Fwd: GOD

"...God"

 PLATO/URANIA/HERMES PRESENT GOD - Expanded --- Now with Soul

 proper appeared at googlegroup/rickcosmos-eclectic instead of comsat-ak due to a

technical problem. Problem resolved. Thank God. Below "God" - new version
Now with Supplement; Supplement Coming Soon; Supplement with its own name!

   "The deathbed is a wonderful reasoner.  "Of man's first disobedience, and the

    Many proud infidel hath it humbled and   fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal

    refuted without a word."-Robert Boyle     taste Brought death into the world, and

                                                                    all our woe, With loss of Eden*"-Milton
(We critique our own article which follows: a bit disjointed and A.D.D.-ed; nonetheless,
 points are made and backed-up. We approve.)

                                                                               

                    PLATO-HERMES-URANIA PRESENT GOD

                                  (in a very convoluted article)

                      by Richard DePersio and Citizen Journalist

(Pic 1: Hermes as messenger; Pic 2: coffin. The message was delivered to

 Zeus, Poseidon and Aphrodite; it will soon be delivered to Hades. You will

become cognizant of it in the article subsequent to this one which will be

posted directly after Thanatos* has been properly notified). 

(It's wonderful to have Plato and Hermes and Urania collaborating as they

rarely do so. Their little legacy: Urania's Astronomy and Plato's Philosophy

(his "Man-in-the-Cave Series at www.comsat-ak.blogspot.com ; Hermes'

aeronautics, astronautics and space policy taken residence at

www.quasarpolitical.blogspot.com  - all material written over the past year

and a half still highly relevant and largely up-to-date; please enjoy as we

 worked hard to bring it to you...yes, you...don't lower your head out of shyness

 because the spotlight is on you...take a bow...milk it!).

(As you know, RD/CJ are deist. We believe in a God predicated on reason,

as opposed to, faith. We believe that the existence of God and an after-life is

feasible but scientific developments over the past 400 years have explained

 much of what God and the devil were needed to explain and that it has become

 progressively more difficult to accept and embrace the God of the Bible. Read

with an opened mind).

Roller Coaster Ride: Ticket, please; used safety bar.

BIBLE: God and the Devil sitting on an unbelievably tall mountain which enable

them to see all of earth's surface. It implies that earth is flat! (Otherwise, they

wouldn't be able to see the other side of the spherical earth). God creates

 universe; God thinks that the earth is flat; Bible is the Word of God. Is God

unable to understand the universe that He created. Educated ancients knew earth

 was a sphere. You might say that He didn't want to tell the rest; He wanted them

to discover it on their own. Why must one make excuses for God!?!

Bible: All the animals and plants that existed in the Garden of Eden are the same ones

that exist today: none underwent evolution; none became extinct.

Bishop Usher in the late 17th Century interpreted the Bible and pontificated that

Creation took place on Sunday, October 23, 4004 B.C. at 9 A.M. (The Jews calendar

dates from 6,000 years ago). The good bishop didn't stop there: Adam and Eve

were driven from Paradise on Monday, November 10, 4004 B.C.; Noah's Ark touched

down on Mt. Arafat on May 5, 2348. Most theologians, as well as, most scholars

attested to his brilliance and embraced his dates.

A minority demurred as times were a-changing. Copernicus had proposed a sun-

centered solar system (universe) in the 16th century to the dismay of the Church.

We were special to God, therefore, He placed the earth at the center. However, humans

weren't perfect and there was good and bad on earth. The heavens were perfect and

unchanging. The telescope and the microscope were invented in the 17 Century.

