to distinguish one piece of information from another.

The process of comparison extends from the tangible world of concrete information into the intangible and abstract world of thought and ideas. We cannot know that something is hard unless we have something against which to compare it that we know to be soft. We cannot know that something is cold unless we have already determined what it is to be hot. The knowledge of one condition depends on the knowledge of the other. This is the world of contingency and it is the world of dependence and all our knowledge, one way or another, is filtered and acquired through this process. The very language that we use is an expression of this process and is the very sophisticated tool that we have invented by which to describe that which is intangible, and which belongs to the world of ideas and thought, by associating it with that which is tangible and which belongs to the world of the senses.

This is the dichotomy of humankind. It lives in two different worlds simultaneously. It occupies the world of thought while at the same time occupying the world of matter. It has an animal nature and it has a spiritual nature and, despite their separate and distinct identity, they co-exist and struggle for dominance throughout each and every human lifetime. This elemental truth is not only reflected in our language and inherent in the process by which we acquire information but is also strongly suggested by the way in which we think of our bodies and by the implied mechanism by which certain phenomena operate.

Firstly, let us examine the universal way with which each and every person considers their body. When you think of your body you always think of it in terms of ownership, that is to say, you think of you and your body as two separate entities. One is owned and the other is the owner. When you describe your body you say, ‘this is my arm’ or ‘this is my leg’ or ‘this is my head’ or even ‘this is my brain’ but at no time do you ever think that the ‘you’ that is doing the describing is the same as the arm, the leg, the head, or the brain. It is implicit in the way that you describe your body that ‘you’ are one entity and that the body is another that belongs to you and without which you would still continue to exist. You know that if you lost both arms, both legs, both eyes, both ears, one lung, one kidney, or part of your stomach and bladder that ‘you’ would still exist and that the most that could be said is that your ability to function in a physical world was severely impaired. There is no doubt that trauma would arise, that emotional adjustment would be necessary, or that the remainder of your life would be irreversibly altered but, and this is the universal axiom of human existence, your mind and soul would remain whole and intact. Each and every person believes both intuitively and instinctively that their body belongs to them but is not them and that when the body dies that ‘they’ go somewhere else wherever that may be.

Let us examine a phenomena that reflects this dichotomy between the animal and spiritual natures of humankind. A phenomena that has been rigorously and thoroughly studied and employed by the scientific community and one whose underlying mechanism seems to corroborate and exhibit the characteristics that suggest that the animal and spiritual nature are two separate and distinct entities. This phenomena is called hypnosis and, although its most minute elements of operation may not be fully understood, its existence is, nonetheless, recognized and its behavioural effects employed.

Various institutions have conducted serious and long term studies of the phenomena of hypnosis with similar observations but with varying conclusions as to the nature of the mechanism involved, however, none of these studies advanced the theory that this phenomena had as an essential root of its operation the dichotomy of animal and spiritual partners. It is only when this dichotomy is introduced as an essential element in the operation of the phenomena that the differences in the conclusions by each of the studies coalesce into an integrated whole.

When we observe the phenomena and then reduce it to its simplest elements it becomes clear that the person under hypnosis is giving way to and allowing the hypnotist to give commands directly to their body which strives to execute those commands as literally and completely as is within its ability. The notable difference being that the body will perform and accomplish for the hypnotist what it will not necessarily or seems incapable of normally performing and accomplishing for its lifelong host and partner. This enigma although recognized and utilized was not understood because the separate and distinct nature of the body and the spirit that inhabits it was neither considered nor accepted as a contributing factor. The body and spirit were considered as one, indivisible, entity and, had this really been the case, the phenomena of hypnosis may never have emerged.

Hypnosis occurs because each person is both a physical being and a spiritual being that are separate and distinct entities that co-exist in a perfect partnership. Let us, however, before a person encounters a hypnotist for the first time, retreat into the past and trace the process that has preceded this encounter.

