August 15, 2012

  • Palestine/Israel

    P  A  L  E  S  T  I  N  E  /  I   S   R   A   E   L

    1.Mankind has always been conflicted about his God. From the earliest days of recorded history, man has been speaking to, crying out for, and praying to an unseen God. There are fruits of God's labors. The entire universe exists because of Him. In whatever form God exists, man has been wondering, and he never failed to create intermediaries and idols, with whom he thought he could finally "converse" with his deity.
    2.Three times God has chosen prophets to carry his word to mankind. These prophets actually "received" the "Word of God", and taught that Word to their legions of followers. The first of these, Moses, was a Jew. He led the "Chosen People" to their "Promised Land" from slavery in Egypt. Jerusalem, in what is now called "Israel", is the most sacred place for the race of people known as the Jews. Following Moses' death, the stories he told, and the history he carried, was written by the scribes of the Jewish faith, and are now collected into what is called the Old Testament of the Bible.
    3.The second great prophet, to whom God actually spoke, was Yeshua, called Jesus Christ, who grew up in Nazareth, and after being given the Word of God, taught throughout Jerusalem and the Middle East. The Jewish Faith had predicted a Messiah, and the apostles and followers of Jesus began to proclaim that he was indeed this Messiah. Jesus' teachings were not held in great favor by a lot of the Jewish leaders, and his "sect" of Judaism eventually became Christianity. During his life, he was known as a healer and great religious teacher. After his crucifixion by the Romans, the small sect of "Christians" he founded deified him. Through subsequent centuries, his Word, the Word of God, translated usually in the color red in the Gospels of the New Testament of the Bible, was written down, modified, stolen, hidden, and translated into many languages. The sect of Christianity grew exponentially during the final days of the Roman Empire, and when the great Empire fell, the multitude of Roman Gods had already been replaced by the "One True God", the God of Abraham and Moses, whose "Son" was said to be Jesus.
    4. Christianity and Judaism both worship God. Judaism branched into many different and differing sects, and so did Christianity. When the Christian religion began to spread across the known world, and most of the peoples of the Western World began to be converted to it's faith, the Jews became a minority religion, but the "old ways" and the original Word of God as spoken to Moses was preserved in the Holy Book of the Jews, The Torah.
    5.Centuries passed. While the Christian world suffered during the Dark Ages, when Christian leaders subjugated most of the citizens, and grew rich, a camel trader in the city of Mecca, in what is now known as Saudi Arabia, spent a lot of his free time in the hills and caves above his desert city. This unassuming illiterate arab, Muhammad, was visited by the Angel Gabriel during one of his retreats. Here he was given the Word of God. He was the third human prophet to be visited and spoken to by God himself. The Meccans had numerous religious deities and intermediaries, in the form of idols. Mecca was a stronghold of Middle Eastern religious faith. God revealed himself to Muhammad, through a series of "Revelations". At first the poor camel trader, who was married and led a good life, tried to ignore these revelations, which included warnings and prophecies also revealed to Moses and Jesus. It was almost as if God was repeating himself again because both the original Jewish scrolls, the Old Testament, and the later Christian Gospels, the New Testament, had by the late 6th century, been translated and changed so much to suit the leaders of society, that the original Word of God had been changed.
    6. Muhammad began to teach the Word of God to a select group of acolytes, called Muslims, in the city of Mecca. The Qur'an (Koran) is the book of collected verses or recitations that God gave to Muhammed. At first, these verses were memorized and recited. The Muslims were given the living Word of God throughout the 22 years of the Prophet's teachings. The religious leaders of Mecca, which became a great world city, fueled by donations and offerings to the many Middle Eastern Gods and intermediaries, didn't want Muhammad stirring up their good situation, so Muhammad and his followers were forced to leave the city. They settled in Medina, north of Mecca, and God kept speaking to Muhammad, and he kept reciting more and more verses to his followers. Some of these messages were a bit violent. God essentially told Muhammad to take up arms and take back Mecca. Like Jesus, when he threw the moneylenders from the Temple of Israel, Muhammad returned to Mecca and destroyed the idols, eventually convincing the Meccans, through will and military force, to accept the Muslim faith, in which the various idols were replaced by Allah, or the "One True God."
    7 Muhammad died at the age of 62 in 632. The Muslim leaders, called Caliphs, set about to write down the Word of God as given to Muhammad, which has been memorized by the followers. The complete work is now known as the Qur'an. It is the holiest of holy books. The original text was checked with the Caliphs who still had the memorizations in their heads. When the complete text was finished, all earlier texts were destroyed. The Qur'an of today is the same Qu'ran of the early Muslims. The Word is unsullied and pure. Unlike the Jewish or Christian texts, the Qur'an has not been altered throughout history.
    8. The Islamic faith spread even faster than Christianity before it. Before long, the Islamic empire spread as far away as Spain. Warring and disparate tribes of Arabian bedouins were united through Islam, and a great flowering of knowledge and understanding embraced the Islamic world. The Christians leaders still held most of the Christian world in slavery. If they got out of line, they were going straight to Hell. The Muslim leaders spread not only the Word of God, but also a cultural and societal revolution.
