[continued from previous message]   
      
   There's a popular joke circulating these days about a mental patient who used   
   to go everywhere dragging a toothbrush on a leash behind him. His madness was   
   that he believed, the toothbrush to be a dog named Rex. One day the   
   psychiatrist came by and saw    
   him standing in the hall with his toothbrush, as usual, trailing along behind.   
   The psychiatrist smiled and said, “Good day – how are you and Rex this   
   morning?” The patient said, “I'm fine, but you know that's not really a dog on   
   my leash – it's just a    
   toothbrush.” Walking on, the doctor was pleased to think that at last his   
   patient was showing some sign of recovery. As soon as the psychiatrist was out   
   of sight, the patient turned around and winked, saying, “Rex, we really fooled   
   him that time.”   
      
   It's often said that there's a little truth in every joke. I remember once   
   starting a pleasant conversation about Christianity with a woman who   
   introduced herself as a universalist. Before long her true colors started to   
   show; and, unfortunately, I found    
   myself confronting a purple-faced fanatic who had just damned me to hell in   
   three different ways. Perhaps it wasn't her fault – she'd been brainwashed or   
   programmed a bit more than she realized.   
      
   Sanity often takes a holiday when one's religious dogmas come under attack.   
   That old-time theology which was good enough for momma and papa is, like it or   
   not, good enough for sonny and dolly. Or in Biblical terms, the sins of the   
   parents are visited    
   upon their progeny from generation unto generation. [3]   
      
   Monotheism   
   Let us take a look at the fundamental concept of Monotheism. Generally   
   everyone accepts Judaism and Christianity as true monotheistic creeds – that   
   is, Jews and Christians are assumed to believe in only one God Who is eternal,   
   omnipresent, omnipotent and    
   omniscient. However, the general cosmogony of both Judaism and Christianity   
   completely contradicts this view of God. If God be one and omnipresent, then   
   how is it possible that God created this universe, the “heaven and earth”, out   
   of something which was    
   not Godself? According to both Judaism and Christianity, this earth and its   
   inhabitants are definitely not God; if they are not God, then where did they   
   come from? Obviously if we be separate from God, then God is not completely   
   omnipresent in the finest    
   sense of the word. And if we consider that something does not come from   
   nothing, then God is not completely unique either, for that material from   
   which we were created must be about as eternal as God because it also existed   
   before the creation.   
      
   Then again, what about Satan who makes an appearance from time to time, for   
   example in the books of Job, 1 Chronicles, Zechariah, Matthew and Revelation?   
   [4] If Satan is not God, and also not animal, vegetable or mineral – what or   
   who is this curious    
   creature? His creation is not catalogued with that of all the other items   
   which were made “in the beginning”. It seems that Satan is another eternal   
   entity, separate from God, and having sufficient power to resist the so-called   
   Almighty from time to time.   
      
   Rather than a monotheism, Judaism and Christianity would appear to be a   
   tri-theism involving three eternal entities – God, Satan and the primal matter   
   of this universe. Should one prefer to discount this creation (including   
   humanity with our    
   comparatively insignificant and much disputed power of free will), still one   
   must recognize Satan as some form of deity on a par with the One God. Perhaps   
   Satan may have to accept a slight handicap, but he is at least entitled to   
   play golf with the    
   Judaeo-Christian Divinity. Hence Judaeo-Christian religion is, if not   
   tri-theism, a bi-theism. And one should note carefully that this discussion   
   completely sidesteps the absurd and incomprehensible dogma of the Christian   
   Trinity, which might just “   
   elevate” Judaeo-Christian bi-theism or tri-theism to the impressive stance of   
   penta-theism. One wonders whether the eternal God of the Jews was somehow   
   infinite and omnipotent but nonetheless incomplete until Jesus and the Holy   
   Spirit came along to fill    
   out the Trinity. And, if that is the case, what new miracles may we discover   
   at the time of the Second Coming.   
      
   One's view of God determines to a great extent one's view of this world. The   
   Judaeo-Christian vision, as opposed to the Hindu or Buddhist conception, is   
   completely mechanistic. There is a God Who is said to be separate from the   
   universe and to Whom this    
   universe represents some form of toy to play with.   
      
   Not only is God separate from the universe but, ultimately, each and every   
   creature is separate from all others. This cosmos may be likened to a gigantic   
   machine having many moving and interconnected parts, not all of the parts   
   being complementary to    
   each other. Nature, according to this view, becomes a kingdom that humankind   
   must “subdue” [5] – any and all enemies are to be destroyed (either by God or   
   by humanity) in order to ensure the survival of the “fittest”. [6]   
   Unfortunately (or fortunately)    
   this mechanistic view of the world tends, more often than not, to be   
   self-destructive. The present-day problem of pollution is a good example –   
   that which only fifty years ago was treated as little more than a regrettable   
   eyesore has today become the    
   greatest cause of alarm to millions and millions of people. Scientists have   
   learned, and people now realize the tremendous threat to their existence posed   
   by a defective system of chemical and nuclear waste disposal. Happily, there   
   is still hope for our    
   survival because the same intellectual capacity which is required to develop   
   earth-destructive nuclear weapons is sufficient to correct dangerous waste   
   disposal, and also sufficient to break down the prison walls of inhuman and   
   insane dogmas that have    
   inspired countless past wars. [7]   
      
   Dogma   
   The word dogma has appeared a number of times in this text. It is important   
   that we define the term. A dogma is any fixed belief with boundaries which   
   allow for no questions, which can neither expand nor contract, which imprison   
   the mind. One who does    
   not accept the prevalent dogmas is classified as a heretic, a gentile, a   
   heathen, a witch, a running-dog capitalist, a dirty red communist, and so on.   
   But why should an intelligent human being accept knowingly the limitations of   
   dogma when such    
   acceptance invariably works to the detriment of both science and civilization?   
   The answer is simple – s/he hopes to derive some selfish pleasure from it.   
      
   Human social movement is inspired by one of two possible motivations. First is   
   the Principle of Social Equality. This Principle holds that every living being   
   on planet Earth has equal right to exist and to develop her, his or its full   
   physical, psychic    
   and spiritual potentiality. Social equality demands that where disparities or   
   inequalities do exist, we must seek to eradicate them as we move ahead   
   collectively towards the establishment of society as one blissful universal   
   family.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)