Seriously, brothers and sister, God’s ban on same-sex marriage is still in effect. Furthermore, God’s ban on civil unions and homosexuality is still in effect. You see, beloved, while legislatures, judges, and other individuals may decide that it’s okay to be homosexual, God’s law remains in effect.Now, there are many that will read this and accuse me of being intolerant. They will wonder why I am so behind the times while society has shown itself very progressive and tolerant in accepting homosexuality. Here is my response. First of all, I thank the Lord God Almighty for my intolerance. Furthermore, I would rather grow in God’s timeless and lasting word rather than lose my soul to the “progressiveness” of this world. Society has indeed shown itself progressive in its ability to separate itself from God on this particular issue.

Beloved, God created a woman for Adam; not a man. You may think that’s harsh, but it is the truth. Consider the following:

“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.’” – Genesis 1:27-28 (KJV)

Brothers and sisters, a man cannot multiply with a man, and a woman cannot multiply with a woman. Only a man and woman can multiply. Consider also:

“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” – Genesis 2:24 (KJV)

Beloved, these words were not initially authored by me. The Author of these words is God himself. Though many people of this world have decided to compromise on this issue, the fact of the matter is that we are to be obedient to God in this matter, and all other matters. It is His will, not ours, that we are to commit ourselves to doing.

Whether you believe that homosexuality is genetic, or whether you believe it is a choice/lifestyle, the truth is that it is an affront to God. All sin is an affront to God. To repent of a sin, while planning on continuing to live in that sin, is not repentance at all. It’s lip service.

I remember several years ago when a battle over this issue within one of the religions caused that particular denomination to split into two separate organizations. The more liberal of the two approved of allowing homosexual ministers, while the more conservative opposed allowing homosexual ministers. I can still remember watching an interview with minister of the liberal portion of the church that thought it should be allowed. His statement was that while they believed strongly in God’s word, they also saw the need to compromise on the issue in light of the changing times.

Beloved, anyone that is willing to attempt to compromise God’s word/law/will is not serving the Lord. They are essentially trying to bend God to their own will, which is based in sin. Beloved, when we give our lives to Christ, we are to let go of our embrace of our sinful lifestyle. Our old selves are to die, as we become new creations in Christ.

Some people have gone so far as to take advantage of people’s ignorance of God’s word by claiming that God’s word does not specifically address homosexuality. Beloved, this is an absolute lie, and it is a lie sponsored by none other than Satan itself. Do you want some examples of just how specific the bible is about God’s view of homosexuality? Consider the following:

“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: It is abomination.” – Leviticus 18:22 (KJV)

“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men and women working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.” – Romans 1:26-27 (KJV)

“Know ye not that unrighteousness shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” – 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (KJV)

“If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.” – Leviticus 20:13 (KJV)

That’s pretty clear, isn’t it? Did the last verse strike you as particularly harsh? It shouldn’t have. We know that the wages for all sin is death, so why would it be any different for this particular sin?

So how are we to deal with homosexuality? Are we to compromise our obedience to the Lord and say that its okay? No!!! We don’t say lying is okay. We don’t say murder is okay. We don’t say rape is okay. We don’t say homosexuality is okay!!! Purposely rejecting God’s word and will in order to satisfy your own affection for the pleasures of sin is never okay, no matter what that sin is. So here’s what we ought to do when dealing with someone who engages in homosexuality:

• Love them unconditionally, just as the Lord loves all of us unconditionally. Beloved, we are not to judge them. We are to love them with the Lord’s love. Remember that we were all lost to sin at one time in our lives.
• Share God’s word with them and encourage them to repent of their sins and to receive the deliverance that only Christ Jesus can provide.  That means living in that sin no more.
• Encourage them to separate from those things that would be likely to draw them back into homosexuality.

Beloved, I love homosexuals, murderers, liars, whores, pimps, drug dealers, and all other sinners, as I know that God does as well. We are never to pass judgment on those lost in sin. We are, however, to share the Truth with them at every opportunity so that they may see the light, repent of their sins, and be reconciled unto God.

As I’m sure you have come to know by now, it is not my style to be indirect and not speak God’s word in order to avoid offending anyone. Just know that my intention is never to offend. My intention is to always speak God’s word clearly, accurately, and consistently so that more may come to the Lord.

So in closing today, the choice is simple. Will you be tolerant of homosexuality so that we can all just get along, and because various men and woman have said its okay to do so, or will you obey the Lord God Almighty in truly living His word and protecting the sanctity of marriage? The choice is yours.

Thank you for joining us for today’s discussion. I hope you will be able to join with us for our next message.

Have a wonderful and blessed rest of the day!

May the Lord bless you, keep you, guide you, and make His face to shine upon you and your loved ones always.

Your brother in Christ,

Rev Jason Thurwanger

It’s tiresome when Christians continuously attack evolution because they view it as part of some package deal with atheism.  I’m not trying to argue whether the creation story of the Bible is true.  It is horribly inconsistent with the evidence.  We’d have to throw out practically everything we know about modern science – not to mention rational thought – to accommodate a ten-thousand-year-old earth or the human race descending from a single man and woman.

The point I’m trying to make is that the theory of evolution doesn’t say anything about whether God exists or not.  It doesn’t account for ultimate beginnings, a purpose for life, or how we should treat each other.  It is an explanatory tool.  It’s a model scientists have put together because the evidence pointing that way is overwhelming.  It’s not as if Charles Darwin set out to prove creationism wrong or show that God didn’t create us.  No, the evidence supporting common ancestry and gradual change over a period of time is compelling.  That’s all.

Evolutionary scientists are doing their jobs.  They’re showing the evidence that they’ve discovered, and it’s consistent with evolution.  They’re performing experiments and testing the predictive power of the theory.  They’re even trying to poke holes in the theory, prove old notions wrong, and overturn commonly accepted ideas.

If a scientist who accepts the evidence for evolution also happens to be an atheist, that doesn’t say anything about the theory of evolution.  Creationists are fond of using Richard Dawkins’s quote about evolution making it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.  Whatever Dawkins’s individual position, I’m quite positive he would admit that evolution doesn’t prove God doesn’t exist.  In fact it says nothing about God’s existence at all. (For all the creationists shrieking about Dawkins and his book The God Delusion, he made it very clear in the first few pages that we can’t know for certain that God doesn’t exist.  Since this doesn’t fit with the creationists’ mindless stereotyping, they never mention it.)

When it comes to religion, the only thing evolution shows is that the biblical account of creation is baloney.  Take what you want from that: reassess your faith in the meaning of Genesis, ignore it and keep on thinking dinosaurs were eating Native Americans, whatever.  But please, please stop treating the theory of evolution as the antithesis of religion.  It’s no more an attempt to refute God than the germ theory of disease is.

(The following is a repost from 2008. Enjoy!)

YES! Yes! Of COURSE it’s okay to wish someone Merry Christmas!

This is the question I’ve started hearing from countless bloggers and news sources in the last week. Apparently, with the end to the campaign season, the American media has decided to bypass Thanksgiving and jump directly into Santa’s lap. (No, not in the naughty way, get your mind out of the gutter!)

A more important question is, “Who’s stopping you?”

If you’re a Christian, and statistically many of you are, please answer that question for me. Is anyone preventing you from saying Merry Christmas? Is anyone yelling at you or getting angry at you for wishing them Merry Christmas? I’m not.

Not only will I be completely fine if you were to wish me a Merry Christmas, I might even wish you one back. I might also say Happy Holidays, or Happy New Year, or perhaps even an occasional “Joyous Festivus!” just to be funny. But you can keep on saying Merry Christmas to your heart’s content.

Because the issue, at least as it seems to me, is not that people are being prevented from saying Merry Christmas. It’s the fact that some people, some businesses and some organizations aren’t saying it of their own volition that get people angry. Which strikes me as the key to many issues when dealing with religious people.

It isn’t that your rights, even your right to say two simple words, are being taken away. It’s that you want to force everyone else to do what you’ve chosen.

I’m sorry, but in America that just isn’t going to cut it.

Happy Holidays.

this is part of a series called altView. these are stories of faith from the people of our community. no filters. no agendas. no prompts. just people telling their stories. hope you enjoy!

A/theism

Tad DeLay

“He whom I bow to only knows to whom I bow

When I attempt the ineffable Name, murmuring Thou,

And dream of Pheidian fancies and embrace in heart

Symbols (I know) which cannot be the thing thou art.

Thus always, taken at their word, all prayers blaspheme

Worshiping with frail images a folk-lore dream,

And all men in their praying, self-deceived, address

The coinage of their own unquiet thoughts, unless

Thou in magnetic mercy to thyself divert

Our arrows aimed unskillfully, beyond desert;

And all men are idolaters, crying unheard

To a deaf idol, if thou take them at their word.

Take not, O Lord, our literal sense. Lord, in thy great,

Unbroken speech our limping metaphor translate.”

-C.S. Lewis

Yesterday, a friend asked if I believe in God.  It’s a necessary question, but peculiar in that it’s relevance is somewhat detached from me much in the same way that whether or not the earth is flat or whether quantum mechanics is bunk are irrelevant questions. Nobody really believes in God, at least not most of the time.  Belief in god is easily affirmed or denied.

I do not believe in God.

