

# Dear God, an Open Letter

# Sunday, Book 1, Belief/Disbelief

# By Martin A. Moe, Jr.

#

Dear God, An Open Letter

Sunday, Book 1, Belief/Disbelief

Martin A. Moe, Jr.

Copyright 2013 by Martin A. Moe, Jr.

Smashwords Edition 2013

ISBN-13 978-0-939960-14-9

Digital edition

Green Turtle Publications

All rights reserved

Author contact: keysmmoe@gmail.com

#  Preface

Note: This preface is repeated in each _Dear God, an open letter_ ebook to establish continuity between volumes.

Do you believe in God? I don't, but it's complicated. And it's also complicated for those who believe, because there is so much that one has to believe, or at least account for; and one should, if one is honest with one's self, have a reasonably accurate idea as to just what one believes, not what one recites, but what one really believes is true, and they should know why they believe it. If one does not know exactly what and why they believe, then they are simply a member of the religious herd following a cultural meme, reciting meaningless words, counting beads, wearing special garments; practicing a culture and not a religion. And that's OK, family and culture are important and sometimes keeping doubt and question under the radar and mentally compartmentalizing religion and real life is the most comfortable, and sometimes necessary, path to tread.

And if one does not believe, that can be just as complicated, maybe more so. You may ponder, when the light is low, the house is quiet, and the spirits (if there are any) hide in the deep shadows of the room. You may ponder, is there any fire under all that smoke? Could any of it be real? Could there be a kernel of fundamental truth under the pomp and circumstance, the denial and enslavement of reason, and the absolute cultural and intellectual authority wielded by many religions? Could it be that one little part of it is true and everything else is nothing but ancient and modern human fiction? Disbelief can also be a cultural problem, the intensity of which depends on the religion of the culture and how openly, if at all, one proclaims doubt or disbelief. One can experience extremes from mild admonishment to beheading, so one's personal beliefs are often kept very private, sometimes so private that they are even hidden from oneself. Albert Einstein expressed it well.

_"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions."_ Albert Einstein

But it is important for one to take everything into consideration and reconcile religion and what you see and know is real and come to an understanding of what you can believe and what just doesn't make sense. We all have to live in a world with many different faiths and a growing development of rejection of religious faith. There are two extremes, one might be of the inflexible opinion that "if my religion says it's true, then it's true and that's that"; or "anything supernatural simply does not exist, never has existed, and never will exist, it's all just fable". In between there are just questions and ponders, and I think that a lot of us are in the middle of that pasture of ponders, somewhere between the fence of belief and the fence of unbelief. Some sit firmly upon the fence of their choice and conviction and some are very near to one of the fences but occasionally they run toward the center of the pasture or even past the center and then return to their original position, often without admitting their adventure to anyone; or perhaps they complete the journey to one fence or the other. I admit that I'm firmly in the shadow of the fence of unbelief, and find myself unmoved by the bushels of books that strive to convince the atheist/agnostic of the existence of God, but still I ponder. So I decided to do a bit of research and ask the Ultimate Authority about the conundrums of religion, creation and reality. If I hear back from him/her/it I'll tell you about it.

It turned into much more of a project than I anticipated. My brief letter became a long letter. So to make it easier to write and to read, I have broken it up into seven ebooks, one for each day of the week. Topic organization is not tight and academic, there is some rambling, but that's often how letters are written. There is some repetition in the introductions to eeach book, but despite a bit of repetition each introduction relates to the specific ebook.

It is neither my purpose nor my desire to dissuade anyone of a religious belief. If you have a strong and abiding faith in a religion that gives you definition and purpose in your life, that's a good thing for you. If you want to tell people about your joy and conviction, and urge them toward the same conviction, that's fine also. Just don't try to spread your faith through intimidation, coercion, lies, force, or violence (the end does not justify the means), or to use it for exceptional personal profit. After all, as I understand it, the basis of true religion is outflow, not income. As for me, I just want to go on record, for what it's worth, with my impressions and opinions on religion and many of the topics that are intertwined with religion. I don't think that it is possible for an average individual like me, or even an individual of exceptional intellect, to digest and make sense of all that modern civilization, in all countries, all religions, all science and all history has to say, infer, and define about what is true and false in the world of yesterday or today. So my effort here is woefully inadequate, but it may be helpful to you when you struggle to make sense of humanity and religion, so take it for what it is, and add and subtract with the depths of your own knowledge, insight, belief, disbelief, experience, and faith. This is the first book in the series below.

