Joshua Ben Joseph (Jesus) was born at noon, August 21, 7 B.C.

Bringing the Son of God incarnate into the world is no small undertaking. Believing it actually happened, two thousand years after the fact is an even bigger challenge. And yet, that is what is expected of us. But the challenge can be met when one has sufficient information concerning the event. From Paper 122, Birth And Infancy of Jesus, from The Urantia Book:

After a study of the special report on the status of segregated worlds prepared by the Melchizedeks, in counsel with Gabriel, Michael finally chose Urantia as the planet whereon to enact his final bestowal. Subsequent to this decision Gabriel made a personal visit to Urantia, and, as a result of his study of human groups and his survey of the spiritual, intellectual, racial, and geographic features of the world and its peoples, he decided that the Hebrews possessed those relative advantages which warranted their selection as the bestowal race. Upon Michael’s approval of this decision, Gabriel appointed and dispatched to Urantia the Family Commission of Twelve— selected from among the higher orders of universe personalities— which was intrusted with the task of making an investigation of Jewish family life. When this commission ended its labors, Gabriel was present on Urantia and received the report nominating three prospective unions as being, in the opinion of the commission, equally favorable as bestowal families for Michael’s projected incarnation.

From the three couples nominated, Gabriel made the personal choice of Joseph and Mary, subsequently making his personal appearance to Mary, at which time he imparted to her the glad tidings that she had been selected to become the earth mother of the bestowal child.

Gabriel appeared to Mary about sundown one evening, and “after she had recovered her composure”— (can you even imagine??)— Gabriel said:

“I come at the bidding of one who is my Master and whom you shall love and nurture. To you, Mary, I bring glad tidings when I announce that the conception within you is ordained by heaven, and that in due time you will become the mother of a son; you shall call him Joshua, and he shall inaugurate the kingdom of heaven on earth and among men. Speak not of this matter save to Joseph and to Elizabeth, your kinswoman, to whom I have also appeared, and who shal l presently also bear a son, whose name shall be John, and who will prepare the way for the message of deliverance which your son shall proclaim to men with great power and deep conviction. And doubt not my word, Mary, for this home has been chosen as the mortal habitat of the child of destiny. My benediction rests upon you, the power of the Most Highs will strengthen you, and the Lord of all the earth shall overshadow you.”

Whew. Take that home to hubby. “How was you day, my love?” “Oh. . . uh. . . Some angel appeared to me today. Says I’m gonna be preggers with God, soon. How was your day?”

Me? I’d be changin’ my shorts. Who the hell are the Most Highs??? How will they strengthen me? What’s a child of destiny?? And what was that about the “kingdom of heaven”??

We live in a time of such detachment from true reality that the notion of God being born as a human baby seems completely absurd. And yet, the story persists. The truth endures.

Happy birthday, Joshua Ben Joseph; happy incarnation, Michael of Nebadon; happy bestowal day, God.

L’chaim.

The Middle Class First.

Not the Red State Middle Class. Not the Blue State Middle Class. Not the Republican middle Class. Not the Democrat Middle Class. Not the Conservative Middle Class. Not the Liberal Middle Class. Not the Right Wing Middle Class. Not the Left Wing Middle Class. Not the Christian middle Class. Not the Muslim Middle Class. Not the Buddhist Middle Class. Not the Jewish Middle Class. Not the Catholic Middle Class. Not the Presbyterian Middle Class. Not the Neo-Con Middle Class. Not the Wickan Middle Class. Not the Dirty Fucking Hippy Middle Class.

Just the Middle Class. First.

That’s Unity; not uniformity. That is the true strength of the American people, the backbone of our country. Because the majority of the middle class lack the political insight to see that the ruling class of this country is not them, but the wealthy corporate class, we find ourselves a nation losing a class war with the owners of her engines of wealth, whose aims and ends are not always those of highest benefit for Americans and America, or any nation of the world. Rather is their love and loyalty servile to “mammon.”

There’s a great difference between wealth which leads to greediness and selfishness and that which is held and dispensed in the spirit of stewardship by those who have an abundance of this world’s goods. But wealth is unenduring. The love of riches all too often obscures and even destroys the spiritual vision. The danger is one of wealth’s becoming, not your servant but your master.

Christians will note that Jesus never taught nor countenanced idleness or indifference to providing the physical necessities for one’s family. He taught that the material and temporal must be subordinated to the welfare of the soul and the progress of the spiritual nature.

The Middle Class of America must get itself united for change; change strong enough to change the balance of power back to the Middle man; change it controls and decides upon for the well-being of America, not the wealthy. For America; not the Red State Middle Class. Not the Blue State Middle Class. Not the Republican middle Class. Not the Democrat Middle Class. Not the Conservative Middle Class. Not the Liberal Middle Class. Not the Right Wing Middle Class. Not the Left Wing Middle Class. Not the Christian middle Class. Not the Muslim Middle Class. Not the Buddhist Middle Class. Not the Jewish Middle Class. Not the Catholic Middle Class. Not the Presbyterian Middle Class. Not the Neo-Con Middle Class. Not the Wickan Middle Class. Not the Dirty Fucking Hippy Middle Class.

The Middle Class. First. Last. Always.

That’s Barack Obama’s most powerful unifying meme, and it should be.

. . . It’s Jesus Himself, come to anoint Senter Obama! Because He would rather we lose our war than Obama lose the election! Yeah, that’s the snark we’ve been waiting for.

