To us an Infant is GIFTED--No to "abortion on demand"

What is a baby?

Don't ask many modern thinkers. According to them there are "abortion rights"! And the new human life in its mother's womb is a "parasite" only unwanted "tissue"!

Nothing could be further from the moral truth.

That doesn't mean that state governments or the federal government should make intolerant, oppressive rules like some rightwing politicians have been doing lately, ones that require a woman or girl who has been raped or molested to bring the rapist's infant to birth, etc.

There are also tragic biological accidents where preborn infants in the womb are missing their brain or so severely malformed that they will die shortly after birth or never be able to function.

I'm not speaking to any of those severe pregnancy tragedies.

And, in all cases of pregnancy, the mother (in consultation with her husband and doctor) IS the ONLY one who decides!
NOT strangers or the government.

The key point of this article is that generally conception, growth in the mother's womb, and birth are the wondrous creation of new human life!

Also, don't ask theologians or become entangled in illusions and delusions, long-winded metaphysical splits/spit;-) of religious thinking.

What if we didn't focus on abstract philosophical doctrine, but viewed each baby as a true gift.

Instead, most traditional churches claim the doctrine of Original Sin-- that all babies are born inherently guilty sinners. In contrast, New Thought religion declares all babies are born divine. What a philosophical split!

What does either doctrinal extreme have to do with the real living being who is birthed from her mother?
the creation of her and her husband's love-making?

Human beings at birth are neither divine nor depraved. A baby is a natural offspring of a primate species. But uniquely (probably unlike any other species of life, even dolphins and chimps) a human being has the potential to grow spiritually--to relate to her Creator, and to create, bring newness and improvements into existence since she has been created in the image of God.

What a wonder a baby is! I recently held my first grandchild. Experientially, the moment was blessed. How perfect her tiny living body. What a true gift from the Divine.

But a little later, when she got hungry, wow, what lungs and what a puckered face she suddenly developed!

I must admit, I don't think something called a "soul" enters a baby at conception, or for that matter anytime later.
At conception a new life begins with amazing characteristics from the genes of her/his ancestors. At conception, the life appears to have no awareness. But brain wave activity begins early in the womb.

Even after birth, however, a baby is sort of an eating and pooping blob;-) She has awareness, but probably not much except she wants to be fed, and fed now!

Then gradually her awareness grows month after month. Finally she becomes self-conscious. Then later her sense of conscience develops--what is morally good, true, and just.

Finally, an awareness of her finiteness and the mystery of existence comes into her consciousness.

No, a baby doesn’t come into the world a walking, talking, mentally active philosopher/theologian/moralist/saint.

On the contrary she is a living breathing consciousness at the most simple level.

As she grows in the next 6 to 7 years in her consciousness, self-awareness, and her moral conscience develops with a sense of ought, then she will become a moral and spiritual individual who acts. Sometimes she will fail, sometimes "miss the mark."

But even then she is still an innocent child struggling to function and to understand and to fulfill needs and desires and hopes, and the demands of the big people in her life.

Is not this the stage that Jesus referred to when he said those who enter the Kingdom of God must do so as a little child? And where he said to people to let little children come to him for of such is the Kingdom?

And this was my own personal experience—when so young. I don’t remember being a sinful-driven child that fundamentalist Christians claim all babies and small children are.

Instead, as far back as I can remember, I had very deep desires to do good, to be good, to know God and to love the Light. And I had a lot of childlike wonder questions about God, life, other...always asking why about everything:-)
Of course the slither of wrong thought, wrong action, wrong living does come to us all, but not at conception or birth!

A child's awareness will grow if she is introduced to God and is shown her responsibility to share, to think of others and their needs, even though she still doesn’t voluntarily give outwardly if it is to her own privation.

Finally, the her moral consciousness kicks in mid-childhood. At each given moment, there will be a tussle between her babyhood past (all spontaneous need and desire) and her adulthood future (potentially all share, give, and bliss).

At that moment by moment juncture—that possibility moment--she must make continual moral, spiritual decisions. She is finite and so will make mistakes and fail. She is learning in her emotions, her mind, her conscience, and her body as she moves through time. Her choices are a much more complicated version of the way she learned to walk and to talk three years earlier--by trial and error.

But now a new possibility rears its ugly or saintly head. If she doesn’t continue to develop holistically, widening outwardly her care, her helpfulness, her compassion, then she slows, stalls, or even regresses backward to a total need/want level.
However, since she isn’t an infant but has the outer body and will and growing mental ability of a 6 or 7 year old, her regression hurts herself and other persons.

To try and fulfill life as a growing child, by returning to the barely conscious self-focused life of an infant actually distorts life and will bring harm to others to varying degrees.

Continued growing, in contrast, takes her through new stages of human development and new challenges. Each developmental advance brings new ethical and spiritual choices—either good or bad, advancing or regressing or a combination of both.

As anyone knows, when climbing a mountain, the higher one goes the more dangerous the climb becomes—not because the action of climbing mountains is evil, or because individuals who climb mountains are depraved sinful beings, but because the very nature of going "higher" also offers more options of choosing. Some of the ways are wrong, even could cause one to plummet to the bottom. Some of the ways are right, and lead toward the peak.

If a baby cries when she hungry that doesn’t show she is sinning.

On the contrary that is how an infant acts to get the attention she needs to survive. If a 4-year-old child throws a tantrum and takes her little brother’s bottle because she thinks she isn’t getting enough attention from her parents, while her action is wrong and needs to be corrected, she shouldn't be told she is a sinner. She hasn’t developed enough in her conscious awareness and ethical conscience to make altruistic decisions.

However, if at 8, she hides her little brother’s medicine, because she wants all the attention instead, this is morally wrong because by then her mental, moral conscience has developed enough to know that her action isn't the right way to get attention. And, besides, by this point she should be widening her compassion and care for others out beyond her own needs and desires.

If at 18, she steals her younger sister’s boyfriend to build up her own ego, deep wrong has occurred. By 22 if she joins with many of her countrymen and demonizes others and distant people in another country and lies, steals, and joins in the slaughter of those enemies, we do have actions of evil,
just as if in contrast,
she joins an outreach organization such as Habitat for Humanity or World Vision and sacrifices her time, talent, and money and inspires her younger sister to do so as well, we have actions of goodness.

Then the two sisters think of a way to get other people in their neighborhood, school, and city to get involved. One such inspired girl, about 13 years of age, raised thousands of dollars for starving, hurting people in a far off country.

See how the moral growth of human beings happens. A human being is in process from simple surviving to becoming the acting being of moral truth.

Reminds me of several of Jesus’ moral parables...

Go and do thou likewise...please stop talking about babies being unwanted "parasites" or "depraved sinners..."

“Holy infant so tender and mild*,” except when she cries at 3 a.m. and the parents haven’t slept through the night for weeks;-)

In the LIGHT,

Dan Wilcox

My Response to William Lane Craig, Famous Christian Leader, who claims his inner experience is more important than factual evidence

One of the most famous Christian apologists has made a strange video making the most bizarre claim--that his inner feeling of the Christian belief in the Holy Spirit is far more reliable than actual factual evidence! Not only that, he states that even if all factual evidence shows his belief is wrong, he will still choose to stay with what he feels!

Yet at Talbot School of Theology, where he teaches, there are other professors who totally contradict WLC's own view of God! They have contrary inner experience that they hold to be true!

How can Craig reconcile that with his statement that his inner feeling is from the Holy Spirit when those other professors at his theological school disagree, stating that the Holy Spirit witnesses differently to humans than Craig believes!

His central, primary basis for his version of Christianity being true is what he experiences within his consciousness, not actual historical and scientific evidence!

1. Doesn't Craig realize that many other religious leaders, contrary to his own beliefs have stated that they "know" their religion is true, too because of the inner witness they have experienced!

Mormon leaders emphasize they know LDS is the true religion because they have an inner witness! Some leaders Buddhism claim their own inner knowing. Muslims claim Islam is true, as do Hindus, Jehovah Witnesses, New Agers, and aas already pointed out contrary forms of Christianity, very different from WLC's particular form do too.

2. What would WLC say to me, a dedicated Christian for 55 years, who has been a minister, elder, missionary, Bible teacher, etc. However I NEVER experienced any such KNOWING! Even if I did experience such an inner feeling, I wouldn't rely on it if it countered hard evidence in science and history.

