THE TRAGEDY OF MOST HUMAN WORLDVIEWS versus the HOPE of other ones

Nihilism of major LIFE STANCES versus Opposing Views

1. Hinduism: ALL that comes about in the cosmos was and is and will be is CAUSED by Brahman.

2. Buddhism: Many different views, some totally deterministic, some emphasizing human creativity and hopeful choice.

2. Greek and some Middle-eastern religions: FATE causes all that happens.

That’s why Oedipus must murder his father even though he doesn’t want to, tries to avoid doing so.

3. Orthodox Judaism: Divided views, depending which version of Judaism is asked.

“The Pharisees held that not all things are divinely predestined, but that some are dependent on the will of man; the Sadducees denied any interference of God in human affairs; while the Essenes ascribed everything to divine predestination ("B. J." ii. 8, § 14; "Ant." xiii. 5, § 9).”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/.../12338-predestination.

“In an essay entitled "Iggeret ha-Gezerah," Abner of Burgos propounds the Ash'ariya doctrine of predestination, according to which every human act, both in the material and the spiritual life, is predestined. This doctrine, however, was combated by all Jewish thinkers, and especially by Maimonides, who pointed out all the absurdities to which the Ash'ariya were compelled to have recourse in order to sustain their views ("Moreh Nebukim," iii., ch. xvii.).”
“Talmud…asked…God how long he would suffer from his poverty.” [God[ answers “Eleazar's poverty could not be helped, he having been predestined to be poor.”

“…saying of Ḥanina's is, "A man does not hurt his finger in this world unless it has been decreed above" (Ḥul. 7b). https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/.../12338-predestination

4. Islam: Allah causes all /wills all—predestines all (Qadar).

(Like some versions of Judaism, and most versions of creedal Christianity, IF SOMETHING HAPPENS and EVERYTHING THAT HUMANS DO—all is predetermined by God.

However, there are a minority of Muslim leaders such as in some Shia branches of Islam in history and now who reject this total determinism.

“Naser Makarem Shirazi gives a similar example: They say, “Does God know that so and so at such and such an hour on such and such a day will kill someone or will drink an alcoholic beverage?” If we say, “He does not know,” we have denied God's knowledge. And if we say, “Yes, that person must do this, otherwise God's knowledge will be imperfect,” then, in order to preserve God's knowledge, a person is obliged to sin and obey God!” Shirazi, Naser Makarem (12 May 2015). "The Issue of Predestination and Free Will. God's Knowledge". The Justice of God. Al-Islam.org.

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5. Augustinian Roman Catholicism, Reformed, Lutheran, Calvinistic, etc. (most creedal Christians):
They claim as a central doctrine of the Creeds and most theologians based in Augustine/Calvin/Luther that the Trinity predestined/foreordained/willed/caused all that happens.

For example,this is extremely claimed in Luther’s The Bondage of the Will. Luther had first been an Augustinian monk.

6. In contrast, Wesleyan, Quaker, Anabaptist, etc., and Eastern Orthodox Christianity take a very different view: They OPPOSE the hard DETERMINISM of the Augustinian West (Roman Catholic, Reformed, Lutheran, etc.)

Eastern Orthodox-- “…these two principles can be at odds one with another. God may always will the salvation of man, but man may not always accept it. Such was the case in the Gospels, when it was said of the Pharisees and the lawyers that “they rejected the will of God for themselves.”
https://saintgeorgekearney.com/load.php?pageid=55

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7. Most of Atheism-Naturalism-Materialism very strangely strongly agrees with creedal Western Christianity such as famous leader R.C. Sproul who claimed that Not a single molecule moves in the cosmos but that God planned/willed/ caused it.

The HUGE difference, of course
is atheists claim, NOT that any god caused all of history going back over 14 billion years, But Nature-Cosmos COMPLETELY DETERMINED ALL at the beginning of the Cosmos,
determined at the microsecond of the Big Bang or the Laws of Physics.


For instance, the famous scientist and atheist Sam Harris claims that all actions of all humans, etc. even if the universe repeats a “trillion” times will happen exactly the same.

All humans are “puppets”--our sense of "I" is an illusion--according to Harris, that Reality is like gigantic “tumors all the way down” that force everything to happen in the past, present, and future, at least until the cosmos ceases to exist. Harris states that just like a guy in Texas was forced to commit mass murder from a university tower, so ALL humans are forced by the Cosmos/Big Bang to do what happens.

--
IN CONTRAST, some life stances OPPOSE DETERMINISM; INSTEAD they STATE that the Cosmos is OPEN to Hope, Creativity, etc.

While there are givens in the Cosmos, in nature and history, such as the Laws of Physics, and that one human can’t be everywhere at once, so is finite and limited, YET
Individual humans can creatively (and hopefully reasonably) make one choice out of many possible ones.

