(holy fire)
Some feedback to yesterday’s “Naked Heart” post, followed by some ruminations of my own in italics . . .
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At our discussion meeting last Monday Reid Barnes said, “Have you ever met anyone who felt their opinion was wrong?” Said another way-”Opinions are like A-Holes, everyone has one.” Does mean we are all right or all wrong? Many times PART of our position is right, part wrong. We discuss. We try to understand the other viewpoint. Does not always mean we come to agree, or that either side is ever convinced of the other. This is America, where anyone who disagrees with me has the right to be wrong! Paul
This Birmingham writer is a strong supporter of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a dedicated Christian. The discussion group might be a church meeting, or it might not be. Regardless, what came to me right away after reading this comment was, I wondered if Paul and Reid Barnes would tell Jesus that his opinions are like A-Holes, everyone has one? Jesus, who told people to give up and eye for and eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, to turn the other cheek, to love and do good to their enemies. Jesus, who said he came not to bring peace, but a sword (his words) that would divide. Jesus, who said he brought a baptism in fire and he was anxious to get on with it. Or would Paul and Reid tell me this is just my opinion of what Jesus told people, because I pulled it from the Bible, which was just the opinion of the people who wrote it and therefore is just like any other A-Hole, which everyone has. Better not to claim to follow Jesus, than to claim it and then do what he said not to do. Such a person is like the foolish man who built his house on sand and when the flood came the house fell down. Or so was the opinion of the owner of the A-Hole who, quoting Jesus, scribed that part of the Gospels.
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Debby forwarded this email to me because of my work in evolutionary sciences. Your friend Todd very astutely identified that nearly incomprehensible region between science and religion.
I have some very interesting material which exemplifies, in vivid detail, the fuzziness of exactly at that very special junction between the two. (I am soooooo aware of the contradiction in terms.)
Please let Todd know, I would enjoy the opportunity to hear more from him on this subject, maybe over a drink or something. Let him know I understand evolution on a molecular biology level and have written computer simulations of the Prime Abiogenic Event itself. And that I believe in a transcendent, vir visio and loving God.
Jerry
What I’m insterested in is GOD, which I have found has very little to do with religion, at least as it is practiced. I have told Jerry several times that I experience the presence of God 24-7, 365 . . . I have told him that he is living from the neck up, in his mind . . . So far, it doesn’t seem like we are on the same page, or even in the same book . . . Maybe Jerry ought to have a drink over it with Jesus . . . Maybe Jesus would tell him some stories that give him a view of God that might expand his horizons a wee bit beyond the ant level . . . Maybe Jesus could arrange for the angels to put Jerry into my skin for a couple of minutes, to give him a chance to see what it’s like to live inside of a star . . . Maybe he would go permanently insane, or die . . . Maybe no maybe . . . Maybe he would get over his search to try to merge God with science, or with anything . . . God IS science . . . God is EVERYTHING . . . God is fucking UNIMAGINABLE . . . Not even Archangels KNOW God . . . Better to try simply to FEEL the presence of God . . . Better to HEAR what God has to say to us . . . Better to quit trying to FIGURE God out . . . Simply take to HEART what Jesus said in the Gospels: The KINGDOM OF GOD is not of this world. I will give Jerry’s email address to Todd, if he asks for it.
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I really enjoyed Todd German’s words how emotion helps him justify faith:
As we have talked about, I am constantly trying to reconcile my scientific mind with matters of faith. I have found emotion to a link which helps me connect the two.
I have a hard time understanding how emotion figures into a purely evolutionary model. I suppose an argument could be made that emotions help us act communally but ants and bees have pretty successful communities and I would dare to bet they are not emotional beings.
With all the damage emotions cause, why weren’t they bred out of us long ago?
The fact that we still do have emotions and thus art, love, passion, etc. helps me believe there is something more out there than we know. To paraphrase Einstein, “more than we can know”.
Major stretch for me, comparing ants to human beings, although perhaps at some remote level sentient souls have hive consciousness if/when they merge fully back into the Godhead — what Stephen Hawking might call “the Mind of God.”
