Trying to set up a new website.

For this blog.

I wanted a place to put everything I had written in some order but protect what I write as well.

It is a work in progress and hoping in will be done soon. 

once it is set up, hopefully this blog will take you to my new website.

Once that is done than can add all I have written on to it.

God? Good Parenting?

Well I think I cut this down enough.  It was way to long, like a small book!

Really once I start, sometimes I just can not stop. LOL

Today's topic is God, a good parent?  As I have said I have a problem with believing in a God.  I do believe we may have had a Creator, but not the one that created the universe, or existence of life, planets and the stars etc.

Now many believe that everything that exists was created by God, including us.  Now normally that would sound like a good thing but because of this belief people do unspeakable things to their fellow humans in the name of their God, including killing other humans.

Since we were little, we have been taught to honor our father and mother, even one of the 10 Commandments says this.  Just as we been taught to respect and listen to our parents, we have been taught (whether you believe in God or not) that we are God's Children.

This believe is very strong in Christian religions.  The problem is that it does not follow the basic rules of parent and child.  Parents one hope is that their children will grow to be happy, productive and useful adults. That they will surpass their parents and achieve more than they have.  Be able to think for themselves, make the right decisions and choices so that they will have happy lives, have their own children, and prosper.

Now you would think that is what religion would also strive for, that God would want all these things for his (or her) children.  But almost all religions bring us to a point where, at some time, God will come and save us.  That no matter what, we will destroy ourselves.  That we are incapable of doing the right thing and make the right choices.  When that time comes, only a select few will be granted eternal happiness.  If you are a good child of God than you may live on in "heaven" and if not die forever or spend eternity in "Hell".  That is bad parenting. Defeating actually, that means once judged bad, you will never see heaven.  How many people on their death bed, claim to accept God just because of the fear that they will end up in Hell?  Even those who never believed in God have done this.  Does that mean that you can do whatever you want and at the last minute be granted heaven?  Why bother being good at all?  It does not make sense.

This believe is our down fall.  It is saying that no matter what, we will never succeed.  Now if we saw a parent telling a child they cannot achieve what they dream, we consider them to be bad parents.  Well what does that say about God?

The life we have is precious.  We may never know why we are here but it does make sense that we should live for what we have now and not what we may get in the afterlife (death).  We should treat our lives like this is all there is.  We should spend our energy on making this the best world that it could possibly be.  Our goal should be to make a place for our children to grow and be happy.

Some religions believe that medicine is bad, others believe that blood transfusions are against God's teachings and yet others believe that modern technology is against God's wishes.  There is at least one that believes that getting involved in human politics and law is against God because it does not matter what you support because it is already set on what will happen.  These are all defeating to life.  We are capable of making this world into a paradise.  If we stopped fighting and treating others like they are not worthy of being here, we could concentrate on other things like medicine that could help cure and prolong our lives.  If we were not focused on money and material things, than we could concentrate on inventions that could save us from destroying the planet and her life forms (animals, plants etc).  If we cared about life itself, we could feed the world.  We could explore other planets, maybe even colonize so that there would be room for all.  Who knows maybe eventually meeting other life forms, and learning even more about life!

Parents want the children to grow and learn, to be better then themselves.  To be people that they can be proud of.  And I really do not mean money (although there are those who think money is happiness).  I mean happy, content, healthy, someone who enjoys life to the fullest.  Some one who cares for others, not to cause harm.  To do what you love and help others and the planet. Is that what you would want for your children?  Happiness, health and contentment?

You would not want your children to grow up thinking, no matter what you do, you can never achieve your goals, that you can not, by yourself, have a happy life.  To me that is what religion says:  When the end of days come, you will suffer and be test and judged, and if you are lucky maybe you will get a spot in heaven.
The sad part is, you hear all your life that you will meet your loved ones when this life is over.  What happens if you don't pass the tests?  Or they don't?

