Beliefs, myths mind & control

Gordon Robinson, Contributor

Years ago, The Gleaner published one of my more radical pieces earning me the Church's wrath (again).

I postulated that, although it's written that man was made in God's image, our reality is man has fashioned God in man's image. So we're sold this old grey-bearded male God behind a desk somewhere in the sky wreaking vengeance on those who offend Him; desperately needing our worship; punishing the wicked and rewarding the good. We've invented a God with all our quirks, needs and frailties.

It's unforgivable nonsense inspired by articles written before Jesus' birth collectively called The Old Testament (OT) which claims, among other illogical inanities, that we're doomed from birth as sinners because, long ago, a talking snake convinced a loose woman named Eve to eat a forbidden fruit. Then, performing her role of the original Old Ball and Chain to perfection, she used feminine wiles to encourage her husband to follow suit. The alleged consequence of this bipartisan stupidity is that we're all condemned to perdition. Unless we repent! Is that justice when it's all Eve's fault?

Misused

The OT has been misused by "Christians" to frighten gullible humans into warfare with the love of Jesus (aka the Prince of Peace) as the prize; believing that ordinary men wearing robes and funny hats know Jesus' views on today's hot-button topics (e.g. abortion, birth control); condemning homosexuals; enslaving vast populations; demeaning women.

"People walking up to ya

singing Glory Hallelujah.

And they're trying to sock it to ya

In the name of the Lord."

All 'faith-based' religions (not only Christianity) suffer from the same fundamental flaws. The morons who flew planes into the Twin Towers no doubt shrieked "Allah hu Akbar (Allah is Great!)" or some such cultist crap just before shuffling off this mortal toil. They're probably angrier than a pelican in the Gulf of Mexico because promised virgins are no-shows or, if not, they're clueless novices. The problem with anything based on "faith" is it begs the question, whose faith?

So, let's try reason instead. Who (or what) is God? Who was Jesus? Who are we (really)? Why are we here? There are some undisputed facts which've somehow been forgotten (or ignored) in all the mythology involving talking snakes, pillars of salt, parting seas, burning yet unburnt bushes and mystically appearing 'commandments'.

Facts

Fact: Nobody asserts that Jesus fell like manna from Heaven or suddenly appeared on earth as an adult.

Fact: We know very little about His early life but we KNOW that He was born of a woman just like us. Without trying (this time) to burst the bubble of the virgin birth (but virgins do it all the time today - it's called artificial insemination), the bottom line is Jesus' mother became pregnant. Immaculately or not, Jesus was conceived in a woman's womb and entered the world exactly as we did.

Fact: He was born of the flesh and was flesh. He lived in the flesh, suffered at the hands of the Romans and DIED ON THE CROSS exactly as would you or I if put to a similar test. Then He did something really cool - He rose again (like Lazarus).

But, while alive, He said He was God. I for one believe him. But, did He mean that He was all there was to God? Or was He trying to explain to us that, like all of us, He formed a part of that entire universal complexity we call 'God'? Jesus was a teacher. What was He trying to teach us about our existence and how it relates to God?

Jesus knew God is everything and everybody and can be found within everybody and everything. Jesus wasn't claiming to be God in arrogance. He believed in humility (Blessed are the meek ... ). He was simply trying to explain that there's no need for mystic searches for God in the sky. It's not complicated. God's all around you. God's within you. The reason Jesus came to earth as flesh and not as some alien being or burning bush (would have been more dramatic wouldn't it?) was to emphasise that this is the way that God is on earth ('I am the Way') and it looks and 'lives' just like you. Based on Christian mythology, God could have sent a much more dramatic message by thunder, lightning, flood, alien 'God-like' creatures or talking animals. He deliberately sent his 'son' via the same route that He had previously sent all His 'children' in an attempt to put a stop to this silly graven-image-worshipping mythology. But only those with eyes to see and ears to hear ... .

fundamentals

Jesus tried to explain these spiritual fundamentals to His apostles at the last supper but they were too tired and inebriated to understand.

"While they were eating, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and giving it to His disciples said: 'Take and eat; this is My body.'

"Then He took a cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, 'Drink from it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which will be shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins'." [Matthew 26: 26-28]

Was Jesus telling the apostles that He was a gingerbread man? Was He saying that He had just bled into the cup? Of course not. Jesus was simply trying to explain that God is everything and everywhere even in your bread and wine.