I do remember many, many sermons and books that declared I could "KNOW" that Christianity is true. But never once did I ever experience a KNOWING.
I kept searching for years, thinking that If I just tried harder, I would finally KNOW like leaders claimed I would, but it never happened.

Heck, I remember one Chiristian leader told me to just speak spontaneously and I would receive the Holy Spirit.

But I pointed out that if I did that it wouldn't be God's Spirit but just me speaking. At that point, I began to realize that this claim by millions of Christians of Knowing was probably an illusion, even for some, a con/propaganda that leaders used.


What I experienced instead in my life mostly was my voluntarily choosing, despite questions, to hope that the Good News was true, rather than some of the horrific other worldviews I encountered.
HOWEVER, that was a hope, and I tried to never discount hard fact of science and history.

Now, as I look back on over 60 years, I deeply regret that in the huge crisis I experienced as a university student at Cal State, Long Beach on the quad in 1966 that I fell for an either/or fallacy of Christianity.

At that defining crisis and decision of my life, since a couple other worldviews of professors and stuendes were morally horrific, I concluded, that despite my severe rational doubts about Christianity, that liberal Christianity (liberal Baptist-Quakerism) was the only place to make my stand.
Even though I was taking philosophy courses back then including one on logic, somehow I fell into the either/or fallacy, rather than to look for other possible life stances.

Because most of important life choices aren't either/or.

Maybe, IF I had come across WLC's bizarre, hugely irrational claim back then in the late 60's, I could have saved myself and my family many years of heartache and misplaced hope.

Wokeness to 'Systemic Racism" and Original Sin--2 false ideological claims

Randal Rauser, a systematic theologian, claims: “Personally, I struggle with all sorts of impulses to be prejudiced against other people. This is a manifestation of the more general struggle with sin and the fallen human nature. Day by day, I need to seek and call out my own internal fallen impulses to otherize and dehumanize my fellow human beings.

"Wokeness is at its best not as a punctiliar moment of revelation equivalent to the old Methodist perfectionism but rather an invitation to examine oneself and become woke every day to one’s own sin and wickedness including in the area of race.”
-Randal Rauser, Canadian Systematic Theologian at Taylor Seminary.
https://randalrauser.com/2021/11/a-review-of-owen-strachans-debate-performance-on-unbelievable/

Rauser appears to defend the claim that systemic racism exists at present in the United States even though it isn’t as bad as during Jim Crow and antebellum slavery.

While I agree that in some places and among some individuals overt racism does still exist. I think that the claim there is “systemic racism” in all of the U.S. is not only untrue, but is an ideological falsehood of the worst sort.

A number of Black scholars including Thomas Sowell, Professor of Economics, author of A Conflict of Visions and Walter Williams, Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University have emphasized that while some racism does exist and needs to be strongly opposed, “systemic racism” doesn’t exist in present day America.

I do agree with Rauser that each of us do need to regularly check his/herself see whether or not we are being biased against others because of race, sex, class or nationality.
However, I don’t agree that all Americans and Canadians “struggle with all sorts of impulses to be prejudiced against other people” because of “sin and the fallen human nature.”
Unlike Rauser, I don’t believe in the creedal doctrine of Original Sin, don’t think humans are born sinful, totally depraved, “in essence, evil” because of Adam’s eating a fruit, like the vast majority of Christians do.

Original Sin or Systemic Racism of Whiteness and similar ideological claims have no basis in reality.

1. Geneticists seems to have demonstrated that there never were 2 humans 6,000 years ago who were the origin of all the billions of humans today. Instead, the evidence so far indicates that all of humankind came from a few thousand individuals in existence many thousadns of years ago.

2. Original Sin is a pernicious doctrine that claims what the alleged wrong the ancestor of all humans did thousands of years ago was innately transferred to each infant of him and down to each grandchild, great-grantchild, etc. This total depravity, sinfulness is so innate within human nature every infant upon conception and birth has this sinfulness within them, unable to overcome it. Indeed, according to this doctrine, even good actions by each of us, are actually sinful!! A wrong action by another person, even if it was by our parent can't be innately inserted within us as children because we are their children.

Even if such a biological claim could be possible (which it isn't), that would be utterly evil, to blame a child, even a day-old infant for what wrong-doing his parent did.

This strange doctrine of Christianity also demeans the Creator. A good Creator would never insert utter sinfulness into each new human infant, no matter how sinful his/her father was.

Original Sin is also a denial of human choice, creativity, ability, and inherent worth.
Etc.

This new ideological claim of "woke" humans, that whites are guilty of systematic racism stereotypes unique individuals based upon such a superficiality as skin color. It's claim all humans with white skin are racists is very untrue, unfair, and delusionary.

Woke believers ought to read a good scholarly book on genetics. Geneticists have discovered that there is more variation within some racial groupings than there is between 2 different racial groups!
Furthermore, such a claim is contrary to the history of humankind. Racism isn't unique to one racial grouping. It appears in various contexts among all human groups.
While European whites, especially the
British, were mostly racist against Blacks in North America and Africa in the past, other races and nationalities in different times were also given to prejudice.

In the last 30 years, in Zimbabwe, for instance, there is clear evidence of racial prejudice against whites. And in China for centuries there was prejudice against anyone who wasn't Chinese.

Japanese have been very prejudiced against non-Japanese.

In history, North Africans enslaved over a million white Europeans over a period of 300 years!

There was plenty of prejudice, abuse, and enslavement in the Americas before whites ever showed up here. Various native American groups treated other native groups unfairly, even massacred the "other."

Instead, of prejudice and racism being something unique about humans with white skin, humans generally are given to IN GROUP VERSUS OUT GROUP bias, and to unfair treatment toward others, regardless of the color of skin in particular.

We all can fall for the will to power, the temptation to generalize and stereotype, etc. For example, BLM leaders often did it on their website in their claims that all police officers systematically oppress Black people. That is factually wrong.
Heck, many thousands of officers are Black, Asian, Hispanic, etc.
The Police Chief of Chicago is Black as is the mayor; the Attorney General of Kentucky is Black, etc.

In some cities, a few officers have been shown to be racist, but that is a regrettable minority, not most, let alone all police officers.

What is often the case in many of these infamous cases of alleged racism by officers is that people of color aren't attacked by officers because of their color but because the individuals are engaging in criminal activities and resist arrest.

In only one protest by BLMers in Chicago, over 50 police officers were injured! The Chief of Police documents the riot-violence of the protesters in a news video.
Noting about racism at all.

Seek the Good, the True, and the Just,

Dan Wilcox

"All things sick...evil great and small...foul": Covid-19 Virus and God

Jeremiah 14:11--16 "The YHWH said to me: “Do not pray for the welfare of this people.
Though they fast, I will not hear their cry,
and though they offer burnt offering
and grain offering, I will not accept them.
But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”

Many, many verses from the Christian Old Testament deeply stress and trouble humans. In the numerous readings through the entire of Bible, studying its various books in depth, listening to many sermons, and reading plenty of scholarly books, the great evil of such passages grows like a cancer within our moral selves.

Where in these vindictive, slaughtering, hate-filled parts of the Bible--that claim all natural evil and human evil are brought into being by God--is there the God of infinite love of the Good News, the God who never gives up on any human, the God who is the Good, the True, the Just, the Loving?

Then besides this textural hell, more and more Christian leaders--millions of them--emphasize these passages as central to Christinaity! They base their views in part by the study and promotion of Romans 9, the chapter which claims that God hates some humans, predestined billions of us to destruction and hell.

One famous Christian leader claims that God makes some humans "toilets" "spittoons."
Most state that all humans are "worthless," and "in essence, evil."
And so on...

Romans 9:
"11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay..."

Then there is the whole Augustinian doctrine of Original Sin.

Covid-19, the Black Plague, the Spanish flu, the Indian Ocean tsunami that slaughtered about 170,000, etc. all occurred because Adam and Eve disobeyed God. And God had foreordained their disobedience and punishment and that it would be inherited by all of the billions of infants conceived and born after them, over many thousands of years.

Even many Orthodox Jewish think that G-d created evil!
They quote Isaiah 45:7 "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the YHWH do all these things."

And it gets worse....
--

Now many current Christian leaders are applying these doctrinal beliefs to the current pandemic, that Covid-19 has been sent by God to punish America, the world.