All humans do have moral responsibility and by their moral choices and discoveries can give new creative directions to themselves, and to a finite extent, even nature!

NO GOD, NO FATE, NO COSMOS HAS DERTERMINED EVERYTHING.

Despite all of the suffering, havoc, disasters, diseases, and destruction in the Cosmos, and many immoral and unjust choices of humans,
There is YET HOPE to counter the horrific tragedies.


--Dan Wilcox
6/4/23

For FB and Blog

Ironing History

"Call me Ismael...And, doubtless, my going on this whaling voyage, formed part of the grand programme of Providence that was drawn up a long time ago.

Art by SNH

"It came in as a sort of brief interlude and solo between more extensive performances. I take it that this part of the bill must have run something like this:

[1851]
"Grand Contested Election for the Presidency of the United States.
"WHALING VOYAGE BY ONE ISHMAEL."
"BLOODY BATTLE IN AFFGHANISTAN."

"Though I cannot tell why it was exactly that those stage managers, the Fates, put me down for this shabby part of a whaling voyage, when others were set down for magnificent parts in high tragedies, and short and easy parts in genteel comedies, and jolly parts in farces—though I cannot tell why this was exactly...besides cajoling me into the delusion that it was a choice resulting from my own unbiased freewill and discriminating judgments."
from Chapter One: Loomings, Moby Dick by Herman Melville

What an irony of history and literature, an ironing of reality, that we come round similar events and similar actions and similar beliefs now, 165 years later, today in July, 2016.

The first 3 ironies and history-repeaters speak for themselves. Are in the news, have been in the news for days.

But what of fate, of determinism, of qadar, of predestination?

Yes, that Medusa,

that Kali,

that Hydra

of philosophy and religion is making a huge return of late, too--

#1 In the take-over by Augustinian Reformed leaders of much of American Christianity in the last 30 years.

#2 In the huge popularity around the globe of Islam and "qadar," (which, strangely, is even defended by many secular leftists and "liberals" in the United States and Britain).

#3 By the massive support for and by most atheist leaders of determinism and the denial of human choice.

Famous determinists include neuroscientist Sam Harris ("Tumors All the Way Down"), biologist Jerry Coyne (no "moral responsibility," murderers and rapists have no choice), and biologist Anthony Cashmore (humans have no more choice than a "bowl of sugar").

And there is daily in the news, the horrific attacks by modern Ismael of innocent civilians such as the stabbing death of the 13-year-old young girl by a Muslim Palestinian youth this month.

How deep is the abyss of darkness overwhelming humanity,





Daniel Wilcox

Freedom to Choose

At tragic times like the present when destruction, heartbreak,
debacle, and slaughter 'reign' down--
when the ocean of darkness
seems endless and abyss'd,

remember the gravely etched truth
of the psychologist Victor Frankl who lived at Auschwitz:
















The wonder of being human, of being consciously aware, of experiencing
and living in the transcendent, of seeking the good,
of sensing the 'ought' of every ethical truth
is that each of us understands
(except for determinists of course)
that every human, everyone of us, all of us--
no matter how difficult our troubled life path,
no matter what our difficult circumstances,
no matter our weeping heartache,
no matter how chasmic deep our tragedy--

we are free to choose alternatives in the very midst of the evils,
to reject the horrific wrongs,
to song hope and justice,
to turn toward the Light,
to reach out to others and empathize,
to act compassionate,
and
to care
hell
down
and
out.

"I am not...my circumstances, I am...my decisions."
Educator Stephen Covey

"Any person, regardless of the circumstances, can decide what shall become of them--mentally and spiritually.
Victor Frankl

"I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become."
Psychiatrist and psychotherapist Carl G. Jung

Let us choose each moment.


In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Review of Primitivism, Radicalism, and the Lamb's War

For those interested in early Quakerism versus creedal Christianity, this scholarly volume on "The Baptist-Quaker Conflict in 17th Century England" will bring historical light to the subject. The book is by T.L. Underwood, published in the Oxford Studies in Historical Theology by Oxford University Press.

The study shows the striking contrast between Calvinistic Baptists and the the early Friends Movement on issues such as the Light, the Holy Spirit, the nature and purpose of Scripture, etc.

Also, the book shows how the Quaker emphasis on God's love for everyone, and everyone being capable of ethical choice
is totally contrary
to the horrific views of Reformed/Calvinism
(that billions of us including Quakers are predestined to Hell).

A few quotes:

"The most telling arguments that Friends used...were based on their concept of the nature of God, who because of love and mercy was unwilling that people should live and die in sin."

"Here the Quakers reacted strongly against the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. How could a God of love condemn the major portion of humankind to destruction?"

In response to the Friends' universalistic views--that God loves everyone,
the Calvinist John "Tombes reportedly concluded, 'When I mean to Go to Hell, I will go among the Quakers.'"

