Remembering Bush

George Dubya Bush, during his illustrious career as head of the most undemocratic administration ever, managed to chalk up at least 950 days avoiding work at the office. Even Ronald Reagan didn't have the guts to indulge himself in that much slacker-time.

Even so, Bush and his cohorts made indelible scars upon democracy almost from the start of their highly questionable acquisition of high office. By January 2001 Vice President Cheney was setting the tone of the nation's energy policy with the secret input of oil executives. Then poor Bush had to cut his month-long vaction short in March to listen to the annoying briefing that Osama bin Laden was determined to attack the US. He snorted that the report was unimportant. But after the September attack Bush feigned indignation at the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, saying, "This crusade, this war on terrorism..." was going to take time. By December, even though the terroists were known to be working out of Afghanistan, the White House was fully immersed in plans for invading oil-rich Iraq!

In January 2002 Bush sneered that Geneva Conventions didn't apply to any war plans that he had, and stated that he was, to quote, "not that concerned with finding bin Laden." Filled with democratic zeal the Bush crowd then asked the NSA to begin warrantless wiretaps. By August Bush's lawyers in the Justice Department had drafted the "torture memo."

In the 2003 State of the Union message, Bush falsely declared that Iraq sought uranium from Niger, which an apologist later shrugged aside with the statement that Bush "is not a fact checker." And by March Bush got his "preemptive war" going by dangling the carrot of "missles of mass destruction" in Iraq before a doubting public, and Vice President Cheney's of company, Halliburton, was made recipient of a five year $7 billion NO BID contract in Iraq. As looting quickly became rampant in Bagdad, Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld shrugged it off with "stuff happens." By May, Bush theatrically declared "Mission Accomplished."

2004: as hundreds of US soldiers died in Bush's extended "mission accomplished" farce, the White House forced the news media to withhold all photos of flag-draped coffins of fallen service men being returned home. In May it was disclosed that the White House had created fake news reports in an attempt to privatize Medicare and link it with the stock market. And in June Dick Cheney was still publicly pretending that Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda were in cahoots.

2005 saw administration dealings kept well concealed. Useful in this was such "humane" illusions as Bush's much publicized "pro-life" move to keep Terri Schiavo on life support system. In June the reality of global warming was edited out of all reports by the White House Council on Environmental Quality. November of 2005 found Congress being lied to about all the secret meetings that oil executives continued to have with Cheney.

In January 2006 Bush blatantly lied "I don't know him" in reference to Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. In February a top climate scientist was, in effect, barred from publicly explaining the dangers of climate chages. In April six retired generals publicly advised that Rumsfeld should resign. As hurricane Katrina roared toward New Orleans in August, the FEMA staff was actually ordered to stand down! Bush later tried to sidestep poor management of the disaster by saying that no one thought the levees protecting New Orleans would give way. However, videos later came to light that the Bush crowd had been warned about the possibility of levee collapse. As 2006 was closing (December), seven US Attorneys were illegally herded into resigning for not being "loyal Bushies."

In February of 2007 the public was shocked to learn that care for wounded veterans at Walter Reed Hospital included cockroaches, mouse droppings, and outright neglect. March saw the extent of Abramoff's dealings (whom Bush "didn't know") with with Department of Interior's number two man, J. Steven Griles, pleading guilty of related obstruction of justice tactics for Abramoff. In April, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told Congress investigating the circumstances of the seven US Attorneys being illegally forced to resign that "I don't recall" for a total of 64 times. In June, Cheney sought to excuse himself from his covert dealing by claiming he was not part of the executive branch! In August it came to light that the CIA's secret prisons used torture methods that violated national and international law. By December all CIA waterboarding video tapes had been destroyed, and Congressional Democrats were demanding to know why.

March of 2008 found Bush whizzing through Afghanistan where he told the genuine defenders of democracy, "I'm a little envious of you." In May the Special Counsel office, the office supposedly established to protect federal whistleblowers, was raided by the FBI only to find that all files on whistleblowers had been erased. To show his great affinity with US service persons, Bush claimed that he hadn't golfed since August of 2003. He apparently forgot his October '03 golf game. June news revealed the eighty percent of "liberal" applicants considered for hire by the Department of Justice were illegally discriminated against. And in July it was disclosed by an ex-Environmental Protection Agency official that the public report on climate change had been edited by Cheney's office. Meanwhile, Karl Rove, Bush's strategist, thumbed his nose at the subpoena handed down by the House.

The last remaining days of Bush-league politics are sure to hold some more fancy footwork--especially in setting up of elaborate pardons to avoid the responsibility for the countless deceits and profiteering that this administration has spawned. Let us pray that true justice is at last served again once the Bush administration's corruption is swept out.

'Tis the Season

At this time of year, as the hours of daylight grow progressively less in the Northern Hemisphere, western religions (especially Christian) burst forth in lavish displays of belief that a one-time soul-saving event occurred just for them. In truth, that which is being celebrated is the celestial panorama and the season that has set the pace of life on Earth for many thousands of years

Astrological elements are the basis for most scriptural stories. For example, the seasonal change occurring with the winter solstice signals a time of new beginnings. That is the meaning behind the word solstice, which comes from the Latin solstium, from sol, meaning Sun, and sistere, past participle of stit, meaning "to stand." The illusion that the Sun moves periodically southward and northward is caused by the Earth's axial tilt as it orbits the Sun. For life in the Northern Hemisphere the Sun appears to reach its most southern point on December 21, and appears to remain stationary for three day's time, after which it appears to move northward again--on December 25.1 In pre-Christian Rome the 25th of this month was known as Natalis Solis Invict, meaning "birthday of the Sun."

With the approach of winter, the star Mizram (in Canis Major) rises upon the eastern horizon. The name Mizram is said to mean "The Announcer," for it precedes the arrival of the star Sirius, seeming to announce the greater light to come--just like the biblical John the Baptist is portrayed as announcing the coming of Jesus.

The month leading into the solstice carried great significance in ancient cultures, and it is from the Pagan study of astronomical movements that the observance of Advent was incorporated into Catholic formality--which allows four Sundays to make ready for the light (personified as Jesus) to come back in glory.

In Judaism, the festival of Hanukkah, meaning "dedication" (to light), is observed within the same seasonal period of the winter solstice, being celebrated from the 25th of Kislev to the first of Tebet of the Jewish calendar.

