Updated: 03/15/05
 
 

CHAPTER 22

CLEAR THINKING ABOUT GOD

            Different religions and denominations all give a different description of their God. Be sure to know and state if your God is the Baptist God, or Catholic God, or Muslim God, or Hindu God, or Mormon God, or Shinto God, or Animist God, or Protestant God, or a Mystic God, or Generic God, or Universal God, or some other God. Is your God Unknowable? How do you know? Do you need to know? If God is knowable, exactly How and What can we know about him/her/it?

Now, please stop and define the word "God" for your own enlightenment.

            Did you find the task impossible for you? If you found it easy then you did not think through the problems of trying to define a God. To define any God you must first agree on the attributes and character of a God. You must decide what are the limits of a God. All parts of your definition must be consistent with all the other parts. Almost any claimed attribute of a God is quickly made absurd by claiming any additional attributes. All definitions and claimed activity of a God (that I have read) are irrational, impossible, unprovable, immoral, inconsistent and borders on the insane (on one side or the other).

            The greatest minds in the world have sought to define God - and all have failed. You Must know something about your subject before you can define it or discuss it. No one Knows a single thing about their God, or if there is one. We cannot even make intelligent Guesses. We can Call many things "God." But anything that we can imagine and call it "God,” we can also easily disprove. Why? Because all the claimed attributes dispute each other and we have no measuring stick, no rules, no standard, no comparison by which to call anything, real or imaginary, as "God.” And that includes the Big Bang and Egalflotz.

            In correspondence with a minister friend, he asked me to enter into a dialogue with him on the topic of "God.” My reply was something like this. "If you wish to discuss fog, space, time, motion, gravity, vacuum or such, I can do a reasonably good job. If you wish to discuss Egalflotz, you will have to define Egalflotz for me. God is Egalflotz. Or, I may have that backward. Egalflotz is God. That's it. Since there is only “Egalflotz” to discuss and since we know nothing about Egalflotz, how can we debate “nothing?” He never raised the question again. My friend has a very high IQ. He has also ceased discussions with me. Maybe he will read this book.

            I have said often, "Honest Clear Thinkers have a more moral opinion of what God should be than do those who claim to believe in him."

            If there were a God, he would have had to come out of the Mother of all. Matter and/or energy in all of its varied forms has always existed, does exist and will always exist in some form. Matter and/or energy is the Mother of all. Matter and/or energy can be neither created nor destroyed. The stuff can change into each other, or into other unknown essences. There is no evidence it can be created from nothing. It cannot be destroyed into nothing. It is the only eternal stuff in the universe, so say our scientists. (To complete this study on “God” you must later read Chapter 27 on Creation.) For now, think on Thom’s Law.

Thom’s Law

If there were ever a time when there was nothing,

There would still be nothing.

Nothing cannot produce something.

            Matter and/or energy shows a great proclivity to cluster, to develop, to change, to survive and to conform to set patterns. These patterns, one of which is gravity mixed with magnetism and electrical attraction, cause galaxies to form. These patterns that some call laws, but which are simply our scientific observations, cause suns and planets to form. When certain types of suns combine with certain types of planets at certain distances from each other, they produce chemicals and temperatures that in turn favor the production of self replicating Material crystal chains that soon, by some process, becomes what we term, Fluid crystal forms. They become self-feeding, self-reproducing,  and self-seeking, or "Life.” Given these things, life evolves and develops. These observations are attested to by our sciences.

            It is impossible to determine how tall life can grow. That is, it is impossible to know just how developed life or intelligence can become. It is impossible to imagine the extent to which life or any form of intelligence can develop the physical powers, the psychic powers, the electrical powers, the mental and the mechanical powers of intelligence. Human life as we know it may presently just be the pupa stage for that which we might call gods or superhuman. We may also just be the sperm waiting to find the egg, or for it to find us. Of course, we may be the top of our branch, or the end of our line. We just do not know.

            But there are a few things that we Do know. We know that life continues to develop and evolve, ever pushing itself toward the highest possible form of intelligence and Power Over Its Own Destiny. Life is constantly seeking to escape, or overcome the forces of Nature that are constantly trying to stop this rebellion that we call life and intelligence. Even viruses and microbes seek ways to motivate themselves toward food and procreation against the pull of Nature's gravity and inertia.