    9. The Bible is a somewhat chronological history of the early world. The Qur'an is a series of verses, almost like a long poem. Like the Bible, a lot of the Qur'an is disputed in it's interpretation. Unlike the Christian or Jewish faiths, there are no churches or preachers in Islam. The Muslim responds to what he sees in his Holy Book personally. Because of this, and because of the fact that passages, like the lesser Jihad, have been re-interpreted to satisfy the whims of differing Islamic tribes, means that believers with opposing viewpoints can find reasons for their actions in the same passages.
    10. This has caused a lot of problems amongst the Islamic tribes throughout the ensuing years.
    11. In the second Millennium, the Jews became pariahs. Christians ruled most of the Western World, and the Christians split into many groups, after the original Protestants broke away from Catholicism. Jews didn't have a "home". Israel, their Holy "Promised Land" into which they were led by Moses, became the highly contested site of Holies between the Muslims and the Christians, causing a series of Crusades between the two faiths, and causing the city of Jerusalem to be occupied first by one faith, and then by the other. Jews contented themselves with waiting for the "True Messiah", not believing, as the Christians and Muslims did, that he had already arrived quite a few years ago.
    12. Jews became wanderers, and spread throughout the globe. In 1939 the German Nazis began to exterminate them in the "Final Solution" process now known as the Holocaust, believing that they were unhuman and unfit to live in Europe. American Jews had learned to adapt to capitalism quite nicely, and a lot of Nazis believed that Jews essentially governed the United States. They were in charge of the movie business and most of the banks.
    13. After World War II, the face of Europe was remapped, and the state of Israel was established around the Holy city of Jerusalem. The creation of Israel plowed over the lands of Islamic peoples who already lived there, known as the Palestinians. "Peacekeepers" intended to insure that the State of Israel didn't disappear. Since the area was still hotly contested, and was still the Holiest of Holy cities for all three of the world's great religions, there was no easy way that the creation of Israel was going to be ignored by the Palestinians who became essentially second class citizens, or were told to "get out of town".
    14. In order to "insure" a peace, Israelis are required by law to join the military. Every Israeli is a soldier, or has been a soldier. Martial law has existed in Israel for most of it's existence. It has also been fighting wars for most of it's existence. After the war with Eqypt in 1967, called the "Six Day War", the State of Israel gained the Gaza Strip and parts of Syria and Lebanon. The fighting never stopped, really, especially in these contested areas. Israel gave up some of it's annexed lands following various peace missions and accords, some of which were brokered by Democratic American Presidents like Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
    15. The Islamic sects kept re-interpreting their Holy Book, which, like the Bible, predicts and End of Days, and a Final Holocaust, in which the righteous will ascend to Heaven, and the unrighteous will suffer the pains of Hell. The Qur'an describes some rather disgusting and detailed scenarios for the people who are going to be stuck in Hell.
    16. As long as the world has existed, mankind has been trying to communicate with God.
    17. God has communicated with three prophets. Essentially, all of mankind believes in the same God. He has been called Jehovah and Allah. The Christians believe that Jesus, the second of the great Prophets,  is the "Son of God". God has spoken the same "Word" to each of these prophets. This "Word" has been misread by billions of people throughout history.
    18. How can the same "Word" be misinterpreted so badly? How can the Jews, Christians, and Muslims agree that they have all been given their "Word" by the same God, yet they cannot agree on anything else, and continue to fight for contested lands? These questions obviously have never been answered, nor can they be answered such that the fighting and bickering of societies and religions will stop. The Muslims have no Pope to give the "Last Word", so the individual Muslim, who is very devout, prays five times a day no matter where he is, and can "recite" the Qur'an as originally stipulated by God himself to the Prophet Muhammad, has to interpret the somtimes conflicting "Word of God" himself.
    19. The Christians have churches and leaders. But there are so many of them, that the interpretation of the Gospels is always suspect by another sect of the religion.
    20. Once the world had many competing Gods, Goddesses, and idols, meant as intermediaries between God and Man.
    21.God himself spoke to three Prophets, enabling a belief in not multiple deities, but in the "One True God".
    22.Then Man took the Word of God and changed it to suit his whim. Even after Muhammad supposedly received the "Last Word" from which the Qur'an was written, each individual Muslim has interpreted the Word in his own way. And these ways have caused a lot of strife thoughout the Middle East and the World.
    23.It is time perhaps for God to speak again, and to set the record straight. It is time for the "Last Word" to become the Universal Word, and for man to stop his petty squabbles which become world wars killing legions of humankind. The "Word" is righteous and good. What man makes of that Word is ill begotten and terrible.
    24. Let us pray.


