Yellowstone National Park

What has Yellowstone National Park have to do with the Gnostic Way? On the surface, nothing, but below the surface, everything. While literal Christians are running around declaring that the "End Times" are coming, according to the Book of Revelation, it appears that God has placed a far more potent end times in Yellowstone National Park. The "End Times" predicted by the Book of Revelation and the "End Times" predicted by the Mayan Calender are figments of overactive imaginations. There is no reality underlying either one of them. Both are metaphorical and should be taken as such. Yellowstone Park is another matter. It turns out that Yellowstone is a Super Volcano. In case that term means nothing to you, imagine a volcano going off in the middle of the United States with a force at least 3,000 times Mt. St. Helens or even as much as 10,000 times. That, unfortunately is Yellowstone National Park. The volcano under the park is on a 600,000 year cycle and the 600,000 years are up. Its due to go off at any time. I am not suggesting that it will explode next Tuesday at 10:00am. It may take a few thousand years one way or the other, but it will go off at some point. What can we expect when it does? Rather than answer that question myself, I suggest that you google the Toba Super Volcano that went off about 74,000 years ago. There is much material on the Internet, and it is graphic. Our ancestors survived it, obviously, but not by much it turns out. Our wonderful Earth that we love so much is a dangerous place. We don't need to invent fairy stories to predict the end of the earth as we know it. What does this mean to a Gnostic? The Gnostic believes that we are eternal as is our God. It is not the Earth that holds and shields us, it is God. The search for God is not in the sky. When the Yellowstone Volcano blows, the sky will be full of ash and sulphuric acid. The Gnostic believes that the end for all mankind is not in an Armageddon, but rather in the arms of God. If you doubt this, go pay a visit to Yellowstone Park. I've been there several times and its beautiful; for now.

The Gnostic and the Church

Should you chose the Gnostic Way do you have to give up on the church? Absolutely not. What you do have to give up is your dogmatic ideas. This means that unless your church has matured past its dogmatic past, you may need to find another one. If not, then it will fall upon you to show your fellow parishioners that there is a better way than denying all of the advances that we have made in science in the last 500 years. When you find your fellow parishioners saying that the Bible is literal and that the earth was formed a few thousand years ago, it is time to find a more progressive environment. I would say the same if you are urged to handle poisonous snakes or babble in so-called foreign tongues. The good news is that there are plenty of progressive Christians and they have churches that will make a fine home for you. If you can stand being called a Cafeteria Catholic or a luke warm protestant, you will be very comfortable in your surroundings. Why? Because God will be there even if your fundamentalist friends do not believe so. The Gnostic Way is not a religion, it is a process. A process which helps you find God within yourself. It can fit anywhere where people have open minds and a willingness to share their faith with others unconditionally.

The Cosmos Connection

I want to preface this posting by stating that I am not a scientist and do not pretend to be one. I have no expertise in the makeup of the universe and no way to acquire such expertise. As a Gnostic I deal strictly in metaphor. My search for God is not dependent on acquiring all the available knowledge in existence, but it is dependent on my attempting to understand what our scientists know. I accept such knowledge as metaphor, because I have no way to verify it myself. I am dependent on the ideas of people who possess greater knowledge than I possess. Having said all of this, I believe that I have in mind some very powerful metaphors. One of these metaphors is that we are all connected. By we, I mean not only ourselves as human beings, but the entire universe. In Laszlo's book, which I cited in a previous posting, he goes into this connection in detail. Apparently, one atom can be affected by what happens to another atom, even if they are light years apart. Laszlo goes on to say that the same rule applies to our biological body, namely, the cells that make us up. This interconnection can be demonstrated by experiment. Do I understand the mechanics of all this? Of course not. However, a metaphor of this connection can be found in the words of Jesus when he says that the Father knows when the sparrow falls to the ground. If you find yourself asking the question "what happens to us when we die?" it might suit your purpose to change the question slightly. Perhaps you should ask, "what does the universe know about me?" If the universe knows you are alive, it will know that you have died. More to the point, if you are that much attached to the universe, it is a short step to the idea that the attachment is permanent and not temporary. If as I pointed out earlier, God is an idea that has no beginning and no ending, the idea that makes you up may well be part of God. I believe that this is so. This is why I have said that the soul is part of God and equally has no beginning and no ending. If Laszlo is right, you can say the same of the universe itself. Do I know all of this? No. Do I believe all of this? Yes. Why do I believe this? If the atoms are connected to one another, why are we, who are made of atoms as well, not equally so?