Sunday – Book 1: Belief/Disbelief

Monday – Book 2: Our Fragile Earth

Tuesday – Book 3: Freedom and Religion

Wednesday – Book 4: Perception of God, Faith, Skepticism, Demons, Angels

Thursday – Book 5: Biology and Evolution

Friday – Book 6: Sex and Gender

Saturday – Book 7: Religions, Origins, Belief, Doubt

# Sunday, Book 1, Belief/Disbelief

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

Are You there, God?

Is it True?

Morality

The True Faith?

Prophets, Real or False?

Death and Psychics

Disbelief

Why

A Strange New World

Warand Religion

Do You Care, God?

#  Introduction

Dear God,

I've got a lot on my mind, God, and my years are winding down. You are a vital and fundamental figure in the history and conduct of humanity and a driving force in the lives of most of the people on this little planet. And you are reputed to listen to everyone who tries to contact you, so I thought I'd write you a letter and voice my concerns and confusions. I'll be straightforward, no "thee" and "thou", no rejoicing, prostration, pleading, or praying; and no submissive recitations of ancient creeds and beliefs– just an honest discussion of what I think about you at this point, why I reject belief in a religion based on a supernatural deity (s), and, just in case you do exist, what's happening in this, your world, of which you should be aware. And this is just me and my way of communication, I have no agenda formed by any belief system or any particular school of thought.

Oh, by the way, do you like that picture of you on the cover? It's part of the painting that Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) did in 1511 on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, for Pope Julius II. It's very famous down here, and now represents the iconic, stern father figure that many people envision when they think of you. Do you really look like that? But being supernatural, I guess you could look like whatever or whoever you wanted to look like. In my opinion, portraits or impressions of you all come from the human mind and reflect the religious customs and beliefs in vogue at the time and in the culture of the artist. Of course I guess you could somehow influence the artist and the culture toward a particular image that you like, but then I guess that they would all be similar and not reflect the various physical traits and cultural beliefs of the humans creating the images.

So God, in my letters are the questions, doubts, understandings, and misunderstandings of an elderly man on life, reality, and religion early in the twenty first century. Aging is unsettling, now when I look in the mirror I see the face of my father when he was elderly. It's a sobering experience, knowing that your years are numbered and personally seeing the evidence of that. I think that aging, and the result of aging, is something that humans don't really understand until they pass the age of 60. If I'm lucky, I have 20 more years (my father did when he was my age), but most likely only 10 or 15. But that's OK, I've had a good life, I'm probably in about the 0.0001 percent of humanity, past and present, that has had a comfortable and meaningful life. And you know, God, if you do exist, and if you have some great supernatural plan that defines and controls existence, then I sincerely thank you for allowing me to live a good life with the creature comforts that the freedom, science, and technology of these times have provided for most of those in my country: a life with good health and family, and without great strife and tragedy (so far). In the advanced countries of today, these are far better times for most human lives than ever before in history, and probably better than the times that the future holds, but that depends on what humanity does in the next 50 years or so, maybe just 25. You may notice that I didn't include beliefs in the comments above. I really don't have any "beliefs" in the religious sense, and I don't "know" you, so that's why I'm wondering and curious at this point that if you do exist, and considering the current state of humanity, what might be your plans for the future.

There is a lot for one day that I want to discuss with you, so I'll follow your lead and break it up into seven small ebooks. The first book is Sunday, it contains my thoughts, opinions, and questions about your religions. There are six more books that will follow this one, one for every day of the week. You don't have to answer right away; I know you must be very busy these days. So you can wait until I send the last letter to you, and then if you do answer, I'll be happy to write to you once more and apologize if I have offended you.