The Vision Thing
Ever wonder how the old dude sees anything? How many 72 year old curmudgeons do you know that don’t wear bifocals? Yep, McBlink has had teh lazic, alright; and that may account for his heavy blinking schedule. Check these coke-bottle ends he wore in the ’80’s:

But they’ve been banned from the cameras; well except for the welding goggles the oldster likes so much, that hermetically seal out all sunlight from his cataract-craters. They come with a matching Mc-cane, but he keeps that hidden, too:

You know, John Sidney, deteriorating vision is a sign of old age; there’s really no disguising it. But it’s not really the vanity of trying to hide your failing vision that makes me groan, it’s your total lack of vision for America that makes you the worst possible choice for POTUS. You would be the literal example of Christ’s striking image:

“If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the pit.”

He may as well be a brother from another planet:
“Greetings; Take me as I am— not as you think I should be.”

The “new politics” of Barack Obama are leaving many Americans lost in his dust. Traditionally they may have been categorized— and understood themselves to be— “liberals,” “conservatives,” “progressives,” “Republicans,” “Democrats,” and “Independents.” Not so surprisingly, a sizable majority of MSM pundits also have no idea what Obama means by a “new politics.”

But it is proving altogether unsettling for these various sub-groups of the electorate, having been so thoroughly and completely indoctrinated in the “Left-Right-Centrist” Meme of politics as usual that they can’t see themselves defined any other way, to suddenly find Barack Obama is not following their calcified notions of what they think he should be, and how he should behave. A few weeks ago Karl Rove was all by his lonesome calling Obama “arrogant” and “elitist” (read: “uppity”); now the fickle mouth breathers of teh illiterate electorate are having to change their intellectual underwear almost every week, and they don’t like it one bit.

Yo Yo: What ever your old political notion was of Barack Obama, he is not definable that way, anymore.

It has nothing to do with the dissection of political decision making by attributing it to left, right, or center, and it never did. These crude demarcations of political ideology never really yielded a true picture of the real values that form the basis of the decisions of a Barack Obama, or any other politician. Obama’s recent decisions have the various segments of his supporters, and his opponents, attempting to hammer them into the increasingly meaningless meme of the old politics, by whining “He’s tacking teh the center,” “He’s betraying the left,” “He can’t be trusted,”  “He won’t go to Bagdad,” He’s just another liar,” “He’s a fundamentalist Christian!” blah, blah, blah— Because the MSM, and even some of the progressive blogosphere, still insist on seeing the political world through the grossly cynical but fading paradigm of the old politics. Thank you, Dick Bush; your legacy is upon us.

It is inevitable that a presidential candidate who actually has a living relationship with Christ will eventually make his way to the White House. The tacit and superficial toleration of the inconsequential religious lives of recent presidential candidates and presidents (save perhaps Jimmy Carter) is symptomatic of an even bigger problem, and it has left the electorate unprepared — even the secular and religiously educated intelligentsia— for what they might expect from an Obama presidency.

Many who were initially inspired by Obama’s leadership abilities and personal charisma haven’t really grokked what he’s been saying about his religious convictions, in his books or in his speeches. Those who have been paying attention, if they are agnostic secularists or even religious secularists, are flabbergasted and confused by his commitment to following the truth— as he sees it, not them or more specifically, their political creed— wherever it may take him. Why is anyone shocked they barely hesitate to turn and rend him, his pearls be damned.

There are numerous comments at places like Alternet and HufPo where one can read the whining superficial loyalty to Obama, now that he’s beginning to “refine” his opinions in ways that don’t nuzzle up to the secular left’s butt cheeks. A couple examples.

Liz Sidoti:

Obama also may be undercutting his claim to be a straight-shooting, new-politics candidate as he repeatedly breaks with his liberal base on various issues to aggressively move to appeal to the center of the electorate.

Liz can’t help but fall into the “center of the electorate” pit; it’s just too easy to assume Obama’s principles are as jello-like as any other politician’s; he can’t really believe his own decisions are based on real principles, can he??

I selected this comment from Susan of Texas at HufPo because she riffs on a “true believers” stereotype and father substitution, while throwing in a little personal peccadillo she harbors on authoritarianism:

He says everthing [sic] that is right, but what he actually does conforms with his authoritarian leanings. He is extremely competitive and ambitious; he wouldn’t be the nominee if he weren’t. He gew [sic] up without a father and substitutes his “heavenly father” to make up for the loss; he is a true believer. And we all know how dangerous they are.

Setting aside for the moment the lack of personal religious experience at the heart of so many of Obama’s critics both inside the democratic party and out, let’s focus on her notion that Obama says everything that’s “right, but. . .” Ask yourself why he says everything that’s right, if he really means none of it? The deeply ingrained cynicism of such a view is of course, lamentable, but ultimately it’s the insinuation that Obama is a shallow, lying deceiver just like Bush, Cheney, or Rove, that he has no real values at all, that smells up the place. Such a lack of discernment results from a completely debilitated ability to trust, and is the ultimate cost of cynicism.

“And we all know how dangerous they are.” Let the term “True believers” be defined here as anyone on the planet with a genuine spiritual awareness through their own personal religious experience. To every appearance, Obama is such a person. But “dangerous”? True believers in Jesus actually believe “Love your enemies” is a superior philosophy to “kill your enemies.” Hence, Obama’s commitment to withdraw from Iraq, and not launch American wars of choice.
And his recent decisions, which have caused a chorus of caterwauling among some of his supporters, probably the same ones who recoiled at the spiritual fervor Obama engendered in many of his other early supporters, are all positions that place the highest values of a truth-driven political prodigy right out there for all to marvel at, or complain about. Discuss.

