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Meaning of Life |
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Home |
Meaning of Life |
There a God? |
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Catholic Faith |
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The Beginnings of the Universe by Johnny G. Rouse Copyright © 2004 Introduction Strange is this world of ours with its ocean tides, weather patterns, earthquakes and volcanoes. All three states of matter are in constant motion on our planet. The dynamics of this motion generates some wonderful things and miraculous diversity that to date can be found no other place in the universe. There are countless configurations these forms of matter take, with some of them moving about in the form of life. Most life forms exhibit predictable behaviors, while others seem to have tremendous range of actions. The life form with the most complicated behavior is you and I. We have the ability to manipulate our environment, and communicate and generate alternatives that do not seem accessible to other life on our planet. Perhaps the most fundamental difference between humans and all other life forms is our ability to reason. We have a very large amount of brainpower, and are the dominant species and de facto custodians of our world. In discovering and utilizing these exceptional gifts, we have seen the rise of theology, philosophy and more recently, modern science. Our ability to contemplate and communicate these thoughts has led to social systems that have transcended culture and uncovered the greatest gifts as well as perpetrated the most heinous atrocities of our world’s history. We have seen how these social systems often use God and religion for legitimacy. We have used God to stir hate, seek revenge and to justify murderous ambitions. We have used religion to justify slavery, oppression and war. Secularism is the result of atrocities carried out in the name of God or ideologies. The problem is there are about as many concepts of God in this world as there are people. Even within the atheistic community there are different ideas of spirituality that are both personal and egocentric. Often groups of people share similar beliefs based on common upbringings , but even in these cases it would be difficult to find any two people who would give the same answer to any theological/ethical question. This raises doubt for many that there are any absolutes in ethics, and such skepticism is well justified. This has led to the breakup of perhaps the oldest and most admired profession in the Western world, that of philosopher. Historically, philosophers were the thinkers. Some were more specialized than others, but all were well versed in theology, natural philosophy, mathematics, astronomy and even astrology. As more and more knowledge became available in each of these disciplines and technological advances took place, these disciplines required more specializations and the separation of these disciplines became necessary. In western culture, the Church of Rome resisted the advances of natural philosophy, and proclaimed that where the two disagree, the church’s theological perspective automatically prevailed due to its inerrant biblical basis. Eventually, the physical philosophy discipline was forced to abandon theology for the sake of truth and advancement. Much resentment arose from the solidity of the Church’s stand on its traditions and well-established theological model of both heaven and earth. No matter how compelling the evidence gathered by the natural philosophers was, the Church would not budge in its stance. Eventually, the Catholic Church modified its views to accommmodate scientific evidence. But even today we see Christian fundamentalists and science clash. Everything from the age of the earth, to evolution, to the Big Bang are confronted and debated heatedly. There is a more modern movement in Christianity known as Apologetics, where some Christians are willing to defer to some scientific/theological controversies. Again, some apologetics accept more science than others. Some apologetics claim the Bible is inerrant, but misinterpreted; while others claim most of the stories are just parables with moral truths and are at most sensationalized versions of real events. These apologetics wish to reestablish a connection between theology and science. This is what this book attempts to do. Apologetics are concerned that stubborn fundamentalists are doing harm to Christianity and driving Christians away by refusing to accept the scientific reality our advancements have uncovered. The fundamentalists see the apologetics as compromisers of the truth of scripture and its inerrancy. What this all boils down to is interpretation of an ancient manuscript and the degree of revelation it contains from God. These controversies are not exclusively Judeo-Christian; they occur in every major religion. How was the universe “born” and what is our role in it? This introduces the question of dualism of spirit and body. Whether you believe that this dualism is physical or not is irrelevant, because it is a psychological reality without doubt. Do the laws of the universe prescribe any moral certainty? The answer in this book is a resounding Yes! Indeed, moral certainties are known and illustrated in both religion and science. This book will examine this spirit/body problem by attempting to analyze the universe from a theological prospective without violating any observable evidence of science. This work will attempt to reunite the disciplines of theology and natural philosophy of the classical thinkers in honor of their contributions to humanity. I will not prescribe a particular version or traditional ideology of God, but I am a Christian and will utilize my own tradition to explore this topic. I will confront the Big Bang theory and formulate another model that supports the observable geometry and dynamics of the universe in a much clearer manner. Further, I will go beyond what the Big Bang attempts to do by defining what the physical reality was before the big event that generated the universe. We will explore how this relates to the concept of "morality" in defining right and wrong. So let’s get started.  