Egyptian Beliefs

The guest on a late night television show is an Egyptologist. I didn't catch her name but it was a statement that she made that I found interesting.

She said that the ancient Egyptians believed that if you wrote something down it would come into being in the next life.

I'm curious how broad that belief was since many common day transactions and occurrences were recorded and surely those were more a matter of record than prediction.

This didn't seem entirely appropriate to this blog except that I'm curious as to how the ancient Egyptian belief meshed with Christianity. Someone once loaned me a copy of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, (translated into English), and their beliefs regarding the nature of humans and the afterlife was extremely complex.

Anyway, the idea that writing something down would make it come into existence in the next life is not something that I extracted from the book, so I'm curious where it did originate.

Modern Science in an Ancient Book

I'm of the belief that science is not incompatible with Christianity or spirituality in general and I feel rather taken back at the constant fight between the ideas of creationism and evolution.

Creationists insist on taking all of the Bible entirely literally. While it is clear that parts of the Bible are historical narrative intended to be taken literally, other parts are metaphorical or poetic, and not to be taken literally.

That God created everything doesn't have to be at odds with evolution which only describes one process used to implement that creation.

Even things as fantastic as the sun standing still have a possible basis within accepted laws of phystics.

I believe that the more we advance science, the more we understand about the nature of reality, and the more we learn to correctly interpret scripture, the less science and religion will seem at odds.

Questions

Many people who write blogs on spiritual matters do so from a position of assumed authority; I really created this blog as a matter of sharing my own exploration and hoping that it might further that of others as well.

I've had an instance of what I consider to be direct intervention early in my life; but after that really walked away and did not keep Christ in my heart.

And where Christ is not present, Satan has a field day and I can see now how a trap has been laid; I will not accept Satan's terms, whatever the cost.

So I am trying to follow God's will but find it difficult still but I am trying. I am trying to understand better what God intends for my life; why I am still here and I'm finding that difficult; there are many things I know I should do but to focus is difficult.

I try to understand Christ; forgiveness by God's grace, but the gospels, particularly John, are full of quotes of Jesus saying things like Judge not lest ye be judged, or forgive and they will be forgiven, which seems more legalistic. Clearly we're not up to being on par with Jesus when it comes to forgiveness or compassion.

I try my best, but my best doesn't seem all that good. Fear rules my life all too often and I find myself running away from doing the right thing.

Quodlibet Journal

I was referred to this site by one of my customers who is a reverend and whom I had asked a question with respect to references in the Bible concerning references to Sons of Gods and the Nephilim. Unfortunately, the only thing I could conclude from the writings on this site was there were as many opinions as there are people who have thought about the subject. In the end it remains a complete mystery.

This website is interesting overall, although I don't agree with everything or even much of what is posted, particularly with respect to the death penalty which the author suggests is part of creation, but there is much in Mossiac law that was changed by the coming of Christ.

At any rate; it's some food for thought so I added it to the sidebar.

Victor Zammit

I added a link to the sidebar to an interesting website, Victor Zammit; that primarily concerns itself with evidence for life after death; but also there is material relating to the general nature of spiritual reality.

I haven't posted here for quite some time because it really has come to feel like people aren't getting it.

But tonight; on my 50th birthday, the end of a half century of being alive; and the beginning of another; I watch the election returns; and the country that I had thought to be totally apathetic, uncaring, and doomed to self-destruction appears to have turned a corner.

I feel genuinely optimistic for the first time in decades.

Easter

Easter really has taken on two meanings. The familiar bunnies and decorated chicken eggs that bunnies have to stay up late to hide so their kids (and/or family pets) can find them the next day. That part of Easter is really a fertility rite; bunnies and eggs, symbols of fertility; it's spring, crops are planted, we hope they do well and provide an abundance come harvest time.

Easter as a religious holiday is the day Jesus rose from the dead, after having died on the cross for our sins, to give us the gift of forgiveness.

I'm not a member of any organized religion. I've explored many, and I've found truths in many. But I do feel that Jesus was a real person, and that God sent Jesus with a message of forgiveness. This isn't the message you usually get from most ministries. The message we usually get is, "if you don't do as we say you're going to hell".

If you take the time to read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you find a message of Love and Forgiveness, Jesus died to give us the gift of forgiveness, but it comes to us only if we also accept the responsibility to love and forgive, to love God with all of our hearts, soul, and mind, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to forgive and not to judge.

God didn't create us just to judge us and then send us to hell. What sense would that make? God didn't create us to hate and judge each other, we are all God's creation.

We all have what we would consider flaws; we hurt each other; we do things that are harmful to other life, and that can be anything because everything, even the rocks have life. But these things aren't really flaws; for if we were all "perfect", if none of us ever did harm, then there would be no choice to love, and that wouldn't be real love at all.

God could have made us perfect beings that always put others first, always thought in terms of least harm, the best for all life; the way we know we should think, but then our love wouldn't be genuine because it wouldn't be of our choice, and to the degree any choice did exist it wouldn't mean much. How hard is it to love someone who has always treated you perfectly, always put you first? God loves us and wants us to love God, and God could make our lives free of pain and suffering, but we need to make an unbiased choice to love. God gave us what we need to live a good life, but collectively we have to make that choice.

