©2001 Jon Youngblood Unity Through Understanding A Guidebook for the Recently Alive

Part One: Faith

Chapter Four: Faith, Fashion, & Folly

4.1 Belief

Fact:  You will go blind if you stare at the sun with binoculars. 

Belief:  You will go blind from masturbating. 

Theory:  You will go to hell for masturbating with binoculars.

            It has been said, “discretion is the better part of valor.”   Discretion, or our “Ability or power to decide responsibly”, is the essential element in any attempt at intelligent theological valor.  Being bold and brave enough to include reasoning, and the trust of our inner frames of reference to assist us in the adoption of our religious and spiritual convictions.

Faith.  What does it mean to you?  For me, it was an evolution of belief.  An ever growing adaptation to an ever increasing knowledge base acquired over the years.  I was originally raised Catholic where I learned that “God is good, God is great” from my mom who taught catechism classes on Saturdays when I was pre-school .  This didn’t really mean much to a 5 year old, and it sounded more like an ad campaign than any sort of life instruction. 

By the age of 11 I was absorbed in books about Greek Mythology, found in the school library, and reading hodge-podge through the Man, Myth, and Magic encyclopedias my mother had bought me for my birthday (she was less involved in the church by then and so instead of wanting me to become a priest, she wanted me to be more open to other religious ideas; and hope for the best I suppose). 

In my early teens I went back to the church, encouraged by friends who had found, if nothing else, a social .  But this time it was Protestantism that reached out to me.  After some rather disturbing engagements with those Christians who are known by their gift to speak in tongues (you know who you are), I began to look to the east.  I was lucky.  By the time I was in my late teens, the eastern “imports” were at their height.  There was a flood of information coming into the US about all the (until now) forbidden faiths.  Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and the teachings of  Confucius and Mohammed.  My ultimate guide to the wonderful world of Comparative  Theology would come to be the late and great Alan Watts.  Many of the ways in which my faith would come to be realized, was through the inspiration of Allan’s many great lectures which had been fortuitously captured on tape and aired weekly on radio stations throughout the country at that time.  (see Further Study for more information)

            Religion is all about interpretation.  What does a spiritual experience really mean?  The protestant reformation was all about interpretation.  They held that it was the individual’s right to interpret the scriptures for themselves and not accept the dogma of the church at face value.  They held that the path to salvation was through the simple act of accepting Jesus as their “lord”.  Accepting only the truth of Jesus’ existence was adequate to sanctify his death within the individual mind and free the spirit to proceed onwards towards heaven (perfection as the Urantia describes it).  The Catholic Church still held that the only way to achieve salvation from original sin was through the unquestioning adherence to all official church doctrine.  The catholic church retaliated to the Protestant revolution with the counter-reformation  - and although it tried to instill some flexibility in some areas, its main intent was to tighten its grip on what remained of its followers, instilling ever more deeply into their minds that it was the church and the church alone that with the divine intervention of God, one’s soul could be redeemed and advance towards paradise.  Without the leadership of the pope, cardinals, bishops, and priests, to guide the individual, there was no chance of salvation.  And those that dissented from their absolute Word Of God rule were considered a threat to the unity of its members and were therefore something to be dealt with harshly and quickly.  Revitalizing the Inquisition which had begun much earlier, in 1231 AD, the Catholic leadership was not about to sit by while the Protestants promoted their “freedom to interpret the bible any way they chose” ideas.  In the years between 1540 and 1543 AD the church set into effect some of the most damaging decrees ever to the future development of the sciences and reasoned discretion.

            As the church sought to squelch freethinking, specifically the freedom to interpret the word of God for oneself, it was at the same time contributing to its own demise by what has been referred to as an “administrative problem”.  This problem, more than any other factor, would lead to the development of the Sciences as we understand them today.  This problem was Easter. 