Galileo is often credited with inventing the telescope. Actually, he was the first to

suggest its military use in spotting enemy ships and made a bundle by making

telescopes for the military; he was the first to turn the telescope toward the heavens for

astronomy. He is often credited with inventing the thermometer. In reality, he improved

the original design which led to the modern thermometer. (Torricelli, a student of Galileo

invented the barometer). Galileo is also credited with inventing the compound

microscope while he dramatically improved the invention. Gal, as we call him as he is

a good friend who visits and makes pasta, gathered the observation evidence to prove

the Copernican theory: the heavens weren't perfect and unchanging as there were spots

on the sun and craters in the moon; Venus went through phases which could only be

explained by placing the sun at the center; Jupiter had moons which meant that the

earth wasn't special and at the center of everything. If that weren't enough - and the

Church punished him for his wicked ideas - he explained inertia which would become

Newton's first Law of Motion and the Law of Falling Bodies incorporated into Kepler and

Newton's theories. Learn about his daddy at www.pan-multiverse.blogspot.com

Hutton is known as the Father of Geology. Less then a hundred years after Usher, he

proved that the earth had to be at least several millions of years old. This was the 18th

Century: the Enlightenment. Deism was born.

(Those if you who are familiar with us know that we have been equally critical of

science when circumstances warrant Case in point: Kaku). Those who are familiar with us

doesn't mean a fig leaf isn't in order!).

God brags to Devil: See how Adam and Eve love me, adore me and only do things

to please me. Devil retorts: Of course, they have no choice. Give them free will and

 see which of us they choose. God: I already know the answer. Devil: I dare you;

I double dare you; I triple dare you. Does God say: I don't have to prove anything to

 you. I am God. I know that they will choose me. No; like a kid in a school yard, He

can't refuse a dare. It isn't the only time that the All Mighty succumbs to the Devil's

dares. God, who is suppose to be everywhere, discovers Adam and Eve hiding

and doesn't understand why. As it turns out, the Devil got them to eat from the fruit

of the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil. They are hiding out of

embarrassment at being naked. They finally emerged sporting fig leaves.Why such a

tree? A pattern begins: The loving/forgiving God doesn't understand the concept that

 the punishment should fit the crime. (A fault of His throughout the Old Testament

{Jewish Bible}). A & E aren't forgiven and our kicked out of Paradise to suffer aging and

disease.

Anthophic Principle-Plus: We've discussed the Anthropic Principle in depth at

www.comsat-ak.blogspot.com and why it indicates the existence of a deity and also at

comsat-ak is Plato's Man-in-the-Cave Series wherein we describe what a God based

on reason might be like. In spite of this, the vast majority of astronomers maintain that

earth-like planets are common and that the universe is teeming with life, including,

intelligent life. Didn't they get the memo on AP. Well, if AP isn't enough, how about a

memo on the moon. Our moon is vital to life. The chance of an earth-like planet having

a moon like ours is astronomically small.. Early in earth's history, it was struck by a Mars-

sized object. It had to be just the right size and it had to strike Earth One at just the right

speed and angle. Being 'blessed' with just the right moon being created after the collision

means that there could be land-based life. It means an axis with a 23 degree stable tilt.

Mars has two gravitationally weak moons so that over a period of a few hundred thousand

years its axis varies from 0 to 90 degrees. If that were true of the earth, the radical change

in climate would make it extremely difficult for advanced life to have evolved. The

collision might have jump started life by triggering the process of producing a reducing

atmosphere which we need. After our moon formed in, perhaps, a unique fashion, it was much

closer to earth than it is today creating great tides - churning and mixing the minerals and

chemicals of the primordial sea from which the precursors if life emerged. While it can't be

proven, it is plausible that the moon might have been at the right place and time to take a hit -

 meteor or comet - for us preventing our extinction. There have been at least five mass

extinctions over the past 540 million years and one with our name on it might have been

avoided thanks to our moon. if life formed on the surface or below, it would be like our

primitive alga and bacteria. We profess to have the evidence to be contrary to the vast majority

of astronomers - some of whom are bad scientists allowing their subconscious atheistic 

prejudices and agendas to taint their work which should be as objective as humanly possible

 - suffering from Kaku-itis.