Much of the book's historical background and analysis is taken up with the Quaker's view of the Light and the Holy Spirit versus the Calvinists' contrary theology with a focus on a fundamentalistic interpretation of the Bible.

"Friends strongly disagreed. The Bible, they argued, had been inspired by the Spirit...surely therefore , the Spirit, not the Bible, ought to be the rule of Christians."

The Calvinist John Tombes met and contended against George Fox. And he wrote an anti-Quaker tract called "The Old Light Exalted Above the Pretended New Light," against "the Quaker, Arminian, and other Assertors of Universal Grace."

I am very thankful for the witness of George Fox and other Friends for the "ocean of light" and against the horrific religion of the Reformed.


In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Why Are These Behaviors Immoral? Yet Many Claim They Are Good?

#1 Polyamory

#2 Polygamy


#3 Promiscuity

#5 Pornography

Prostitution--selling sex (now called "sex worker") for money; what is meant to be an expression of intimacy between two committed individuals in romantic passion becomes the use of humans as objects for commerce

#6 Profanity-Obscenity



#7 Purity Culture--obsession with women as objects related to men's "honor"--in Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc.

#8 Pride “Patriotism”--Nationalism; "God Bless US"

#9 Propaganda--Merriam-Webster Dictionary: "ideas or statements that are often false or exaggerated and that are spread in order to help a cause, a political leader, a government...;"

Almost all government officials and political leaders of all countries incessantly use propaganda.

Tragic historical example of propaganda: The U.S. government falsely reported in the late summer of 1964 that Vietnam had attacked U.S. ships. Quickly, the so-called Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was passed which dramatically increased the U.S. war attacks there.

Millions suffered and died because of lying by the American Government. Not that the Government of Vietnam was any more truthful. It also filled the airways with lies.


Another example: Justification by the U.S. for invasion of Iraq in both Gulf Wars; even though Saddam Hussein was a ruthless killer, the U.S had previously supported him in his other invasion, that of Iran!

Even more strangely, the U.S. has for many years supported Saudi Arabia, even though that government/country is much worse in human rights violations, persecution, and injustice than Iraq!

Furthermore, Saudi Arabia has set up repressive Islamic schools and mosques around the world with billions of their petrol dollars, and supported, funded, and sent out Islamic terrorists for years.

Political Elections: Consider all the propagandistic statements being made daily by the various presidential candidates at the present--one-liners, personal attacks, exaggerations, false information, ad hominem, spam, even slanderous statements...

Or consider the ridiculous false charges thrown at President Barrak Obama in the last 10 years--that he is a "radical Muslim," that he is a "communist," etc.

Many of these political claims actually go beyond mere propaganda; they are outright lies, yet millions of Americans believe them.

It would be tragic if it wasn't so absurd. The unethical spam reminds me of Winston's Churchill's infamous statement in support of lying for the government:
"In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies."

In war, (besides the slaughter of humans), lying and stealing are always the first unethical actions to be committed repeatedly by all sides.


#10 Prejudice--prejudging other individuals, especially leaders, even though one doesn't have the facts



#11 Plundering--stealing land, material, wealth, water for one's government and country; for instance, see this happening daily in Palestine/Israel, where the Israeli Government and Israeli settlers confiscate Palestinian land, bulldoze or burn orchards, destroy homes and this week even destroyed a school!


#12 Perfidy--infidelity, disloyalty, double-dealing



#13 Philandery--Alan Watts, the famous writer and Buddhist scholar, wrote in his autobiography, In My Own Way, about the joys of adultery that he experienced with various lady friends.

“…Deep down inside, almost everyone has a vague sense of eternity. Few dare admit this because it would amount to believing that you are God…My own sexual mores...I do not believe that I should be passionately in love with my partner...and still less, married."

"For there is a special and humanizing delight in erotic friendships with no strings attached...My life would be much, much poorer were it not for certain particular women with whom I have most happily and congenially committed adultery...”
Alan Watts

One gets a sense of Watt's attitude with his comment about the Christian Eucharist: "Holy Communion?" he was heard to remark. "Why, it's like
fucking a plastic woman!"

A PhD. anthropologist explained that the reason he regularly womanized is that it was his nature to need sex with many women.



#14 Pedophilia--Child Brides in Islam, etc; at 50 years of age, Muhammad "marrying" a child of 6, allegedly consummating the relationship when the child was 9.

Photo by Stephanie Sinclair



Many Roman Catholics priests have illicit sex with older children; then even worse, Roman Catholic Church leaders allow such priests to continue supervising children!

Furthermore, the RC. hierarchy didn't report such evil actions to the criminal justice system. And later the Church covered up the many cases of pedophilia when they were discovered by others.