On the surface the connection of the Muslim fast of Ramadan to the winter solstice is less obvious--due to Mohammad's (or his scribe's) misunderstanding of Jewish/Christian myths that allowed for ceremonial observances of the winter solstice period. The Muslim celebration of Laylat-al-Qadr, meaning the "Night of Power," is held on the evening of the 27th day of the ninth month of the Muslim year. Although not as obviously related to recognition of the light phenomenon at the winter solstice, the fasting and rites are in reference of the feeble light after which light increases.

1 These points are covered in greater detail in my book The Celestial Scriptures; Keys to the Suppressed Wisdom of the Ancients. ISBN: 0-595-20913-0. Available through Barnes & Noble: Amazon: Borders, etc.

Runaway Fruitfulness

Back in 1942 the world population was calculated to be two billion. Today, in a mere sixty-seven years, the world population is hurtling toward seven billion!

For some head-in-the-sand reason, world overpopulation has been pretty much treated as a taboo subject for too long as a media concern. This avoidance is practiced in spite of the fact that global poverty and possible ecological catastrophe are directly tied to the explosive increase of human lives.

Once upon a time, of course, multiple children were valued as a resource for the parents in their declining years. Technology and science contributed toward healthier offspring and protection from diseases, so runaway fruitfulness was/is no longer necessary as a means of self-insurance.

The so-called sacred books of man's religions catered to this preservation tactic, and in addition almost universally indulged in the idea that exploiting the planet was their "divine right." The instruction for this was supposedly stated by god: Be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28). At that particular point in the priest-written story, the "man" created in the image of god was something like a hermaphrodite. How "he" was to "replenish the earth and subdue it" hovers like a divine mystery: sexual reproduction could not have been an active issue until after the strategically placed "forbidden fruit" had been nibbled (chapter three of Genesis).

This "revealed wisdom" and instruction, unfortunately, implied that all entities are expected to become breeders for god! Leaders of most religious sects all subscribed to that teaching for the simple reason that it assured an increase in their followers. This is still the mindset of those seeped in the illogicality of religious storytelling and look upon bearing numerous children as an expression of god's love and abundance. This irrationality is so pronounced even today that various national leaders advocate childbirth bounties!

The present world population is ecologically unsustainable. History has shown clearly that in periods when human population increased up to sevenfold there followed disasters of unpresedented food shortages, escalating prices for essentials, followed by rampage and riots--even cannibalism. But still we have religious resistance to contraceptives, sexual information, and taugh aversion of same sex attraction--which well may be Nature's way of keeping resources and life forces in balance for a habitable planet.

"Charitable Choice"

During the drafting of the Welfare Reform Act in 1996, the then-Senator from Missouri, John David Ashcroft (R-MO) advanced the idea of "charitable choice." The reference-label was something of a misnomer, for the covert intention of the program was to provide a wedge for that would permit the government to fund religious groups and ministries.

Within weeks after George W. Bush swore upon two Bibles at his inauguration in 2001 to uphold the Constitution he was leading the charge in support of the "charitable choice" policy. And John Ashcroft was installed as his Attorney General. A self-proclaimed "Born Again Christian," Bush quickly sought to distribute federal tax money to ministries, ostensibly to provide social services that were already provided through secular grantees and government agencies. The policy sought to alter the existing laws in a manner that could utilize the power of the federal government to support Christian conversions--a move that is in direct opposition to the religious freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Using tax dollars to fund churches and ministries to represent government social welfare is, in itself, unconstitutional. Add to this that "charitable choice," as attempted, intentionally avoided any protective safeguards that would prevent religious coercion and abuses. Incorporating religion into publicly funded programs had always been avoided by the government sometimes contracting separate entities of religious institutions and in that way established safeguards that protected the rights of the disadvantaged, the interests of all tax payers, and insured the integrity of the groups providing welfare.

Although charitable choice became part of the welfare law in 1996, the constitutional concerns caused democracy's representatives to hesitate in implementing the policy. Many saw it as a disguised way of forcing taxpayers to subsidize religion whether they believed in it or not--clearly a means of sabotaging the constitutional principle of separation of church and state.

But Bush like to think of himself as a god-chosen leader, and seemed hell-bent on applying charitable choice to practically every aspect of government funding. The resultant and unending hoopla made democracy tremble, alarming civil rights and civil liberties groups, educational and social communities, and even the more rationally balanced religious communities.

Providing social service can be a noble endeavor for religious groups, but the faith-based initiative as attempted is a policy that is concerned with neither democratic principles nor relgious liberty.

Militant Faith

Disrespect by the US military for the First Amendment rights of soldiers--the rights of free speech as well as the rights of religious freedom, which include the freedom from religion--have been increasingly demonstrated by uniformed Chrisitan evangelical fanatics for decades. Those indulging in religious promotion and discrimination have ranged from Brigadier Generals down throught the ranks to staff sergeants who have actively endorsed and participated in evangelical promotions

A watchdog organization, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) investigated complaints of more than 5,000 active duty and retired soldiers through 2005 to 2007, many that served or were still serving in Iraq that had been pressured by their commanding officers to embrace evangelical Christianity. Complaints of similar holy harassment continue to this day.

As a result of this constitutionally impermissible promotion of a religious belief system throughout branches of the military, a flood of lawsuits were filed against the Pentagon. One example of the religious harassment is the case where an Army Major broke up a meeting of soldiers that shared atheist principles: the Major going so far as to threaten to block the principal organizer's reenlistment in the army if the group continued to meet. Clearly such action is a flagrant violation of the soldier's First Amendment rights under the US Constitution.

Other similar violations involve Department of Defense (DOD) officials who appeared in uniform while on active duty in a 2004 promotional video for a fundamental Christian organization that calls itself the Christian Embassy. This gave the deceitful impression that the officers spoke officially on behalf of the military.

The lame excuse for this unconstitutional promotion was that the Christian Embassy had become a quasi-Federal entity with the DOD endorsing the organization to General Officers for over twenty-five years! Indeed, Christian Embassy, which is affiliated with Campus Crusade for Christ, have been providing faith-tilted studies used in the Pentagon and which clearly seek influence over Congress, the Executive Branch, and over the diplomatic community.

It is certain that true democratic principles are NOT being served by those attempting an evangelical coup in the military branches and the three branches of national government. We remain free to ponder that if the God they embrace is forced to resort to such a deceitful manner to glorify himself can he truly be called omniscient (all-knowing) or omnipotent (all-powerful)?

