"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
aeronautics, astronautics and space policy taken residence at
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
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
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
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.