#  Are you there, God?

Yeah, God, its little Skippy here, I know it's been a long time since I tried to contact you, about 60 years, actually not even a blink of an eye as far as you are concerned, of course, but a lifetime down here. The reason I stopped trying to contact you way back then was not because I never knew if you heard me or not, but because I couldn't really believe you existed. I recall even at that young age looking at the beliefs of different religions, primarily Christianity, and coming to the conclusion that religion seemed to be defined by the current needs of humanity and incorporated all the frailties, inconsistencies, traditions, wishful thinking, and erroneous justifications that are born in human minds, rather than reflect the design of an omnipotent deity that makes no mistakes and cares for all of its creations, especially those created in its own image.

Back in those days, in my world at that time, a naive adolescent couldn't argue against the grain of society on matters so fundamental as religion and the existence of God. I guess it is much the same today, although there is a great deal more information and intellectual support that allows a youth to build a life based on reason, respect, compassion, and science. Then, and now, for most religious people, logic, reason, common sense, scientific analysis, and even history were only true and significant if the information was presented in such a way as to conform, or at least be neutral, to whatever their religion stated. The only truth was the truth of Biblical revelation, all else was false Godless propaganda, thus it was easy for those convinced of the inerrancy of religious belief to reject any contrary secular evidence as originating from the dark forces of the Evil One. The power of religion in the affairs of humanity eclipses the truth of religion and that does not bode well for the future.

But for me back then, the concept of a god directing a world of supernatural creatures and the religions that defined this concept just didn't add up; and it still doesn't. Now at age 75 I don't have a lot of years left, it happens to all of us humans sooner or later; and of all the animals on this planet, we know this. We understand that our personal physical life is not forever, and this knowledge defines our cultures and often consumes how we live our lives. But anyway, as my years wind down, I have some questions and conundrums that I need to discuss with you.

I have confusions and questions about the origin and purpose (if there is a purpose) of human existence mainly because so much had to happen in great specificity for our universe, our planet Earth, life, and humanity to develop and exist as it does today. For example, the structure of sub atomic particles as determined at the moment of the origin of the universe, the interaction of the elemental structure of matter, and under a narrow range of physical and chemical conditions, the apparent predilection of the elements of matter toward the development of life, the structure and relationship of the sun, moon, and earth that are "just right" for life, and the possibility and probability of intelligent life to evolve as well, and for all this to come together on our little planet seems to be almost beyond the possibility of mere happenstance. But then, someone always wins the lottery, no matter the odds, and all of us humans are great winners in the huge biological lottery of life, so perhaps our universe and our earth are winners in the great lottery for existence. We are, however, through the science of physics, discovering amazing things about the structure of matter, gravity, and the meaning of time, but many mysteries still prevail.

When I was in my mid-twenties, a quote by Thomas Jefferson in a letter to his nephew Peter Carr on August 10, 1787, put the issue of the mystery of life in a clear human perspective:

" _On the other hand, shake off all the fears & servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear."_ Thomas Jefferson, 1787

Thomas Jefferson makes a lot of sense here, because the main attribute of humanity that separates us from the rest of your creation is our ability to use our intellect, our drive to survive, and our curiosity, to create the tools of language and reason that allow us to foresee how the results of our actions in the present can affect our life in the future. In other words, using rational thought to build and direct our lives and our societies. It is amazing how back in the late 18th century, Thomas Jefferson was able to use common sense, observation, and analytical reason, even in the absence of the tremendous scientific advances of the 19th and 20th centuries, to cut through the superstition, cultural beliefs, and traditions that defined our societies in that time. I learned at a young age that it is extremely valuable and important not to mistake collective belief for truth, and equally important, to be willing to change what one believes is true when fact and reason convincingly demonstrate that previous beliefs were erroneous. When faith means trust and confidence in a person or a process based on demonstrated fact and experience it is a reasonable trust, good and beneficial—but when faith means trusting that superstitions, myths, and fables are actual truths that define reality, then, although such faith can be psychologically and socially helpful, it can also lead to false hope, persecution, tyranny, death, despair, chaos, and disaster.

