XIII. RELIGION “My own mind is my church.” Thomas Paine There may, or may not, be a supreme entity who (or which) created the universe and all that is in it. Thus far, the issue can only be a matter of faith. Belief in a greater power (or an amazing universe) may help people live a life of higher integrity, but they must resist religious fanaticism which often leads to social dysfunction and war. Religions whose beliefs harm Earth or its creatures must modify those beliefs -- an obvious example being the Catholic Church's opposition to birth control. The biosphere is being rapidly destroyed by the growing human population, and this must be corrected. If a supreme entity does exist, it does not appear to respond to prayer or intervene for worthy causes, even allowing myriad tragic injustices to occur every second on Earth. The entity would appear to either not exist or not care. Yet it is difficult to believe that the universe just happened by time and chance, so finely tuned appear its physical laws and the diversity of its creations. So believe in a creator if you will, but live an ethical life in either case. If forced to take a position, I am ambivalent between the state of no supreme being and a chance universe vs possibly one which may have started the universe as a great experiment, allowing evolution to provide creatures with varying degrees of free will to shape their own destinies. In this chapter, we will explore many different religions and finally discuss the chances for the Christian god’s existence. The evolution of free will would presumably make an experiment more interesting to the creator, perhaps rendering it unable to achieve more than just statistical predictions of the future, as the full spectrum from good to evil unfolds before its gaze. This supreme entity may even provide occasional timeline “adjustments” in the unfolding of the universe and in the ultimate evolution of humankind. Was the introduction of Christ or Mohammed or Buddha one of these flight-path corrections? Before proceeding further, however, we must deal with a mundane matter. How should I refer to this putative creator throughout the rest of this chapter? If compared to the supreme being claimed in the Christian bible, then God with a capital G is in order, and its sex would be male, as in “He created Earth in x days and y nights,” etc. But what if the creator is female, or perhaps without sex such as the entire electromagnetic spectrum? In the Preface, anticipating this issue, I had suggested “hoh” as a universal substitute for he, she, him, her, or it. My first draft took this approach until I soon realized that most readers would be annoyed by “Hoh created the …” And of course there may be no god at all. It really bugs me to give in to convention, but I don’t wish to annoy readers. So I will reluctantly use God, god, he, his, him, etc. But please know that this male-father-figure jargon is definitely a scientifically unwarranted convenience. “Was there a creator?” If the answer is no, then nearly 90% of the people are barking up the wrong tree. If the answer is yes, then there are at least two general possibilities. Either the creator and his motives are totally unknown to us, or the creator has spoken through one or more of the prophets. Most scientists believe that the creation of the universe was a chance event -– while most non-scientists believe that the creator they call God has made his wishes known to the people of Earth. If there was a creator, why did he do it? Was it really just a great experiment, or is there a more focused 1 ©kohlhase purpose? Is the creator involved in adjusting the course of the universe’s unfolding path from time to time? Or does he just watch without emotion (insensitive to untold suffering) as his physical laws grind out our future? Will humans ever reach a state of knowledge and technology that gives them the power to shape the future at cosmological levels? We are certainly shaping Earth’s future by destroying the natural environment. Applying chaos theory, we must therefore be shaping the universe as well, albeit at a miniscule level -– for the moment. I have spent most of my adult life without contemplating these questions or appreciating the many religions now flourishing on Earth, and must therefore use much of this chapter to first understand and summarize the various beliefs. There is a large support base for the God referred to in the Christian Bible, hence I must follow some of those stories to see if they are logically believable. Eventually, I plan to arrive at my own RS (rocket scientist, per the Preface) position on these matters at the end of this chapter -– hopefully before I die. Before we take on this Goliath called religion, however, please note that I have no major preconceived biases here. Like many people, I find the hard evidence for God problematical, while the beauty and extent of the universe, from the macroscopic to the microscopic, are compelling for belief in a greater power. But why should the Biblical creator of the universe be so insecure as to need such commandments as, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”; or “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image?” He also seems too quick to punish those who stray and too callous to prevent great suffering even among the good creatures. For most of my young life from about age 8 to 18, I was saturated by religious teachings, initially at the First Baptist Church of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and later by attending McCallie Military Anna’s hummingbird and HST image of Network Academy, where I studied the Bible from Nebula, courtesy author (bird) and NASA (nebula). cover to cover -– two or three times. The fire-and-brimstone minister Rev. Carl Gears nearly drowned me in 1947 when he bent me backwards under the water during a Baptismal ceremony, so the reader might logically assume that I am a bible-belt convert. Not so, however, for once I entered Georgia Tech to study science, I ceased regular church attendance and recitation of dogma. Thus, the early right-brain (RB) feeding gave way to left-brain (LB) reasoning, balancing out the situation nicely. It is only now, more than half a century later, that I have decided to dig into the matter to reach a more considered conclusion. There are several questions that all religions have sought to answer for millennia. Does one supreme being exist who created the universe and all that is in it? If the answer is yes, does that being (or power) allow us the freedom to choose, or are we all predestined to live out our lives in a set manner known only to that being? Is there life after death? If so, is that life spent forever in “heaven” or “hell” (based upon whether we have led “good” or “evil” lives), spent somewhere else (without regard to our conduct), or repeated over and over again through reincarnation on Earth in many different forms? If 2 ©kohlhase reincarnation does exist, is it possible to break free from it, reaching a state of nirvana? And so go the endless questions which humans have pondered over the millennia. At the outset, my views are poised between the two ends of a balance. The strongest single argument for the existence of a supreme being lies in the finely tuned set of physical laws that allowed the universe to unfold and life to evolve and contemplate its situation, as I am doing here. Is that supreme being the God referred to in the Christian Bible? It is here that the argument seems much weaker for, in all of recorded history, there is scant scientific evidence, not even one great and unique (to be defined later) fulfilled prophesy that religious scholars have cited. And you can be sure that, were such proof available, we would have been richly exposed to it. Yet nearly 90% of the world's population believes in some type of supreme being, and this fact alone warrants an examination of the matter. Some religious skeptics doubt that Christ was anything more than a Christian fiction by the early church, due to lack of extra-Biblical evidence. However, there is a short passage from Falvius Josephus, the first-century reliable Jewish historian, noting that Jesus was a wise man, teacher, and doer of startling deeds. He also noted that Jesus was crucified and attracted a large posthumous following called Christians. When dates are cited in various religious texts, some authors continue to use the BC (before Christ) and AD (in the year of our lord) convention, though one could easily argue for the epoch of some other great prophet such as Buddha (real name Siddhartha Gautama), who lived half a millennium before Christ in northern India -- or Muhammad, the great Arabian prophet who lived some six centuries after Christ. To get around this problem, I will follow the convention of many other current authors who have adopted BCE for “Before Common Era,” and simply CE for “Common Era.” In this usage CE does, in fact, begin with the birth of Christ, but at least it appears less overtly tied to one particular religion over another. A recent poll taken within the United States indicated that 40% of adults believe that the world will end in the great battle of Armageddon, with Jesus doing battle against the Large oil painting of Christ Antichrist, whom one person in five believes is walking about and other figures in time, on the Earth today. An equal number of people believe that by Pa Thompson, c. 1920 Christ will come while they are still alive, with the most favored date for his second coming and end of the present world being 2033 CE (two millennia following the crucifixion and claimed resurrection of Christ). Who is this Antichrist, the supposed secret accomplice of Satan? Scholars have suggested such previous candidates as Hitler, Stalin, and Napoleon, but they all died. Living possibilities once included Gorbachev and the Pope. To the people at Apple Computer, Bill Gates might be a candidate. This is all pretty far-out stuff. Maybe it’s Osama bin Laden or George W. Bush. Or perhaps some scumbag lawyer who wields a lot of power. Johnnie Cochran could always play the race card and beat Jesus in the last grand trial of Earth. Sorry, reader, I must regain control of myself. If Christ is the son of God, he will certainly prevail. And besides, as long as people do evil deeds, one could always argue for the Antichrist as a concept, even if such a being has never existed. 3 ©kohlhase I look forward to this journey, for I wonder how it will all shake out after I have followed the trail (pretty cold by now) for leads. It will also be a journey requiring the utmost cooperation between LB (left brain) and RB (right brain), the former collecting the pieces and the latter synthesizing them into a reasonable overview. In attempting to research both printed books and the electronic media, I was totally overwhelmed by the enormous volume of material on religion. Much of it rambles on and on with lengthy recitation, devoid of true analysis, but there are also many nuggets to be found with patience. Regrettably, I am often impatient, endeavoring to quickly reach the "bottom line" (a nearly impossible task for religion). If I step upon some of your most fervent beliefs, please forgive me, as no harm was intended. I am merely one rocket scientist expressing his own thoughts about the matter. I am also constantly on the lookout for scientific evidence. For example, what do the Dead Sea Scrolls or the Shroud of Turin imply? Has Noah's Ark ever been found? If not, is there other strong evidence for the great flood? Were there reliable witnesses to the recorded resurrection of Christ or to the parting of the Red Sea? Are there places where the sick are always healed? Is there evidence for reincarnation? What about "near-death" experiences? Will the evolutionary vs creationist debate ever be silenced? Were there unique prophesies (even one) that came true? Do the physical laws that govern the evolving universe imply a supreme being at the helm? Some scientists say that minute adjustments to these laws would have led to a universe without us –- while other scientists assert that we merely live in one of many random universes that happened to work. The totality of these laws may not be deduced by pure thought, as Aristotle believed, but will likely require experimental evidence, an area in which human scientists are evolving rapidly. As no one can yet prove God's existence, one of my goals will be to use Bayesian probability theory to estimate the probability of God's existence -- which is done at the end of this chapter. It is nearly impossible to locate solid, scientifically defensible evidence that truly answers key questions that are linked to the fundamental questions that religion seeks to learn. For example, either Noah's Ark has been discovered or it has not. If it has and if the evidence is solid, many PBS and other reliable documentary programs would have covered such an incredible story from every angle imaginable. As I can recall no such convincing coverage, I can only assume that the evidence for its discovery is too weak to bear much scrutiny. Analogous to the UFO issue (which itself has been around for nearly four centuries), where are the great photos or pieces from any of these craft? Nonetheless, I hope to follow an objective, unbiased examination as we wind our way through this chapter. Incidentally, is it any more incredible to believe in a supreme being than to accept that the universe began in a happenstance Big Bang, a microscopic point of transparent, nearly infinite potential in primordial space-time, which sent the cosmos hurtling outward at enormous speeds, giving rise to all that exists in the 200 billion galaxies, each having 200 billion stars and untold planets? As many of you know, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are an “endtime community” who believe that the end of the world – which they call Harmageddon – will occur soon, followed by paradise. They are a devoted religious sect bearing witness for their belief in God and Jesus, and whose message is frequently conveyed, door to door, by nice young followers happy to keep you supplied with copies of the Watchtower, their primary pamphlet. The sect evolved (eventually) from The Watchtower and Tract Society founded 4 ©kohlhase in 1884 by the reverend Charles Taze Russell, who lectured on Biblical prophesy. Russell believed that the spirit of Jesus had come to Earth in 1874 to rule for 1,000 years. After Russell’s death in 1916, his devotees split, with some following Judge Joseph F. Rutherford, who coined the term Jehovah's Witnesses in the 1930s. Today the religion claims 6,000,000 members worldwide in 232 countries. Unfortunately for the Witnesses, their many predicted dates for Harmageddon over the past century have all passed without incident, yet they still manage to keep the faith. After the umpteenth time of being offered another copy of the Watchtower, and not wishing to be rude, I began inviting the young Witnesses at my front door to answer a question. If I deemed their answer worthy, I would invite them in and listen to their spiel. If their answer was inadequate, then I would politely invite them to Charles T. Russell, c move on to the next house. The question is based upon the cited 1900, credit N/A merciful God, who loves and wants the little children to come unto him, etc. Consider a small child, perhaps only 1-2 years old, who is crawling across the family’s sloping driveway when the emergency brake on the old pickup truck releases, causing the truck to roll over the child and cripple it for life. “How,” I ask the young Witnesses, “can a merciful God allow this to happen?” The child has not likely committed any sins in its short life (unless we are all born sinners, a rather harsh initial condition). The Witnesses typically offer only three levels of answers, but I will add two more of my own. Level-1 is that “God moves in mysterious ways.” As a scientist, this just doesn’t do it for me, being a non-answer. Level-2 is that “God has chosen this crisis as a way of bringing the family together emotionally, to rally around the crippled child.” Now I don’t know about you, reader, but a God who can create the universe must surely be able to find some other technique for bringing the family together than by allowing an innocent child to be crippled for life. The Level-3 answer presumes that God had planned to take proper care of Adam, Eve, and all of their descendants, throughout eternity … as long as they all obeyed his orders. However, as soon as Eve used her “free will” to commit the first sin in the Garden of Eden, then God told the first pair that they were on their own from that point on. This would of course result in the full range of good to evil and of comfort to suffering. Incredibly harsh, for simply taking a bite out of an apple. This God seems small minded, but I suppose the Level-3 answer is better than the first two answer levels. Let’s move on to Level-4, which sort of works if you believe in reincarnation. In this scenario, the child’s spirit previously inhabited the body of an evil person, like Hitler or Jack the Ripper, or whomever. And the punishment for that past life of evil is now being administered to the child inheriting that spirit. Okay, but wouldn’t God have been more just to have punished the evil doer at the time? Seems a bit harsh to me. Seems a little like those folks who punish their pets long after the infringement has occurred. By the way, as long as the world population continues expanding at an exponential rate, there will always be more births than deaths, so that reincarnation has a shortfall of new bodies to inhabit – leaving the being in charge of reincarnation with the choice of either putting clones of the same reincarnated spirit in multiple bodies, or of supplying many of these new bodies with brand new, untarnished spirits heralding from no past lives. That would be the fair thing to do, but perhaps God is not fair. 5 ©kohlhase Moving on to Level-5, this answer only works if you believe that a supreme being created the universe and all that it contains by devising an ingenious set of physical laws from which all matter and energy would form, with some of it evolving into myriad forms of life, including of course humans able to contemplate these great questions. If this magnificent act of creation was done as an entertaining experiment to stave off boredom for the creator, then he might well simply observe its unfolding, allowing the eventual evolution of free will to prevent his knowing the future absolutely … but only statistically. In that scenario, he would perhaps not attempt to prevent great injustices and suffering, wishing not to tamper with his experiment. This might also explain why studies have shown that God does not respond to prayer. The John Templeton Foundation funded a $2.4 million study to get at this question, and the results were published in early 2006. Researchers from six academic medical centers divided 1802 patients (recovering from coronary-bypass surgery) into three groups – the patients in two groups were told they may or may not receive prayer, and those in a third group were told they would receive regular prayer for a better recovery. About half of the patients in the first two groups had problems during recovery (usually atrial fibrillation). Surprisingly, group three did the worst, with nearly 60% having problems. The devout would say that God does not like being tested, and adopted a hands-off approach. But I suspect the studies were valid. At the end of this chapter, I also plan to analyze the interesting views expressed by Dr. Deepak Chopra in his highly acclaimed book How to Know God, published in 2000. Among the book’s highly supportive reviewers are the Dalai Lama, Larry King, Mikhail Gorbachev, Robert Thurman, and Andrew Weil. Chopra believes that God does exist and that a “transition zone” exists between the God world and the human world where interactions can and do occur. Chopra believes that God’s greatest secrets are hidden within the human brain, and consist of such states as ecstasy, love, grace, and mystery, to name a few. He believes that the unfolding of a true awareness of God is made possible by our brain’s ability to unfold its own potential, and that the soul is