Greenenvironmental's Blog

Religion and science are two sides of the same coin; one is the pattern we observe in nature, and the other is the pattern we observe in spiritual nature, or the ‘supernatural’.  My father told me that his preacher once said  ‘god created the world, and science is simply trying to figure out how he did it’.

In an editorial of Chemical and Engineering news,  a person wrote in explaining that ‘evolutionary creationism’ had about the same probability as a scrap heap evolving into a 747.   Another C&EN article points out that a certain amino acid(alanine) has been found in a comet (CEN Aug. 24, 2009), but so what if amino acids are in comets, or if amino acids can be made in the lab with lightning and organic soup.   Just because you have all the pieces does not mean you can put them together; could you build a 747 if you had all the pieces?   Or put humpty dumpty back together again?  As the joke goes:  God and a biologist are in a debate about the origin of life, and the biologist picks up some dust to demonstrate that he can make life too, but God interrupts him saying  ‘get your own dust’.

Faith
Dr K.C. Price has preached that “faith has a ‘doing’ component”, and if, for example, you do not go out looking for a job, you will not find a job.   The ‘doing’ is part of the faith, and further, if you think you will fail, you probably will, but if you ‘think positive’, things might work out.  However, as the Bible says; ‘time and chance happeneth to them all’ (Ecc 9:11).  Probability rules the universe, and if you let one failure ‘ground’ you, you have no chance of a victory (e.g. get back on the horse).

The TV show ‘Dead Like Me’ pointed out that “bad people are killed by societies laws, and good people are killed by Murphy’s laws”.  Murphy’s laws are simply natural principles that are based on our own observations of reality; the toast may not always land butter side down, but we can see that if things can go wrong, they probably will.  In working with hazardous chemicals it is necessary to follow the principle that ‘if you plan for the worst, all of your surprises will be pleasant”.  Chaos and entropy are principles on which the world operates, and to ‘hope’ nothing will go wrong is childish.

Faith has nothing to do with weather or not a lit cigarette will ignite gasoline.  A ‘No Smoking’ signs is not a test of faith, but it is based on principles of the real world.  For example, NASA must check every possible problem before allowing a space launch, it does no good to hope nothing will go wrong because it can go wrong even with a whole army of people looking for problems.   I can empathize with NASA and other government agencies when things go wrong because people love to add to the problem by strongly voicing their negative opinions of it.   In the Health care debate, Republicans jumped on the concept of ‘Death Panels’ to incite images of a bunch of bureaucrats sitting around deciding who lives or dies based on the treatments they are allowed to receive.   It is a similar program to one proposed by George W. Bush, but it is only a conspiracy when a democrat proposes to inform people about their treatment options, as well as the ones they can refuse.

It is written that one of the plagues released by Pandoras’s Box was hope.  Hope is the last chance of the doomed, and if everything is going right you don’t need hope;  if everything is going wrong, hope may be all you have, but if you need hope it is probably already too late to do anything.  Faith on the other hand has nothing to do with hope.  Faith is a tool to focus your energy and give it a positive outcome.  For example, a football receiver has faith that he can catch the ball, mainly because he has practiced doing it over and over, while a non-player only has hope to rely upon.

The religious nuts
Religion can be good, and religion can be a road that leads us to spirituality and faith.  As the music group Public Image Limited wrote, ‘the cross is a ladder leading to heaven’; though the religious nuts would call the bands leader, Johnny Rotten formerly of the ‘Sex Pistols’, a ‘devil worshiper’.  Religion is a human institution, and it is often run by people who want power, like Ayatollahs, Popes, Evangelists, and ‘prolife’ groups.

Pro-life?
I grew up in Miami, a place where people are constantly being murdered and living in filth on the streets.  We all wondered then where this grand empathy for our lives that these people keep talking about?  Maybe it’s just the feeling of superiority these people get by standing outside abortion clinics and calling fifteen year old girls murderers and whores, and then sit around talking about ‘love thy neighbor’.   But where I come from ‘them’s fightin words”, and this sort of provocation in the city is the same as throwing punches or bullets; sticks and stones can hurt your bones, but words can incite the use of sticks and stones.