Fear of Diversity

The world today is troubled with societies and cultures that are influenced not by a passion for Truth but by man-conceived religious practices that attempt to herd everyone into servitude through indoctrinization, strict rituals, and rigid regimentation. The hallmarks of such religious posturing are seen in the heavy indulgence in faultfinding, finger-pointing, name-calling, and passing judgment upon anyone unlike themselves. Everyone is thus intimidated and discouraged from celebrating their personal unique perspective of life.

Along with this contrived approach to spirit, these faiths exhibit a shocking ignorance of our place and purpose in the universe, which has in turn encouraged a shameful disregard for nature and the welfare of our little planet.

Indeed, there has been displayed a deep contempt for nature in highly organized religions, and they continue to insist that there can be no deviation from their narrow man-conceived ideologies. These faith systems fail to acknowledge the respect that the universe has for diversity. Earth, the very planet that these institutionalized religions seek to constrain with their prejudices, is itself the example that disproves the hard-line notions that are used to manipulate people.

Consider: In the solar system family lineup, Earth is the unique one, the deviant one, the self-expressed rebel, and the refuge of intelligent life.

The real salvation of life--as we know it at least--is the one planet that is quite unlike all the rest of the planets in the solar system. This fact is glaringly at odds with the doctrines of organized hard-line religions that attempt to bludgeon everyone into cookie cutter sameness. What this attests to is that the intention, the necessity within creation is for diverse ways and life expressions that may develop with higher potential.

In short, diversity and variation should be recognized as the second law of Creation (the first being unlimited abundance), for any "salvation" of genuine spiritual value rests in the freedom to express uniqueness without shame.

Code of Life

The social definition of "race," from a scientific standpoint, is little more than a reference to an optical illusion. The habit of assigning groups of persons bearing various physical features such as skin color, facial features, texture of hair, and even skeletal build into categories came into scientific use in the late 18th and early 19th century. Unfortunately, this method of classification to the average person brought with it the erroneous implication that such differences indicated that there could be no unifying factor.

Not surprisingly, categorizing the human species in this manner became a standard by which self-absorbed people could indulge themselves with concepts of purity that allowed them to exclude those who did not mirror their imagined superiority. This, of course, stoked the fires of hatred, prejudice, discrimination, intoleranace--i.e. all the ignoble practices that diminish the innate dignity of man.

Although categorization has been convenient in various forms of study, forensic anthropology for example, the category method of study of the human species does not alter the fact that there is absolutely no genetic basis for racial classification. Indeed, public interest in tracing their personal ancestry has revealed through DNA research that race as a scientific classification does not compute! Through DNA analysis scores of persons who had believed themselves to be of one unblemished "race" were startled to discover that they embodied considerably more than appearance seemed to present.

DNA research has shown from samples obtained from indigenous groups worldwide that all peoples are, regardless of appearances, actually interrelated. In other words, ancestry is much more than perceptible biological indicators, for biological traits are amendable and adaptive. Everyone's background includes ancestors who at one time or another had to adapt to their environment and extreme climatic changes, all of which would have influenced gene modification.

There is much left to learn about DNA and how genetics of a biological attribute may have evolved. There is such a miniscule portion of DNA that has produced all the morphological differences that account for our species' diversity that we speak of as the "races," yet we all have within us a common active denominator.

Is that denominator what people fight over as the personality known as "God"? If so, isn't science his method of dispensing genuine revealed wisdom?

Faith 3X3X3

History has shown repeatedly that for any religion to gain followers it must embody at least one of three elements: if it contains all three it is a surefire winner. The necessary ingredients for establishment of a religion include: 1) a mythology; 2) a claim of miracles; 3) a difinite doctrine regarding the "hereafter."

Most people want a religion that is colored with mythology that also includes alleged miracles about which they may express awe and fear. Such seekers also generally feel a need for a limitless eternity that is nevertheless alluded to in measurements that imitate their own limited understanding of mortal life. That way they do not have to measure up too drastically in order to claim the promised reward for their chosen belief.

Braided into this recipe for an organized religion are three common restrictions that allegedly assure special favor from Heaven. These are: 1) submit to "the will of God"--which means followers must do whatever the mouthpiece says; 2) release self of personal desire--meaning much the same as the first; and 3) advance the "faith" through self-sacrifice--again meaning followers must be thoughtless, suffering slaves for God.

Basically these three restrictions produce believers that sometimes become emotionally destructive. Genuine history has further shown that if these fundamental cult-prescriptions are followed without question the ultimate result was destruction of social and intellectual progress.

If all the above mentioned elements and restrictions are met, the inevitable result for that corporate-style belief system is to slip into the trinity of deadly sins by which all hard-line religions are known: 1) literalism, 2) formalism, and 3) dogmatism. This trinity functions to crush any sense of personal communication with the universal essences that creates as the ultimate Cause.

What little spiritual content the belief system might have offered is then transfigured into material obsession because:

1) Literalism is the insistence upon taking self-serving accounts written by unknown authors--but which are always attributed to some divinely blessed person--as unquestionable truth. 2) Formalism is the excessive and often rigorous adherence to man-invented ceremonies concerned entirely with external, extraneous aspects of worship that supposedly attract divine attention. And 3) Dogmatism is the assertion that particular beliefs are authorative, and that their unproven and improvable principles presented as spiritual guidance must be accepted as absolute truth.

Initiating and preserving these schisms between rationality and faith does not serve in the best interest of humankind's higher potential.

Example of Faith-Based Government

Freedom of speech and religious freedom implies that the errors, hatreds and hypocricy practiced in the name of some religion should be open to public examination. But in the US the pretense is that God finds it "an abomination" to question the self-serving "faiths" that promote themselves through tax-free money while seeking to deny others their personal rights.

It has been mentioned in earlier Monkeywrench notes that aggressive religious factions have risen dramatically in the US since the 1950s, and the commercialism of religion has been in direct ratio to the rise of television as a means of public communication. Televangelists compete with one another to exercise as much power over as many insecure persons as possible, and make themselves wealthy in the process.

That is bad enough, but when religious factions seek to control the seats of government and in that way attempt to instill their theocratic ideology upon the nation, they betray not only the nation that allows them such freedom but insult the higher potential that they pretend to serve.

A prime example of "faith-based" style of governing was the Military Commission Act that was imposed upon American citizens late in 2006 by the self-professed born-againer George Bush, his fundamentalists administration, and the Republican congressional choir that rubber stamped his unconstitutional abuses of power. Under this undemocratic and perverse "law" the rightwing granted themselves these horrendous indulgences---

Denial of the writ of habeas corpus (the right to challenge the legality or conditions of their detention in an independent court) to people being held in detention.