the culmination of our evolution to find God. He believes that God is our highest instinct to know ourselves, and that this knowledge will allow “the force to be with us” in all that we do. Does Chopra make a strong case for God, or can a rebuttal be made that we just “make up God in our minds” by appreciating the miraculous universe, from quarks to hummingbirds to galaxies? You may be the judge of this, but it was disappointing that Chopra’s email box [askdeepak.com] never responded to the few serious questions I posed. The Many Faiths The many religious faiths on this planet fall broadly under the categories of the Abrahamic, the Vedic, and the Others. The Abrahamic faiths, consisting of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam generally believe in a supreme God and one life after death, the quality of which is determined by whether a person has led a "good" or an "evil" life. If good, you get to spend eternity in “heaven.” If evil, you spend eternity in “hell.” The Vedic faiths, on the other hand, tend to believe in reincarnation in successive lives in an ever-changing universe. These religions consist of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. The Vedic faiths view all life as cyclical, the universe as eternal. The "Other" faiths consist of Sikhism, Shintoism, Taoism, Baha'i (which has many of the Abrahamic views), Shamanism, Confucianism, Sufism, Freemasonry, Zoroastrianism, numerous tribal religions, various scientific pantheisms, and many more. 6 ©kohlhase Some scholars believe that there are only two “mother religions,” namely Judaism and Hinduism. From the former came Christianity and Islam. From the latter came Buddhism and Jainism. The remaining religions evolved variously from these in ways that followed some of their tenets, but in other ways that developed their own unique beliefs. This chapter can only summarize the highlights of several, but by no means all, of these rich religions, but it is hoped that the reader will be motivated to continue his or her research into those aspects of particular religions found both interesting and inspirational. All of the religions have a master teacher or prophet figure to help guide their followers in leading honorable and compassionate lives. There are many similarities, but there are also many differences. The Jewish people descended from Issac, legitimate son of Abraham and Sarah, while the Muslim people descended from Ishmael, the illegitimate son of Abraham and his housemaid Hagar. Could this have seeded the eternal hate between the Jews and the Arabs, a state that appears permanent to the rest of us, with “peace accords” never lasting? Recent DNA-based research has substantiated the genetic link (a shared Y chromosome) between Jews and Arabs. The conflict seems eternal over Jerusalem and the greater area extending from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River. Boundary lines divide East and West Jerusalem, with the four-sectioned old city on the boundary. There one finds the Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and Armenian Quarters. West Jerusalem neighborhoods are primarily Jewish, with those in East Jerusalem primarily Palestinian. Within the old city are such sacred monuments as the Western Wall (holiest site for Jewish prayer), Little Wall (where Orthodox Jews pray in an Arab neighborhood), Temple Mount (36-acre site of earlier Jewish temples; also place where Muhammad rose to heaven on a horse), Church of the Holy Sepulchre (where Christ rose from the dead), Tower of David, and the Mount of Olives. Jerusalem means “city of peace,” but tensions in that area are always on edge. In October of 2000, a group of militant Palestinians demolished Joseph’s Tomb, a Jewish holy site, trashing the Hebrew texts stored inside. Chanting “Allahu akbar,” meaning “God is great,” while several victorious Palestinians fired their M-16 rifles into the air in celebration of their act of “liberation.” To most of us Westerners, the Middle East is teeming with religious crazies. The Christian Bible mentions Jerusalem’s name 667 times, so its deep meaning to the local faiths is well established. For Christians, Jerusalem is where the messiah came 2,000 years ago to take on the world’s sins and be resurrected. For Muslims, it is the third holiest place after Mecca and Medina, as Muhammad directed Muslims to also bow for prayer towards Jerusalem. For Jews, who are by far the largest of the faiths represented in the Jerusalem area, there are the promised-land implications and the hope that the messiah will return one day to rebuild their great temple which was destroyed in 70 CE by the Romans. Jews believe that dying in Jerusalem assures them of forgiveness. In modern times, the city derives much of its revenue from tourism when peace seems safe. But there is corruption within the Palestinian Authority, and the threat of conflict is ever present. The Bible even predicts 7 Modern day Jerusalem, circa 1990s ©kohlhase that Armageddon, in the form of World War III, will occur somewhere in the Middle East. This makes much of the rest of the world very nervous. One wonders whether born-againBush’s invasion of Iraq was/is playing with that prophesy. Poverty and lack of change fuels the anger in the streets. The per-capita GNP in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is less than 10% of Israel’s annual figure of about $20,000, with Muslim unemployment at 30%. Residents need permission slips to leave this sliver of land for better jobs in Israel. Many point to the modern houses for their Palestinian officials, with only refugee camps and slum areas for most of the masses. The Palestinians are angry with Israel, whose military presence has prevented them from attaining independence. The United Nations would like to have the city internationalized and under its authority, but this has not occurred. All of these issues are good reasons for us to understand the world’s religions, even if we fail to resolve the great questions. One simple question has always puzzled me, however. When Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt to the “promised land” (then known as Canaan, but later renamed Palestine), how is it that the Muslims (Arabs) now occupy that area and call themselves Palestinians? Isn’t it ironic that the illegitimate race descending from Abraham and Hagar now occupies the area God intended for his promised and legitimate Jewish descendents from Abraham and Sarah? The Arabs and the Jews seem to have plenty of reasons to dislike each other. I have always thought that the U.S. should get on with developing alternative energy sources, stop worrying about oil from the Middle East, and just let the Jews and Arabs fight until they’ve finally had their fill of it. Their problems have become a drag, and the rest of the world is tiring of their eternal conflict. Then again, I can understand why most Muslims hate Americans, with our meaningless network TV shows, our support for Israel, and our lavish life styles dependent upon plundering Earth’s natural resources to drive SUVs and fill Wal-Mart, Cosco, and other retail stores with cheap junk we don’t really need, destined for landfills. There are numerous variations within the Christian faith, such as the Baptists, the Methodists, the Presbyterians, the Evangelicals, the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Pentecostals, the Holy Rollers, and many more. As there is not space in this chapter to address more than the major religious headings, we will not delve into these numerous religious subcategories. A poll published in Life Magazine in December 1998 indicated that 95% of Americans (and only 70% of Britons) believe in God; 33% believe that the Bible is the actual word of God; 80% believe in an afterlife (72% in Heaven, and 56% in Hell); and 79% pray to God and believe that he helps them. Most believe in the legends of Moses over the past 3,000 years, though there is no solid evidence that he actually existed. To the Jews, he was Moshe Rabbenu, their master and founder of Judaism. To the Christians, he was a model of faith. To the Muslims, he was the first prophet to announce the coming of Muhammad. It is important to understand the world’s major religions and their beliefs before attempting to shed any light and opinions on the great questions they all raise. I suppose that Hare Krishna falls in the broad category of “other religions.” Many of us have seen the white-suited Hare Krishna followers, folks at major airport terminals asking for contributions, but illustration credit N/A never knowing exactly how that money is used. Today (6/12/2000) I saw a newspaper article that described why 44 young students of Hare Krishna boarding schools were suing the leaders of their religious community for $400 8 ©kohlhase million. They were alleging years of sexual, physical, and emotional torture. They contend that this child abuse occurred over two decades at boarding schools in both the U.S. and India. The federal case has been filed in Dallas, Texas, and names the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) as defendant, along with 17 members of the group’s governing board and the estate of the founder A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. We may be treated to increased collection activities by the Krishna field agents. Judaism Abraham is believed to have lived some 1,800 years before the birth of Christ and is regarded as the father of the Jewish people. Their scriptures describe how God made a pact with Abraham that assured his descendants would become the “chosen people.” As part of this agreement, the Jewish people would have to obey God's laws. These laws, carved into stone tablets, were given to the prophet Moses on the top of Mount Sinai. Most of us know of the Ten Commandments, but there were more than 600 other laws (generally enlarging upon the Ten) also prescribed for the Jews to follow. Judaism believes that God will send a Messiah in the future to gather the Jews once more within their promised land of Israel. Most Jews view Jesus Christ as an admirable Jew, but not as the Son of God. However, it is generally accepted that monotheistic Judaism was the progenitor of both Christianity and Islam. King David had a son named Solomon, who once built a great Temple in Jerusalem. It was destroyed and rebuilt many times thereafter, but one wall of this final temple still remains from the 2nd century BCE. Known as the “Wailing Wall” or the “Western Wall,” it is an important place for Jewish pilgrimage. It is believed that the Ark of the Covenant was once located beneath the temple in a room known as the Holy of Holies, but was later moved and hidden (we will return to this search later). The Jews believe that one unique, incorporeal, and eternal God exists, that this God knows the thoughts and deeds of people, and that Painting of Solomon’s great temple, circa this God will reward the good and punish the 960 BCE, illustration credit N/A wicked. Prayer is to be directed only to this God. When the Messiah comes, the dead will be resurrected. The Jewish teachings are all contained in the Hebrew Bible, sometimes referred to as the “Torah,” kept in the form of hand-written scrolls at all synagogues. The Torah contains the five “long laws” given to Moses on Mount Sinai by God when the ten commandments were also provided as the “short law” on stone tablets. Each Torah is kept in the alcove of that synagogue wall which faces Jerusalem. The role of a rabbi is that of a "teacher" who oversees the running of each synagogue. The rabbi is able to teach the study of the Torah and resolve any questions surrounding it. The words of the prophets are assumed true, but those of Moses carry the greatest weight. The Jewish symbol is the seven-branch menorah, with the central branch standing for the Sabbath, the day God rested after creating the universe. 9 ©kohlhase There are nearly eighteen million Jews in the world today, with about half in North America, one-third in Israel, and the remainder in Europe and Russia. The last of ancient Israel was pretty much eradicated when Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians some six centuries before the birth of Christ. Judaism does not subscribe to the Christian belief that all people inherited "original sin" when Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. Instead, believers are able to sanctify their lives by fulfilling the "mitzvot" (the divine commandments) and drawing closer to God. Although Jews have considered the nature of the universe, Judaism does not tend to focus on The Torah and the Menorah, pivotal abstract cosmological concepts. Instead, actions Jewish religious symbols, courtesy are far more important than beliefs. Relationships Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center among the Jewish nation, the land of Israel, mankind, and God matter most. The Torah teaches that the kingdom of Earth, not heaven, is what really counts. It is sanctifying life with the family and community, every day, that is most important. Christianity With nearly two billion followers worldwide, Christianity is the largest of the religious groups. Nearly half of these follow the teachings of the Catholic Church. The other half is comprised of some two dozen different divisions, each formed at different times, different places, and for different reasons. Christians also believe in one supreme God, good vs evil, and life after death in heaven or in hell. They believe that God sent his son Jesus to Earth to help spread the word of God through his prophets. They believe that Jesus healed people and performed miracles, often in the company of the twelve apostles who traveled with him. They believe that Jesus was unjustly tried by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, executed by crucifixion, later arose from the dead in an event known as the resurrection, and finally rejoined God in heaven by an ascension. During and after the life of Jesus on Earth, he went by many different names: Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, the Nazarene, Yeshua, Iesus, Issa, Jesus the Messiah, and the Son of God. Jesus grew up as a Jewish boy and followed the Jewish traditions. A handful of religious scholars even believe that Jesus fathered children with Mary Magdalene. You may pursue this further by reading Holy Blood, Holy Grail, by Baigent, Leigh, and Lincoln, published by Dell in 1983. Christians believe in the “Holy Trinity,” consisting of God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit. The Christian holy book is called the Bible, and the Christian symbol is the cross or crucifix. The Bible consists of the Old Testament, mostly stories told by God to the Jews, and the New Testament, stories told by actual people who knew Jesus during his lifetime on Earth. What appears to make Christianity unique is the reported, miraculous resurrection of Christ. Some religious scholars claim that 500 people witnessed the resurrection. If true, that is an amazing data point, but how can we be sure of this claim? Scholar Josh McDowell states, “After more than 700 hours of studying this subject, I have come to the 10 ©kohlhase conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is either one of the most wicked, vicious, heartless hoaxes ever foisted on the minds of human beings -- or it is the most remarkable fact of history.” My only small input that Christ even existed at all involves a photo that hung on a wall at McCallie School in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was reported to have been taken by a missionary who had lost faith in God. As he prayed for a sign, the Lord asked him to take a picture of the distant, snow-covered Himalayas. If one stared at this photo for tens of seconds, a truly fine image of the "long" face of a Christ-like man popped into view. I was young at the time, and it made quite an impression on me. As an RS, however, I recognize that, like the “Face on Mars,” one can see almost anything in an image, given a sufficiently large number of geometric combinations and patterns to peruse. Nonetheless, I made an extensive search to locate this photograph in the late 1990s, but to no avail. It had simply vanished, and even the older, retired teachers knew naught of its fate. Islam Islam is an Arabic word meaning “to submit,” and a Muslim is a person who follows the Islamic tenets by submitting to the will of the One True God, often called Allah. Islam was founded in Medina in 622 CE by Muhammad the Prophet (also a successful trader). At roughly a billion followers, Islam represents the second largest religion in the world. Most Muslims live in the Middle East, North Africa, and Indonesia, but numbers are rising in Europe and the Americas. Muslims believe that Allah is omnipotent and merciful, that Satan exists to drive people to sin and eventual eternity in Hell, but that submission to Allah can lead to an eternity in Paradise after death. One can become a Muslim by simply saying, "There is no god apart from God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God.” It is customary to add, “Praise and glory be to Him,” whenever saying Allah or God, but I will not do so here in the interest of space. Muslims revere Jesus as the prophet Isa ibn Maryam, but do not believe that he was executed on the cross, and also tend to regard the deity of Jesus as blasphemous. But even more than just spiritual in nature, Muslims accept Islam as a total way of life. The "Five Pillars of Islam" are faith, prayer, help to the needy, selfpurification, and pilgrimage to the holy city of Makkah (more popularly known as Mecca). The Islamic calendar is lunar based and not solar adjusted. Muslims eat no pig meat and drink no alcohol. They regularly visit architecturally interesting buildings known as mosques for both prayers and other community activities. Muslims pray five times each day, with the “after-midday” prayer on every Friday given at the local mosque. The Large Stone Ka’bah in Makkah (Mecca) Their other holy city is Medina, and it is expected that a Muslim will make a pilgrimage to one of the two holy cities every several years, if able to do so. Abraham established the original settlement which today is the holy city of Makkah, and the cube-shaped Ka’bah is the place of worship which God commanded Abraham and 11 ©kohlhase Ishmael to build some four thousand years ago. The Ka’bah was constructed of stone on what many believe was the original site of a sanctuary established by Adam. God commanded Abraham to summon all mankind to visit this place, and when pilgrims go there today they say, "At the service, O Lord," in response to Abraham's summons. Many Muslims try to kiss the black stone in the outer wall of the Ka’bah for extra meaning. Even from distant locations, Muslims are expected to face the direction of the Ka’bah when praying. The great document of Islam is known as the Qur'an, whose Arabic words are believed to have come directly from God as told to Muhammad over the last twenty years of his life. The Qur'an records the relationship between God and all of his creatures. The only woman’s name in the entire Qur’an is that of Mary, mother of Jesus. It is said that Muhammad memorized the entire 114 chapters, dictating them later to companions. Many cite the Qur'an as a work of incredible, literary excellence, due to both its mathematical and its poetic nature. The intricate mathematical distribution of letters in the Qur'an make the words easy to understand and remember. It can be read and enjoyed over and over again. The Arabic text is even composed in such a manner as to remind the reader of the next verse, thus providing Muslims with an efficient way for memorizing many parts of the Qur'an. The visual appearance of the Arabic text is so beautiful that it is frequently used to adorn buildings. What Muslims believe about Jesus comes from the Qur’an, not from the New Testament, which they believe to be tainted by human error. They draw upon their own traditions, as well as commentaries by experts. They believe that Jesus was born under a palm tree by a direct act of God. From the cradle, the infant Jesus proclaims that he is God’s prophet, but not God’s son. The Muslims believe this as the Qur’an states that Allah is “above having a son.” Yet a few things are unique to Jesus that even Muhammad lacked. These include the fact that both Jesus and his mother Mary were born untouched by Satan. Also, Jesus could work miracles, granting him the stature as the Messiah or “anointed one.” Muslims are only supposed to pray to Allah, but some still ask Jesus or Mary for favors. Visions of Jesus or Mary have occurred many times in Muslim countries. Though Arabic text in the Qur’an Muhammad superseded Jesus as the last great prophet, Muhammad must still die, while Jesus does not, per the Qur’an, or at least not until after he has returned as a Muslim to defeat the anti-Christ when the world ends. Muslims believe that the earlier messages of Abraham and Jesus were incomplete, and that only Muhammad received the final and complete words from God. They believe that their own deaths are predetermined by God, and thus not to be feared. When this is coupled with their general anti-Western feelings, many become terrorists who are willing to die in bombings for the Muslim cause. In early 1998, the American CIA and FBI teamed up in an attempt to "get" Osama bin Laden, head of the Al-Qaeda and believed responsible for many terrorist bombings. Cruise missiles were launched for one of his hidden camps in Afghanistan, but bin Laden was not killed. With a personal wealth of 200 million dollars, he is an elusive target and a major threat. 