God is everywhere and knows everything. Yet, He doesn't know what happened to

Abel.. He later discovers that he was killed by his brother Cain. We: descendants of bad sibling.

It was 1859 when 'the Origin of Species" was published. By then, the earth was suspected

to be 1 to 2 billion years of age and Charles was concerned that the fossil record only went

back 500 million years. Progress was made: by the 1960s, the earth was suspected to be

over 3 billion years old with the fossil record going back 1 billion years. By the '70s, we were

certain that the age of the earth was 4.5 billion with the fossils being dated to 2 billion; by the

'80s 3; '90s, 3.4 billion; last year, 3.8. Usher out Usher. Buddhists believe in reincarnation,

perhaps, he can come back as a stand-up comic! Scientists have created amino acids - the

building blocks of proteins and nucleotide bases - the building blocks of DNA. The earliest

life may have been self-replicating RNA, 4 to 4.2 billion years ago whose presence might

be impossible to detect. Later, RNA assumed a more subordinate role of a messenger ---

don't tell that to Hermes! Humans might create life within the next 10 years!!! We feel that

that is likely. The idea the computers/robots will be smarter than us and have emotions

by 2030 according to Google CEO, we consider hogwash! A majority of scientists harbor

the view that if you were born in the '50s or '60s that you have over a 60% chance of living

to between 75 and 80. While are growing minority say that you have over a 60% chance of

living to over 150 due to advances in genetic engineering, nanotechnology, artificial body

parts and the growing of body parts! Some are talking in terms of eternal life but we doubt that
 that can overcome the entropy problem.

Later, the perfect God realizes that He screwed-up as everyone has become evil, therefore, He
  must destroy everyone in a flood except Noah, his family and some animals. it would appear 
that the Devil is winning the mountain-top bet! Drowning: what a horrible and cruel death - even

children, even babies! What sin did they commit!?! And, He sends them to hell to boot. He
is guilty of infanticide on three separate occasions. Why do we think that the
children, including, babies got an express ticket to hell? See below.

(Read Genesis carefully and you discover that Adam had a women before

Eve who wanted to be his equal. Adam and God couldn't stand for that; the perfect God erred

 and has to create a second 'better' women).

The modern form if the anthropic principle emerged in early '70s and the modern version of

(flimsy-weak-improbable) multiverse was created from inflationary theory in the '80s and '90s.

The latter being pure mathematical speculation with little, if any, chance if being proven. Was it

subconsciously created because AP was disconcerting to many scientists!?! Kaku rears his

head!

History repeats itself: The 'omnipotent' being who was afraid when A & E (by the bye,

the Bible doesn't say an apple as popularly thought) ate from the tree special to Him

becomes afraid when human beings want to built a tower to reach heaven: the Tower

of Babel! Remember: the Biblical term firmament. According to the Creator, the sky

is an invisible solid not many miles above the earth. Humans are able to cooperate on

such an ambitious project because they speak the same language. He says, "Behold,

they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of

what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will be impossible for them.

Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language that they may not understand

one an other's speech. (You thinking: Bible shouldn't be taken literally*).

Look at the Old Testament and there is a revelation: God not the Devil commits evil; the

few times the Devil does so is when he has God's permission. God destroys Sodom

and Gomorrah except for Lot's family. Where all the inhabitants evil, including, the

children!?!

Let's talk more about punishment: For forty years Moses leads the Israelites, wondering in

the desert, awaiting the Promised Land. One day, God spies Moses getting water from a

'rock' employing a different method than the one that God taught him (he exercised free

will) and God points to the horizon and states: there it is, you waited forty years for the

Promised Land but you're not going --- does the punishment fit the crime! Lot and his family

are told to leave and not look back. You know how women are. Lot's wife's curiosity gets

the best of her and she is turned into a pillar of salt - Lot looses his wife, children loose a

mother --- does the punishment fit the crime!...