    The exact day that Easter falls upon changes slightly over time using the calendar system of the

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            As an enlightened culture we have come to recognize, historically at least, that perhaps the biggest pitfall of beliefs is that they can be threatened.  People have been killed in some of the most horribly cruel ways for speaking words of heresy.  Sadly, some of our greatest early pioneers of scientific discovery, astronomers in particular, were burned alive for advocating ideas that were contrary to the accepted beliefs of the powerful Catholic Church.  The list of martyrs of science is too long.  But despite the threat of death itself,  these inspired and devoted men of science would not be deterred.  They had to know.  They had to Understand.  But the prevailing religious structure of our Judaic and Christian ancestors was pinned together by solidarity.  We all had to agree.  And if you didn’t, well, light the bonfires!  We will defend ourselves to the point of homicide rather than have the solidarity of our faith threatened by non-believers.  Our Truth is Truth because we all agree that it is Truth.  ALL.  No Questions Asked!

            Perhaps what inspired the early explorers of nature and natural law, was the comfort and sureness of Understanding.  Once you have it, it cannot be taken away.  It cannot be threatened.  You know it is so.  Your understanding is not dependent upon unanimous agreement.  Its like once you understand math, say addition as an example, no one can ever threaten your reality by proclaiming that four plus four equals ten.  You may not choose to associate with this person, but more than likely you will not feel compelled to silence them.  You Understand the logical progression of numbers and the unvarying outcomes of addition.  This is not absolutism - make no mistake!  Mathematics works, like many things, because of mutual agreement:  the word “two” will always represent two objects, not three or one.  We all agree on that.  But Understanding is adaptive.  Some of the hardest shifts in thinking among scientists has come about as a result of incredible discoveries in the behavior of sub atomic (the stuff that make up the basics of the atom: the electron, proton, and neutron) particles.  In the scales of the very, very small the rules and “common sense” of the larger world begin to crack.  In Part Two I hope to describe in lay terms the Truths that are no longer Truths.  Understanding is adaptive to new discoveries.  Belief is not.  That, I believe,  is why Traditional Faith is destined to go the way of the dinosaur if it cannot integrate our rapidly increasing knowledge of the physical world - and all its parts - and all of its wholes that are greater than the sum of those parts!  (Hint - Hint)

             As we will examine in the chapter to follow, organized believe systems - and their administrators - often have tragically fatal conclusions for their own members.  (See Jonestown, David Koresh, & Heavens Gate)  Heresy or acts of sacrilege could be used as a weapon against one’s enemies.  False accusations could often be enough to deliver an early end to your life.  The tragedy of the Salem witch trials is a glaring example of the almost “trapped animal” frenzy that can be inspired by the threat of undermining the universality of the One Truth Faith.

            Knowledge, as every man, woman, and child in this country takes for granted, was somehow never anticipated by the early Catholic church.  They assumed erroneously that we would always follow their counsel without question.  They supposed that we would always believe because the books that their predicessors had canonized into the holy bible would be their infallible lash with which to keep the masses in submition and under control - for god’s sake.  Stupid working class.  A drunken bunch of hooligans but for the fear of God. 

            As I mentioned in the Forward, it was the church that inadvertently got the whole educational business started, with its consequence  of free thinking individuals, in a most interesting way.

“The Roman Catholic Church gave more financial and social support to the study of astronomy for over six centuries, from the recovery of ancient learning during the late Middle Ages into the Enlightenment, than any other, and, probably, all other, institutions.  Those who infer the Church's attitude from its persecution of Galileo may be reassured to know that the basis of its generosity to astronomy was not a love of science but a problem in administration.  The problem was establishing and promulgating the date of Easter.

    The old theologians decreed that Easter should be celebrated on the Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox ù that spring day on which the hours of daylight and darkness are equal.  This special full moon can be observed easily in principle and also often in practice.  One needs only to recognize the equinox, wait until the next full moon, and declare the following Sunday to be Easter. That would give the right day for Easter, but not enough time to prepare for it. There lies the administrative problem. In addition, the equinox and the full moon occur at different times at different places on the earth, as, of course, does Sunday. Even if all observations were correct, Easter might be celebrated on different days in different places. That was unacceptable to an organization struggling to make good its claims to unity and universality.”^[1]

            Aspect of Faith:  Acceptance.  You know, or sense, you are in good hands, so to speak.  As opposed to feeling isolated in an uncaring 'mechanistic' universe.  Chronic depressives may be deprived of faith as a feeling due to brain dysfunction.  Others, may be enhanced.  Acceptance of God's will.  Acceptance in other religions.