Fashioned an excessively broad category of "unlawful enemy combatant," a status that is not recognized in US law or international law, but which does allow the President to pick and choose who will be detained under that label.

Permits whoever they term "unlawful enemey combatants" to be tried by military commisssion, which would provide no guarantee whatever of fair trial rights: this is clearly in contempt of mandated US and international law.

Permits the President the freedom to interpret the Geneva Conventions as he chooses--meaning that he can disregard their prohibitions of abuse and torture of prisoners.

Grants military commisssions the right to use evidence that is obtained through cruel and degrading treatment (torture) of those being held in detention.

Allows for imprisoned persons to be held indefinitely without charges, and has establshed arbitrary and discriminatory means for prosecuting those detained.

These are the means used by all theocratic forms of "governing" throughout history--always with horrible consequence.

Church & State

Thomas Jefferson was chairman of a committee of five to prepare a draft of the Declaration of Independence from England; he was elected to the Continental Congress in 1775 and 1776; served as Secretary of State under the first president of the United States, and as our nation's third president. Knowing the stranglehold that the church had held over Europe through the Dark Ages, Jefferson was adamant that church and state must be kept separate.

Jefferson rejected advice from religious representatives at the time to institute days of prayer, saying that he believed that government officials did not have legal justification to call people to pray. Jefferson spelled out his position and that of the nation's Constitution with this observation--

"I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, disciplines or exercises." He further clarified this, saying, "Every religious society has the right to determine for itself the times for (religious) exercises and the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets, and this right can never be safer than in their own hands, where the Constitution has deposited it."

One of the numerous milestones during Jefferson's two terms as president was the definition of treason by the Supreme Court--in the Justus Erich Bollman case (1807) which established an important precedent in the law of the writ of habeas corpus and the crime of treason. The principle laid down was that an actual levy of war, and not merely an intention to levy war, must be established to convict a person of treason. Today we must ponder points of habeas corpus and treason, and whether this precedent covers lying a nation into war.

A friend and colleague of Jefferson, James Madison, was an American statesman and now recognized as the "Father of the Constitution," and he served as the fourth President of the United States. Madison had made the notable contribution to the Virginia Constitution in a clause granting a "free exercise of religion"--one of the earliest provisions for religious freedom in American law. Features of the Virginia Constitution were later incorporated into the Constitution of the United States.

Events led Madison to recognize the dangers of too much central authority in a democratic government, as well as the enormous danger to democracy of religion mixed into government. After he had been manipulated into issuing a few religious proclamations, he found himself regretting that he had done so. He later wrote, "There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle with religion. Its least interference with it would be a most flagrant usurpation."

Today we find a relentless move by religious factions to take advantage of religious freedom that Jefferson and Madison championed to actually usurp those true democratic principles.

Prophet of Hate

The latest word from "prophet" Thomas Monson who heads the Mormon Church based in the state of Utah is that Mormon families that do not contribute portions of their income to support a "Yes on Prop 8," a California election issue on same-sex marriage, put their souls in jeopardy!

The "prophet" would have us believe that he has it direct from heaven that it is heaven's wish to remove the basic civil rights of some from the California state constitution simply because of who they desire as a life partner.

To fulfill god's alleged prejudice, "prophet" Monson drummed up some $8 million to the "Yes on 8" campaign which was invested in TV and radio broadcasts beamed into California homes dozens of times each day. The problem is that in his zeal the "prophet" has trampled all over the ninth commandment of the Mormon Church's version of the Ten Commandments which reads, "Thou shalt no bear false witness."

The proof is the false claim in the bigoted ads that allege Californians do not have the right to remove their children from sex education classes. The dastardly implication of the ads is that children will actually be taught to desire someone of the same sex! The truth is that California schools are not required by law to teach anything about marriage, and Californians have always had the legal right to keep their children out of sex education classes if they chose.

Perhaps "prophet" Monson should get a refresher course in Mormon Church history, for their self-serving brand of religious practice was the brunt of much similarly practiced prejudice well into the 20th century.

Diverting $8 million for political purpose to eliminate civil rights and religious freedom for a targeted group of people is not exactly an exemplary spiritual practice. It is, however, typical of the hatreds that religious fanatics have perpetuated for millennia.

Faith or Obsession?

Obsession and faith often share a perverted relationship. Indeed the definition of mental imbalance referred to as "obsession" too often applies equally to religious "faith" to an alarming degree.





Obsession is defined as a compulsive preoccupation with a fixed idea or compulsive feelings that generate a driving emotion, often with symptoms of anxiety. When unreasonable ideas or emotions infect mental functions to the point of preoccupation, extremism becomes the inevitable consequence. The now-archaic understanding was that obsession was the state of being beset or acutated by the devil or an evil spirit. On the other hand, to hear voices from a burning bush, for example, or hear from visions that no one else could see are to be accepted as divinely instigated.





Faith has a way of whitewashing itself with explanations such as: "A confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness" of an idea, thing, or person. Such "faith" is thus presented as a reliance that need not rely on logical proof or material evidence. This in turn means to them that miracles are answers, not things to be questioned. "Faith" is also praised for unquestioning loyalty to man-formulated doctrines and the trust that "sacred" texts that were written by various unknown mortals present humankind with the only access into spiritual enlightenment.





The words "faith" and "obsession" both refer to some form of ego-gratifying conviction that panders to a sense of exclusivity, and a sense of exclusivity always solidifies as mental obstructions. The next step for the faithful or the obsessed is extremism that today infects so much of the world.





Recent research into brain activity has revealed that prominent neurological occurrences linked with religious impressions are activated and intensified in the limbic system--the part of the brain governing basic activities such as self-preservation, reproduction, and expressions of fear and rage. It has been shown as well that the prefrontal system of the brain--the prefrontal cortex and the parietal cortex of the brain--play an influential role in an individual's religious devotion. Interestingly, persons suffering from obsessivie-compulsive disorders are shown to have dysfunctional activity in the same prefrontal systems.

Scamming the Faithful

Con artists like to set up their investment fraud operations amid groups of persons that are inclined to avoid rational inquiry and analysis. It is not surprising, therefore, that through the last few decades as religious fanaticism has garnered considerable public attention that there has been a virtual plague of such operations targeting those of faith. Cloaking an investment deal with religious enthusiasm provides a false sense of trustworthiness. Recent history has recorded many alarming examples.



