In our, relative to us, distant past our ancestors looked at the power of weather, the planet, and the wonder of the night sky and asked themselves, who am I compared to this? How do I fit into this? We still live with the consequences of their imaginations and fear. Today, the baggage of our past, in so many ways, holds us back from the potential of our humanity. The sad thing is that I am no smarter than those tending sheep in the fields, cutting rock, and farming, I just have a powerful information base, that they did not. But, as then, we are the victims of our own delusions, built from human ego and hubris, of our place and worth in the scope of the universe. It is always easier to build an illusion than it is to build truth. Inconvenient truth is the enemy of those who seek certainty based on ignorance, dogma, and authority.
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We have been inflicted with a group of jealous fools, angry at those who look differently, act differently, and think differently than they do. Their entire lives are centered on defending their faux superiority by wrapping it with their version of Christianity. How incredibly sad, they are. There is a truly profound question that is never asked. “Do you believe in God or do you believe in the Bible or the superiority of your skin color?”

I am not an atheist, but I certainly am not what passes for an Evangelical Christian. So, I repeat the question. Do you believe in God or do you believe in your interpretation of the Bible? Is it not the case that you have a comfortable “Book” and not God? I see “God” as the intelligence behind the creation of the conditions that allowed us to become alive and have flourished since. But, must a God reflect our worst qualities and restrict us, as from the Tree of Knowledge, because their version of God, reflects their insecurities, not a universal vision of potential of true intelligence.
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I have heard both sides intensely argue. That we are the children of some cosmic accident or process that has no origin or intelligence. Also, we are the children of a selfish God, jealously guarding their need to be worshipped and obeyed. Then some see “God” as a shepherd offering a path forward under its guidance. Some see the Bible as the ultimate source of information about our place in the universe. Even though it was an oral tradition for hundreds of years, then written down by scribes, by people who had no idea of anything beyond their horizon. In the approximately 1991 years since the death of Jesus, we have built a tradition of generational indoctrination into the religions built around his life. It has been used as a rationale for wars, lives, deaths, and restricting others. Perhaps, it is time to reconsider what all of the religions offer. Not, that there may not be a “God”, frankly none of us know but I fear that we have fallen in love with the transaction of heaven and forgotten the reality of here and now.
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What is our place in the universe? Are we so limited that we must be kept in check by authoritarian religions and governments? Must we always live under the thumb of “Comfortable Certainty” where the “Authority” of God and leadership must go unquestioned? Where God and its appointed agents see all, except for their own transgressions. There is a profound truth here, “When we live our lives without regard for self, constantly fighting proxy wars for others, and in the constraints of ideology and faith, we, in fact, fail the potential given us by the universe through our DNA.”
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What is the answer? We begin by asking why do we hide from the “Big Questions?” Why are we so afraid of finding the truth? Why do we dance around the edges in our entertainment, religion, and social media interactions? How can something so large be shrunk down to fit into a dumbed-down bullet point? That lacks any real context, nuisance, or real depth. We are taught from birth that the most important things are family, community, and fitting in. Religion is based on that premise, along with simple answers that require little thought, only belief and faith. That’s how we were taught and how many of us taught our children. We are the product of generational indoctrination, taught to us as the “Normal” of our society. Look around you…It is everywhere, the blinders of religion, white society, and money as the only standard. When we bought in or were forced into the Con’s society, this is the price.
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The Con’s have built a society where the “Big Questions” are never even asked. They have built a “Background Narrative” that answers all of the questions any idiot could have. And they use that to drown the rest of us out. Because of that, we fight over irrelevant things and hide those that are. To find our place in the universe will require each of us to turn off the background noise outside and silence it in our own heads. We find our place in the universe not in pews or Marvel superheroes, but by finding the song of the universe, that plays in each of us. It is there if you can tune out worry, over bills and obligations, fear over what can happen, and greed. It’s not about being a monk, it’s about owning who you are, making peace with yourself, and keeping the noise out of your head. Filling it with you, who you are. For us to become explorers of the truth, to ask the big questions again, and to become the builders of starships.
RC Romine