Lewis so eloquently describes how what we call god is not, in fact, God.  By our own definitions, God is transcendent to any conception, so try as we may, we can only ever speak of an idea of God, an idol.  To speak of God, we necessarily suspend our belief in transcendence.  We speak as atheists; every theologian is paradoxically an atheist in his moment of brilliance.  To be faithful and speak of god, or to speak of god’s ideals for the world, carries a necessary betrayal of the very God we are trying to wrap our minds around.  We speak as a/theists.

I do believe in God.

This lays the groundwork for humility in our theologies and philosophies.  We must become comfortable with the fact that when we speak of/for god, we are at least partly wrong 100% of the time.  No eye has seen; no ear has heard.  Our Scriptures set an example with irresolvable inconsistencies in the poets’ and prophets’ pictures of God.  The late Jacques Derrida wrote that Justice was the only nondeconstructable idea.  From Justice, all blessings flow.  We affirm this, and we call it Gospel.  The Scriptures did not so narrowly define our theologies for us; they did not intend to.  At best, the prophets could only narrow a definition of God to powerfully simple ideas: Love, Justice, Mercy, or Reconciliation.  We affirm that real belief in God looks like these things.  To move beyond simplicity is the essential work of theologians; to put them into practice is the essential work of the Church; to move these things into an inerrant, unquestionable system is the work of the idolater.  Embrace and excommunication is our tragic history of sorting these things out.

I am called to be a theologian, and it is what I will spend my life doing.  But I always feel this nagging suspicion that God is far less concerned with endless debates about what the Bible exactly is; he laughs at our foolishness, and she (does this pronoun aggravate?) weeps at our often destructive misunderstandings.  I assume God is far more concerned that we suspend our questions and do the things God hopes to see.  We prioritize humility and  Justice.  There is a time for debate, but it is always a good time for Reconciliation.

This is true belief, true faith in the Divine: it is only when I do not obsess conceptualizing god and instead unconsciously, as second nature, act out god’s dreams for the world that I truly believe in God.

I hope to one day believe in God.

Tad Delay recently married his best friend, and together they hope to spend their lives working out the social action their faith claims to believe. Tad is a hack theologian and will be sad to leave Eikon next fall for seminary, but may come back one day as Dr. Tad, Ph.D.

The American Heritage Dictionary. 

Wisdom 1.Understanding of what is true, right, or lasting; insight. 2. Common sense; good judgment. 3. The sum of scholarly learning through the ages; knowledge.

Intelligence 1.The capacity to acquire and apply knowledge. 2. The faculty of thought and reason. 3. Superior powers of mind.

I am afraid that I have been confusing wisdom and intelligence most of my life. I always lumped them together. I assumed that if one were intelligent then one would be wise, but lately I have thought about it and I realize that one can be intelligent and yet lack wisdom.

Atheists like Mr. Dawkins are prime examples of those who are intelligent and yet lack wisdom. Most atheists that I have met are intelligent, but they do not use their intelligence to gain wisdom. Both atheists and believers, if being honest, would have to agree that in order to determine if God exists one has to examine the universe and everything in it.

The Bible says the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows his handiwork and I use to think that was because it was so immense. But now I understand it means the universe is wasting away to its end. The light of the stars originates from matter being destroyed and matter is not being restored. If the universe has an end then logically speaking it must have had a beginning! Something has to have existed and will exist forever: either God or the universe. Its not rocket science.

Those who do not want to believe there is a God lump all religions together, but there are major differences and though all religions believe in some type of god the differences are too great to allow them to be grouped together.

The Christian religion commands followers to treat others as they want to be treated. No other religion has such a command. If all men obeyed such a command there would be world peace, because there would be no more transgressions between men. Even the leaders of the world would not war against other nations!

Atheists, if they had wisdom, would understand that world peace could result if everyone obeyed that royal law and they would encourage everyone to be a Christian. If there truly is no God then what does it matter what one believes? If I want to believe, even in Santa Clause, what is that to others?

Well it does seem to matter. Christians want all to believe, because they want all to be saved (you know ‘do unto others’), and the atheists want all not to believe because it makes the atheists look intelligent (and they are intelligent).

The problem between Christians and atheists, as I understand it, originates because atheists seem to lack confidence in their intelligence. They seem to believe that to make others seem stupid they will appear even more intelligent. They draw the less intelligent into discussions about science and other subjects, about which they have more knowledge than most Christians, and never mention that the universe is slowly coming to an end. It seems that it is not truth they desire, but admiration.

Then there is money as a reward for not seeking truth. One can receive royalties from books that are written to make their intelligent brothers feel good. And they feel good because it makes them seem more intelligent than the masses. There is also opportunities for advancement by agreeing with the other intelligent people as those who are intelligent usually have more power and influence than those who are not as gifted.

After saying all of this it is clear that I am still confused about wisdom and intelligence. How could someone be intelligent and yet not be wise? It is not wise to oppose a religion that would assure world peace and yet the intelligent do! At the very least it is a selfish and self-centered attitude.

A few posts back I talked about the New Atheism vs. Atheism 3.0.   I came across this video recently, and the gentleman who produced it has done an outstanding job of explaining aggressive atheism.  Extremely well versed and to the point, the man simply says it better than I could ever hope to.  Kudos to Pat Condell.  Watch, listen and learn.

Unfortuntely, WordPress doesn’t support embedding this video here, but please take time to click the link for it.

AGGRESSIVE ATHEISM

In the past two days, we’ve seen two pieces in the New York Times on religion. One by columnist Nick Kristof argues that we are seeing detente in the religion/atheism debates, moving away from the acrimonious, all-or-nothing approach from recent years and towards a softer, more diffuse, and less specific vision of spiritualism. The second is a straight news item reporting that voters in Switzerland voted to amend their constitution in order to prohibit the construction of minarets on mosques. The article hypothesizes that this recent ban is an indication of Switzerland’s becoming less tolerant and more skeptical of Muslim immigrants.

Looking at these two news stories, most people would notice contradictions. Which one is it? Is religious debate becoming more acrimonious, or are religious attitudes moderating? But if we look further, we notice that the Kristof piece and the news bulletin aren’t contradictory; rather, they are both indicative of the common trends in religious debate in the western world. Unfortunately, this trend is unambiguously bad for us.

First, the Kristof piece. I usually like his stuff, not necessarily because he ever comes up with something original to say, but because he puts the spotlight on issues that other media outlets tend to ignore. But this piece strikes me as the worst column Kristof has written in years. He criticizes “religious intolerance” and “irrelgious intolerance” with equal disdain, pointing to well-known atheist advocates Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris as well as the fundamentalist authors of the Left Behind novels as bomb-throwers who led an increasingly-acrimonious public debate about the existence of God starting several years ago. In contrast, Kristof praises the mushy-mouthed new group of ’spiritualists’ (like Robert Wright and Karen Armstrong) for moderating the debate focusing on positive aspects of belief.

This approach strikes me as entirely wrong. As a good friend pointed out to me, Wright’s argument (which Kristof quotes favorably) makes no sense. After documenting the moral growth of the character of God from Old Testament to New Testament and current perceptions, Wright says, “To the extent that ‘god’ grows, that is evidence — maybe not massive evidence, but some evidence — of higher purpose,” and the ultimate existence of a benevolent higher being. All due respect to Mr. Wright and Mr. Kristof, but that’s not true. The character of Harry Potter grows during the course of J. K. Rowling’s novels, but that isn’t evidence of Harry’s existence in the real world. It’s just evidence of good writing. Furthermore, shouldn’t God’s growth be a mark against the whole idea of God as a perfect, benevolent being? I mean, certainly mere human beings need to grow out of their Terrible Twos, but should we expect the same of an all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good God?

The reason that Kristof and Wright and many other mushy-mouthed liberal theists fall into such silly arguments is that they don’t seem to take the concept of truth all that seriously. That’s how Kristof can endorse this silliness from Armstrong’s “The Case for God”:

Over the centuries people in all cultures discovered that by pushing their reasoning powers to the limit, stretching language to the end of its tether, and living as selflessly and compassionately as possible, they experienced a transcendence that enabled them to affirm their suffering with serenity and courage.

Comfort might be a nice side benefit to belief, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the accuracy of underlying beliefs. Most reasonable people could agree that it’s good for grieving humans to find comfort. But why give religion a pass on the specific truth claims it puts forward, any more than we give unicorns or the Tooth Fairy a pass? [Hat tip to Chris].

The trend that Kristof praises, and that I so evidently despise, is one away from issues of ultimate truth and towards a wishy-washy liberal ’spiritualism’. I agree with Kristof that this is a trend, but I can’t agree with him that it is positive. Truth matters. The conviction of belief matters. It is important to engage with these ultimate issues with ardor.

But neither am I happy to read the second news item from the Times, which reports that Swiss voters have recently banned the construction of new minarets in the country. It certainly seems like the 57.5% of Swiss that voted for the ban had the conviction of their beliefs and weren’t ready to opt for the mushy middle of spiritualism. But this action goes far beyond the realm of debate and actually impinges on religious practice in ways that I find completely unacceptable. Forget the silly notions that rightist Swiss leaders put forward during the campaign: disallowing minarets will do nothing to slow the growth of radical Islam, but it will piss off a large number of law-abiding, Westernized Muslims currently living in peace in the country. But more importantly, this law goes completely against the principle that people have the right to organize their lives as they see fit unless they are somehow harming others. If you think minarets are damaging, then I can’t see why steeples wouldn’t be, too.

Take together, these pieces show a disturbing trend. In the realm of actual belief, people are moving away from examining the actual validity of truth claims and towards a weak, colorless, and utterly-irrational spiritualism. In the realm of government action and regulation, however, it seems like we are becoming less tolerant and more willing to impose silly majoritarian preferences for visions of the good life.