When families of abused children sued the Church it seemed far more concerned with defending itself from loss of money than in the suffering and abuse it had caused and hidden!


Also, some secular leaders are overly lenient toward mild immoral actions. For instance, the famous evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins reported that he didn't think the "mild pedophilia of his teacher in elementary school was harmful!

"One day — I must have been about 11 — there was a master in the gallery with me. He pulled me onto his knee and put his hand inside my shorts."

"He did no more than have a little feel, but it was extremely disagreeable (the cremasteric reflex is not painful, but in a skin-crawling, creepy way it is almost worse than painful) as well as embarrassing."

"As soon as I could wriggle off his lap, I ran to tell my friends, many of whom had had the same experience with him."

"I don’t think he did any of us any lasting damage, but some years later he killed himself."
An Appetite for Wonder by Richard Dawkins


#15 Perversion—such as sadomasochism

#16 Pollution

#17 Predestination--the foreordination of most human beings to eternal damnation/torture by God in the religions of Islam, Christianity, etc.

#18 Pontification

#19 Pretension

#20 Politics (just kidding;-)

What is most weird about this list is that many of these immoral actions are being promoted and accepted in public, in the media, and on the Internet as good! Pro-articles for such actions as polyamory have appeared in The Atlantic and Scientific-American!

Brilliant individuals, some with PhD's, actually claim that there is nothing immoral or unethical about such behaviors. On the contrary, these thinker claim, it's monogamy and fidelity that are limiting, keeping humans from becoming all that they want to be.

Some spokespersons even go further, stating all ethics are “subjective,” only “personal preferences,” and social constructs, not grounded in reality. Being against prostitution is analogous to disliking the color red! It's only a subjective preference.

What a despairing darkness has overtaken modern culture and society. We need not speak of the horrific actions of the historic past; there are so many violations at present.

In the midst of my positive posts, I will try and tackle some of these devious beliefs and actions in future posts. Wish me luck.

I will need all the help I can get. For the last few years, especially, various thinkers in books and in person and online have been defending most of these evil behaviors as fine for any human to do if he/she chooses to live them.

Live in the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

The Judas Kiss

The Evil of Religious Double-Talk

I really hate religious double-talk, especially the kind whose end results are horrific.

Gangsters and gang members who strut their malign beliefs are abhorrent, especially when they openly prey upon the innocent and the young, but they can be faced and dealt with.

They wear their intentions proudly blazoned in garish tattoos and brazen behavior. Police know where they are at and can deal with them.

But the really insidious and diabolical are the serial crooks and abusers who wear sheep’s clothing of respectability, who carry out their crimes under the appearance of goodness and light. Who often aren’t caught, or not until long after their actions have hurt and destroyed many innocent people.

Isn’t this why traitors and spies are so despised? Humans oppose their enemies, though sometimes respect them even despite great destruction and killing. The most famous example of this is the meeting between Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House.

However, in contrast, spies such as Civil War soldier, Will Talbot, got hanged.

Most people can’t stand foes who sneak around trying to appear as their friends. Benedict Arnold was one of the great heroes early in the American Revolution, but his name is not famous for his soldiering.

The Judas kiss isn’t a hateful allusion for nothing.

An obvious disease is treatable; a hidden cancer which destroys and is found too late leads to death. A really bizarre cult is at least “good” in the sense that its malignancy is so obvious.

What is very dangerous is the Christian message which appears so good, but has hidden horror and destruction within.

I must admit that is why, in a strange sort of way I do prefer hyper-theological determinists, the so-called ‘high’ supralapsarians of the Christian world. Not that, they are easy to face. I still remember the first speaker I encountered at a church Bible study on Philippians when I was in my late 20’s.

The spokesperson claimed every rape and murder is planned by God! That God actually has foreordained the eternal damnation of most of us humans. And later I learned that they believed God even planned the Jewish Holocaust for his “own pleasure and glory”!!

Whew! Needless to say, I was shocked and doubly horrified, having been raised in the loving Good News of Evangelical Christianity as preached by leaders like Billy Graham and Charles Finney and John Wesley and Menno Simons and St. Francis and Justin Martyr and Polycarp; and in fact all of the early Church Fathers!

When I became aware of my own sins and guilt, I accepted Jesus as my Savior because of the overwhelming love of God for us--for all the billions of us, every last one of us, and that God forgives us in Christ, that God is like a father who dearly loves every single human he has ever created, even those of us who have made so many wrong ethical choices.

“The wonder of it all” (to quote a famous revival hymn by George Beverly Shea) that God would have sent Jesus to lead the way to the Light for only one of us, even for me, even if I had been the only wrong-doer in the whole world! Joy unspeakable and praise to the glory of our wondrous God of love.