According to the latest poll, 2/3rds of religious people (American Christians, Jews, and Muslims) think God sent Covid-19 as a message to all humans. So even though hundreds of thousands of innocent people are suffering and dying, this pandemic is God's way of warning us.
--the poll is from the University of Chicago and NORC Center for Public Affairs, May 2020

DOES THIS SOUND LIKE GOOD NEWS?

Here's a parody/satire of Christian beliefS.
from Monty Python Contractual Obligations Album:

All things dull and ugly
All creatures short and squat
All things rude and nasty
The lord god made the lot

Each little snake that poisons
Each little wasp that stings
He made their brutish venom,
He made their horrid wings

All things sick and cancerous
All evil great and small
All things foul and dangerous
The lord god made them all
--
"Black Death, a mid-fourteenth century plague, killed 30 to 50 per cent of the European population in just five years. The pandemic was caused by the Yersinia pestis bacteria with millions dying from the disease in two major outbreaks. This image is of a plague pit in Marseille, France"
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3412769/Black-Death-lurking-centuries-DNA-plague-victims-France-backs-theory-bacteria-lay-dormant.html

Each nasty little hornet
Each beastly little squid
Who made the spiky urchin
Who made the shocks... he did

All things scabbed and ulcerous
All pox both great and small
Putrid, foul and gangrenous
The lord god made them all
Amen


--Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: John Du Prez / Eric Idle / Trad
All Things Dull and Ugly lyrics
© Python Monty Pictures Ltd.,
Emi Virgin Songs Inc
--

So in Summation what are the “Books” of Nature and the “Books” Library of the Bible Teaching Us Humans?

#1 At one extreme are the Augustinian-creedal Christians, Orthodox Muslims and Orthodox Jews most of whom claim that both sets of books accurately describe the will of the nature of Ultimate Reality—that God causes whatever happens to humans.

Their views is already briefly described in the first part of this reflection.

HOW DO WE KNOW IF AN EVENT IS FROM GOD?

If it happens in nature or human history, then it is “God’s will.”

So, it is God’s will that Covid-19 happen.

Why?

To give God “glory,” “good pleasure,” to punish humans for failing to worship God.

#2 At the other extreme are the Naturalists, Materialists, and Atheists most of whom claim that there is no ultimate reality—that “God” or the “gods” are delusions of the human brain.

They state that there really is no good or bad, but only subjective morality, mere preferences, and that our preferences aren't really ours. We have them because it was determined by nature, the Laws of Physics, etc.

All of what appears to be horrific disasters, diseases, plagues, etc. including somewhat minor ones as Covid-19 aren’t even really "bad."

That judgment is only our subjective preference because we humans have a survival instinct instilled into us by natural selection. Besides, it was determined that that would happen because there is no free will and no moral responsibility.

"Free will" and "moral responsibility," according these thinkers, are delusions of the human brain that were determined to occur for who knows why. We humans don't choose our views or our actions.
We are "puppets" of nature.

Of course, why this happens, they state is for no reason.

So take your pick--God determined Covid-19 or the Laws of Nature/Big Bang determined it would happen.

#3


TO BE CONTINUED--

*The Triumph of Death by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1562)
*

My Life-Long Philosophical Journey

I've been on a long philosophical journey for about 68 years, so it could take many pages:-), but I will try and give you the dehydrated, non-fat version:
BACKGROUND
1. I appear to have been born with a 'why' caught in my throat, unlike my family or anyone else in a Nebraska village; always asking 'why' beginning at about 4, driving my parents tired.

2. Early on beginning about 10, I felt a deep keen moral concern. So I was troubled by the ethical horrors and inconsistencies in our Baptist Christian religion such as when our Sunday school teacher claimed that God had sent bears to maul kids making fun of the prophet Elisha. I countered God would never do such an evil action.

3. I presume that you are interested, mainly, in my philosophical journey so I won't share my own personal experiences related to that.

4. As Baptists, we weren't creedal; we strongly opposed Augustine, infant sin, Original Sin, and his other horrific beliefs and dogmas.
BUT then I discovered that most Christian churches did believe those dogmas. As a teen, I read a book from the library on the Creeds and was flabbergasted that anyone would believe such convoluted superstition.

5. As a thinking teen and through my adult years, I never believed Jesus was God, so over the years I've learned that most Christians leaders think I was never a Christian, not even when I was a Baptist youth minister, Bible teacher, later an elder, missions volunteer, etc.

6. At 18-20 I went to the University of Nebraska and Long Beach State, where most of our professors were agnostics, declared atheists or Marxist, almost no Christians. We formally studied philosophy and culture anthropology, philosophy, comparative literature. The ex-moderate fundamentalist encounters the secular world; from no-movies-or-dances religion to hanging out with philosophical beatniks and early hippies. Then I moved to Haight-Ashbury:-)

7. My adult life has been one life long search for what is true.

10 PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS OF REALITY with my own views at the end:
These are the views of reality that I understand from the views of reality that I've read about from many well-known cosmologists, philosophers, biologists, etc.
Keep in mind that I do think ethics are what define intelligent, self-aware, ethical species. It's my view that all rational, aware, ethical species would oppose dishonesty, rape, slaughter, inequality, etc. and support meticulous honesty, compassion, altruism, bio-concern, etc.

Ethical realities aren't just labels that we place on behavior.
--
We are living in a universe about 27 billion light-years across, and about 13.7 billion years old. According to cosmologists, the cosmos will last many more billions of years.

What is the inherent or ultimate meaning of this cosmos?

Some human leaders claim it's meaningless, others that they know for sure its exact nature.

#1 All reality came about by cosmic chance. Seemingly the view of the French biologist Jacques Monod in Chance and Necessity, a powerful book I read a few years back, and the view of the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould.
My take on this as an average person: I think this view is possible. I guess given cosmic time even the "laws" of nature, math, reason, life, ethics, consciousness could all blip into existence.

#2 All reality came about by cosmic determinism of meaningless matter and energy which is eternal. Everything is lock step. There are no choices, not for what I supposedly ruminate on having for lunch or whether or not to commit murder or what to choose for my career. Or even whether to read about various views and to post this.

Based on our studying this at university, and for many years since, and many times trying to imagine my "I" as an illusion who is only 'done to' by the cosmos, I think this is one of the least likely views of reality. But the view is very popular these days--sort of an atheistic version of Calvinism/Augustinianism.

#3 All reality came about somehow by a temporary, finite, imperfect, even distorted, expression of the perfect eternal Ideal Forms of Platonism.

I find it intriguing that a minority of thinkers who identify as atheists do think that the Good exists! They are also moral realists.

#4 All reality came about by emergent possibilities in a quantum singularity vacuum or some unknown ultimate reality.
But where did the quantum singularity vacuum come from? Here goes "turtles all the way down."

This view seems to posit an eternal physical reality with no "super" reality 'transcending' it.

Like in #1 humankind is a "fluke," an "accident," a "lucky" break.

#5 All reality came about by an impersonal ultimate reality of cosmic beauty. Scientists such as Albert Einstein stated this was his view, that he thought the impersonal god of Spinoza was true. But this seems similar to a combination of #3 and #4.

However, unlike #2 and #4, the emergent-possibility cosmos isn't meaningless and purposeless, but is filled with meaning.
Interesting, but I doubt it.

#6 All reality is coming about by the everlasting but limited cosmic reality that is becoming. Essential reality is Process influencing matter and energy. This is the view of thinkers such as philosopher and mathematician Alfred Lord Whitehead, philosopher Charles Hartshorne, etc.

This cosmic but limited ultimate reality--God--who is far beyond human understanding works toward changing matter and energy and conscious life such as homo sapiens into increasing patterns and forms of beauty, meaning, and purpose. This is also the view of some Reform Jews.

But where is the evidence for this?
Process thinkers explain that consciousness, reason, ethics, mathematics, natural law, creativity, aesthetics, life itself, etc. are the evidence.

This view is appealing, but most of the technical philosophical explanations are BEYOND me. I'm a relatively average literature teacher (who got born with a "why" in his throat;-)

#7 All reality came about as just one of an infinite number of universes of an infinite multi-verse, the view of some modern cosmologists. What is the ultimate of the multi-verse is unknown or maybe the multiverse itself is ultimate.