This is dangerous. At the same time that we have increasingly unclear ideas about what to believe, we have a growing willingness to force other people to conform to our unexamined, unclear beliefs. Kristof would clearly favor unclear belief and no demand to conform. Others might want strict belief and strict practice. But I fall on the opposite spectrum of what we currently have. I’d favor robust debate about truth with a tolerant, small-L liberal vision of personal privacy and freedom. I don’t know why I have these preferences, but that’s a topic for another blog post.

RELIGION

The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion is a wide-ranging, comparative study of mythology and religion, written by Scottish anthropologist Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941). The Golden Bough attempts to define the shared elements of religious belief, ranging from ancient belief systems to relatively modern religions such as Christianity. Its thesis is that old religions were fertility cults that revolved around the worship of, and periodic sacrifice of, a sacred king.
This king was the incarnation of a dying and reviving god, a solar deity who underwent a mystic marriage to a goddess of the Earth, who died at the harvest, and was reincarnated in the spring. Frazer claims that this legend is central to almost all of the world’s mythologies.
The book scandalized the British public upon its first publication, because it included the Christian story of Jesus in its comparative study, thus inviting an agnostic reading of the Lamb of God as a relic of a pagan religion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Bough

“The danger, however, is not less real because it is imaginary; imagination acts upon man as really as does gravitation, and may kill him as certainly as a dose of prussic acid.” (Chapter 21, “Golden Bough ,Tabooed Things”.)

All ancient religions seem to originate from this philosophy.There are many “organic” belief systems practiced today. Many are ancient and combine wisdom , natural science , and cultural knowledge and history.These include the beliefs of native peoples across the world .They are vibrant parts of a living culture ,until monotheism stomps them out! This monotheistic fascistic belief system has no part to play in a modern society. If you pray to Jesus , Yahawa or Allah , you might as well pray to Osiris , Zeus ,Mithra or Set! They hold as much relevance today , they are “organic” in origin unlike Abrahamic monotheism ,which is an invention for the purpose of material empire building and it is these “Old gods” that the invented god of Abraham owes his existance. Hopefully this belief system will pass the same way as other ancient primitive tribal belief systems.

Abrahamic Monotheism was a CON from the start.It is nothing more than Polytheism re-hashed. All its old stories are rip offs of polythesic originals.Monotheisms god is a three in one god. This is a rip off of Polytheism which gods came in three.
THE ORIGINAL HOLY TRINITY
The Sumerian  An .. was one of the oldest gods in the Sumerian pantheon, and part of a triad including Enlil, god of the sky and Enki,
Also the Egyptian Amun-Mut-Chons triad of Thebes that arose during the Middle Kingdom in 2134-1991 B.C.)
Egypt had Hathor-Menkaure-Bat triad of the fourth dynasty
In Celtic Gaul The Divine Woodman ,Esus or Hesus (“lord” or “master”) was a Gaulish god known from two monumental statues and a line in Lucan’s Bellum civile.
A well-known section in Lucan’s Bellum civile talks about the gory sacrificial offerings proffered to a triad of Celtic deities: Teutates, Hesus (an aspirated form of Esus), and Taranis. According to the Berne Commentary on Lucan, human victims were sacrificed to Esus by being tied to a tree and flailed .
In Polytheism there is a Head or Ruling Deity ,usually called An , Anu , Danu , Amen , Amun etc.. This is why monotheists still send thier prayers to AMEN! There will be lesser gods in polytheism that carry out the Head gods wishes and are in charge of certain aspects of life. This is NO DIFFERENT from modern Abrahamic monotheism ,with its three in one Head deity and his arch angels , angels , saints and devils and demons.

The Invention of Judaism

http://cuthulan.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/the-invention-of-judaism/

The Invention of Christianity

http://cuthulan.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/the-invention-of-christianity/

The Invention of Islam

http://cuthulan.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/the-invention-of-islam/

I call myself an Atheist ,NOT because I have the answers of Life the Universe and everything ,BUT because I KNOW that the unexplained we face today has NOTHING to do with ancient primitive tribal gods.Science is my tool NOT my belief .I also believe the MORE theories and ideas there are the better! It shows humanity is thinking and encourages debate ,all a good healthy state of being.BUT the trouble with dogmatic religions is that they CLOSE and indoctrinate the minds of thier followers. Saying that all routes to “salvation” can only be found in this book is just ignorant , bigotted and WRONG.Especially when these people attack modern science and scientific and archeological facts.They also seem hell bent on destroying the only known fertile planet in the Solar system/Universe ,JUST to bring THIER god to Earth on a White horse. It would be hysterically funny ,if they where not so damn serious!

IMHO

What do we KNOW about the (multi)universe?

GENESIS FOR ATHEISTS

E=MC2

Energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared.

The (multi)universe is made of mass and energy ,two forms of the same thing. The (multi)universe converts one form to another with 100% efficiency. This is one definition of perfection.

WE are made of the same mass and energy,so are the stars and the trees and everything. This mass and energy is indestructable, it can only change form ,which is part of its nature to do so and it does so perfectly,but mass ,energy or information as some scientists refer to this, cannot  be destroyed ,only converted, it does this with 100% efficiency. This could be called immortality via a form of reincarnation.

The universal struggle to become self aware.

The universe seems to show a level of self awareness ,even at its basic levels. On the molecular level ,basic molecules seem to naturally form complex patterns,like the DNA helix , instead of randoms strings of things. This seems to show a form of awarness.

Electrons are aware if they are being watched and will change thier behaviour accordingly.They will behave like a wave if not watched , they behave like a particle if watched.  This can be demonstrated repeatedly in experiments.

Inorganic molecules also form crystallic structures ,regular in form and pattern again.

Like mass seems to defy randomness and form more and more complex forms , evolution. So it would seem the same is for energy. Somewhere in here lies the struggle for “universal” self awareness.

Self awarness is shown in many forms on planet Earth. Higher levels are shown amoungst dolphins ,whales and some primates. There is no guarantee that these forms will continue to rise in awareness or even survive. On this spiralling rock ,there have been many forms of Mankind , at least 20 that we know of ,and today WE are the only survivors. We have no guarantee of survival either and we have actually been really lucky to survive this long.We have on more than one occasion been reduced to a handful of survivors. Actually the clock is ticking so to speak.The Earth is expected to be effectively habitable for about another 500 million years,[43] although this may be extended up to 2.3 billion years if the nitrogen is removed from the atmosphere. The Sun, as part of its evolution, will become a red giant in about 5 Gyr. Models predict that the Sun will expand out to about 250 times its present radius, roughly 1 AU (150,000,000 km)a more recent simulation indicates that Earth’s orbit will decay due to tidal effects and drag, causing it to enter the red giant Sun’s atmosphere and be destroyed.
  This natural process will lead to the sun blasting off its outer layers and spreading clouds of gases rich in heavy elements and organic molecules through the universe. This cloud will condense ,stars will form and light up the darkness , planets will form and the process will start again. This process has already happened before, as the elements WE are made of where created within the furneces of stars that have long since exploded.

The universal Balance

Mass seems to prefer Law and travels in revolutions and predictable motions, doomed to stagnate and degrade ,only to be born again new and start the process again.

Energy seems to prefer chaos and lives in fields that vary constantly and behave unpredictably, always varying and changing form and direction at the slightest provocation. 

There are many theories as to the “Creation” of the universe .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmogony

Current scientific theory suggests before Space and Time there was a gravitational singularity .This is, approximately, a place where quantities which are used to measure the gravitational field become infinite. Such quantities include the curvature of spacetime or the density of matter. An infinitly small but infinitly dense point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitational_singularity
E=MC2
SPACE AND TIME ARE CREATED FROM ENERGY BEING CONVERTED INTO MATTER POWERED BY GRAVITY.
Thanks to the Hubble Telescope we can look back 13 billions years and see what happened.The Hubble Ultra Deep Field is the deepest image of the universe ever taken in visible light, looking back approximately 13 billion years, and it will be used to search for galaxies that existed between 400 and 800 million years after the Big Bang.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Telescope
For current theories on this check Quantum gravity and M-theory(Superstrings)and Stephen Hawkin’s A brief History of Time
A Brief History of Time attempts to explain a range of subjects in cosmology, including the Big Bang, black holes, light cones and superstring theory, to the nonspecialist reader
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M_theory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstrings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_gravity
THE HOLY TRINITY
ENERGY(FATHER) MATTER(SON) GRAVITY(HOLY GHOST)
STARS AWAKE HEAVY ELEMENTS ARE CREATED AND PLANETS FORM ALL POWERED BY GRAVITY