Learning to Surrender

The idea of surrendering is not popular. We all admire the person who refuses to give up despite the odds against him or her. History is replete with stories of those who stood up to adversity and persevered. For this reason, surrender is not an idea that attracts people. However, there are many reasons why surrender is and will be a good idea. When Germany and Japan surrendered in 1945, not only did they end a bloody war, but they ushered in an era of growth and prosperity. Had Saddam Hussein had the good sense to surrender to the Post 9/11 pressure brought against him, not only would his country have been spared an invasion, but he might very well have enjoyed a comfortable retirement in some friendly Arab country. One of the most important lessons to be learned by human beings is the art of surrendering to reality. If a person refuses to accept reality, the result can often make that person's situation far worse. Today, we see an example of that in the plight of ancient religion running into an unclimbable fence called modern science. The time has come for people of faith to take a second look at their universe. It is far more intricate and difficult to comprehend then the simple stories of the early civilizations of the middle east found in our religious texts. Our belief system requires not a fine tuning, but a deep modernization based not on fables and half-truths, but on an intricate understanding of our world and how it was constructed. The book I recommend to you for this purpose is "Science and the Akashic Field" by Ervin Laszlo. Laszlo is one those who represent the best for our future, a scientist and a philosopher; a good combination I think. Read his book and you will never look at the cosmos the same way again.

The Never Ending Search

Anyone who might be observing the gnostic way for the first time, could easily be tempted to ask the question, "what are you Gnostic's really looking for?" To say that you are searching for God sounds good, but what does it really mean? I think that this is a fair question. Assuming that the gnostic succeeds, just what will he or she really discover? What if God doesn't exist at all? I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the God that most of us think about probably doesn't exist. That God is anthropomorphic. That twenty-five cent word means that we attribute to God the features of our own personality that appeal to us; sort of a Superman without the cape. If you take the time to really look at the universe(s), you will discover that it is much more intricate than anything that we can conjure up in our minds. It is hardly anthropomorphic. That said, what can we expect to find? I'm going to go out on a limb and speculate on what I think we will find. I see four principles that are likely to exist. (1) God is an idea. Plato suggested that an idea had a life of its own. I believe that this is true. You might be saying now, how can an idea exist independently? If you take the time to study quantum physics you will probably discover that the essential building blocks of the universe consist of energy moving in specific manner and little else. This energy has proven capable of providing us with atoms, molecules, elements, and the intricate matter that makes up our world and ourselves. Could there be an idea involved in this process? If so, where and how can we identify this idea, and particularly where and how can we locate its source? I leave it to you to provide the answer to this question. (2) Time does not exist. If you could attain the speed of light, you will discover that you have reached a point where time is no longer applicable. How do I explain this? I can't. Einstein did it better and I refer you to him. (3) The rules are the same no matter where you might find yourself. How do I know this? If the law of gravity were different in some other place, you would not find billions of galaxies floating around in our universe. Each of these galaxies presumably have billions of stars, and many of the stars have planets. If I am wrong so be it, but I don't think that I am, however. (4) Our feeble little brain has allowed us to look into both the larger world and the smaller one. This morning I saw a picture of the swine flu virus in the Los Angeles Times. I know that the picture had to be taken with an electron microscope. I have seen pictures from the Hubble Telescope that have captured galaxies millions of light years distant. We know much more about the universe than did our ancestors. Presumably, as more time goes by we will learn much more. What is the limit here? Nobody knows. These four principles allow me to be optimistic about the search for God. They also force me to be humble about it. It will not happen any time soon. I say this because the more we know the more questions arise. Knowledge is power, but knowledge also confounds power. The atom bomb teaches us this lesson. It is miraculous that we have found a way to harness the power of the atom. It is equally dangerous if we use that power to destroy ourselves. On one side lies enormous benefit. On the other side enormous destruction. The metaphor of the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden applies here. We have eaten the fruit of that tree and we possess great knowledge accordingly. In doing so we have departed from the simple and easily understood world that God provided us in our primitive years, and have embarked on a perilous journey. As a gnostic, I am optimistic. I believe that when the journey is complete, and we are face to face with God, we will discover ourselves in paradise. What price we have to pay to get there is another matter. Pray that it will be a tolerable one.