Intriguing, but seems too speculative for me. However, I'm not as skeptical as Martin Gardner, one of the co-founders of the modern skeptical movement who wrote a scathing dismissal of this view.

#8 All reality came about by the impersonal Brahma God of Hinduism and some modern New Age leaders such as Ken Wilber with his Integral Theory, and Deepak Chopra, etc. .

The impersonal God Brahma is conducting a cosmic dance in which it forgets its self and dreams into billions of separated forms including in one minor edge of the universes, thinking humans.

But all is illusion. And all events both good and evil are produced by Brahman. That is why Ken Wilber and other such leaders claim that Brahman caused 9//11, causes all murders, all rapes, etc.

Given that I am a human rights worker from way back, for about 55 years, obviously this isn't my cup of philosophical coffee. Also, I still vividly remember as a Gandhi devotee being shocked when a Hindu priest in L.A. tried to persuade me to go to Vietnam to kill (when I was drafted), saying insects are killed all the time in reality.:-(

#9 All reality came about by unknowable factors. Everything beyond and before the Big Bang is such a complete unfathomable mystery that it will probably not ever be solved by finite humans at least not for a very long time.
Allegedly the view of the Mysterians such as Gardner, Penrose, etc.

#10 All reality continually comes about by infinite impersonal reality which never had a beginning. No creator god exists. Some forms of Buddhism (though other forms are theistic).
--
At this point in my life, I lean toward some view of #3 and #6, though I am open to #1 as a real possibility.

However, maybe, as some famous scientists have emphasized, we finite human primates don't have enough knowledge to even decide this question.

I certainly don't know even how to do calculations to send a rocket into space, let alone know the nature of reality in its astrophysical/cosmological ultimate sense.

However, each moment I exist, I am face with learning, making choices, etc, so by the very nature of being a human primate, I have to live out of one life stance. Even though I have no conclusive "proof," as I've said, ethical truths are a good start.


In the Light,
Dan Wilcox

My Philosophical Journey Across Brief Time

While lapping up long lengths of the swimming pool last night, another reflective project splashed (like the proverbial salmon or cod) into my consciousness.

Enclosed is the beginning of a philosophical timeline of my life--less than a quantum blink in cosmic time--which shows how I came to the place I am now, and the journeying and struggles and radiances. Hopefully, my own backwards reflection and chewing of life's cud will spark (to change metaphors midstream;-) your own musings and reflection of your lives.

One Philosophical Time Line:

1) From my earliest memories (maybe 4?), I recall that I badgered my folks (and later many other adults) with WHY questions. It appears that I was born with a 'why' caught in my throat and mind;-)

When I was still young, and about to meet a new person, my parent would remind me not to ask questions, or talk a lot.

2) At a small age, before first grade, my Aunt 'Barbrie' used to often child-sit me, because both of my parents worked late jobs. She was a wild (in an innocent sort of way) young woman who at bedtime told me incredibly creative science fiction stories she made up on the spur of the moment.

Great space ships left earth to other planets; the planets were strange and different. And she told me about a boy, just like myself, who built a space ship in his backyard. Maybe those early stories were a factor in my childhood--and life-long--love of science?

3) By the time I was 5 or 6, I began trying to figure out God, this mystery that everyone talked about, and my father, as a Baptist minister, preached about every Sunday morning. I did this, partially during the sermons, while I moved a little toy car about in my winter coat sleeves and on top of it; and remembering I mustn't say a word or ask questions until the end of the service.

Contrary to the caricature of what atheists claim all Christians and theists believe--that God is "Sky Father/Super Person,"
I never thought that.

Rather, in my little imagination and beginning of abstract reasoning, I thought God must be like gas:-), like the air, invisible but everywhere.

4) Then by 8 years of age, I became very aware of ethics and my own part in it. Consciousness and conscience met.

A dramatic conversion experience on the way home from Adams. I leaned forward and asked my dad to stop the Chevy. He pulled over on the shoulder of the gravel road in Southeast Nebraska on a Thursday night in 1955. Since I've told that life-changing story in past blogs, I won't repeat it here. (This is to be a short time line, not a tome;-)

5) In elementary school (3rd or 4th grade), a librarian used to lend me new books (beyond my years) and I learned about Neanderthals, the prehistoric, and more about dinosaurs, and science fiction.

My dad used to talk with me about prehistoric times, as well as space travel. He was a history teacher, Baptist preacher, carpenter, small town farmer, and handy-man.

As far as I know, no one in our family was ever "young creationist" in the sense that is meant by most conservative Christians and secularists now. While such labels may describe many or most fundamentalists and evangelicals, my own growing up years were very different.

I guess we would have fit in the "Old Earth" category, because we thought the world was very old as proven by dinosaur skeletons, and that prehistoric men had existed as evidenced by Neanderthals' remains found in excavations in Germany and elsewhere. We did believe in the Genesis Flood.

Categories:
--Naive Faith
--Adapted religion with budding reason and science
--Moral Realism (or Moral Objectivism)and Moral Universalism
--Theism
--Anabaptist Version of the Christian religion
--Infants innocent, no O.S.
--Free Will


6) But my devout naive faith and hope came crashing down at the fairly young age of 11 years. Our Sunday School teacher told us God sent bears to punish kids who were making fun of the prophet Elisha's bald head!

I immediately raised my hand, very upset. This chasm opened up severe doubt within me. How could the Bible and adult Christians believe such horrific things about God?

I refused to accept such stories. The God I hoped in wasn't at all like that.

7) About this time, or maybe a little later, I learned the Baptist view (at least of our church) that St. Augustine was a false teacher, that Original Sin and infant baptism were horrific wrong beliefs which Roman Catholics believed.

We Baptists didn't accept the Creeds of the Catholics, Lutherans, Methodists, etc. We were non-creedal and humble of it;-).

8) Then as an early teen, I discovered the passages in Scripture which condoned, supported, and caused slavery!

If the Bible was God's Word, how could it be so wrong about this horrific evil?

This ethical contradiction bothered me deeply for years, as well as other horrific actions, stories, and demands in Scripture.

9) By the time I was 13 or 14, I quit thinking the Bible was inerrant. Too many wrong parts. It couldn't be, though, I continued to think that many key passages were inspired by God.

When I asked my dad and to other Christian leaders, and read books which explained problems in the Bible, their answers didn't satisfy, not in the least.

This controversial issue--and plenty of other wrongs and errors in the Bible--still troubles me.

And how is it possible that many bright, even brilliant, highly educated adults really think the Bible is "inerrant"?
Why do so many churches and denominations insist that Scripture is error-free, perfect?

Clearly, despite their irrational faith, the Bible is in error in many places. And, of course, later when I studied textural criticism, etc., I learned of the many thousands of other errors, of serious historical errors, of grievous scientific errors, copy errors, and so forth.

10) Summer camp! Ah, those exciting times. At 13 years old, I got to go. (Normally, my parents couldn't afford the cost.)

What a rousing time with campfires, games, Bible studies, exultant singing, and the fun of running through the night, knocking down the wood braces which kept the wood window covers open in the campers' cabins.

I don't remember if I actually ever did that, but rooted for those few who did; what fun:-)! Especially if it was one of the girls' cabins. By the time I had reached 12, I was completely girl-crazy.

There at that Baptist summer camp, philosophy showed up vividly and got personal, too.

I dedicated my life to God one inspirational night after a powerful sermon about how we need to choose to commit our lives totally to God and to change the world.

Strangely though when I got home and excitedly told my folks, they were dismissive of my experience. They told me I was already a Christian, and, basically, 'don't get carried away'!

I guess this shows how moderate--middle of the road-- my folks were in their fundamentalism, not extremists.

They had met those extreme "fundamentalists--the GARB ones in college, a very bad experience for them. Whenever I got "too religious," like the time I went around our small town putting evangelistic tracts on car windows, they cautioned me to be moderate.

My dad and mom were practical people, not given to dramatic religious experience. They also thought no miracles--like the ones in the Bible took place now. TV preachers, according to them, were con-artists, fakes.

Rather, what counted in life was being a strong Christian who lives right and good, succeeds, treats others equally, and helps those in need.

11) The older I got, the greater my questioning. I'm surprised I didn't turn into a question mark;-).

When I was 16 (15?) and asking and thinking deeply about philosophy and religion, and always involved in reading religious books, I came to view God as the "Ground of All Being."

