Saturday, January 16, 2010

Music of the Spheres

Michael Hayes, among others, has posited the idea that the fundamental processes of the universe are identical to those which are utilized to create music. If you look up his website you will find some articles on the subject that are very interesting. I choose to believe that God is a far more majestic version of Beethoven and that we are musicians on His stage. We may not realize that we are making music, but think about it. What better way for God to keep track of how we are doing than to listen to the music that we make with our lives. What better way to judge how well we did when we transit over to the other side, then to sit and listen to the symphony of our life. What kind of music are you making with your life? There will be much discord in my symphony, I am sad to say. Perhaps when I live again, I will make a better score. When our symphony is perfect in every way (think of Beethoven's ninth symphony) then we will be allowed to play on a greater stage to a more discerning audience. Next time that you feel comfortable in driving 65 in a 40 mph zone, think about the notes that you are making. When you overstep yourself to help somebody else succeed, think also of your notes. Its not a bad way to keep track of your life.

Friday, January 15, 2010

The Circle

We all know what a circle looks like. We are so familiar with it that we seldom give it a thought unless it has a specific connotation. One such connotation was a song in the "African King"; "The Circle of Life." I have no doubt that over the centuries that people have been worshipping God in all of His manifestations, the circle has played its part. This is fitting, I believe, because it is my opinion that the Circle explains how God achieves immortality in our lives. They say that if you start out in any direction in the universe you will eventually end up in the place that you started from. It wouldn't surprise me if this were true since I believe that all reality is in the form of a Circle. No matter where we happen to be at the current time, it is axiomatic that we will come there again some distant day. From the simple to the complex and then to the simple again. In case you haven't noticed that has been our experience on this planet. Go see the movie, "2012",not for the truth of its plot, but for the truth about our planet. We live in an exceedingly dangerous place. I can name 5 different ways that the planet can turn lethal; (1) Supervolcano; (2) crustal shift; (3) comet; (4) asteroid; and (5) a flood such as the one that took the earth in the time of Noah. Any one of these things has wiped out most of the life on earth, and can be expected to repeat itself some fine day, if not in 2012. We have surmounted these challenges, or we would not be here at the present time. The Permian Extinction took 95% of life. We were saved by the 5% who went on to evolve into human beings. However, if 95% of life were to be taken again, it is clear that our civilization could and would cease to exist. Perhaps our entire species with the need for evolution to provide a new sentient being somewhere in the distant future. Did God intend this to be so when He created the earth? You do the math. What does it mean for us? I believe that since the Circle of Life is eternal, we can assume that we will come again. At the end of "Dr. Strangelove", the great movie by Peter Sellers, where the world is destroyed by the bomb, they sing the song, "We'll meet again." If that is God's ultimate method, we certainly will. We are eternal and we live on an eternal circle. Don't fear 2012, its only a blip on the road of life.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

The Significance of the Number One

I have previously talked about the importance of the "Number One." I want to carry the idea further down the road. If we could reduce the universe(s) to its foundation, I believe that we would find that there is just one source for everything. We call that source God, Nature, and many other names. By whatever name you might chose to call the One, it is still the sole source of all things. We are a part of the One. I believe that the One can reduce itself to infinity. By doing so, all of the observable world and all that makes it up is enabled. If so, there is but one soul and we all share in it, including both animate and inanimate objects. On the level of the atom, there is no animate or inanimate world. There are only atoms and they are remarkably identical and they are also connected. Are they conscious? Who can say? Since the One is clearly conscious, the answer may well be "Yes." By this means we are connected to the entire universe in all of its complicated forms. We have equal status with the largest and brightest star in the heavens. When we cheat one another, kill one another, steal from one another, we are doing the same thing to ourselves. Conversely, when we help one another we are helping ourselves as well. Perhaps it is time for us to mature to the point where it is not necessary to assert our individuality to the extent that it hurts or deprives others. I hope that you agree.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

The Written Tsunami

For thousands of years our pursuit of knowledge has been slowed, stifled, and even deliberately limited by groups with a desire to control that flow. The church is one of those groups. For centuries anything contrary to church doctrine was censored and kept from our viewing. There are still groups of church people who are attempting to limit or abridge what we are taught in schools for much the same reasons. Our scientific establishment is unfortunately guilty of the same methodology. Any scientist who deviates from the "company line" is subject to severe discipline, usually in the loss of employment or grant money. The web is changing all of that. It is easy to find alternative viewpoints by using the search engines. This has opened up a floodgate or tsunami of information that threatens to go to the other extreme and give us too much information. It has never been easier to follow threads of information to a place where you can feel comfortable with what you know. It is my hope that more and more people will take advantage of this fact and start to self-educate themselves. There are dangers in this from the spread of cults and the poliferation of false theories. Is this bad? I don't think it hurts us in the long term, no matter what damage is done in the short term. I encourage anyone who is attracted to the Gnostic Way to commence his or her own search for truth. Perhaps some day the establishment will find a way to censor the web just as they have censored our flow of ideas in the past. Best to start now while you still can.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Foundation of Religion

According to our best science, human beings have been around for about 100,000 years, plus or minus. Recently, I have studied the foundation stones of the religions of the world to see where they came from. To understand religion, particularly its origins, you have to understand where we came from and what we know about our origins with any certainty. If just reading the Bible is good enough for you, then so be it. However, the Bible skims over this period of some 98,000 years of existence. In my opinion, the Book of Genesis raises more questions than it answers. It may be accurate as far as it goes, but it fails to go far enough. For example, the writers of Genesis said that Noah was all by himself in his boat on the waters of the great flood. If you read the accounts of the flood in the ancient writings of other groups of people, you will find that they all had a Noah who escaped the waters. Are they all lying? There is also the possibility that some advanced societies were wiped out by the flood. People who had capabilities that are similar to ours and some even more advanced. I don't pretend to have the answers that I'm seeking, however, I am convinced that our history is far more complex than we know. What does this mean to the Gnostic? I submit that if you are serious about finding the true extent of God in your life, it is essential that you know as much as you can about your past. Nothing less than an understanding of how we got here in the first place. Where should you start? I suggest that you start with the books written by Graham Hancock, particularly "Fingerprints of the Gods." You don't have to agree with everything that he suggests in order to learn a great deal about the past and find yourself with questions that need answering. It is the search that is important so far as I am concerned. A search literally for the soul of our past, present, and future. A search for God.