4.6 Billion years ago ,the Solar system forms
4.56 Billions years ago , Proto-Earth is formed. It is hit by a Mars sized object and the Earth and Moon are formed. The astroid belt is also a possible remnant of this collision.
LIFE BEGINS
Some scientists now believe that comets, meteorites, and interplanetary dust deliver organic compounds created in interstellar space to newly formed planets, and that such space-born substances could have “kick-started” the development of life on Earth. Researchers working with NASA’s Astrobiology Institute have created “proto-cells” that mimic the membranous structures used to create the living cells found on our planet. They subjected icy dust particles that are rich in organic compounds (i.e., water, methanol or wood alcohol, ammonia, and carbon monoxide) that are found in dense molecular clouds of interstellar space to the harsh conditions found there, such as intense cold and ultraviolet light. An abundance of such structures raining down on wet areas of Earth during its early years could have been important in protecting self-replicating molecules (i.e., the precursors of RNA and DNA) that became encapsulated within them, and eventually such proto-cells could have evolved into primitive lifeforms. (See a NASA summary.) In 2006, two scientists argued that the development of life on Earth was the necessary consequence of available energy built up by geological processes (including polyphosphates made in volcanic processes) on the early Earth, in the same way that lightning relieves the accumulation of electrical charge in thunderclouds (Morowitz and Smith, 2006; and Phillip Ball, Nature, November 14, 2006).
Initially, the Earth’s surface was mostly molten rock that gradually cooled through the radiation of heat into space. The primeval atmosphere was composed mostly of water (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2) and monoxide (CO), molecular nitrogen (N2) and molecular hydrogen (H2), and hydrogen chloride (HCl) outgassed from molten rock, with only traces of reactive molecular oxygen (O2). This steamy atmosphere was rich with water released from hydrated minerals and cometary impactors. As the Earth continued to cool from Years 0.1 to 0.3 billion, a torrential rain fell that turned to steam upon hitting the still hot surface, then superheated water, and finally collected into hot or warm seas and oceans above and around cooling crustal rock leaving sediments. Every once in a while, however, a large asteroid or comet would strike the planet which remelted crustal rock and turned oceans back into hot mist. Eventually, a stable rocky crust may have developed between Years 0.2 and 0.4 billion (see J. Bret Bennington’s discussion of recycled zircons (crystals of zirconium silicate) from the rocks of western Australia in the Hadean Eon and the January 11, 2001 announcement of zircons found north of Perth that appear to be 4.4 billion years old), covered and surrounded by soupy water that was already rich with organic compounds from interstellar space.
On July 3, 2008, a team of scientists published results (Nemchin et al, 2008) on finding unusually high “light-carbon” isotope ratios possibly indicative of biological origin found in micrometer-sized diamond and graphite inclusions that were later incorporated within 22 zircons from the Jack Hills of Western Australia, which were formed under the pressure of 100 to 150 kilometers (62 to 93 miles) of crustal rock. As the zircons were radioactively dated to be as old as 4.25 billion years, the new findings suggest that carbon-based life may have been present on Earth within the first 300 million years after planetary formation.
http://www.solstation.com/life/ear-life.htm

MANKIND AWAKES
5,000,000 BC Hominids separated from other primates
2,000,000 BC Homo habilis
1,750,000 BC Initial hominid exodus from Africa
1,500,000 BC Home erectus
1,000,000 BC Early hominids in Spain and Central Asia
http://www.danbyrnes.com.au/lostworlds/timeline/lwstory18.htm
Prehistory is a term often used to describe the period before written history. The early human migrations patterns in the Lower Paleolithic saw Homo erectus spreads across Eurasia. The controlled use of fire from ca. 800 thousand years ago occurred.
800,000BC: Dating for human remains discovered recently by archaeologists. A site reveals about 80 human bones and bone fragments from two adult females and four children, maybe eaten by other humans, as some bones had marks from sharp stone tools. Around the remains were bones from horses, deer, bison, rhino and possibly elephants. This is possibly the earliest known example of human cannibalism, found in Northern Spain in a cave at Atapuerca. It is possible the specimens were Homo antecessor, (Ancestor Man, who developed into Neandertal). It is thought that possibly Ancestor Man came from Africa one million years ago, to Europe, and that their fellows who stayed in Africa developed into Homo sapiens? See a recent issue of journal, Science. Meantime, tools made 900,000 years ago were found at an even deeper level of the Atapuerca cave site. Reported in Sydney, 31 May, 1997
800,000BC: Soleilhac, in the Massif Central of France, is the oldest “unquestionable” site of hominid occupation in Europe, with remains of fauna remains and tools, but no hominid bones.
800,000BC: Some Indonesian and Dutch archaeologist refer to evidence that early hominids in Asia have made it to the island of Flores in the Javan archipelago.
700,000BC: Mary Leakey finds that a famous Acheulian hand-axe was being made by Homo erectus, while about this time, the magnetic poles of the earth reverse. (Ardrey, Hunting Hypothesis, pp. 130-133) The South Pole develops a negative polarity. About now the Arctic seems to freeze over for the first time. Ardrey feels the evidence on use of fire comes from colder areas of Europe and Asia. Soon comes the first wave of the glaciation of Europe. Perhaps soon, Heidelberg Man appears in Germany?
500,000 BC Common ancestor of Homo sapiens sapiens (Hss) and Homo neanderthalensis
500,000BC: Heidelberg Man is seen, in Cold Eurasia, possibly an early appearance of an African-evolved home erectus. (Ardrey, Hunting Hypothesis, p. 147) Diet exclusively of uncooked meat (the fats of which allow may brain growth?)
450,000BC to 380,000BC: Evidence of a wooden hut with a hearth at Terra Amata, near Nice, France, time of Mindel Glaciation. Also near Nice, France, an Acheulean hut dated 500,000-400,000BC a home evidently for Neandertals, with use of a fireplace, and furs, grasses, seaweeds used as bedding.
400,000 BC Early hominids in China
300,000BC-400,000-BC: Man begins to appreciate-learn to use fire. (Ardrey, Hunting Hypothesis, p. 56)
340,000-330,000BC: Glaciation of Earth. Neandertals displace Homo erectus in some areas.
Neandertal, is an extinct member of the Homo genus that is known from Pleistocene specimens found in Europe and parts of western and central Asia. Neanderthals are either classified as a subspecies of humans (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) or as a separate species (Homo neanderthalensis).The first proto-Neanderthal traits appeared in Europe as early as 600,000–350,000 years ago.The youngest Neanderthal finds include Hyaena Den (UK), considered older than 30,000 years ago, while the Vindija (Croatia). No definite specimens younger than 30,000 years ago have been found. Modern human skeletal remains with ‘Neanderthal traits’ were found in Lagar Velho (Portugal), dated to 24,500 years ago and interpreted as indications of extensively admixed populations.Neanderthal stone tools provide further evidence for their presence where skeletal remains have not been found. The last traces of Mousterian culture, a type of stone tools associated with Neanderthals, were found in Gorham’s Cave on the remote south-facing coast of Gibraltar .Other tool cultures sometimes associated with Neanderthal include Châtelperronian, Aurignacian, and Gravettian, with the latter extending to 22,000 years ago, the last indication of Neanderthal presence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal_genome_project
160,000-130,000BC: Glaciation of Earth which begins what some term the African/Oceanic Ice Age Civilization. Modern humans displace Neandertals in Africa and Oceanic Areas.
For more, see a website from Tony Smith at:
http://www.innerx.net/personal/tsmith/Hist.html/
Circa 250,000BC: About this time the human brain size stopped its slow trend toward enlargement. This may correspond with the human attainment of the rudiments of language?
133,000BC: According to global oxygen isotope records, the second last glacial cycle, which is called Stage 6, reaches its coldest extremes between 135,000 and 130,00 years ago. (Shreeve, Neandertal)
125,000BC: Neandertal Homo sapiens indicates that brain size and organization were basically modern. The Neandertals were the first people known to bury their dead. The Neandertals spread all across Europe, the Middle East, and western and central Asia.
130,000BP: Humans first acquire chins
125,000 BP: Scientists in 2000 identified human stone tools of this time from a fossil reef along the Red Sea coast of Eritrea. They identified the area as the “world’s first oyster bar.”
Seaside living, Eritrea: It now seems that humans have been living by the sea and using boats for at least 125,000 years. The earliest known seaside settlement has been identified via the use of stone tools on the Red Sea coast of Eritrea. Further work may help establish how humans fanned out from Africa to settle in other parts of the world? The finding was made by Dr. Robert Walker of the Centre of Scientific Investigation in Ensenada, Mexico. Humans were also living at the same time in Israel, Ethiopia, Kenya, and the Sudan. The new finding supports the “out of Africa” theory of single human evolution.
100,000BC: Hunters live in limestone caves of Eastern Spain.
100,000BC: Possible occupation of Japan, period not yet accurately fixed. (Pottery use there from 12,000BC, preceding farming.)
100,000BC: Wooden tools used at Kalambo Falls, borders of Tanzania and Zambia.
100,000BC to 40,000 years ago: Neandertal Man in West Germany.
98,000BC: Stone tools survive from the Kirkuk area, Iraq, now held in a museum in Iraq.
90,000BC: Potassium-argon dating and thermoluminescence can be used to date pieces of pottery back to about this time.
68,000BC approx: Two Neandertal skulls from France of this time are found. They had a hypoglossal canal the size of modern humans, which was thought to be indicative of speech. By now, Neandertals have spread over much of Europe and Western Asia. (See Shreeve, Neandertal)
NEANDERTAL MAN CREATES GOD THE BEAR AND HOMO ERECTUS/SAPIENS CREATES GOD THE SNAKE
Archeological evidence from Middle Paleolithic caves,shows that a widespread Middle Paleolithic Neanderthal bear cult existed (Wunn, 2000, p. 434-435).
78,000BC: About 1962, French archaeologists at Regourdou find the remains of what might have been a “bear cult” conducted by Neandertals. The bones of a brown bear have been carefully arranged. (Shreeve, Neandertal) 
Bear worship (also known as the Bear Cult or Arctolatry) is the religious practice of the worshiping of bears found in many North American and North Eurasian ethnic circumpolar religions such as the Sami, Nivkhs, Ainu, and pre-christian Finns. There are also a number of deities from Celtic Gaul and Britain associated with the bear and the bear is featured on many totems throughout northern cultures that carve them. Bear worship may have been practiced as far back as the Middle paleolithic period amongst Neanderthal societies c.300,000 to 30,000 BC
Additional evidence in support of Middle Paleolithic animal worship originates from the Tsodilo Hills (c 70,000BCE) in the African Kalahari desert where a giant rock resembling a python that is accompanied by large amounts of colored broken spear points and a secret chamber has been discovered inside a cave. The Broken spear points were most likely sacrificial offerings and the python is also important to and worshipped by contemporary Bushmen Hunter-gatherers who are the descendants of the of the people who devised the ritual at the Tsodilo Hills and may have inherited their worship of the python from their distant Middle Paleolithic ancestors.
MODERN MAN IS BORN
Near c. 250 thousand years ago, Homo sapiens evolves in Africa.
c.150,000 BC Mitochondrial Eve in Africa (MOM mother of man)
71,000 BC Eruption of Toba, Sumatra volcano and the ensuing cold millennium which killed almost all Homo Sapien sapien (estimate of 5,000 left) This was right at a minimum temperture of about 7 degrees C below current temperature.The eruption took the temperature down to about 9 degrees C below current temperature for about 1000 years
68,000BC approx: Two Neandertal skulls from France of this time are found. They had a hypoglossal canal the size of modern humans, which was thought to be indicative of speech. By now, Neandertals have spread over much of Europe and Western Asia. (See Shreeve, Neandertal)
Around c. 70–60 thousand years ago, modern humans migrate out of Africa along a coastal route to South and Southeast Asia and reach Australia. 
60,000 BC Y-chromosome Adam (DAD direct ancesteral descendant)
60,000BC: At Shanidar, a large cave in the Zagros mountains of northeastern Iraq soil samples from a grave of a [Neandertal] man of this time indicated pollen grains from 8 different types of flowers, some of them used for medicinal purposes. When excavated by Ralph Solecki of Columbia University, the remains are found of nine Neandertals, with some evidence of “spirituality”. One man has received wounds to head and body meaning he had a withered arm and was blind in one eye. In 1971, Solecki published his book, Shanidar: The First Flower People. (Shreeve, Neandertal)