And the more I studied and thought, I began to accept other such 'liberal' views. (This, of course, worried my parents, but they didn't normally speak of it.)

Categories:
--Skeptical faith
--Religion and Science together
--Moral Realism (or Moral Objectivism)and Moral Universalism
--Theism
--Liberal Baptist
--Ultimism
--Free Will
--Separation of Church and State


12) An added burst to my already questioning mind, came as a junior in high school, when I chose to sign up for an elective, Philosophy class. (Our high school was one of the few high schools in which philosophy was offered as a class.)

We read Plato's The Cave, and complex explanations of famous philosophers, and talked and talked, etc. My understanding of the world, life, existence, the universe kept expanding.

This exciting class was taught by my favorite teacher, who also taught history and debate.

He was an agnostic, had a dry sense of Mark Twainian humor, and made side comments against religion, politically correct ideas, and so forth. Later when I became an educator, I modeled my teaching on his methods and style.

And that year, we studied Transcendentalism in American literature. Emerson's and Thoreau's view of reality greatly influenced me, though I opposed some of their beliefs.

Additional Categories:
--Ideals, Essence, the Good
--Mysticism
--Civil Disobedience
--Questioning about relationship of Nature and Science and God

13) But then, at 17, another life-changing crisis blasted forth--one struggle which has lasted for 53 years!

I encountered Christian Calvinism, Reformed theology.

The Christian leader was our teen Bible study teacher in Lincoln, Nebraska.
(How did a 'free-will' Baptist like me, end up in a Christian group led by a Calvinist?
No idea.)

The Vietnam War had ignited and was raging. And I was struggling with whether or not to go into the military--
probably the Navy, like my dad, after high school as planned--
and go to Vietnam.

When I asked (questions, again) this Christian leader, he declared that Christians ought to kill for God.

Shocked at his certainty and the way he stated it, I responded, "I don't think God would ever command us to kill others."

He proceeded to quote passages from the Old Testament. According to him, God would sometimes command Christians to do what is "immoral."

Quickly, it got terrible. I learned the worst--Calvinists, Augustinians, and Lutherans think most of the billions of us humans are foreordained to hell, to eternal damnation, condemned before the whole cosmos began!

Calvinists claim that God doesn't love everyone, but only loves a limited number of humans.

What!!!!!:-( I've never gotten over the shocked horror of that.

The bears, even slavery, now seemed minor issues; this new horror was like falling from a 10-thousand-foot cliff.

:-((((((((

Other Christian leaders claimed that only the Creeds are true Christianity, not our Baptist beliefs--those are "heretical."

Whew...

So for the first time, I checked out these infamous "Creeds." Got a large tome from the public library.

To say I was devastated and baffled is an understatement.

These creedal statements were NOTHING like our Baptist faith, nothing like the Christianity that I deeply trusted in.

The creedal theology was so contrary to everything we believed about life and existence.

And the Creeds made very bizarre statements such as that Jesus is totally God and totally human, etc. They seemed irrational, ridiculous, and absurd.

How could any thinking human possibly believe that Jesus was God?!

14) Then at 18/19 years of age, I went off to university, first to the University of Nebraska, then transferred to Long Beach State in California. At the latter, most of the professors were outspoken atheists.

Very brilliant men, I looked up to. Two great profs were agnostics, the second one a Jewish agnostic. It was the fall of 1966, a very volatile time. The best of times, the worst.

I learned so much. But fairly quickly I came to see that Christianity probably isn't true, at least not what I had believed, and certainly not denominational religion.

At one point while crossing the university quad, I came to a marrow-deep crisis point, probably the central one of my entire life:
I was at a 50% versus 50%
'two roads'--

EITHER/OR:

Stay with liberal Baptist religion
(our Baptist campus minister said he leaned toward Deism)

OR

Change to Atheism
(like our profs and most of the students I knew).

The tipping point came in that dramatic crisis moment,
as I stood on the quad,
torn between 2 opposite directions,
2 opposite roads,
2 diametrically opposed lives.

While organized Christianity didn't seem to fit with some of the evidence we were learning in anthropology, geology, and philosophy,
on the opposite side
Atheism generally rejected the reality of objective ethics, and was in very serious error in claiming to know for sure about the ultimate nature of the cosmos, of Reality.

We often discussed philosophical, ethical, and political issues between classes, disagreeing, reflecting, and countering.

How could anyone know that the vast cosmos was "meaningless" and "purposeless"?!

True, as a liberal Baptist, I thought that existence was "meaningful," but I didn't "know" that; rather I had faith it did.

So though Christianity had deep problems, (and I strongly rejected the major Christian traditions of the Creeds), I knew that ethics are real, not "subjective" stuff humans make up. I could see that in the Civil Rights Movement, and other issues. My first protest march was against Apartheid in South Africa.

Another troubling factor was the unethical behavior of some of the professors and atheist students. When they defended unethical actions, and lived them, I realized, I didn't want to go down that river.

My two best friends were atheists. Worst of all, I saw how their nontheistic lifestance was harming them.

That was then...

But now--over 50 years later--I wish I could have a second chance at that drastic decision on the quad.

I wish I could live that crisis over again, now that I know there are far more than only those 2 extreme contrary options,
that Life isn't an
either/or--

EITHER

Baptist Christianity

OR

Atheism.

No, there are many different philosophical lifestances humans can consider, think about, and choose from.

There are at least 10 very different views of Reality. (See my other blog post for specifics.)

I do know I would reject Atheism again.

After over 50 more years of studying Atheism, reading lots of books by many famous atheists, talking with thousands of them, I am more intellectually convinced that Atheism is incorrect. Besides, I don't identify my central views by what I am not.

BUT what I would change, is that I would leave organized Christianity.

TO BE CONTINUED--

Would you like to share your own philosophical timeline?


In the LIGHT,

Daniel Wilcox
lightwaveseeker@gmail.com

I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the 'isness' of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal 'oughtness' that forever confronts him.
Martin Luther King

The Day of Doom and the Holy Quran

Another chapter from the suspense novel, An Eye for the Beheading:


Chapter 4: Day of Doom and the Holy Quran

Preface Quotations:

Bangladesh Hindu priest beheaded by Islamic State
BBC News

The Itamar massacre which included the beheading of a baby...[in Israel/Palestine]
Calgary Herald

Israeli News: “a little child’s head [3-month-old Haddas Fogel] was decapitated” by Muslims Amjad Awad and Hakim Awad...
proudly admit they knifed to death five members of the Jewish Fogel family in the West Bank Settler village of Itamar on Shabbat."

Later, Palestinian TV aired an interview in which the mother of Hakim and his aunt said
they were proud of him for the attack which included the beheading.

His aunt described him as a “hero and a legend.”
The Jerusalem Post, Israel

Quran 5:33: The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution (by beheading), or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter;

Palestinian school textbook:
--Muslims Martyrs who kill Jews: "God will not send away their works...and (will) admit them into paradise.”

Martyrs “will be given the highest place in paradise with the prophets and messengers.”

News: Palestinian militants...began gathering up the Israeli body parts, and at one point were seen playing soccer with the severed head of one Israeli soldier.

"People were running after me and we were kicking the head," he said. "We were spitting on it."

When we heard a helicopter we started running. I carried the head of the Jew and ran away from the area and I took it to the people in the resistance."
Telegraph Report, United Kingdom

Hours earlier, an Israeli shell aimed at a group of Gaza militants slammed into a nearby house and decapitated a 6-year-old Palestinian girl.
Associated Press

UN staff were beheaded as Afghans rage against pastor who burnt Quran
The Independent News

Photo: Gazan Muslim Leader Calling for the Killing of Jews

Quran 8:12: I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off.

Quran 47:4: Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), strike off their heads; at length; then when you have made wide Slaughter among them, carefully tie up the remaining captives

Quran 9:123: Oh ye who believe! Murder those of the disbelievers and let them find harshness in you.

Quran 2:191: Kill them wherever you find them, and drive them out from wherever they drove you out.

Quran 8:17: It is not ye who Slew them; it is God; when thou threwest a handful of dust, it was not Thy act, but God’s...

“When Banu Qurayza Jewish tribe was surrendered (627 A.D.) unconditionally, the apostle confined them in Medina in the quarter of al-Harith, a woman of B. al-Najjar. Then the apostle went out to the market of Medina (which is still its market today) and dug trenches in it. Then he sent for them and struck off their heads in those trenches as they were brought out to him in batches tying theirs both hands with their necks.

