Subject: Always learning... Date: Sun, 2 April 2000 9:58 PM Hi, I was surfing the web looking for science projects for my seventh grader and I ran across your site. I am excited about writing this email to you because of some of the things that you said about religion. Your story is quite similar to my own in that when I was young I was taught to go to church on Sunday and I went to the Sunday classes, etc. And I didn't really like it either; in fact it was absolutely terrible in most cases. For me, it was much later in life before I understood why this was so. After I left home I certainly had feelings for a long time about those days but I was still curious about many of the things that you mention on your site. I believe that most people want to understand their origins; it is a kind of hunger driving one to seek more knowledge and wisdom, in other words to know the real truth. I am not going to tell you what to believe about all things but I would like to leave some questions with you and I believe if you are willing search for the real answers to them that it will benefit your life. I will offer my own brief answer to each question for you to consider for research purposes if you want to devote the time. Mind you, I am not a philosophically minded person but some of these questions might sound like they come from that realm of research but I have to start somewhere in the conversation. 1. What is truth? Truth is that which is eternal. It is never changing in the past, present, or future. In other words, truth transcends time and space. 2. What is the difference between truth and fact? Truth cannot change and is eternal. Facts change and are not eternal. For instance, it is a fact that I am sitting in a chair but in a little while I will get up therefore it is only a fact and is not the truth because I will not and cannot eternally sit in this chair. When you carefully think about the meanings of words it can shake you up a bit. I have seen people argue over this issue time and time again. The result is usually to agree to disagree which is not the correct conclusion. I know that the words "truth" and "fact" are used interchangeably in our culture. But we must set a basis before we proceed to get into the practice of distinguishing the difference, therefore let us assume that truth is truth and fact is fact. 3. What is religion? Religion is man's attempt to save himself from evil, wrath, or the consequences of his actions through his own reckoning. A religion is a set of doctrines based on man's decisions and has little to do with the truth except to linger as a parasite or leech off of the truth for a so-called "greater purpose". Evil cannot exist without good because it is a parasite. It must reside in and around good things to exist and feed off of the good. If we are in a place in time where we actually see something truly evil happen it would not be hard to distinguish it from other things going on. Therefore, for evil to persist it must always be disguised as something appealing or appearing good else we would recognize it and get rid of it. For example, have you ever seen and can you recognize a counterfeit $100 bill? Right now there is a war going on where there are millions of counterfeit $100 dollar bills in circulation in our country. Can you tell the difference between the real and the counterfeit? Consequently can you tell the difference between the truth and error, between evil and good in every case, or realistically, is just a few cases? We are not born with the knowledge to know the difference between the real currency and the counterfeit nor are not born with the knowledge to know about religion, faith, worship, or whatever you have been taught to call these things. There is a tremendous opportunity to learn for those who hunger to know and will make a commitment to do the work required but religion is always in opposition to this. 4. What are some examples of religions? Protestant, catholic, judaic, islamic, buddhist, hindu, etc. Also, let's not forget the more subtle forms especially if you live in our society: money, wealth, power, fame, science (evolution, de-evolution, ecology), your career, feminism, maleism, your school, sex, drugs, your wife, your husband, your children, your parents, your friends, the animal kingdom, the earth (mother earth), music, art, movies, television, radio, superman, batman, 'your own personal crusade to save the world', etc. Basically anything can be turned into a center of reference or worship for a religious idiom or religious "truth". The more profound and complex the message the deeper the impact. The more "now" or contemporary the message the more it is generally accepted. The sad fact of the matter is that this is where most of us have lived major portions of our lives in some form or another. Does it shake you to think that your center of reference might not be what was intended? Don't be shaken, just realize that we are all born ignorant of these things. My parents taught me the best that they could but you can only go as far as you have been taught and I have a deep respect for how they tried to help me. But from a spiritual point of view in most cases they turned out to be wrong. But once they learned more they humbly changed and were able to move into greater categories of learning and teaching. They saw that it was truly the logical thing to do and it was. 5. Why are there so many kinds of religions or denominations of religions? Because everyone living has a tendency or a hunger to believe something, right or wrong. Most people (this includes the vast majority of everyone living on the planet) are too lazy and slothful (that includes those that say they