Expanding Thoughts

Watching a science show the other day, an astronomer is discussing the universe, he states that our universe (who else's?) is expanding, which leads to the question: where or what is it expanding into?
Obviously, we don't know, none of us will ever leave our galaxy, if we sent a probe to the edge of the universe by the time it gets there it's technology will have been obsolete for millennia.

But the obvious answer seems to be that it expands into nothingness. So, now we have to define nothingness, but through the act of giving it definition we then make it something; even a vacuum is something, it's a vacuum. What about saying that it is expanding into the indefinable?

But, scientist theorize, and if there was one big bang, why not more? A multiverse. There is no evil in these educated speculations. People who believe that the age of the universe is over 14 billion years are not evil or misguided. Believing in the evolution of man is in itself not an evil thing.

If a reader rejects what i write, i do not consider that person evil or misguided; we must all have the right to believe what the universe is expanding into. Many a person have considered me evil and misguided for rejecting the book they believe in; this i inferred from being told that i'm going to hell because of my beliefs.

When i was a child, the answer to that common question: where does God live? was often: where the universe ends. So, this planet's God, the One defined in that most human of all books, can it be that God is there in that indefinable beyond this universe and we (our universe) are like a cancerous growth?  

Isn't That Special?

"Issues with God".... well, that was an attention grabber; my issues are with the Bible, but i cannot separate the Christian God, Jehovah, from the Bible, and since that book creates, for me, such a ridiculous picture of the universe i can only reject it and it's God.

I have my own God Almighty that is secure in it's own might that it does not require worship. It just wants to be left alone, and doesn't give a crap about our American football games. Live your life, enjoy it if you can, and let other people enjoy theirs as they wish as long as they are not hurting anyone; that is my God's philosophy.

I speak for myself, of course, and since centuries of thinking by greater minds than my own has not produced a definitive answer to the question of the legitimacy of creation, the flood, the burning bush, or even Jesus.... then why can't i have a say?

"But the Pope....my minister....countless televangelists....even some scientists believe in God."

What makes them so special that we have to believe what they say? What makes their beliefs more believable than mine?

Millions of people have read the Bible and believe, and millions of others have come away from it with doubts. Where does that leave us?

Where we have always been....nowhere.

Grime and Punishment

I don't know about my father's other children from his other wives, but when i came along he'd become devout, and i got at least a couple of good belt whippings, and by "good" i mean bad. That "spare the rod, spoil the child" rubbish he took to heart made his swinging arm all self-righteous.

When the first of our 4 children came along, i had not thought out the best course of action when it came to discipline, i probably thought that my children would be perfect; so when the time came, of course, i had a visceral reaction to my uncontrollable son and took out my belt on a couple of occasions. That made me look back at my childhood and look into modern thinking on discipline and decided that i would never use corporal punishment.

I am now certain that this barbarism sanctioned by the Bible, does no good and is akin to flogging. It only leaves negative effects and i knew that the only chance i had for a normal relationship with my son would be to discipline without humiliation. Once your children know what is expected of them, the rest is maintenance. Strict disciplinarians should not have children, anyway; kids break and lose things, get things dirty, and sticky, and they disobey. It's what they do. God is as strict a disciplinarian as you can get, and look what happened to his children, according to the Bible.

But who wrote these words? That is the question. This "spare the rod, spoil the child" and this story of God's punishment for A&E's sin, who wrote this? Was it our creator, our supposedly loving Father?

     "Dude, listen, i'm busy, got a universe to run, maybe several universi, and you just know they're
going to be spinning in different directions. So, I want you to write the story of man and Earth.... I know, I know, we got off on the wrong foot, a bit of shaky start there, but this book will be the start of the healing; it'll be huge, you'll see. Here are the basic facts.... Write!"

Or was it man's imagination, barbaric, superstitious, often small-minded but imaginative man? The machinations of thinkers concerned with the growing number of cities popping up, "children" that needed guidence, control. Because when a large number of people get together they become a force, and it's own morality, unlike small bands of nomads.

A Shift of Mind

The other night i was awakened by my shaking bed and a low rumbling which i imagined could have traveled from the time of the woolly mammoths; this was my first earthquake.

Actually experiencing this natural occurrence, which was a mild tremor, thankfully, forced me to find a place for it in my imaginary realm in which i am the reluctant king.