Eternity

This posting is not about explaining eternity, rather it is about discussing the effect of eternity on our lives. The gnostic believes that our life is eternal. We do not die, we are only transformed. What is the effect of this on our current existence? Simply put, it means that we have always lived, and will always live. I say this in spite of the fact that nothing upon which we depend for life will have eternal life. The earth will die, the sun will die, the Milky Way Galaxy will die, and our universe will die. Life is an idea. Plato understood the power of ideas. Beethoven wrote the Ninth Symphony. He couldn't hear it except in his mind. It was an idea. It becomes real when a conductor leads an orchestra in playing it, using Beethoven's score. Even if the universe were to die, the idea of the universe, and presumably the life within it will go on, if nothing else as an idea. But what is the orchestra that will bring life to the idea? In our case it is a new universe, presumably made by contact with one of the eleven universes that our great minds have mathematically demonstrated to exist. Does this boggle your mind? Surely, but nonetheless here we are, living and breathing on the planet earth. You might say that the orchestra is all of the matter making up our universe. What does this mean to us? Are we a part of this universe, and are we a part of the idea that lays behind it? The gnostic says yes to this question. When Beethoven and his score are no more, will nature conjure up another Beethoven to replace him? Don't bet against it, you might lose the bet and find yourself living an eternal life. That is the gnostic way.

What Does God Expect From Us?

Does God expect us to do anything for Him? Christians believe that God wants us to accept a certain canon. If we believe this canon, we will be given eternal life. If we do not believe it, we shall ultimately perish. Nothing could be further from the truth. God does not care what we believe. The atheist will walk through the gates of heaven at the same time and at the same pace as the most believing Christian. God is not about saving your soul. Like God, your soul is immortal. It is part of God, has always been so and always will be so. God does not require that you believe anything. What then does God require? There are three rules. The first rule I have talked about frequently. This is the rule that requires you to love your neighbor with the same intensity that you love yourself. We are all the same, although we have differences. Those differences do not go to the essence of who we are. For this reason, we are forbidden to judge one another. God is our judge. The second rule is one that I have discussed as well. This is commonly called the law of Karma. In reality, it is the brother and sister of the first rule. If we give love to one another, we get love back. If we harm, persecute, murder, or abuse one another, we will equally get the same thing back. God wants us to use the law of Karma to good effect; give love and get love back. In this manner the law of Karma becomes a way to reform our world and make it immeasurably better. The third rule is where the gnostic comes in. In this rule, God wants us to grow and mature. He does not want us to hate knowledge and to disparage those who seek it. Put another way, He does not want us to be satisfied with the status quo. There is much to learn, and we have the capacity to learn it. The Hubble Telescope has expanded our knowledge of the universe. We built it, put it in space, and have maintained it over the years, even improving it as we go along. God favors such activities. The more we learn about the world we live in, the closer we get to the day when we can see God face to face. This means that our faith must be an open one; open to change and open to new revelations of the truth. These three rules present us with a pathway. That pathway is upward and outward, leading us away from ignorance, war, crime, and the abuse of ourselves and the planet we live on. It is a pathway that will ultimately lead us to knowledge of God. If we are willing to walk on that pathway, and are equally willing to do so together, rather than apart from one another, there is no limit to what we will be capable of achieving. If I could will it so, I would have every human being now living form a chain, hand in hand, that circles the globe. Such a chain would signal to ourselves and our God, our willingness to learn and listen to what He has to say. It is not a question of belief. It is a affirmation of understanding of our true selves. It is the gnostic way.

Why Do We Argue With God?