So I did fight against the horrific theological determinism of a rape-and-murder-planning God with all of my heart, with all my soul, and with all my mind. This was overt brazen, twisted Christianity I could fight and did.

But then much later I discovered other great leaders of Christianity, who I admired, actually, also, believed in this same horrific vision of God, but they hid their religious betrayal within religious double-talk.

For example consider some of these very good statements: "I say every man who comes to Christ shall be saved."

"Every man that comes shall find the door of Christ’s house opened—and the door of his heart too. Every man that comes—I say it in the broadest sense—shall find that Christ has mercy for him...every man who believes shall be saved—that every man who comes shall find mercy.

...I tell you all that come—aye, if they were as bad as devils, Christ would receive them; if they had all sin and filthiness running into their hearts as into a common sewer for the whole world, Christ would receive them…good news from God for sinners is like cold waters to a thirsty soul."

"The first piece of good news that I have to give you is, that God has not forgotten you. You are a lost sheep, and you have almost forgotten your Shepherd; perhaps, you have altogether forgotten him; but your Shepherd has been counting over the number of his sheep, and he finds that there is one missing, for there are only ninety and nine where there should be a hundred, and he is deeply concerned about the one that has gone astray."

"God has not only remembered that there is such a person as you but he remembers you with pity."

"You have nothing to do, sinner, but to give yourself up to the leading, guiding, directing, assisting, quickening of the blessed Spirit of God."

Aren’t these words of wondrous Good News?

Don’t they sound like the glad tidings of the Gospel?

Aren’t they blessings of joy, showing the great love of God for everyone?

No, they are the Judas Kiss!

For this famous Christian leader, Charles Spurgeon, (like so many other famous leaders) actually means the exact opposite of his direct statements.

Spurgeon doesn't think any sinner "can give yourself up to" the Spirit of God. On the contrary, elsewhere he states (like all real theological determinists) that a human must first be regenerated against his will.

No one has any choice; every infant is born totally depraved, evil.

And Spurgeon declares that God has predestined only a limited number of humans to be rescued.

To hell with all of the billions of us other humans.

His book on salvation and a number of his sermons, his “Gospel” is nothing of the sort.

No "good news" at all.

It's obscenely horrific news.

Spurgeon's speeches are a Judas kiss, are a horror to behold, nothing more nor less than
the worst of the worst covered over by double-talk.

The Judas kiss.

Let Spurgeon clarify his real meaning with his own words:

“Another says, ‘I want to know about the rest of the people. May I go out and tell them—Jesus Christ died for every one of you? May I say—there is righteousness for every one of you, there is life for every one of you?’ No; you may not.”

What?!!

But then this famous preacher of so-called good news speaks of the “Doctrine of Grace”: “There is no soul living who holds more firmly to the doctrine of grace than do I.”

Well, isn’t that good? Grace is wonderful, right?

Isn’t that another word for God’s love for everyone—that we can’t do enough good to be acceptable to God, but “God was in Christ reconciling the world until himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19 and John 3:16)?

No.

The famous preacher doesn’t mean “grace” in that sense at all. Instead, what he later clarifies is that he means this: TULIP—a systematic acronym for John Calvin’s statement:

"They again object, Were not men predestinated by the ordination of God to that corruption which is now held forth as the cause of condemnation?
If so, when they perish in their corruptions they do nothing else than suffer punishment for that calamity, into which, by the predestination of God, Adam fell, and dragged all his posterity headlong with him. Is not he, therefore, unjust in thus cruelly mocking his creatures?"

"I admit that by the will of God all the sons of Adam fell into that state of wretchedness in which they are now involved; and this is just what I said at the first, that we must always return to the mere pleasure of the divine will, the cause of which is hidden in himself."
Chapter 23, 4 Institutes of Chirstian Religion
John Calvin

Then Charles Spurgeon goes on to say:
“There is no such thing as preaching Christ and Him crucified, unless we preach what nowadays is called Calvinism. It is a nickname to call it Calvinism; Calvinism is the gospel, and nothing else."

The twisted tulip of Calvinism

When Spurgeon says, “I say every man who comes to Christ shall be saved. I can say that as a Calvinist, or as a hyper-Calvinist, as plainly as you can say it"
one has to decipher his double talk because according to his Calvinism, the vast majority of humankind was foreordained to eternal damnation by God before the beginning of Creation.

Double-talk, how hateful and destructive it is. How insidious!

According to Calvinism, God has willed for most of us to be lost forever, eternally pre-damned from before time began, for the “mere pleasure of the divine will.”

Lest we missed this hidden point, Spurgeon adds: “I do not serve the god of the Arminians [John Wesley, Charles Finney, George Fox, Menno Simons, Arminius, etc.] at all; I have nothing to do with him, and I do not bow down before the Baal they have set up; he is not my God, nor shall he ever be; I fear him not, nor tremble at his presence...”