Chapter 1 Genesis 2:4 “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.” The debate within Christendom as to the age of the earth and the meaning of “day” in the Genesis creation story has spawned a rift in the religion. The simple matter of fact is that the earth is much older than thousands of years and that those who support a young earth have ignored the data collected by science for decades. Traditionalists ignore such facts as the distance of objects from Earth and the time it takes light to travel. Some traditionalists argue that God created light in transit. Now, why would God try and fool us? The argument for a young earth is a traditionalist’s stubborn attempt to continue to refute evolution. Although there are many holes in the modern evolutionist model, the acceptance of the ideas of evolution do not in anyway, shape or form suggest that God does not exist. To the contrary, a God who created a planet with life that was able to adapt to changing environmental conditions seems much greater than one who would not. But, there is perhaps one fundamental proposal of evolution that stumps the traditionalist more so than any other, and that is the idea that man evolved from apes. This notion seems to fly in the face of the creation of Adam and Eve as the first humans who were created in God’s image. In this controversy, one must first and foremost determine what is meant by God’s image. What is the image of God, and how do we reflect that image? Is God a man? A Christian knows this is not true, because Jesus himself stated very clearly that God is a spirit. So the actual physical characteristics of our bodies have no relationship to the image of God whatsoever. What is it then about being human that makes us in God’s image? Man was created from the dust of the earth, this is made clear in the book of Genesis. Is this not what evolution teaches us? Absolutely, evolution teaches in much more detail how man rose from the earth. Evolution is far from generating a complete picture and many of the biologist and believers of evolution have rejected God because they say evolution refutes creation. They are as misguided as the Christian traditionalists who dismiss evolution because of a historical conflict between religion and science. This is truly a sad state of affairs and it only serves to dissuade would be believers. It enforces the misconception that Christians are more correct to see God as a great Magician than they are to see him for the greatest of scientists. It is no secret that magicians create illusions and scientists define laws. And if you believe that God prescribed the laws of the Universe, then you must admit that he is indeed a scientist and teacher and not a magician. I feel very safe and convinced that the seven days of Genesis are not earthly days or 24 hour periods, but in fact stages of evolution as described by the author of Genesis several thousand years ago. The next six chapters will describe how God created the Universe with a single law in which all of creation came to be. The chapters will show how the book of Genesis indeed gives us tremendous insight as to how our Universe came into existence. We will also explore the laws that spawned the birth of our Universe and how this law applies to all of creation and will ultimately generate heaven and hell. Within this text we will explore the most puzzling question as to how a good God can allow evil and suffering to exist. We will further discuss the necessity of human free-will and our relationship with the law. It is my hope that after completing this book that there will be greater understanding of our Father and the Universe he has created. Chapter 2 The Beginning Was there a beginning to the Universe? There have been several arguments concerning this, and from a scientific perspective, most astronomers agree that there must have been. From a religious perspective the Universe also had a beginning, where God created the Universe from nothing. Scientists are not allow to be so bold as to start from nothing. Science demands causation, which is why so many scientists reject God as an alternative. They will accept the fact that some unexplainable matter existed without any defined cause and erupted in what is commonly referred to as the Big Bang, but they will not accept without cause the existence of God. This question of how something can come from nothing is the most basic question of how the Universe came to be. Some atheists believe that the Universe had no beginning and that is goes on forever. What a leap of faith this is, and these same people say those who believe in creation are irrational. The problem is that religious dogma created by tradition and historical abuses of religion to achieve power have poisoned many minds to God. And those who do and have historically supported dogmas such as, “God is on our side” and “kill in the name of God” will surely have very dark days ahead for their self-serving misrepresentations of our Father. But surely at some point in the past there must have indeed been nothing, or I should clarify, the only nothing that is possible. During this pre-creation period there was no matter, no time, no opposites; the heavens and the earth were void and without form. This was pure monism, that is to say there were no opposite electromagnetic charges, there were no temperature differentiations and there was no matter to cause different densities. There was absolutely nothing but pure neutrality, total monism. In scientific terms there was a single infinite “neutron” with no quark or particle characteristics. So how was anything possible under such conditions; how could anything happen to cause the Universe that we see with our eyes today? Without some form of paradigm or opposite, there is no possibility for dynamics. In a reality with no opposites, there can be nothing to observe and essentially, for all purposes there is nothing. It is important to remember that God is not a magician or an illusionist, the Universe