Oil hustling and "biblical prophecy" may sound to be a combination that would make for improbable bedfellows, but they have carried on a tainted love match for several decades--and largely at evangelicals' expense. In the last few decades multimillions of dollars have been poured into penny-stock oil schemes lured by hustlers who utilized biblical passages that supposedly prophesized that great wealth lay beneath the sands of Israel. Add to this that a passage in the book of Ezekiel supposedly implies that Armageddon will be triggered when a confederacy of nations attack Israel to "take a great spoil"--interpreted to mean oil--and spiritual craving and greed for material wealth mated in frenzied fornication in the hearts of true believers.



Another biblical reference used by oil hustlers has been a verse in Deuteronomy 33 where it is related that Moses viewed the Holy Land from Mount Nebo and foretold the blessings that awaited Jacob's twelve sons. The blessings alluded to "treasures hid in the sand" and "precious things" locked beneath the earth.



In 1999 a fraudulent investment operation was found to have been conducted under the guise of "St. Clair, Inc." St. Clair falsely told investors, some 60 or so individuals from an Illinois church where he was deacon, that two oil wells had been drilled and were producing oil. In truth no well had ever been drilled. The deacon raked in over $8 million before he was exposed. This shepherd of the faithful was sentenced to only fifty-one months in jail for his effort.



Another example: Between 1993 and 1999 a Florida-based church, Greater Ministries, had nearly 28,000 investors nationwide, all having been promised that their divinely inspired investments would double. By 2000 Greater Ministries had taken in $578 MILLION while the trusting church goers mortgaged their homes, maxed out their credit cards, or cashed in their retirement funds to invest--only to discover that they had been hellishly swindled by the church leaders.



Not surprisingly, a number of the religiously inspired oil hustlers operated out of Texas. Among them was Harold Stephens, who drove up stock prices in his oil company--Ness--raking in a cool $3.5 million by associating his Holy Land oil venture with apocryphal prophecies. What his faith-inspired investors never understood was that the operating agreement that they all signed was through two of Stephens' front companies. The agreement stated that only the companies he owned would profit if oil was ever actually found: the investors would get nothing.



Unfortunately, self-centered religious groups are rarely reminded that the Creator gave them a brain and expected them to use it--at least occasionally.

Secularism and Intellect

The word "secular" is generally defined as: 1) Of or pertaining to temporal rather than spiritual matters; or 2) Not pertaining to or concerned with religion or a religious body. The word "secularism" is defined as: 1) Religious skepticism or indifference; and/or 2) The view that religious considerations should be excluded from civil affairs or public education.

For those of us who prefer to think for ourselves and subscribe to secular thought, it must be admitted that we are not exactly following pimal animal inclinations. Secularism is something of a cultivated, cultured awareness of human inner potential that evolves out of calm intellect and assertive compassion.

Human history has shown that secular thought--by which is meant the evolved life essence that seeks unity and mutual respect in human affairs--is not a natural animal ambition. In this regard we might therefore conclude that secular dedication--or humanism--is (if you will pardon the expression) spirit that is evolved above the ego-gratification that activates religious posturing and which constantly seeks out victims to put down.

In many ways the practice of organized religions is the practice of abuse--a crafted mask of benevolence that covers a paralyzed spirit and the twisted face of emotional/spiritual insecurity. To gain a sense of superior quality the religionists more often than not pretend exclusive access to--or the favoritism of some prejudiced "maker," and from this sand fortress they seek to scale heaven over the bodies of those who are not related to their pack.

The underlying drive in animal behavior is physical survival, whether loners or pack animals. Devotion and love does not extend beyond their immediate needs or wants into any regard for the welfare of even their own species, and certainly no thought of world balance. Seen in this light, the practice of organized religions is anchored in and dedicated to the primal animal inclinations from which we should and must evolve, for such practice cannot be said to be the means of approaching humankind's higher potential.

In a very real sense secular/humanism is an abiding understanding that higher human potential is not shackled to theistic pretentiousness. But liberal humanism is a relatively recent development in human affairs--an unfolding of intellectual empathy that heralds humankind's ability to transform itself into a more noble status. The religionists' idea of Heaven seems likely to be but a dim primitive perception of this process of evolution into higher potential. Unfortunately, they have yet to learn that ultimately the only means of approaching and receiving our higher potential is to face the diversity of life with compassion and integrity.

"Father" of Christian Theology

A thin veneer of diguised eroticism covers the bulk of early Christian precepts and much of that is traceable to Augustine (born 354 CE), often referred to as the "Father" or "Founder of Christian Theology." It was this "saint" who, around 386 CE, figured out a means of luring spiritual seekers into a sacred scam: his inspiration was to turn each seeker against themselves by making them feel guilty about being sensual or being grateful for their physical blessings.



The caliber of this "saint's" divine inspiration is displayed in his statement that all humans are born between feces and urine. Instead of accepting this as part of "Intelligent Design," Augustine seized upon this perceived godly goof to startle and stampede the gullible into chains of guilt.



In other words, Augustine used suggestive anti-life propaganda, such as in his Confessions and his major work The City of God, to achieve personal worldly respect and power. It was a cunning scheme of inventing problems and disharmony where they need not exist.



Before switching to the young struggling Christian movement, Augustine had been a Manichaean auditore, one of two classes of Manichaean disciples. As noted in my book Time Frames and Taboo Data: A History of Mankind's Misdirected Beliefs, the clergy of the Manichaean sect were organized similarly to the Christian ministry and the sect condemned marriage and sexual indugence of any type. This undoubtedly contributed to Augustine's saintly interpretations. From his Manichaean involvement Augustine construed the doctrins of "sin," divine grace, divine soverignty, and predestination. With additional input by "saint" Jerome (c. 340-420), who also preferred the perverse titillation of guilt-fear and lamentation to thoughts of creation's unity, "sin" became enshrined as the main theme in the Christian message to the world.



And Augustine, like the religious fanatics of today, expressed his devotion to the Lord and Savior with outbursts of hatred for all the Creator's diverse life expressions. For example, the Gnostics, the seekers and keepers of truth and wisdom in his time, Augustine chose to portray as enemies and waxed indignantly, "The enemies thereof, I hate vehemently; O that thou wouldst slay them with thy two-edged sword!"