You should cherish those around you, treat them with respect, do no belittle or harm them.  By right you should treat all life, people that way.  Every person alive should have someone to care and love them (even is they don't think so, there is someone somewhere who cares for you).  We should care what happens to everyone.

There are those out there who don't believe that all humans are equal.  We need to teach our young that people, of all races should be cherished.  That violence, murder and slavery are wrong.  You should not kill or enslave because your "God" says that they are not worthy.

I know today, that it is hard to cherish all life when there are so many who only can think of doing harm.  We may even believe that death is a good punishment, and maybe it is, that is not for me to decide.  But there are ways to deal with these people without killing them.  If they want a world that believes as they do, than give them one.  Give them an island, cut it off from the rest of the world with no contact for say 100 years, and let them live as they wish.  According to them, the killing would stop because those on the island believe same thing.  That means they should flourish, if they are wrong than they will either kill themselves or learn tolerance and maybe understand what the rest of the world has been trying to tell them, Love Life!  Cherish each other, work together, stop fighting and stop trying to be better or have more than everyone else.

If we work together, we could have cures for diseases, technology to fix physical impairments, cars or transportation that is not killing us slowly with pollution.  We could have manageable power sources that will not damage us or the planet.  If stop buying land and building homes to try and out do other people, we would not have to kill the beautiful wildlife on our planet, and every person, child would have a home.  If we concentrated on letting people do what they love and not worry about making money, our world would transform it self.  Artists and musicians would be free to create, inventors- invent, writers-write, doctors-heal, researchers could try and find cures that they couldn't work on before because companies would not make a "fortune" so had no interest in putting time and money into it.  I could go on forever with this but I do believe you get my point.

Now from what I have learned from religion, all these things mean nothing, saving the planet and it precious life, curing the sick, travelling the stars are all irrelevant.  The end of days will come and stop this.  God will than chose who can survive than give them a new planet.  Why?  What have they learned?  Nothing.

They will than destroy it all over again.  They did not learn anything, their God stepped in and decided to give a few a new chance.  Their God may even give them the knowledge how to live as one people, but without learning and living this way on their own, what good will it do?  And why bother living at all?  Doesn't sound like you would have a choice in anything.  You would always be fearing if your God would step in and decide that yet again the human race is not worthy.  Maybe the next time He (or She) will decide that it would be better to just kill the humans and try a new being.  If you believe in Christianity (and a few others) than that means that you believe that God has already stepped in 3 times to give "us" a chance.  First Eden, Second The Flood, and Third Jesus.  

I believe that we had a Creator, some being that maybe seeded this planet or universe, they may have come back to try and guide us, or our evolution, but mostly I believe they probably wanted to see if they could create life.  To prove that it could be done.  Maybe to prove that life is above all.  Maybe to prove that human beings  will chose life and eventually learn that to survive and flourish we must work together.  I believe that this Creator would love to see us flourish, and grow.  I believe that is what they wanted.  Not that we would give up or not try and make our life better in the hope that one day "God" will rescue us, and that we really do not have to try and make our life better.

We must achieve what is possible, create what we want, a beautiful life and planet.

Our beliefs that there is one God and that he created us in his image, to keep him company or whatever, after he created "angels" is to much for me, it just does not ring true. (Also a little disturbing to believe that one of these "angels" was flawed by jealousy-a whole different topic for another day)  This believe will be our undoing.  To survive we must believe first in ourselves and in the life we have now.  We must concentrate on what we can create for ourselves here and now.  We should not be looking forward to death to get what we want and deserve:  a paradise.  We must create what we want, a life of peace, freedom and a paradise, on this beautiful living planet.  Maybe even find/create more paradises on other planets.

To me, sadly to say, the children of God, do not have much hope, to believe as they do, they take away choice, that no matter what, in the end, God will provide what they want, that they really do not have to try now, since God has already said it will not succeed.  Doesn't sound like good parenting to me.  

Sorry it is so long.  You have seen it before LOL!