Each person is endowed at birth with a DNA blueprint that dictates all of their physical attributes and abilities. Whether they are male or female, white or black, tall or short, blonde or brunette, agile or clumsy, healthy or sickly, strong or weak, is predetermined by their ancestry and genetically encoded in their DNA blueprint from which their is no escape and within whose restraints and limitations their entire lifetime is dictated. But, and this is the pivotal point, the DNA blueprint is a product of a physical world and dictates only the shape, form, and ability of the body. The body is simply an instrument, a tool, a vessel that enables a non-physical soul to manifest itself in a physical world. In the same way that the artist is separate and distinct from the portrait that they have shaped upon the canvas, and in the same way that the artisan is separate and distinct from the tools they employ in the practice of their trade, so too is the human soul separate and distinct from the human body that enables it to emerge and express itself in a physical world. The survival of the soul after death is a universally held belief and reflects the intuitive, instinctive, and intellectual recognition by every society in ever age that the soul and the body are distinct and separate entities that only co-exist in this physical world and that, upon the dissolution of the elements that form the body back into the bosom of nature, the soul is free to pursue whatever path its Creator intended. This dichotomy is the common property of every sentient being.
Axiom # 6 – All science & all forms of matter are finite

Science may be defined as that branch of human endeavour whereby he discovers the laws of nature and then creatively employs them to his own ends. Science pre-exists our discovery of it. We can only discover what already exists and our discovery can never be construed as the cause of that which we have discovered.

If it obeys the laws of nature then it is inherently finite for ‘laws must precede the forces and matter that obey them’ and laws are the creation of something other than themselves.

Theory is nothing more than an intellectual model constructed by a finite mind to account for limited data and the laws that derive therefrom. All theories are subject to revision and modification as more data is compiled and new laws are discovered.

The ‘Big Bang’ expanding universe theory presupposes a ‘lump of matter’ having infinite mass, infinite density, infinite gravitation, and surrounded by infinite space into which it can infinitely expand and which by reason of irresistible obedience to inherent laws of physics to which all matter is subject and from which the ‘lump of matter’ is incapable of extricating itself, and for which it can take no credit, suddenly exploded and the world was born and time began.

Time is an element of a physical world and cannot operate outside its restraints. Each event, each moment, and every phenomena has a beginning and an end, the date and order of which are unalterably fixed. The end cannot precede the beginning and the same event cannot occur twice, at two different times, or in two different locations. Time moves inexorably forward without hesitation and without a backward glance and, despite the fact that we can examine traces of time that have occurred in the past, nonetheless, we cannot examine what has yet to occur in the future. The laws of physics dictate that in a world of physical phenomena that the future is beyond reach of our examination in the present and will ever be so. Laws of probability and statistical likelihood are, at best, speculative and do not in any way alter this incontrovertible truth.

And yet, there are those who have detailed dreams, who are subject to visions, who experience premonitions and undergo precognitive revelations of events which have yet to occur and which days, weeks, months, and even years later are recreated exactly as they foresaw them. This is in complete defiance of all known laws of physics and is a repudiation of the concept of time as we know it. Too many documented incidents are on record and too many witnessed examples of the knowledge of events prior to their occurrence have been corroborated for them to be dismissed as the ravings of the weak-minded or as the fantasies and hallucinations of the impressionable mind. Although we may not understand either the mechanism involved or the parameters within which it operates, nonetheless, we can hardly deny the evidence that attests to its existence.

Time itself is finite, is a characteristic of a physical universe and, because its existence depends on matter by which it is measured and without which it cannot be detected and, equally, because the instruments with which time is measured and the person performing the measurements are both products of matter and subject to the limitation imposed thereby, we are led to the inescapable conclusion that time can only exist within the framework of a physical and, hence, finite universe.

It further follows that all of our knowledge, all our science, all our theories, all our beliefs, all our talents and abilities, and all our convictions whether religious, moral or ethical, are also finite, are gradually unfolding and are shaped by the finite circumstances to which they are subject.
Axiom # 5 – Science and Religion are in perfect harmony

From the very dawn of time a battle for dominance has been waged between the spiritual and animal natures of humankind which, although partners, always seem to be engaged in conflict. In the earliest stages of its evolution, while blissfully unaware of itself as a separate and distinct entity and, while in perfect harmony with its surroundings, the human organism existed in the Eden of ignorance, unaware of the God Who created it but, nonetheless, subject to the irresistible urging of inherent qualities that were to shape and guide its progress.

When the point in time arrived that the human organism had sufficiently evolved whereby it could no longer contain, as a species, those inherent attributes that were shaping it as an instrument through which to express themselves, it succumbed to an insatiable hunger that its physical environment simply could not allay. It then partook of the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ and, in so doing, was forever cast out of the Eden of ignorance and was condemned, by virtue of the emergence of the intellect, that is to say, the appearance within it of the attributes of God, to continue its journey and evolution whilst now aware of its unique and distinct nakedness relative to its environment. So began the difficult and laborious task of extracting from nature her closely guarded secrets and of tilling the fertile soil of the human intellect. Only God possesses the power of creation but He bequeathed to humankind the power of discovery from which all his science and all his philosophy derives.