LIFE IS A REBELLION AGAINST NATURE

            Man's earnest religious desire and scientific concern is to learn how to escape the limits and boundaries placed upon us by Nature. We claim harmony with Nature, but in reality, we wish to live and exist independently from the laws and rules of Nature. We seek to escape gravity, time, space, death, disease and the multitude of other limitations placed upon us (and all the rest of matter) by Nature. After all, isn't that our idea of man's ultimate perfection - and our ideal concept of our Gods?

            Do our very attempts to define God not confirm this exact concept of our own deep desires, goals and hopes of life? Do we not individually and collectively have this great desire to escape Nature and be gods, or be Like our concept of the gods? Do not our religions try to give us a Shortcut and extend hope that we will have Outside Help in accomplishing this very goal? Do we not seek Eternal Life? Do our scientists not work day and night to alter the destiny placed upon us by Nature? Have our scientists not recently expressed hope that man can live longer, healthier, smarter lives and ultimately escape much of the hold Nature has on us? Yes Indeed!

Intelligence is a rebellion against Nature and her rules and laws.

            Intelligence is the form and force, which that rebellion we call life is now taking. We know if the brain of man continues to develop, he will be able to think more clearly, faster, more logically and free himself a little more from the laws of Nature. Are we not trying through science and religion to escape the limitations of Nature? You can bet on it.

            We also know if man thinks more clearly and more logically, he will become more Just, more understanding of himself, of others and of those things around him. Even a God cannot create a perfect and just man. A perfect and just man must be cultivated and developed. He must be grown in the garden of life. A perfect and just man must have free will. Free will means one must and should make decisions based upon experience and knowledge. Making decisions means making mistakes, and thereby, learning how to do it right - and Why it is right. It is Never enough to know intellectually, what is the just and right thing to do or think. Many know what is right but they constantly find themselves unable to Do the right thing. I will tell you what the problem is. They do not understand “Why” it is right!

            One must Know “Why” something is just and right. When one knows Why something is right or wrong, he has additional purpose and strength to do that, which IS right. One must learn that Right is Best for him and those around him. The only way to know Why something is right is to have Experienced and observed that "Why" in our own lives. Character (learning why) must be Developed. Failures (mistakes) are often better teachers than successes. The only way to develop a good and just character is to have lived it in the company of others, many of whom display the opposite of the good and just character. (That fits believers in the many religions.) Maybe God created religions to train some of us. Maybe he created religions to show us the wrong way so we could find the right way to live, think and act.

            The greatest teachers of how Not to live the good and just life is demonstrated daily for us. These teachers of the Wrong Way are called Christians (Believers).

            CHRISTIANS TEACH US TO BE:

            narrow minded,

            closed minded,

            not responsible for our own actions,

            uncompromising,

            bigoted,

            acceptors of authority (slave minded),

            rejecters of science and knowledge,

            attackers of those who disagree with us,

            liars about supernatural encounters,

            untruthful about our own religious experiences,

            deceivers of ourselves,

            beggars, expecting to get something for nothing,

            child like and

            superior to those who do not believe like we do - and on and on.

            It takes great determination and blindness to the faults of religion in order to develop a good character in one of the Christian religions. The more honest and just the character of a person, the fewer of the Christian teachings that person can observe. That person will seek to open his mind to other philosophies, assume his responsibilities of life, be willing to compromise to get some good things accomplished and lose his hostility and bigotry toward those unlike him. He will learn to seek knowledge and truth in science and life. He will no longer lie about his encounters with God, or make up things. He will no longer classify himself as above all mankind. And finally, he will not ask or expect the Almighty to run his chores for him. He will not seek to instruct God on how to carry out God's daily activities. He will trust God to run the world in God's own wisdom. He will not seek “something for nothing.”

            To never have experienced the success of the "good,” or the repercussions and evils of the "bad" is to be an open target for the bad, the unjust and the wrong. Experience and observation are Necessary in order to know Why something is right. Character takes time living life. Maturity and right doing is a Product of time, experience, failures, successes and Honest Clear Thinking.

DOES GOD HAVE A GOOD AND JUST CHARACTER?