Augustine always inferred that God kept him posted on everything, even of the inhabited areas of planet Earth. Thus he said authoritatively, "It is impossible there should be inhabitants on the opposite side of the earth, since no such race is recorded by Scriptures among the descendants of Adam."



This "Father of Christian Theology" demonstrates the depth of pretention that is still the hallmark of Christian extremists. He would, for example, declare with fundamental certainty that "All diseases of Christians are to be ascribed to demons; chiefly do they torment first-baptized Christians, yea, even the guileless new born infant."



Such is the wisdom that is being clung to by fundamentalists as revealed truth and holy word.

Memory and Personal Faith

In the unfolding experience of our personal awareness, it is the process of memory that is used as justification for our life-attitude. We judge everything that we encounter by association with past experiences, referring consciously and unconsciously to memory for guidance in any situation. We do this because memory represents how we have survived.

Memory may be thought of as each being's diary of their life journey, and is the major portion of what we think of as the subconscious. The subconscious is not a deductive function, but it is assessed by conscious awareness which then acts on the information stored as memory. The deduction drawn by the conscious mind is that if past experiences preserved the self then what is believed about one's self has to have been right for continual survival. What this reveals is that each of us can be only what we think we are.

When new data is met that conflicts with what has been stored in the subconscious, the reaction of conscious awareness is to assess it as a threat to personal survival. Each person's past mental programming has established given patterns of thought as being logical, so when the subconscious inserts conflicting data, such as truth or rationality, it is regarded by consciousness as incorrect.

That which has been established by the self as its belief system is then adhered to as having proven itself to be inviolately correct, and the new data is assessed as a threat to personal survival. A person's conscious reaction to new subconscious data then acts as the primary initiator in most of our experiences of conflict.

This means that all problems that are encountered as life experience serve as the environment that the conscious self has created for itself. Any new conflicting (or rational) information is then strongly resisted in fear that one's self-created environment will be contaminated.

God Forgot to Say

The priests and prophets of biblical lore claimed to receive all necessary information needed by man directly from an omnipotent, all-knowing being. It is astonishing, therefore, how much God seems to have neglected to explain. In view of the fact that sex is the foundation of all material life forms, why did he not make clear the microscopic process by which he bestowed diversity within all life forms?



For example, male and female development is dependent upon the different determinants or segments or genes distributed along the X and Y chromosomes--X for female and Y for male. Every individual is "designed" or "created" with different combinations of these, and they affect each person's body structure, brain activity (including physical desires), and behavioral patterns.



The X and Y chromosomes demonstrate how the chemical process results in character traits and attractions that are of psychological and social interest. For instance, all males with an excess of either X or Y chromosomes tend to produce an increased amount of male hormones which tend to become expressed with a tendency toward aggressiveness and a lower threshold for committing violence in comparison with so-called "normal" male population. Perhaps the hardline religious leaders could possibly be accounted for by an extra X or Y in their chromosomal composition.



For YXX males it seems that violence generally begins early; around the age of 13 instead of around age 18 for the average male. The XYY males issue out of a fairly "normal" sample of the population, but the XYY males feel at odds with the "normal" environment.



The religiously obsessed choose to ignore the means by which life's diverse "designs" are allowed and encouraged to manifest. Their idea that human propagation is a sacred duty, for example, elbowed its way into western religious decree through the development of Jewish "law" fashioned upon tribal mentality. The priest-authors who interpreted God's "laws" sought to encourage reproduction of their followers to insure the increase of their followers to stand against the differently oriented societies around them. Any sexual activity that did not contribute to the desired growth of followers was deemed a threat to the social/political authority of those priests and prophets claiming divine guidance.



Thus it was claimed by the authors of "holy word" that the Lord abhorred and condemned any nonproductive sexual activity such as masturbation, abortion, homosexuality, celibacy, etc. This was, to be blunt, politically and economically profitable for the priest class, and racially eugenic.



With the human population on this little planet now hovering around seven billion, for Judaism, Chrisitanity, Islam and even eastern "faiths" to continue to regard the propagation of more humans to be a sacred duty is hardly pursuing life responsibly.

Sex, a Holy Mystery

As noted in the previous post, Sex and Religion, sexual allusions are intertwined throughout the whole framework of Judeo-Christian religious factions to this day. Words such as sacrament, testament, and seminary, we have seen, are directly traceable to sexual implication.
But in spite of their use of sexual allusions, the old priests and prophets who fathered these cults knew precious little regarding the holy secrets of sex and that proved blissful to them and allowed them to practice all forms of sexual intolerance.

Those much revered priest-mythmakers, for example, had not been informed by God about chromosomes and the chemistry of the brain that determines a person's sexual/physical makeup. Unfortunately, even today the blindly faithful ascribe to principles set down by those unenlightened men and completely ignore what science research has revealed. For example, the effects of sex chromosomes and the chemical sex hormones do not have an undeviating manner of lining up according to one's general anatomical features as religious prejudices choose to pretend.

Furthermore, anatomists know that there are considerable variations in the human brain--its shape, thalamus, structure of the cerebrum, etc.--that are extremely variable and are as individual as fingerprints. This means that mental and/or sensory properties connected with brain structure may align within vastly diverse ranges, and no two persons will ever be exactly the same. So, as far as religious approval of sexual expression goes, one size does NOT fit all.

Within these God-allowable differences there is left open the allowance--the tolerance--for all expressions of life and love. The chromosomes chemically control the total development of the body, brain and intelligence. These do so in a wide range of ways throughout each person's life. Therefore, for political or religious factions to pretend that "the Creator" expects only one narrow expression of life or love to be striven for by all individuals is not viable. In fact, such an unyielding stance amounts to sacrilege.

Religionists should awaken to the holy code that is used in production of all life--the code of the chromosomal and chemical "design" that decrees great diversity in human physical, mental and emotional expression. This seems to be problematic only for those who choose to work themselves into histrionics over anyone too different from themselves.

Perhaps they would do well to remember what science has also shown: the brain needs considerable amount of body to function well, but very little brain is needed for the body to function.

Sex and Religion

All organized religious sects of western cultures have their root firmly entwined with sexual allusions. This, of course, is fervently denied by those who passionately seek association with the creative power that they imagine to be a humanlike being that is at once highly prejudicial yet blissfully indifferent.

But the sacred path has always tended to meander around in a labyrinth of camouflaged passageways. The alarming thing is that most of the time even the most devout of the "spiritual leaders" are oblivious as to the real message hidden under sacred words.