“He g[r]ew up without a father and substitutes his “heavenly father” to make up for the loss; he is a true believer“

Non-religious minds can plop out such a thoughtless notion because it seems so logical. But anyone who truly knows God as a Father does so, not to fill the physical void of an absent or inadequate earthly father, but because they have already learned the value of such a divine Father through their experiences with an earthly father figure. Every child is wholly dependent on his parents and the home life for all his early concepts of everything intellectual, social, moral, and even spiritual; all that he can first know of either human or divine relationships comes from the family. Obama’s book, Dreams From My Father, makes it reasonably clear that most of that guidance came from a loving Grandfather, Grandmother, Father, however briefly, Step-father, and Mother all of whom, to my mind, must have done a superb job, based on what little we can observe of Obama’s spiritual relationship with God as a Father.

America’s political ship has steamed out of the sheltered bays of established old-politics tradition, and has begun its perilous cruise upon the high seas of evolutionary destiny. The only real question is, does America want Obama— a genuine religionist— the “real deal” at the helm, or McCain— a genuine fraud. As never before in our history, the soul of America had better carefully scrutinize the charts of our highest shared values, and therein find the trust the new captain will need from us if he is to steer us true.

Unity— Not Uniformity!!

Phil Burress poses with full-page antiporn ad.

Phil Burress, head pin of the Ohio-based Citizens for Community Values, recently said of John McCain: “We don’t like him, and he doesn’t like us.” But Burress has even more recently found his nostrils wedged into McCain’s right armpit, following a little Come-to-Jebus moment with the aged Maverick. With the powerful scent of POW euphoria still fresh in his aural passageways, he lurched back to the keyboard of his personal Googelator and sent out an “interweb” note to some still-not-on-board allies, saying:

“I was once one of those people who said ‘no way’ to Senator John McCain as President. No longer. My ability to ignore my own opinions has risen to the top. The steaks are too high. Why does a good piece of cow cost $14.95 a pound?? For the love of Christ, this is America, a Christian Cow Nation, is it not?? But if Obama wins, I need to able to get up on November 5th, look at myself approvingly in the mirror for several minutes, and pray, ‘Lord, I did all that I could to implement my own will, and the will of my Party. But you thwarted us. I was sure your Will was my will. How could I have been so completely wrong about yours?’ “

Phil, Phil, Phil. How long must the Lord (and everyone else) bear with you? When will you understand the tyrannical and dictatorial political state John McCain is supposed to inherit, the one you are now kowtowing to, is the direct offspring of scientific materialism and philosophic secularism? Do you really think Johnnie started liking you for any other reason than he wants you and your freakin’ religious allies back in line?

You see, secularism no sooner freed us from the domination of the institutionalized church than it sold us into slavish bondage to the totalitarian state. Secularism freed us from ecclesiastical slavery only to betray us into the tyranny of political and economic slavery.

So the good Lord will be doing you and your allies a huge favor by giving us eight years of Barack, a president who actually knows the constitution well enough to teach it, even to a nation of politically ignorant polyps, and a man with a genuine spiritual relationship with Jesus which informs his moral and ethical compass in a way that is respectful of the line between church and state.

So. Phil. A bit of unsolicited advice: Recognize that you are an unwitting secularist. Stop thwarting the Lord you claim to serve, by trying to put the will of the Republican Party and it’s new marionette in training, John McCain, over His will. You’ll someday be glad you did.

Surrendering To Love

YOU HAVE UNDERTAKEN THE GREAT ADVENTURE of becoming sons of God, and you have to go through a sort of untangling to reach this place of communion and awareness. Be assured that your sole duty is to go within and dissolve by releasing the outer entanglements, to surrender appetites and forebodings.

The question of appetites is different for each one, both physical and mental; nor must there be resentment and the old sense of duty in the surrender; it is rather permitting a joyful conviction to grow that there is something infinitely more satisfying.

Of course thee will be conflicts. Who isn’t familiar with the reasonable— very reasonable— arguments that come rushing to justify the very human desires of the mind and body? The must be met with as much gentleness toward yourself as you would meet them when trying to help another, otherwise your instant rebellion will obstruct and delay you.

But in the true spirit of surrender, the giving up of everything that has become a burden is little effort and the reward is instant; all things in this state work for your good. And not the old idea of good which was a scourge; but the “goodness which is a rapture.”

Let your heart be at peace in this serene and healing place, for here the Christ will refresh you, here he will lift the heavy burden from your minds and in your hearts he will breathe renewed joy and quietude. Have faith in practice.

In spite of the teachings of Jesus we have been taught to hate evil, but that only justifies the more our complete satisfaction in criticism. In such emotional criticism of our friends and enemies we appear better people to ourselves. It is not the way.

Instead of freedom, we bind the consequences of poisonous hates and resentments to ourselves. We can turn from abstract evil without harm and with a sense of human righteousness. But the human does not hate evil disincarnate, he hates it in a person. Then we ask, “How can I love my enemies?” It would be plain hypocrisy to say we can, or must, do this in the ordinary sense of the word. But the true meaning will appear to you when we say that the outer you cannot love the outer you of another who lives and has his being in the ancient darkness of the race.