we live in is real and God created our Universe with science. I hate to disagree with so many, but if you ever hear a discussion as to which the greatest scientist is, do not answer Einstein, Newton or Galileo. The greatest scientist is our Father. How did he do it though, is it some unknowable mystery? Perhaps it has been in the past, but as we all know there is no secret of God that will not be revealed and you are about to know why and how. What is nothing? We cannot even truly imagine such a thing, but in scientific realism the only nothing that is possible is neutrality. Einstein, without doubt a great scientist, showed us through his (energy = mass x the speed of light squared), that matter is nothing more than tightly wound energy. This is true and is the key to understanding how God created our Universe. Indeed, Einstein discovered this for mankind, but God knew it from the beginning and used it to create everything that exists today. The problem is that many modern scientists argue the Big Bang came from a singularity. This may seem confusing, but it is simple to understand. Einstein used a space/time dimension to describe gravity. Time being exactly what we think it is, the measurement of events and space being the great void. The two are combined so that we can understand the actions in our Universe. Space is the place, and time is what is occurring or the change that is happening in that particular point in space, thus we have space/time. This does not mean that space did not exist before the supposed Big Bang; it just means space is useless without change. The Big Bang supposedly occurred at a single point in space, this single dimensionless point is call a singularity. The big bang says some dense mass existed there and expanded in a great fire-ball. Back to nothing and what could be the only nothing that ever existed. If you took all of the matter in the Universe and “unwound” it (remember it is just tightly wound energy), you would have pure positive, negative and neutrally charged energy (remember the atom from science class). Conceptually fuse all of this matter together and you would have pure energy with a neutral charge, as the positive and negatively charged energy would cancel each other out. This is absolute neutrality without mass, form, thermodynamics or any motion or dynamic in which time could be measured. This is the only nothing that is possible; this is the monism we discussed earlier. And this nothingness was void, without form and darkness lay upon the face of the deep. You see, for all mathematical and scientific purposes, this monism is nothing and at the same time it is something. And with this monism there is no possibility of a big bang, there is no matter that can expand. The fact is there never was a Big Bang, and what happened next is exactly how Genesis describes it. It is referred to in this work as the Big Split. There is a movement within Christianity that supports the Big Bang. Although I agree with these apologetics in their goal to restore God in his rightful place as chief scientist, the notion of a Big Bang is highly inaccurate. The Big Bang is being grasped by scientific traditionalists for many of the same reason as religious traditionalist hold tight to the seven literal days of creation. It is to protect “their” territory, as if any man has the right to claim intellectual rights to science or theological rights to religion. Although the Renaissance and Enlightenment served to separate science and religion because of the church’s suppression of progress, it is time for a second Renaissance to reunite science and religion for those same reasons of progress. We are entering into a new dark age, where the natural laws of science are being ignored by human ethics. We are natural creatures, living in a Universe generated by prescribed laws laid down by our Father billions of years ago. Now we must uncover how this neutrality, (a.k.a. the only nothing possible) became the Universe in which we live. No scientific model to date has attempted to do this. The reason being is that there has never been a true understanding of the definition of nothing. Surely our Universe arose from nothing, and if we were to combine all the energy of the Universe it would equal, you guessed it, nothing. Chapter 3 The Big Split Nothing to something, the age-old paradox that has been the stumbling block for every cosmological theory contrived. Theologically, it has posed the question, where did God come from? The nothing to something problem has been a mental wall to the advancement of human thought for way too long. It is now time to break down that wall. As we discussed in the previous chapter the only nothing that is possible is the cancellation of all of the energy that exists in the Universe today. Since matter cannot be created or destroyed, this great neutrality is the only nothing that is possible. This nothing became the entire Universe in which we now live. In science, there is a process that occurs within an atom known as neutron beta-decay. This process has been well documented and yet, there is no apparent reason why some forms of beta-decay occur. One explanation says that the neutron is trying to reach its lowest rest mass. They say the neutron is lazy. I do not support not deny this claim, the fact is that the neutron does split for whatever reason; I prefer to call it a plurality principle where all matter seeks out complexity. What happens is a neutron will split into a proton, which has a positive charge, and an electron with an equal but opposite negative charge. This is exactly how God created the Universe. In Genesis it reads that God said, let there be light and he divided the light from the darkness. That is precisely what he did. He took the neutrality and divided it into positive (light) and negative (dark) energy. I call this the Big Split. The overall charge of the matter is still 0 or neutral, but now instead of nothing, we have something. This is the first act of God in the creation of the Universe. There was no big bang in the sense of a great fireball, it was a Universal size occurrence of