For a start, consider the word "sacred." The words sacred, sacrament, and sacrifice are all derived from the Hebrew word sacre, meaning "phallus" or "penis." This should not be surprising, for the penis was regarded throughout all ancient cultures as symbolic of self-manifestation as activated through the creative source. This is why the three major religions of the west have a long history of denying women entrance into the ranks of the priesthood. And the holy testaments that are held out to us as divine pronouncements continue that sex association. We hold in high regard such words as testament, testify, testimony, testification, testator, attest, etc. Guess what: the honored words are derived from testis, the testicles, the male reproductive organs situated in the external scrotum behind the penis. The respectful meaning accorded to these words today come from the ancient custom prevelent through the near-east in which the most solemn oaths were sworn by grasping their own testicles--or sometimes the testicles of the man sworn to--that what was declared was truth. It was regarded as asking for disaster to swear falsely upon the sac of life. Of course it then becomes clear where the word seminary originated, although everyone today regards it as meaning a theological school for training priests, ministers or rabbis. But seminary is derived from the Latin seminarius, and referred to the seed carried in the seminal fluid. Again, it is another reason that women were thought incapable of understanding this holy power and therefore were barred from holy study And just to get to the bottom of this, consider the words rector and rectory: these are derived from the Latin root rectus meaning "straight." From this root we also get the word rectum. (Information is condensed from the book The Celestial Scriptures: Keys to the Suppressed Wisdom of the Ancients.)

Rise of the Faith Market in U.S.

With World War II the United States was awakened like a troubled adolescent and thrust into the heavy role of responsibility to bring might and muscle to aid in a fight against truly oppressive forces. Like many adolenscents who must take on mature responsibility suddenly and unexpectedly, the nation was exuberant when its efforts were crowned with victory. The psychological mix of pride, humility and thankfulness made the young adult nation somewhat giddy and gulible, and new technological breakthroughs brought a festival of personal indulgences as well as new fears.

Not as threatening, presumably, of the new technologies that followed the war was the wonder of television. Indeed the discovery of such a wondrous means of communication was a god-send for those seeking to dispense solace and guidance as evangelical howlers who were still clutching their bible-mill deplomas. Filled with fire to save souls the newly ordained leapt upon the brightly lighted stage in the 1950s to wax forth in theatrical holiness. A new wave of empire-building was to arise out of this: the televangelical corporations.

As international leaders pumped a chill of distrust into the cold war, one result was that it served as a stimulant for the Bible merchants into the 1960s. And then attention was abruptly focused on space conquest: Heaven was being assaulted!

Space technology was well beyond the comprehension of average man. Certainly it was well beyond the scope of those who sought understanding from ancient authors who thought that Earth was the center of Creation. Nonetheless, televagelical hucksters kept the religious atmosphere so murky over space achievements that they transfigured themselves into multimillionaire CEOs of corporate faith systems.

By the late 1970s into the 1990s there were literally dozens of faith-based empires under construction in the US, and various societies around the world found their governments ensnared in the cruel tentacles of religious tyranny. "Faith" was promoted as being somehow oddly anchored in the political control of this material world. So extreme was this concept of spirit/matter connection among some religious activists that it was regarded "holy" to kill anyone that expressed differing ways of acknowledging some higher creative power.

As religious posturing has flourished across the US, so too have incidents of scandal increased--from rampant corporate greed, to stealing of individual rights, to attacking differing cultures without the consent of Congress, to indulgence in cowardly torture of terrorists, etc. The banner under which these modes of conduct were carried out was the crowd-pleaser claim of "faith."

The point of this mini history is that if people are to truly live in harmony and compassion borne from enlightenment there must always be a strong wall maintained between state and religion.

Fundamentalists' Attacks on Educational Material

Attacks on the education system in the United States by various extremist religious groups are not particularly noted for their subtlety. Or, for that matter, are they prime examples of genuine ethical behavior or respectful lawful conduct. There is a long list of tactics, ploys, and manipulations that have been lustfully engaged in by those who think that they and they alone have awareness of what some divine being wants for all. The list of these divisive and destructive activities would take pages, but a half dozen holy strategies are lumped together here for quick review.

1) Name-calling: It's easy to practice libel for the lord; and it is, after all, a favorite divisive tactic used by a number of biblical "prophets" and "holy men." A related tactic is casting aspersions upon some opponent or questioning the credential of some targeted educator or politician. This ploy shifts the attention away from their own lack of genuine credentials.

2) Indulging in political activity from the pulpit, or from and within similar tax-exempt institutions. What's wrong with that? According the accepted "holy" writings all priests and prophets held up as moral examples from the Bible manipulated the crowds politically in religious surroundings. Faith, to them, means a free ride and the need to answer only to themselves.

3) Threats: Usually of boycotts of local businesses that support a school system which the obsessed ones seek to shape for their personal religious practices: threats of lawsuits and filing of lawsuits against school districts or school personel. Closely related to this is the filing of complaints against material used in school--and which they usually have not read. In this same vein we should also include the use by fanatics of appalling intimidation of other liberal parents through inflammatory rhetoric.

4) Steal for salvation: --especially literary material: at the library they often check out books declared by manipulative pulpit masters to be "offensive" (meaning truthful) and don't return them. Better yet, just take the books! (Forget the command, Thou shalt not steal.) If that isn't possible they will insert their religious literature between pages of books that they deem to be offensive.

5) The old "faith" dodge: Hiding behind their facade of "faith"--which everyone is expected to accept as unquesionable qualification for issuing statements that hold little or no literary or scientific verification. This dodge makes it easy to muddy any issue and is quickly followed by demands that others show the exact source-citations used by their opponents. Some might call this hypocrisy.

6) Stretch the facts or statistics and bury any conflicting truth, and then say that anyone who does not agree with their religious view is either faithless or unpatriotic. (The Bush crowd loved this one.) A variation of this tactic is to shovel anything with which they disagree into some broad category to target for belittling. Examples of such underhanded tactics are phrases such as: ..a secular humanist notion: --a new age concept;--deviant dedication (they should indeed know about that one);--they're unpatriotic, etc. etc.

Dry Rot in the Roots of Democracy

For well over the last thirty years the shapers of the Republican Party have fervently pusued an authoritarian direction--an obsession that threatens the Founding Fathers' intent that this nation should be conducted as a true democratic form of government.