These self rightous people have worked hard to prevent anyone, particularly the government, from trying to prevent unplanned pregnancies with birth control and education.  In an overcrowded world filled with gangs and mass murderers, most of our problems are  caused by overpopulation, but the religionists keep telling us about how the Bible commands us go forth and multiply, despite the fact that this  is no longer a nearly empty world.  I don’t think there  is anyone who wants an abortion, but some people are backed into a corner, and may not have a choice.  Like the commercial says, ‘who are you to judge?’  and commercials are a good example to use, because it is obvious that these religious nuts don’t actually read the Bible.

Religion.
People need to understand that there is a difference between religion and ‘spirituality’ (or whatever you call it).  Religion can, and does, lead people to spirituality, but religion is not spirituality.  Spirituality is a personal connection with God, with no  intermediaries like David Koresh, Jim Jones, the Pope, or the Ayatollah.   As the Bible says in Luke 3:2, “Annas and Caiaphas (the church) being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharius (John the Baptist) in the wilderness”.

Unfortunately, religion can also lead people away from spirituality and God.  ‘Suicide bombers’ are told that they will not only go to heaven for killing a bunch of people, but they will get virgins when they get there.  This is stupid for two reasons: a spirit cannot be a virgin (immaterial beings don’t fornicate), and most religions have a rule about not killing.  It is easy to think of Islam as a bullshit religion in order to  justify our actions against them because their religion is ‘evil’ and makes them worthy of killing,  much like the inquisition.

The only thing this ‘hating’ accomplishes is to distract those of us in the ‘west’ from questioning our own churches history of inquisitions, witch burnings, pedophilia, and priests who preach about the ‘sin’ of sex and then go pick up hookers.   Many religions even demonize homosexuality, as if homosexuality is a ‘life choice’, and the created are simply rebelling against their creator;  Gay catholic priests preaching on the sin of homosexuality have to be one of the sickest joke of all.

Personally, I am heterosexual, and seeing people engage in homosexuality is kind of repulsive to me;  as I think it is with most heterosexuals.  However, I am not a hater, and even though some of my gay friends have called me homophobic before, I don’t think that homophobic and ‘hater’ have to be the same thing.  I say that if you are interested in the same sex, be they children or adults, you are gay.   Further, their is no excuse for raping people,  and any non-consensual activity, including touching, is rape, and rape is just another form of violence.

What I find most interesting about Jesus’s accounts in the bible, is how anti-religious he seems; despite all of the ‘editing’ by the church over two millennium.  It is easy to distract people by blaming Jews, or arabs, but it was the religious people of that day who demanded that the Romans crucify (kill) Jesus.  Their hypocrisy was documented in John 18:31 “it is not lawful for us to put any man to death”.  This the beginning of  religionists finding ways around their own laws in order to suit their own needs.

In Mathew 6:5, Jesus says; ‘be not as the hypocrites who stand on the street corners and in the synagogues loudly proclaiming their religion, so that they may be seen of men, for they have their reward’.  and verse 6, ‘but when you pray, enter into your closet, and what you ask your father in secret, he shall grant you openly’- not exactly a ringing endorsement for going to church every Sunday.

One telling example is the reputation ‘Christians’ have created about Pontius Pilot.  To most people he was the evil governor from Rome who washed his hands of the blood of Jesus Christ before he had him killed.  However, If you read what the Bible actually says, you see a totally different version of the man.  In Mathew(27), Mark(15), Luke(23), and John(18), all tell of Jesus being brought before Pilot, but rather than a condemnation of Pilot, it is an accusation of religion and its blind adherence to the dictates of Men.