Gave me food for thought.
Thank you, Todd
Emil
Without emotion, the presence of God cannot be felt. Without feeling the presence of God, it is impossible to experience God internally. To Emil I say what I said to Jerry: Ask God to put you into my skin for a couple of minutes, so you can get a faint sense of what it is like to feel God’s presence. When you ask, though, also ask to be protected if it happens. Otherwise, you will end up like the Sloan I was twenty-three years ago would end up, if he was brought forward in time and put into my skin for two minutes without protection.
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My Keys friend who was raised in Christendom and later converted to Buddhism came to me in a dream last night, egging me on, so to him I say . . .
I have known quite a few Americans raised in Christendom, who became Buddhists. My wife I wrote some about yesterday converted to Buddhism after choosing to take most of my money, instead of walking in faith that she would be provided for. She knew there is no place for God in Buddhism’s cosmology. She also knew a lot of Americans-turned-Buddhist, who were dodging dealing with the raging inferno inside of themselves. Instead, they were seeking “consciousness,” “enlightenment;” they were living in their mind instead of in their entire being,. We often spoke of this when we were still together, because we knew the same Americans-turned-Buddhist. She became Buddhist because it was a hell of a lot easier than getting burned up by Jesus, which was what was happening to me. Who in the fuck did she think told me to give her the power to make the property division, if we broke up? It wasn’t me, that’s for damn sure; I was just the messenger. Who in the fuck did she think told her to take ninety percent of my assets, as well as her own separate estate, which was substantial? It sure as hell wasn’t Jesus. Was it Buddha? I rather imagine Buddha would have told me to do the same thing Jesus told me to do, and I rather imagine Buddha would not have told my wife to do what she did. Leaving, of course, Lucifer. Even though Buddhists don’t have a place in their cosmology for God, which Buddha is reported to have said is too incomprehensible to even discuss, Buddhism does acknowledge the workings of dark spirits. Buddha himself is reported to have said a teacher greater than himself would some day come, and that greater teacher did come and his name was Jesus. I have told American-Christians that they sought Jesus in Buddhism because they were unable to find him in their religion of birth. Some of them agreedd with me. Recent watershead events in your life should have made it crystal clear to you that your path is not with Buddha, but is with Jesus. I keep suggesting this to you, and you keep deflecting it. You also keep saying the mind is king, the emotions are some sort of deformity. You have told me that you have never once had an experience with something beyond the human experience. Perhaps you should ask yourself why you met me, if it was not for you to change your way of looking at and experiencing life? Maybe you need a dowsing in your emotions. Maybe you should quit trying to be Buddhist. Or maybe you should live like lamas live. You would have very little of this world. You might even be homeless, like Buddha was for quite a while. Then you would know what it was like for Buddha, when he had nothing. But then, if you were a true follower of Jesus, you might live much the same way, for a while anyway. Otherwise, how could you ever really know Jesus? How could his wealthy, secret disciples, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea have ever really known him, if they had not gone to Pontius Pilate and asked for permission take Jesus down off the cross, because it was coming onto the Jewish Sabbath? In doing that, in taking Jesus down and putting him into Joseph of Arimathea’s own private tomb, they publicly identified themselves as followers of Jesus. Instantly, they were hunted men. They had been part of the Jewish heirarcy, the Jewish country club set. For the rest of their lives they were on the run; all they had was what they could carry with them or wear.
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I wondered yesterday why I felt so bad inside, like I had just swallowed another Cherynobyl. Now know why. I FELT, and still am
FEELING, what was inside of people coming onto my plate for me to speak to them. We did not know what was coming, but our souls knew; and our souls knew what I would say.
The Kingdom of God is freely given to angels, saints, sinners, devils and fools alike, for all are God’’s children – I was TOLD in late 1993.
Many are called but few are chosen; Steep is the way, narrow the gate, and few enter therein – according to Jesus in the Gospels.
Sloan Bashinsky