Since the world has stumbled into the twenty-first century, the Republican Party's aim has revealed itself to be alarmingly totalitarian in purpose. With the gleeful input of neoconservatives and Christian extremiststs assuring the people that God watches over the United States, we have watched the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government being systematically deconstructed.

The mantra recited throughout the thirty-year plus push to incite their decidedly undemocratic ambition has been "too much government." The money worshippers were deeply incensed that the government tried to keep a level playing field for everyone, and they railed against laws that prevented monopoly practices that would use the necessities of life as a means to bilk and drain the capital of the middle and lower classes.

Through the decades the Republican ambition managed to remove price caps, one by on on this or that, as they stealthily worked their way up to dismantle bigger safeguards that were once put in place to protect the majority. The offer that was presented and championed by G. W. Bush was "let the businesses (corporations) police themselves." That would, of course, reduce government--and the big plus would be that it would drive the nation into deeper debt and bankruptcy.

Make the workers and craftsment and the true providers of our interactive society poorer, and belittle the notion of a government "...of the people,by the people, and for the people" as "quaint" and infer it is the cause of financial meltdown for all the working (productive) classes. Such are the seeds of totalitarianism planted and fertilized. In such a take-over operation the people can be tricked into a belief that "preemptive" war on a non-sovereign (but oil-rich) country is God-approved, and our nation's people can be herded into fear of personal loss and disaster. Unfortunately, by using these tactics they set themselves up to rule over the decline of the nation.

All dictatorships and theocracies have followed a similar route.

More Divine Mystery

It seems rather strange that pre-Bronze Age accounts of how the world, the heavens--all that is in the universe--came into manifestation is today being actively forced into school textbooks by religious fanatics under the claim that Genesis presents a more accurate account than scientific study has discovered. So for a moment let us continue to pursue a little further the "revealed" mysteries as presented by pre-Bronze Age fantasists.

In Genesis God is portrayed as busy verbalizing everything into creation, and the first light was declared by him to be "good." By the fourth "day" God verbalized the lights in the firmament--the sun for the greater rule of Day and moon for the lesser light of Night--and once again he pronounced his work to be "good."

It was on the fifth "day" of Creation that God became exceptionally inspired and whipped up the fowl to fly in the "open firmament," as well as the whales in the seas and every living creature on land (although more were to come). Inspiration spilled over into the sixth "day" of Creation and God expanded his creative talent by fashioning the beasts of the earth and the cattle and creeping thing, with attention given that they should all continue "after his kind." God found all this to be "good" also.

The last and supposedly crowning work was to make a life-form "in our image;" a curious phrase if he is speaking to himself. Or was it verbalized to everything that he had already created? At any rate, it was to be a being total in itself--so a hermaphrodite seems to be implied, for in one of the two versions of the creation of man the newly created entity is pictured as being alone even though the account states that "male and female he created them."

After God had fashioned the entity "in our image," and this entity had given names to all "the cattle and the fowl in the air and to every beast of the field," God came to realize "It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make him an helpmeet for him." So apparently "the man" (he was not yet named) was subjected to surgical reapportionment. Then, although God is said to have blessed them, he never pronounced his final life-forms as "good!" In addition, once the one entity had been made two and given the ability to multiply, their innocence was subjected to the threat of death if they should eat of either of two trees placed temptingly in the center of the garden paradise.

We are not told how this newly fashioned couple were supposed to comprehend the meaning of death. After all, they would have no experience of life, let alone understand that it could be torn from them. But God so loved them that he left the two forbidden trees temptingly situated where the couple could not ignore them.

When the inevitable happened and the fruit of the tree lured the couple to indulge, their eyes were opened and they discovered just how to multiply. God pretended to be incensed. Rather than admit duplicity in the garden setup, God then cursed the pair and sent them packing through the eastern gate of the garden.

With this cockamamie tale the mythmakers smeared everyone with "original sin," and false sex guilts have been the gold mine for religious hucksters ever since.

Divine Mysteries

Today we live in an age of extreme contradictions. Awesome technologies allow us to communicate instantly with other persons around the planet, and man can even send exploration projects into outer space. On the other hand, superstitious, apprehensive and insecure parts of modern society still cling to belief systems that have their taproots anchored in Bronze Age interpretations of Creation. These contradictions are like little monkey wrenches clanking around in the machinery of daily life, and thus present a constant threat to humakind's higher potential.

Hence my weblog identity--monkeywrenchthoughts--which will allow me to question, and at times even marvel at the bewildering explanations and justifications used in politics, religion, science, sex attitudes, and other pieced-together thought processes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since the unknown stretches ahead for everyone, and at one time or another everyone has had moments of anxiety about what lies ahead, a fascination of the mysterious is a natural and functioning part of human life. Thus human nature tends to become captivated by puzzles and things that mystify--which may partially suggest why so many generations have been captivated and enthralled with the so-called "holy books."

Unanswered mysteries abound in all holy literature, and vagueness often serves to exert a mesmerizing control over an unquestioning audience. In addition, when tales are told from an omnimpotent viewpoint the reader is given a sense of being elevated--of being privileged to some insider knowledge. Fairytales are an excellent example of such writing techniques.

As an example, mystery is introduced in the first few lines of the Holy Bible. Indeed, by verse three (which is really the fourth actual line) of the opening book of Genesis there is presented a holy mystery that is never answered anywhere in any subsequent accounts. The enduring mystery is initiated with the words, "...and God said" this or that.

Unquestioning believers hold that creation really began when God verbalized the words "let there be light," and of course first light appeared! Apparently the light was made from some portion of nothing. Scientifically speaking, an aura of light would indeed be the first phenominon to emerge out of an involving field of energy.

All sacred mystery tales are constructed upon this writing technique. In the example of the opening of the Bible account of "beginning," the question arises, if darkness was upon the face of the deep and everything was without form and void--meaning nothing had been created--then just who could have been around to hear, let alone write down what God is said to have said?

But sacred language accounts for light and dark by avoiding explanations by saying the ways of God are mysterious and beyond mortal comprehension. With this introductory scene we understand that nothing else had yet been created. Even so it is written that God then said, "Let there be a firmament" from which he could then divide waters from waters, and this accounted for God's second day of creation labor.

Strangely, since nothing else had been created there was still no secretary or recorder on duty to take down his verbalized orders, so the mystery still remains. Nonetheless, we are told that God continued to verbalize for another four days before finally getting around to creating any creature that might have the capacity to record what he is said to have said.