Finally, no more double-talk like his earlier fake evangelistic words.

Just the horror of no hope for most of us humans because we were foreordained to eternal damnation, created at conception by God as evil sinners and incapable of repenting. God didn’t send Jesus for us and doesn’t send his Holy Spirit to change us...

So much for the “good news” of the Judas Kiss!


Next time the really GOOD NEWS of Jesus…

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

Plugging the Spiritual Sieve

Growing up in fundamentalism and evangelicalism of the Christian religion, we were continually warned about the “slippery slope of doubt and liberalism.”

My subsequent trials and steep learning curve of a university education at the University of Nebraska and Cal State Long Beach, and the many 'travailed'-roads of a spiritual journey
through lots of theological and scientific tomes and evangelicalism’s too many ‘easy-isms’—all that, has brought me too close to the dangerous cliff of a faith'd demise.

Which shows the question of the truth of that fundamental “truism” is both yes and no.

Slip and slide...

However, this short blog reflection is based not so much in the slippery slope metaphor,

but more in other striking images,
that of the “spiritual sieve” of Christianity--

How so much of religious faith is drizzling down through millions of small holes.




Or that of a wide funnel
and the eventual swirling down
at a hectic rush of all that used to provide
security and hope.





Or it's like an individual who runs around in his upward-bound basket of faith,
trying to patch the balloon above to keep the helium of his beliefs from leaking out
all the puncture wounds caused by secular learning.

Or like the boy in Holland who stuck his finger in a hole in the dike to keep out the flood of the sea.

But here in the bulwark of Christianity, tragically, there are thousands of holes to be plugged in order to keep the flood waters of fact and rogue waves of speculation--yes, the ocean of doubt, evil, and nothingness from drowning everyone.

And every thinking believer needs to run around constantly sticking his faith fingers in those endless holes, trying to stop dark gushing seawater from washing in and drowning us all.

A few of the Jagged Holes of the "Unholy" from the perspective of my childhood--

Evolution:
We were never "young earth creationists" in our family. My dad was a history major in college, and eventually earned 3 degrees. He considered Neanderthal and other ancient primates related to homo sapiens to be real, not the nefarious lies of atheistic scientists. So we accepted some form
theistic evolution.

But we strongly opposed natural selection. When I grew up, I constantly fought against Darwin's ‘unholy’ inundation; this ‘evilution.’

We Christians learned over and over again that Atheists held to this false ‘theory’ because of their sinful ways, that anyone could see there was no factual basis for Darwin’s concept, and it contradicted Genesis and the New Testament.

But in my first science class--Geology at the University of Nebraska, I quickly discovered, the whole issue was much more complicated and the evidence for secular science very overwhelming.

And I was totally turned off by the lame arguments that creationists used against evolution and for a world-wide Flood. After I completed my term paper on the latter, I was never the same, indeed, had moved into a modern scientific outlook.

Then came classes in anthropology, books on biology and many discussions. After years of intense struggle and a constant study of religion and science, I finally bowed the knee to objective fact, to the overwhelming evidence of geology, biology, chemistry, and physics.

So much for religious dogma, Christian illusion.

I did so finally because I could no longer deny hard evidence. I wanted to find out the real truth, did think that all truth is God's evidence. I no longer wanted to hang onto the security of questionable religious doctrine.

But believe me, I came kicking and screaming (to reverse a phrase from C. S. Lewis) into an acceptance of modern Darwinian evolutionary theory with its emphasis on "survival of the fittest" and random mutations.

It's very hard for religious humans to give up, essentially, their whole understanding of the nature of life.

But, especially, after Francis Collins (a Christian evolutionist) and other scientists finished the Human Genome Project which again showed the high probability of common descent of humankind from primates, I realized I had lived in a delusion based on faulty, and at times, ludicrous arguments.

Better late than never, though I wish I could have gotten there years earlier.

Many anti-evolution Christian books were so weakly reasoned and so missing in substantive factual evidence. Some even put forth ridiculous views such as claiming God had hidden dinosaur bones in the earth to mislead modern scientists! At least my parents had never believed in that!

If I hadn't seen horrific ethics displayed by non-religious individuals at university, I probably would have changed sooner (but that's another article to be explained later).

Inerrancy:
It was at 11 years of age that I first encountered severe doubts about part of the Bible. The story of Elisha and the 3 Bears;-) Well, it was only 2, and it wasn't cute or funny--because on order of God, the bears mauled 42 kids (2 Kings 2:23-25)!

We were taught this story in Sunday School. I remember becoming very upset, and telling our teacher and the other elementary students so.

How cruel and unjust! All that the boys had done was only make fun of Elisha's bald head.

And the fact that the Bible repeatedly defended and condoned slavery also troubled my mind as I entered the teen years.