            Where did he get it? Where did God get his experience? How did God arrive at Why something is good and something is bad? You cannot develop character in a vacuum!

            Some people try to describe God as though he were the greatest baseball pitcher in the universe, but they do not allow him either a catcher or a batter, much less do they allow him a team. Now be sensible. No God and no intelligence could develop in a vacuum. We must grant intellectual and knowledgeable development to any God. Such a grant demands that there be other beings with which to interact. So, we are forced to accept that there is not just one super being, but there must be at least a family of them. (This is developed in Chapter 34 on Free Will.)

            If there were a God, not only would he have had to evolve out of matter and/or energy, he would have had to develop his character, even as man is now developing his. He would have had to develop his reasoning power and his Honest Clear Thinking through the stages in which man finds himself and beyond, far beyond. If there is a God, he had to develop the mentality and character to know “Why” good is good and “Why” bad is bad. Only that could make a Perfectly Just God.

            Now Just does not mean loving. It does not mean forgiving, which is not justice at all. Just does not mean vengeful, jealous or manipulative. Just does not mean to interfere, intervene or meddle. Just does not mean forcing a particular outcome or ending on a situation.

            Just means letting things find their own natural level and balance.

            Just means being Honest, Impartial, Equitable and Impersonal. Just means the highest morality to which Any life form could possibly attain. Just implies infinite wisdom and knowledge. Just implies perfect order in thinking and action. Only a God could be truly and fully, Just. To be perfectly Just one would have to be close to the highest intelligent life form that matter and/or energy could develop.

            The Clear Thinkers say, if there were a God, God Would Be Just. No other words are actually necessary to describe God. Just is all inclusive of morality, knowledge, power and goodness. No other descriptions of his attributes are necessary. No more theological discussions, arguments or apologies need to be presented. Just says it all. If there is a God, then God Is Just. (Or would you rather think of God as unjust?)

            But Believers do Not believe God is Just. They believe instead, God is partial, whimsical and shows favoritism to them (that is, to the gullible and the credulous). The believers believe God will punish in hell fire forever, those who honestly use their brain to seriously question and think about what people claim about God. Believers say those who believe and do not think will be in heaven forever and they will share all of the good things of the universe with God (the Just). The believers believe God hates honest thinking, knowledge, wisdom and the experimentation of Honest Clear Thinkers. They believe one must simply accept all of their so-called revelations that have been foisted on man. Man, as a result of his Gullibility, will then have poured into his head all the knowledge and attributes necessary for happiness, for success, for health and for heaven.

            Believers believe God gets confused from time to time in his planning and Just ordering of the world. They believe they must use an editing system called "Prayer" to correct God's unjust mistakes, either before he makes them, or after he makes them.

            These believers do not believe God acts Justly in his dealing with man and the world and therefore, they must remind God what Is The Just thing to do, according to their super wisdom. Believers believe God somehow needs this guidance, wisdom and consensus from those who have not yet learned to even think for themselves. People, who have not yet learned to honestly think for themselves, are able to think for God (the Just). Ponder That for a moment!

            Clear Thinkers conclude they cannot accept the unbelievable superstitions that the believers say are God's revelations to man. Honest Clear Thinkers conclude that no God could set aside his Just thinking and Wise planning and do the bidding of an unjust and selfish prayer. Does God need advice from even the wisest of mankind? Does God need the consensus and vote of men before he is willing to put his Just plan into action on earth? Does God lack wisdom and knowledge so he must have the Christians inform him of the latest conditions on earth and of their blueprint for correcting that condition? Does God lack courage to carry out His Own Just Plans unless he gets confirmation from earth that the Christians are supporting his efforts? Is God that wishy-washy and unjust? Does he sit and wait until he hears from the believers like a Genii in a bottle granting three wishes? Is God really as unjust, impotent and indecisive as the Christian believers would have Us believe?

            Honest Thinkers conclude no Just God could be the author or editor of such an unjust book as the Bible. They conclude no Just God ever asked men to steal from the Egyptians, or stone their sons to death. No Just God ever said to bring all of the captive virgins to the priest and holy men so the virgins could become concubines (prostitutes) for the priests and holy men. (A concubine was a slave and sexual servant to the master.) No Just God would institute slavery and then maintain it when he saw the cruel and unjust treatment given to the slave by the masters. Honest Thinkers conclude no Just God would establish a system where by the guilty went “scot-free” while the innocent were punished in the place of the guilty. No Just God was ever blood thirsty enough to let his own son be killed in order to make people stop thinking and start believing.