Some people, your people, many of them authoritarian figures, tell the faithful not to question, that to question leads to a loss of faith and opens the door to Satan and his minions–and to question is the beginning of a sure path to an afterlife in hell. But it is also an instruction not to use the gifts of reason and intellect that you bestowed upon humanity, the same gifts that people use to survive and succeed in the conduct of life. Perhaps this is just your test of faith–understood, practiced, and taught by your anointed messengers.

So I have to ask, you, God, does it matter if a person has faith in a supernatural God that does not exist? After all, if you don't exist then any belief in you based on the conviction that you care and that you will reward the faithful with an eternal and wonderful existence after death is totally false. But then, maybe that doesn't really matter if that faith provides a better life here on Earth, and great comfort and promise at the time of death, does it? For some, probably no, the earthly reward and the promise is enough, but for others, yes it does matter. After all, reason and science demonstrate that the supernatural basis of human religions are not true (or at least do not confirm with observed reality); and for many of us, truth, fact, and reality are more important to our sense of self than self-delusion in pursuit of an inconceivable, fantastical, supernatural future existence.

So if you do exist, and if we are created in your image as you said, then obviously you used intelligence and reason to create the elements of matter and guide the development of life. Now maybe you are just a "watchmaker god", one that created the raw elements of matter and energy in such a way that under just the right conditions, life is an inevitable property of matter–and then just let the universe do whatever it will, perhaps as a grand experiment to be analyzed, noted, and abandoned. Or maybe "You", as a specific supernatural entity, just don't exist.

In my view, this basic question is a simple dichotomy, "do you exist?" or "do you not exist?" If you do exist, and if your words are truly the basis of the ancient texts revered by human religions, then you are hiding the direct evidence of your existence very well; and you even created false clues to the geological structure of the earth and the history of life on this world apparently for no other purpose than to mislead and confound human reason, and perhaps require that faith and belief in you transcend the reality that you created. But if our religions are correct, then that also means that for some unknown reason you demand unsubstantiated and unquestioning faith in your existence and your revelations despite incontrovertible physical evidence to the contrary. If you don't exist, then humanity in all its past and current manifestations seems to have some genetic and/or cultural imperative to create a god myth to explain all that that they cannot understand.

Blaise Pascal, a 17th century French philosopher, mathematician, and physicist thought long and hard about God and religion and what religion expected one to believe about God. Pascal's thoughts and works of long ago were published seven years after his death in 1669 in a compilation of his writings, titled _Pensées_. He posed the binary question, "God is, or He is not" into the form of a bet, known as Pascal's Wager. The wager asked if one should bet with his/her life that God exists, or bet that God does not exist, which wager would have the better outcome? The Christian apologetics position is that if one bets that God exists and lives life as God directs, then one gains everlasting life, wins the wager, and loses nothing. Whereas, if one bets that God does not exist and still lives a good life, whether the wager is won or lost, one gains nothing and loses everything. Therefore, the only rational course of action is to live a good life in the belief and footsteps of God, and unquestionably win the wager for everlasting life.

But the agnostic/atheist position introduces a twist to such reasoning. If God is omniscient, He would know that the belief was based on a wager and did not have the inherent conviction of Truth, hence was insincere. The question then becomes, if sincere belief is the essential requirement for entry into heaven, would He honor an insincere "belief" based on a wager, or would He see through the subterfuge and consign the gambler to everlasting torment in hell? And if, as Thomas Jefferson argued, one lives a good life despite reasonable doubt, would God respect the honesty of that position and grant such a person the same rewards promised to those who live a good life with true belief? There are many theories and expositions on all sides of this issue, and only the doubter who professes faith based only on the hope of salvation remains on the top of that wobbly fence. You are the only one who knows, God, the only one who knows which way that fence will fall when the end is nigh. Of course, if you unquestionably told us what you plan to do in this case, that would obviate any inclination of good, but rational minds to question or deny your existence. It would be clear that you do exist. But then, you have told us, haven't you, that anyone who does not sincerely believe in your existence, for any reason or any logic, will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

" _He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."_ (John 3:36)

Thus according to your word, there is no chance in the Christian religion, and in Islam also, for anyone that cannot unequivocally suspend reason and adopt a real and sincere belief in your existence, to experience an ethereal afterlife in your presence. But there are other religions, other sacred writings that are more lenient; maybe you started them as well, so perhaps there is an eternal hope for doubters and deniers.