12 ©kohlhase Osama bin Laden was interviewed by CNN's Peter Arnett in March of 1997. When asked why he so despised the United States, he replied, "We declared jihad (Arabic for struggle or holy war) against the U.S. government, because it is unjust, criminal and tyrannical. It has committed acts that are hideous and criminal, whether directly or through its support of the Israeli occupation of the Prophet's Night Travel Land (Palestine). And we believe the U.S. is directly responsible for those who were killed in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq.” He later goes on to say, "The hearts of Muslims are filled with hatred towards the United States and the American president. The President has a heart that knows no words. A heart that kills hundreds of children knows no words. In our religion it is our duty to make jihad so that God's word is the one exalted to the heights and so that we drive the Americans away from all Muslim countries." Many of bin Laden's men expressed sadness that so few Americans (and so many Kenyans) died in the Nairobi bomb blast. This, of course, leads to increasing resentment by Americans for people they consider as crazy religious fanatics. Muslims are only encouraged to defend, never to attack, but jihad may be declared "defensively" whenever the Muslim beliefs are “under attack.” We have not seen the last of jihad. Just as the Jews and the Arabs seem eternally committed to Taliban fighter who hates conflict, so the jihad seems predestined to continue. When America and seeks jihad Clinton attacked Iraq in December of 1998 because of Saddam Hussein's failure to allow adequate weapons inspections (or to stop the momentum of the impeachment vote, depending upon your viewpoint), he absolutely ensured that terrorism will flourish and endure for many Islamic zealots who seek revenge on the United States. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes "jihad" as a religious duty imposed on Muslims to spread Islam by waging war. Jihad has come to denote any conflict waged for principle or belief and is often translated to mean "holy war.” In Frank Herbert's outstanding science fiction classic Dune, he writes of the jihad in the same context as the Islamic meaning. The Dune series was so popular that a Dune Encylopedia was compiled by Willis McNelly and published by Putnam in 1984. In the novel, Jehanne Butler awoke from delivery anesthesia to find her baby dead, later discovering the cause to be a selfprograming machine that instituted unjustified abortions. She then became the leader of the Butlerian Jihad, or revolt, in order to destroy these computers and the beliefs of their masters. Historians will call "great" those individuals who move the mass of humankind in a new direction. But let us all hope that any jihad on Earth will be for sound reasons, as there is much power in such a movement. Hinduism Vedic faiths believe that all existence is cyclical, even universes themselves are capable of destruction and rebirth. "Veda" means scared knowledge in Sanskrit, the oldest surviving written language of India. Hinduism differs from Christianity and other Western religions in that it does not have a single founder, a single system of morality, or a religious organization, but just a large number of scriptures. It does not believe in one creator or a final day of judgment, but rather in all living things being tiny parts of a Supreme Entity. As the oldest of the major religions, the roots of Hinduism are traceable 13 ©kohlhase to the Indus valley civilization around 4000 to 2200 BCE (some scholars say much older), but its development was influenced by many invasions over thousands of years. The Persians invaded India during the 6th century BCE and chose the name Hinduism, meaning “religion of the people living near the Indus River.” In Persian, the letters H and S are pronounced almost the same, so they mistook the Sind (Sanskrit for the river Indus) for H and started using the term Hinduism. Early Hinduism stressed “moksha,” meaning reincarnation and final release. Even the Vedic gods are subject to rebirth. Buddhism and Jainism also share common roots in the Vedic cultures of ancient India. To Hindus, India is the Holy Land, with sacred mountains and rivers enlivened by more than 300,000 local deities. Hinduism is the world's third largest religion at 730 million, with most of its believers located in India and Nepal. Sometimes referred to as Sanatana Dharma, it has no beginning or end, the eternal faith that is more a code of life than a religion. Anyone who practices Dharma by searching for the truth can be called a Hindu. Dharma means to hold, and a Hindu holds on to this inner law, which leads from ignorance to Truth. Hindus believe that Jesus traveled to Southeast Asia to meditate before returning home to become a guru to the Jews. Like Ghandi, many Hindus Ghandi on 50 Rupees are attracted to Jesus by his compassion and non-violence -– virtues taught in their own sacred scriptures. But Hindus find the concept of a single God too restrictive, with all human beings having the ability to become divine themselves. Ganesha, the remover of obstacles and lord of beginnings, is one of the most popular of all Hindu deities and is celebrated by Jains, Buddhists, and many others even outside of India. Through reading of the scriptures (shastras) and the teachings of the seers, a Hindu can find self-awareness. One often sees Hindus practicing yoga which is a mental or bodily discipline for spiritual purposes. In classical Hinduism, each soul (or atman) can go through as many as 84,000 reincarnations (rising from lowly insects to humans to demigods) before achieving reunion with the ultimate nature of all existence. Once freed of rebirth, one achieves "moksha" (if Hindu or Jain) or "nirvana" (if Buddhist). The Hindu sacred words are recorded in many different scriptures, with the Veda being the most ancient of the Sanskrit writings. One of the four scriptures is known as the Rig Veda and contains a collection of hymns that tell of the Hindu divine beings. The other three Veda scriptures are the Upanishads, the Puranas, and the Ramayana. The latter was based on a popular folk story that served as a model for the ideal Hindu life. One epic scripture is the Mahabharata, the world's longest poem that is said to contain the tenets of classical Hinduism. Within the Mahabharata is the Bhagavad Gita, comprised of 701 Sanscrit verses and considered the most popular of all Hindu writings, believed to have been created around the time of Christ. Central to the Gita is the belief that “attachment is born of ignorance, selfishness, and passion, and brings with it death; detachment is wisdom and brings with it freedom.” Further discussion of the Veda, the ten forms of the supreme Vishnu, the Shiva Nataraja (the famous dancing Shiva, surrounded by flames), and the numerous other Hindu figures is beyond the scope of this summary. 14 ©kohlhase The law of "karma" is important to Hinduism. It holds that all actions affect the future (this is certainly true in modern scientific terms, where the death of a tiny butterfly forever alters the meteorology). Wicked actions produce bad karma, and good actions produce good karma. The doctrine of karma is based upon the theory of cause and effect. According to this doctrine, God is not responsible for the pleasure or pain of his creatures. They suffer or enjoy in proportion to the consequences of their own bad or good deeds. Furthermore, the quality of the next reincarnated life depends upon the way a person has conducted themselves in the present life. Whether or not this is so, it does help to explain the otherwise meaningless and cruel injury that can occur to a young child who has done no evil deeds in their short life. As the world's population expands, there are more humans being born than dying. This leads to an interesting mathematical Bhagavad Gita, credit situation for the departing souls destined for new bodies. If they Univ. of Texas only transferred to other humans, each soul would have to move into more than one new body. But they can also transfer from and to any of the "lower creatures" whose numbers may be falling in proportion to the rising numbers of humans who continue to eliminate wilderness lands in their insatiable quest for "usable" land to develop. What if the total number of creatures on Earth is staying about the same, but just shifting to a larger human share? Actually, the point is moot, as the Hindu writings allow the departing soul to take more than one birth at the same time, but these same writings also allow both "high" and "low" status recipients. That seems to pose a problem. The direction of one’s rebirth is clear if your karma is decidedly good or bad, but what must you have done to ever see it split between higher and lower rebirths? Why does a person reincarnate? Hindu dharma says that the unfulfilled desires of departed people are responsible for their rebirth. Only by breaking free of these selfish wishes can one break the cycle of rebirth. From an inner standpoint, the soul's happiness is the suffering of the ego, and the ego's happiness the suffering of the soul. Ultimately, we must go beyond all karma, good or evil. The greatest virtue does not seek to change the world or improve ourselves, but to rest in harmony with the peace of what is. Less evolved souls may only experience a prolonged sleep between incarnations. These souls are said to be reborn into the same area on Earth and seek a similar life as before. Very advanced souls may enter into a deep trance and reincarnate quickly. Souls of intermediate development may spend time on various "astral planes" to assimilate their life experience. It would seem that the predestination concept is incompatible with that of the karma doctrine (and vice versa). Hindu dharma, however, has found a way to allow both. The argument is a bit complex, but basically the situation can only occur when the self has reached such a pure state that it is truly in the hands of God from that point on. When a person dies, his gross physical body is left behind, and the soul with the subtle body (consisting of the mind, intellect, sense organs, motor organs, and vital energies) goes to a different plane of existence. Such a plane of existence is called "loka" in Sanskrit. After the soul has finally broken free from endless rebirth, Hindus say that it has joined the “Brahman,” the spirit or energy that sustains the universe. 15 ©kohlhase Hinduism has 16 "samskaras" or rituals associated with rites of passage. When a Hindu dies, his final samskara involves certain acts just before the soul leaves the body. Placed into the mouth of the body, prior to cremation, are a few drops of water from the sacred river Ganges, leaves from the sacred tulasi plant, and a small piece of gold. A mantra is chanted, the pyre is lit, and prayers are made to give the departing soul peace. Incidentally, the Hindu symbol, rather than visual, is actually represented by the sound “Aum,” believed to be the first sound ever made. After only ashes remain, these are collected and scattered on the Ganges or on some other sacred body of water. Buddhism Buddhism was founded in northern India (today, southern Nepal) in the 6th century BCE by a Sakya prince named Siddhartha Gautama, who came to be called The Buddha, or the “Enlightened One.” At the age of 29, he renounced his royal heritage, donned a simple yellow garb, and left his wife and son in order to “seek the truth.” It was not uncommon in those times for a man to leave his family and lead the life of an ascetic. He worried about sickness, aging, and death. He sought to escape the endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth that led to suffering. He believed that the world's problems stemmed from a fundamental ignorance that prevented people from understanding the true nature of reality, causing them to engage in actions that could not bring them true happiness. There are many similarities between Gautama and Christ. Both were born to chaste women without sexual intercourse. Both left home for the wilderness where they were tempted by a Satan figure. Both returned enlightened, worked miracles, and challenged the religious establishment by their teachings. Both attracted disciples and taught compassion and unselfishness. But there are also differences. Christ suffered an agonizing death by crucifixion, but the Buddha’s death was serene and controlled, a calm passing like the gradual extinction of a flame. A Christian cannot become Christ, but a serious Buddhist can, in theory, achieve Buddhahood. Today there are about 315 million Buddhists in the world, typically found in such countries as Ceylon, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Nepal, Tibet, China, Mongolia, Korea, Japan, and the island of Sri Lanka. In the course of history, Buddhism was forced out of India, just as Christianity was forced out of Palestine. Siddhartha did not wish to institute a new order in the world, as Muhammad did, but rather simply sought to teach liberation for all people, while the world followed its own laws. Siddhartha taught the “four noble truths”: everything is impermanent and suffering exists; suffering is based on ignorance; suffering has an end; and there is an eightfold path that leads to Nirvana and the end of suffering. The eightfold path requires right views, thoughts, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration. He saw that all matters of life are changing and that our attachment to the idea of an enduring self is an illusion which is the principle cause of suffering. He taught that freedom from self liberates the heart from greed and delusion, opening the mind to wisdom and the heart to compassion. Buddha is a term that derives from the Sanskrit root word budh, meaning to wake up or regain consciousness. 16 ©kohlhase Siddhartha was a Bohdisattva, which is one who goes through an intense period of development and practice in order to attain Enlightenment. Buddhists believe that everything is subject to the laws of karma, or cause and effect. Good thoughts, words, and actions promote good karma, while negative ones result in bad karma. The accumulation of karma causes one to go through the cycle of death and rebirth. Past karma conditions the present birth, and present karma, in combination with past karma, conditions the future. The present is the offspring of the past, and becomes, in turn, the parent of the future. Siddhartha felt that seeking happiness within the changing world was a mistake. Many "fetters" bind people to artificial realities. Some of these are notions of self, wrong views, doubt, desires, pride, and other addictions to “selfdeception.” He believed that acquisitions such as wealth, fame, power, sex, and even relationships did not bring true happiness. Buddhism believes that every being is responsible for hoh own destiny, and that the entire system of universal effect is driven by its own internal forces. Individual beings are what they are because of the actions they performed in the past. Siddhartha embarked on a teaching career that lasted some forty-five years, travelling around India until he finally died in a grove of trees at the age of eighty near the town of Vaishali. But two and a half centuries would pass before Buddhist monks collected his teachings and recorded them in the Tripitaka. Buddhists do not regard rebirth as a mere theory but as fact verifiable by evidence. Documents record that this belief in rebirth was accepted by such philosopers as Pythagoras and Plato, and by such poets as Shelley, Tennyson, and Wordsworth. H. G. Wells considered The Buddha one of the three greatest men in history. One who aspires to become a buddha is called a bodhisattva, which means a wisdom-being. The bodhisattva concept is considered by many a beautiful and refined course of life that is badly needed by a largely egocentric world. There are many different traditions of Buddhism that are beyond the scope of this short summary, but a brief mention should be made of Zen Buddhism, one of the oldest forms which came to Japan from China. It teaches that people must go beyond mere words to reach and understand the true meaning of existence. One technique for doing this is through meditation and chanting. Five precepts that are often chanted involve a promise to harm no living beings; to not take what is not given; to not misuse the senses; to not be false; and to not take alcohol or drugs. Jainism Along with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, Jainism also originated in India. There are roughly seven million Jains worldwide, with most of these in the western part of India. It is one of the oldest living faiths which has been continuously active in India. Current archaeological evidence traces it back to about 1000 BCE. In its present form, Jainism originated in eastern India and spread from there to the west. Its philosophy was propagated by Tirthankaras, or great teachers, who themselves were ordinary humans but, after intensive study and experience in their own lives, had finally 17 Jains with masks and brooms to avoid harming small creatures, credit Project Gutenberg ©kohlhase attained total knowledge. Jains are followers of “Jaina,” a Sanskrit word derived from Jina, meaning one who has conquered his or her inner passions and desires. A fundamental belief of Jainism is that the universe consists of two types of energy, namely Jeev and Ajeev, meaning Life and Non-Life. These have and will always exist in an eternal universe run by its own laws. Jains believe in a creator, in the potential of godhood, and in the divinity of the pure soul in each of us. Jainism is primarily concerned with the evolution of the soul and its liberation from the cycle of birth and death. The Jain path to this purity is based on the trinity of “the three jewels.” These are true perception, true knowledge, and true conduct. To help achieve this, Jains follow the five principles of non-violence, truth, non-stealing, non-acquisition, and chastity. Men such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King were influenced by Jainism. Jains believe that Lord Vardhamana Mahavira, the last and best of the twenty-four Tirthankaras, was ultimately responsible for organizing his followers into four groups that would eventually be known as the Jains. Mahavira was born in 599 BCE as a prince in Bihar, India. At the age of 30, he left his family and royal household, gave up his worldly possessions, and became a monk. He spent the next twelve years in deep meditation to conquer his desires and feelings, often going without food. Jains are vegetarians and avoid jobs that can harm other living creatures. Jain monks and nuns often sweep the paths they are walking to remove tiny insects from harm's way. Some even wear a cloth mask over their mouth and nose to reduce the chances for killing germs or insects that might enter the body while breathing. Lord Mahavira died at the age of 72, after which his purified soul presumably achieved nirvana, becoming a Siddha or pure consciousness, living forever in a state of total bliss. On the night of his salvation, his followers celebrated the Dipavali, or Festival of Lights. He had spent most of his life teaching others how to overcome their inner selfish feelings and achieve purity. As I watch most Americans carrying out their daily lives, particularly all of the gun-toting good old boys, my respect for Jains rises higher and higher. If there is a judging god somewhere, let that god reward the Jains for caring about Earth’s creatures perhaps more than anyone else. Sikhism There are some nineteen million Sikhs worldwide, most of whom live in India, but with smaller populations in Malaysia, East Africa, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States. The Sikh religion emerged during the late 15th century in the state of Punjab in northern India. The founder of this faith was Guru Nanak, who from childhood was attracted to both Hindu and Muslim teachings. Nanak was born a Hindu but, being inspired by the teachings of Islam, began to preach the message of unity of both religions. Sikhs don't believe in heaven or hell, as do Christians, but do believe in good and evil. They further believe that souls of good people will Golden Sikh Temple in Amritsar eventually find a haven somewhere in God's world. 