are too busy) to find out for themselves what the truth is. And to top that even if the truth stared them right in the face on a daily basis, they wouldn't recognize it because most are so deeply entrenched in their own swamps of fear or self-pity. And to top that also they are not meek (humble, coachable) and they are not bold enough to demand the truth from the leaders of the religious organizations because of their fear of being ostracized. Yet, (and the good news is), the truth is available in every corner of this world but it is a free will decision to believe something even if it is seemingly forced on you. No one can take your inner most free will from you. But by your own free will you can voluntarily relinquish control and allow yourself to be subject to another idea, person, or thing. No matter where you are you are doing something all of the time. You are either choosing right or wrong. I believe that most people by their own lack of action construct their own religion to suit themselves regardless of whether they participate in a denomination. In order to keep from offending people or hurting the feelings of people, the religious organizations do not teach truth. They teach mutual cooperation and political correctness, thereby diluting the truth into a totally weak and watered down state into a new so-called "religious truth" which is then promoted as a doctrine and thereby useless as a principle to base your life on. This so-called "truth" is now powerless to help you live life. Anything less than the truth is weak and useless. 6. Is your perception of an experience the truth or fact? Experiences can reveal many things. There are many things that one experiences and as time passes will be perceived differently because of greater maturity and because of the introduction of new information that sheds light on past experiences. Therefore, my perception of any experience is fact not truth. So-called, "religious" experiences are the most illusive and yet extremely powerful influences on the mind but many of these experiences are found to not be the truth. I have had emotions and feelings that I thought were religious only to find out later in life that it was only my ignorance of the situations around me and I found that it was my slothfulness that was causing the consequences that I was faced with. 7. What is the difference between a "fundamental" religion and a more "progressive" religion? Seriously, nothing really. Fundamentals are good in any category of life. Progressiveness is good in any category of life. These political labels confuse and distort the issues and the news media just eats it up. Let's take the protestant denominations and the catholic religions as examples. They all began by saying that they base their doctrines on what we call the scripture of the Bible (the old and new testaments), commonly referred to as the word of God (the word of God in written form is known as scripture). They all now promote the idea that when you die you are not really dead and they all promote that God, Jesus, and holy spirit are all the same and constitute the doctrine of the trinity. They all believe that water baptism is required for "salvation". I could go on and on about each of the common beliefs that have been promoted. All of these religions have unique trappings designed to attract people who will find those disguises desirable because of individual taste and personal preferences. I was raised in one of them as I mentioned before. I saw it first hand. My father loved it because he said it made him feel good. Yet, he found out later that the religion was mostly lies based on disguising the truth. I was clueless and powerless to do anything in my life that was positive because I had no real knowledge of truth because these organizations don't teach the truth. The sad fact is that if they did teach it and act on it they would have to confront their congregations (mostly made up of people that are lazy and don't want to learn) so severely that they would radically lose membership thereby losing the necessary funding to continue as a denomination. Only a remnant would remain faithful, as is always the case in any discipline of life. 8. What about all of the sincere people out there in the world that want to learn and think that they are doing well at it? There is a saying: "sincerity is no guarantee for truth." And another saying: "meaning well is never a guarantee for success." I am sure that you have heard these. I am a sincere person in just about everything that I do. Maybe you are too. But in any category of life where I don't have the truth and believe it I can be easily defeated. I play a pretty good round of golf and I defeat most of my opponents. Why? Because I have studied the game intensely and I know its patterns and I know where to go and where not to go to succeed in winning? Isn't all of life like that too? You see, what I am getting at here is that on a situation-by-situation basis there is always a right and wrong way to proceed. Each situation is different even though it might seem identical to one that you have had to deal with before. Each case needs study and attention. In science, cause and effect are studied diligently. Why: so that we can understand how to do things properly. There is a right way, for instance, to make chemicals work positively for you. If you do it wrong you might have to build a new lab after you blow it up. I know because it almost happened to me. Will I take the time to work toward a real answer or will I take the easy route? It's up to me. It's up to you. It's up to everyone. 