Thoughts about Abraham and Jesus

When God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, (an Angel told him to stop just before), many people interpret this to be a test of Abraham, was he willing to do Gods word even to the extreme of sacrificing his own son.

But I think it was more than that, it also relates to Jesus, how great of a thing it was to ask Abraham, and at the last moment Abraham's life was spared, but Jesus was sacrificed.

Also though, in the book of John, Jesus talks about forgiveness, and Jesus demonstrated a willingness to forgive even the taking of his own life.

Today throughout the world, we have many groups of people hating each other and we get a cycle of vengeance and that cycle never seems to end. Jesus took the first step in ending the cycle.

I have had dreams all of my life about a changed Earth, and while the physical changes are remarkable and beautiful, what is most notable is the society.

There are no fences, many houses have open doors and windows, there is no violence, very little in the way of material possessions and yet, we have all that we need.

People still have jobs, but much fewer hours are spent because we produce only what we need. The free time is spent with family and friends, telling stories, playing games, making music, and just enjoying and appreciating the wonderful world we've been given.

Such a society could never exist with the hatred and lack of love that exists in the world today. This new world is what God wants for us, this existing disaster is not. But it's up to us to change.

It's going to be hard for me and I know for many people. But I believe if I ask Jesus to come into my heart and change it, it will happen, and I do that. Admittedly, I fear the pain that will be involved, but I've seen what the new world looks like and I've come to realize that I'm not such a good director of my own life.

But we're all in this together. A lot of the people I've talked to are very turned off my religion, but I would suggest to you that religion and spirituality are very different.

I would particularly encourage you to read the book of John and the other gospels, and ask God to bring you wisdom. I don't claim any sort of wisdom myself, I've made a mess of my life and hurt others, but I understand now that Jesus showed us the way to a new and better world, and loved us so much that he died to give us life in that world.

So if you've been turned off by religion, or not; I would encourage you to try to read through the book of John, understand what is being said; and see if you don't feel the love of Jesus come to you.

I know I will be going through some material difficulties, and I know I won't live in this body to see that new world because I've been told I will not be here for the final hour, but I will see it in a new body if I do God's will. That's a big challenge but I want to see an end to suffering and craziness that exists in this present world.

Science, Religion, and God

One thing that troubles me about our current state is science and spirituality are viewed as being at odds with one another.

Sure religion and science have run-ins, religion is a belief system, science is supposed to be a process, but after years of vested interest it often becomes an equally stagnant belief system.

There are things that we are told in the Bible that if applies to science would accelerate rather than retard it's advancement. The Bible tells us not to be proud and arrogant. A problem that seems to affect science is that people spend a lot of years studying to get letters after their name, then publish to earn a living. Their living comes to depend upon their reputation and there pride and arrogance become hard to resist. With that often comes an attitude that what has been learned is absolute and that everything is already known. Any evidence that contradicts that is an insult to the ego and discarded.

Science and direct spiritual experiences are two distinct ways of knowing, science deals with knowing that can be proven and demonstrated, but it is very poor at dealing with that which can't be easily proven or shared. Unfortunately, many natural phenomena fall into the latter category, especially those dealing with the more interesting aspects of nature such as consciousness.

Objectivity is highly prized, but impossible to obtain for it is impossible to rule out the role of the observer. Science often excludes spiritual experience and knowledge because objectivity is impossible to obtain, yet in truth, objectivity is impossible to obtain scientifically as well, the subject always affects the results.

Some areas that trouble me, science expounds the existence of the so-called "God part of the brain", suggesting that because seemingly spiritual experiences can be provoked by stimulating certain parts of the brain electrically or magnetically, that the spiritual experience is just a hallucination of sorts.

This logic is flawed, it is no different than saying because stimulation of the visual cortex creates visual effects, that everything we see is a hallucination.

What brain science fails to find or explain, is the man within the man. It can readily explain how various signal pathways and processing take place, but it can't explain why we subjectively experience something. A machines state doesn't automatically imply that the machine experiences that state, unless you suggest that all machines and perhaps everything is imbued with consciousness, and perhaps this isn't entirely off-track.

I believe that humanity would benefit if science and spirituality weren't always at odds with each other and if religions would be open to genuine spiritual exploration.

The more my understanding of both science and spirit evolve, the less they are at odds. I know that as a human being I can never fully understand God or God's plan, nor will I ever fully understand the universe that God created, but I am coming closer to understandings that are consistent both with observation and God's word.

I wish people could integrate these things more because they're both methods of knowing more about the same reality in which we live.