I want to expand on a point I made in the last posting. We human beings live in two worlds. One world is a world of certainty. In this world we know everything that we need to know. The other world is one of uncertainty. We know some but not all of what we need to know in this world. Christians believe that the Bible answers all questions. Without discounting the importance of the Bible, it takes little understanding to realize that it represents a metaphor rather than an explanation of the nature of things. To stretch it into the final authority on life is counter productive to true growth and maturity. In truth, the Bible has to be read in light of our understanding as it presently exists, not the understanding of those, however inspired they might have been, who actually wrote it. They lived in a time when the understanding of the universe was limited and public mores were very different from our own. Those limitations are found constantly in the narrative and can only be overcome by looking for the fundamental truth, not the actual words which can be highly provocative according to modern standards. Most theologians understand and accept this point. Hence, appeals to stone teenagers for disobeying their parents are rightly ignored and would even be unlawful in most jurisdictions. The underlying truth is that teenagers ought to honor their father and mother as a matter of course. The lesson is given but the stoning part is ignored. As we mature and understand more of the world we live in and the universe that contains it, we have an opportunity to grow. Indeed, we have an obligation to grow and mature. We now possess weapons of mass destruction. Image if Genghis Khan, who loved to watch his prisoners die in great numbers, possessed the atom bomb. More to the point, imagine if Adolph Hitler had possessed the atom bomb. The whole rationale behind religion is to make us more mature and sensitive to the needs of our fellow human beings. This is reflected in the golden rule. That rule reflects the positive rather than the negative. Unfortunately, religion tends to favor the negative aspects. Many Christians are now in love with the idea that we are living in the times outlined in the book of Revelations. The truth is that the original author of that Book was talking about Rome, not the United States of America. The horrible events predicted in that Book are metaphoric and will not happen. It is time for the religions of the world to grow up, mature, and move past all of the apocalyptic nonsense that passes for religion these days. Given the awful results of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is madness to wallow around in such thoughts. In addition, the world is a dangerous enough place to live in as it is. Fifty million people died as a result of World War II. In October of 1962, the world came close to a nuclear war that would have taken far more lives than World War II did. Also, the economy of the world has the ability to take millions of lives all by itself. If we don't solve the disparity of income and hope among all of the nations of the world, we will see mass starvation and all of the attendant ills that would arise from that. It is time for the words of Jesus admonishing us to take care of the poor and suffering among us, to be taken seriously. That is the true goal of religion; not to foresee some pie in the sky answer to all the ills of man, but to use the assets and abilities that God has given us to solve the many problems that we now face. If we try to shoe horn the answers into some pet theory on how things are going in the world, we will worsen our situation and accomplish nothing good from it. The gnostic takes God at His word. He wants us to take charge of the world and make it a better place. He wants us to grow and mature which means nothing more than to learn to love each other and live with each other in peace. He wants us to take care of the biota and make it thrive, not suffer as it currently is doing. Finally, he wants us to become more like Him. Not the God who wants the Israelites to murder everybody in the City they conquer, but the God of Jesus who clothes the birds and adorns the lilies of the field. The God who loves us and gives us the means to love ourselves and others. America is turning into a pig sty because all we do is shout and scream at each other, often because of our religion. God wants us to grow and mature. Lets stop arguing with Him and do it.

Who Has the Final Word?

Years ago, human beings believed that the earth was flat. We now know that the earth is a sphere, not a vegetable patch. The Greeks believed that there were only 4 elements; earth, air, fire and water. We now know that there are many more, and that the first four are not elements themselves; they are made up of elements. It would be nice to have certainty that we know everything that there is to know. Perhaps someday we will have such knowledge. One of the most important aspects of the gnostic way is that it does not pretend to know it all. Unlike so many religions that profess to know it all, the gnostic way is a search, not a conclusion. As our knowledge grows, religion all too often takes the role of naysayer. Galileo was forced to recant that the earth revolved around the sun. Had he not done so he would have been excommunicated from the church and denied his place in paradise. Today, millions of Christians find it necessary to deny evolution because it does not serve their theology. They even go so far as to attempt to prevent it being taught in schools. Perhaps the age of Galileo is not behind us as yet? The search for knowledge goes on without the aid of many religious people. The gnostic suggests that the people who oppose knowledge on religious grounds are the one's that need to change, not those who seek knowledge. In the final analysis, the gnostic understands that the methods used by God to effect His creation are not our responsibility but God's. He did not consult with us when He decided what, when, and how He chose to proceed. When a person tells you that God has made a decision, and that decision just happens to coincide with the theology that person espouses, that is the appropriate time for you to recall Galileo. Who are we to lecture God on how He has established the universe? There is nothing wrong with asking questions. Everything is wrong when we say that we have all the answers. God has the final say, and do not allow anyone to tell you that he or she knows what that answer might be. The gnostic will continue the search for truth, no matter where it might lead. Perhaps this is a good time to join us?

What Does a Thief Steal?