a form of beta-decay that created our Universe in a relatively cool and precise manner, and it is how something came from nothing. But, you see there is a problem here. We all know that opposites attract and if nothing were done to prevent it, the Universe would simple cancel out back into nothing. We must revert back to my plurality principle and know that the original monism did not want this to happen. This is where the first measurement of time is possible, and the idea of a space/time dimension of Einstein can be conceived. Instead of the positive and negative simply canceling back into neutrality through electrodynamics, the positive became bound to the neutral. The Universe was created with the very spirit of God, who is all things. It further says in Genesis that God saw the light and that it was good. This is clearly where God bonded the neutral, which at this point is a finite reflection of all things, to the positive (light). This is the standard model of the atom, the building block of all matter. In Genesis we see that God is clearly the supreme engineer that created the Universe, and the atoms are his design. This model is the Law of the Universe and dictates everything that did and will ever happen. It applies to all material things and the Universe's design is based on these first two events. The Big Split gave us opposites in which something could occur, but at the same time the overall charge is still zero and thus you have something from nothing. Further examination of this model also reflects the ultimate destiny of our Universe. The Big Split contradicts the Big Bang in many respects. Firstly, it explains how something comes from nothing. Secondly, it implies that the Universe is not expanding, but rather it is contracting (an issue we will get to latter). The Big Bang uses a phenomenon known as the Doppler effect to justify that the Universe is expanding outwards. All the Doppler effect says is that we can tell that celestial bodies are accelerating apart because the light emitted from these bodies is shifted towards the red of the color spectrum. If they were moving closer there would be a blue shift in the light spectrum. We can see this same effect in our everyday lives with sound waves. As a car approaches we hear a higher tone, and after it passes us we hear a change in pitch to a lower tone. We do see throughout the universe a red shift with a few localized exceptions, but it does not necessarily imply the Universe is expanding outwards. The Big Split also predicts the celestial bodies in the Universe are accelerating away from each other, but it is due to a collapsing Universe. This leads us to the ultimate destiny of our Universe and the fulfillment of the Law of God and his creation. Chapter 4 Destiny and Perpetual Existence The law of the Universe and the Law of the Bible are one and the same. The law is simple; all existence is based on positive, negative and neutrally charged energy. All things are composed of these three fundamental energies and their interaction. The atom provides the model for which all things are to follow, including human behavior. But what if man decides through his own free will not to obey the law of God and Nature? What does the law tell us about the consequences? In order to understand this we must first examine the destiny of the Universe. What I have described in terms of the Big Split creates an entirely different dynamic to the Universe than does the Big Bang. I mentioned briefly in the previous chapter how the Universe is not expanding as the Big Bang explains, but rather it is contracting, or better yet collapsing towards a center of mass. The split occurred in a 3D spherical manner with two hemispheres, one was negative and one was positive. The dynamic of the Big Split created a spin, similar to the visual you see with the standard picture of a spiral galaxy. This spin was created by electromagnetism of these opposite charges being drawn together. This is also where some of the positive and negative energy were annihilated and neutrons were produced. The first atoms of solid matter were also generated in this dynamic. The vortices that were created were of different size and scope, ranging from the quantum (very small) to the galactic. Even still larger was the Universal size vortex in the shape of a funnel and is the product of the entirety of the Big Split. What occurred was the matter created at the margins of the split spun and eventually closed the system and stopped the split. It was at this point that the area of greatest mass (the center) moved to the edge of the sphere (least mass) and generated the Universal Vortex. The spin of the center then had control of the matter inside the now closed system. This vortex of the whole system is the Universe in which we live. Albert Einstein’s General Relativity describes how mass bends space-time and gravity is nothing more than celestial bodies falling into a hole, the more mass the deeper the hole. We see this in the center of our own solar system, with the sun creating the hole in space/time and the earth is rolling around in orbit. This concept also applies to the Universe; the mass accumulated at the center has created a deep hole or funnel in which all of the mass and matter of the Universe is falling. The depth of the whole does not allow celestial bodies’ angular momentum to keep them in a steady orbit, so we are falling towards the center. The closer we get to the center, the smaller our orbit becomes and the more rapid our decent. This applies to all matter in the Universe and this is what causes the expansion and the red shift the Big Bang uses to validate itself. The Universe is an equiangular vortex and we are collapsing towards a final destination. As we move down the vortex, the strength of the center mass becomes stronger, as well as mass is constantly being added to it. What happens at ground zero or where all the mass of the Universe is collapsing is the question we must ask next. This is where we must look once again at the atom. Once a mass hits the “bottom” the mass is crushed, breaking into its fundamental