When asked if I believe in God, my answer is always “Yes, and No.” Yes, I believe in an intelligence behind the creation and function of the Universe. No, I don’t believe that the Bible and those who seek to speak for that intelligence, have any connection, to it, at all. I keep looking for a franchise agreement, or perhaps an exclusive representation agreement. But, they simply don’t exist. Those that tell us they seek to speak for that intelligence, are simply self-anointed, and self-declared sharers of power, to a version of their delusion. And, much of the time, this self-anointed vocation either gives them power or wealth. Usually both. THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO ALL CHURCHES, RELIGIONS, OR GROUPS BUT, TO THE POWER-SEEKING ONES, LIKE THE EVANGELICALS, CONSERVATIVE CATHOLICS, AND DOMINIONISTS, IT MOST CERTAINLY DOES.
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We know that the Universe exists because we can see and touch it. But the Biblical God, we cannot. But we can see the areas of self-worship, in declaring us to be like the Biblical God. So, I can assume that God shares our flaws also… I find that to be illogical. Let’s turn to what we know, can see, and touch. The awe-inspiring Universe, that religion wants us to pretend doesn’t exist.
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Just from what little we can see, there are billions of processes involved in the functioning of the Universe at any moment. Yet, we are told to believe, that a flawed God, just like us, created that Universe. Even though, being like us, would entail an emotional, deceptive, and mean/small mind, nothing like the Universal view of an all-encompassing supreme being.
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It is we that diminish whatever God is, through our declaration of God’s flaws. That we can literally screw up the Universe, and be forgiven by waving at the ceiling and singing songs. We pretend to strive towards an Earthly perfection through paying bribes to churches, saying the right things, and giving obedience to the worldly leaders, of the self-proclaimed church of the flawed human being. In need of private jets, fleets of Escalades, and wealth for themselves. What does any of that have to do with the intelligence of the Universe?
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We live in a time of struggle. The time when “Comfortable Certainty” is the excuse for everything from fraud to rape. Where the perfection of not that intelligence, but the words of man, sold as the words of that intelligence, will no longer suffice. The Universe tells us the real story. We are not the beings of fear and ignorance, easy to convince of almost anything. That, is the story of the “Intelligent Animal” and the “Comfortable Certainty” of dogma and “Faith.”
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We seek, as does a caterpillar, to become a butterfly. We, as human beings, are born explorers who have become born destroyers. We see that there is supposedly nothing more to explore, but in truth, we hardly even know ourselves. Religion has been used, at a great price, to fill in the blanks in such a way as to satisfy the explorer within us. To baffle us with music and hope, while blunting any real opportunity to explore ourselves.
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I stand with you, those that seek the stars, within and outside of us. We are those that shall be the beginning, of something wonderful!
RC Romine