     

    NOTES: I found this in my txt files on my work computer this morning. I don't remember ever having posted it online. It was written Aug. 3, 2006, a full six years ago. This was written originally in part because of disturbing news at the time concerning rocket strikes by Hezbollah on Israel. I present this as part of my ongoing attempt to catalog and present all my writing online. Oftentimes I prepare posts in the early mornings at work, and sometimes have to put the pieces down, as it were, when I have to begin work in earnest. For those who don't know, and haven't read my spriitural or historical essays concerning theology,  I'm a pantheist. I believe in what I have been calling "The Universal Mind" since the early 1970s.  I was granted spiritual epiphanies long ago (perhaps given by God Himself, as I believe). They have informed my understanding and soothed my soul. I continue to wonder why three great religions fight amongst themselves, and why seemingly reasonable people who do and do not possess faith cannot come to some kind of terms. This essay only deals with the three major religions which make up modern montheism. I have also studied many Eastern religions. All are founded upon basic principles which include tolerance and love. Yet so many people have perished fighting for their own interpretations of what they believe. We all gain the "final realization" when we exit this plane of existence here on earth, and then all will gain the understanding which has ceased to exist during their corporeal lifetimes.  MFN/ppf

    An instant is an eon.
    A leaf is a tree.
    A rock is a world.
    A mind is all minds.
    Forever.
    Through history.
    Through space.
    Through time.
    Forever.
    Now.

    The Universal Blog
    The Universal Blog on Xanga

    Posted:   August 14, 2012 7:16 AM

Comments (47)

  • Hi Mike, Wow, this is a very interesting post. 

  • How fascinating! Man has been trying to communicate with God through all of the ages, I am envious of your epiphanies! I just finished a book about Indian yogis so I am going to study them for awhile, too. 

  • Thanks for posting this =)

  •  I like your morphie thingie. You'd make a great Terminator !

  • Since the capital of Palestine is ROME because

    Palestine didn't exist

    before the Roman Empire destroyed the Second Temple...i didn't read all this stuff you have up there, especially since you like using 1 point fonts

  • Sweet angel baby, you left out a few prophets.... That's okay. My only problem with the Muslim religion is this lil thing called Sharia Law.... it's happening, and it's no bed of roses. One example: http://therionorteline.com/2012/08/14/the-religion-of-peace/

    That's the problem when you mix the two; (govt. and religion) they seem to be a hotbed for commotion......Reckon that's why I'm so fond of the founding fathers (who actually based our laws on Judeo-Christianity, and promoted natural law/rights.) Ask a woman or a gay man how swell things are over there..... (they are doing anal probes now to discover homosexuals and vaginal probes to see if a woman is a virgin;) I can give you the link if you'd like.)

