THOUGHTS ON 9/11

“You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”
-  Anne Lamott

"[Love] continuously covers all mankind; it is habitually loyal to all humanity; it constantly has an expectation for all mankind; it is continuously remaining under and giving support to all people. (or, since “all” can also be neuter: It progressively puts a protecting roof over all things; it is habitually trusting in, and believing for, all things; it is continually hoping in or for all things; it keeps on patiently enduring all things.)

(I Corinthians 13:7 - JMNT)

 

“People are never so completely and enthusiastically evil as when they act out of religious conviction.”
- Umberto Eco

 

“There are few things more dangerous than inbred religious certainty.”
- Bart D. Ehrman

 

“The fundamentalist seeks to bring down a great deal more than buildings. Such people are against, to offer just a brief list, freedom of speech, a multi-party political system, universal adult suffrage, accountable government, Jews, homosexuals, women's rights, pluralism, secularism, short skits, dancing, beardlessness, evolution theory, sex. There are tyrants, not Muslims.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that we should now define ourselves not only by what we are for but by what we are against. I would reverse that proposition, because in the present instance what we are against is a no brainer. Suicidist assassins ram wide-bodied aircraft into the World Trade Center and Pentagon and kill thousands of people: um, I'm against that. But what are we for? What will we risk our lives to defend? Can we unanimously concur that all the items in the preceding list -- yes, even the short skirts and the dancing -- are worth dying for?

The fundamentalist believes that we believe in nothing. In his world-view, he has his absolute certainties, while we are sunk in sybaritic indulgences. To prove him wrong, we must first know that he is wrong. We must agree on what matters: kissing in public places, bacon sandwiches, disagreement, cutting-edge fashion, literature, generosity, water, a more equitable distribution of the world's resources, movies, music, freedom of thought, beauty, love. These will be our weapons. Not by making war but by the unafraid way we choose to live shall we defeat them.

How to defeat terrorism? Don't be terrorized. Don't let fear rule your life. Even if you are scared.”
-  Salman Rushdie

SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY, QUANTUM PHYSICS AND THE QUEST FOR TRUTH

Beliefs produce energy. 

What you believe about God...what you believe about the world...what you believe about yourself...all the thoughts and beliefs that you carry with you, including your theology and your world-view, produce a particular energy around you that is affecting your life more than you realize...I certainly believe in God, but the God I believe in now isn't necessarily the one I grew up believing in (or trying to believe in, at least)...so I respect whatever you believe or don't believe about your God or your religion or your spirituality...it doesn't matter to me at all if your language of choice causes you to refer to your "Higher Power", or if you prefer to talk about your relationship with "The Universe"...you may believe in Intelligent Design, but are not comfortable with limiting the concept of a Deity/Creator to anthropomorphic dimensions or a particular gender...I get it..."Namaste"...it's all good...if you're an atheist or an agnostic, I have no problem with you, and I know I can't argue you into believing in God...but I do believe in people, and I believe in communication, and I certainly believe in love, so you're good with me, and I want to try to understand why you think like you do...

Some people have opened themselves up to the idea of God through Quantum Physics, and even believe that it proves His existence...and it arguably does just that (in an indirect way), by providing an alternative to the philosophy of materialism (or “physicalism”, if you will)...materialism is basically the main intellectual opponent of belief in God in today’s world...in a word, materialism is an atheistic philosophy that views all of reality as being reducible to matter and its interactions...it has gained influence in the modern world because many people think that it’s supported by science...in their world-view physics has shown the material world to be a closed system of cause and effect, sealed off from the influence of any non-physical, or un-seen (metaphysical) realities, if any actually exist...in that particular line of thinking, since our minds and thoughts obviously do affect the physical world, it would seem to follow that they are themselves merely physical phenomena...no room for a spirit-realities or soul-realities...

There was a time not so long ago when no self-respecting scientist would allow for spiritually as an answer to anything, and spiritual or religious people generally prided themselves in being intentionally non-scientific...but that is fast changing in this great Apocalypse (Unveiling), in large part because of Quantum Mechanics...this discipline/science/ideology throws a monkey wrench into the simplistic mechanical view of things...as there are some things that the Bible just doesn't answer...things that continue to be mysterious to us, even though we have preached about them and prayed about them and searched the Scriptures to understand them...so science can no longer claim to have all the answers neatly packaged and ready for delivery, either...bottom line, science and spirituality need each other...

No less a figure than Eugene Wigner, a Nobel Prize winner in physics, claimed that materialism, at least with regard to the human mind, is not “logically consistent with present quantum mechanics.”..and on the basis of Quantum Mechanics, Sir Rudolf Peierls, another great 20th-century physicist, said, “the premise that you can describe in terms of physics the whole function of a human being ... including [his] knowledge, and [his] consciousness, is untenable. There is still something missing.”...

Jesus told His disciples that a Helper was coming after He left Who would lead them into ALL TRUTH...not into Christianity...not into a world seen only through a Biblically created paradigm (since the Bible was compiled centuries after all those men passed away), but into ALL TRUTH...The Message Bible says in that passage "He will lead you into all the truth that there is"...

Thank God for science...thank God that seekers of truth of every stripe are finding that they are not as polarized as they thought...I know that the world is older than 6,000 years, and I don't believe that it was created in six 24 hour time periods...science has proven that the earth is at least several million years old...but I still believe in a Creator, and I call Him God...I still believe in the supernatural...do I believe in evolution? It's virtually impossible for any intelligent person to not see it's obvious reality, but I still believe that everything was supernatural in origin...God created it all...so God bless Quantum Physics and the men who brought that science and way of thinking to our attention...God bless the people who believe in the Laws of Attraction...God bless all the religions of the world, and the people who penned Holy Writ...I might not believe everything they said, but I don't deny their sincerity in their search for transcendence, and I honor it...beliefs do produce energy...it's important to believe in something, even if you don't have all the answers...remember today that you can be totally open-minded, and still have a strong belief-system that works for you...come, Holy Spirit...lead us into all the TRUTH!