Decades after His death, dumber denominations of the subsequently created 'Christian' church took His simple allegory to mean that He'd somehow administered a sacrament that night (where in God's name is that in the holy text?). Worse, the church has ruled that He ordained a perpetual ritual that, whenever we attend Church (as opposed to 'as oft as ye shall drink it' which itself doesn't even appear in the historical accounts of Jesus' Last Supper remarks but was subsequently inserted in one of Paul's letters to the Corinthians), we must engage in unhealthy habits by drinking alcohol from a single cup whether we be diabetic, alcoholic or whatever.

But, of course, if you believe that a talking snake tempted Eve, you'll believe that the apostles went vampire on us at Gethsemane and drank Jesus' blood. It's more mystical and amenable to mind control than the simple alternative.

Get this straight. God has no specially appointed spokesman. When I speak, God speaks. When you speak, God speaks. He speaks through all worldly brethren. She speaks through all sistren. 'Good' or 'bad'; fat or thin; rich or poor; ugly or handsome; we're all the same.

"No matter if yu t'ief or if yu dread

Or if yu have a crown pon yu head.

No matter if yu have no heart at all,

Jesus bring love for one and all."

If you don't believe me, visit any cemetery. They're all the same there. We all came from the same 'place' in the same way. We'll all return and re-member (rejoin God) from whence we came.

In the meantime, what's the benefit of the power games that pastors play?

"Oh the games people play now

every night and every day now.

Never meaning what they say.

Never saying what they mean.

And they wile away the hours

in their ivory towers

'til they're covered up with flowers

in the back of a black limousine"

no need for pastor or church

These lyrics of Joe South (Bob Andy got them all wrong in his local cover) and our own Ernie Smith are timeless and thoughtful. And, by now, if we understand the real purpose of Jesus appearing to us in the flesh, we should understand that there's nothing Jesus did that we can't do. Jesus himself confirmed this but, again, we've lost our glasses and turned off our hearing-aids for that bit because, if we accept it at face value without misinterpreting it to death, it means we need neither pastor nor church.

Jesus said:

"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me. [GR's translation: My purpose is to show you, by My personal example, the way God lives on earth; the truth about God;and how to know God. If you want to learn these truths, listen to Me, not godless charlatans.]

Then He specifically says:

"If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also: and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him. [GR: Look at me. I am God. This is what God looks like. God isn't an alien.]

But Philip seems hearing-impaired because he persists "shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us."

To which a slightly testy Jesus explains further:

"Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then,' Shew us the Father'?

"Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.

"Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works' sake."

So, God's within Jesus not in a luxury skybox. So, why not within all of us? God's not man, woman or Semanya but simply the be-all and end-all of existence.

God is within us

Why can't God "doeth the works" through us (all of us, not just man-made saints and priests) just as He did through Jesus? It's up to us to recognise the real God within us, get in touch with Him and be empowered. Jesus did it. We can too. If you don't want to believe me, believe Jesus:

"Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works' sake.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father."

If you believe Jesus (John 14: 6-12), despite what a pastor desperate to control you might say, you'll realise "the works that [Jesus did] shall [you] do also". Need I say anything more? You'll become conscious of the real God (not the vengeful blighter who taps our telephones and spies on us with webcams to make who's naughty/who's nice lists and punish/reward accordingly). You'll recognise the potential of the collective consciousness to achieve miracles. You'll see through this world's many illusions like the apparent differences among us. Some illusions are easy to dismiss like your desk being solid and stationary. A cheap microscope will disprove both. It's harder to see that we are all alike in this world because not even microscopes show this definitively.

But, if you can reason to realising, like Jesus did, there's no distinction in our origin or journey to and from Earth, it's not much of a stretch to take a hard look at your neighbour and see beyond the apparent but illusory differences in visage, attitudes or beliefs to see there's also no distinction while we're here. You'll understand the fullness of the promise of loving your neighbour as yourself. Despite the outward illusion, your neighbour is just like you - another piece of the original universal energy, consciousness, God.

Once you can see this eternal truth, if you love yourself, it'll become easy to love your neighbour. As yourself. Yes you can!

If only you believe.

Peace and Love.

Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.