9. How does a person learn the truth? Where can it be found? Well, in dealing with these two questions we start to see where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. Are you as a reader of these comments humble/meek enough to hear what I propose? Not everyone can hear or understand what I am going to tell you. Why? Because now we are getting into the personal life of an individual person: you. You may have built up a very complex and comfortable belief system based on one or more of the things I have already mentioned and this may prevent you from hearing. And let me say that I am not attacking you personally with anything that I say. But I am challenging you to think and re-think about your personal situation: about your center of truth like any scientist or mathematician would when facing a new problem. Use logic not emotion. Albert Einstein said, "problems cannot be solved at the same level of awareness that created them". So if you have formulated a belief system, and be honest about it because you know you have, then you must have a reference outside of yourself to start reformulating IF you want to change. And that "IF" is a big "IF" because only you can make that decision. But regardless if you choose to do it or not, remember that not making a decision is in fact making a decision. In other words, you are defaulting, deciding to not do anything, which is actually doing something but in a negative sense. The truth is that God is the truth. It was not my decision to make it that way or yours. It was not the decision of the leader of any religious organization. It was not the decision of any man that ever lived. It was God's decision to frame it and make it what it is. But to be more specific there is something that God did to help us understand the truth. He gave us his written word: the scripture. And it is my honor and privilege to devote the remainder of my life to understand all I can about the scripture in which the truth is found and teach it to others. And so here I am today sharing my knowledge, albeit at a very simple level, with you, the reader of these comments. Now, before I go further let me say that I know what people say about the Bible: "it's too old to be trusted", "it's too hard to understand", "it doesn't apply to our more enlightened minds", "it's too contradictory, it can't be understood". Also let me say that God's word was written by God and not by men. Men did speak it by revelation and write it down as instructed but the original words came from God. It's out of scope right now in these comments to discuss how God did this (but the details are in the scripture itself) but it is the truth. Also realize that God made our minds to be able to understand the scripture. So it is really a cop out to say that it cannot be understood because it can. And the truth can be trusted in any day and time under any circumstances. Just as you can trust that putting two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom together will produce water, God also guarantees that in the spiritual realm things are just as precise. So let's move on. 10. Doesn't modern science contradict the information in the Bible? Absolutely not true, absolutely. I marvel at how the world of brilliant scientists and mathematicians of today absolutely abandon their own carefully developed methods for discovery and reasoning when it comes to this subject. These same scientists use the excuse that certain postulates of science don't agree with the denominational religious point of view so therefore the Bible must be in error about science, nature, and such. What a minute! I just told you that these religious denominations are NOT about promoting truth. The word of God is truth not the denominations' word. Can you see the difference? These leaders in the scientific community are not logical. They have not researched it themselves. They have relied upon the teachers of false doctrine to do their work for them and in the process have produced new religions of their own called agnosticism and atheism. It's absolutely amazing to me that they would not see this error in the process. I know that there are some scientists out in the world that are carefully considering every detail they can to understand nature so I don't mean to pick on all of them. And you know that we desperately need them and their efforts. But in this world science easily becomes the object of worship and center of attention because most people have no other center of truth. It is no disgrace to embrace the research of God's word and the research of God's creation at the same time. And there is no contradiction as long as you honestly consider them. God created what we live within and we try to work within. It is only logical that God's truth in written form not contradict what he did from a scientific point of view. And it does not. Science is wonderful. God's word is wonderful. Both are in concert, no contradiction. Finally, it is not my purpose to gather opinions because I am only interested in holding forth the truth in the best manner that I can to anyone willing to listen; to help people in any way I can to break through this ever-thickening cloud of darkness and misunderstanding concerning religion and the truth, science and the truth, emotions and the truth, the world and the truth, the universe and the truth. The word of God does say to seek first the things that God has to offer and all of these other things will be given. It means to put God's truth first so that you can see the logic of what God has created and why he has created it. The knowledge is there. It's up to us to go after it with a diligence and honest unselfish effort. You won't find it in religion and you will only see evidence of it in science. Thanks for reading my comments.