So, God, perhaps you do exist, and for some reason known only to you, you choose to in some way reveal your existence to only some people (or supernaturally lead only some people to a sure knowledge of your existence) and consign the remainder, those that do not believe you exist and those that through culture and/or no exposure to your revelations do not follow the correct path– to either an eternity of pain and suffering, or possibly to just nonexistence. If so, then perhaps to you and the other beings that populate your supernatural plane of existence, we are like our chickens, dogs, and goldfish, bred for a special purpose and those that don't fit the desired mold are culled and discarded.

From the birth of humanity in the forests, savannas, and the caves–to the modern farms, cities, and nuclear power plants of today, belief in you in many and various forms, and development of a religious structure to define and formalize that belief, has been the central force, the glue, that holds societies large and small together and creates a rational for the innate drive to expand and conquer. This tendency toward belief in a supernatural power may well be a genetic behavioral trait that enhanced survival of primitive human tribes and societies. But its utility and universality doesn't make it true. After all, even if all humanity believes the Earth is flat and the sun and the universe revolves around the Earth, the Earth is still round and it still revolves around the sun. I have to tell you though, that after many years of thought, study of the natural world, and observation of humanity, I still don't believe that you exist, certainly not in the substance, form, or function as described and practiced by any of the many religions that have evolved in human societies. And there are a lot of them, over 5,000 by some counts. Surely, if you exist, you would have greater respect for a being that thinks and questions than a being that eschews honest reason and sycophantically accepts fable and myth as unquestionable truth.

# Is it True?

I should tell you that we humans are an eclectic bunch when it comes to religion. If we have freedom, we pick and choose what we want to believe and the teachings we want to follow, usually those that fit our particular culture at the time and place we find ourselves. We often "go along to get along" some ardently believing in whatever teachings are extant at the time, but others of us bite our tongues, compartmentalize our minds, and live as best a life as we can. Usually our choices are culturally determined, but sometimes, especially in these modern times when there is less cultural rigor in developed countries and more latitude for individual behavior and beliefs, we strike out on our own and select and tailor our beliefs to our own ideas and feelings. And many of us have questions.

I have to ask you, God, about that Noah's Ark, world wide flood thing. Did that actually happen? I know it's in the Bible, Quran, and Torah, the founding texts of the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam and all their offshoots, as well as in ancient literature from before Biblical times; so despite their differences almost all believers of those religions, over half the population of Earth, believe that the story of the great flood and Noah's Ark is an accurate historical depiction of that event. Some look at it as a parable, just a story told to illustrate a moral point, but many millions of your followers consider it to be the "Gospel Truth". Now as far as I can tell, the story goes (basically, there are some differences in various versions) that you were very upset with humanity at that point and decided that all the humans except Noah and his family should perish in a great flood as divine judgment to punish them for their sins. I would think that that was pretty drastic, but then I wasn't there, thank God, and so I don't know. But I would think that in light of what's happening in the world today, we're ripe for another one of your judgments.