This beheading went on until the apostle made an end of them. There were 600 or 700 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800 or 900. Apparently Muhammad himself worked on the digging of the trench into which the massacred Jews were to be thrown. But he (Muhammad) did not only take part in those preparations, the formulation of the text states but also participated himself in beading of at least two of the leading Jews.

Sahi Buchari Hadiths #143, page-700 : Sulaiman Ibne Harb…Aannas Ibne Malek (ra) narrated, “in the war of Khaiber after the inhabitants of Banu Qurayza was surrendered, Allah’s apostle killed all the able/adult men, and he (prophet) took all women and children as captives (Ghani mateer maal).. Among the captives Rayhana a beautiful young Jewish girl was taken by Allah’s Apostle as booty whom He married after freeing her and her freedom was her Mohr.”

According to the biography of Prophet Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq, Prophet Muhammad himself sanctioned the massacre of the Qurayza, a vanquished Jewish tribe mercilessly. Thus some 600 to 900 men from the Qurayza were lead on Muhammad’s order to the Market of Medina. Trenches were dug and the men were beheaded, and their decapitated corpses buried in the trenches while Muhammad watched in attendance."

--

Chapter 4

Two weeks later, Afifah walked hesitantly toward her biology class on the lower campus. The stitched wound in her side still pained her, but other than that, and a constant glancing around where ever she walked, she felt almost back to normal, if Allah wills.

A guy student standing by an oasis of palms in the middle of the concrete, glanced at her. Afifah pulled her scarf lower on her forehead and looked away.

Her best friend Dalia paced beside her, a ready-helper if she needed anything. Dalia, was a political science major, an Egyptian from Cairo, who had come to take courses at Orange Coast and then transfer to UCI, the science and humanities ‘mecca.’

Well, neither of them used that term; it sounded blasphemous, but they heard the word so often from other students in Orange County, that it stuck.

“Have you heard anything from the police yet?” asked Dalia as she silenced her cell phone which was buzzing. “Probably my political theory study group asking, ‘Dalia! where are you?’”

Afifah glanced at her friend, and shook her head, her insides tumbling back into that horror—their chanting “Down with Israel!” then that sudden savage pain in her side and reverberating gun noise, and her collapsing into blackness.

She paused and then said, “I can’t understand why anyone would shoot at us, though it was Allah’s will, of course. It must have been.”

“Of course, Allah’s will, but, oh come on, these Americans are so two-faced; they talk big and give out scholarships—we got ones didn’t we? But they’re so pro-Zionist, they’d shoot their own mother if that protected Jews.”

“Dalia, I think that’s a bit harsh. Don’t believe all our own talk.” Afifah looked over at her friend again, and then around them, instinctively, as they approached the biological sciences building.

Her friend glared at her, but then broke into a smile and laughed and gave her a hug. “Yeah, maybe I am sounding too political for my own good. I’ve gotta run to study group, but remember just take it slow, since this is your first day back.”

“And phone me if you need help. Now I need to get movin’ if I ever plan to switch to UCI. Catch you later.” Dalia smiled and hurried away as she punched her cell, her robe swishing around her hurrying feet.
___________________________

Afifah rubbed her moist eyes and stared at the wall frustrated and sad. Why’d she have to read this old depressing text—The Day of Doom about babies being cast into hell by the Christian god! How is this old poem possibly going to help me become a doctor?!

Infants damned because of Original Sin, according to their professor. Because all infants were born sinners, born evil!

More depressing than last week’s study of Jonathan Edward’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” where God denies humans any free will and then tortures them forever for doing what he has already decreed!

Christianity's very weird. How depressing. It was sick, this American literature. And not even like most Americans she knew. Why do we have to study this depressing stuff?

How’s this preparing me for medical school? I’d rather study for our cell biology test. Or read my Holy Quran.

She looked over at her precious Quran placed carefully and reverently on top of her other texts and warmly touched its lucidly clean cover.

Insha’Allah, how she would like to read Muhammed’s encouraging verses instead of these gross Puritan ones. Of course, the Prophet (peace be upon him) spoke of the fires of hell, too, but only for unbelievers, heretics like the Shia; and infidels were sent there, but not precious infants!

What sense did Wigglesworth mean in this horrible verse?

“Reprobate Infants plead for themselves.”

Oh, she understood the English text fine, but what rubbish!

Original Sin. Such Christian doctrines were so weird. She reached for her cell phone, pushed back her blue hijab, and thumbed Dalia’s number. No answer. Great. Afifah frowned and picked at her lip.

Dalia was probably arguing some point of Palestinian history with contrary members in her class. What a chatterbowl! But if she would only pick up, she’d help me get through this trash.

Okay, who else could she call for moral support and encouragement?
She looked down at the damning verses again, about how supposedly God had predestined babies to Hell…
CLXVI.
1321: Then to the Bar all they drew near Reprobate Infants plead for themselves. Rev. 20:12,15, compared with Rom. 5:12,14 and 9:11,13. Ezek. 18:2.
1322: Who died in infancy,
1323: And never had or good or bad
1324: effected pers'nally;
1325: But from the womb unto the tomb
1326: were straightway carriéd,
1327: (Or at the least ere they transgress'd)
1328: who thus began to plead
Because they were to be cast into Hell…God petulantly responded back to the babies’ pleading..
1429: Will you demand Grace at my hand,
1430: and challenge what is mine?
1431: Will you teach me whom to set free,
1432: and thus my Grace confine?
CLXXX.
1433: "You sinners are, and such a share Psal. 58:8. Rom. 6:23. Gal. 3:10. Rom. 8:29,30 and 11:7. Rev. 21:27. Luke 12:14,8. Mat. 11:22.
1434: as sinners may expect,
1435: Such you shall have, for I do save
1436: none but mine own Elect.
1437: Yet to compare your sin with their
1438: who liv'd a longer time,
1439: I do confess yours is much less,
1440: though every sin's a crime.
CLXXXI.
1441: "A crime it is, therefore in bliss The wicked all convinced and put to silence. Rom. 3:19. Mat. 22:12.
1442: you may not hope to dwell;
1443: But unto you I shall allow
1444: the easiest room in Hell."

Afifah grimaced and shoved back the text.

Predestined to eternal torment, but they get the easiest room! Sick. Twisted!

Instead she thought of her youngest brother, only an infant when she had left Nablus, Palestine for the United States last year.

She grabbed her cell phone and fingered up one of her pictures of him. Only a few weeks old. What a cutie! And she got to hold him—before she left on the plane--sitting by her father while her mother washed dishes and cleaned.

That perfect nose! Those eyes moving about in the dusky room, her following his gaze trying to figure out what he was looking at. Was he thinking at all or only in-taking images like a scanner?

And those little hands waving around like a band leader--

But then that perfect moment had been shattered.

Her father had suddenly hit the palm of his hand dramatically on his leg—her nephew had startled and cried.

And Walidy had cursed at the TV. And she prayed forgiveness for her father, and sat silently, while mother walked the crying infant back and forth.

In Arabic, the TV's words were being shouted out by a angry commentator: “Israeli planes have bombed Gaza City! Again! The Zionists have murdered a 12-year-old girl and her little brother. And three martyrs were killed!” Angrily, the rose-colored, but modestly covered commentator on Al Jazeera shook her fist.

Their father stood up and slammed his fist into the wall, cursing again.

I don’t want to think on that. Afifah closed the vivid memory of last year and looked at the screen of her phone. How she wished she could be in Nablus right now!

But she knew why not. I’ll call Hatim. He loves to hear himself talk about all things religious. She hid a smile from herself and punched in his number.

Fifteen minutes later she met him along with his older sister, Naheeda, also chubby like Hatim, a sweet but dingy girl. A little flighty. They sat in the college café and sipped expresso--well she did and his sister, but Hatim was too busy ranting about America’s current sins and its despicable pride.

“That Jew-lover Obama should stop funding Israel’s new tank!”

All political stuff Afifah and everyone knew by rote. But her friend always had to give this opening political statement to everyone before he warmed up and got intellectual about college studies.

She knew several of his professors had called Hatim aside and told him he could no longer participate in discussions if he didn’t shutter this opening political rants.