energies. It is here where the charges will be separated into a single atom. All of the positive and neutral energy will form a single nucleus and all of the negative energy will be expelled out of the nucleus. There will be one atom. This atom will continue perpetually as there will be no other material in the void of space in which friction can occur, so there will be nothing for it to interact with, and the law of entropy or the second law of thermodynamics is no longer applicable. This is where perpetual motion will be possible and the Universe will survive in this form for eternity. In the first chapter of the book I promise that I would describe the nature of God’s creation and the law in which he laid down. I have gone on now for three chapters about the physical Universe in which we live, how it operates and what its ultimate destiny will be. What I have described above is much simpler than the Big Bang and there is no need to make up any new particles or dark matter that mainstream, contemporary cosmologists so recklessly pursue. The description also explains why the images of the Background radiation that Big-Bang proponents use to validate their claims, has the unexpected symmetries that it does. There is no observed evidence that contradicts the theory I just laid down for you, matter-of-factly, the simplicity of my theory and its adherence to observed phenomena make it a much more suitable model than does the Big Bang. Now that I have explained the physical Universe, it is time to examine the role of mankind into the equation. The physical laws have definite implication to the destiny of the human race. What we can learn here will express and explain some of the most fundamental and controversial questions of good/evil and an all perfect God as well as what our part is in our grand Universe. I will explore what the role of Christ is and why all of the faiths of our world have strayed away from the “light”. Although many have argued that it is dangerous to apply the laws of the physical Universe to the laws of man, we cannot allow Hitler’s Social-Darwinism and it’s prescribed atrocities to restrict the ultimate pursuit of knowledge, which is a solid, peace loving ideal that allows mankind to be free to explore their personal, individual relationship to God and nature. The goal of this work is not to justify one faith over any other; it is to find the common thread that links us all to our creator and to understand the ramifications of not following his laws. Chapter 5 Natural Law Are there rules in nature that mankind can use to prescribe his morals? This is the question that generates the discussion on the dangers of laws based on religion. If one has a different belief of what, if any, ultimate moral authority exists, does that person have the right to individually or collectively impose that belief on others? The attempt I am making does so, but to the effect that it forces liberation through the natural law and God’s will. So the natural law is to the effect that there are natural consequences to the violation of the laws of God. Laws made by men are for the service of man and society and should be prescribed to protect people from physical harm and not moral or psychological harm. To simplify, there should be laws to detain a murderer, however any law that requires another to violate their personal religious beliefs that do not cause physical harm to another is unacceptable. Although these are serious questions that will be discussed further, let us explore the natural law that results in natural consequences. In answering this question, social morality itself will be tackled. In the description of the physical Universe, which was defined in the previous chapters, we discussed how what the ultimate destiny of the Universe will be. We discussed how once matter reaches the center it is there where all matter will be separated into its fundamental charges (positive, negative and neutral) and they will be separated with the positive and the neutral in the center and the negative being cast out. There will be but one single atom that will continue eternally. This too will be what happens to the spirits of mankind. The human body is made up of atoms and all of the fundamental charges of positive, negative and neutrally charged energy. The gross charge is neutral when you add it all up. We as humans have choices that other creature in nature do not have. We can choose to do that which is good or that which is evil. The good represents the positive and the evil represents the negative. Our action determine the nature of our spirit, are we givers or takers. Do we follow the light or do we follow the darkness; do we do that which is good or that which is evil? The laws of the Universe and God also apply to us. If we align our neutral bodies with that which is good, then we will dwell in the center on “Judgement Day”, this is heaven. If we have aligned ourselves with that which takes or darkness/evil, our spirit will be cast out into the darkness for eternity. This is the law of nature and of God, it is destiny and unavoidable. Your spirit will be bonded with either one or the other: goodness or evil, darkness or light, positive or negative. This is the natural law and where individualism is rooted. Your country can’t choose for you, and your church cannot select how you align yourself. This act lies within each individual and you and you alone are responsible for how you choose to live your life. This is a very simple law. This is the natural law that furnishes all religions with their ethic. Unfortunately, this law, based on individual responsibility, is often use by politicians and clergy to frame traditions and loyalties they prescribed as laws of God. These men who use God to support their individual prejudices and historical traditions are traitors to the light and the law. They use their titles and “authority” to generate hate, distrust and jealousy in the name of God for the purposes of their own selfish motives. They call upon nationalism, religious and ethnic supremacy to subdue their enemies because of their love of