But I digress, evidently Noah was a good guy and "found grace in the eyes of the Lord" and you told him to build a great ark, 300 cubits in length (a cubit is reported to be 45.72 centimeters which is 18 inches, so the ark was about 450 feet in length), where Noah and his family, 8 people, and a pair of every species of living thing were to occupy this ark so as not to be destroyed by the great flood that that would kill every other living thing on earth. This was quite a task for an old man; according your word his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth were born when Noah was 500 years old, and you told him to build the ark when he was 600 years old, and on the tenth day of the second month of his six hundredth year, all eight of his family, evidently all of considerable age, (and according to the Quran, 76 others that submitted to you), and a pair of all the other species of living things on the Earth entered the ark. Seven days later "all the fountains of the abyss were broken up and windows of heaven were opened". The rain fell for 40 days, the ark drifted over 15 cubits of water (that would be 22.5 feet deep, I wonder what the draft was on that ark), but the high mountains were covered (very interesting), and everything not sheltered in the ark perished from the earth. The waters prevailed for one hundred fifty days, and then the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. If that's true then all the humans of all races on earth today, 4359 years (174 human generations assuming 25 years per generation) after the great flood, would have to be descended from the 8 people in Noah's family, although maybe some of the 76 others contributed to this effort. However from what we know today from anthropology, genetics, and geology; a global flood such as this simply couldn't have happened, and the complexity of human genetics extends large populations very far back beyond 6000 years ago. According to geological and archeological evidence, the Black Sea did rapidly flood around 5600 BCE. Sea level rose at that time and when the land barrier between the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea was breached, the Black Sea flooded over 60,000 square miles of arable land and human settlements. That wasn't the whole Earth, but it must have seemed like it to those living in that area at that time. And that may well have been the genesis of the story of the Great Flood that made its way into the mythology and religious stories thousands of years before the beginning of the Christian era. There are, however, earlier tales of a great flood.

Noah and the great flood is quite a story, though, and the whole thing happened in 2349 to 2348 BCE, according to the Biblical chronology developed by Archbishop James Ussher of the Church of Ireland which was first printed in " _The Annals of the Old Testament"_ in 1650. Interestingly, God, the whole idea of a great flood was discovered to be part of the ancient Babylonian tale, perhaps the oldest surviving work of human literature, _The Epic of Gilgamesh_. This ancient story was written perhaps as early as the 18th century BCE and on the eleventh tablet of the standard Babylonian version from about the 13th century BCE it recounts in almost point by point detail the experience of the hero, Gilgamesh and his family building a great boat, collecting all the animals of the field, surviving a great flood, and coming to rest on the side of a mountain. The _Epic of Gilgamesh_ was discovered by Hormuzd Rassam, an Assyrian Christian, in 1853, about 200 years after James Ussher's chronology. Rassam, working for the Englishman Henry Layard, found the ancient Sumerian tablets in an excavation of the library in the palace of Assurbanipal at Nineveh. The first modern translation of the cuneiform texts was published in the early 1876 by George Smith of the British Museum . The story of Adam and Eve is also paralleled by the story of Enkidu and Shamhat in _Epic of Gilgamesh_ , Enkidu is made from dust by the gods and Shamhat tempts him. It seems, God, that many stories and tales similar to those in the ancient religious texts reverberated around the ancient world for thousands of years before being canonized as religious truths in the early centuries of the common era.

The book of Genesis and all the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, etc. are full of stories like this, Adam and Eve, the garden of Eden, the parting the Red Sea, Jesus walking on water, Joshua stops the sun, Muhammad rises to heaven from the Dome of the Rock, Jonah and the whale, the resurrection of Jesus, miracle after miracle. Take Methuselah for instance. He lived to be 969 years old and died in the year of the Great Flood, one of the meanings of his name is, "When he is dead, it shall be sent" which is said to refer to the Great Flood. It seems that fulfillment of prophesy in the older texts is a common thread in the more recent texts.

