ATIM Newsletter

Dr. Wysong's Blog -
HOLY BOOKS AND RELIGION VS GOD AND CONSCIENCE
PART I

(This is an unusually long blog. In order to effectively deliver it to you via email it has been divided into three parts which will be sent on three separate days, with the videos following PART 3.. The length is necessary to properly develop this sensitive and critical topic for the dangerous times we are living in. Even then I feel it is too short because so many questions can arise for readers. For a more complete and fair development of the subject see, Solving The Big Questions As If Thinking Matters. I am so confident it will help you that it is being offered to subscribers with a satisfaction guarantee.)

Although science, insofar as it obeys reason and facts--as opposed to speculation and ideology--has done much to help us understand our world, it has its limits. It can only explore and help explain the material four dimensions, and, by means of quantum physics, tell us that there remain unknowables underneath our perceived reality such as other dimensions, timelessness, infinity, and irrationality. It most certainly does not, and cannot, explain ultimate origins or purpose.

Unable to grasp these great unknowns, hearing an inner ethical voice, frustrated by the difficulty of obeying it, and sensing that eternity is at stake, we look for help and salvation. Holy books and religions are the first (and often the last) stop in this quest.

But is this our only and best option? Why must we assume that someone else must answer these questions for us? Let’s explore the possibility that we may be created with the capacity to figure these things out on our own.

To begin, we can conclude that there is a truth underlying our reality. Maybe it cannot be fully comprehended, due to the constraints of our material brains and the four dimensions it is designed to navigate, but we know it is there. This great unknown truth that explains everything is perhaps the best definition of God. Each facet of it we come to know is therefore a facet of God.

Truth (God) is not contradictory, is consistent with fact, and is of the highest ethical order. Keep these three criteria in mind when deciding what is of God, and what is not.

By contrast, humans and their works always fall short of truth. Humans may come to know some truths to a degree (math, chemistry, physics, astronomy, ethics, etc.), but we are never responsible for their existence. All we do is discover morsels of the truths that are already here. We are mere explorers and manipulators of the reality that has been given to us. So, in our quest for truth (God), we must be careful to discern that which comes from humans as opposed to that which is an actual reflection of reality and truth (God).

The way to know the difference between truth and mere human, is how the thing, the idea, stacks up in terms of, to repeat, being consistent with itself, in accordance with fact, and ethical. The only honest and reliable tool we have for checking consistency with these criteria is open-minded reason.

Fear not if this exploration means putting cherished beliefs you are absolutely sure about to the test. Could God possibly incriminate us for seeking truth? Is not seeking truth the same thing as seeking God? Furthermore, since we cannot possibly know “the truth” regarding anything, since at any given time our knowledge is incomplete and imperfect, constantly seeking truth is the only honest thing we can do. To settle on a given belief, as if we have determined an end point in knowledge on any given matter, is nothing short of a baldfaced lie.

To find the religion that truly represents God, if there is one, is no small task. There are currently about 4,300. All of them argue they have THE truth. But the road to peace and happiness cannot be one with 4,300 forks in it where people veer off in every direction obeying their interpretation of the words of their holy books and leaders.

The world’s experience with belief in religions and their holy books has not been commendable. Reading the Koran for what it says is the basis for terrorism. Hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent worldwide and countless lives are being lost to fight those who are trying to follow this holy book.

But Jews and Christians should not be too smug. The Bible commands that Jews slaughter their neighbors and loot their cities. Christians used the Bible to justify Crusades, book burnings, Inquisitions and, like the Jews, exterminating any who spread false doctrines. An estimated six million witches (a number contested, but even one is too many) accused of trafficking in demons were burned alive to obey the Bible’s urging to “offer up a pleasing smell to the Lord.”

Holy books and their religions have always pitted one set of people against the heresies of another and soaked the pages of history in blood and human misery. Read for what they say, holy books obscenely celebrate violence. A strong case can be made that the barbarity they condone is not befitting humans, let alone God.

You might say that’s all due to “extremism” and misunderstanding “context” by ignorant bigots only pretending to be Christians. All that is necessary is a proper rendering of holy books to permit the Norman Vincent Peal incandescent message of sweet and light, peace and love to emerge from their pages. All that is needed to solve the world’s woes is for everyone to turn to the Bible. (There was such a time. It was called the Dark Ages.)

We must differentiate what we want such books to say with what they actually do say to actual people, and the actual results they produce in the world. Every time you go through an airport and get patted down, every time we hear of young men being killed on the battlefield, every time there is a Jones Town-type mass suicide, when we watch beheadings, women being flogged until they admit adultery so they can then be stoned to death, when protestants and Catholics kill one another in Ireland, and when people fly airplanes into buildings while chanting holy book verses we should be reminded that following holy books is not benign.

Most religions in modern society are peaceful and philanthropic. But holy book barbarity has not been tamed by a better rendering of texts, but by society’s governments imposing rational and ethical restrictions. Only when holy book followers are told they cannot stone people who violate the Sabbath, date someone of another religion, kill heretics, etc., do believers seek a “new and better understanding” of their holy books in order to remain relevant.

The faith that the books are never in error or unethical, but that it is only our understanding of them that could be flawed, is dishonest since it insulates them from disproof. Something that can be interpreted endlessly, cherry picked for metaphors, be all things to all people (no wonder holy books are best sellers), and never be disproved, is really not saying anything at all. One might as well look to tea leaves and blotches of ink.

Is the confusion in holy book understanding, which leads to thousands of religions, just the price we imperfect book readers must pay for the necessity of having a book written by God? That’s the common assumption. But we need to back up a bit and ask the prerequisite question of whether the only way we can know if there is a creator and have ethical direction is by means of a holy book? Do we really need an unquestioned book and some great unquestioned philosophy to understand our place and dwell on the inner and greater life? Perhaps the only straight and narrow path is for each of us to reach within to hear the voice of inner conscience and duty.