Still, I remember saying (when I was about 13 or 14), I would quit believing in the Bible if one comma was missing from the text. But then I discovered to my chagrin that punctuation was only inserted into Scripture in the late Middle Ages.

Later textural study opened huge wide holes in my spirit and mind.

And I learned scriptural transmission, literary interpretation, history, etc. until my balloon of faith in the Bible became one droopy stretch of plastic in a pig sty of natural slime.

In so many portions, there are horrific immoral, unethical, unjust stories like in Judges, Joshua, Samuel and Kings.

Theological Determinism:
Denial of the Good News for most humans by Augustinian-Reformed theology. Original Sin, Evil Infants, Predestination, Hell...

The first time I encountered a Calvinist was at a high school Bible study when the adult leader claimed that sometimes God would order us to commit immoral actions! And he told me personally that I should be willing to do what is immoral for God. Whew!

Then there was a famous Bible leader's almost obscene claim. That happened, when as a young adult, my friend and I visited a Presbyterian church.

The leader lectured the assembly that “every murder and every rape are planned by God” and that God only wills/predestines for a limited number of humans to be saved.

I became extremely upset and utterly confused! That was the first death knell for me of secure, simple Christian faith and the beginning of a death battle that has lasted through many years. I’ve survived, but at times I actually no longer wanted to live.

Obviously my faith changed drastically as I studied Christian history and learned that most Christians believed in determinism and that God had created most humans to be foreordained to eternal damnation for his own glory!

And that the Good News I had heard and loved and admired as a kid was a heretical aberration of orthodox Christianity!

When I read a large volume on the creeds of the Christian religions, I was horrified by their immoral ethics, and totally skeptical of their theological abstractions.

What did any of these complex, convoluted, despairing statements have to do with the Good News?





But after having already checked out Hinduism, Buddhism, and various forms of Atheism, and found them worse, I stayed with a form of liberal Christianity associated with Anabaptism, Quakerism, and the Enlightenment.

And I still experientially had inner trust in Jesus like when I had met him as a young person, the night I “asked Jesus into my heart.” Back then we were taught God loves everyone and Christ died for everyone.

But not a day passes now but which I need to do battle against the despairing determinism which is being promoted by famous Christian leaders of “limited atonement, unconditional election," and other such ilk which inundates modern Christianity.

This horrific hole is as vast as a galaxy.

A cosmic sieve into the abyss...

More unholy holes next time...

But for now, the wholly:-) Good News…

Despite the countless punctures which have emptied Christian doctrine and theology,
my experience of Jesus,
my trust in God, the Ultimate Reality,
my faith in ethical truth
my hope in human rights, justice, equality, compassion, honesty, fidelity, and so forth
are alive and well.

It’s not the holes in human religious constructions which count, but the whole Truth.

Thanks to life struggles and extensive learning I've gained a deeper, more complex faith in God.

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox

The Arrival of Advent in the Storm

Advent comes to us from God, in the midst of our trouble.

The word Advent, from Latin, means “arrival,” the arrival of hope in the midst of despair.

Think of the horrific times that Joseph and Mary lived in. And consider many peoples’ tragic struggles now today in Syria, Haiti, Pakistan, Nigeria, the Congo, and Afghanistan.

Think of the young child with cancer, the elderly ones with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease...

Lying in bed day after day, staring at the ceiling, elsewhere...



Or stooped over stuck in a row of wheelchairs in a blank hall...

Wasting away, their memory gone


Yes, the storm of wrong, tragedy, and despair seems endless.



Our own bad experiences, probably, are slight in comparison. But all hurt hurts, does it not? What about the last time events blindsided you and things even seemed hopeless?

About a month ago, I faced relatively rough circumstances, one more challenging day in a slew of them. I was alone and hurting so I turned on Christian radio seeking inspiration and comfort--But tragically,
the minster was preaching,

"...all humans are without value, valueless."

Like a cancer cell, he kept repeating, expanding on his point, kept emphasizing these wretchedly wrong words—"humans are valueless, worth nothing."

According to him, God only loves a few chosen of us humans.

Another famous minister of a church in Oregon with many thousands of members even proclaimed that God created some of us humans as "toilets."

And God has created other humans as "spittoons."

And this horrific God, allegedly, does this all for his own glory!

Very angrily, I snapped off the radio both times, devastated, grieved, and despairing more than before.

When we humans suffer, we need good news, not deterministic, fatalistic despair, not being told we are worthless and depraved.

In wondrous contrast, the verses of Titus 2:11-14 in the New Testament give us the glad tidings of God’s love for everyone. Despite the worst that existence does to us, the blessed words speak comfort to our despairing hearts:
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.”

Isn’t that last word glorious? The Good News to Mary, then to Joseph and outward from there, not limited to a certain few, but to all creation. These precious words “arrive” telling us about the incarnation—how God loves us even at our worst and isn’t willing for anyone to perish. Yes, even the natural world will eventually be redeemed.

