The Passage of Time

I had originally set out to sit down here and pound out a well thought out piece about one of many different topics that I have thought about over the last several weeks; but quite honestly I am now just waking up and my thoughts are not all together clear right now. Plus, so many blogs just kind of die after a certain amount of time because of either time constraints or lack of zeal. My issue would have to be that of time constraints because, after all, the notion of a zealous Deist seems kind of silly to me.

Anyways, this is where I am now; and these are some of the random thoughts that go through my head about God, religion, Christianity, philosophy, etc.-

If the core beliefs or even the perceptions/understanding of the core beliefs of a religion change over time, I believe that it is then very nearly impossible to recover back to the original intent of the religion as it now bears the mark of and added presupposition. For example; a house once has white walls. The white walls serve as a reference point for decoration. The standard is represented in as perfect of form as possible, so anything that is purchased that is white is ultimately compared back to the walls. Then over time the house is sold and someone else who moves in takes care of the over all quality of the house...it is not a mess, but they have smoked there in the house for so many years without proper ventillation that the walls have then changed to a dingy cream colour. Soon, I imagine, they then actually believe that the walls are cream and then they will decorate the rest of the house accordingly.

The concrete reality in this parable is that for the most part, paint today can be purchased in "pure" white, so there is a standard that can be returned to the house after a coat of primer and a few coats of the real white to return it back to its former state...but this is an issue of colour.

The abstract reality has a few characteristics that make this a more complicated issue-
a) paint can now be purchased in many different shades of "white." Just looking around here in my house, I purchased a semi-gloss "white" paint for the trim around my windows. The bucket just said "White." I then also purchased new "white" vinyl blinds to go up in the window; the package just said "White." But when I look at both of them side by side the blinds appear to be a very very light shade of grey.
b) there is now an apparent option to be able to choose the kind of white that one wants. For example, we painted my daughter's bedroom "Cotton White" several years ago. Some friends of ours painted their living room/dining room and kitchen a "kitten white."
c) since the ability to discern what exactly "pure white" is has been tainted by various things such as colour blindness, human standards, or even availabilty...it is not quite as easy to just decide that one is going to "return" to pure white.

I would venture to say that no religion today is capable of being presented in its pure and original form. Too many variances have crept in and "mutated" the base DNA of their beginnings. When I say no religion that is pretty much what I mean- Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism...none of these exist now in their original form and they will never be recovered to that state. Many would argue today that the "core beliefs" that I mention above has not changed for any of these, but rather it has just been the outworkings or the expressions of these core beliefs; but I do not agree with that. I hold that the only reason that I can see for the change of expression is that something has changed at the core.

Assuming that all of the stories about the religious leaders are true, how did they manage themselves as they went through life?

• Abraham's claim was that God had visited him and told him that he was going to be the father of many nations. At least his story is honest enough to record his doubt and trials and tribulations over the deal.
• Jesus is supposedly God as a man and yet he is born to a woman. The story never touches on whether or not there was a development within him as to this revelation. The story never mentions whether or not he always "knew" that he was God, or whether he just slowly "realized" it as he got older. And how does one go about just "realizing" gradually that hey, I am God...?
• Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, knew fully that he was drastically changing the face of Hinduism when he introduced his new path to enlightenment that dumped a bunch of baggage off the old. He never claimed to be a god, but he sure changed a very large portion of what the world believed.

To what level did any of these guys ask themselves the questions about what if they were wrong? Or were they just that confident that it didn't really matter if they were ultimately right or whether it was good enough to just be convinced in their minds.

The last topic that I will touch on is the ultimate inability of governments to keep religion out of lawmaking.

In the Middle-East the whole government is controlled by those with religious authority. How they interpret their religion ultimately controls their legislation.

In Europe they have more of a humanistic or atheistic belief system that tries to push religious issues out of the question.

Here in America we have the "moral majority" who at least claim to be religious and base all of their decision making on a Judeo-Christian ethic. They then believe that since they are a majority that it then means that they are entitled to be able to have the monopoly, or at least majority control, over the political process; and according to our constitution they are both right and wrong...but then there is the other group that is comprise of who I will call the "unholy minority" who seek to keep God and religion out of the public square so that church and state can truly be separated. Although there are far fewer of them than the majority they seem to really be able to control things. So we are either pushing for or against God with our law making.

As a side note- I know that the Constitution makes it very clear that a presidential candidate is not to be chosen or denied because of the basis of their religious faith or lack thereof...but quite honestly....would you normally seek advice from someone who believed that there was such thing as a special kind of "magic" underwear that will keep you safe from danger? Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and some Mormons really believe that. If they guy has that kind of religious logic, how is that going to affect the way he governs?

George Bush and many of the others in his cabinet and congress truly believe that Israel is God's chosen people. When it comes to foreign policy don't you think that might have something to do with decision making? And the Constitution gravely warns against us getting entangled in the affairs of other countries and fighting on their behalf...and yet so much of our foreign policy is centered around making sure that we keep Israel safe....and all of that stems from a form of theology that is a deviation from the message that Jesus taught.

I don't have time to go into the details of all of this now. I am now awake and need to get on with the day. I'll try to check back in later.