Instead, come within and while abiding in the conscious oneness with your inner self see and bless with understanding the inner you of that enemy whose outer you is struggling with the dark jungles of his journey, and by thus releasing him, forgiving him, giving him over, you help him on his way. This is loving your enemy, this is the brotherhood of man. And there is no sentimentality about it; for only by abiding in the Indwelling Spirit can you have this so-called human wisdom as well as the divine wisdom to deal with him according to his needs as well as your own.

You may have to put him in prison, but watch your heart in the matter, for out of it are the issues of life! In times of fierce antagonism realize that the enemy is angry thought; fill yourself, without thought of any person, with a sense of infinite love and peace, for thus are the negative things confounded and a table will be set before you in the presence of your enemies.

Give freely of the Spirit and judge not; be longsuffering and patient, for when you are kind with the kindness of the Spirit to those who are unregenerate, the act frees your own unregeneracy as well. Blessed is he that sees and understands and forgives. Forgive and be forgiven the trespasses, the darknesses, the things negative which terrify. They are forgotten in this high clear stillness. Love conquereth all things.

Restated from Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood • 1948

• • •

The hope of a better nation— a better world—
is bound up in the progress and enlightenment of the individual.

• • •

As readers of The Urantia Book, you’d think we might occasionally search “teh internets” to see what’s out there that speaks of it. Well we do— occasionally. Recently we found a segment on The UB from a TV series called “Strange Universe,” circa 1996. The mildly galactic, silly-subliminal strobe-fest, complete with a shot of the alien autopsy stuffed in for good measure, topped off with the “alien bible” tag all smothered in tacky music— still isn’t too campy and overbearing. Best of all, nobody really tells any inexcusable whoppers about the book; always a plus.

As indifferent observers, the media insists “no one knows who wrote the book”; generally, real readers say they accept the authors as given. But the “keeping it under the pillows” nonsense probably didn’t impress anyone other than the copywriter.

I hadn’t heard the rumor a book was spotted in the white house, but if there is, it’s clear that it hasn’t been opened by Chimpy. Bush’s confession that Jesus is his “favorite philosopher” is more than telling, in that Jesus was not, of course, a philosopher, but a savior; a Divine Redeemer, and the Son of God.

It is also not surprising teh TV wanted to focus on the supposed “angry backlash” by the percentage of Christians who can’t abide any sort of updating, or even a divinely expanded historical retelling of the entire life and teachings of the very being they claim to know, love, and follow.

I’m sure some defenders of the infallible Bible sent a strongly-worded letter regarding the retelling of Christ’s life that essentially invalidates all the hatred, ignorance, and fear that has seeped into their religion and belief. But then, most rational Christian denominations already dismiss such doctrines. It’s teh few who do not that will tend to never loosen their death grip on the dogma and doctrines of traditional, evolutionary religion. After all, “the faith once delivered to the saints” must, in theory, be both final and infallible. I don’t think they’d even let Jesus mess with it.

Meanwhile, the rest of the entire “strange” universe keeps plunging majestically through space to the music of the meter of the infinite thought and the eternal purpose of the First Great Source and Center of all things and beings. The Urantia teachings, the most recent revelation of truth propounded in the spiritual realm, has barely begun to trickle into the present-day cultural stream. The advent of greatly improved global communications may eventually create a planet-wide mutational awakening that captures the imagination of entire nations.

Here’s hoping it’s ours.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

WASHINGTON — John McCain defended his plan for veterans’ college benefits Monday, as both he, and Barack Obama spoke to veterans on Memorial Day. Hillary Clinton campaigned Monday in Puerto Rico. Obama and McCain have sparred from a distance recently over the bill, sometimes with what the MSM calls “heated words.”

In his comments on Memorial Day, McCain did not mention Obama by name, such a clever fellow, but it was clear he was talking Obama. McCain said his was the right position rather than “the politically expedient one,” suggesting Obama was on the wrong side of the Jim Webb bill, which passed the senate last week. The bill will substantially increase educational benefits for service members. A more limited version that McCain had supported, was blocked.

McCain: “I am running for the office of commander in chief. That is the highest privilege in this country, and it imposes the greatest responsibilities. And this is why I am committed to our bill, despite the support Senator Webb’s bill has received. It would be easier, much easier politically for me to have joined Senator Webb in offering his legislation.”

Umm. . . So you support your own bill because you’re “running for the office of commander in chief”?? You can’t join with the twenty-five members of your own party and support the Webb bill because— it’s not yours?? Isn’t this the same moronic partisan-think that has created the most polarized government in our history?

Because McCain said Webb’s measure would give the same benefit to everyone regardless of how many times he or she has reenlisted. He said he feared that would depress reenlistments by those wanting to attend college after only a “few years in uniform.” McCain said the bill he favored would have increased scholarships based on length of service.

Now remember, McCain, despite his whoring around for fringe religionists like John Hagee and Rod Parsley, portrays himself as a conservative, mainstream, unbaptized Baptist. One must assume that somewhere along the way, he’s heard the parable of the vineyard workers. All but you heathens will recall, that’s the one where the vineyard owner hired workers at a denarius a day, or roughly $20 bucks; bottom line, it was a fair wage for a day’s work.

