ME AND GOD!

 You were on your way home when you died.

• A car accident. Nothing particularly remarkable, but deadly, nevertheless. You leave behind a woman, and two children. It was a painless death. Helpers have tried the impossible to save you, but to no avail. Your body was so badly broken that it's better that way, believe me ...
• And there, you met me.
• "So ... what happened? " you asked. " Where am I ? "
• "You are dead," I said, in the tone of which banalities are said. No interest in lace.
• "There was ... a truck? A skid ... "
• "Yep," I said.
• "I ... am I dead? "
• "Yep. But do not worry. Everyone dies, "I said.
• You looked around you. Nothing. An expanse of nothing. Just you and me. "What is this place?" You asked. "Is this heaven?"
• "More or less," I said.
• "Are you God?" You asked.
• "Yes," I replied. "I am God."
• "My children ... my wife," you said.
• "Yes, well what?"
• "Will they be fine?"
• "That's what I like to see," I said. "You just died, and your first concern is for your family. That's good, I like it. "
• You watched me with fascination. In your eyes, I did not look like God. Just to some man. Or to a woman. An example of authority, perhaps, more of the kind teacher than Almighty.
• "Do not worry," I said. "They will get by. Your children will remember you as someone perfect from every angle. They did not have time to develop contempt for you. Your wife will cry, it's safe, but deep down she'll be secretly relieved. To be honest, your marriage was floundering. If it helps you, she'll feel very guilty about feeling relieved. "
• "Oh," you said. "And now ? Am I going to heaven, or hell, or what? "
• "Neither," I said. "You will be reincarnated."
• "Ah," you said. "Then the Hindus were right!"
• "All religions are right, in their own way," I said. "Come on, let's go."
• You followed me as we walked through the void. "Where are we going ?"
• "Nowhere in particular," I said. "It's just nice to walk while we talk."
• "So, what's the point, suddenly?" You asked. "When I'm born again, I'll be like a blank slate, right? A baby. And so, all my experiences, and all that I have done in this life will no longer count. "
• "Not at all!" I said. "You have in you all the knowledge, all the experiences of all your past lives. You do not remember for the moment, that's all. "
• I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders. "Your soul is grander, more beautiful, more gigantic than anything you can imagine. A human spirit can never contain more than a very small part of what you are. It's like putting your finger in a glass of water to see if it's hot or cold. You put a very small part of you there, and when you take it back, you remove all the experiences she had. "
• "You have been in a human for the last 48 years, so you have not stretched out yet, to feel the rest of your immense consciousness. If we stayed here long enough, you'd start remembering everything. But there is no point in doing this between each life. "
• "How many times have I been reincarnated, then?"
• "Oh, heaps. Tonnes and tonnes. And in lots of different lives. "I said. "This time, you will be a little peasant girl in China from 540 BC. AD "
• "Wait, what?" You stammered. "Are you sending me back to the past?"
• "Well, yes, technically, I guess. Time, as you know it, exists only in your universe. Things are different from where I come from. "
• "Where are you from?" You said.
• "Oh, of course," I explained "I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you would like to know how it is there, but honestly you would not understand. "
• "Oh," you said, a little disappointed. "But wait. If I reincarnate at other times, I was able to interact with myself sometimes. "
• "Of course. It happens all the time. And as in each of your lives, you are only aware of your own existence, you do not even know it happens. "
• "So, what is it for ?"
• "Seriously?" I asked. "Seriously? You ask me to explain to you the meaning of life? It's not a little cliche? "
• "Okay, but it was a reasonable question," you insisted.
• I looked you in the eyes. "The meaning of life, the reason I created this whole universe, is that you grow up."
• "You mean the humanity ? You want mankind to grow up? "
• "No, just you. I created this universe only for you. With each life you grow up, you become more walled and your intellect grows, widens. "
• "Just me ? But then, all the others? "
• "There is no one else," I said. "In this universe, there is only you and me."
• You stared at me. "But all the other people on earth ..."
• "All of you. Different incarnations of you. "
• "Wait ... I'm everyone !?"
• "Ah, here you are, begin to understand," I said, punctuating my sentence with a pat of congratulations on the back.
• "I am all human beings who have existed?"
• "Or that will exist, yes."
• "I am Abraham Lincoln?"
• "And you're John Wilkes Booth, too," I added.
• "I am Hitler?" You said, dismayed.
• "And you are the millions he has killed."
• "I am Jesus?"
• "And you are the ones who followed him."
• You remained silent.
• "Whenever you took someone for a victim," I said, "it's you that you're taking for a victim. Every act of kindness you did, you did it. Every gay or sad moment that a human being has experienced has been, or will be, experienced by you. "
• You remained thoughtful for a long time.
• "Why?" You said. "Why do all this?"
• "Because one day, you will become like me. Because that's what you are. You are one of mine, my son. "
• "Wow," you said incredulously. "You mean I'm a god?"
• "No. Not yet. You are a fetus. You are still growing up. Once you have lived all human lives all the time, you will have grown enough to be born. "
• "So the whole universe," you said, "it's only ..."
• "An egg." I replied. "Come on, now it's time for you to move on to your next life."
• And I sent you on your way.

God's tech support!

Sunday Blessings!

 In Open and Relational Theology, Thomas Jay Oord notes that a survey by two Oxford University social scientists found that 96 per cent of Americans believe in four different versions of God: 

Authoritative (God controls everything) (32 per cent); 

Benevolent (God is loving) (24 per cent); 

Distant (God is not involved in human life so almost anything goes) (24 per cent); 

Critical (God is not involved except to punish people in the afterlife) (16 per cent).