18 ©kohlhase Nanak taught the unity of God, brotherhood and equality of man, rejection of caste, and the futility of idol worship. He was followed by nine masters, the last of whom was Guru Gobind Singh. The teachings of Guru Nanak were incorporated in the “Guru Granth Sahib,” the Holy Book of the Sikhs which became a symbol of God for Sikhs. The original copy of this scripture may be found at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the spiritual center of Sikhism. Sikhs are easy to recognize with their turbans, but also wear five other marks for distinction. These are known as the five Ks which, in Punjabi, are Kes, Kara, Kangha, Kachh, and Kirpan. These stand, respectively, for unshorn hair, steel bracelet, comb, soldier's shorts, and sword. Add a turban and one has the Khalsa uniform. Each of the five Ks has special significance in assuring cleanliness, briskness of action, self defense, and restraint from evil or weak deeds. Sikhs believe that bad souls will be forced to go through thousands of different life forms before getting the chance to become human again and try for a good life. Sikhs believe in helping the needy, becoming educated, avoiding the use of drugs or alcohol, not eating beef, and joining the Khalsa to show that they are willing to die to uphold their faith. They do not believe in mourning too much for one who has died. Prior to cremation, the dead body is washed and dressed (including the five Ks, if the deceased was a member of the Khalsa). The ashes are scattered on running water, and the family may give gifts to people in need. Other Religions There are many other religions that we’ve not examined, among which are Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto, Baha'i, Zoroastrianism, Sufism (an Islamic science for understanding God), Scientology, Freemasonry, Jehovah's Witnesses, various Pantheisms, native tribal beliefs, special cults, and many more. Most of these, except for the scientific ones, tend to have variations on the themes we have discussed earlier. For this reason, I will let the reader research these areas, but I would like to discuss the Scientific Pantheism Organization (SPO), whose credo (only finished in December 1997) I recently came across and liked. The SPO believes that people of today want more than just recitation of age-old dogma and seek to find a common set of beliefs that will work well as we enter the future. Their nine credo beliefs (not edited) are: 1. We revere and celebrate the Universe as the ever-changing totality of being, past, present and future. It is self-creating, self-organizing, and inexhaustibly diverse. Its overwhelming power and fundamental mystery establish it as the only real divinity. 2. All matter, energy, and life are an interconnected unity of which we are an inseparable part. We rejoice in our existence and seek to participate ever more deeply in this unity through knowledge, art, celebration, meditation, empathy, love and ethical action. 3. We are an inseparable part of Nature, which we should cherish, revere and preserve in all its magnificent beauty and diversity. We should strive to live in harmony with Nature locally and globally. We believe in treating all living creatures with compassion, empathy, and respect. We believe in the inherent value of all life, human and non-human. 4. We believe in freedom, democracy, justice, equity, and non-discrimination, and in a world community based on peace, an end to poverty, sustainable ways of life, and full respect for human rights. 19 ©kohlhase 5. We believe there is only one kind of substance, matter/energy, which is not base or inferior, but wonderfully vibrant and creative in all its forms. Body, mind, and spirit are not separate, but all inseparably united. 6. We respect reality and keep our minds open to the evidence of the senses and of evolving science. These are our best means of obtaining and refining our knowledge of the Universe, and on them we base our aesthetic and religious feelings about reality. 7. We see death as a return to nature of our elements. Our actions, our ideas and memories of us live on in the world, according to what we do in our lives. 8. We believe that every individual can have direct access through perception and emotion to ultimate reality, which is the Universe and Nature. There is no secret wisdom accessible only through gurus or revealed scriptures. 9. We respect the general freedom of religion, and the freedom of all pantheists to express and celebrate their beliefs, as individuals or in groups, in any non-harmful ritual or symbolic form that is meaningful to them. The Fundamental Questions Several basic questions were raised earlier that religion has been seeking to answer for millennia. As an RS, I would love to be able to provide answers, but can do no more than make observations about what I believe, as the existence of a supreme god (or reincarnation) has not been scientifically proven. It must still remain a matter of faith. Some of the great thinkers are moving towards atheism, while others see science and religion moving closer through the finely tuned physical laws. Fortunately, there are lines of research that may establish better circumstantial evidence in one direction or the other. In fact, it is possible to employ Bayesian (conditional) probability theory to obtain an estimate for the probability of a supreme god's existence, but that lengthy task would still be dependent upon (and no better than) the input assumptions. However, I plan to run out a "quick estimate" just out of curiosity and under the hope that one or more serious researchers may decide to push this technique further. What evidence from the past may be useful? What do we know about the Shroud of Turin, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the numerous purported witnesses to the resurrection (or to any other miracles), the discovery of Noah's Ark and the evidence for the great flood, the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, the “missing link,” documented exorcisms, unique prophesies that perhaps came true, the evidence for reincarnation, or the physical workings of the universe? Answers to all of these questions are clearly interesting, but have varying degrees of relevance in shedding light on the fundamental questions. For example, even if the Shroud of Turin was the burial cloth for the crucified body of Christ, that does not prove that Christ was the son of God, but only that Christ was a real person who died around the recorded time period. As you will see later, however, the shroud most likely covered the body of Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Holy Order of the Knights Templar. One could even argue that the discovery of Noah's Ark would not prove any absolute truth about God, but it would certainly (in my book) bear upon the probability calculation. Why do I say that? Unless Noah was a weather man of 20 ©kohlhase great predictive abilities, the chances are he may have received a divine tip, should his huge ark ever show up. I may never live to see the ark found for certain, but there have been recent arguments for a major flood in the Black Sea region about 7,500 years ago. Prophesies and Miracles This area no doubt warrants an entire book, and so the reader must please forgive my all too brief treatment. To be convincing to an RS, a prophesy must be unique, and a miracle must have been recorded under scientific conditions. Prophesies announcing that wars will come, walls will fall, famines and plagues will occur, great droughts and floods will occur, anti-Christs will appear, etc., do not qualify as unique, for these types of events will always occur, sooner or later, somewhere. A unique prophesy would predict, for example, that 37 albino turtles will, at a specified and distant future time, form a geometric pattern of prime-number distances (in meters) between each pair of turtles, all facing 63 degrees east of north at the southern edge of the Caspian Sea. Now that would be truly unique, as long as it was not “set up” by religious scholars hoping to swell the ranks of their devoted followers. On the miracle side, an event must violate our natural laws and be recorded by knowledgeable observers to qualify. Depending upon exactly how the Red Sea was parted, the cause might be natural or indeed a miracle. But we have no videotape of the event to analyze, and a miracle of centuries past may be considered a natural event in modern times. Surprisingly, out of some 500 books at a prominent bookstore, I only found a handful that discussed the subjects of prophesies and miracles. Ministry publishing sources were always for, and skeptic societies always against, the validation of these existence-of-God-related subjects. The approach I have decided to take here is to query Biblical scholars to determine what they believe to be the single most convincing prophesy and single most convincing miracle, in order that we might limit our analysis. This is certainly being fair about the matter. After all, these scholars will have had the advantage of perusing several thousand years of history from which to make their selection and form their arguments. The greatest miracle is considered the resurrection of Christ, but how can we be certain that he was really dead when taken down from the cross, wrapped, and entombed? Some sources say the resurrection was witnessed by 500 people, while other sources cite only a few of his closest disciples. Some religious scholars argue that Christianity would never have had the momentum to survive and flourish had there not been a resurrection. But it simply cannot be proved. Alternatively, feeding 5,000 people with only five loaves of bread and two fish is impressive, but might not be literal, as Christ certainly provided nourishment for the soul. The parting of the Red Sea is cited as another major miracle. That, if done on command for just long enough to get one's own people across ahead of the pursuing forces, would seem to violate the laws of physics and get my vote. Regrettably, I have not found any data to certify such a miracle. Not so fast, you say. The Catholic Church (CC) has a rigorous process for canonization of saints that requires verification of at least one good miracle. The CC recently canonized Edith Stein, a German Jew who converted to Catholicism, became a nun, and died in a concentration camp. A little girl of two, named for Stein (but went by 21 ©kohlhase Benedicta), consumed an overdose of Tylenol, suffering irreversible liver damage and nearly died. The parents prayed to Stein, and the little girl walked out of the hospital two weeks later, her liver totally cured. Her American doctor talked about the miraculous healing publicly. There is also the miracle of Guadalupe, for which an image of the Blessed Virgin is said to have appeared on a cloak back in the 16th century. The garment has been subjected to scientific testing which finds no brushstrokes, with some reports claiming to have seen (through laser techniques) an image in the pupils of the virgin’s eyes of the man to whom she is said to have appeared. But it is very difficult to verify and of these stories, their being too far removed from current realms of examination. Did you know there is an approved list of apparitions? A website master for scholarly religious websites recently told me he chose the resurrection as the top miracle and the ascension as the top prophesy, but quoted certain scriptures as the “proof.” As you know, "self-referencing" does not constitute proof. Typically, the supporting data for any past miracle always involves a written account of what people believe they saw, as there were no scientific sensors available back then to record permanent records for us to view today. Also, people then had little or no knowledge of science, and might have believed they saw a miracle when, in fact, it was merely a phenomenon they did not understand. For example, the electrical power possessed by the Ark of the Covenant has recently been explained as resulting from its construction in the form of a Leyden jar (or large capacitor) that Moses had learned how to build from Egyptian technicians. Thus, it often happens that "miracles" have other explanations. On the other hand, a unique prophesy that had been recorded centuries before the event it forecast would be more convincing than a miracle that people thought had occurred. Defenders of the Christian Bible must also know that one great prophesy (that is truly unique) is worth a hundred purported miracles. Thus, it makes sense to search for one great and unique prophesy that has come to pass. Speaking of Moses, one area I’ve not had time to investigate is the ten plagues of Egypt which involved some pretty extreme stuff –- the bloody Nile, vast numbers of toads, lice or midge, swarms of flies, diseased livestock, boils and ulcers, hail, teeming locusts, intense sandstorms producing darkness, and the death of the first born. A papyrus discovered in the 19th century describes an eyewitness account of the Exodus plagues by an Egyptian named Ipuwer, so it is generally believed that they did actually occur. Jewish eating restrictions spared them from the worst of these plagues. Were they miracles or just a bad run of natural phenomena? In a special TV program devoted to this subject, logical explanations were offered to explain how the assorted plagues occurred in the specific sequence that played out. It was also believed that they unfolded in fairly rapid succession, at the end of which the Pharaoh agreed to let the Israelites leave Egypt. The reader may wish to pursue further studies here. The 5/1/2000 issue of Newsweek Magazine contained a short section on miracles. Several medical cases were cited, among them Bernadette McKenzie (tethered spinal cord), Angela Boudreaux (terminal liver cancer), and Tyler Clarensau (crippled knees), all of whom made unexplained recoveries. According to a poll, 84% of adult Americans believe that God performs miracles, and nearly half of those claim to have personally witnessed a miracle. Even 43% of people of no faith have prayed for God’s intervention to 22 ©kohlhase help. Of 6,000 purported miracles at the Marian shrine in Lourdes since 1858, only 66 have been “authenticated” by medical boards. In 1998 in Qom, Iran, Jamkaran mosque officials validated 6 of 270 claims of purported miracles. Check out Kenneth Woodward’s The Book of Miracles, published in 2000 by Simon & Schuster. Interestingly, miracles gradually disappear as one goes through the Christian Bible from beginning to end. In Genesis, only God works miracles. Later, the power shifts to the prophets, changing from public to private miracles as one goes from Moses to Elijah. Finally, little or no mention is made again. Why is this? Are the people becoming more skilled at recognizing nonmiracles? Many religious scholars don’t believe in miracles. Philip Hefner, professor of theology at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, believes in blessings but not in miracles. He is troubled by the notion that God might intervene in the laws of nature, leading to chaos and unpredictability. But others say that nature provides enough “wiggle room” for God to tweak events one way or the other. Actually, these arguments are weak. If God does exist, he/she/it can do whatever he/she/it wants. But if God is the type of moral being that he/she/it wants his/her/its followers to be, then he/she/it does not act consistently in rewarding the deserving and punishing the unworthy. Since I have personally never witnessed a miracle that fell outside the statistics of random events or psychosomatic influences, I’d like to move on to the prophesy section. What we really need is a miracle that can be repeated under scientific conditions. When that happens, it will be major news! A Unique Prophesy A prophesy is usually a vision that comes to a prophet from a higher power and that, when properly interpreted, foretells of some future event. The prophet community includes seers, oracles, soothsayers, and diviners, all of whom predict the future by means of instruments, dreams, telepathy, clairvoyance, or special visions, many purportedly received from divine beings. The emergence of prophesy in Israel and Judah began with Amos and Hosea in the 8th century BCE, with Elijah known as one of the prophet masters. Some predictions, no doubt, simply derived from common sense and intelligent observation, but our focus will be directed at finding one great and unique prophesy that was transmitted from the God of the Christian Bible through one of his prophets. One particularly famous prophesy is the one in Revelation predicting the end of the world in a huge battle between Gog and Magog. Religious scholars believe this final conflict will take place in the Middle East around the time of the second millennium following the resurrection of Christ, making this about 2033 CE. Though these same scholars believe the tremendous fire to be that associated with a nuclear war, others acknowledge the blast could come from an asteroid or cometary impact. So you will find it interesting that JPL announced in November of 2000 the orbital path of an object dubbed 2000 SG344, which will make a close pass by Earth in 2030 and again in 2071. The object is roughly 100-230 feet long and may be either a small asteroid or a large rocket booster stage left over from the Apollo era. The press is making a fairly big deal of it, but I calculate the odds of an impact at about 1 chance in 100,000. I’ll not likely live to the age of 98 to be around in 2033, but some of my readers are sure to -– but don’t worry about this prophesy. Its odds are quite low. I am no fan of former president George W. Bush and find the following quote from Wikipedia quite revealing: 23 ©kohlhase “The French ex-President Jacques René Chirac recounted during an interview with the French journalist Jean-Claude Maurice how the U.S. President George Walker Bush asked him in 2003 during a phone conversation for support of the invasion of Iraq. In Maurice's book Si vous le répétez, je démentirai George W. Bush is documented to have said ‘Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East’, ‘The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled’, and ‘This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.’ The first American newspaper to report this story was the Charlestown West Virginia Gazette.” The biblical book of Daniel presents a collection of popular stories about Daniel, a prophet and loyal Jew, and the visions granted to him, with the Babylonian Exile of the 6th century BCE as their background. The book is written in two languages, with some of the 12 chapters in Hebrew and the rest in Aramaic. Chapters 1-6 are stories of Daniel and his friends in exile, with Chapters 7-12 mostly about his apocalyptic visions (from the Greek “apokalypsis”, meaning revelations). Because of the conflict between the religion of the Jews and the paganism of their foreign rulers, Daniel sought to reveal the superiority of Hebrew wisdom over paganism, believing that the God of Israel would ultimately defeat all Earthly kings and rescue his followers from their persecutors. Many recall the story of Daniel tossed into a den of lions when he refused to worship King Nebuchadnezzar's golden idol, with his strong faith protecting him. Many of Daniel's prophecies include time spans which must be understood as symbolic. These have to be translated into real time using the year-for-a-day principle, with most visions taking the form of compex and bizarre symbolic events. At times, Daniel received help from the angel Gabriel in explaining a particular vision. With lengthy analysis and highly inventive decoding, some religious scholars claim to have interpreted Daniel’s assorted visions, though religious organizations often disagree with certain meanings. Daniel’s visions were wide ranging, covering such matters as the fall of Rome, rise of the Catholic church, Alexander the Great and his conquests, the reunification of Jerusalem, the second coming of Christ, the crusades, and other matters concerned with the Jewish struggles. If I had to choose one prophesy that qualifies as unique and that has the support of many religious scholars, it would have to be the prediction of the six-day war in the Sinai between Israel and the Arab confederacy in June of 1967. Religious scholars claim that Daniel accurately made and documented this forecast some 23 centuries before it took place. If that could be substantiated, it could well indicate a pipeline from God through Gabriel to Daniel. Part of me wanted to include here the full extent of the vision in Chapter 8 of the book of Daniel, as well as the interpretation of this in predicting the sixday war -- but it would simply be too long. If you have a bible and can read about the “ram” and the “he-goat,” you can check it out. If you are not that interested and would be curious to see three short, separated samples, consider: “Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but one was higher than the other, and the higher came up last. I saw the ram pushing westward, and northward, and southward; so that no beasts might stand before him, neither was there any that could deliver out of his hand; but he did according to his will, and became great.” 24 ©kohlhase “And he said unto me, unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. And it came to pass, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.” “And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be. The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia. And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.” So you get the idea. Well, reader, I have tried to dig the six-day war in June of 1967 out of this prophesy, but it takes some highly inventive interpretation of the words. To the same extent that the face on Mars appears in one geological formation, it is possible to squeeze a variety of interpretations from Daniel’s symbolic words. The more obvious interpretations simply relate to the struggles during Daniel’s time period between the Jews and their enemies. So how did scholars deduce the six-day war, and what was so important about that war? A report by a Jewish newsperson summarized the final war moments as: “For two bitter days, the desperate Jews and Hussein’s well-trained Arabs battled to take and hold the high ground around Mount Scopus and between Jerusalem and Ramallah, all outside the Old City’s massive ten-foot-thick walls. Then, at 9:50 a.m., on June 7, a Wednesday, after the Jews had gained the upper hand, Colonel Morechai Gur and his chauffeur, Ben Tsur, rammed their vehicle into and through St. Stephen’s Gate to lead the Israelis’ takeover of the Old City and their Temple site, just as Daniel had predicted.” The full interpretive logic is too long for inclusion here, but I want you to note how the year 1967 was concluded, weighing the following words by a religious scholar: “These 2300 days or years are to be counted from the beginning of the vision, when the hegoat rushed at the ram, or from 334 BCE. Thus, subtracting 334 from 2300 yields 1966. This arithmetic brings the vision one year short of the recapture of old Jerusalem and the Temple site in 1967. However, when Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk, set up the chronology for the Christian Era in the sixth century he neglected to include a 0 year between 1 BCE and CE 1. Thus, where the year 1 BCE concluded, the year CE 1 began. This error of Exiguus therefore makes it necessary to add one year whenever chronological years are being calculated from any year in BCE to any year in CE. With this correction, we now have the following figures: 334 BCE subtracted from 2300 years yields 1966 CE, and 1 year added to make up for Exiguus’ mistake equals 1967 CE.” Not too bad, however. So you get a flavor for what is involved, but this is typical of most prophetic interpretations. The scholar in question gets to choose both the beginning epoch for the prophetic time period (which itself must be interpreted from the prophesy) and the actual event that has played out centuries later (and there are plenty of those to choose from, with the eternal struggle between the Jews and the Arabs leading to noteworthy conflicts on at least a yearly basis). Thus, it is not difficult to invent connections to defend prophesies. Hence, as an RS, I remain generally unconvinced. However, when we eventually discuss the probability of God’s existence, I am willing to give the category of unique prophesies a small probability (perhaps 5%) of being valid. 25 ©kohlhase Noah's Ark The issue of whether or not a great ark has been discovered that could have harbored fecund pairs of "all creatures" is absolutely fascinating and would definitely bear (in my opinion) upon the existence of the God referred to in the Christian Bible. But my limited research into this matter has produced about as much testimony for as against. As the reader may recall, God instructed Noah to build a great ark and place aboard it an adult male and female of every "unclean beast" and seven (presumably pairs) of every "clean beast" (mostly ruminants) and bird types. He further gave Noah seven days to load the ark before a continuous rain of forty days and nights would destroy “every living substance from the face of the earth,” not otherwise spared by being aboard the ark. The only humans aboard the ark were Noah, his wife, and his three sons and their wives. The resulting flood did not subside for 150 days. The Bible claims that Noah did not die until he was 950 years old, with modern-day explanations for such longevity (not uncommon among ancient Biblical patriarchs) due to a special chemical from a plant that one might have thought was eradicated by the flood, even though the birds were to have been the “seed carriers,” and Noah lived for 350 years after the flood. The dimensions of the ark were 300 cubits long by 50 cubits wide by 30 cubits high, and it was to be constructed of gopher wood. Under the assumption that a Ark replica by Johan Huiber, Hebrew "cubit" was roughly 18 inches (as opposed to about credit Freekick Files 20.6 inches for the Egyptian cubit), the ark length would have been about 450 feet. The first question that occurs to any RS concerns the feasibility of providing for the needs of so many creatures in a volume of this size. One also must wonder about collecting them all from other parts of the world, unless they were to be only samples from Noah's immediate land mass. How were they cared for by a human crew of only eight people? What other problems needed solutions? The reader may find an extensive analysis of this in John Woodmorappe's book Noah's Ark: A Feasibility Study, which concludes that it was feasible. But then there are counter analyses by Glenn Morton and Mark Isaak, who contend otherwise. Was there a great flood and when did it occur? There seem to be several reports of the flood, but its purported time period ranges from about 10,000 to 2,500 BCE, with a slight preference for the period from 5,000 to 3,000 BCE (Adam and Eve were said to have lived about 2,000 years prior to the flood). Usually, the perspective on the flood varies markedly with the origin of the storyteller, ranging from ancient Babylonians to Tlingit Indians, but two fascinating discoveries by Robert Ballard of Titanic-discovery fame may provide the best evidence yet for the great flood. In November of 1999, Ballard’s team found a submerged shoreline several miles offshore from the current edge of the Black Sea and several hundred feet below the surface. Later, in September of 2000, they found the remains of a 7,500-year-old house more than 300 feet below the surface of the Black Sea. Marine geologist William F. Ryan of Columbia University said, “This is amazing. It’s going to rewrite the history of ancient civilizations because it shows unequivocally that the Black 26 ©kohlhase Sea flood took place and that the ancient shores of the Black Sea were occupied by humans.” Those who claim to know the location of Noah’s Ark are pretty consistent in citing the Ahora Gorge region, between 13,000 and 15,000 feet in elevation, on the northwestern side of Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey, but Mount Cudi and the Durupinar areas are also candidates by several researchers. The earliest report of its resting place is attributed to Marco Polo some seven centuries ago. More recent reports began in 1905 when George Hagopian, as a young boy, claimed to have walked the planks and examined the ark for two hours with his uncle. Then came Lt. Roskovitsky of the Russian Imperial Air Force in 1916 whose discovery caused the Tsar to send two engineering companies to collect detailed information, only to have it "lost" following the Revolution of 1917 (some believe this entire story is a fabrication). We next have Lt. Col. Robert Livingston's account of seeing a real photo taken by a USAF captain in 1949, but not seen since (it did show a large object of the proper 6:1 length-to-width ratio). There were many other names to follow these over the next half century, but any surviving evidence is elusive. We next turn to Mr. Matthew Kneisler of the newly formed (February 1998) Ark Research Ministries (ARM) organization. Having heard that classified photos of the ark existed somewhere, he wrote in 1997 to thirteen special agencies to shake something loose under FOIA. A portion of his letter reads, "I request that a copy of any records (photographs, typed document and/or verbal description) be provided to me regarding ‘The Noah's Ark’ anomaly located at about 13,000 feet on Mount Ararat in Turkey. The item in question is box-shaped, 450 by 75 feet, and can be observed in the late summer (August/September) when the glaciers at approximately 13,000 feet have melted sufficiently to reveal the object. I have heard that, in 1974, Earth Research Technical Satellite (ERTS) has captured this image on film. I know that technology has increased dramatically allowing for more detailed resolution from space satellites and that this image has been seen subsequently. More specifically, I am requesting a latitude and longitude at which the anomaly is located." Included among those thirteen agencies were the CIA, NASA, NOAA, NSC, DIA, NARA, DMA, NRO, State Dept, and the White House. Only the CIA and the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) replied in a positive manner, but the CIA refused to release its information on the basis of national security (don’t you tire of this excuse?) and foreign policy Suggested ark location in Ahora Gorge restrictions. The DIA, however, did provide copies of on Mt. Ararat, credit N/A two photographs taken by the USAF on June 17, 1949, which were finally declassified in 1982. The location of the "anomaly" was 39 deg 42.17 min N by 44 deg 16.50 min E, at an elevation of about 15,000 feet, some 2.2 km west of the Ararat summit. Kneisler learned that these aerial photos had been released earlier (March 14, 1995) to a Mr. Porcher Taylor, who believed them to actually show compartments in a large broken structure. The photographs were subsequently moved from DIA to NARA. Since this "break" in the Ark-info logjam, the CIA and the State Dept have both offered to provide more info to Kneisler. 27 ©kohlhase The ARM team had planned an expedition to Mount Ararat in August of 1999, but ultimately had to postpone it. Many researchers doubt the existence of any convincing photos or satellite imagery, believing Matthew Keinsler to be exaggerating what evidence may exist. Ararat is an inhospitable mountain bordering Armenia and Iran, with a permanent ice cap and glaciers, making the weather a significant factor. But I laud their efforts, and will report their results if available before this book is published. The confirmed discovery of Noah's Ark would, in my mind, be more dramatic than the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls or even Christ's purported burial cloth. For Noah would have had no way to anticipate a great flood without a divine tip. If he got such a tip, it would not be unreasonable to assume it came from the God referred to in the Christian Bible. The Ballard team’s discovery of a great flood of 7,500 years ago or earlier should do much to keep alive the search for the remains of Noah’s Ark. The Shroud of Turin The Shroud of Turin is a 14-by-3-foot linen cloth that shows the photographically negative image of a bearded man with nail wounds in his wrists and feet, a gash in his side, and assorted lesser markings. It surfaced in 1357 CE in the small village of Lirey, France. The shroud had been loaned to the local church by the widow of Geoffrey de Charney, a minor nobleman who had died a few months earlier. No explanation was then given for how the Charney family came by the shroud. Ultimately, the family sold the shroud to Duke Louis of Savoy in return for two castles. The Savoy family subsequently provided all of the kings of Italy and maintained control of the shroud since 1453. The shroud has been in the Chapel of the Holy Shroud, in the Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Turin, for more than the past 300 years. Portion of Turin shroud, credit Dating Jesus Org. In 1898, an amateur photographer by the name of Secondo Pia was allowed to take some photos of the shroud. He was totally surprised when he looked at the negative plates and saw the striking image of a bearded man as it would normally appear, i.e., with raised areas of the face and body in brighter tones, and recessed or sunken regions, such as eye sockets, in darker tones. Such a discovery quickly enhanced the mystery and spiritual fascination in the shroud, causing many more people to believe it to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. In 1988, samples of the cloth were radiocarbon dated by three independent laboratories (in Oxford, Zurich, and Arizona). These laboratories were also given other samples from known time periods, and their results were overseen and certified by the British Museum, an organization of high integrity. The dating process based upon the decay of carbon 14 was well established, and the results were in close agreement, indicating the cloth was woven between 1260 and 1390 CE, much too late for association with Christ. It was believed by many to be the work of a skilled forger. It was also noted that the cloth itself was a relatively sophisticated herringbone pattern with a 3:1 twill weave that did not appear in Europe until the beginning of the 14th century. 28 ©kohlhase However, a program appearing on The Learning Channel in December of 1998 offered strong evidence for the shroud being the Christ burial cloth through many correlations of different shroud plant markings and pollens unique to the Jerusalem region around the correct time period. Also, the correct imprints of Roman lashing whips were identified. Further, in 1998, researchers at the University of Texas in San Antonio reported that the 1988 dating had been inaccurate due to the presence of bacterial and fungal contaminents mixed in with the cellulose of the cloth fibers, and that the true age was many centuries older. Further, some claimed that the shroud sample tested was actually from a portion of the shroud that had been repaired during Medieval times. As I was browsing books at a local store in early 1999, I came across a most unusual new explanation for the shroud in a book entitled The Second Messiah by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas (Element Books). Through a great deal of research on the history of the Knights Templar and the Freemasons, they believe that the shroud was wrapped around the body of a man who went through a sort of mock crucifixion. That man was Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Holy Order of the Knights Templar, who eventually died on March 19, 1314, nearly seven years after his tortured crucifixion to extract a confession. The explanation for the remarkable image on the shroud was provided by Dr. Alan Mills, who works in the Dept of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Leicester, but is beyond the scope of this summary. The Second Messiah is one of the most interesting historical books I have read, an admission you would not expect to hear from an RS. The depth of the authors' research is astounding and the conclusions amazing and believable … placed in question only by the later claim that the radio carbon dating used a Medieval repair patch and not the original shroud. Their epic story begins in the time of Christ (whom they believe died on the cross, but did not rise from the dead), including the slaughter of the Jewish nation in 70 CE, and traces the true beliefs of Christianity over the following centuries from the Knights Templar through the Freemasons until the present. They point out many interesting similarities between the circumstances surrounding the crucifixions of Jesus Christ and Jacques de Molay. They also paint a treacherous pattern of behavior by the Catholic Church which further reduces my opinion of that powerful body. Their book is a must read for anyone wishing to learn more about the journey of Christianity. Thus, the debate continues, with millions still believing the shroud to be the robe that was wrapped around the body of Jesus, others believing the whole matter to be an unusual forgery, and yet others convinced that the man inside the cloth was Jacques de Molay, a slender man whose features were believed to be similar to those of Jesus Christ. After weighing all that I have read, it is my own conviction that the shroud likely covered de Molay, not Christ. As radio commentator Paul Harvey might have said in the way of an ending "gotcha" remark, the Templar who was roasted alongside of de Molay in 1314 was a man by the name of Geoffrey de Charney, Preceptor of Normandy and ancestor of the family who first presented the shroud to the church in Lirey in 1357. The Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in eleven caves along the northwest shore of the Dead Sea between 1947 and 1956. The area is 13 miles east of Jerusalem and 1300 29 ©kohlhase feet below sea level. Of the 850-or-so manuscripts discovered, Cave 4 produced the largest single find in 1950 of about 15,000 fragments from more than 500 manuscripts. After archaeologists excavated the nearby Qumran ruins, subsequent radiocarbon dating indicated both the ruins and the scrolls dated from about 250 BCE to 68 CE, making them a thousand years older than any other surviving Biblical manuscripts! The Scrolls were mostly written in Hebrew, but with many written in Aramaic (the language of the Palestinian Jews around the time of Christ), and even a few in Greek. The scrolls were typically made of animal skins, but also of papyrus and one scroll of copper. They were written with a carbon-based ink, from right to left, using no punctuation except for an occasional paragraph indentation. The Scrolls appear to have been hidden away in these eleven caves around the outbreak of the First Jewish Revolt (66-70 CE) as the Roman army advanced against the rebel