  • Incredible post and well written.... the conflict of faith will continue as long as people continue to reject each other's theologies and policies.

  • @BoulderChristina - Christina, I'm not above comparing myself to the Buddha, either but, well, you know, we are ALL Buddha. @dw817 - David, those are my profile pics over my 8 years on Xanga. That's me as Locutus (Picard/Borg) not Terminator. Resistance is futile. @EminemsRevenge - Marshall, I defer. I guess we could say Palestine NEVER existed. The essay was originally called "Israel" and in retrospect, I should have called it simply "The Last Word".  I use 2pt fonts as always. On most browsers, there's a text size control or screen size control. On IE it's on the lower right. @Kellsbella - Kelly, How true. My posts are long enough as it is! I have a whole bunch of spiritual essays linked under the spinning orb on the post. I try not to "preach" on the internet. I figured someone would say I missed Abraham. Also, I see I neglected to state PBUH when mentioning Muhammad. @Xcite_Media - Xcite, Thank you. M'dear. The Great News is that no matter what happens in our corporeal state, we all are granted the Final Realization and Enlightenment eventually. MFN/ppf

  • I don't know how to respond to this, but you do make some very good points.  I don't have the answers, but you have sparked an interest in pantheism for me that I will have to research.  I'd actually never heard of it before.  I feel i am a very spiritual person and though I profess to be Catholic I realize the human element in the religion.  I call myself faithful, faithful to God and I believe in Jesus Christ...because He is the way God came to me, or I came to God.  I believe nothing happens by accident.  That being said, I will have to look into this pantheism.  Thanks for this post. 

  • @lovelightwellness - Dear Lovelight. I link to my Universal Blog tag in the entry, which contains all my essays, including my personal journey towards enlightenment, which can be found in the five "Books of the Realizations." A good place to start is the essay "Classifying the Universal Mind". Most of my spiritual essays posit a question, and then make an attempt to answer, in a reasonable manner. Instead of attempting to disqualify any major or minor belief system, the Universal Mind accepts the idea that more often than not, belief systems are more similar than different. The second essay I'd suggest, especially for Christian readers,would be "Is Jesus the Son of God?" (I'll even give you my answer, and it's yes) Thank you for the visit and thoughtful comment! MFN/ppf

  • Great post Mike, very intresting subject.

  • Hi Mike,

    Not to quibble, but it seems to me that you have assumed the three great Mediterranean religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, encompass all of human understanding of their relation to the infinite. Obviously only a small majority of humans embrace or have ever embraced those beliefs - the rest of the world's inhabitants are either Animistic, Buddhist, Hindu, polytheistic, etc. there is no basic reason to believe any of these religious frameworks is any better than the others in furthering human understanding of their relation to the Cosmos.
    Religion is, and has always been, one of the five great social institutional frameworks of every culture ( Family, Education, Religion, Economy, Government) and each and every culture has organized those frameworks so as to, in their mass consensus, interpret their basic value systems so as to keep the cultures viable. Continually changing social problems demand periodic re-interpretation of these values within these frameworks - we tend to call this progress

  • @tychecat - Dick, From my NOTES section above:  "This essay only deals with the three major religions which make up modern montheism. I have also studied many Eastern religions." You've been reading me long enough to know I rarely assume anything! Me/ppf

  • most fascinating thing I;ve read in a while. I have really been interested in the history of religion, especially lately. This post gave me a very good view of some things while raising a bazillion questions as well!

    I kind of feel at a loss for words... probably going to re-read.

    Now I know i have to get my hands on a Koran.

  • Thoughtful pieces like this one just can't be found on Facebook, people! And that's why Xanga is so attractive. It's so interesting to read other people's opinions - and this is presented very nicely, indeed.

  • Thanks for the post. Really great. I'v been interested in religious questions for my essay. It really helped me to form a strong view of some aspects of religion. I've posted my essay on http://www.bestessay.com if you'd like to read it. 

  • Thoughtful and well written essay. I come from a family with a mixture of beliefs : Buddhism, Catholicism and Hindusm.  I was a raise a Catholic and married a Indian with a lot Hindus in his family while mine has a lot of Buddhists.

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