No Just God ever had a thirst for sheep's blood,
man's blood, or the blood of his own kin.

            There are several passages where the Bible claims God himself proudly states he lies to certain of the people. He does this in order that those who hear his lies may believe those lies and in so believing and acting on them be condemned by God to banishment into the outer darkness. Now that is a hellish charge against God. No Just God ever said that! Yet, holy men wrote a book called the Holy Bible that says God did say it. Clear Thinkers rightly conclude such a statement is a lie. A Just God never lied to accomplish anything. If there is a God, God is Just. Clear Thinkers think more highly of God than do those who say they believe in him.

            Believers believe God can be influenced by much begging, which they call "prayer.” A Just God could never be influenced by all of the begging in the universe. A Just God does what is Right and Just according to his Own infinite wisdom and justice, not according to man's infinite Begging. Believers even believe this Just God Ordered men to pray (beg from him). This same Just God promised to act according to their pleas. Not So! Somebody lied. Somebody told a fib and wrote that God said these things, when in fact; a Just God could never have even thought of it, much less mentioned a word of it!

            Believers believe they will one day rule over the Universe With God, or even For God. What Is This? Is God planning to go into early retirement? Is God getting old? Does he feel he needs to share the load of running the universe with these sheep? If I were God and planned to retire, I would be teaching my new replacements to Think and to make wise decisions. I would be selecting my trainees from people who have started learning how to think. I would want people who were learning to rightly divide fact from fiction, right from wrong and the moral from the immoral. I would be selecting some Honest Clear Thinkers.

            Wouldn't it be something to die and get up to the gate? Saint Peter is not there. Instead, there is that old honest doubter, Spinoza.

            “Where is Saint Peter?"

            "Oh! He is over toward the back of the universe."

            "Why? The Christians told me he would be here at the gate."

            "They are trying to teach Saint Peter to think."

            "Well, how is he doing?"

            "Not so good. He is still in the first grade."

            "What's his problem?"

            "He can't think! He keeps believing everything the teachers tell him."

            "Well, I am here so who's in charge now?"

            "God, of course."

            "What is he doing?"

            "Same as usual, sending out revelations trying to get men to see how ridiculous revelations are so they will learn to think."

            "Well, no doubt I am done for. I don't believe any of those revelations."

            "Well, HAL-LE-LU-JAH! God will want to see you right away. We need an Honest Clear Thinker to take charge of this new batch of Christians coming in from Ireland. We try to keep peace here so we have to keep the Protestants and Catholics separated. They think they are up here all by themselves."

            Wouldn't that be something? Maybe I just had a revelation! Well, if it can happen then I Might have had one. I certainly couldn't think this stuff up all by myself.

            It has been said man creates his gods in his own image. I conclude such a statement demonstrates more fact than it does fiction. When the Clear Thinker, or anyone else free to think, reads the Bible, he discovers a God who has all of the attributes of a cruel, juvenile, unjust and ignorant barbarian.                      

            This God of the Bible is cranky, wishy-washy, jealous, devoid of justice and wisdom, unfamiliar with science and mechanics, bent on punishing his enemies and living it up with his faithful slaves and servants. He treats women like commodities and chattel and he doesn't trust Clear Thinkers and wise men. He counts them as his enemies. He thinks he knows it all when the evidence shows he knows little, about people, or the world. Somebody lied about God. In the Bible God is pictured as being arbitrary, contrary and unnecessary. Not So! God is Just, or else a religious God does Not exist.

            If the church were creating God today, God would embody the attributes of the twentieth or twenty first century. He would be wiser, more knowledgeable about science, geography, astronomy and above all he would know more about psychology. He would never condone slavery. He would treat women as equals to men. He would never prescribe stoning of children. He would likely place hell some place else instead of in the earth. Angels would not have wings but would fly around in IFOs (identified flying objects). God would be much more personable, more photogenic, more of an executive than a grumpy old tyrant. God would use science in his description of the forming of the universe and he would file the corners off the earth. And Jesus would most likely be an alien scientist or philosopher sent to help us get our world in better shape.