Jews. The scrolls contain the complete Hebrew canon (the Old Testament) except for the book of Esther. There are prophesies by Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and David not contained in today's Bible, as well as previously unknown stories about Noah and Abraham, including an explanation for why God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Issac (ultimately, a ram instead). Even the last words of Amram, the father of Moses, are recorded in the Scrolls. The copper scroll, from Cave 3, identifies 64 underground hiding places for treasures from the Temple at Jerusalem. For some unexplained reason, none of the scrolls refers to Jesus Christ or his followers, though there is mention of a messiah who will be “pierced.” Of greatest relevance, the scrolls do show Small Sample of Dead Christianity to be rooted in Judaism and have been called the Sea Scrolls Writing evolutionary link between the two. They do lend further credence to the religious stories that are the basis for such enduring faith over the four millennia that have passed since the days of Abraham, whose death was cited at the age of 175 years, even though the present theoretical age span for humans is about 120 years. Before leaving the subject of the Dead Sea, it has been verified that a sizable earthquake occurred in that area around the time of Abraham in 1900 BCE. This quake is believed responsible for the destruction of the evil “cities of the plain,” including Sodom and Gomorrah, which probably lie buried under the southern end of the Red Sea. The Bible states that God destroyed these cities with “fire and brimstone,” but could their destruction have simply been a natural disaster? Or did God trigger an earthquake that further aggravated some volcano to supply the fire? We just don't know. In Israel Knohl’s book The Messiah Before Jesus: The Suffering Servant of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the author has discovered a reference in one fragment of the scrolls that provides the earliest time that the dual concepts of divine guidance and suffering for others were combined into a messianic precedent. Although many religious scholars believe that the writer was referring only to an imaginary messiah, Knohl is convinced that the reference is to a real man named Menahem, who was the leader of the Jewish sect in Qumran. Menahem was eventually killed by Roman soldiers, but not before (Knohl believes) he had established his beliefs as a role model for Christ to follow. Many scholars 30 ©kohlhase believe that John the Baptist was a member of the Qumran sect before he began to follow Christ. All scholars agree that the scrolls bring the views of Judaism and Christianity much closer together, explaining how the latter branched from the former. Ark of the Covenant In 1981, the popular movie Raiders of the Lost Ark was based upon a race (between an archaeologist and some of Hitler’s people) to find the Biblical Ark of the Covenant, which had presumably been built around the 13th to 14th century BCE during the time of Moses’ wilderness journeys. There are over 200 references in the Old Testament to this holy chest (aron in Hebrew). According to the scriptures, God commanded Moses to build the Ark to house the stone tablets containing the ten commandments. The Ark was actually made in Sinai by a man named Bezaleel ben Uri, who used shittim wood covered in gold leaf, with two cherubs on the top of the rectangular chest. Its size was believed to have been about 45 inches long by 28 inches high and wide. It contained two rings mounted on strong staves along each side of its length, so that poles could be inserted for transport by one or two persons at each end of the Ark. As you may recall, Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt to Canaan, the “promised land,” now known as Palestine. After a long journey from Sinai, the Ark was eventually placed in the Holy of Holies chamber in Solomon’s Temple during the 10th century BCE. The Ark was a portable place of worship used by the Israelites who were often on the move. God’s presence was claimed to have been located above the chest and between the two cherubs. From that point, He could administer advice and justice, vitally important to the attending Hebrews. The scriptures refer to fire emanating from the Ark to burn up “snakes, scorpions, thorns, and Israel’s enemies.” Ark of the Covenant Possible If so, modern-day analysis has ascribed this to the Ark’s Design, credit N/A construction in the form of a Leyden jar that can store and discharge electricity -– a process that Moses would have learned from Egyptian technicians. Where is the Ark today? Answers range widely from buried in the rubble of Solomon’s first temple when it was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE to Axum, Ethiopia, in the hands of the black Jewish Falashas. Many suspect the Babylonians found and removed its gold and left the wood to decay. Those who believe it is not under Solomon’s first temple are certain that Jeremiah hid it in a cave on Mount Nebo (on the Jordan River’s east bank) before the Babylonian invasion. Over the centuries, its search has even been connected to the Crusaders and the Freemasons. Some say it is hidden on Jordan’s west bank near the Dead Sea, associated somehow with the Qumran site and the people of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Some say it is under Jerusalem in a stone-carved tunnel. Some say it is under the site of the crucifixion; others say it is under the Temple Mount. In the 1981 movie mentioned above, it was taken by Egyptian Pharaoh Shishak, who placed it near the mouth of the Nile, in lower Egypt. The late Biblical archaeologist Ron Wyatt claims to have discovered the Ark on January 6, 1982. He had been inspired earlier to search near the Calvary Escarpment when passing through that area in Jerusalem in 1978. Wyatt and his two sons later got permission to dig in this area he felt so strongly about. They dug pretty much straight down, at the base of a 31 ©kohlhase cliff face known as Golgotha, near the site of the crucifixion. There Wyatt believes that he found the tomb of Christ and the Ark, whose top surface was covered by dried blood, presumably that of Christ, which had dripped onto the Ark from his short-term resting place. Wyatt claimed to have photographed the Ark with a Polaroid camera, but the images had turned out “foggy.” As there is no scientific proof of Wyatt’s story, we must let the matter lie at this point. Exorcism Now here is an interesting subject. If one could prove that Satan (or his evil presence) had been driven out of the bodies of several living people, then that could suggest that God must also exist. But how would we ever do that, given all of the technical explanations that exist in the field of psychiatry for the wide range of human behaviors? By the time people have lived for several years, depending upon how they have been treated by others, a number of neuroses may have developed, including schizophrenia and other mental disorders. So, if we are to find any useful evidence here, I would assume that it must be with exorcisms performed (and scientifically recorded) on very young people who have not lived long enough to have experienced otherwise explainable mental disorders. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that we were unable to find any suitable “young exorcisees,” that would still not end the matter. For witnesses at several exorcisms have reported the supernatural behavior of other happenings such as objects levitating or flying across the room, and exorcisees blurting out detailed personal knowledge of the exorcist and other clerics that could not possibly have been known in advance. As an RS, I find these accounts difficult to believe without having been present, or in the absence of legitimate movie or video footage acquired by an objective person. If I were an exorcist who passionately believed the whole demonic-possession phenomenon, I might well believe that I had seen moving objects during the course of the exorcism. There simply needs to be scientific proof under controlled conditions. I would think that the exorcists themselves would also want that, for it would strengthen their arguments for the existence of God. In searching about for young exorcisees, I have only come across the story of a 13year-old Lutheran boy who was not nearly young enough to qualify from my point of view. However, it did form the basis for the 2000 movie Possessed, and so you may find its capsule summary interesting. It is based upon a book by Thomas Allen and involves the eventual exorcism of Robbie Mannheim’s evil spirit following his becoming "possessed" after playing with a Ouija board. The story begins in 1949 in Mount Rainier, Maryland, then moves on to Saint Louis. The exorcist and other witness priests recorded such behaviors as copious excreting, precision spitting with eyes closed, a 50-lb dresser that moved across the floor, a vibrating bed, suddenly appearing bloody marks on the body, and a professional singing voice. Father William Bowdern lost 40 lbs over an extended period in performing the exorcism, but was eventually successful. Nonetheless, I must question why no one thought to film these remarkable events. Simple 8mm movies cameras were available in 1949. 32 ©kohlhase An interesting article appeared in the Paris Journal of June 1998, written by Marlise Simons and dealing with the Rev. Claude Nicolas, a leading exorcist of Notre Dame who had been performing this service several times each week for the past decade. Rev. Nicolas is one of nearly a hundred exorcists (five times the number of 20 years ago) appointed by the Catholic Church in France. Though people often come to him believing they are possessed, he told Marlise Simons, "Of course, the evil spirit often disguises a serious mental problem.” Rev. Nicolas also admits to having seen patients bleed suddenly and for no obvious reason. When the Catholic Church updated many of its religious rites in the 1960s, it dropped the 400-year-old one on exorcism. But in 1995, a poll showed that 34% of the French people believed in the Devil's existence. Thus, the Vatican appears caught in a bind, on the one hand acknowledging the Devil's presence and, on the other hand, recognizing that demonic possession may be entirely explainable in other ways. Reincarnation You may wonder why an RS decides to even briefly explore this subject. Certainly, reincarnation is an interesting notion, but it is difficult to accept on a scientific basis. It does, however, help to explain the crippling of a very young child who has not sinned (i.e., that child's soul is being punished for evil deeds done in a prior life). It is a more convincing and logical explanation than either of the two most commons answers given by religious folks. First, they will declare that “God moves in mysterious ways,” when trying to explain some terrible injustice, particularly at the hands of a god who purports to love little children. Secondly, they may declare that God has chosen that way to bring the family together, in rallying around the crisis of the child. But the Christian God certainly has the power to find other ways to unite the family, or achieve whatever ultimate cause was intended by crippling the child. This is a matter that my great grandfather Pa Thompson has much to say on later. There is an interesting mathematical issue relative to reincarnation that we noted earlier under the subsection on Hinduism. As there are more new human bodies being born than there are departed souls to occupy them, then a given soul must move on after death to inhabit more than one newly born human. Alternatively, some brand new souls may be created for each of the excess bodies. There are no rules against this, but it is interesting to contemplate. I wonder if the creators of the reincarnation concept were originally aware of the numerical issues. Here’s an unusual thought. What if one soul inhabits the body of each living creature and, as the human population swells, the non-human population falls by a corresponding amount? Then we could just move souls about without having to create new ones. With many Asian religions originating in India believing in reincarnation, the matter is important to explore. The process of discovering the rebirth of a reincarnated lama can be elaborate and exacting, particularly in the selection of a Dalai Lama, which has many political implications. The rebirth may take place at any time, from days to years, following the death of the previous lama. The state oracle at Nechung is consulted for the whereabouts of the newly born Dalai Lama. Remarks made by the Dalai Lama before his 33 ©kohlhase death are frequently accepted as indications of a favored place for rebirth, as are any unusual signs that are observed during his death or during a birth thereafter. Most claims of reincarnated souls can be discounted, but there are a few that have challenged simple explanations. One such case took place in Lebanon in 1959. Young Imad Elawar’s first spoken word was “Jamile.” As he grew older he spoke of events that took place in a village 30 km from where he lived. He claimed he was a member of the Bouzhamy family and often talked about Jamile whom he said was a beautiful woman. He described an accident in which a man’s legs were crushed under a truck. Claiming that man had been him, he was delighted that he could now walk. Professor Ian Stevenson investigated this case when Imad was five years old. Stevenson collected as many facts as possible from Imad and went to the village that Imad named. There he found a family named Bouzhami whose member, Said Bouzhami, had been hit by a truck. Said had a cousin named Ibrahim, who was the black sheep of the village. Ibrahim and Jamile, his mistress, lived together despite the disapproval of the other villagers. Ibrahim died of tuberculosis at the young age of twenty-seven. In his final six months he was unable to walk and confined to his bed. Stevenson then brought Imad to the village. Imad gave exact names and directions to the village to the driver. Imad described the furniture in the Ibrahim’s house exactly as it appeared when they arrived. Imad discovered the hiding place of a gun that Ibrahim had concealed and that no one else had been able to locate. Another interesting case of reincarnation was that of Joan Grant. While she was a child in England in the early 1900s, she used to say that she was the former daughter of an Egyption Pharaoh. These stories embarrassed her family so she suppressed most of those memories. As an adult, she took a trip to Egypt and the memories of her past lives resurfaced. In 1937, with her husband’s encouragement, she wrote a book called Winged Pharaoh about the life of Sekeeta, the daughter of a Pharaoh who lived 3,000 years ago. She claims to have done no research before writing the book and she had little knowledge of Egypt’s ancient history. Her book was reviewed by many Egyptologists and critics who all said it was historically accurate, although many doubted the claim that she did no research whatsoever before the publication. One of the most famous of all reincarnation cases was the Bridey Murphy case. In 1952, Morey Bernstein hypnotized Virginia Tighe, who began speaking in an Irish brogue and claimed to be Bridey Murphy, a 19th century woman from Cork, Ireland. While under hypnosis, she sang Irish songs and told Irish stories, always as Bridey Murphy. Bernstein's book, The Search for Bridey Murphy, became a best-seller. Recordings of the hypnotic sessions were made and translated into more than a dozen languages, soon spreading a major interest in reincarnation. Reporters traveled to Ireland to determine whether a red-headed Bridey Murphy once lived there in the nineteenth century. Ironically, the Chicago American newspaper found a Bridie Murphey Corkell living in the house across the street from where Virginia Tighe grew up in Chicago. What Virginia reported under hypnosis were not memories of a previous life but memories from her early childhood. Many people were impressed with the details of Tighe's hypnotic memories, but the details were not evidence of a past life. They were 34 ©kohlhase simply evidence of a vivid imagination, a confused memory, fraud, or a combination of all three. As Martin Gardner says, "Almost any hypnotic subject capable of going into a deep trance will babble about a previous incarnation if the hypnotist asks him to. He will babble just as freely about his future incarnations. In every case of this sort where there has been adequate checking on the subject's past, it has been found that the subject was weaving together long forgotten bits of information acquired during his early years." Evolution vs Creation The debate over the origins of Earth, its life forms, and the rest of the universe is between evolution (either with or without the help of God) and creation science. In a 1997 Gallop poll, 44% of the U.S. public believed that God created the universe during six consecutive twenty-four hour days less than 10,000 years ago, just as stated in the biblical chapter of Genesis. That same poll showed 39% to believe that humans evolved from lower life forms over a much longer period, but still under the direction of God. Only 10% believed in natural forces driving evolution with no help from God. The percentage of scientists who support evolution theory is close to 95%. Scientists have been able to observe the evolution of fruit flies and certain species of fish in the laboratory, but there is no physical evidence to prove or disprove whether the hand of God or natural processes guides the work. It is possible to find physical evidence of the age of Earth and evolution processes through different scientific evaluations (biology, geology, astronomy, paleontology, and physics). These observations of evolution include: astronomical observations of galaxies that appear to be in different stages of development, fossil records of plants recording evolution over time, plate tectonics, and other geological processes that appear to have occurred over very long periods of time. Perhaps the greatest difficulty facing those who hold to creationism is how to explain a rock dated as billions of years old by the use of radioisotope analysis, if the world was created less than ten thousand years ago. Creation scientists conclude that the scientific dating methods must be in error by a factor of perhaps a million, but we truly know that radioisotope dating is very reliable and accurate. Even if the creationists argue that only man was created a few thousand years ago, with Earth having been in place for a few billion years, then how do they explain the discovery of early human bones from nearly two million years ago? Creationists also argue that no transitional links have been found in either the fossil record or the modern world, and that natural selection is incapable of advancing an organism to a higher order. They also argue that life cannot result from non-life, and that the supposed creatures in between ape and man often consist of discoveries which are unrevealing and inconsistent. All of the supposed in-betweeners can be explained as being either fully monkey-ape or fully modern human, but not as something transitional. Yet the DNA difference between lower ape and modern man is only 1-5%, much of which is “junk DNA.” Creationists also contend that the rock strata fossil finds are better explained by a universal flood than by evolution. 