Anyway, the guy— let’s just call him Vino— goes out to the market for his morning cappuccino, and seeing laborers standing around, says, ” Go work in my vineyard, and I’ll pay you whatever is right.” And the same thing happens at lunchtime, and at three in the afternoon, and yep, again at five as well; and Vino, generous vintner that he is, gives them all the same offer.

But when the men who had been slogging grapes since nine in the morning saw these guys dragging in after five, they imagined they should get more than the promised denarius. But when Vino pays up, the bitching started: “These guys who were hired last worked only one stinkin’ hour, and yet you paid them the same as us, who have worked the entire day in the frakkin’ scorchin’ sun.”

But the Vino, stoked on his own juice, was ready for them. He says: “‘My friends, I’m not doin’ you wrong. Didn’t each of you agree to work a day for a Jackson? So take your Twenty and hit the road! It’s my business to give to those who came last just as much as I gave to you. Is it against the law for me to do what I want with my own money? Or do you begrudge my generosity because I desire to be good and to show mercy?”

Well, long story short, McCain doesn’t understand the common generosity of the American people’s wish to compensate our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines— those who step into harm’s way to defend our nation— with a decent educational opportunity wherewith they can become productive citizens with a good life like, ahem, the rest of us.

On Saturday Barack Obama told veterans while campaigning in Puerto Rico : “I don’t understand why John McCain would side with George Bush and oppose our plan to make college more affordable for our veterans. George Bush and John McCain may think our plan is too generous. I could not disagree more.”

McCain says: “I take a back seat to no one in my affection, respect, and devotion to veterans.” Well. A back seat to no one— besides the senators, congressmen and women, and citizens who stepped up to support the troops by paying them the Jackson they’ve earned whether they served little, or much. That’s generosity. That’s American.

ADAM and EVE by Ernst Fuchs

Our friend Sherry at A Feather Adrift has written another thought provoking essay on a range of religious issues. I’ve winnowed out several of her interesting questions for comment here. If you have time I suggest you read it there before you read this response.

Is God fully omniscient in time and space?
It is literally true that God is all and in all. He inhabits the “circle of eternity.” God is possessed of unlimited power to know all things; he alone can be in two places, in numberless places. But even that is not all of God. The Infinite can be finally revealed only in infinity; the cause can never be fully comprehended by an analysis of effects; the living God is immeasurably greater than the sum total of creation that has come into being as a result of the creative acts of his unfettered free will.

As an infinite being, God comprehends the end from the beginning of “time,” because both time and space are “sub-absolute.” Space is not infinite, even though it takes origin from Paradise; we do not know the absolute limits of space, but we do know that the absolute of time is eternity.

It may be helpful to realize there are three different levels of time cognizance:
1. Mind-perceived time— consciousness of sequence, motion, and a sense of duration.
2. Spirit-perceived time— insight into motion Godward and the awareness of the motion of ascent to levels of increasing divinity.
3. Personality creates a unique time sense out of insight into Reality, plus a consciousness of presence and an awareness of duration.

Why doesn’t God reveal himself scientifically?
To Science, God is a possibility; to psychology a desirability, to philosophy a probability, to religion a certainty, an actuality of religious experience. Science seeks to identify, analyze, and classify the segmented parts of the limitless cosmos. Reason is the proof of science, faith (not mere belief) is the proof of religion, even as logic is the proof of philosophy. But science must end its reason-search in the hypothesis of a First Cause, because science can never validate God.

Only the personal experience of the faith sons of the Father can effect the actual spiritual realization of the personality of God. You cannot pray to a chemical formula, supplicate a mathematical equation, worship a hypothesis, confide in a postulate, commune with a process, serve an abstraction, or hold loving fellowship with a law. Reason then, would demand that a philosophy which cannot find the God of probability should be very respectful of the religious faith which can, and does, find the God of certitude.

And science should never discount religious experience on grounds of credulity, not so long as it persists in the assumption that our intellectual and philosophic endowments emerged from increasingly lesser intelligences the further back they go, to take origin in primitive life which was utterly devoid of any and all ability to think and feel.

Obviously there is a vast gulf between the infinity of God and the finiteness of man. As truth one may know God, but to understand enough to explain God, one must explore the fact of the universe of universes. The vast gulf between the experience of the truth of God, and ignorance as to the fact of God can be bridged only by living faith. Modern science has left true religion— the teachings of Jesus as translated in the lives of his believers— untouched. All science has done is to destroy the childlike illusions of many of the misinterpretations of life.

Can atheists be “just as moral as the next person”?
Static ethics and traditional morality are just slightly super-animal. Ethics and morals become truly human when they are dynamic and progressive. Morality is not necessarily spiritual; it may be wholly and purely human. But morality without religion fails to reveal ultimate goodness, and it also fails to provide for the survival of even its own moral values. Religion provides for the enhancement and assured survival of everything morality recognizes and approves.

Man can, intellectually, deny God, and yet be morally good, loyal, filial, honest, and even idealistic. And in so doing, man may graft many purely humanistic branches onto his basic spiritual nature, and apparently prove his atheistic contentions. But such an experience is devoid of survival values, God-knowingness, and God-ascension. In such an experience only social fruits are forthcoming, not spiritual.

If you truly believe in God— by faith know him and love him— don’t permit the reality of such an experience to be in any way lessened or detracted from by the doubting insinuations of science, the caviling of logic, the postulates of philosophy, or the clever suggestions of well-meaning souls who would create a religion without God. Live your faith, and it will grow to be of such towering strength it can never be shaken.