Well I hope I gave you something to think about!  Remember, we can chose to make the planet a paradise!

Alice

 

Religious Writings, My Thoughts.

Hello again!

Did you ever do an experiment in school, can not remember what it is called, but it involves a group of people, you tell one person a sentence or two, and than that person passes it on to another, until it has been told to every person, than the last person tells the whole group what they heard.  It is never exactly the same as what was told to the first person.

That is one of main problems I have with religion.  Sure most have good intentions, but their "Bible" has been passed down for centuries.  They have been edited, translated, altered for the current time.  One word changed, can make a difference in a sentence.  Names spelled differently.  I bet the original authors would shudder to see how their work has been transformed.

What I really do not get is how different religions can use the same Bible, but not believe in the same thing.

 It is because one person reads something, than another reads it and says it means something else.  It doesn't help that what they are reading has been translated so many times, one mistake in the first translation, a different one in the next because the first mistake was taken at face value etc etc etc.

People claim that the Bible has not changed but that is not true.  We all know that.  How many people alive today can read the original written words of the Bible?  Without mistakes?  Without doubt?  I would say none.  Even the books that teach you to read the language have mistakes.  Plus the way we look at life, differs from how the original author looks at life.

Every thing in their lives was different from ours.  How and when we slept, worked and even played.  They did not have phones, TV, radio, newspapers or even books (when the could afford a "book" chances are most could not even read).  Most did not go to school or college.  They were educated through their family and village.  Those who did have education, would feel very inferior to our system.  (Although I bet they could teach us a lot about their remedies for everyday illness and aches & pains).

Even their illnesses where different.  Cancer was probably rare, and chances are most died before they where old enough to feel the effects of it.  We have many diseases today that where not even around than!

What I am getting at is that even if we could fluently speak the original languages of the Bible, we would not have the frame of mind (thought process) of the authors.

Every religion seems to have branches, why?  Because they disagreed with a change or even requested a change and it was denied.  So their religion changed for human reasons.

Some of the "books" in the bible were stories, passed down or given by divine direction.  Maybe in their time these "books" were not allowed to be viewed but stored for safe keeping.  Hundreds of years later these "books" are found and people claim that they must be the truth or someone would have spoken up and said they were not.  Really?  How could they speak up if they were never seen?

I read a story (well actually a few) that had a very good point.  Years ago, when there was emperors, kings and pharaohs, they had complete control over their subjects.  They could change and alter things to anything they wanted, even destroying the originals, so that future generations would take the altered writings at face value or on faith.  Rulers than were treated like gods and were never denied (openly anyways), after all, they were all powerful.  They also would have had control over the books (scrolls etc) and could do what ever they wanted with them, including destroying them.

That is why I have trouble with bibles and religious writings.  

What happened to love thy neighbor? Honor thy Mother and Father?  Do not covet or do not steal?
Do not kill?  Just to name a few.  These are basic in many religions, but everyday you hear terrible stories of pain and death.  Did changing these religions change the basic rules of life?

Many young people, people in general, do not care for others, only themselves and what they can get or control.  Even some children do things that are cruel and demeaning.  They have no respect for others, not even their own family.  How many old people have children who live close but they never see them?  Yet these children do not think twice to take from the parent(s) without considering that they are putting a hardship on their parent(s)

Many of these people claim to be religious.  I just do not see it.  Say one thing, do another.

Than they do not understand why some people turn away from religion.

To me I believe the Creator wanted us to learn and grow.  To love and live a wonderful, fulfilling life.
Somewhere along the way, we got lost.  Instead of dreaming of a paradise when we die, why can't we create one here?  Instead of hatred and war, why can't we spend our time and energy on fixing the damage to the planet and finding cures for the illnesses killing us?  Instead of violence and prejudice, we have a world where all are equal and safe to walk down their street or learn to read.

Something to think about.
So remember to cherish Life!
It could be all we have, we can make this world a paradise!

Alice M