60,000BC: A Neandertal from Kebara cave (Israel) shows an age of 60,000 years. An Israeli-French team working in Israel uses the technique of thermoluminescence to study the relationship between early humans and Neandertals. Shreeve in his book on Neandertals notes that about 58,000BC in the Levant area at least was one of the coldest periods of the Ice Age, for the Qafzeh-Skhul people. At this time, did Homo sapiens co-exist in the same area with Neandertals?
60,000BC: Custom of head deformation, also seen amongst Ancient Mesoamericans, seen as early as 60,000BC in the Near East, as found with Neandertal skulls in the Shanidar cave of Northern Iraq. (James/Thorpe).
60,000BC-58,000BC: One of the earliest ceremonial burials found is a “suttee and flowers” burial at (cave?) Shanidar in northern Iraq
60,000-10,000BC: The Acheulian Age or early Stone Age culture lasted over this period. (Encyclopedia of Africa, 1976, p.165)

58,000 years ago? To 9000BC approx homo floriensis (little people, Hobbits),in 2004, from the Indonesian island of Flores just near the North-West coast of Western Australia, came news from a team largely of Australian archaeologists that a new species of humanity, homo floriensis (little people, Hobbits) has been discovered. They became extinct about 11,000 years ago. The saga of, or, about, the Hobbits now continues as archaeologist Mike Morwood from University of New England now suggests that one-metre tall Hobbits, who were wiped out by difficulties with volcanoes, may have lived also in Australia
 In March 2005 scientists who published details of the brain of Flores Man in Science supported species status.A study[14] published in July 2009 found that cladistic analysis supports that H. floresiensis is a separate species.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_floresiensis
58,0000BC: Approx: The Mungo Man controversy on the genetics of human origins breaks out: Australia was enlivened on 9 January 2001 to read reports of far-reaching new research by Australian scientists on the origins and dispersal of humanity, globally, which counters the orthodox “Out of Africa” theory of human origins.
The scientific argument is extremely complicated and multi-disciplinary, but it does seem as though arguments will never be the same again. Crucial to the arguments are views on the origins of Australia’s Aboriginal people.
Evidence used is basically some flakes from the skull of Mungo Man, remains found in 1974 in New South Wales by Australian Jim Bowler. Later, Mungo Man (scientifically called LM3) was radiocarbon-dated at about 28,000-32,000 years old, a view which supported opinions that Aboriginals had been in Australia for up to 40,000 years. By the mid-1980s, better radiocarbon-dating techniques pushed LM3’s dates to about 36,000BC. In 1999, LM3 again caused excitement, since his dates were more like 58,000BC, or, 56,000-68,000 BP (Before present). This trebled the “human settlement time” of the Australian continent. But other evidence arising by the late 1990s tended to support the “Out of Africa” theory of human origins, which suggests that fully-modern Homo sapiens arose in Africa, and then dispersed elsewhere, 150,000-100,000 years ago. As they dispersed they displaced (possibly killed?) earlier or more archaic people, Neandertals or the earlier-arising Homo erectus. However, Mungo Man is anatomically modern, but his DNA does not match ours. His genes are now extinct.
So, by 2001, Australian researchers are proposing a Regional Continuity argument of human origins, which suggests that from about 1.5 million years ago, waves of people began migrating from Africa, becoming “a single evolving species”. These forms of humanity continually interbred, and became ourselves. Mungo Man was “a modern man” but his genetic lineage is now extinct, which may in turn suggest that some other human (non-Neandertal) genetic lines became extinct before modern man appeared between 100,000BC-150,000BC?
Significantly, research on Mungo Man involves analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is passed down only the maternal line. However, the argument will continue for a long time. It now seems, Mungo Man’s lineage should stand as firmly in the history of humanity as the stockily-built Neandertal, and Java Man. (Those interested should find a copy of The Australian newspaper, 9 January 2001)
About c. 50 thousand years ago, modern humans spread from Asia to the Near East.
53,000-27,000BC: Pre-human fossils from a site on the Solo River near the Javanese town of Ngandong were dated in 1996 to this period, and identified as belonging to the species of Homo erectus. Brain size was equivalent to modern humans. (Estimated number of cells in the human brain – 10,000 million.)
40,700BC: In 1992 rock engravings in South Australia are carbon dated at 42,700 years.
Followed by c. 40 thousand years ago, in which Europe was first reached by modern humans.
Circa 43,000BC: About this time some seven women led to the descendants of the population of moern Europe. In 2001 geneticist Bryan Sykes authored The Seven Daughters of Eve. (Such issues are well-discussed in Shreeve, Neandertal)
The first such study dates back to 1999 and was conducted by the Estonian biologist Toomas Kivisild, a pioneer in the field, with fourteen co-authors from various nationalities (including M. J. Bamshad). It relied on 550 samples of mtDNA and identified a haplogroup called “U” as indicating a deep connection between Indian and Western-Eurasian populations.In other words, there is a genetic connection between India and Europe, but a far more ancient one than was thought and the flow was out of, not into, India.
“indeed, nearly all Europeans — and by extension, many Americans — can trace their ancestors to only four mtDNA lines, which appeared between 10,000 and 50,000 years ago and originated from South Asia.”
43,000BC: A flute-like instrument made of bear bone was found by archaeologist Janez Dirjec at the Divje Babe site in the valley of the Idrijca River in Slovenia. It was believed to be about 45,000 years old.