His sister, Naheeda, partially hid her gawky grin to Afifah.

More rushed words. Then finally, Hamid slowed down and started explaining on what she needed help with. "So you see Wigglesworth is partially correct."

She choked on a sip of coffee and brought her hands to her face in shock. "What?!"

Naheeda looked somber and confused too, no grin now, but handed Afifah an napkin to wipe off the coffee dripping on her chin.

“What!" she said again, agigtated, her side hurting where she had been shot by the unknown sniper days earlier.

"What do mean, Hatim?” She put her coffee cup down. “You know the Quran emphasizes Allah is all merciful and compassionate, not vindictive and cruel! ‘In the name of Allah, most gracious, most merciful.’”

“Yes, yes, Afifah, chapter one, verse one. But,” Hatim pushed the American lit text into the center of their table, avoiding the girls’ two espressos and reached for his Quran, carefully placing the sacred text on a spread napkin.

“you must remember Puritan Christianity and Islam are actually very similar in their philosophical view—

Afifah butted in, “What?! No way!”

She who normally hardly spoke in class, and only got vocal when in demonstrations, apologized. “Sorry, for sounding so angry, but Hamid, we don’t’ believe in Original Sin like these Christians--that babies go to Hell because of Adam’s sin! That’s infidel talk, horrible lies.”

“True, but that doesn’t solve the problem. Look at chapter verse in the Quran. ‘Those whom Allah wills to guide, He opens their breast to Islam; Those whom He wills to leave straying, - he makes their breast close and constricted, as if they had to climb up to the skies…’
S. 6:125”

“And ‘Whomsoever Allah guides, he is the one who follows the right way; and whomsoever He causes to err, these are the losers. Many are the Jinns and men we have made for Hell.’
S. 7:178-179 That sounds like Wigglesworth doesn't it?"


Afifah sat confused and very angry. Her side ached.

“And Afifah, look here.” Hatim tried not to look too triumph in his presenting of hard evidence for this ignorant Muslim, friend of his sister.

"He whom Allah sendeth astray, for him there is no protecting friend after Him. And thou (Muhammad) wilt see the evil-doers when they see the doom, (how) they say: Is there any way of return?”
“ … And they will have no protecting friends to help them instead of Allah. He whom Allah sendeth astray, for him there is no road.’
S. 42:44, 46”

“Clearly, Muhammed (Salla Allahu alaihi wa sallam, May Allah's peace and blessings be upon him), clearly, emphasizes our fate in is Allah’s hand, whether to Heaven or Hell. And that includes all infants.”

Afifah sat quiet, utterly bereft.

She started to cry despite herself. No doubt I’ve read those verses many times, but--

But she had never thought about the verses alone, and certainly not in regard to infants like her baby brother.

Hatim noticed the tears, but continued, “To finish, I studied this in depth when I had the same course last spring. Christians turned against free will under the powerful guidance of the theologian Augustine--who was influenced by Eastern thinkers--and, again, in the European Reformation.”

She listened but refused to accept it. Why couldn’t Hatim understand her point?!

He kept talking, “Scholars Martin Luther and John Calvin attacked the views of moderate Catholics such as Erasmus who believed humans have choice.”

Now Hatim talked more softly, “Calvin and most after him emphasized Allah’s total sovereignty. Wigglesworth is just following the Calvinist way of thinking. Calvin spoke of reprobate infants, too.”

“And surely you remember Erasmus’s name, even if you are studying only biological sciences.” He grinned, chuckled in a friendly way, as he saw from her expression that his powerful point was having its effect.

“Yes,” Afifah wiped her face and agreed. She tried to smile, and appear thankful, but she wasn’t. I need to take a pain pill soon.

He failed to notice and added, "So you see, in a strange sort of way, Wigglesworth is very Quranic. Of course, he lacks the understanding that Muhammad, (peace be upon him) could give him if he turned to the true religion.”

Afifah listened. At least, bless his heart, Hatim had taken her questions seriously, and he had gently laughed, which eased her tension and frustration.

Then she spoke, “But, Hatim, we don’t believe Allah condemns babies do we? I don’t remember any verse that says that in the Quran.”
She wiped her face again with her napkin. Her side burnt. She needed to those pain killers in a few moments. “I need some water, Hatim.”

He took her empty coffee cup and walked over to the water cooler.

His sister Naheeda still had not said a single word, but her gawky grin was missing, and she stared toward her brother and then back at Afifah uncertainly. Finally, she took a sip of her coffee and looked around to see if she saw any of her infidel friends.

Hatim came back and handed the water to Afifah. But he wasn’t done and considered how to deliver his final proof with a little tenderness toward his sister’s friend. She was learning. Thank you, Allah!

“Well, listen," he stood and leaned forward, "some Muslim thinkers did believe in free will like Erasmus but al-Ash’ari in the the 10th century and al-Ghazali in the 12th century defeated them!”

“And ever since, we Sunnis have been predestinarians like the Reformed writers such as Wigglesworth and Edwards, though we don’t phrase it like such infidel Christians. Didn’t you study the central Islamic doctrine of qadar in your Nablus school?!”

“And, remember, Afifah, ‘insha Allah’ literally means ‘if Allah wills’ in English, so when people go to hell it is Allah’s will as much as when they go to Heaven.”

He sat down again. “Study what the Asharites said; they claim even in their teaching of “kasab” that all comes from Allah by decree including evil and Hell.”

Afifah hiccupped, then coughed, and couldn’t drink the water. She didn’t look at Hatim or his sister, but stared down at the swirled carpet below their table, stricken with inner agony, and physical pain.

But Hatim didn;t even notice. “Here’s the creed of al-Ash’ari: ‘We hold that there is no creator except Allah, and that the acts of human beings are created and decreed by Allah, as He said, 'Allah has created you and what you do' 37.96”

“And al-Ghazali: ‘…everything is due to the creation of Allah, for the choice itself is also due to the creation of Allah and man is forced into the choice which he makes.’”

Hatim caught a breath and changed direction.
“As for infants, there is a divided opinion as to whether they go to hell or not. Consider this hadith:
‘The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘Four (kinds of people) will be brought forth on the Day of Resurrection: the infant, the insane, the one who died during the Fatrah (the period between two prophets) and the very old man.”

“All of them will speak in their own defense, then the Lord, may He be blessed and exalted, will say to a neck of Hell, ‘Come forth!’ and He will say to them, ‘I used to send Messengers to My slaves from amongst themselves. Now I am the Messenger of Myself to you. Enter this (i.e., the Fire).’”

“Those who are decreed to be among the doomed will say, ‘O Lord, how could we enter it when we are trying to escape it?’ And those who are decreed to be among the blessed will rush to enter it. And Allah will say: ‘You would have been more disobedient towards My Messengers.’ So those will enter Paradise and those will enter Hell.’ Abu Ya’laa.”

He sat back in his chair, satisfied with his proofs. And for his conclusive clincher, he said, “Notice, how similar the hadith is to Wigglesworth’s poem stanza, how the hadith speaks of decrees like the Reformed doctrine of damnation does.”

Finally, he looked at Afifah, triumph, waiting for her to show appreciation for his scholarship, and admit defeat.

He reminded himself that Allah had given him his scholarship and excellent mental recall; he would be gentle with this dear Muslim sister.

But Afifah didn't respond or act like he expected.

She avoided his gaze and didn’t speak, but picked at a worn spot on her chair’s fabric. Why did Hatim have to have so many hadiths memorized! Why did my Walidly make me come to America? Why have my last two years been so bad? Why Allah? But she knew.

Silent moments passed in the noisy cafe around them. Shifting uncomfortably in his chair, Hatim regretted his triumphal win this time. Usually in class when he had trumped someone’s skepticism or disbelief or contrary position, the budding scholar couldn’t help gloating and immersing himself in the win for hours.

But now sensing how deeply Afifah was devastated, he said, “Of course, there are, also, contrary opinions, Afifah.” He paused.
“The Quran doesn’t speak to this condition, and remember, unlike false Christianity, our faith is the absolute truth, and thus we know infants are born pure, not with Original Sin.”

Leaning forward now emphasizing each word, “And we know the Quran is perfect and eternal come down from Heaven. So even hadith must bow and worship it. So please don’t take my every comment to heart.”

He felt the urge to touch her arm, to console her, but, of course, refrained.