How do we define ourselves as “sentient” spiritual creatures?
Unspiritual animals know only the past and live in the present. Spirit-indwelt human beings have prevision— insight— we may visualize the future. “Sentience” must eventually come to be defined as self-conscious personality indwelt by Spirit. Animals are not “self-conscious,” thus they can never experience consciousness
of consciousness.

Self-consciousness implies the recognition of the reality of selves other than the conscious self, and further implies that such awareness is mutual; that the self is known as it knows. But you cannot become so absolutely certain of a fellow being’s reality as you can of the reality of the presence of God that lives within you.

Were Adam and Eve real people?
Despite what current paleontology and DNA might suggest, Adam and Eve were real beings, but they were not evolutionary human beings born on this world. As one might reasonably expect, the true story of their “creation,” as it has come down through 37,000 years of word of mouth, has been stripped of nearly all truth and recognition of the original events.

My first recommendation to anyone interested in the real story of Adam and Eve, or any cosmological question, is to read The Urantia Book. There’s simply no substitute for spiritual revelation. Since that is a formidable commitment of both time and mental reflection, suffice it to say for our our purposes here that Adam and Eve were of a material order of divine sons who come to the evolving worlds of space; these Material Sons and Daughters are the last physical link in the chain of personalities extending from divinity and perfection above, down to humanity and material existence below. Their dispensations usually last many thousands of years, as they attempt to engraft the higher forms of creature life on the primitive men of the evolutionary worlds of space. Unfortunately, that did not fully happen on our world.

It’s hard not to think of the story of Adam and Eve in purely symbolic terms if all you’ve ever been exposed to is the Biblical account. The story of creating Eve out of Adam’s rib is a confused condensation of their arrival and the “celestial surgery” connected with the interchange of living substances associated with the coming of a corporeal staff of celestials, more than four hundred and fifty thousand years previously. It’s too long a story to unfold here, but it must be said that the so-called parents of the human race were at once the recipients of the most blessed, and the most tragic of circumstances of all of the several planetary “dispensations” of celestial over-care that have occurred here-to-for on our world.

The origins of the human race, as even our partial scientific understanding must attest, is a complex, multi-faceted mystery of staggering proportions; as it quite naturally impinges on every realm of human experience. That science has no business in spiritual matters is still a difficult hurdle for most critics of religion to understand, and only further complicates the examination of the interrelatedness of our planetary origins with our universe destiny as creatures.

That said, there are still many things about our origins that can be known, and known now, that will take science many, many more decades to factually unravel. That this knowing must use living faith to achieve its certainty in no way lessens its relevance to individuals in pursuit of intelligent and worthy cosmological understanding. It will probably remain a sad fact that many otherwise brilliant atheistic individuals will never discover the true nature of living faith, preferring instead the much more ludicrous but serviceable definition of faith as mere belief.

The fact that vast time is involved in the attainment of God makes the presence and personality of the Infinite none the less real. Our individual ascension is a part of the circuit of the vast universe, and though we may swing around it countless times, we may expect, in spirit and in status, to be ever swinging inward. We can depend upon being translated from sphere to sphere, from the far outer circuits where we are now, to ever nearer the inner center, and our destination, Paradise. And some day, doubt not, we shall stand in the divine and central presence and see him, figuratively speaking, face to face.

Radical Preacher and Pig Religionist John Hagee

Blogging at the Nation, John Nichols shared the following remarks of radical preacher John Hagee regarding Hurricane Katrina and the city of New Orleans’ “sinful” acceptance of homosexuality:

“What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God…” Hagee explained after the city experienced a national disaster that cost at least 1,836 lives – making it the deadliest hurricane in American history – and permanently dislocated tens of thousands of Americans from not just their homes but the communities of their birth and upbringing.

“Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans” Hagee told NPR’s Terry Gross in a 2006 interview. What was God judging? “New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God,” said McCain’s backer, who explained that “there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came.”

Blaming homosexuals for the deadliest hurricane in history is a textbook example of the precepts of Pig Religion in action. This sort of self-indulgent, self-righteous bigotry is the inevitable result of an ignorant and slavish commitment to the fetish word of authority, and has become the hallmark of Pig Religion.

Pig Religion is above all else a fetish religion, above even the love of God; but most practitioners of Pig Religion are almost completely lacking in any understanding of fetishism, as the single most damaging aspect of their religion. In order to understand how such a strange and perverse practice evolved, we must journey back a long way to its roots.

“Hagee and all fetishists are hypocritically betraying themselves “into the clutches of bigotry, fanaticism, superstition, [and] intolerance” through their willing embrace of the doctrinal fetish of the Bible as the infallible word of God.”

Our primitive ancestors made anything extraordinary into a fetish. A man gets sick, something weird happens, he gets well— must’ve been that delicious cow pie he ate for dinner last night.

[Read more →]

EDITOR’S NOTE: The continuing exposition of the remarkable, recently discovered account of the crucifixion of Joshua Ben Joseph, aka Jesus Christ, aka, Jesus of Nazareth, aka, the Galilean. . . from the “Daily Matzo,” a parchment rag of circa 30 A.D. Jerusalem, widely distributed around Judea, the only extant copy recently unearthed in a Capernaum coffee and bagel bar known as the “Caper-ccino.”