Science and religion are two halves of the same whole which is called humankind. Science without the tempering of morality and ethics degenerates into a ruthless and heartless pursuit of knowledge for its own sake without concern and with a disregard for the suffering and condition of its victims, an evil example of which was Dr. Joseph Mengele, the Nazi commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp where hundreds of thousands of innocent and helpless victims were subjected to experiment, torture, and death at his hands. Religion, on the other hand, without the tempering of reason and science descends into the loathsome pit of myth and superstition wherein it becomes mired in its own ignorance and perpetrates acts of cruelty and brutality in the name of God that must wring tears from His heart, an evil example of which was the Inquisition during which any person or persons who held opinions or beliefs different to those of the Inquisitors were inhumanly and brutally tortured without pity, compassion, or conscience until the victim either recanted or died.

It is not that science and religion are at odds or in conflict for they are the two poles of a single truth. It is, rather, the ignorant and misguided proponents of each of these avenues of truth that are in conflict and who are responsible for the terrible crimes that have been committed in their name.
Axiom # 4 – Humankind exists everywhere throughout the universe.

Humankind exists everywhere throughout the universe, that is to say, wherever the capacity to reflect all of God’s attributes makes its appearance, regardless of the outer form in which it is garbed or the name by which it is identified, and irrespective of the solar system in which it evolves, there too is man. However, in order for man to appear in a contingent world he must have a physical vessel through which to manifest these attributes and, in the same way that thought gives rise to action, so too do these attributes and qualities precede and give rise to the vessel through which they are enabled to express themselves which, in this case, is the noble human temple. Nobility, however, is an attribute of the soul and not a characteristic of the human body. Whatever transient nobility is outwardly expressed by the body is merely the outer expression of an inner, imperishable reality, such impermanent nobility being forever lost upon the dissolution of the body into its component elements.

In the Sacred Scriptures of all the Great Religions it is advanced that it is God, not humankind, that created the entire universe and all it contains. It is further advanced that it is God, not humankind, that created all matter whether living or inanimate or whether visible or invisible. It is also advanced that it is God, not humankind, that is the Primal Source and Primal Cause that pre-exists the evolution of every being and organism the sum total of which also includes humankind.

In the Sacred Scriptures of all the Great Religions it is advanced that God created humankind in His own ‘image and likeness’ the implications of which are the most irrefutable proof that humankind exists everywhere throughout the universe. An analogy that readily expresses this concept depicts God as the sun, the Holy Spirit as the life-giving rays that emanate from Him, and humankind as the recipient and mirror in which His Image may be seen. God possesses all attributes to an absolute degree which is what makes Him God and humankind possesses each and every one of these attributes but each to a limited degree which is what makes him human.

It is evident, therefore, and not unreasonable to postulate that God is neither physical nor terrestrial, is beyond space, time, and mass, and is outside and not subject to the laws and forces that govern the behaviour of all matter, the sum total of which represents the boundless and immeasurable expanse of the universe. It follows as an irresistible corollary that, whenever and wherever all the attributes of God are mirrored forth in an organism, regardless of the form it assumes, the name by which we identify it, or the celestial system in which it evolved, there too is humankind in all its reflecting glory.

If then, God is not physical, is outside of and enfolds rather than being contained by the physical universe, then He must be a spiritual being and if we are in His ‘image and likeness’ then it surely follows that it must be a spiritual image and likeness. It also follows that since the body must, of necessity, eventually decompose and dissolve into its constituent parts then it must be the spiritual part or soul that survives to journey through the infinite worlds of God. It further follows then, that if the soul of man is spiritual not physical then it is capable of accommodating itself to any physical form, regardless of the celestial sphere whereon that form evolves, the solar system in which it revolves, and the universe in which its galaxy is located. God is everywhere and humankind being in His ‘image and likeness’ is everywhere as well.
Axiom # 3 – Humankind is imperfect

Humankind is but a reflection of its Creator. There are no absolute human beings. There are only those who are either less or more blessed than others. On the scale of the universe humankind is but an insignificant speck the obliteration of which would do little to disrupt the harmony or tilt the balance of the remaining universe.