But, come on, God, Methuselah was 969 years old, what was he, a Galapagos tortoise?–you made Adam from dust (Bible) and/or clay (Qur'an) and made Eve from Adam's rib (at best, that's obviously just an analogy). And Noah lived to be 950 years old? If the Earth is only 6,000, or even 10,000 years old, that means that Noah and Methuselah lived for about 10 to 16 percent of the total time of the existence of the Earth. You said that Noah included a reproductive unit of all the "living organisms" in an ark; did he include the fresh water fish or the salt water fish, or both? If you had both, Noah would have had to install both a fresh water and a marine aquarium of momentous proportions on that ark. And as a marine biologist, I really wonder how Noah kept all the species of organisms, fish, jellyfish, crabs, worms, shrimps, and even the animals that inhabit the geothermal vents in the greatest depths of the sea alive in his ark. If the flood was salt water, all the fresh water organisms would have died, and if it was fresh water, all the salt water organisms would have died, and then unless you recreated all the species that died in a day or two, as you did before, evolution would have had to really speed up to reestablish, all these species and the complex ecology of the Earth in only a few thousand years. And being literal about it, how did he collect and maintain all the coral reef and rain forest species for 150 days? How did he keep the planktonic organisms? Even if the Great Flood was just a local event and not global, it sure doesn't seem biologically possible that the requirements for life of all the varied flora and fauna, large and very small, of even a local, but still huge, area of the Earth could be kept alive under primitive conditions in big boat for 5 months. And Jonah and the whale (or great fish), he stayed alive in the stomach of the whale for three days (how did he breathe, and avoid digestion?), and then the whale spit him out on land after he repented and cried out in prayer.

I wonder, yeah God, I know, I wonder too much, but I wonder about SIN. For the religious people, especially the Abrahamic religions, sin is a big deal. Not so much misdemeanors and crimes against human society, these misconducts are punished by civil law and they can be forgiven by you relatively easily; but the sins of behavior, impure thoughts, denial, and violence against your laws, commandments, and edicts–and the granddaddy of all sins, not believing in you; and then not repenting these transgressions, that's the biggest deal. So I wonder, is it a sin for me to be writing these letters? Will I be punished in an everlasting lake of fire? Obviously, if you don't exist, this is not an issue, there is no reward and no punishment in an afterlife as described by your religions. Also obviously, if I did believe that you exist, and if I did believe that what I was writing was so very contrary to your will, well then, it would be a sin punishable very severely. But is it still a sin if I have no logical reason to believe that you actually exist and I'm expressing my doubts and disbelief with honesty and no malice toward your religions that are compassionate and sympathetic toward all people? I do get the impression, however, that if one has been exposed to the teachings in the Torah, Bible, and Quran and still does not believe, or not know which to believe, then that is a sin. But whose fault is that, God, yours or those that don't believe? How can one be honest with oneself and still profess to believe what one cannot believe? You would know, wouldn't you, if one says one believes, but really doesn't? Am I sinning now or am I just misled by the things of the world? What reason would you have to require me to eschew belief in the reality I can see and understand, and believe or try to believe in a supernatural reality that I cannot even imagine much less understand.

And then there is this thing about "Original Sin", the idea is, if one believes in the basic literal truth of the Biblical creation story, that Adam and Eve, the first humans that you created and the ancestors of all humanity, were happy and healthy in the Garden of Eden for some unknown length of time. OK, I have to ask, did they have navels? I wouldn't think so if they were not of woman born. But obviously their reproductive organs were functional, although I don't think that they conceived a child while in the Garden, perhaps they practiced birth control, but then they didn't experience death there either. So I suppose that they were actually supernatural creatures at that time. I also get the impression that all the animals in that Garden were vegetarians, even those biologically adapted to be carnivores. Somehow I can't see a lion eating grass or a melon. But perhaps you created all of them fully formed so that they could fulfill their ecological roles after Eve destroyed the divine function of the Garden.

Then you put that tree in the Garden, the tree with the fruit that gives the knowledge of good and evil, and told them not to eat that fruit. And they probably wouldn't have if that serpent (apparently Satan) hadn't come along and seduced Eve to eat of the fruit. Why would you put it there if you didn't want them to eat the fruit, maybe as a test to their level of obedience to you? I guess you must have had your reasons. But Eve did eat it and she also gave it to Adam and he ate also. Evidently this really ticked you off. So then you banished them from the Garden, apparently giving them reproductive capacity and death as well, and then cursed them with the Original Sin of disobeying you for their transgression against your command not to eat that fruit. Seems kind of drastic to me. I suspect that there is a lot more metaphor than fact in this tale.