            In fact, there are a couple of religions operating right now that have described Jesus as an astronaut from a very advanced civilization. They have described the Bible as a garbled account of this advanced civilization's contact with the earth in the past. This advanced civilization is going to save us from ourselves and from our science. They are coming again to set up their kingdom on this earth. Ah yes! There will be a brighter day tomorrow! Jesus is coming! And wouldn't you like to know? The believers in those new religions will be the new rulers over the earth when Jesus, the astronaut, comes again. He will show mankind through these believers how to live in peace. Some of the preachers of these new religions say it has been Revealed to them by mental telepathy from the UFO occupants themselves. Jesus has promised these new religions something for nothing, according to these new preachers. And some people Believe It!

            In a way, it is hard for me, or any Clear Thinker, to be serious in a discussion about the Biblical God. The concept is so preposterous it becomes funny. Yet, it isn't funny. It is sad. It is sad to see otherwise normal human beings, shaking in fear and being whipped into religious and political servitude because of a Revelation myth that has absolutely no basis in fact. There is not a single civil source that even mentions the claimed happenings in the New Testament Bible. There is not a grain of logic or truth to back it up. There is not one single scientific hint such a thing is remotely possible. There is not one gram of truth in the whole affair. A Just God had Nothing to do with the Bible, nor its plans of salvation.

            Of course, we must also ask the question, "If a Just God had nothing to do with the Bible claims, how about an unjust God? Or, a Devil God? Or even some powerful super beings in their UFOs?"

            The Bible God is a barbaric concept begun thousands and thousands of years ago when man thought everything had a spirit and a will of its own. The river had a spirit. Sometimes the river rose up and drowned some of the people and some of the grain. Maybe the river wanted grain. So the people marched down to the river, made a lot of noise they called music. They woke up the river spirit and poured grain into the river. Sometimes when the grain failed to stop the floods someone decided the river wanted people. So, they threw people in. Babies or criminals were probably the first, but finally, they settled for a pretty unmarried girl. God does love virgins (or hates them, I don't know which).

            The same thing happened with volcanoes and animals, lightning, storms and earthquakes. Gradually with all the spirits or gods around, a pecking order arose. The highest gods were in the highest heavens. The concept of the father of all gods came. The priests of this Father God worked hard to put down the priests of the other gods. The strongest and most ruthless priests won this debate. Their god became the Father God over all. Their God became the God of the Bible.

            These priests used the Revelations of sin, guilt, fear and prayer to awe the ignorant people. What is amazing to the Clear Thinker is, these same claimed revelations that awed and placed fear in the minds of the barbarians thousands of years ago, also awe and place fear in the minds of modern men. Does modern man still sport a barbaric mentality and morality? (You better answer that one. I don't believe I should.) Such deceptions could never continue to happen if people would begin to Think instead of believing in authorities. It happens in politics too.

            To think means you become your Own authority. To think means you Stop Believing and Start Checking both sides of the matter for the facts. If there were a Just God and he was the least bit concerned about you, God would insist that you learn to Honestly Think for yourself. Maybe Honest Clear Thinkers and Atheists will be the ones God selects to inhabit the future.

YOU HAVE A BRAIN! USE IT!

            To those of you who want a God to worship, make up your own. There is no way you could do worse than did the barbarian priests thousands of years ago. Make your God to suit yourself. Make him worthy of your worship. Make him informed of the sciences of the twentieth and twenty first century. Make him wise instead of foolish. Make him Just instead of whimsical. Make him treat women, children and minorities justly. Make heaven full of interesting things to do. And put some entertainment in heaven like the Muslims have beautiful women. (You better check with the Muslims though and see how these beautiful women are to be selected. Maybe they come from the many virgins who have been thrown into the rivers, volcanoes and such, or burned at the stake by the Christian church.) At least make hell into a reform school where the misguided can learn and graduate to heaven.

            For the Clear Thinker, it is hard to think about a religious Egalflotz because there is no starting point, no plausibility and no possibility. But the Clear Thinkers do know one thing, for sure, about any God, if there is one.

GOD IS JUST!

Next: Make Your Own Religion

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