JERUSALEM — Early this Saturday morning, Temple guards, on orders from the high priest, acting on a tip from an anonymous source, discovered the torn and shattered remains of one Judas Iscariot, in the near vicinity of the deep and narrow ravine west of the city known to all as the Valley of Hinnom; the dump of all Jerusalem.

First reports indicate it appeared the man had attempted to hang himself from a small tree, but the knot tied in the girdle of his cloak gave way, causing Iscariot to be dashed to pieces on the jagged rocks below.

Daily Matzo has learned Iscariot was the only son of a wealthy Sadducee Judean couple, believed to be living in Jericho. Records indicate Iscariot was born in Kerioth, a small town in southern Judea. He was thirty years of age and unmarried when he joined the apostles in January, A.D. 27. There are unconfirmed reports he had sought employment with a fish-drying enterprise at Tarichea, when he became associated with the Galilean prophet.

Iscariot was known to be the treasurer of the twelve apostles of Jesus of Nazareth, and is now a person of great interest in the on-going spectacle of the crucifixion of Jesus yesterday morning at Golgatha. Unnamed sources have come forward this day, purporting intrigues involving Iscariot and the temple high priest, Caiaphas.

A source wishing to remain secret, spoke at length with Daily Matzo of Iscariot’s character, having been a life-long acquaintance of the deceased. In an exclusive interview with Matzo, Iscariot was said to be a “spoiled child,” often “pampered and petted.” As he grew up, he had exaggerated ideas about his self-importance. He was widely known as a poor loser.

He was also said to have had loose and distorted ideas about fairness, and was given to the indulgence of hate and suspicion. He was said to be expert at misinterpretation of the words and acts of his friends. “All through his life, Judas had cultivated the habit of getting even with those whom he fancied had mistreated him,” the source confided.

Relatives of Iscariot, who wish to remain anonymous under these circumstances, have revealed that just this Thursday, Judas had disclosed to certain Sadducean friends of his father’s family, that he had reached the conclusion that, while Jesus was a “well-meaning dreamer and idealist, he was not the expected deliverer of Israel.” He went on to say that he would very much like to find some way of withdrawing gracefully from the whole movement.

Iscariot’s relatives also felt his friends had assured him that his withdrawal would be hailed by Jewish rulers as “a great event,” and they led him to believe that he would forthwith receive high honors from the Sanhedrin, and that he would be in a position to erase the stigma of his well-meant but “unfortunate association with untaught Galileans.”

Judas was said to have been troubled however, and confided to kin he could not quite believe that the mighty works of Jesus had been wrought by the power of the prince of devils, as the Sanhedrin believed; but he was fully convinced that Jesus would allow himself to be destroyed by the Jewish rulers, and he felt he could “not endure the humiliating thought of being identified with a movement of defeat.”

Although it is said Iscariot was a good business man, and was generally regarded as a good thinker, he was not always a truly honest thinker. He was known as a stickler for organization.

Associates close to the apostles, whose whereabouts are unknown since the crucifixion, anonymously point to the case of Judas Iscariot as illustrative of the truthfulness of the saying: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death.”

[See the next segment, "JESUS. IS. DEAD."]

*****You have selected the most read post on this blog.*****

EDITOR’S NOTE: As promised, the startling second installment of the recently unearthed account of the Crucifixion of Joshua Ben Joseph, the Galilean carpenter of Nazareth, as depicted in the “Daily Matzo,” a parchment magazine discovered in a Capernaum coffee and bagel bar known only as the “Caper-ccino.”

JERUSALEM — Approximately 200 onlookers, consisting mostly of enemies of Jesus, curious idlers, and perhaps a few supporters, follow along with the Roman soldiers who take Jesus up to Golgatha shortly after nine o’clock this Friday morning, 14 Nisan [April 7, 30 A.D.]. With the crossbeam on his shoulders according to custom, Jesus is led by the captain of the guard, who carries the white boards with the names of the criminals and the nature of their crimes. Two of the boards carry the word “brigand,” but the board for the cross of Jesus has been written by Pilate himself— in Latin, Greek, and Aramaic— and reads: “Jesus of Nazareth— the King of the Jews.”

The customary route to Golgatha is not followed, the captain instead choosing the more direct route via the Damascus gate north out of the city. Still, many women who had known of Jesus’ life of loving ministry dare to follow the procession, weeping and lamenting, in bold disregard of the law prohibiting such displays of sympathy for the condemned. Jesus takes notice of the women and speaks briefly to them saying,

“Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but rather weep for yourselves and for your children. My work is about done— soon I go to my Father— but the times of terrible trouble for Jerusalem are just beginning. Behold, the days are coming in which you shall say: Blessed are the barren and those whose breasts have never suckled their young. In those days will you pray the rocks of the hills to fall on you in order that you may be delivered from the terrors of your troubles.”

Observers marvel at the stamina of the prophet, having had no food or water— and certainly no sleep— since his arrest at Gethsemane park Thursday night. Not surprisingly, he appears near exhaustion, and shortly after passing through the Damascus gate, he falls. Despite several severe kicks to his body by the soldiers, he cannot rise; the captain seeing this, commands the soldiers to stop, and orders a passerby, one Simon from Cyrene, to assume the burden of the crossbeam.

Shortly after nine o’clock the procession reaches Golgatha, and the grim task of nailing the three to their crosses begins. Jesus is quickly garbed with the customary lion cloth provided by the Romans after his clothes are removed, accommodating our people’s great objection to public exposure of the naked human form.