“Okay, thank you Hatim.” Afifah didn’t look his way, but stood, and walked off in search of her friend Dhalia, not even remembering to say goodbye to Naheeda.

As she hurried down the corridor, the stress and despair of her last two years came back and drowned her. She hurried into the restroom and swallowed a double doze of her pain medication.
__________________________

Later, bleary eyed and sniffling, Afifah leaned in against her study desk, her stomach cramping.

Dalia surrounded her with her arms and consoled her. “Look, Hatim, is such a braggart. Don’t listen to a thing he says. Remember, I’ve studied hadith, too”—she paused—“at Cairo University last year before coming to America.”

“My prof was a renowned Islamic scholar. He showed us how many hadiths aren’t even necessarily true.”

Afifah blew her nose and listened.

“Lots of stories, including false ones were told in the years after the Prophet’s death. Don’t let these quotes of Hatim bother you.” Dhalia observed her friend, trying to see if anything she was saying was helping.

“Trust the holy Quran. It alone is perfect. Remember, I’m studying this Christian trash like you. NO babies are condemned to Hell! Allah is most merciful, most just.”

Still, Afifah said nothing, but started crying again.

Dalia, suddenly leaned back, took her arms and pulled Afifah around to face her. “Why this huge over-reaction? You haven’t sinned…my sister, have you?!”

Her roommate jumped up and shook her head. “No, I am pure. No boy has touched me! Thanks for such trust!” Afifah gathered up her things.

“Sorry, dear one; I shouldn’t have said that. But you seem so upset over a long infidel poem, a weird Christian one... But why are you letting your studies get to you?”

“Everything is wrong in my life!”

“But, it’s Allah’s will, you know that.”

“Yes,” said Afifah, bowed and mumbled, “I know.”

“Think, Afifah, Allah has blessed you. You are studying to become a doctor. You have the second highest grade point average at Orange Coast College; you probably won’t even need to go to UCI after all, though it’s a fine school for pre-med.”

“I think you’ll get a full scholarship to UCLA! And you live here in rich Orange County. From what you’ve said, you lived in considerable poverty in Nablus, right?”

Afifah didn’t answer.

“And think, you don’t have to go through all those Zionist checkpoints just to get to your relatives in Bethlehem…What is really bothering you?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Okay, dear friend.” Dalia hugged her and went back to studying.
--

To be continued--

--Daniel Wilcox

To Us a Baby Is Given

Toward an Understanding of Childhood...

What is an infant?

Don't ask theologians or become entangled in illusions and delusions, long-winded metaphysical splits/spit;-) of religious thinking.

What if we didn't focus on abstract philosophical doctrine, but viewed each baby as a gift from God, just as Christmas does?

Instead, most traditional churches claim the doctrine of original sin-- that all babies are born guilty sinners. In contrast, New Thought religion declares all babies are born divine. What a philosophical split!

What does either doctrinal extreme have to do with the real living being who is birthed from her mother?

Human beings at birth are neither divine nor depraved. A baby is a natural offspring of a primate species. But uniquely (probably unlike any other species of life, even dolphins and chimps) a human being has the potential to grow spiritually--to relate to her Creator, and to create, bring newness and improvements into existence since she has been created in the image of God.

What a wonder a baby is! I recently held my first grandchild. Experientially, the moment was blessed. How perfect her tiny living body. What a true gift from the Divine.

But a little later, when she got hungry, wow, what lungs and what a puckered face she suddenly developed!

I must admit, I don't think something called a "soul" enters a baby at conception, or for that matter anytime later.

At conception a new life begins with amazing characteristics from the genes of her/his ancestors. At conception, the life appears to have no awareness. But brain wave activity begins early in the womb.

Even after birth, however, a baby is sort of an eating and pooping blob;-) She has awareness, but probably not much except she wants to be fed, and fed now!

Then gradually her awareness grows month after month. Finally she becomes self-conscious. Then later her sense of conscience develops.

Finally, an awareness of her finiteness and the mystery of existence comes into her consciousness.

No, a baby doesn’t come into the world a walking, talking, mentally active philosopher/theologian/moralist/saint.

On the contrary she is a living breathing consciousness at the most simple level.

As she grows in the next 6 to 7 years in her consciousness, self-awareness, and her ethical conscience develops with a sense of ought, then she will become a moral and spiritual individual who acts. Sometimes she will fail, sometimes "miss the mark."

But even then she is still an innocent child struggling to function and to understand and to fulfill needs and desires and hopes, and the demands of the big people in her life.

Is not this the stage that Jesus referred to when he said those who enter the Kingdom of God must do so as a little child? And where he said to people to let little children come to him for of such is the Kingdom?

And this was my own personal experience—when so young. I don’t remember being a sinful-driven child that fundamentalist Christians claim all babies and small children are.

Instead, as far back as I can remember, I had very deep desires to do good, to be good, to know God and to love him. And I had a lot of childlike wonder questions about God, life, others…always asking why about everything:-)

Of course the slither of wrong thought, wrong action, wrong living does come to us all, but not yet.

A child's awareness will grow if she is introduced to God and is shown her responsibility to share, to think of others and their needs, even though she still doesn’t voluntarily give outwardly if it is to her own privation.

Finally, the ethical consciousness kicks in mid-childhood. At each given moment, there will be a tussle between her babyhood past (all spontaneous need and desire) and her adulthood future (potentially all give and bliss).

At that moment by moment juncture—that possibility moment--she must make continual ethical, spiritual decisions. She is finite and so will make mistakes and fail. She is learning in her emotions, her mind, her conscience, and her body as she moves through time. Her choices are a much more complicated version of the way she learned to walk and to talk three years earlier--by trial and error.

But now a new possibility rears its ugly or saintly head. If she doesn’t continue to develop holistically, widening outwardly her care, her helpfulness, her compassion, then she slows, stalls, or even regresses backward to a total need/want level. However, since she isn’t an infant but has the outer body and will and growing mental ability of a 6 or 7 year old, her regression hurts herself and other persons.

To try and fulfill life as a growing child, by returning to the barely conscious self-focused life of an infant actually distorts life and will bring harm to others to varying degrees.

Continued growing, in contrast, takes her through new stages of human development and new challenges. Each developmental advance brings new ethical and spiritual choices—either good or bad, advancing or regressing or a combination of both.

As anyone knows, when climbing a mountain, the higher one goes the more dangerous the climb becomes—not because the action of climbing mountains is evil, or because individuals who climb mountains are depraved sinful beings, but because the very nature of going "higher" also offers more options of choosing. Some of the ways are wrong, even could cause one to plummet to the bottom. Some of the ways are right, and lead toward the peak.

If a baby cries when she hungry that doesn’t show she is sinning.

On the contrary that is how God designed an infant, to get the attention she needs to survive. If a 4-year-old child throws a tantrum and takes her little brother’s bottle because she thinks she isn’t getting enough attention from her parents, while her action is wrong and to be corrected, it isn’t wrong yet because she hasn’t developed enough in her conscious awareness and ethical conscience to make altruistic decisions.

However, if at 8, she hides her little brother’s medicine, because she wants all the attention instead, this is wrong because by then her mental, moral conscience has developed enough to know that her action isn't the right way to get attention. And, besides, by this point she should be widening her compassion and care for others out beyond her own needs and desires.

If at 18, she steals her younger sister’s boyfriend to build up her own ego, deep wrong has occurred. By 22 if she joins with her countrymen and demonizes some other country and lies, steals, and kills the enemies, we do have actions of evil,
just as if in contrast,
she joins an outreach organization such as Habitat for Humanity or World Vision and sacrifices her time, talent, and money and inspires her younger sister to do so as well, we have actions of goodness.

Then the two sisters think of a way to get other people in their neighborhood, school, and city to get involved. One such inspired girl, about 13 years of age, raised thousands of dollars for starving, hurting people in a far off country.

See how the ethical growth of human beings happens. A human being is in process from simple surviving to becoming the acting being of ethical truth.

Now that is the beginning of Good News. Reminds me of several of Jesus’ ethical parables…

Go and do thou likewise...please stop talking about babies being guilty sinners…
Think instead of Christmas’ joy—

“Holy infant so tender and mild*,” except when she cries at 3 a.m. and the parents haven’t slept through the night for weeks;-)

Have a Blessed Christmas,

Daniel Wilcox

*”Silent Night” Christmas Carol