Legacy

We all have a time and a place, this much is for certain. Maybe, this is the only certainty, only the now, our now, is for certain. For all of us, time and place are like the weather, ever changing from the norm of shared expectations. We desperately clutch these shared norms as a sailor clutches the mast of a sinking ship. These shared norms give us a fleeting feeling of longevity. Shared norms such as friends, family, religion, money, property, social status, politics or any other devised legacy. The idea of God can be another dead end legacy or God can be an adventure.

When our clock ticks down to practically nothing, some of us wonder about our place among the many.  What does it all mean?  We humans have been asking that question for millions of years. Our lives have to mean something, if so what?  Do you have any clues? 

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.

Maybe

Religion is making so much out of so little.

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.

Caged

Some of us are generalists, experts at nothing. We dabble on, delving into the whatever, forming opinions which are always subject to the greater wisdom. Some may call generalists accursed because our culture rewards the experts. However, the typical one category expert is not likely to catch the attention of we regular folk. Experts that have walked the general broad road are the blessed thinkers and have earned our respect.  

Some of us pray not for fortune or fame but the gifting of just one thinker who can share expertly, competently and independently, the truths of God, religion, history, philosophy, anthropology, cosmology, psychology and science. These folk are rare birds, indeed. These birds are less apt to be trapped in a cage of someone else’s making. 

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.  

Immunity

Department of Justice Memo: Ex-President Obama is here to for under indictment for leading a treasonous conspiracy to dethrone the duly elected president, Donald J. Trump, during his entire term (20016-20). The opinion of this DOJ is that such a conspiracy is not a part of the presidential powers that bring to any past president the shield of immunity.

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.    

WOW

WOW. The possibility of an amoral eternity woke some folks up. Just because few of us would make such a claim does not mean that such a claim makes no sense. Ours is an amoral world, an amoral existence. Morality is a social issue not a God issue. Jesus was not a moralist, in fact, the moralists persecuted him, slandered him, put him on trial for claiming a spiritual status apart from the moralists, dragged him through the streets, put him on a cross for a slow death and ultimate humiliation. Was that moral? Jesus appeared among us not to make us or enable us to live right, whatever that may mean. Jesus appeared among us to show us a door to walk through.

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.

 

Universalism

There is no way a God believer can be anything other than a Universalist unless that believer is selling a book, serving a bureaucracy or living a lie. God is about accountability but not eternal damnation. How God will work that out post death, we can only guess? Christian theologians of every sort have been guessing throughout the ages. This writer believes that there is no consistent God thinking for hell despite the endorsement of the likes of Billy Graham, Jimmy Swaggart and N.T. Wright.

Almost all books are written to please an audience, a market, the very few significant writings are written "come what may". A.T. Robinson's "Honest to God", was such a book. However, few writings of this sort arrive from the religious establishment. However, should another, "come what may" book be written, it may read something like this: God is not a religious extremist who condemns 90% of we earthlings to a Dante Inferno. The hell scenario is in lock step not with God but with our devilish human nature that delights in the misfortune of others.

St. Anselm (1033 - 1109 A,D.) gave God equality with the devil with his satisfaction teaching. God must somehow satisfy his holiness by the mass eternal torture of all nonbelieving souls in the resurrected Christ. Does this sound like a God win? Is God that concerned with looking righteous?  

Universalism like hell is not a new spiritual fad or gimmick. Both understandings have been around since the get go. History has always chosen the winners and losers but do we believe in history or do we believe in our God awareness?

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca. 

  

 

Opiate

Our world is not a conflict or contest between good and evil. We have been sold a bill of goods. The Cartesian dualism of good verse evil is rooted in a bedtime story told to the kiddies by the dualist in Chief, Plato. His intent was to give the very young a handle to navigate the blessings and risks of life. Question, could there be another answer to explain our fragile lives?  Many of us have been thinking on that one for a long, long time. 

Recent Old Testament scholarship (Copenhagen International Seminar) has dated the Genesis story of the Tree of Good an Evil at 325 B.C., at Alexandria Egypt, by a large group of Hebrew and Hellenist scholars. Moses had been dead for some 1500 years, leaving no material of this sort that can be dated to his time. As a result and as Karl Marx rightly told us, these (bedtime) stories have become the opiate of the people. How so?

The bedtime stories place the ultimate victory of Good verses Evil beyond this life and our demise. Therefore, the one who believes is shielded against the ravages of today and tomorrow because they are not of ultimate consequence. The reality of this believed victory, may or may not be true, but certainly it will never be verified in this life.  Some say, when bad things happen to good people just believe, have faith in the ultimate victory of God over Satan. This is the “whatever comes my way” opiate.

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.