money, power and this world. They have no faith in the supreme promise of eternity and their only motive is to accumulate as much wealth and power as possible in this world and not the kingdom of heaven. The law is simple to understand but not so simple to apply. We are beings of flesh and spirit. But, we must remember not to let the lusts of the flesh enslave our spirits. Our actions and deeds must be made not to reward our flesh but to reward our spirit. It is not an easy thing to do, but once you begin acting on these fundamentals it will be rewarding. The reward will not necessarily be of material possession, but rather contentment within giving you the warmth similar to that of a child on Christmas morning. The treasure you will accumulate will not go towards paying your mortgage, but rather for paying you admission into the kingdom of God. Align your spirit with that which gives for no earthly reward, and the rewards you will reap will be eternal. Align your spirit with that which takes for your flesh and recognition in this world, and you will be locked outside of the kingdom with no chance of entrance. These are our choices and ours alone to make. This Judgment Day when all material, flesh and spirit will be separated is inevitable. We have discussed the ultimate destiny of the Universe, in the end there will be a single “atom” where the positive and neutral are bonded to keep the negative out in the “bottomless” void. Do not confuse the idea of neutral in the center with the warnings of Christ about neither good nor evil, you cannot walk the middle road. You make a choice to do good or evil. If you do not choose to pursue that which is good, positive or gives and follow the light, then by default you have aligned yourself with that which is evil, negative or takes and the darkness. Each choice is available to us all and each has its reward. This natural law is apparent in both science and religion. It has been known long before the atom was discovered and is described throughout the holy scriptures of all major religions with various accounts through metaphor and personification. The most important lesson to be learned is that God is spirit and not a man. It is also important to know all matter including our own flesh is nothing more than tightly wound energy. Jesus once said that within each of us is the power to move mountains, surely the amounts of energy so beautifully and stably contained within each human body is tremendous. If we could use fission to release all the energy contained in your little finger, the entire earth would be moved, amazing to think about. We are not perfect beings and cannot be so. However, we must strive for perfection. We shall stumble; to err is human as we have all heard. But, what are the intentions of your life, what is your vision? A little psychology for us, we should never plan our emotions. In this regard, a plan with emotional expectations is often responsible for disappointment or even being offended. These planned situations sometimes are fruitful, but often times lead to negative emotions. The key to living rightly is to live in the now and not the past or the future emotionally, keep constant a positive attitude with good intentions. But, since we are such emotionally driven beings, we cannot not help but find ourselves in less than positive moods. We must catch ourselves before we turn negative and to the way of trespass. We are human and know we will sometimes and more often than necessary, find ourselves in situations that are in opposition to moral beliefs. Such opposition creates a cognitive dissonance within us. We have to train ourselves to recognize such an occurrence as it happens. Not until we do recognize this and change our negative emotions can we turn back to the positive because the dissonance must be mentally addressed. Much too frequently, we address this dissonance with actions directed to the external cause of this internal phenomena. These actions can range from ignoring your antagonist to arguing and rarely even attacking. We even plan to avoid negative emotions in the future. This often carries us down a path of lies. We lie in order to avoid the emotional outcome of a particular situation. We lie to avoid the emotional dissonance of a negative consequence, in turn creating dissonance through our dishonesty. Our emotions are our greatest gift and often biggest foe. The key is to learn to recognize your emotional state and use this to consider your actions, a positive action will eliminate the dissonance, a negative one will strengthen it. This is very difficult to do, however, like all things practice makes better. It cannot be achieve however, unless we dedicate ourselves unconditionally to do that which is right towards others, the golden rule always applies. Always love your neighbor even if he is your enemy. We can see that the natural law requires us to be loving, honorable and generous to all of mankind. Notice here that it does not imply you should only be positive to your fellow Christian, Muslim, Buddist or Jew. The fact is that no one knows the individual relationship another person has with God no matter their religion. The law of God transcends all that was ever was or ever will be written concerning the beliefs of men. Chapter 6 Religion When writing on religion one has to be careful when seeking to reach a popular audience. Why is this the case? Religion is a spiritual history of a culture. Even in our modern days after the destruction of the Native American cultures and oral traditions and the spread of monotheism of the Middle East, we have a rich diversity of cultural perspectives and religious beliefs. Even most non-monotheistic religions have a most high God and lesser gods ruling such things as the weather, the planets, the wind, etc. It is human instict to deduce nature and the universe to one, taking it to its most fundamental source. That source is God, the Almighty, the most high, the Father or nature itself. Now we must explore how this source is viewed by different cultures and ideologies. Let’s begin with a story. Thousands of years ago there were