I guess I'm in the 1/4 of people who believe in a distant God!

How About You?

Another piece of the puzzle!

 I spent the past half century pondering the mysteries of life and the nature of reality and just this week I had some insight into the nature of God/The Universe!

It used to hurt my head to try and imagine what came before the big bang or what will happen a trillion, or a billion trillion years from now since these numbers and concepts are impossible to imagine.

Then came the realization that time, as we know it, is only a construct, or concept that we have invented. 

"God," or "The Universe" (same thing)  exists entirely outside of time or space and always has been and always will be!

In other words "The Universe" (God) only seems to exhibit or manifest time and space on a microscopic level (something we can conprehend) and dissapear on a macro level.

I don't know if this concept does justice for other people, but it certainly reduced the amount of stress I had about these things!

The way I see it anyway! (Of course there's always the possibilty that I'm just full of shit!) 😉

WHY DO WE EXIST? (The meaning of life!)

 A couple of years ago I wrote an article about my book: "An Exploration of Religion" that took a look at "what it's all about!" (It's a book about "the meaning of life" and provides quite a few things to think about!!!!!!) -->

WHY DO WE EXIST?

As far as I can tell (and I’ve spent fifty years thinking about it and then writing the book “An Exploration of Religion”) there are only two possible answers here!

The first answer (which is held by a large percentage of scientists) is that there is no reason..., and all is just by chance and for naught.

The second answer is that all living things are extensions of what we call Mother Nature (or God) and (God) is living vicariously through us to experience a physical reality with all its ups and downs and highs and lows as a source of entertainment!

Hence my term: “Consciousness is the physical manifestation of God within us!”

Now a lot of people might disagree with this..., but as I show in my book: “There is considerable empirical evidence to support this argument"

 

BOOKS, BOOKS, WE GOT BOOKS!

I spent the past several weeks revising and updating my book "An Exploration of Religion" and for anyone curious about the development of religion over the centuries and how this all ties in with scientific theories about our origins and development then I wholeheartedly urge you to give this book your attention!

For anyone more interested in just the disparate views between religion and science I have written a second book which is a condensation of the first book with some very important additions!

This book "What are the Chances!" looks at not only how we got here, but how we have managed to survive in a Universe that is not all that friendly to organic life. (Us!)

Either book is enjoyable reading and I hope you have a look at them and see how they correspond to your own outlook on life and living!

Allan W Janssen

An Exploration of Religion!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B088LH21TB?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860 

What are the Chances!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08ZB91FN5?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860

"They're made of meat!"

 Here's an oldie but a goodie folks!

"They're made out of meat."

 "Meat?"

There's no doubt about it. We picked several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels and probed them all the way through.

You say they're completely meat? That's impossible!

What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars. They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines.

So, who made the machines? That's who we want to contact. They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you.

Meat made the machines. That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat.

I'm not asking you, I'm telling you!

These creatures are the only sentient race in the sector and they're made out of meat.

Maybe they're a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage.

Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans.

(Which didn't take too long.)

Do you have any idea the life span of meat?

Spare me.

Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, a meat head with an electron plasma brain inside.

Nope. We thought of that, but I told you, we probed them.

They're meat all the way through.

No brain?

Oh, there is a brain all right.

It's just that the brain is made out of meat!

So... what does the thinking?

You're not understanding, are you?

The brain does the thinking!

The meat?

Thinking meat!

You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!

"Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat!

The meat is the whole deal! Are you getting the picture?

You're serious then. They're made out of meat.

Finally, Yes!

They are indeed made out meat. And they've been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years.

So what does the meat have in mind?

First it wants to talk to us.

Then I imagine it wants to explore the universe, swap ideas and information.

The usual.

We're supposed to talk to meat?

That's the idea.

What's the message they're sending out by radio.

Hello. Anyone out there?  Anyone home?

That sort of thing!

They actually do talk then?

They use words, ideas, concepts?

Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat!

I thought you just told me they used radio."

They do, but what do you think is on the radio?

Meat sounds!

You know how when you slap or flap meat it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other.

They can even sing by squirting air through their meat.

Singing meat? This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?

Officially or unofficially?

Both.

Officially, we are required to contact, welcome, and log in any and all sentient races without prejudice, fear, or favour.

 

Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing.

I was hoping you would say that. It seems harsh, but there is a limit.

Do we really want to make contact with meat?

I agree one hundred percent.

What's there to say? Hello, meat. How's it going?

But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?

Just one! They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them.

And being meat, they only travel through C space, which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. 

Infinitesimal, in fact.

 So we just pretend there's no one home in the universe.

That's it.

That’s Cruel!

But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat?

And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you have probed?

You're sure they won't remember?

They'll be considered crackpots if they do. 

We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we're just a dream to them. 

How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat's dream. 

By Terry Bisson

Saturday Morning Confusion About The Great Flood!

O.K. Here goes:

There once was a righteous man named Utnapishtim.

The (Sumerian Gods) were angry at mankind for their evil ways and sent a worldwide flood as punishment. 

One of the gods (‘Ea’) warned Utnapishtim and instructed him to build an enormous boat to save himself, his family, and the seed of all living things. 

It rains for many days and caused a world wide flood. 

Later the boat lands on a mountain. 

Utnapishtim sends out first a dove, then a swallow, and finally a raven, which doesn't come back! 

The god Ishtar then places a rainbow in the sky as a promise to mankind that there will be no more floods. (OH, in the version told 3000 years later that man's name would be Noah!)

The way I see it anyway!