It seems pretty obvious to me why we have to forgive. Can you imagine a bunch of people going to heaven that still hold a grudge for each other? That wouldn't be heaven at all! And we can't ask God to ban others from heaven because we won't forgive them. We are all God's creation, why would God favor one over another? We could make this planet into a heaven if only we could all get love and forgiveness into our heart, and hatred and bitterness out. I believe that will happen eventually, but I do not know if it will be within my lifetime.

God has given us what we need to live a good life if we can get those things down but they are tough lessons and humans seem to be hard learners, some more than others, and unfortunately I'm pretty high up on the hard learner curve, but it's a question of how much pain we have to cause ourselves before we learn.

I believe this is why God has us here now; to learn to love one another; to learn to forgive. It's still a choice that we have to make ourselves, but the longer I live, the more I realize that not doing so only leads to pain.

I have wondered for a long time why God requires us to live in a way that is not our nature; when God does not place that same requirement on animals. But then I thought, what animals hold a long term grudge? And animals are infinitely better at giving unconditional love, real love; than people. It's already in their nature; for us we have to learn it. But then it occurred to me but that IS our nature; our human nature. Animals are born with instincts, they can do only what those instincts drive them to do, but humans do have the unique ability to adapt our behavior and learn; it just happens that pain is an unavoidable part of that process.

So I hope this Easter; we can see that Jesus came here to help us with that process; set the most perfect example that could be set for us and told us that we are capable of the same. Even greater deeds shall you do we were told.

Still, the world is full of discordance, bitterness, hatred, uncaring, greed. But I feel optimistic in that God has done things in my life that seemed impossible; and to be sure there are still some unanswered prayers requiring miracles, but I know all things are possible to God; and all things are possible to us with love, forgiveness, and God's help.

Hopefully, as a species, we can get over the name hangups, God is God whether God is called God or Allah, or number of names used by various world religions. Language is never completely adequate for communicating, it can only use symbols and all these names are only symbols for what God actually is. When we hear our leaders suggest that God will lead us to victory against our enemies, we must remember that our enemies are equally God's creation and God does not wish any of us to harm each other.

The basic truths underlying the world's religions are really all the same; even more so when you look closely at source documents and avoid the biased interpretations of religions institutions.

We need to give thanks for each other and love and forgive each other while we are here. Whatever comes next, right now we are here, and right now each other is what we have, and God's love. If we can love and forgive each other than I think there is hope for our species and our planet and God won't have to hit the cosmic reboot button.

Ongoing Life Experiments, New Format, New Theories, etc.

I decided to change the format of all my blogs for several reasons. I've learned a bit of context style sheets and a bit of graphics image manipulation which gives me an opportunity to improve the look a bit. It is my experience that if people don't like the packaging, they won't even bother to look at the contents.

I hope I don't offend people with the banner image, but the image of God portrayed in the Monty Python film, "The Holy Grail", is not far from the image that I was presented with as a child. That God image involved jealousy, anger, insensitivity, and egotism. The image of God I was brought up with made God some kind of super-human with the emotional maturity of a below average thirteen year old. Most of all, God was external. This seems to be a fairly mainstream view of God still, however, it is no longer my view.

A blog is kind of like a public diary. Because it is intended to be public, I separated my thoughts to some degree and created blogs for different areas of interest. I feared that if I did not do so, my jumble of thoughts would confuse people beyond their ability to follow. However, it creates a problem because of the relatedness of everything.

I am interested in learning as much as I can about the nature of our reality, and I view spiritual paths and scientific paths as both valid avenues. Science and spirituality both have their limitations. Only phenomena that are readily reproducible on demand really lend themselves well to the scientific method of investigation. Spirituality and direct knowledge can teach us personally, but we can't share directly with others. We can know something but when we tell someone else, we can't prove it, unless they also experience it directly.

I have come to believe the following about God; that God is forgiving, loving, and continuously creating. I've come to believe that God is inherent in everything, and that God primarily creates our reality through directed selection of random events.

Let me explain that, evolutionists hold that life evolves by random mutations and natural selection. Religious fundamentalists believe that God created everything in seven days and from that point forward, it is static. I don't believe either theory is complete. Rather, I believe that natural selection isn't mindless, that "intent" of spirit drives the outcome of random events.

In the Bible when it says that in the beginning, there was The Word; it is my belief that what is meant by that is God's intent, and God's intent seems to have been to bring about the creation of a living, loving, conscious universe, of which we are one component.

There are still a lot of aspects that are mysterious to me; in particular why suffering is necessary. Is it necessary to have suffering in order to experience love? Is it a necessary part of our learning experience? Why do we have mortal bodies? I can speculate on these matters but really I don't know.

I do feel though there is a plan, a way that everything fits together harmoniously, and that we all have an inherent feeling when we deviate from that and then things don't fit well, are not harmonious, we have problems relating to each other in the loving manner that was intended.

I heard someone say that we have to be able to make wrong choices in order to make choices, and if we couldn't make choices, didn't have free will, then we couldn't really love. Maybe that's true, but wrong choices and their consequences seem to carry a high price.