c.30,500 BC Ice Age in Europe starts
28,000 BC Date of latest fossil of Homo Neanderthalensis. Probably died off because of climate change and the arrival of Homo Sapien sapien(modern man)
“This definitely is its own species,” Dr. Tattersall affirmed, glancing first to the Neanderthal and then to a modern human skeleton next to it. “If people didn’t believe that before, by all rights they should now.”Also Gary Sawyer, a senior technician in anthropology, who directed the reconstruction and other technicians began developing their skills several years ago with the reconstruction of Peking Man, a Homo erectus from China. Their goal is to recreate skeletons of about 20 hominid species.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/814911/posts
By c. 15 thousand years ago, the migration to the New World occurred.
c11,300 BC Ice Ages ends in Europe
The Ice Age (c.30,000 to 13,300 years ago),ends c. 11 300 BC. Ice sheets extended to about 45 degrees north latitude. These sheets were 3 to 4 km thick
WAR
In Egypt Cemetery 117 is an ancient cemetery near the northern border of Sudan 59 bodies were recovered at Cemetery 117, and many more partial pieces found. There were twenty-four females and nineteen males all over nineteen years of age, thirteen children ranging in age from infancy to fifteen years old, and also three bodies that remain unaged and unsexed due to damage and missing pieces. The skeletons were dated using radiocarbon dating at 13,740 years before present plus or minus 600 years. Of the people buried in Jebel Sahaba about forty percent died of violent wounds. Stone projectile points were found in the bodies at places that suggest that they were attached to a spear or arrow. The wound sites were in the chest or abdomen area, the back, or in the skull through the lower jaw or neck. Also the lack of bony calluses due to healing around these wounds indicates that they were most likely fatal
Some have speculated that this violence and aggression was due to diminishing resources in the area and the rising aridity of the land. Also the failure of earlier agricultural experiments may have led to this series of raiding and or ambush by other tribes or bands of people
WORSHIP
An early temple area in southeastern Turkey at Göbekli Tepe dated to 10,000 BC may be regarded as the beginning of the Neolithic. This site was developed by nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes, evidenced by the lack permanent housing in the vicinity. This temple site is the oldest known man-made place of worship.Through the radiocarbon method, the end of stratum III could be determined at circa 9,000 BC ; its beginnings are estimated to 11,000 BC or earlier. Stratum II dates to about 8,000 BC.
Thus, the complexes originated before the so-called Neolithic Revolution, the beginning of agriculture and animal husbandry, which is assumed to begin after 9,000 BC.The oldest occupation layer (stratum III) contained monolithic pillars linked by coarsely built walls to form circular or oval structures. So far, four such buildings, with diameters between 10 and 30m have been uncovered. Geophysical studies suggest 16 further structures
But the construction of the Göbekli Tepe complex implies organisation of a degree of complexity not hitherto associated with pre-Neolithic societies. The archaeologists estimate that up to 500 persons were required to extract the 10-20 ton pillars (in fact, some weigh up to 50 tons) from local quarries and move them 100 to 500m to the site.The monoliths are decorated with carved relief of animals or of abstract pictograms. These signs cannot be classed as writing, but may represent commonly understood sacred symbols, as known from Neolithic cave paintings elsewhere.
After 8000 BC, the site was abandoned and purposely covered up with soil.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe
CULTURE
The Fertile Crescent is a region in the Near East, incorporating the Levant and Mesopotamia, and often incorrectly extended to Egypt. Mesopotamia is considered the Cradle of civilization and saw the development of the earliest human civilizations and is the birthplace of writing and the wheel
The Levant The Natufian culture existed in the Mediterranean region of the Levant 12,000 to 9600 BCE. It was a Mesolithic culture, but unusual in that it was sedentary, or semi-sedentary, before the introduction of agriculture.Settlements occur in the woodland belt where oak and Pistacia species dominated. The underbrush of this open woodland was grass with high frequencies of grain. The high mountains of Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon, the steppe areas of the Negev desert in Israel and Sinai, and the Syro-Arabian desert in the east put up only small Natufian living areas due to both their lower carrying capacity and the company of other groups of foragers who denuded this large region.The superstructure was probably made of brushwood. No traces of mudbrick have been found, which became common in the following Pre-Pottery Neolithic A, abbreviated PPN A. The round houses have a diameter between 3 and 6 meters, they contain a central round or subrectangular fireplace
The Natufian communities are possibly the ancestors of the builders of the first Neolithic settlements of the region.A semi-sedentary life may have been made possible by abundant resources due to a favourable climate at the time, with a culture living from hunting, fishing and gathering, including the use of wild cereals. Tools were available for making use of cereals: flint-bladed sickles for harvesting, and mortars, grinding stones, and storage pits.
Ain Mallaha was a Natufian settlement built and settled circa 10,000–8,000 BCE. The site is located in Northern Israel, and is in an area surrounded by hills and located by an ancient lake, Lake Huleh. The inhabitants are known to have eaten gazelle, fallow deer, wild boar, red and roe deer, hare, tortoise, reptiles, and fish. Also known as Eynan (Hebrew) or Mallaha (Arabic), this Natufian village was colonized in three phases. The first two phases were comprised of massive stone-built structures with smaller ones in the third phase. The phases occurred from 12,000 to 9600 BCE.Hundreds of Natufian graves have been excavated in Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.In 2008, the grave of a Natufian ‘priestess’ was discovered (in most media reports referred to as a shaman or witch doctor ). The burial contained complete shells of 50 tortoises, which are thought to have been brought to the site and eaten during the funeral feast
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/11/081104-israel-shaman-missions.html
c. 12,000 BC Round wooden houses, oak woodland and massive stone structures,hunter gatherers with flint blades and sickles and priestess shaman ,these are proto-Celtic people. Not only were there women Druids but from written accounts it is known that women also fought in battle. Diodorus described Celtic women as being “nearly as big and strong as their husbands and as fierce.” By c.11,000 BC the ice sheets would melt and reveal Central and then Northern Europe.The first hunter gatherers arrive in Scotland c.10,800 BC but probably settled in the North Sea basin before it flooded c.4,000BC.Its then we see,and still can see today in the British Isles, massive stone structures and roundhouses.Also sickles and Druidic Prietesses meeting in oak woodlands.

So it would seem the “Holy Land” belongs to the Celtic peoples. So if the Jews would like to send the rent checks made payable to the Aryan Celtic Nations ,we’ll say no more.As the land now belongs to the Palestinians they can stay there free of charge as long as they take good care of it. 

In the 10th millennium BC, Invention of agriculture is the earliest given date for the beginning of the ancient era. In the 7th millennium BC, Jiahu culture began in China. By the 5th millennium BC, the late Neolithic civilizations saw the invention of the wheel and spread of proto-writing. In the 4th millennium BC, the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture in the Ukraine-Moldova-Romania region develops. By 3400 BC, “proto-literate” Sumerian cuneiform is spread in the Middle East. The 30th century BC, referred to as the Early Bronze Age II, saw the beginning of the literate period in Sumer and Ancient Egypt arise. Around ca. 27th century BC, the Old Kingdom of Egypt and the First Dynasty of Uruk are founded
China -Jiahu (?? pinyin: Jiahú) was the site of a Neolithic Yellow River settlement based in the central plains of ancient China, modern Wuyang, Henan Province. Archaeologists consider the site to be one of the earliest examples of the Peiligang culture. Settled from 7000 to 5800 BC, the site was later flooded and abandoned
Archaeologists have divided Jiahu into three distinct phases. The oldest phase ranges from 7000 to 6600 BC. The middle phase ranges from 6600 to 6200 BC. The last phase ranges from 6200 to 5800 BCThe inhabitants of Jiahu cultivated foxtail millet and rice. rice cultivation at Jiahu is unique. Jiahu rice cultivation is one of the earliest found, and the most northerly found at such an early stage in history.
Over 300 burials have been unearthed at Jiahu, accompanied by burial offerings. Burial objects range from pottery to tortoise shells. One of the most significant offerings discovered were playable tonal flutes.Jiahu yielded some of the oldest pottery yet found in Neolithic China. Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania applied chemical analysis to pottery jars from Jiahu and found evidence of alcohol fermented from rice, honey and hawthorn
At Jiahu, archaeologists identified eleven markings Jiahu script, nine on tortoise shells and two on bone, as possible evidence for proto-writing. The markings correspond to the middle phase. Some of the markings are quite similar to later Chinese characters; two of the most intriguing marks appear to be similar to later characters for eye (?) and sun (?).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Neolithic_cultures_of_China
Europe East The Cucuteni-Trypillian culture, also known as Cucuteni culture (Romanian), Trypillian culture (from Ukrainian) or Tripolie culture (from Russian), is a late Neolithic archaeological culture that flourished between ca. 5500 BC and 2750 BC in the Dniester-Dnieper region of modern-day Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine.J.P. Mallory reports that the
culture is attested from well over a thousand sites in the form of everything from small villages to vast settlements comprised of hundreds of dwellings surrounded by multiple ditches
The inhabitants were involved with animal husbandry and agriculture, fishing and gathering. Wheat, Rye and peas were grown. Tools included ploughs made of antlers, stone, bone and sharpened sticks. The harvest was collected with scythes made of flint inlaid blades. The grain was milled by stone wheels. Women were involved in pottery, clothing and played a leading role in community life. Men hunted, looked out for the cattle, made tools from flint, bone and stone. Cattle were important and pigs, sheep and goats took a secondary place. The horse was domesticated. Female statues and amulets were made of clay. Rarely one comes across copper items, primarily bracelets, rings and hooks. One settlement in Korbuni, Moldova had a large number of copper items, primarily jewelry which were dated back to the beginning of the 5th millennium BC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucuteni-Trypillian_culture
Europe West Celtic Culture- It is believed that the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago(10800 BC), as the ice sheet retreated after the last glaciation The Orkney islands may have been attached to the mainland, as was the present-day island of Great Britain to Continental Europe. Much of the North Sea basin was also dry land until after 4000 BC. This would have made travel to northern Scotland relatively easy for early human settlers.Little is known of the people who settled in the Hebrides but they were likely of the same Celtic stock that had settled in the rest of Scotland.Scholars say that people arrived in Ireland after 8000 B.C. via land bridges from Scotland. These land bridges were submerged by c.7000 B.C. The first inhabitants were Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) hunters and gatherers.
Groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago (4000 BC).It is possible earlier settlements are now under the North Sea(Atlantis or Flood myth?).Late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers are known to have occupied constructed lakeshore platforms in central and northwest Ireland at c.4500 BC. Neolithic crannogs are also known in Scotland. The islet of Eilean Domhnuill, Loch Olabhat on North Uist may be the earliest crannóg, dated to 3200-2800 BC in the Neolithic period.A variant of the crannóg was the island roundhouse. Built on a small, rocky island in a lochan and usually reached by means of a causeway, these are extremely common in the Western Isles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crannog
A stone circle is different from a henge or isolated monolith, although each of these features is often encountered in a single location. Earlier features, such as the Goseck circle in Saxony-Anhalt, may have served similar religious/calendrical/astronomical purposes, though probably at a much earlier epoch. Stone circles usually date from the late Neolithic / early Stone Age, that is, c. 7000-3500 B.C
Often oriented on sight lines for the rising or setting sun or moon at certain times of the year, it seems likely that for their builders the cycle of seasons was very important.Ardnadam Burial Chamber is also known as Adam’s Grave Cromlech. It is a Neolithic burial site which would have been covered by a cairn. The burial chamber is about nine feet in length. The chamber is dated about 5000 B.C. making it over 7000 years old
http://www.darkisle.com/contrib/a/adam/cadam.html
http://www.darkisle.com/circles.html
Historically, Anglesey has long been associated with the Druids.Anglesey is rich in prehistoric remains. The first evidence of humans on the island comes from the Mesolithic period, about 7000 BC. Throughout the next several millennia, the various tribes that occupied Anglesey erected numerous stone burial chambers, standing stones, and hill forts, many of which survived the ages in good condition and can be visited today.
Skara Brae (pronounced /’sk?r? ‘bre?/) is a large stone-built Neolithic settlement, located on the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of mainland Orkney, Scotland. It consists of ten clustered houses, and was occupied from roughly 3100-2500BC. It is Europe’s most complete Neolithic village The dwellings contain a number of stone-built pieces of furniture, including cupboards, dressers, seats, and storage boxes. A sophisticated drainage system was even incorporated into the village’s design, one that included a primitive form of toilet in each dwelling.The eighth house has no storage boxes or dresser, but has been divided into something resembling small cubicles. When this house was excavated, fragments of stone, bone and antler were found. It is possible that this building was used as a workshop to make simple tools such as bone needles or flint axes A comparable — if smaller — site exists at Rinyo on Rousay.
Knap of Howar on the Orkney island of Papa Westray, is a well preserved Neolithic farmstead. Dating from 3500 BC to 3100 BC, it is similar in design to Skara Brae, but from an earlier period, and it is thought to be the oldest preserved standing building in northern Europe.Unstan ware is the name used by archaeologists for a type of finely made and decorated Neolithic pottery from the 4th millennium BC. Typical are elegant, round based bowls with a band of grooved patterning below the rim.It is named after Unstan chambered cairn and fort on the Mainland of the Orkney Islands, a fine example of a stalled burial chamber in a circular mound, where the style of pottery was first found.It has been found at many sites including Knap of Howar, Balbridie and Eilean Domhnuill.Unstan ware may have evolved into the later grooved ware style,