The soldiers first bind the Teacher’s arms with cords to the crossbeam, then nail his hands to the wood. It is said that the ideas, motives, and longings of a lifetime are openly revealed in a crisis. As they nail him to the crossbeam, he is heard to say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

When they have hoisted this crossbeam up on the post, and after they nail it securely to the upright timber of the cross, they bind and nail his feet to the wood, using one long nail which penetrates both feet. The upright timber has a large peg inserted at the proper height, which serves to support the body weight. As is customary at Golgatha, the cross is not high; the prophet’s feet are but three feet from the ground.

After the Galilean is hoisted on the cross, the captain nails the title up above his head, which reads in three languages, “Jesus of Nazareth— the King of the Jews.” Many who stand under the cross are infuriated by this perceived insult. Pilate, who surely felt he had been intimidated and humiliated, now takes this method of obtaining his petty revenge. He knows too, how the Jerusalem Jews detest the very name of Nazareth, and now he humiliates them. He knows that they will also be cut to the very quick by seeing this executed Galilean called “The King of the Jews.”

When the Jewish leaders learn how Pilate is deriding them with this inscription on the cross of Jesus, they hasten to Golgotha, but they dare not attempt to remove the board, as the Roman soldiers are standing guard. These leaders then mingled with the crowd to incite derision and ridicule, lest anyone give serious regard to the inscription.

Just as the captain is nailing the title above his head, the Apostle John, with Mary the mother of Jesus, Ruth, a sister of Jesus, and Jude, his brother, arrive. Apparently this apostle is the only one of the eleven apostles to witness the crucifixion of their “Master.” As Jesus sees his mother, with John and his brother and sister, he gives them a brief but silent smile.

Meanwhile the four soldiers, as is the custom, divide his clothes among them. One takes the sandals, one the turban, one the girdle, and the fourth his cloak. This leaves his tunic, a seamless vestment reaching down to near the knees, to be cut up into four pieces. But when the soldiers see what an unusual garment it is, they cast lots for it. Jesus looks down on them as they divided his garments, and as the crowd jeers at him.

Before eleven o’clock, upward of one thousand persons are witnessing this spectacle of the crucifixion of the so-called “Son of Man.” If we are to believe him, we are all witnessing the death of the Son of God; we must also assume that a watching universe of angels stands by in silent horror, as they witness God dying the death of the creature, even this, the most ignoble death of a condemned criminal.

Many who pass by wag their heads and, railing at him, say: “You who would destroy the temple and build it again in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, why do you not come down from your cross?”

Some of the rulers of the Jews mock him, saying, “He saved others, but himself he cannot save!”

Others say, “If you are the king of the Jews, come down from the cross, and we will believe in you.” And later on, they mocked him the more, saying: “He trusted in God to deliver him. He even claimed to be the Son of God— look at him now— crucified between two thieves.” Even the two thieves rail at him and cast reproach upon him.

But Jesus makes no reply to their taunts.

By half past eleven o’clock most of the jesting and jeering crowd have gone their way; less than fifty remain on the scene as it nears noontime of this special preparation day. The soldiers now prepare to eat lunch and drink their cheap, sour wine as they settled down for the deathwatch. As they drink their wine, they derisively offer a toast to Jesus, saying, “Hail and good fortune! to the king of the Jews!” And they are astonished at his tolerant regard of their ridicule and mocking.

When Jesus sees them eat and drink, he looks down upon them and says, “I thirst.” When the captain of the guard hears Jesus say “I thirst,” he takes some of the wine from his bottle and, putting the saturated sponge stopper upon the end of a javelin, raises it to Jesus so that he can moisten his parched lips.

One of the brigands rails at Jesus: “If you are the Son of God, why do you not save yourself and us?” The other thief says to him, “Do you have no fear even of God? Do you not see that we are suffering justly for our deeds, but that this man suffers unjustly? Better that we should seek forgiveness for our sins and salvation for our souls.” When Jesus heard the thief say this, he turns his face toward him and smiles approvingly. When the thief sees the face of Jesus turned toward him, he musters up his courage and says, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And then Jesus says, “Verily, verily, I say to you today, you shall sometime be with me in Paradise.”

Shortly after twelve o’clock the sky darkens from the fine sand in the air. The people of Jerusalem know this means a hot-wind sandstorm from the Arabian desert is coming. Before one o’clock the sky is so dark the sun is hidden, and the remainder of the crowd hastens back to the city. The Teacher is near death, but seems to be uttering passages from the scriptures, which one of the women says is the twentieth, twenty-first, and twenty-second Psalm, which begins with “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” This is to be one of his last utterances.

The sandstorm grows in intensity, and the heavens increasingly darken. The soldiers crouch near the cross, huddled together to protect themselves from the cutting sand. Others watch from a distance, where they are somewhat sheltered by an overhanging rock. When the Galilean, called “Master” unbidden by those who followed him, gives up his life shortly after this hour, less than thirty people are present; the thirteen Roman soldiers and a group of about fifteen apparent believers.

Just before three o’clock, Jesus, with a loud voice, cries out, “It is finished! Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” And when he had thus spoken, he bowed his head, and moved no more. When the Roman centurion saw how Jesus died, to our astonishment he smote his breast and said: “This was indeed a righteous man; truly he must have been a Son of God.”

[See the remaining extant segment from the "Daily Matzo" April 9th— Resurrection Day, "JESUS. IS. NOT. DEAD.]

THE URANTIA BOOK