The law of Karma exacts certain retribution for crime. How does it work? Like the law of gravity, you violate it at your own risk. Let us use as an example a thief who steals your most prized possessions. For what is the thief punished? The true crime is not simply stealing the possession itself; more important is the peace of mind that the thief takes with him when he leaves your home, carrying your possessions with him. I submit that this is the crime for which the thief pays the greatest price. Possessions have value, but peace of mind is priceless. It cannot easily be replaced. It is a crime that strikes the victim in his or her most precious state of mind; the ability to live in your home in peace and contentment. Bear in mind that the home is the place where you come to be in perfect safety and comfort. You have paid for that home with your work and thrift. It is protected by law from anyone who you do not desire to enter. The thief enters anyway without permission. It is easy to say that the proper home for the thief is a cell, however, many thieves escape jail or worse, they do time for other crimes instead of yours. Not so with the law of Karma. It is immediate and inexorable. Its only vice is that the victim may not be able to see it at work. This is because, like the law of gravity, it is a law that God put into place to make certain that the residual effects of crimes do not escape His judgement. If you believe in God, then you can believe in God's laws. The law of Karma is one of them and it cannot be violated without an equivalent response. If you are a victim, God is not unaware of your suffering. Your prayers will be answered in His own time and in His own way, but they will be answered. No thief in the night can violate your peace of mind without an equivalent payment. He may think he has gotten away with his violation, but he will discover that he has only sentenced himself in God's court.

Why Must God do All the Work Himself?

Mention the word "evolution" and literal Christians go bonkers. "No Way", they say. "God did it with Intelligent Design." DNA says otherwise. As I previously pointed out, we share our DNA with the Chimpanzee. We and the Chimp have a common ancestor. Evolution makes sense. If there are some billions of inhabitable planets in the universe, they will all have significant differences. Some will be larger than others, and some smaller. Some will be closer to their sun, and others further away. Gravity may be very different. Considering that life is able to exist in both high heat and intense cold, it is likely that the life that evolves in each planet will have significant differences with our planet. Some may be far more primitive, and some may be far more advanced. All of them will be light years away from us. Many have come and gone, and many have yet to come. What is so wrong with evolution? It produced us. We do not look very much like a chimpanzee although we are closely related. We have put a man on the moon. We have solved the human genome. We are soon to be able to make genetic changes in our own DNA. If God chose evolution as His way of introducing sentient beings into the universe, I choose to believe that He did a good job with us by letting Mother Nature pull the big oar. If you desire not to be related to the Chimp, I can understand that. However, neither I nor the preacher who supports your point of view can do anything about it. Its a choice God made many eons ago. Long before the earth was even in existence. The time has come to get over wanting it your own way, and accept that God knows what He is doing. Adam and Eve are metaphors. Its time to learn to live with that one too.

Reality and the Metaphor

I have recently finished "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. I recommend that everyone who professes to believe in God read this book. I particularly liked the last part when he described the wonder of natural selection. I believe that every minister and priest should not only read this book, but take an important lesson from it. Evolution is not the enemy of the church. Once the believers grasp the concept of how powerful a metaphor can be, the marriage between God and the natural world can be not only resumed, but fortified by taking the fairy dust out of religion, and the lack of poetry and metaphor out of science. Each side has much to teach the other. Neither side has the entire truth. Together, both sides can become powerful in the right way. Science can ennoble religion and religion can ennoble science. The time to start this marriage is now, before science runs amok, and before religion takes us back to the dark ages. I will speak more on this subject in later postings.

Perception

Perception is a term that we use but fail to understand. It has to do more with the relationship of sight and understanding. I can look at something without understanding it. This is important because the gnostic is on a search for understanding. Perception is a tool to advance that search. Take any three people and put them into a room. Each will look at the same things, but each will see it differently. Unanimity of perception is probably impossible to achieve. I am suggesting this because the search for understanding is personal to each one of us. The world is full of discordant voices all speaking with authority, and none of them having the entire truth. All we can do is listen patiently, attempt to understand, and continue to grow. Ultimately, we will all arrive at the same place but that day is very far away at this point in time. Until our perceptions coincide, I believe that tolerance, love, and respect for each other's point of view is the most important attitude that we can possess. We cannot agree, but we can agree to disagree as adults and as tolerant of each other's point of view. If we can learn to do this well, we can advance on the pathway to understanding, and achieve much peace of mind with each other. Isn't that a goal worth pursuing? The world is a difficult place to inhabit as it is. Let us all strive to make it a better place.

