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. 

      

 

 

FED

The United States Federal Reserve is supposed to be independent of politics but never has been and is now an unabashed Democrat influencer. Let's rename this body politic "the Jerome the Ripper Fed", in honor of another of us who preyed upon the people so many years ago. Those voices calling for more of the same, have a vested interest in the treachery and thievery of the Federal Reserve. 

Chase’s Jamie Diamond, the big bank guru, please take a long walk off a very short pier. 

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.

 

Killers

There exists among us a shadow government pulling the death strings that determine our future.  This shadow government that some of us call, “the deep state”, rains turmoil upon the people in order to hide their treason. The deep state hides within the bureaucracy of Washington. Being popular with the people, gaining political influence apart from the deep state, is a death sentence. The deep state will not tolerate winners. “Make America Great Again” could eventually expose and eliminate the power of the deep state.

The deep state has killed and will kill to preserve their power. Butler Pa. was not a multiple failure, Butler was intentional! The Florida assassination (killing) attempt on the life of presidential candidate Donald Trump was intestinal. The Viet Nam War was intentional. The assassination (killing) attempt and wounding of President Ronald Reagan was intentional. The assassination (killing) of President John F. Kennedy was intentional. The killing of presidential candidate Robert Kennedy was intentional. Martin Luther King was killed and a victim of deep state terrorism. The deep state killed its own in the jailhouse death of Jeffery Epstein. The deep state ordered national security to ignore the threats levels prior to 9/11 and these orders resulted in a death toll equal to that of Pearl Harbor. Igniting a war in the mid east was more important.

All were not failures, all were intentional. The deep state cares not about the holiness of human life. What’s next? President Trump, do not relax anywhere, hire your own personal security and carry a gun. The Secret Service is a paper tiger. The deep state is still scheming. We sense that you are working now under treat. The deep state includes those who take orders, those who know but stay silent, those who choose to remain ignorant and the few who refuse to bow down.

Please Mr. President, set everything else aside, hunker down, and go to war with the deep state. Death to the deep state is our only possible democratic future as a free nation.

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.

 

Beginning

Probably the most recognized Bible verses, even in the secular world, are Genesis, Chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. The King James Version says it this way, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

The more modern translations replace “void” with “empty”, the more immediate translation of the Hebrew. Both words describe our reality at its start as a blank space, a void, an emptiness or a nothing space. The traditional understanding among theologians is creation “ex nihilo”, creation out of nothing. Could it be possible that how you start is more important than how you finish? Is matter eternal or is God eternal?

Some say, there has always been God, then came matter. Some say, our world order cries out for God.

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.

Think

We might ask and Texas is certainly is asking, why is life in our world so very fragile? How can a good God or any God be so seemingly sadistic? There are no safe spaces. The Guadalupe River swells 29 feet above normal levels in just 45 minutes, on a holiday and at midnight of July 4. If God had control of any of these circumstances, why did he or she allow the waters to rage? Can a seemingly apparent remote uncaring God be called good? Is not this God’s very existence called into question?  Maybe, as some have supposed, there is no God?

The television networks are interviewing religious leaders of every flavor and asking this question. The consensus from every quarter is that there is no answer, all we can do is nurse the fallout. Every time religion comes up short it becomes a so called “mystery”. There is a lot of mystery going around. If we remain as children stuck in the God is all powerful tree, there will be no sensible answers. God did not put this world into motion to display his powers or his authority.

Maybe God wants his people to think up to there potential. If we remain as children, accepting the “whatever” of others, we will remain as children. Thinking is not about education, it is about coming to understand the obvious and then making adjustments. Common sense thinking is available to all of us.

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.          

 

Destiny

I am now doing what I was always meant to do. It only took me a lifetime to get there, hard headed as I am. Established religion was no help. I finally died to all earthly expectations and just listened. 

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.

 

Good

A false dichotomy is used by one philosopher to justify his assent to Christian doctrine. Who am I to call him out but here I am? This philosopher with mighty credentials and literary accomplishments, makes an elemental mistake. In defense of doctrine, he posits a false choice for the reader, a choice between the 300 year old Enlightenment understanding of human nature or a choice for the 1700 year old traditional Church doctrine. Enlightenment says that we humans are essentially good and Christian doctrine says that we are essentially evil (original sin).

After quite thoroughly tearing down the “man is good” extremism, this thinker seems to assume that we should choose Church doctrine for want of a better alternative. Could it be that the “man is evil” understanding is also an extremist view of human nature (forgive me dear St. Augustine)? Extremes are rarely consistent. Could there be a middle ground?

Who are we? We are the obvious, we are all obviously and hopelessly self-centered, no more, no less. Like the rest of creation, we are all momentary survivors. We can do “good” by mitigating our self-involvement or do “evil” by nurturing our selfishness. All of us do both, there are no good guys but we are freely choosing one or the other, that is good.  

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.

 

  

 

 

authentic

We are all in the same boat. We seek an experience with the beyond and then turn to seeking validation in the experience of others. That is how religion gets started. As hard as we may look for a commonality, it is for naught.

Religion as a substitute avoids the simple fact of this our reality, there is no common experience on which to construct a perceived normal spirituality. We all are abnormal, abnormally solo seekers. My experience is not yours and yours is not mine. 

Why are spiritual chops ever so obscure?  Maybe, the authentic is not to be spoken of. 

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.   

 

 

Tragedy

History was so boring in my early years. Now that I am historical, I have become a bit of a history buff. Learning about the ancient Greek thinkers is a real trip. They seemed to be about finding how we and our world function. Their explanations came close to being a scientific mindset. Aristotle was for all intents and purposes a biologist. The pre Socratic thinkers were talking about atoms. Each was in an investigative mood.

Question: what would our world be like if it had not taken a deep dive into the top down empire of religion?  Circa: the Council of Nicaea, St. Augustine of Hippo and the politically and spiritually repressive Roman Catholic Church. Could the 1000 year period of “the dark ages” have been avoided?  Let’s hope so.

All of us should be thinkers because it matters. Just a little common sense prevents a lot of tragedy. Please, get the kids thinking.

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca. 

Juice

God is a moving target. To Aristotle, if it moves, it is God, it is Soul. This made the reading of “On the Soul” by Aristotle a bit disappointing. Some of us were or are anxious to hear again all the spiritual mumbo jumbo, even from the ancients. Instead, what we get is a detailed description of all our moving parts. The word that comes to mind is sterol, “On the Soul” is a sterol description of our reality. Where is the juice of life? Why are we here? Why have we all been here for thousands and millions of years? To be moved?

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.   

 

Wisdom

Aristotle taught that, first we must know ourselves and our place in this world and then we can start all that God talk. Not popular religion, we believers first go God shopping. Is it a Teddy Bear God to nurse our emotions? Is it the Judge enforcer God to keep us and the other guy on the straight and narrow? Is it the Patriot God to wave the flag? Is it the Daddy God to give us a bit of supposed security? Is it the God of ancient Greek culture that made our human frailties acceptable? Where ever there is a man, there is a God, some say.

G. Goslaw

Landers, Ca.