The Bible tells that Pontius Pilot’s wife begs for Jesus’s life, and Pilot says that “he knew that it was for envy that they(the church) had delivered him” (Mark 15:10),  the Bible also states that Pilot refers to Jesus as a “fine and just man”.  Pilot even tried to manipulate the church in order to spare the life of Jesus by offering them a special clause in the law;  because it was pass-over they could let someone free.  However, the church preferred to let loose a murderer (Luke 23:25), in order to kill the man reported to be the son of their God (envy).  Pilate washed his hands saying in Mat27:24 “I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it”.

Some Jewish people do not like that ‘their’ religion is accused of not only killing Christ, but that all in their descendants are cursed for it.  However, the Bible says that it was their own religious leaders who cursed them, Matthew 27:25 “Then answered all the people and said, His blood be on us, and our children”.  Let that be an example, religious leaders will curse anyone, including God, to get what they want.  As the group ‘Fleetwood Mac’ sings; “players only love you when they’re playing”.

Besides the ‘sublime’ feeling we all get from our world,  many instructions can be gained by the lessons of the Bible, and as Jesus said, “He who loves me will keep my words”.   The sublime is what lead me to spirituality, but the words of Jesus can also be sublime, and can help strengthen ones faith.   Unfortunately, the religious nuts ‘twist’ (aka ‘wicked’) the meaning of the Bible to suit their own needs, like justifying slavery, or killing little old ladies they condemn as  witches.  My understanding is that ‘witch’ meant someone who killed indiscriminately, specifically by putting poison in the town drinking water supply.  Should we therefore suffer the CEOs of polluting companies to live?  Who needs the EPA when we are burning witches as the Bible commands?

Catholicism
I can understand the connection people feel with Catholicism.  It makes one feel good to unite with others by engaging in communal rituals.  Rituals seem to be a need that we all have, and it gives us a feeling of connectedness when we  dance, or sing in groups.  The problem is in forgetting what Lau Tzu said in the Tao Te Ching, (chapter 18) ‘When god is forgotten, piety and morality arise’, and (chapter 72) ‘When people lose their sense of God, they turn to religion’, and to paraphrase Mat 23:27 religious people are often ‘white washed tombs full of dead men’s bones’.

Jesus never said ‘pray to my mom’, nor did he ever say ‘pray to me’; what he said was pray to ‘thy father’, and ‘who loves me will keep my words’, and as Proverbs 11:9 says; through knowledge shall the just be delivered, and Proverbs 4:5 Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not.  I have been to Catholic services, and it is full of empty rituals: stand up, sit down, kneel down, say this, and say that; to me it’s like an aerobics class.  God forbid preachers talk about anything relevant to peoples’ lives, or that they have communal things like dances, lunches, or volleyball games to create an atmosphere of community.

The preacher Kenneth Copeland once told a story about some hippy-looking people who came to church and were shunned by the ‘good’ church people.  He was making a point about Mary washing Jesus’s feet, and basically said  that if you can’t wash someone’s feet, how can you know what it is like to walk around in their shoes?   As we used to say in college, rightousness sucks, but religious righteousness and spiritual righteousness are two totally different things.

I think the main function of church is fellowship.  It is about interacting with people in a way that builds community and strengthens relationships, it does not denigrate them.  In an episode of  ‘The Outer Limits’, a young girl is accused of being a witch because the community leader wanted to ‘feel her up’, and when she refused, he labeled her as a devil worshiper.  I have heard similar accounts of this many times, and often these religious freaks would rip off a woman’s clothes so that they could check out her tits; but who do you think is burning in the lake of fire now?

As a scientist and a mountain climber I have felt God’s presence many times, and as Luke 3:2 says, John the baptist found God in the wilderness, despite the church (Annas and Caiaphas).  I have always wondered why so many churches are complicit in the destruction of the wilderness, but maybe they just don’t want anyone to truly find God.  Otherwise, how could they get people to be so hateful?