Here's a whopper: God stops the sun from moving in the sky! Doesn't the Creator of the

Universe know that the earth goes around the sun, the sun doesn't go around the earth?

According to the Bible, the earth is immobile at the center of the universe. In reality, the

earth rotates from west to east creating the optical illusion that the sun is moving from

east to west. The loving God imposes ten plaques on the people of Egypt for not freeing

the Jewish slaves --- horrible stuff with the tenth being the murder by God of the first

born sons of Egypt, some of whom were children, some of whom were babies. A God who

can stop the 'sun' from moving across the sky (ha, ha) could certainly teleport the

Israelites to  Canaan. These babies went to hell too!!! The Catholic Church invents Limbo
for them --- less God appear evil. Protestants protest to inventions of Catholics: Limbo and
Purgatory which aren't in the Bible. Protestants have no answer. Chalk it up to another
God Mystery!

There were ancient Gnostics who believed that the God of the Old Testament was a lesser

God; more precisely, there was but one God but the O.T. God was further from the center.

He created the universe - this portion. He isn't evil. He can't help himself for he is part of

the outskirts of God a less perfect. He imprisoned some of God's eternal life in human

bodies. And, that they had the sacred prayers fir the dead which enable them to enjoy a

higher place in heaven than those who came to heaven through Jesus

After the Jews were safely across the water that He had parted, He doesn't restore the

water hereby ending the pursuit. No; He waited for the Pharaoh and his army to be on the

river bed and, then, let the water go. After the Great Flood, He saw what BAD He had

done and promised never to destroy with water again. He can't keep His own Word!

Why do we think that the children, including, babies, in both cases, were sent to hell?

Jesus first trick was turning water into wine; a trick done 2,000 years ago by amateur

magicians at parties to entertain family and friends!

As far as free will, you free to choose but you must make the choice that He wants: a

Hobson's Choice!

People think that Peter was the first Pope and that there was unity after Jesus' crucifixion.

Nothing could be further from the truth. You had the Ebonite (let's call them Jewish-

Christians who like Jesus were practicing Jews;, a new Jewish denomination wherein

Jesus was human and the Jewish Messiah. You had the Christian Gnostics. And, you had

the Pauline Christian; Paul who never met Jesus declared that Jesus was the Savior

of everyone and the Son of God. The Apostles were Jewish-Christians. Paul won over a

couple of them, including, Peter. The Ebonite followed in Jesus' footsteps. Paul

hijacked the religion: the New Testament is 2/3 Paul - his letters, his philosophy, his

mission and his interpretation of  Jesus' philosophy which he seemed to mix with Greek

philosophy and religion (later becoming mythology). He took the show on the road gaining

many converts while the Apostles were still in Jerusalem. Later, Emperor Constantine

selected this brand of Christianity - Pauline --- and that was that! The Catholic Church is created.

Theologians attempt to blame the devil or humans but they can't get around the 'fact'

that the loving/forgiving God created everything: Hell; hatred; disease; depression; anxiety;

loneliness; natural disasters which kill thousands. some theologians, in desperation, wring

their hands, and say: God acts in mysterious ways. It just doesn't cut it: evil is evil

whether committed by God or a human. Time doesn't suffice to cover all of His Old Testament

sins!

Does God suffer from multiple personality syndrome: three personalities in one God. Clearly,

the mean and petty God of the Old Testament has nothing in common with the peaceful and

loving God of the New. As we heard a physicist say: God sacrificed Himself to Himself to

protect humanity from himself (Think about it). When Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, they

 no not what they do." Did, the Father (himself) say: You're an embarrassment. The angels

are laughing. You take after your Mother! Smite the Romans. Put a pox in their houses. I

showed you how to do the plague stuff!!!