And not only do these words of wonder bring us loving kindness now, they train us to renounce impiety and wrongful passions. They give us practical guidance and strategies of how to face our daily struggles and hard times. They give us a living blessed hope for the future.

Consider this humorous but insightful story.*

In the current severe recession, a door-to-door salesperson walked up to one more elegant house, pushed the button and waited to share his product. When the door opened, a gruff man grimaced, and said, “No we don’t want any” and shut the door.

Not discouraged, the salesperson came back the next week. This time when the door opened, the occupant cursed at him and slammed the door.

When the third week came and the salesperson walked up to the door and rang the bell, the antagonistic man raised a fist and spit in his face!

The salesperson pulled out a handkerchief, wiped his nose and eye, then looked up at the clear sky and said, “It must be raining.”

Think about it. If we had been that salesperson, we might have gone away disheartened, or angry at the man’s rudeness or disappointed, wondering why our product wasn’t of value to the customer or why he personally disliked us.

Have you been hurt lately by thoughtless words, or snippy gossip? Even been cursed out lately? Falsely accused?

How did you respond? How are you responding?

The salesperson in the spiritual parable (from a Jewish rabbi) doesn’t live in his or her circumstances, even of the spitting variety. He remembers the “worldwide company” he belongs to, is thankful he will never be fired.

No, she isn’t judged by the depressed economy, or by her success, or by how little or much money she makes...On the contrary, he is aware that his “boss” highly values him for himself alone.

This salesperson hopes that everyone will benefit from his/her product—“the love of God.” He has seen by hope the future and trusts that Truth and Love and Faith are eternally true.

So when he is spit upon, he doesn't take it personally, but thinks of dreary rain and its benefit.

Has it been raining—even hurricaning--on you today;-)?

Look up to the blessed hope of the Advent.

Prayer:
Dear Father, We thank you that You are the God of all comfort for everyone, that your love extends to all as the famous gospel song* sings,

“Could we with ink the ocean fill…
to write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry.”

Please help us today to remember that when negative circumstances attack us, we can “reign” over them in You.

Thought for the day: When bad storms rain, God’s love pours, reigning over all for all.


*Paraphrased from Mitch Albom’s book Have a Little Faith

*Frederick M. Lehman, “The Love of God”

May you experience the love of God,

Daniel Wilcox

From Hell to Heaven in one morning!

Several weeks ago, I was getting ready to walk into a Christian church to worship. That's when I saw the sign promoting two authors of hard Reformed thinking--
that God has pre-ordained most humans to eternal damnation in Hell,
that Jesus didn't die efficiently for the sins of everyone,
that humans have no choice,
that babies are born evil,
that God plans
and determines all evil
events for his own glory...

I emotionally crashed, mentally gnashing my teeth; my stomach churned and plummeted. What despair!

Not because, I hadn't heard of T.U.L.I.P. before; on the contrary, I had studied American Intellectual History
at Cal State University, read many tomes on the Reformation and Augustinian and Calvinistic theology, etc.

What so shocked and depressed was to find this very bad, actually horrifically obscene, news promoted at my wife's church.
It seems that Reformed theology has taken over many of the large churches in the U.S.

My wife used to be a Quaker too, but she doesn't find unprogrammed worship fulfilling.

She likes songs and a sermon so she goes to an Evangelical church. I go with her often, as well as to the Friends meeting on the Central Coast. In some ways in the past, I got the best of both worlds, especially when I was able to attend both services on the same day.

But then damnation day slammed down hard!

To find that most of the leaders of her church actually hold to the view that most humans are predestined to Hell, that every infant is born evil...

It still grieves me right now as I write this. Where is the Good News?

If such Christianity is true, then there is no hope.

All evil and all destruction and all sorrow and all tragedy been determined way before the beginning of time.

BUT

Later that morning when I attended worship at Central Coast Friends meeting, in the silence I cried out to God.

Anguish tearing me apart, thinking of dear loved ones lost in wrong without hope according to these Christian leaders.

Countless millions of humans, children, youth, adults--most without hope.

But then out of the worshipfulness of the expectant waiting in our meeting, a woman stood and began to sing acappella with a fervency of joy and empathy
a wondrous song of communion.

She knew nothing of my travail and of my 'morning' in theological Hell or my endless despair.

But her hymn ministered deeply to me especially.

She sang the words of love and hope and good news and worship
and slowly the abyss of two hours before at the other church disappeared.

And Heaven came down into our midst
(to quote from an old hymn).

Thank God for Friends worship and the Good News of Spirit-led individuals from George Fox to Thomas Kelly to the woman who sang, and beyond.

In the Light,

Daniel Wilcox