Yet Another Story

Yet Another (Younger) Story

Others tell yet a different story:
With a primal bang
the cosmos (or chaos or
a mix of both) was born.

It’s all physical energy in
thicker or thinner forms.
It’s dynamic and mechanical,
a collection of it-objects that
function according to
codifiable laws (or randomness).

Life, consciousness,
emotions, and rationality
are chemical reactions.

We humans are living,
conscious, emotional,
and rational beings
dwelling on a tiny, planet-speck
at the edge of the Milky Way,
one galaxy among hundreds
of billions.

Our rationality makes us
superior to all others
on this planet, the crown,
the most advanced,
of the evolutionary line.

With our rational, scientific method,
we discover and learn about
our species and other
it-objects and their laws.

There is no reason to believe
there is a limit to what we
can discover and learn.

We use what we learn
to dominate and manipulate
at will all other it-objects,

We dominate and manipulate
all others according to
our own needs and desires.

Not yet do we know why
there is anything rather
than nothing. Things are
because they happen.

Not yet have we learned
the origin of life. We just
know it keeps happening.

If there is a purpose to
our life and others, we
do not know what
it is. We just know some
are alive, others aren’t,
and we are free to live
as we choose.

So, some believe.

Three Stories, Part Four of Four

The Story I Believe

I believe a different story:
A story in which
you can trust what you
see, hear, smell,
taste, and touch.

You can trust
your own mind and judgment,
your own instincts and feelings,
and the knowledge of your heart.

Life is real in
the story I believe.
This world is real.
Time is real. Change is real.
Separation is real. So is death.
Oneness is real too.

In this story,
your mother conceives
and gives you spirit and
life in her womb when
she takes your father’s seed
into her egg.

In her womb, your mother
forms, feeds, and protects
you until she labors with
pain, fluid, and blood
to birth you.

You take your first breath,
feed and drink,
pee and poop,
cry and coo,
sleep and play,
and learn your
way to adolescence.

The day comes when
you first bleed or spew.
No longer a child, but
still dependent, you
withdraw from those
who raised you and
draw near to your peers.

In the chrysalis of
adolescence you transform.
You labor your way out
and emerge a young adult
with vision and purpose.
Like a young butterfly,
your weak wings strengthen
as you struggle to fly.

And fly you do: away from
home, working, learning,
playing, fucking, exploring,
and making your way
toward your maturity
and your vision too.

You mate and
nurture, protect,
and raise your children
the best you can.
Perhaps you know and
love your grandchildren
and great grandchildren too.

As you age, you decline;
bearing many memories and stories.
More aches and pains.
Less seeing, hearing,
smelling, and tasting.
Less playing. Less fucking.
More resting. Less sleeping.
Shrinking in stature and memory.

As in adolescence, you
withdraw. This time into
the chrysalis of old age.
There you exhale your
last breath, die, and
transform again.

Your spirit disperses
into the wind.
Your body decays
into the earth.
Your soul remains,
your presence felt,
your image seen in
the mind-eyes of those
with whom you are
forever bound by love.

However short or long
you live, you are
by love
forever bound.

Three Stories, Part Three of Four

Why I Do Not Believe These Stories

I do not believe the

stories above or others

like them are true.

They are fictional tales.

Neither is self-evident.

Neither can we verify them

independently of those

who tell the stories.

We can only accept them by

blind faith in those,

who tell the stories.

They require us to

trust what they say,

not what we ourselves

see, hear, smell,

taste, and touch.

They require us to

trust the judgments

of their minds

rather than our own;

and what they feel and

know in their hearts,

rather than what

we feel and know in

our own hearts.

They require us to

exchange our freedom

for dependence on them,

the stories they tell,

the words they declare,

and the promises

they make:

We too can know

the truth they know,

if we believe them.

Three Stories, Part Two of Four

Another Ancient Tale


Others tell a different story.
As in the story above,
we are not what
we appear to be.
Neither is the world.

Regardless of appearances,
God created and rules everything.
In the beginning, God
spoke everything into being:
Light; day and night;
sky, earth, and seas;
plants yielding fruit and seeds;
sun, moon, and stars;
fish and birds;
land animals and humans.

God saw what he made.
It was good.
It was Paradise.

God made us humans
with his own hands.
God formed us into his
own image and likeness.

