Email: Dale.Cannon@bbs.nightowl.net . . . . . . . . . . . .Vol II , No. 1, November, 1998

#Table of Contents

This page is founded on the proposition that all anybody needs to know about religion, life, God, philosophy, love and living with and among other people can be summed in two or three relatively short sentences. Once these are understood, no one needs to read further. All the volumes of tomes are just basically a lot of hot air.
It's experiencing Life that counts and that teaches one all one needs to know. Guaranteed.
I have to say I'm no scholar. Simply an explorer -- a seeker. This is the result of my seeking.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Other web pages to explore:

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IN THIS ISSUE

  • #COUNTERING THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT . .
  • #THE ONLY THING . . .
  • #I'M OK -- YOU'RE OK -- AND WE'RE
  • #GOD AS THE UNIVERSE . . .
  • #EVOLUTION IN THE BIBLE
  • The Christ Concept, A continuing series
  • From a Personal View -- my thoughts . . .
  • FIRST . . . The Bottom Line . . .

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    Uploadable and Printable New Translations of Famous Biblical Passages

    Sermon on the Mount

    The Lord's Prayer

    A Different Nativity Story

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    THIS ISSUE . . .

    FIRST . . . The Bottom Line . . .

    You don't have to belong to any particular religion or sect, or you can belong to the religion or sect of your choosing, in order to be secure in your "salvation", if that is the proper word to use. "Salvation" - that is, being really secure in where and what you are -- is simply a concept -- this is what "Christ" or "the Messiah" is really about -- not a person, place or thing. You don't to have hinge your life on anyone. You don't have to make a pilgrimage to Mecca or Jerusalem or Rome or even Graceland. You don't need religious icons or items of any sort. This is the meaning of Jesus' statement, "If anyone tells you 'The Messiah is here, in this place -- or over there!' don't believe them." The Messiah, the "Christ", is a concept. Peruse the following expositions -- see if this is compatible with where you are, or are headed. If you are a seeker, you will head down your own path and discover much for yourself. If you are a TRUE seeker, you will then share it.
    I intend this to a forum for discussion as much, if not more, than a sounding board for my own views.

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    COUNTERING THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT

    You will find on these pages explanations of issues of contention, particularly between what is called "The Religious Right" and other sebments of society, notably mainstream science, and persons of other than a heterosexual persuasion, and then there are people of other religious beliefs.
    First: a brief, shallow, personal history of the "Religious Right". You will find that the most visible spokespersons for this movement are from a prticular religion, mainly the Assemblies of God, headquartered in Springfield, Mo, with a college there and everything. You might not know of the reputation they once had during most of their existence.
    I had a lady from the denomination invite me to church once, and when I mentoned this to my Dad (born in rural Southwest Iowa 1907 and reared on a farm until he was 20), he got fairly livid.
    "You aren't going to that 'Holy Roller' church!" he said, "Where they start dancing around and falling on the floor and 'speaking in tongues'!"
    The Assemblies of God is a "charismatic" church. Mainstream churches have accepted somewhat some "charismatic" practices. Yet, what the Religious Right wants people to believe is that when they push their agenda, they speak for just about everybody who's religious or goes to church (except for those damned liberals). The debate that their agenda has stirred up among the churches, and the fact that they resort to less than honest tactics in getting their representatives on school boards where they can twist the agenda to suit their beliefs in direct oppositon to the Constitution, should demonstrate that they DO NOT speak for the majority of religious, church going people in the United States of America.
    Not all of the Religious Right is of the Assemblies of God, yet when you look at the names of the sects to which they belong, you do not come up with a mainstream church; rather, you find sects on the edges of Christianity.
    My Dad passed down to me a couple of things that he got from his uncle. We have to consider this: that a man who would have been 90 years old had he lived received philosophy from an uncle who was at least twenty years older than him, mhaving then been born somewhere in the 1880's at latest (when people were "more religious"). So these are the couple of things passed down to me from 19th Century religious thought.
    First, "There are two things you never argue and that's politics and the Bible." I'm falling prey to the overwhelming urge to go against this great piece of advice in this case. Namely because the Religious Right has violated it already and brought religious debate into the public arena and have mainly claimed the "high ground" (although not moral) of the debate. They have claimed this high ground because not many others have opposed them for one reason or another (or, perhaps, for no reason at all). So, defending my own personal beliefs from the encroachment and instrusion of the Religious Right, do what my Great Uncle Cannon advised against.
    The second piece of philosophy is "You can prove anything by the bible." Think about this for a moment. We have a thousand or more Christian denominations and sects in the U.S. alone. Each claims to base it's beliefs on the Bible. And these beliefs certainly vary -- they certainly run the gamut from totally reserved, High Church, liturgical, Catholics and related Protestants, to -- who knows what? I would think that this alone proves that piece of philosophy of my Great Unk's.
    So here I am, setting out to prove still something else by the Bible. And I think it will effectively counter the Religious Right. I intend to add on as time goes on. I hope you enjoy and are enlightened and spurred to greater personal discovery by all this.
    If you have questions and want to see Biblical passages countering the Religious Right, feel free to E-mail the editor with your questions and concerns. Your comment will be published.