Why do we think the babies went to hell? The Apostle's Creed: it states that Christ descended

into hell before he ascended in heaven. Why? To give those who lived and died before

Jesus came to earth the opportunity to embrace Him and, thereby, join Him in Heaven. It is

clear to us the  righteous and the children, including, the innocent babes were there. It is

a theological foundation of Western Christian denominations. It was apparently written by the

Apostles - Jewish-Christians and says nothing of the divinity of Jesus. Again, you have

Paul (who never knew JC but liked to call himself the 13th Apostle as did the Roman Emperor

Constantine) lurking in the background.

There was a time when Gods and Goddesses or one God was needed to explain a frightening

world: comets; eclipses; earthquakes; disease; plaques; insanity, etc. And, this enabled the

Church to be feared and financed. Misfortune was the wrath of God being displeases with His

subjects or acts if the Devil. Not so much the latter. It was mostly Gods vengeance.

Over the past 400 years, slowly people are less afraid of the Church as science explains

misfortune. Yet, there are still theologians who claim that God has to constantly control every

atom in the universe!!! He has to wind up the cosmos to keep it running. Today, more and

more people are publicly talking about  atheism, evolution, BIG Bang due in large part to
cable/satellite TV and Internet. In contrast there was a time when few publishers would print 
books on these topics or broadcast radio and TV would air docs or have guests espousing such
 concepts or polite people would raise such questions for fear of Roman Catholic Church. While 
some dare to exit closet as Church weakened over last 400 years, most did not do so until the 
scandals early in this century Have gone beyond outside small intellectual circles. The Bible and
 religion served two purpose: defining morality and explaining the universe; the latter purpose has 
been usurped by science. Going public: has grown from a handful 400 years to a vocal and
noticeable minority today with substantial growing since early this century.

Yet, a minority of scientists subscribe to a particle religious or religious denomination while others of a

God of a different nature and like the great minds of the 17th and 18th centuries want to understand

and marvel at the Mind of God. However, man has embarked a journey that of playing God: We don't

think the He is up to the challenge.

The Word of God? Beginning about 200 years, Pope and Mainstream Protestant ministers began
stating that some of Bible shouldn't be taken literally; it has grown to most. Also due to
Renaissance and Enlightenment, Conservative and Reform Jewish denominations formed. Unlike
Orthodox, they don't subscribe to immaterial/immortal soul in body and later in Heaven nor
the coming of the Messiah (they felt that such concepts made Jews look foolish) --- they now constitute 80% 
of Jews! The Roman Catholic Church's Pope 
in the '50s gave Catholics permission to read about evolution. Strange, we thought God had
granted Free Will! In '86, the Pope said that you can except a God-managed BIG Bang and Evolution
 or the Bible's Genesis and in '96,  it was permissible to think that life elsewhere existed in the
 cosmos. BIG changes since Vatican Two. Centuries of dogma placed by roadside for garbage
 pick-up! Why? So, Church doesn't look foolish. After all, today only less than 10%  take Bible

literally: Fundamentalists; less then 5% in Europe. Hundreds of years of theology is now optional!!!! 

Desperate to survive. Why don't they return to their roots: Jewish Jesus? Best illustrated this

way: late 1600s, Bishop Usher using Bible determines day, date, time and year of Creation.

A hundred years later, James Hutton proves that the earth has to be at least millions of years old!

Less and less for Biblical God to do. There is only one last hope: Is mind and brain one and

the same or intimately related but separate? With mind being soul. The evidence doesn't look

good. We envision a different God - if God exists. We describe our deist God in various posts at

www.comsat-ak.blogspot.com largely in Plato's Man-in-the Cave Series. We would thoroughly enjoy

debating Pope, Bishop Jake and Rev. Graham at the same time with half a hemisphere of our

neocortex tied behind our back! Debating them separately wouldn't be fair and we would be charged

with being BIG Bully!

 "We are all Greeks. Our laws, our literature, our religion, our arts, have their roots in Greece."-Shelley

 We doubt that he was talking about the religion crated by Paul, Constantine, Jesus and the Apostles

 in that order; nonetheless, apropos.