He breathed into us
his own life-breath.
We are the crown
of his creation.

We lived in peace, happiness,
and love with God, each other, and
everything else God created.

God gave us dominion
over and commanded us
to subdue all.

But the serpent seduced
our mother, Eve,
and through her
our father, Adam.
They disobeyed God.

They ate the forbidden
fruit of knowledge
of good and evil.

God’s judgement was swift:
Guilty.
His punishment full:
Loss of innocence;
exile from Paradise;
alienation from God,
each other, and all
of God’s creation.

Banishment to a life of
labor, pain and suffering;
punishment for sin;
blessing for obedience;
prayers in darkness and
despair for light and hope;
songs of thanksgiving
for help received;
all ending with death.

Our fallen condition is
so severe, they tell us,
we can do nothing
to save ourselves.
Everything is lost.
God is our soul hope.
 
There is, however, good news:
God loves us so much
that he sent his only son
into this fallen, dark world
to serve as our scapegoat
and sacrificial lamb.

His name is Jesus.
God put his judgment
of guilt and penalty of
death and eternal
punishment on him.

God had his son betrayed,
beaten, crowned with thorns,
and nailed to a cross
until he died.

God is so loving,
gracious, and merciful.
He counts his son’s
cruel punishment and death
as our own.

God raised Jesus
from the dead and
back up into heaven.

From there he will come again,
like a thief in the night.
He will gather his faithful
back into Paradise
and banish all others
to eternal damnation.
Now the way is clear
for us to return
to our true home.
 
 
Jesus is the way
back to Paradise:
Reconciled with God,
each other, and all creation.

Believe the good news
of what God did in Jesus.
Glorify his suffering,
blood, cross,
death, and tomb.

God satisfied his wrath
against our disobedience
by the gruesome crucifixion
and glorious resurrection
of his son, Jesus.

Now you are forgiven and
saved from God’s eternal wrath.
Belief this good news.
Give thanks to and obey God.
His son is coming again soon.

Repent. Confess your sin.
Renounce this fallen world
of sin, suffering, and death.

Be baptized into Jesus and
filled with his Spirit.
Feed on his body and blood.
Be members of his body.

Leave your blood-kin
for your faith-kin
Go into all the world
and proclaim the good news.

Prepare for his return.
Live now as you will in heaven.
Do what Jesus would do: 
Rejoice!

Pray to and praise God.
Love God and one another.
Love your enemies too.

Trust God to provide for you
like he does the birds.
Work not for money
but treasure in heaven.

Fast. Stay awake,
watching for Jesus’ return.
Give away your goods.
You’ll have none in heaven.

Be single and celibate.
You won’t marry or
bear children in heaven.

But marry, if you must.
It’s better to marry
than burn.

Prepare for the Lord’s return
and the day he judges if you
are fit for eternal life
in his heavenly kingdom.

You and all the faithful
who die before Jesus’ return,
are safe in him.

When he comes again,
he will raise you up.
You will come with him
in his glory to judge the
living and the dead.

He will damn the unfaithful
and gather his faithful
back into Paradise forever.
He will end sin, death, and the devil.

Those who believe
this story of good news,
will be blessed and live.
Those who do not,
will be damned.

Many believe this, or a similar story.

In Part Three, I tell why I do not believe this or the first story...

Three Stories, Part One of Four

NOTE: This is Part One of a four-part series that presents, two stories many believe, my reasons for not believing them, and the story I believe. This first story is one of the oldest...

Some tell this story:
We’re not what we appear to be.
Our appearance is an illusion.
So is everything else.

This world is a dream.
Change is an illusion.
So is time.
There is no past.
There is no future.
Everything is now.

Separation is an illusion.
No this, no that.
This is that is this.
All One.

The One is divine.
This is God.
That is God.
We are God.
God is all there is.

Everything is Creator.
Everything is Sustainer.
Destroyer is everything too.
God, the Eternal Now,
is all that is.

The purpose of life:
Transcend your ego.
Transcend the illusion.
Withdraw.
Turn inward.
Escape reincarnation.

Find God. Know God.
As a drop of water
merges into the ocean,
merge into God.
Be God.

Many believe this story,
or a similar one.


Part Two of this four-part series tells a story others tell.