35 ©kohlhase The debate between evolution and creation science continues in the U.S. public schools. After the Scopes Trial (Tennessee, 1925) the theory of evolution gained much public support. However, it was not until the early 1960s that evolution began to be taught widely in public schools. During the mid 1990s, creation science groups started to persuade school boards to give equal time to creation science. In August of 1999, Vicepresident Al Gore's office announced that he favored the teaching of evolution in public school science classes, but would not oppose instruction in creationism if taught as part of a religious course. A White House spokesperson said that President Clinton accepted the ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 that public schools were not free to teach creationism (or, later, extrapolated to intelligent design). The Knowledge Book One day as I was working on the Cassini mission to Saturn, a huge book arrived in the mail for me. It was handsomely printed with golden edges, entitled The Knowledge Book (TKB), contained 1,111 pages, was published in February 1996, and claimed to have unified all that mattered in religion into a single great book. Its contents were transmitted over the "direct alpha channel" from the Lord to one Vedia Bulent (Onsu) Corak, a special person chosen to "pen" the supreme message. The followers of these voluminous teachings seem to be centered in Istanbul, Turkey. The teachings are transmitted by a single supreme Lord, extend the existing Qur'an, yet also allow for reincarnation, implying (I assume) some sort of unification of Abrahamic and Vedic cultures. Portions of the book are ridiculous, while other portions are meaningful. A few examples should suffice. On the ridiculous side, consider this direct quote from the first page following the copyright page: "In the translation of The Knowledge Book which has been bestowed on Your Planet as the Heralder of the World Totality of the Morrows, and of the Golden Age, into different languages at this moment and in the future years, it will be especially disclosed that the conveyance Source of the Book is the reality of Unified Humanity Universal Cosmos Unification Totality." or from page 573: "The operational Order of each Mini Atomic Whole is equal to the operational Order of the Gurz System. The 1000 of the 1800 Universes in a Mini Atomic Whole constitute the Directing Staff of that Mini Atomic Whole. Each Mini Atomic Whole is called a CENTRIFUGAL UNIVERSE." or from page 921: "After the 24th century, in Your Planet which will be prepared for a different operation by the Sextuplet Projection Networks of different Galactic Dimensions, by becoming effective as a Total (13) Sextuplet Systems, that is, like this (6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,6), the Reality will complete its Mission and the Feudal Unified Totality of the Lordly Order will take over the Mission. It is presented for your information.” When I was a younger, hot-blooded scientist, I would have immediately dismissed all of this stuff as absolute B.S. In reading further, however, I found that TKB contained many good principles to live by. Some of these I particularly like are: "The key of our happiness is in the hands of our consciousness. Happy is the person who compares gold 36 ©kohlhase with sand. Your goodwill cuts into two, like a sword, the negative currents around you. Sincerity of heart is worth all the sacred books. The one who does not know Love, can not gather the Flowers, etc.” TKB is loaded with many good principles, but the book is simply too big. It uses upper case whenever the mood strikes. I wish its authors had reduced it by a hundred-fold to its true essence. Further inspection of TKB reveals that it does endorse modern concepts such as evolution, cosmology, and the methods of scientific inquiry. On page 404, it states, "Quest leads You to Thought and Thought leads You to the Truth. Within the Truth there is no Mystery.” It also combines information received over the "white" alpha channel with a "black" science beta channel for maximum effectiveness. But why do they have to pack the material with so much unnecessary verbosity and absurdity? At the end of this chapter, I promise the reader a very short summary on how we should lead our lives. Mortimer "Pa" Thompson's Views I found Great-grandfather Pa's views on religion quite clear and focused, and have included them here verbatim. Though his formal education was minimal, he proved himself to be an excellent philosopher (in addition to his many other skills noted in Chapter I). He was often preoccupied with thoughts about religion and the possible existence of God. He did not regularly attend church or profess a certain creed, often arguing vehemently against religious tenets, particularly if he thought his opponent's arguments were narrow-minded. He actually did believe in God, but he was never certain exactly why, which bothered him. He searched the Bible for answers, but generally found only passages that he disputed and tried to prove false. Pa's most violent disagreements were with religious fundamentalists who wanted him to believe the Bible literally, word for word. Nor could he turn to any church, for the church's God of wrath and vengeance was not his God, and he could not believe in a God who needed constant worship and adoration. One merely has to read the first three of the ten commandments to appreciate Pa’s viewpoint here. Can the God of the universe be that insecure? Pa’s wife "Mamsie" and his children were often concerned to hear his strong views, particularly when he proclaimed that all religions were but figments of the human mind. But they, like many others who knew and loved Pa, respected his right to express his views. The following paragraphs are from his personal diary written when he was 78 years old in the year 1936. “Religions of all kinds have their pitfalls in their efforts to find the relation that exists between the finite and the infinite, between man and God, or between the individual and the universe. They adopt a premise consistent with what is, at the time, known of the world about them. They assume the existence of a god having such human qualities and impulses as they, themselves, have or aspire to. Upon this floating foundation they erect the fabric of their theologies, or rather mythologies.” “The original founders of the principal religions like Lao Tzi, Buddha, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, good and gifted men, very zealous and emotional men, sought only to induce men to better behavior toward one another. Very little of theology is to be found in their preachments. It is only when their teaching has become widely accepted that their 37 ©kohlhase followers think it necessary to organize a church or party or government, and write a creed, to harness the minds of people into faith and obedience to the edicts of the organization.” “Step by step, the center of gravity is shifted from service in the general welfare to faith and obedience to dogmatic formula -- from the teaching of Jesus to his personality and an elaborate mythology of myths and miracles established about his person. Just here is where the trouble begins. The expanding sphere of human knowledge and intelligence will not put up with myths and miracles, and that's that. Already the nonsense attached to the personality of Jesus by his followers of the first four centuries has raised doubts that such a man ever existed at all.” “The deification of his personality, which he specifically forbade, is made the central virtue of a Christian, which guarantees that ultimately there will be no Christians, because an intelligent person must have some assurance that he does exist -- now and then as God. No such assurance is possible. While one may hold the doctrine ascribed to him in the highest esteem, whatever his personality may have been, the principles underlying his doctrine are that the "kingdom of heaven" consists in right living (righteousness) by human beings toward one another here and now, and not in their opinions as to his personality. There is a growing idea that the universe is alive and intelligent, and that the childish deity of the third chapter of Genesis is a myth. I reckon God knows that, but he is not doing anything about it.” “Present-day Christianity has for so long overlaid and accustomed itself to ignore those strange teachings of Jesus from which it arose. It has long since abandoned the task of achieving the kingdom of heaven, and is preoccupied with resistance to scientific research in physics, sociology, and political economy. Sunday observance, revivalism, and a make-believe of arranging for a future life after death -- a sort of fourth-dimensional existence without body, parts, or passions in a part of the universe where the ordinary laws of matter are suspended -- a sort of glorified and endless prayer meeting led by 24 bellowing bulls and an equal number of Elders of the Billy Sunday and Sam Jones types. Sister Annie McPherson may also find a place in the ceremony.” “My soul is in revolt against that group of ideas which finds Pa Thompson, self portrait on palette expression in such phrases as ‘fear God’, ‘approach the throne of Grace with fear and trembling’, ‘pray without ceasing’, ‘sacrifice’, ‘praise God’, ‘glorify His holy name’, and all this jargon of pious platitudes that convey the idea that God is an ignorant and brutish tyrant, a stupid and suspicious ogre, watching humanity for an opportunity to chuck them into Hell. This groveling before an imaginary fetish, this universal degradation of humanity, and wholesale slander of God, by attributing to Him qualities and purposes consistent with the mental attitude of an Aztec priest engaged in human sacrifices, are to me untenable.” “What more conclusive proof of the origin of religion than the book of Revelation furnishes? From the first book to the last it reveals the imagery, mentality, and aspirations of a down-trodden, suppressed, and ignorant man who has so long endured arbitrary tyranny that he takes it as a matter of course. Hence, he attributes to deity the same 38 ©kohlhase motives that he finds in political institutions about him. The saddest thing about it is that men of today, who should know better, continue to repeat his imbecilities as something sacred, while all about them are evidences of a nobler, saner, philosophy of life and its author.” Pa’s ‘Is There a God?’ “Of course I do not know whether there is a god or not. I think it would be presumptive of me either to assert or deny the existence of such a being. However, there is one thing I am reasonably sure of -- that no such being as described in the prevailing religions of today exists at all. The universe may have a soul or controlling spirit, or there may be many of them -- there may be a coordination of gods, or the universe may be a self-contained unit of intelligence, just one thing. This matter is beyond the comprehension of the human mind, and one can only speculate about it.” “If there is any god at all, he must be coextensive with the universe itself. He must be the vital governing principle and functionary throughout all things, from the simplest to the most complex. Everywhere are evolving individualities in infinite variety. Everywhere, from molecule to man, the individual stands upon its own autonomy and adapts itself with its milieu, if it can.” “It may be that humanity is an emanation from God, and all life on this planet may be a phase of God and exist somewhat in that relation to God, like the individual cells of each creature that sustain to that creature. The cells seems to be intelligent and they seem to be in a sense independent of the individual. They come into life, live a certain time, and die, while the individual lives on. This process may run throughout the universe, or it may not. Who knows? When I hear a man dogmatize about the plans of God, I imagine a conversation between two lymphocytes about what they think about the man in whose blood stream they run.” “And another thing. Nowhere in all your experience or observation do you find any indication whatsoever of a jurisdicial element in nature. There is no revenge anywhere -there are consequences only, but no element of justice or injustice as such. Consequences flow from every act -- certain, sure, inevitable -- but they can be known and provided for, so that what threatens calamity can often be turned to advantage. There is nowhere in nature any idea of punishment or reward. This supports the idea that the whole cosmos is upon an autonomous basis, and that God respects that autonomy. What we term ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are terms applicable only to ourselves and the fellow creatures about us.” “God, the infinite, is beyond good and evil. To him they have no significance. Nothing can occur in the universe that would surprise God, or that was not in the general scheme of things. Logically this must be so if we reason from the premise that God is the author of all that is. So far back as we can get any hints of the thoughts of mankind, they have been prescribing how God should be worshipped. Millions of books and charts have been written stating just how this should be done. Wars have been fought over it, and endless argument paraded out about how he should be addressed, when there is not the slightest indication from him that he wants anything of the sort.” 39 ©kohlhase “Everyone can verify the truth of this by a moment's reflection on his own experiences. How often has one sat by the bedside of his feverish child and seen the disease slowly extinguish the life while he writhed in prayer? All the while God knew of a tiny pellet that would drive the disease from the blood stream of his child. Nothing doing - he must find the pellet himself. By reason and research he must save himself and those about him without any help from God -- such is the order of nature. Notwithstanding the unctuous blather of the priest who only beclouds the issue. The priest claims that we have the inspired “word of God” in the literature of the Jewish people over several centuries, but one gets no such idea from reading it.” “Instead one gets the ideas of a people who have been run over and mauled by more powerful neighbors -- the Nebuchadnezzars, the Alexanders, the Pharaohs, and the Caesars -- until the arbitrary tyranny and gross injustice of these wolves have become a part of their mental processes and they attribute to God the same impulses they observe in their masters. Men may be enslaved so long and so thoroughly that they take slavery as a matter of course. Together with all this, the literature is encumbered with a mythology that is the result of a lack of knowledge of history, geography, and physics. These conditions make of it hard reading. One has to be continually shoving aside rubbish to get at the true state of affairs.” “The Bible establishes the purely human origin of the religion entombed within it. I can find no assurance that the master of the universe has ever had anything to do with it. One of its best teacher's dying exclamations was, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” It is a fallacy common to all reformers and religious teachers to assume that, because their quest is good and goals great, God is necessarily at their disposal. In a sense, the world and its whole orderly system is at their disposal, but only as they adjust themselves to its orderly processes and stand on their feet -- not on their knees -- and think. They must drop wishful and subjective thinking and look at the world objectively, abandoning all sorts of make-believe except for amusement, poetry, or romance, which still play an important part in our childish natures -- for most of us are still children.” “God told Adam that the eating of the forbidden fruit would be the death of him the very day he ate it. According to the story, Adam lived for nearly a thousand years after that, just as the snake had said. If there is any truth to this story at all, one might suppose that this so-called 'fall of man’ was really the very best thing that could have happened to him. He was thrown out upon his own resources and his progress has been a continual rise ever since.” “In nearly every page of Jewish literature -- so called inspired literature -- there is much complaint from God that he is not getting enough worship and fear. He seems to accept the fact that there are other gods, and he is greatly disturbed about his priority. There is much instruction about how he should be worshipped, elaborate specifications for anointing with pots and pans and candlesticks, but nothing about education or physics, agriculture, or chemistry, or any of the related sciences. This is another evidence that the inspired writers were doing the best they could for the betterment of mankind with the knowledge they had, but they simply did not know anything about these things, and God was not telling them anything they did not already know. So the inspiration, if there was any such thing, did not amount to anything.” 40 ©kohlhase “The greatest help for the spread of knowledge of any kind would be a common language for all of mankind, but God is shown to have deliberately prevented that for fear that men would climb into heaven or at least into the firmament, whatever that is. There were a few thousand men in the Jordan valleys who were favored by God with instruction, such as it was, but all over the world were hundreds of millions of people who were inventing religions and gods to the best of their abilities and worshipping as they thought should be done. They are still at it today. Is it reasonable to assume that God would neglect all those people when he could inspire them with the true facts, as well as the little bunch in the Jordan valley?” “But assuming that my speculations are faulty and that God has some special predilection for the Jews, then I suppose he still has it. In that case, I prefer to select my own Jewish teacher of today -- for instance Einstein is a better informed man than Moses, a better musician than David, a better thinker than St. Paul -- normally he is the peer of any, ancient or modern. Another thing in his favor - Hitler didn't like him.” Pa’s Squaring God With Science “It seems to me that our conceptions of God are continually being revised to square with new knowledge of physics. Beginning with the rabbit-foot fetish up to the universal fatherhood, and now it seems more like the impersonal power of gravitation. If one's prayer is to rise into the stratosphere, the effective way is by means of a balloon filled with a gas lighter than air. No amount of prayer will avail without the balloon. The fatherhood idea is beautifully romantic, but it won't work. The balloon does work. A man need not pray for bread if he has a hoe in his hands. Vigorous use of the hoe will enable him to dispense with prayer, and God seems to be entirely satisfied with this arrangement.” “There is a major fallacy in the conception of God as solicitous for the welfare of his children. This is gruesomely illustrated in everyday life. Tragedies and heart-rending incidents continually occur before our eyes. Like the burning of the Rogerville man's cabin with his two young children trapped inside. God said, 'Suffer the little children to come onto me, for such is the kingdom of heaven.' Mountains may be removed by prayer, yet from the burning cabin came the cries of the children, 'Papa, come and get us out.' Papa, outside and torn with indescribable anguish but unable to reach them, is forced to watch the flaming roof fall in. The little fellows under the bed hushed their cries, but 'Papa, come and get us' will haunt his brain until he too is hushed in the oblivion of death.” “But to those who preach religion, their minds are not swayed by the burning children. It is as though their religious ideas are detached from the cerebral cortex in an island ganglion and hence unaffected by the questioning, comparisons, analysis, and reasoning processes of the cerebrum. Their island ganglion carries on without any reference to fact or reason. This they call faith, and they lay great store by it.” “The net result of the first act of worship was disastrous. Cain probably considered Abel's abuse equivalent to assault and battery. Cain would not endure it and killed him. God, who knew all about it all the time, gave no hint to any of the family that might have stopped the row before it started, and comes into the affair to punish Cain, branding him in such a way as to prevent anyone from injuring him. There was no other man or woman 41 ©kohlhase in the world at that time except his father and mother. There is nothing in the story to indicate their hostility. Cain leaves home and marries a woman in another section. Is God so poor in resources that he could not cope with Cain's jealousy and save the life of an accepted worshipper?” “The fact is they can go on throat-cutting down to the last man as far as God cares. If they can't