The rest ,as they say , is history!

For more on History

http://cuthulan.wordpress.com/2009/09/03/the-history-of-the-celtic-people/

http://cuthulan.wordpress.com/2009/09/03/the-book-of-invasions-or-the-book-of-conquests-leabhar-gabhala-eireann-or-leabhar-gabhala-na-heireann-a-factual-look/

Please read the following with tongue in cheek.

BUT TO THE REST OF YOU “TRUE BELIEVERS” MAYBE YOU WILL UNDERSTAND BETTER IF I EXPLAIN IT THIS WAY

MY MONOTHEISTIC GOD IS BIGGER THAN YOURS …NA..NA.. NA NA.. NA

MY HOLY TRINITY?

FREEDOM,SCIENCE,COMPASION

MY BELIEF SYSTEM?

MATTER IS ENERGY ,AND ENERGY CANNOT BE DESTROYED ONLY CONVERTED ,THE LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS

THE NAME OF MY GOD?

GRAVITY

THE ONE TRUE universal and transcendental GOD,the one Uncreated Creator!

Everyday I am amazed by his/her creations!

Your pathetic TRIBAL GODS and old men in the sky try to DISPOIL MY GODS CREATED WORKS, ………but YOU ARE but NOUGHT IN HIS SIGHT!!

BLOW YOURSELFS UP if you want and take your pathetic myths with you,you created nothing anyway,but THE EARTH WILL NOT DISAPPEAR!! IT WILL just LOOK UGLY for a million years…… THANKS TO YOU, UNBELIEVER AND YOUR GODS WORK!!!

Hopefully SOMETHING MORE INTELLIGENT AND COMPASIONATE will EVOLVE later and prove itself WORTHY OF EXISTANCE ON MY GODS WONDEROUS CREATION!! A million years is nothing to MY GOD!! It would be the DEATH of all of YOURS.

MY PRIESTS re-write OUR BOOKS ,but that is because WE SEEK the ULTIMATE TRUTH!

YOUR PRIESTS re-write YOUR BOOKS to HIDE the ULTIMATE TRUTH!

YOUR BOOK says the Earth is flat and the sun revolves around it, and the sky is held up on 4 pillars.ITS THE WORD OF YOUR GOD

MY BOOK says the Earth is a sphereoid that revolves around the sun, and the sky is light difused through atmosphere. THAT’S THE WORD OF MINE

WHICH ONE DO YOU TRULEY BELIEVE??

The only future YOUR BELIEF has is either its exstinction or humanity’s in an Armegeddon ,your belief system IS THE EMBODIMENT OF EVIL!

TRIBAL GODS ,I RAGE AGAINST YOU(but as you do not exist I’ll just have a cup of tea instead,just as well ,I would feel guilty beating up an old man)

BUT actually…BELIEVE WHAT YOU WILL, JUST BE GOOD, maybe I’ll burn in HELL ,but MY FAITH says I will NOT,variety is the spice of life is it not . BUT if YOUR BELIEFS are used to JUSTIFY THEFT and MURDER and DESTRUCTION, I SPIT ON THEM AND YOU! If you want to HARM MY LOVED ONES with your pathetic gods I’LL FIND YOU….and YOUR GODS, YOUR PRAYERS , NOT EVEN SATAN HIMSE$LF COULD SAVE YOU FROM MY WRATH!!

SO SAYS

CUTHULAN

HIGH PRIEST OF GRAVITY , HOLDER OF THE SACRED LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS , FORCE OF NATURE , DESTROYER OF GODS, CHALLENGER OF THE RULE OF HEAVEN, MASTER OF ALL HE SURVEYS.

MONTHEISTS HEAR MY VOICE AND DISPAIR

ALL OTHERS REJOICE

YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR CHAINS,YOU HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR BUT FEAR ITSELF

VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE

EDUCATION BREEDS UNDERSTANDING

WE ARE STAR STUFF, HARVESTING STAR LIGHT

PEACE TO EVERYONE

(Even the tribal card carrying members of the “God’s a Bigot” societies a.k.a. Judaism, Christianity and Islam)

NOW if we open our Scientific hymn books we will sing our PRAISE TO GRAVITY.(sung to Ghostbusters theme)

Have you got a god ? that you need rid of? Who you gonna call?

GODBUSTERS!!!

A fanatical dude ,in your neighbourhood? Who you gonna call?

GODBUSTERS!!!

………………………….I AIN”T AFRAID OF NO GOD?!

AND SO ENDS THIS SERMON

“thought for the day ,to the god squad”

IF THERE IS A GOD IT IS IRRELEVANT IF YOU BELIEVE IN HIM/HER/THEM OR NOT!

WHAT WOULD BE IMPORTANT IS THAT GOD BELIEVES IN YOU AND THE THINGS THAT YOU DO!!!

BTW. I SMILE AT WHAT I SEE IN THE MIRROR EVERY MORNING,I AM AT PEACE WITH MY GOD ,

BUT MAYBE GRAVITY IS A MYTH AND THE EARTH JUST SUCKS!!

God does not scare me its his followers that worry me.

If you feel religious.its your choice, there are plenty of inoffensive religions to choose from but..

MONOTHEISM IS A FORCE OF EVIL. Do not look at what it says ,look at what it does!

“He’s not the messiah ,he’s just a very naughty boy” Monty Python’s Life of Brian

FYI For more info on the above check out these books.

The Bible Fraud (2001

The Secret in the Bible ( 2 0 0 3 ;

T he Crucifixion of Truth (2005;

The Twin Deception (2007

Warning:  Language

It burns…. have you noticed that the friends of the master of the universe are always insane and mega stupid…
Bypass your intellect folks, then gawd will become obvious

Are you crazy enough to make it to the imaginary hevn, to the imaginary mass murderer in the sky… or will you go to imaginary hell, to the imaginary mass murderers right hand devil, Satan.
Check it

Yes I know you are asking yourself if hell is that bad.. consider being in hevn with Ray and Kirk for frigging ever… that’s hell right there.

Idiot D’Souza advertising his stupid book… it’s a well known fact that this is all brain chemistry, the brain goes into this mode … and that’s the end of it.
Those of you who buy his bs book are admitting you are fools, fools fooled by one of the biggest fools in the world..
Don’t give this fool and conman your money…. the fool and his money.

And favorably!

Shermer thought I had offered an amusing blog post retort to Jerry Coyne’s charge that he (Shermer) had gone soft on theism and now deserved the label “faitheist”. See Shermer’s Huffington Post piece here, and my blog post that Shermer quotes from here.

In the New York Times, Nicholas D. Kristof has a little piece in which he hopes that “more thoughtful” books, like The Evolution of God by Robert Wright and The Case For God by Karen Armstrong, and The Faith Instinct by Nicholas Wade herald a bit of a truce between the believers and the non-believers.

Well. Three words for Mr. Kristof: No Fucking Way.

Bunk is bunk. That you notice that the Christian religion has had most of its sharpest edges worn off over the centuries, becoming somewhat less cruel and barbaric, and that there are a few books pointing this out in no way indicates that the main tenets of Christianity or most any religion you care to name are anything short of barking mad.