four friends: North, East, South and West. The four friends had been like brothers since childhood. They went to temple together since they were old enough to remember. The four had decided that their village was too small for them to find suitable work to provide for their families, so they packed up their belongings and with their wives traveled out to search for their home, their destinies. The friends traveled through the wilderness for many months in search of the perfect home. The wives, as was the case with the men, had known each other all of their lives and they too were the best of friends. Early one morning after the eight of them had breakfast and packed up their things, they began their journey from the south with North leading the way. As they summated a large hill, or small mountain, North stopped dead in his tracks. Before them was the most magnificent vision any of them had seen in their brief lives. The focal point of this natural artistry was the most spectacular mountain they had ever seen. It must have been a five-day hike away, but they all knew at once that their destiny beheld them. The white-capped summit towered the smaller mountains that formed a crown around their superior. The eight of them all sat down and traveled no more that day, they were hypnotized by the beauty and majesty that lay before them. They all fell to their knees facing the mountain while thanking God for his precious gift. The next morning the travelers arose before sunrise, and began their caravan the moment the sun peaked over their mountain. By night fall they were at the base of their new home and began planning the exploration of the mountain. They agreed that they would split into their 4 households and explore separately, meeting back at base camp in two days time. Naturally North and his bride were well on their way around the mountain before the others had risen. North had been given the area to the furthest side of the mountain. West had the left, East the right and South had the area directly up and in front of him. The group was excited, finally they had found their home. In two days time, South was at the base of his quadrant of the mountain. And one by one they all began to show. They decided that at the summit of the mountain they would build a temple to God and each couple would settle their particular part of the mountain, this is how we came to name the compass accordingly. The first order of business was to raise the temple. On the summit was a lake surrounded by maples and oaks that reached the heavens. The temple was erected in less than a month and was modest in stature and adorn with designs of the natural surroundings. The temple was built around the tallest Oak on the lake. The Oak served as a centerpiece for the alter where each week the friends placed portions of their bounty to be shared among them. Upon completion of the temple the friends began work on their individual sides of the mountain. North had a beautiful mountain stream running the length of his property. In the spring the stream would become a river and provide ample supply for irrigation and crops. The south was blessed with precious stones and an abundance of natural black berry bushes. The east had large pastures and an endless supple of deer, rabbits and wild boar. The west was loaded with fruit trees, large herds of oxen and perhaps most importantly a cave in which a natural pool of oil formed perpetually from the deep. The four were truly blessed and thrived on the mountain. They worshiped, shared and traded together in a perfect system. They had many children that were raised on the mountain. The four brothers had a total of forty children among them with North have fourteen, West had six and East and West having ten each. After many generations and the passing of the original friends the mountain was full of descendents of the four. What was once an endless supply of resources for the children had become scarce. Some of the children lived in poverty and war soon broke out among the four kingdoms. The Northern Kingdom claimed that they were the proper carriers of the message of God and should have control over the temple and the lake. They claimed that God was on their side and that their chief was his messenger. The south said this was ridiculous that their chief was the descendent of the friend that first established the lake and their side of the mountain faced “the way”, meaning the direction from which the friends traveled to the mountain. The chief of the East claimed that God had given them control over the beast of the earth and the chief supple of animals for sacrifice. He claimed that such a gift implied that he should control the mountain and form the doctrines of the proper worship of God. He claimed the other tribes were heretical and did not worship the God of their fathers. The West claimed there was no God and that the mountain itself was God. Their chief insisted that God was an illusion used by the other rulers to start war. He claimed that the lake atop the mountain was of more value than any temple, because it was built by nature itself. The tribes battled for many generations for control of the temple. Thousands died in the name of God, with each tribe claiming that they had the blessing of God to destroy the false prophets of the other tribes. Each had an era of control and each at some point had control of the temple. The mountain would never again reign in peace as it did when the four best of friends traveled far looking for a home to begin their lives. None of the tribes knew the kinship their forefather shared nor that they all had betrayed the God of their fathers. They were all lost, and death reigned upon the great mountain. This great war has traveled far from the mountain and we continue its legacy to this day. Certainly this is fiction, however the truths that underlie the story are so very true. You see there is but one god who has been given many names. Whether you call him Jaweh, Allah, Tien, Tao or any other name there is only one ultimate. There are many different ideas of God due to geography, traditions, culture, natural