Mother Nature

Just who is Mother Nature? When I encounter this term, it is usually somebody talking about the weather. There is more to life than weather. Somewhere out there in space is a giant rock. I've heard that the source of the asteroids is a planet that broke up eons ago when the solar system was being formed. No matter what its source might be, every few million years one of those rocks hits the earth. The last time any rock of a size capable of leaving a mark on the earth was in 1908 in Siberia. It left a forest flattened in much the same way that Mt. St. Helens flattened the forest around it when the volcano blew up. The dinosaurs can tell you that its no fun when a big rock hits us; only those with wings survived. Getting back to that giant rock, it has our name stenciled on it. Someday it will take a trip and land on our planet. When it does there will be no place on earth to hide from its effects. However, there is a bright side. It is called evolution. This is a term that our religious right dislikes. They think that it proves that God does not exist. I suggest that it has nothing to do with the existence of God one way or the other, but it has a lot to do with the survival of life on earth. Why do I say this? It is because the last time a rock of any size hit the earth, that rock killed the dinosaurs but it did not kill our ancestors. They survived and ultimately morphed into the human race. What's so bad about that? To put it bluntly you would not be here to read this if that rock had not done its job. Why do I say this? Imagine running into a T Rex on the way to the grocery store. That's as much as need be said on the subject. The other side of the coin, however, is not so pleasant. What happens to us if the same rock hits the same location? I am not certain, but I anticipate that we will join the dinosaurs in perdition. We are not immune to the same result that they suffered through. This should give us pause. We have a brain, and if we use it we can prepare to save ourselves from this result. Is this an important goal? The dinosaurs would be a good guide in answering this question. They just stood there and took it, and we all know how that turned out. Our ancestors survived because they lived under ground and had a small diet. The point of this posting is not to urge you to prepare for an asteroid. The point is otherwise. I am suggesting that we need to take Mother Nature a good deal more seriously than we do at present. We need to start the process of learning how to live with her. You might think that we are already doing so, and on a superficial level, you would be correct. However, we are not doing enough; not nearly enough. The gnostic searches for God. Perhaps in the search for God, we can include the search for Mother Nature as well. Perhaps in doing so we will be looking in the same places. Perhaps in doing so we will grow up and stop acting like children. If it sounds like I am asking the literalistic religions to grow up, I am.

Is the Universe Capable of Conscious Thought?

What kind of question is this? Stars, planets, galaxies, all capable of conscious thought? I doubt that I'll find many takers for this idea, but that's not all there is to the universe. There is also the quantum universe, so small that only our best instruments are able to look into it. Is there conscious thought there? How about light? The properties of light are not fully known. If you doubt that, look into zero point energy which some scientists say contains light that is not used until it is needed. If it does in fact, provide energy to decaying atoms, how does it know to do so? If we search the universe looking for a conscious entity we call God and don't find Him, think about this; maybe we are looking in the wrong place. As I pointed out in the last posting, we are a collection of cells, but we think. Some of our cells clearly have that capacity. If we can think, is it a stretch to say that the energy in our universe, both large and small is incapable of thought? I'm not smart enough to answer the question, but I think any of us are smart enough to pose it. If some smart people are able to put things together and answer the question, think on this. We know a lot but there is a lot we don't know. If we don't let our literalist religion take us back to the dark ages, and our scientists, along with our poets, break into the clear and reach an understanding of what the universe really is, there may be no limit to how far we can go. We might actually be able to solve some of the terrible things that have made life so difficult for us. Isn't it worth a try?

Who are We?

This should be an easy question to answer. Someone asks who you are and you give them your name and history. That should do it, shouldn't it? Unfortunately, it doesn't do it at all. Let's start with what we once were, an egg and a sperm joining up in our mother's womb. One cell. Out of that one cell came the complex being that we are. However, we are still made up of cells, a lot of them and all of them specialized to make up our constituent parts. When we were moving from a one cell to a multi-celled being, our cellular structure was formed in the womb. Included in all of these structures was our brain; the seat of our consciousness. Without a brain, we cannot think. This marvelous instrument can create airplanes, rocket ships, complex novels, beautiful music, and can look into the far reaches of the universe with our telescopes and other devices. It can also hate homosexuals, take liberties with other peoples lives and properties, make war, and otherwise make life miserable for its fellow citizens. The good and the bad of it are all mixed together. Who did the mixing? There are several answers. Nature heads the list. The so-called theory of evolution is not a theory at all. Its a proven fact. We share the same basic genome as the chimpanzee. We have a common ancestor, and if you don't like that fact, turn in your body. God is also a suspect. The gnostic says that God is unknowable, so that leaves the issue up in the air. There is an indicator. It is called quantum physics. In the quantum universe, many strange things occur. These occurrences do not establish the point, but do give us pause. If the universe is made up solely of energy in the form of strings, who is the composer? We are left with the same set of suspects. Nature again heads the list. God? Who knows, because he is incomprehensible. You pays your money and you takes your choice.