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    Now, some simple matters . . .

    GOD AS THE UNIVERSE AS AN ORGANISM

    Discarding the customary notion of a male anthropomorphic God, this precept moves to a discovery of a word found in the Torah, or Old Testament, translated LORD in the King James English, the "Tetragrammaton", "YHVH". The Jewish scribes who copied the Torah through the ages came to not putting vowels in this word and the it was considered inapppropriate to pronounce it. If we equate this with "GOD AS THE UNIVERSE AS AN ORGANISM", then we understand. YHVH means, "To Exist". That is, Existence -- everything that exists, ever has existed, ever will exist -- all matter, force, energy, anti-matter, things yet undiscovered, maybe never discovered -- this is God.
    Every thought, word, deed, concept, -- all activity of all things, dead matter, live beings, from the simplest to the most complex -- all that every human being has done, whether for good, evil or even as a neutral act -- this all is God. As God, this cannot be defined, identified, made into an image, or otherwise idolized. It is simply the essence of Existing. We exist, thus we are God. I exist, thus I am God. You exist, thus you are God.
    If we look at this closely, we can see that this Existence is moving from a point (an beyond) to a point ( and beyond), in other words, evolving, from the Big Bang and before to some unknown future, in the process of that evolving, developing evolving species of Life on this Earth and, very probably, throughout the Universe.

    THE ONLY THING YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW TO LIVE A GOOD LIFE.

    It really doesn't take much. It is a precept found in virtually every major religion on Earth.
    "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The Talmud give this precept, then says, "this go learn. The rest is but commentary." The basis of Christianity is this. Joshua the Nazarene (Jesus) said, "Love God with all your heart." and "Love your neighbor as yourself." are the two main precepts on which hang all the Torah. The first general letter of the Apostle John equates loving one's "brother" to loving God.
    It is taking this basic precept and discovering what "love" is -- what "doing unto others" is -- and examining our lives as we live them to see how much we live up to it. Then we attempt to change oue lives accordingly, with the full realization that we fall far short of this mark many times a day, but that this is all right, as with the message below "I'M OK -- YOU'RE OK -- AND WE'RE SAVED!"
    This is the real meaning of "Repent and be converted!" It's a process, not an altar call. It's day to day living and trying to "weed out" those actions or inactions that harm others. It is the process that counts, not how well one succeeds, because it's a learned process, constantly improving on oneself. Knowing that there's anoher day to try again helps to relieve the classic guilt usually associated with religion and "right and wrong".

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    I'M OK -- YOU'RE OK -- AND WE'RE SAVED!
    Have you every wondered what "Salvation" really is? or do you even care? What does it matter? Does it matter to you? If it does, then here it is -- there it is, in the title. It's a done thing. We all are saved. Period. We all are okay. Period. No guilt, no being better than somebody else in any way manner shape or form whatsoever. Period. That's it.
    Saved means being okay means that no one is really bad or evil or anything like that. And why? Because no one has really lived up to the ultimate standard, which is "love", as defined at the top of the second column. It is our attempting to struggle to achieve this that makes us ok and realizing that we will fall far short of perfect achievement no matter how long we live.
    We've GOT to be ok with this as a standard and a process. Otherwise we'd condemn ouselves to the ultimate depression.
    EVOLUTION IN THE BIBLE
    Scientific observation has demonstated, I think, quite adequately, that Evoution is a demonstrable process, rather than a theory. Biblical studies also demonstrate that the Old Testament, with which we are dealing in this case, was composed by various authors at various times, even the Pentateuch, five books all attributed to Moses.
    It has been generally accepted among many scholars that the beginning of the Book of Genesis is a "Creation Hymn", versions of which have been found among other Near Eastern religious works, particularly in the library at Ebla, in Syria.
    This "Creation Hymn" appears to me to have been an "Add on", taken, obviously, from surrounding beliefs.
    It is what is called "The Second Creation" with which we must concern ourselves. This is the "Tale of the Two Trees", where Adam and Eve have to choose between the two. Read this yourself and see if you can't see where Humans moved from a hunter-gatherer society (Garden of Eden) to an agricultural one.

    The Christ Concept

    a continuing series

    The question is -- what is "Christ"? The view of THE CHURCH is that "Christ" is the Son of God, having come to earth in the flesh once and now part of the Deity, a Trinity a seeming closed thing to us mortals.