learn self-governance of themselves, God doesn't want them. They forsake the Earth and, like other species that have failed, will be obliterated by their own acts. God is in no hurry. The world is just as he wants it, and we will have to put up with it as it is and make the best of it.” Pa’s Red Worm and the Supreme Court “For 70 years I have pondered this subject. In my youth I tried to fool myself into accepting it as taught by my teachers, parents, and associates. I adopted a make-believe of believing it like everybody about me, but day and night it was always before me as a crazy thing. The psychosis rests upon the delusion that God wants to be feared and worshipped, which no intelligent man would want, much less the supreme intelligence of the universe. Imagine the supreme court punishing a red worm for contempt of court. The gap between the court and the red worm is not wider than the gap between infinite intelligence and a man. This wholly false premise was through all religions that have come down to us from primitive barbarism. Hence all their reasoning and consequently all their conclusions are illogical.” “The barbarian did not know that the red worm is an important factor in soil building on this planet, making it possible for all life and the very existence of the supreme court as well. But the court does know it and, if the constitution will permit, will rule in favor of the red worm whether the worm is reverential or not. I do not care to push this illustration of court and worm too far. It does not fit perfectly. The court did not create red worms. What I'm trying to show is that, because they exist upon two widely different planes of intelligence, that nothing the worm could do would put the court in a rage. Neither could the worm understand the function of the court. The worm does not even know that the court exists at all, and the court has no means of communication that would teach the worm, simply because the level and purpose of the court is beyond the range of the worm's intelligence -- that is not to say that the worm has no intelligence at all.” “The same is true in the case of man and God. Man has no means of knowing about God, but that is no proof that God does not exist and, in fact, it is none of his business. Man's field of action and interest is here on the surface of this particular planet from the soil of which he arose and to which he will return. What the ultimate, if there is an ultimate, destiny is we do not know. He can learn something from the worm, the soil builder. He is much more than a worm, and much more may be expected of him than the worm, but it is only a matter of degree.” “Nature, or God, has endowed man with the ability to improve himself beyond that of any other species, with every faculty that would enable him to be at home in the world. He is also endowed with the rudiments of a soul which he can nourish or starve as he will. If he prefers, he can remain in the jungle and practice jungle ethics to the point of 42 ©kohlhase progressive cannibalism. He can snatch and grab, enslave and kill, strut and pray, grovel and fear the delusions of his ridden imagination and die like every other beast. Or he can rise above and beyond all that. There is no limit in what he may become in intelligence and kindness in the grand manner of ‘do unto others what you would have them do unto you’.” “But there is little hope we will make much progress while the legal process that we now have permits one person to exploit the necessities of another. That involves too much lying, cheating, war, poverty, and crime to allow any moral health in the world. This is our own doing and must be undone by ourselves before we can call upon God. It would be an insult to ask anything of him while we still persisted in the cause of all our troubles. We must come into court with clean hands. I believe that mankind has but one objective, to establish as its own, a set of conditions, institutions, and habits which will further its own well being in consonance with the general operation of Nature. Not for the glory of God at all, for God does not need glory, God is not in need of anything. God is everything.” The 25th Templeton Prize Address This piece of work by Prof. Paul Davies of the University of Adelaide is excellent, and was the basis for his receiving the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion on May 3rd, 1995, at Westminster Abbey. As a quantum gravitational physicist, Prof. Davies was aptly trained to offer his observations about the mathematical and physical laws that drive the evolution of the universe. Where people often feel that new scientific discoveries can provide explanations for religious mysteries, filling in the "gaps" that would otherwise be attributed to God, thereby pushing God further into obscurity, Prof. Davies argues that we not adopt this viewpoint. By viewing the uniqueness of the whole, he believes that science and religion can work together to provide a better and more stable understanding of the two disciplines. His main theme has to do with how finely tuned the physical laws must be for such a complex order to have emerged from initial chaos. He marvels at how life has emerged from inanimate matter, and how consciousness has emerged from life. If the laws driving the universe were randomly chosen, however, he states that the result would either be boring simplicity or unchecked chaos. Instead, the real laws seem to result in a universe of great diversity and interest. But these laws cannot be tweaked by more than a tad without conditions moving quickly away from the remarkable universe we now share. Others have also observed that the physical laws seem to have been "contrived" to make life and consciousness emerge. As an aside, I was surprised that Prof. Davies did not reference the pivotal paper on this subject presented in 1973 in Poland at the 500th anniversary of the birth of Copernicus. There, Brandon Carter, an astrophysicist from Cambridge University, presented a paper entitled “Large Number Coincidences and the Anthropic Principle in Cosmology,” which contended that all arbitrary constants in physics seemed designed to allow life to emerge, and that this design had to exist at the beginning of the creation of the universe. In the years following the Carter lecture, physicists put forward many calculations in support of the Carter concept, ranging from gravity to electromagnetism, to the nuclear 43 ©kohlhase weak and strong forces, to the nature of water, to the synthesis of carbon, and to much more. The reader may learn more of these calculations in John Leslie's 1989 book entitled Universes. Prof. Davies finds it very significant that many of the universe's working rules can be figured out by humans through the scientific method of inquiry, experimentation, and analysis. He noted that Einstein used to ponder whether God was able to control the outcome of his creation and, if so, how significant it was that the universe produced such richness, diversity, and novelty. Are the laws of physics merely thoughts in the mind of God? Can we one day deduce how mind emerged from matter and, in so doing, predict what may evolve next? Prof. Davies stops short of directly stating that the uniqueness of these laws is the evidence for a supreme god, but he does allow the reader to move towards that conclusion. In the November 2000 issue of Discover Magazine, there is an excellent article about the beliefs of Dr. Martin Rees, Britain’s Astronomer Royal. Rees has studied the matter for several years, and believes that there are six major numbers (out of about two dozen in total) that underlie the fundamental physical properties of our universe. Furthermore, not only do these numbers control everything from the vast to the infinitesimal, but they cannot be altered by more than a few percent or there would be no life as we know it. These six controlling numbers are the strength of the force binding atomic nuclei; the ratio of the atomic small forces to those of gravity; the density of material in the universe; the strength of that force which controls the expansion of the universe; the amplitude of irregularities in the expanding universe; and the number of spatial dimensions in the universe. Astronomer Hugh Ross believes that the a’priori odds of randomly getting these six numbers is just as unlikely as “a Boeing 747 aircraft being completely assembled as a result of a tornado striking a junkyard.” So what do we do with Rees’ conjecture which seems to corroborate other scientists who preceded him? Either a miraculous creation occurred by random chance; a supreme being created the proper initial conditions for our special universe to be born and evolve; or there are myriad other universes (multiverses) we do not know, leaving us a member of the only universe within which we could exist and contemplate ourselves and our creation. Rees believes in the final interpretation, namely that our universe lies in one tiny corner of a multiverse space within which many big bangs occurred, but we’ve been unable to detect these other universes, as they are each constrained to their own particular space and time. As he puts it, “You happen to be in the right universe.” If only we could devise some great experiment to detect the presence of any other universes. A few scientists believe that it is not only theoretically possible, but perhaps practically so by examining tiny fluctuations in the background radiation. My own views on this fascinating subject are brief. Such finely tuned laws (assuming this to be true) would indeed seem to suggest a supreme creator, but is he the Abrahamic God or otherwise? We cannot know. Also, as we do not know whether random laws were tried out on vast numbers of other universes, many of which “failed,” we may still be misinterpreting our uniqueness simply because we are here to raise the question. Are humans the only truly sentient beings, or do other sentient creatures abound on other worlds in other universes? How long will humans have to wait until they have teased out enough new laws to truly “glimpse the face of God,” or are we already glimpsing it in small doses each day? I do not know, but I am very intrigued by the concepts raised by Prof. Davies and the other scientists espousing his theory. I believe there is fair evidence 44 ©kohlhase here to suggest a supreme creator, so I will attempt to fold this concept into my final views. Chopra’s “How to Know God” We referred to this book earlier, but it warrants further discussion here, as it offers several unique arguments for why God must and does exist. But Chopra needs to answer the following questions: 1. Does God respond to prayer in any reliable manner? I do not believe so. It seems to me that each of us makes our own “luck” through education, love, and responsibility. Further, scientific studies have shown that God does not respond to prayer … in fact, groups prayed for have fared worse than those not being prayed for (e.g., the open heart surgery recovery results). 2. Mathematically, as there are more people being born than are dying, there are not enough new bodies to take departing souls from the dead ones. Therefore, either new souls must be created to inhabit the surplus of bodies – or souls must be capable of subdivision to meet the demands – or reincarnated spirits must also be capable of going into non-human creatures for which there might be fewer in compensating proportion to the extra number of human bodies. I suppose the simple answer here is that God does create new spirits (with fresh starts) to inhabit the excess of births over deaths. 3. A small child is crippled for life by some accident over which she had absolutely no control. How does God permit this, that very God who proclaims to love little children? Assume she is too young to have become a sinner. There are two answers offered – one, that God “moves in mysterious ways,” which is really a non-answer (but for which your answer tonight on the Larry King show about the child lost to an alligator would be similar); and two, that she (her reincarnated soul) is being punished in this life by evil deeds done in a prior life (which would seem a sort of justice). The latter reason is logical, but what is your explanation? 4. The human population has nearly reached 7 billion and we are destroying precious habitat and biodiversity at an alarming rate. Nature has done nothing so bad as to deserve the punishment we humans are inflicting through selfish commercial interests in the developed nations and through high birth rates in the developing nations. Great forests, wetlands, and jungles are being cleared at an enormous rate. How do you explain this tragic situation, with species becoming extinct at a rate 1000x times faster (per E. O. Wilson) than ever before? Is God just watching out of idle curiosity as man makes this grave error? 5. As a final thought, though a bit irreverent, an article by Barry Goldman in the 1/3/2010 Los Angeles Times entitled “Leaps of Faith” makes several points based upon a poll by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life. It seems that Americans engage in many different religious practices, mixing elements of different traditions. These include beliefs (or not) in reincarnation, astrology, a supreme being, spiritual energy in physical objects, communicating with ghosts, and various types of hocus pocus … with many people believing what they wish without regard to what few facts may exist on the matter. People are losing the ability to even agree upon what constitutes a “fact.” Over 85% of Americans hold assorted religious beliefs with God playing a major role in each of their spiritual models but, as Goldman says, “We are becoming a nation of fruitcakes.” This of course makes it all the more important to live responsibly, regardless of one’s particular religious views. 45 ©kohlhase My Concluding Views No one can prove whether a supreme Creator exists or whether pure chance and opportunity have always ruled. We are all allowed to believe as we see fit. There are both atheists and devoted religious followers -– and all shades of gray in between. There are really two probabilities that should be discussed. The first concerns whether the creator is the God referred to in the Christian Bible, and the second concerns whether there is any form of Creator at all. When first setting out on the journey to write this chapter, I had hoped to collect enough information on the Christian god question to be able to obtain a Bayesian probability estimate for the existence of such a god as implied by “facts” surrounding such matters as unique prophesies that later came true, the possible discovery of Noah’s ark, the shroud of Turin origins, any confirmed miracles such as the resurrection of Christ, remnants of the great flood, etc. But all of these signposts have both religious supporters and scientific naysayers. So I could get about any answer from the Bayesian process as governed by the input probabilities. For me, the absence of any unique prophesy that later came true (without excessive hindsight interpretations by religious supporters) finally convinced me that the probability of the Christian god’s actual existence as the father of Jesus Christ and the creator of the universe is likely smaller than 10%. On the second matter about some possible Creator of the universe, if absolutely forced to take a position on the matter, I am about equally divided between no supreme Creator at all vs a Creator which may have set the universe into motion some 15 billion years ago by creating the Big Bang, from which a brilliantly designed set of physical laws have driven the resulting process to produce all that we know. This creation was done as an inspired experiment by this Creator. Whether the Creator knew that he/she/it would, or would not, live long enough to see how it all turned out, I do not know. The unfolding process is not deterministic but, like chaos theory, can follow a number of different paths depending upon the outcomes of many chance events and the application of intelligence and free will by the universe’s life forms. Many of these life forms can and will evolve to progressively higher states of knowledge, power, and awareness, almost without limit, as long as they do not end their own existence. They can determine their destinies to a large extent, but will likely make too many irreversible mistakes to allow positive destinies for all creatures. The form of a possible Creator is totally unknown and can be without gender or human likeness –- perhaps even like pure energy. This experiment is being conducted in a single universe -– the one that we believe we know. It is the responsibility of the most advanced species to manage the evolution of their portion of the universe in a form of stewardship which maximizes their chances for survival and advancement to higher awareness levels. These higher levels are not precluded by the Creator’s laws. From time to time, the Creator may introduce small “vernier adjustments” to the evolving universe to keep it interesting. After-death heaven and hell, as suggested in the Christian bible, do not exist. Creatures are not condemned by the Creator for evil deeds, but the natural laws are constructed such that evil deeds will not, in the long run, assure steady evolution to higher levels of awareness. It is essential that the most advanced species always exercise responsible stewardship. Everything is interconnected in a wonderfully powerful way that must not be damaged. Truly unique prophesies are not possible by anyone, including 46 ©kohlhase even the Creator, who can make only good statistical predictions. The Creator might be able to produce “miracles” if desired, but rarely does so and for reasons we cannot guess. Thus, it is the responsibility of humans to manage and preserve their planet with extreme care; to advance their knowledge and capabilities in all endeavors from the arts to the sciences to the workings of the human mind; and to become all that they can be. This process may be accelerated by networking the human race to pursue both the human genome and human memome projects as soon as possible. This course of action will always be optimal, independent of whether a Creator exists or not, and should therefore be followed by humans of all religious faiths. In a nutshell -- lead an ethical life; become educated and use this knowledge well; listen to your heart; serve as the lead steward in our portion of the universe; avoid greed and uncontrolled growth; and establish a clear value system to guide future actions. Simplify this overall process to unburden it from politics and from overly complex and tedious conditions and routines like those now operating in most of the developed countries. Regularly evaluate how the evolution of the human race is proceeding and, when judged wanting, take immediate remedial steps. Always be aware of the beauty around you, and always act to preserve it. If you need a religion to guide you, let these principles form its tenets (regarding stewardship of Earth, we are already failing miserably on this front). Suppose that the Creator cannot live forever -– but that he/she/it is driven to produce an “offspring” to manage the future of his/her/its grand experiment. An offspring that can understand how it all worked, and where it can be improved. What better offspring could be chosen than one which has evolved over millions of years to understand the workings of the universe and to know how to make it better. Perhaps the new Creator will arise one day from an advanced species in a galaxy far, far away. Then again, perhaps the new Creator will evolve from our own future descendants. If that is at all a possibility, even a remote one, it places an enormous responsibility on the human race to get their act together. At the moment, we have promise, but we are doing many critical things terribly wrong. It is my wish that the memes expressed in this book be taken to heart so that we do not blow such a grand opportunity. It would be tragic to fail in our stewardship role and in the promise of untold futures of greatness. We must not wait for things to get better –- we must “make it so” every day. 47 ©kohlhase
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