Science has made prodigious attempts to both measure and chart what they believe, and what their data suggests, is a universe that is expanding at every point and in every direction. This data and the laws of physics make it impossible for them to determine at what point or location the expansion originated or what cause precipitated this expansion. They theorize that at some moment in the ancient and indeterminable past that all the matter in this universe and all universes beyond was gathered into a single mass and that internal forces consistent with known laws of physics caused it to explode in what is quaintly called the ‘Big Bang’ theory and that ever since, all matter has been expanding in all directions away from itself and from its point of origin.

What is left unresolved is from whence came this lump of matter in the first place? Who or what created it? Who or what created the laws of physics to which its behaviour is so obedient? How did living organisms arise from an inanimate lump? How, out of all the living organisms that did arise, did humankind arise who is capable of independent thought, of recognizing that it did not create itself, of seeking to discover Who did create it, and of discovering the laws of nature by which it was supposedly created?

How is it that this little fly speck called humankind, in an infinite universe, has been endowed with the ability to question its own existence and through the power of intellect, to reach back through time and attempt to discover, not only the elements of its own conception, but also the elements that brought about the conception of all that exists?

A more than formidable task, requiring a prodigious output of combined intellect, expended on a project that produces more questions than it answers.

What science in particular, and humankind in general, do know for certain is that the universe is vast, its boundaries are unknown, and its regions are beyond charting. Of its millions of galaxies ours is only average. Of the millions of solar systems within our galaxy that ours is small, dim, and not worthy of much excitement. Of all the planets in our solar system ours is one of the smallest and yet there are still those who believe that humankind is the only form of intelligent life in this vast, immeasurable expanse.

Only the most arrogant and presumptuous of minds would seek to advance the belief that such an insignificant speck as humankind, that is almost invisibly deposited in the infinite expanse of the universe, should be the sole benefactor of God’s boundless grace. Such a belief is not only arrogant and presumptuous but is not predicated on any concrete evidence to support its claim, flies in the face of statistical likelihood, and simply offends the intellect.

If humankind were not imperfect then it would have nothing to learn, no weaknesses to endure, no shortcomings to overcome, no questions to answer, no problems to solve, and no failures from which to learn. If humankind were not imperfect then there would be no need for science, no need for education, no need for religion and, in fact, no need for anything.

Axiom #2

Axiom # 2:

“Each and every person, without exception, is endowed at birth with the ability to distinguish good from evil & right from wrong; is responsible for the decisions and actions they take in the face of the religious convictions they hold dear; and are accountable for the moral imperatives by which they pursue their day to day activities and the ethical guidelines by which they tread the path to their destiny.”

It is unreasonable, flies in the face of simple logic, and is an offence to the gift of human intellect to embrace the belief that God, Who is the Fashioner of all things both visible and invisible including humankind would, on the one hand, inspire a Messenger to act on His behalf; convey to Him a Message by which His creatures are to conduct their lives; impose a set of social and spiritual laws by which those creatures are to abide under threat of punishment for their disregard; and then fail to provide, and deny in His creation of those self-same creatures, the ability to recognize His Messenger or to comprehend the essential verities of His Message.
The concept is preposterous and the embrace of such a belief is nothing more than a superstitious and mythical construction in the mind of an ill-informed and misguided victim who has failed to exercise their God-given gift of human intellect and who has been deluded into abandoning their God-given right to independently arrive at truth as a result of their own personal investigation and who, rather, has abdicated the empowering responsibility and relinquished the joy of discovery into the hands of others whose conclusions and perceptions may possibly be, and in many cases are, in conflict with the truth.

Surely the most prominent and pressing concern that should occupy the daily thought of each and every person, without exception, is the purpose, direction, and destiny for which they were created. Such a concern should pre-empt all others for it is upon this secure and indestructible foundation that all other activities are constructed and it is within this edifice that the morals, ethics, and spiritual values by which a person conducts their daily lives are housed.

It is the purpose of God’s Messenger to lay this unassailable foundation but it is the responsibility of the individual to construct the monument that is to be erected upon it. No one is free from this responsibility. No one is exempt from this duty. No one can abandon this obligation. No one can abdicate this moral necessity. No one can ignore this spiritual axiom. No one can disregard this self-evident truth. Not, that is, without also accepting the inescapable certainty of spiritual retribution the consequences of which will descend upon them whether in this world or the next.