resources, etc. But, ultimately we are all talking about the same God that none of us truly knows. If a conservative Christian born in the US had been born in Saudi Arabia, that person would in all likelihood be a Muslim. Would a great, all powerful God punish a person eternally because of the place of their birth, I think not. As the children of God the world must learn to mature and become wise to the reality of these separate traditions. We must look past the semantics and the rhetoric so often used by our “leaders” to divide us. This is ultimately the purpose of this book. I am a Christian by birth and believe that one must believe in Jesus to achieve salvation. So what I must ask myself is who was Jesus? Was he merely a man who was killed by Roman soldiers 2000 years ago? No, he was much more than that, it is written that he was in the beginning and that he is the light of this world. If you believe in the light and goodness and that which gives, then you do believe in Jesus regardless of whether you know anything about his time here in this world. However, being a Christian does not entitle me to lay claim to exclusive rights to describe God. This theory that I have presented to you concerning the laws of the Universe is the key to finding a common ground among all religions. We must learn to respect the traditions of other societies and understand that our own view are based on our own surroundings. Never would I say to abandon your faith and your traditions, but what I do say is do not let your traditions send you into eternal darkness. For surely what I am telling you about the ultimate destiny of the Universe will not distinguish between those who call themselves Jews, Christians or Muslims, but rather you will be judged in how you aligned yourself here on earth. Are you a giver or a taker?. Have you aligned yourself with that which good or that which is evil? Have you aligned yourself with the light or with the darkness? The laws that God laid down upon the creation of the heavens and the earth are not concerned with where you live and how you show you respects to God. What the law is concerned with is how you treat your “enemy” and how you live your life. If you live by the faith and example of the light then you a free from the law, but if you live by the darkness the law will be merciless. Chapter 7 Afterthoughts What this work has attempted to do is unite theology and cosmology with a single structural system. The major reason for such an ontology is to bring the work of God as lawmaker of both morality and science. Furthermore, I have attempted to answer the question of why a good God/Creator would create the perceived evil that our planet experiences every moment of every day. I hope to dispel the notion that God and science are incompatible, and the idea that science can prove that God does not exist. I further attempted to show that different people of different cultures are not condemned because of these de facto realities; there is a common idea of goodness in most faiths and this idea is also seen throughout nature. There have been significant strides in cosmology as of late. Evidence is mounting and the cosmological principle (there is no special direction in the Universe) is facing some major challenges. The system I have discovered has strengths that cannot be ignored and has supporting evidence, which cannot be denied. Although there is much more to learn about our Universe, God and mankind’s relationship to both of these, this model and it’s dynamics is a great conceptual starting point for both science and theology. The future looks bright for cosmology, theology and human relations. The applications of a simple principle can be applied to the study of each of these disciplines. The system presented in this book will have a positive impact on the advancement of human thought, relations and globalization. It took hundred of years for science to separate itself from religion in western culture and it is time to back off from this trend. Although, scientific method should be maintained, no scientist can find proof that God does not exist. Similarly, theologians should be hesitant in claiming that scientific advancement is wrong, simple because it contradicts a previously held “interpretation” of a particular religious scripture. God’s work will never be fully understood because of human prejudice of both physical and psychological origins. Physically, we are limited by our five senses coupled with our lack of technology to overcome these limitations. Psychologically, we are limited by our culture and theological mindsets. The hope of this work is to develop a system that can be utilized universally to overcome these prejudices and at the same time give us a structural system in which to study both science and theology. Although, this work was written from a Judeo-Christian perspective, the system can be applied to any religion that holds there is a natural law that defines right and wrong. The system only requires that mankind be true to the principles of neighborly love and charity. With the honoring of these principles that are evident in nature itself, the spiritual advancement of mankind is limitless. Mankind has two choices in this new age of globalizations and rapid communications. We can allow our cultural traditions to continue to divide us, or we can become united under a single ideal of cooperation and understanding. Today’s technology provides a double-edged sword. One edge is that of traditionalism and self-preservation which can only escalate conflict in a world with ever increasing destructive power. The other edge can allow us to understand our differences and find our areas of common ethics and mutual interests in a peaceful world. May our Father and creator lead us in wisdom and knowledge as we continue our quest to understand his universe and the role we are to play.  | Everyday Living Help | Beginnings of the Universe | | Return Home | The Meaning of Life | Is There a God? | Prayer | Teachings of Christ | Our Catholic Faith | Music | |
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