So i, as we often must, go back to the begining, back to A&E in the Garden of Eden. There were no earthquakes then; how could such a frightning, destructive, and sometimes deadly occurrence exist in a perfect world? And i think we have established that God gave A&E this perfect world for them to multiply and fill.

Then the unthinkable happened, A&E disobeyed, and it was time to pay. We all know what we had and what was taken away. But wait! God had one more trick up his sleeve in order to make mankind suffer; God rearranges these clumps of rock that we live on so once in a while they shift and destroy what we have built on them, kill living beings, or at the very least, disrupt our sleep. And you wonder where man gets his imagination.

Volcanos? Well, we all need to let off steam, and it's not like they hide from us.

Life Sentence

Sentences organize stories and ideas. Sentences attempt to explain the world we see and attempt to expose the world we don't. I say "attempt" because sentences do not write themselves, people do, and people are sometimes wrong; and it goes without saying that when we try to explain the untangible, it's just shots in the dark.

My mother got pregnant out of wedlock in the mid 50's, left her home town to travel north to live with a family friend and have my older sister. My father was an alcoholic for many years, which caused him to lose his first wife and children; he made his way north looking for work and eventually dried out. They wound up in the same city both trying to put their lives back together. If not for their misfortune, mom and dad would never have met and had me.

You see, that is me using logic to explain a bit of my world, the bit that explains my coming into it.
Is it true, is that the reason i exist? Maybe, but i could be wrong, had my father not been an alcoholic and mom not gotten pregnant out of wedlock does not mean that i would not have been born to them.
But i may decide that that is my story, it satisfies me, it takes me to the next step in my attempt to make sense of my world. Someone may come along later and provide information to prove my explanation incorrect and a reasonable person will accept it and do a rewrite.

People wrote the books in the Bible to explain their world as they saw it.

Death is Taxing

I'm about as imaginative as the next fellow, i guess, so i can imagine people reading me and thinking: make your point already and shut up. So, i want to try that, but if i fail to make my point, in my estimation, i reserve the right to make further attempts.

I think happiness is the absence of something, rather than the abundance of things like money, food, and sex. That thing is ...FEAR! Happiness is the absence of
fear. The fear that you will not have what you need, and the fear of death--maybe, more specifically dieing a horrible death, but really, is there a good death?

Therefore people have devised ways to deal with that fear. One way is to not think about life, because, inevitably, that would lead to thinking about death; death is part of life, the last part. Blasting music in your ears all day long is a common way to not think about life, staring at your Blackberry phone is another. You can wear a robe, maybe shave your head, and meditate on all that is good, peaceful, and glorious about life and not let anything else in your meditations.

Or, you can accept Jesus into your life with all the promises that come with that acceptance, like heaven. You have to follow the rules, though, it's not a free ride, and some organizations actually let you know exactly what percentage of your income you should contribute.

I'm not saying any of these options don't work or are bad for us, and there are many more; another one that comes to mind is the one where you think of yourself as an artist and free spirit, and you only drink green or white tea, and in your spare time you write essays about how religion is more fantasy than reality. There is just nothing like thinking that you are right to distract a person from the reality of life, which is that it will end.

And that's fine with me because i'm one of those people that firmy believe that death is exactly what the name implies: the end. To me it does not imply transition, next stop: death, you will change buses here, connections going up and....down (sinister laugh).

It's just the end of the line.

The Middle Ages

I have something in common with this planet, i am middle aged. How do i know that Earth is middle aged? Because astronomers know that the sun has burned off half of its life, it should burn another 10 billion years or so, but before it burns itself out and collapses, it will expand; in a million years Earth will become noticeably hotter, and eventually it will become intolerably hot.

They know it will happen because it is happening to stars all around us. Some day our solar system will be just cold, lifeless space in the universe. If i think about it long enough, it begins to worry and sadden  me to think of the people that will be around then. Thats how i think mother Earth with all its inhabitants will come to its natural end.

Some people have come to the conclusion that tomorrow is Judgement Day, the rapture, according to calculations from clues found in the bible. If it comes down to that, i'll stand up straight and accept my judgement like a man, i'm sure God is a fair deity; whatever i get, i'm sure i deserve.

As long as we're here, let me just say one thing on my behalf: i never preached to anyone that God does not exist, i never taught my kids not to believe in God, i taught them to make up their own minds when they had all the facts. Ironicly, i think going to church is a really good way to do that. So....let's all keep that in mind....