    This column will consider "Christ" as a concept rather than as a person or Deity of any sort. "As the lightning shines in the East and lights up the entire sky" is how Yeshua (Jesus) described it. Christ has its source in one place, yet it permeates all with which it comes in contact.

    So what is this "Christ"? Basically it's what I'm attempting to demonstrate here, or so I believe.

    Let me expand on this at a later date.

    FROM A PERSONAL VIEW

    Dale M. Cannon

    Odd -- I've gone through 50 some years of life without thinking much about it, Life, that is. I've thought about everything else -- or everything that has touched me and affected me in one way or another. You know the things -- birthdays, Daddy, Mommy, brothers, sisters, cousins, playing, hitting, hiding and lying to keep from getting into trouble, those great vacations and places to go to, which have been different, I know, from one person to another.

    School, playmates, girls. Grades. Girls, chums, other kids you never really got to get along with, teachers and principals. Baseball, softball, games, sports teams. Girls -- that's me, of course -- girls were a natural thing to think of on the way to growing up for me.

    Junior High -- new people, new teachers, new format of school -- finding old friends, making new ones and dealing with old and new people you don't like. Wondering about girls.

    High school -- same things mainly -- grades and graduation.

    College -- will you make the grade? All sorts o new activities, wondering where you fit in.

    All the while, the emerging self in relation to sex. Dealing with morals.

    Morals -- philosophy -- religion. With me it was at first, pre-teens and early teens, going to various Sunday and Vacation Bible schools. Then it was discovery of a denomination that basically challenged the status quo. Then it was challenging that denomination's status quo. Then it was testing the previous status quo again and finding something within the status quo that still challenged it. Then it was discovering that the status quo still dominates itself and that any challenging and exploration has to be done sort of like a "satellite" breaking free of the gravitational pull of the "mother planet" -- existing outside of the sphere of the status quo.

    And, through this, interpersonal relationships. How to deal with other people -- family, friends, coworkers, people you "get along with" and those you don't. Making mistakes, learning.

    Living.

    Recreational activities -- having fun doing things. Immersing the self in enjoyment, the pleasure of the senses.

    Going back to all these things -- the striving -- for grades and success, for fulfilling relationships, for fulfillment physically, mentally and spiritually. All that we do. All that we are.

    And asking -- what is it all for? What's it all about?

    We are born, we mature, we have relationships, we have children, we raise the children, provide for them. Our parents dis this before us, their parents before them. Our children and grandchildren will do all this in their turn. This is the cycle. It's the basic stuff of Life. It';s no different than a bird or lion or dog or cat or even the simplest form of birth-giving life, plant or animal. Our lives are all the same, and no different, than any other living being.

    Then why? This is where I remember Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. "Vanity of vanities -- all is vanity . . . " Whew! "To everything there is a season . . ." -- that's in there, too -- Pete Seeger's song, performed by The Byrds back in the late 60's. A short book, but deep -- deeper than the others in a lot of ways. The "Preacher" of Ecclesiastes looks for purpose in Life. As do we all -- don't we?

    Through all this that we've been through in Life, what's all about -- ALL. Including the religion and the searching. Why the HELL do we keep on like this? Our persistence in Life and living and bearing and raising young comes from the same source as other animals. We may put all sorts of excuses around it and make it into some complex thing like "the work ethic" -- or anything -- any label -- just in order to keep going. For -- if we are no different than other animals, what advantage have we?

    Isn't that a good question?

    Even religion -- what it holds out to us is a "reward for good living". But the reward is unseen -- and really unknown in spite of the certainty of those who espouse and embrace this concept of "afterlife reward". This can easily be demonstrated by the plethora of versions of this reward, whatever religion espouses such -- and particularly the many versions extant with the Christian Community alone. We have to admit that we know nothing about anything other than the life we experience here and now.

    So what do we do with this? It seems so -- well --- closed -- mundane -- maybe even depressing. What we have is where we are when we are. Only the Here and Now can be known for certain, and that not totally.

    I think there are enough statements in the Judaeo-Christian scriptures and other religious documents telling us that the only real important time and place are the Here and New that we can rest assured that this is what we should concentrate on.

    Whether we think that we should "Fear God" (being the "end of the matter" in Ecclesiastes, whether we think that a Spiritual Realm exists beyond this physical to which must answer in some manner -- or whether we feel that Human Life is just another organic happening, no different an experience than that of the parakeet in our living room -- I think we can agree with "The Preacher" that "Nothing is better than to enjoy the fruit of one's labors.", to paraphrase.

    Or, to paraphrase, embellish, add to and state succinctly, I think the best thing to do with Life is the following:

    Live life as it comes and enjoy each moment as much as you can as it comes, particularly relishing the particularly enjoyable moments. Make the most of the life you have, live it to its fullest. That's all you can do.

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