Jesus is the son of God, the supreme creator of the Universe, he knows all, sees all, knows what you’re thinking, and you’ve got a disease called original sin, and unless you believe this story and surrender your heart to Jesus, then, well, Jesus has no choice but to send you to hell for “eternal punishment” (end of Matthew ch. 25) after you’re dead, but if you do believe this silly story, oh, then you get eternal bliss in “heaven.” Yeah, right. Are you fucking stupid? You think this is good stuff? You believe that shit? If so, you’re a fucking idiot. Learn a thing or two about how the brain works, and how it doesn’t work when it’s damaged. Learn some basic biology, chemistry, and physics. LEARN, MORONS. Your religion is VERY OBVIOUSLY IDIOTIC to anyone with half a brain. Five year olds have been able to figure this out. Why can’t you? Are you afraid? Are you scared that your “god” will smite you? Coward. You fucking coward. Fraidy cat coward. Grow a pair and learn to think.

Anyone who calls themselves a Christian is a total fucking idiot. Educate yourselves, you fucking morons.

Truce? No fucking way. Ditch your religion or admit to the crime of idiocy.

“crime of idocy” may seem a bit harsh, but what else is “faith,” but deliberately choosing to shut one’s eyes and accept whatever dogma is given as a “child” (as Jesus allegedly put it) or an “idiot” (as I put it.) Christians are all too happy to admit the crime of “faith,” but faith is just another word for idiocy, but without the excuse that it wasn’t deliberate nor the excuse that it couldn’t be helped. Faith is deliberate idiocy. If you view faith as a virtue, you’re a dupe, a moron, an idiot, a fool, and I pity your dumb ass.

The new atheists like to claim that religion is evil, that if we can only eliminate it from the public discourse, our most pressing sociological problems will infallibly evaporate.

Leaving aside the unreasonableness of the position for the time being, the atheist really has a massive problem with his position: there is no possible meaning that can adhere to concepts like right, wrong, good and evil within the assumptions of atheism.

At base, atheism is materialism. And in materialism, there is no self-consistent framework within which one can make value judgments; "good" and "evil" are nonsensical terms if the cosmos is all that there is or will ever be. Whatever happens happens; it is neither good nor evil – it just simply is.

When the dictator orders the destruction of an entire people group, that is not "evil;" it is simply evolution in action. In evolution, the only real purpose for anything is to pass on your genes to the next generation. The most efficient way to ensure that this happens is to eliminate all effective competition. To commit genocide is only evil from the perspective of the doomed people group. There is no God to whom the genocide will give account; if he escapes the justice of man, he escapes completely.

The atheist can point to no purpose, no possible meaning to and for anything. Yes, he can assign whatever subjective meaning to his life and actions that he wishes to, but what of it? Such "meaning" is, ultimately, meaningless. So what that the atheist believes his life has meaning, that he arbitrarily assigns purpose to his actions; the cold, materialist universe pays no mind, does not care. The universe does not care when the atheist suffers unjustly. What happens to him, at the end of the day, is random, meaningless, noise. No reason. Nothing. And when he dies, all that he is dies with him.

Sure, he can pass on his legacy – but what of it? Legacies are ephemeral things, most often ignored, sometimes squandered, at times openly repudiated. In sum, the atheist only has his weak, short, pain-filled life, and then eternal nothingness. One bare decade later, and almost assuredly he will be completely forgotten. Certainly in a millennium. Without controversy in one million years. All he was, all his accomplishments, forever, irrevocably lost. And ultimately, when the materialist universe ends in either fire or ice (depending on which theory of gravity carries the day), nothing – absolutely nothing will remain – not only of the atheist, but if anybody.

When the stars have all burned up their nuclear fuel and spin in the utterly dark, eternally cold depths of space, slowly losing all momentum; long after even the last of the behemoth black holes have completely evaporated away through Hawking radiation; when all matter has ceased to be on even a quantum level by the inexorable and ever-increasingly-accelerating expansion of space itself; for an eternity of eternities, all the atheist’s fears, hopes, accomplishments and those of every other living soul throughout all time will mean, forever and ever, absolutely nothing.

Within the atheist’s worldview, then, nothing can ultimately be good or bad – for the precise reason that nothing will mean, nothing can mean, anything.

When the child dies in agony that’s just life. When the rapist gets away Scott free, that’s just what happens.

There is no God; crap happens. Deal with it by ignoring it, or sink into irremediable despair.

To assign categories like right, wrong, good and evil to anything, he is forced to borrow intellectual capital from outside his worldview, since his has no self-consistent apparatus for dealing with such.

.           ~I don’t know about you, but that “Gospel Axe” has been swung way too many times!
.                                    ~Christian Crusaders?  Of what crusade?

.                            ~ “Jesus Use Me”?  How about a divine makeover?

.        ~Are these three men her brothers?  Didn’t this group do some music for the movie, “Deliverence”?

(images from Funny and Worst Record Album Covers)

. ~I waited for this album in the store, but I think they decided against it at the last minute.

I simply do not understand… how a thinking adult… one capable of understanding that socks go on before your shoes… can believe in a guiding force that plans and shapes the universe.  And then… to not only believe that… but to believe that this guiding force actually has a stake in what happens to us mortals.  So much of a stake, in fact, that this guiding force would think get angry with us for being imperfect… and feel the need to send down a standin who could save us.  Could this “god” have gone about this in a more complicated non-sensical way?  No… “he” couldn’t. 

Prints

Remember kids, frontal hugs are sinful. Only hug from the side from now on.

On a serious note this is the worst rap I have ever heard. These rough riders make Soulja Boy sound like a lyrical genius.

And what is with Christians and always making things go back to sex. If you think a hug is sexual you have some serious problems.

I’d rather go watch some Phelps family sing-alongs than watch these fake gangsters act all tough with their police sirens, gunshots and baggy clothes.

“Jesus never hugged nobody like that”

I beg to differ.

I consider myself a very open minded person. If someone is able to present me with enough evidence in favor of their position I will believe them, even if it means I must admit the position I previously held was wrong. I get the feeling very few people are actually willing to do this.

So what about god(s)? Well, yes, if you present to me enough evidence to prove that you’re particular god is true, and not just a fairy tale like you claim everybody else’s god to be, then I will believe you and convert. The problem is, no religion is able to do this. You see, for every “proof” put forth, there is a much simpler natural explanation. Occam’s razor.

The idea of an all powerful being that magically existed before everything and created everything out of nothing is infinitely less probable than all other natural explanations.

For example, the “Devil’s Bible” or Codex Gigas has a famous page with a drawing of the devil. The drawing stands out in that the pages upon which it is drawn are much  darker than all the other pages, almost like they were burnt.

Believers were convinced for ages that the mysterious darkness on this page was a sign of demonic possession, proof of the existence of the devil, and by extension, god.  It was only discovered recently, though scientific means, that the reason for the darkness on these 2 pages was no demonic possession, but excess exposure to UV rays, sunlight.

You see, the pages are made of animal skin, parchment, and parchment darkens naturally over time. UV rays speed up this process. People have always been fascinated with the drawing of the devil, and so they kept turning to those two pages more than others. Over time the extra UV light that those exposed pages were subjected to darkened them more than others. Simple and natural. No demons, no gods, nothing out of the ordinary.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

~ Arthur C. Clarke

Here is another problem. Say you tried to prove the existence of your particular god by some demonstration. It could be anything, lets say you manage to get your god to show their face to the entire world, say projected on the moon. This would truly be amazing and hard to explain. However, what is more likely: A) your god does exist some how, magically and outside the bounds of logic and everything else in the universe to show their face on the moon, or B) there is some technology at play that the rest of us are not privy to, but none the less has a natural explanation?

Obviously B. One of my favorite TV shows plays with this idea a lot. Stargate SG-1 in the show an evil race of aliens, the Goa’uld, use their advance technology level to trick less advanced civilizations into believing that they are gods, and should worship them as such.

The example of the projection of your god’s face on the moon is no different than any other parlor trick played by the Goa’uld. It’s infinitely more likely that there are unseen, but ultimately understandable, natural forces at work.

So in the end, it is possible that your god exists and all the others are fakes as you claim, but it is infinitely more probable that natural explanations exist, even if we do not know them at the moment, there is no reason that we will never know them.

I love Bryan Appleyard’s eloquent retorts to the blistering rhetoric coming out of New Atheistland. Here’s Appleyard today on PZ Myers’s scientism:

[M]ention intelligent design and the likes of Myers will be hurling abuse. But I gather from reading John Gribbin’s superb exposition In Search of the Multiverse that ID is, in fact, a perfectly respectable hypothesis among some physicists – the designer would not be a deity but a more technically advanced civilisation. So the world is ‘designed’ then? ‘No!‘ howls Myers; ‘Maybe,’ murmur the physicists. But there’s a bigger reason than that. Treating science as an ideology, an occasion for polemic and abuse, and anathematising those who dissent is profoundly unscientific. It is an attitude that will, in the end, damage not just science itself but science as a public institution. Science is, as Thomas Nagel put it, a ‘view from nowhere‘, it is a method, not a posture towards the world. It assumes – and, indeed, attains – the possibility of a superhuman perspective. As such, it is a profoundly admirable and magnificent achievement of the human intellect. But it is only one such achievement. When science aspires to be anything else – ideology, for example – it is prone to delusion, fantasy and intolerance. That is where we now are, a dangerous place where people set up web sites that abandon mere explanation and promote science as an ideology, as, in effect, an opinion held with such ferocity that all dissent must be crushed. This phase, I hope, will pass. But I am beginning to have my doubts.