And you not only cursed them with death, but you also cursed all the humans that came after them as well for this transgression. Every generation since then has this noose of Original Sin hanging around their necks. But then you relented; however, the sin was so dire, so unpardonable, that you had to make the ultimate sacrifice to make it all better once again. You sent your only begotten Son, Jesus (who was actually one third of you) to be born of the flesh of man, live a sinless life, give us your message of redemption if only we would believe; and then gave him a horrible, torturous death to atone for Eve's forbidden snack of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So now that so very many of us believe this story, all of us that believe in Jesus, or Allah (if Islam is included, although Muslims don't believe that Christians are included, and Christians don't believe that Muslims are included) can experience a rich, eternal afterlife praising you constantly somewhere in Heaven. And Heaven, I wonder about that too, but I'll save that wonderment for a later letter.

Now what happened to Adam and Eve, and their family? Adam and Eve had three children, Cain, Able, and a bit later, after Cain killed Able and left the homestead to wander, Seth was born. Then there was Lilith, who was supposedly Adam's first wife that you made from the dust like Adam but who contested Adam and disrespected God and as result became a demon, as some Hebrew texts mention. And then there's the famous question "where did Cain's wife come from". When Cain left he went to the land of Nod (which means to wander), but which was apparently populated by people as that was where he found his wife, but how could that be if Adam and Eve were the first humans. What happened to these early people after they died, however many there might have been? Is your redemptive sacrifice retroactive? Did you raise them from oblivion and give them a second chance after Jesus paid for their sins? Or did you send them to Hell and there they remain to this day.

Things like this also pose problems for scholars over the centuries that have studied your word and have striven to make sense of the many contradictions and complications. Expository texts have been written over the years that work hard to explain how the human race originated from just Adam and Eve, and this can be done, sort of, but it requires that Eve produced about 60 children after Cain, Able, and Seth; and that the life spans of these early people extended to almost 1000 years; and that intermarriage of brothers, sisters, and cousins was the norm for several thousands of years after expulsion from the Garden, and that they produced a lot of offspring during their 1000 years of life. Christian apologetics can dredge verses from the Bible and deduct rationales from it and other religious writings that can corroborate these post Genesis scenarios. Basically, the Bible is used to verify the Bible. But this almost works only if the Bible and other early religious writings are absolute truth delivered from supernatural sources–and if the modern sciences that reveal the biological and geological past of the Earth and its people are all in error. I'm sorry God, but perhaps I'm too literal a human being, I just can't believe that these stories and myths recount an actual supernatural reality that existed thousands of years ago

So what's the real truth, God? Do you really expect us to believe those fables? In the light of what we know now, I think that you were either playing fast and loose with the truth, or that you forgot to mention that these stories are just parables that helped you make a point in a literary way; and to that end, they are actually good parables. But you did say, when in the form of Jesus, that your word is truth.

" _Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth."_ (John 17:17)

Also, in the form of Jesus, you warned Nicodemus in John 3:12: that:

" _If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"(_ John 3:12)

And that's right; the tales in your ancient texts are just not believable in the light of modern science or even just rational thought, so I'm sorry, but I can't believe your heavenly things either. I guess I failed the required test of faith in your Abrahamic religions –which in my mind goes something like this "believe In Me and the truth of my Word despite the false evidence created by your science and/or your rational mind that abounds within the reality you can see and experience".

My question is why do you expect us to believe that these Biblical tales are the Gospel Truth? And if they aren't, shouldn't you have told us that? The biological, ecological, archeological, and geological problems with these ancient fables are legion. I'm sorry God, but physics, chemistry, biology, and geology tell us that the stories in Genesis (which are based on legends and stories from the 6th and 5th century BCE, and earlier) are obviously not true; so unless you can change the structure of matter and the chemistry, biology, and history of life whenever and however you wish, the miracles in the various sacred texts are just fables. Well, maybe you can change reality and natural law whenever you want, and then erase the evidence afterward, you are God, after all. Perhaps you wanted to instill fear in human minds, or make a moral point, or give the ancients something they could understand, but the stories are obviously false, just not true. Unless, of course, our reality of the universe and the Earth is like a sand castle to you and you can create a new world for us with new histories every once in a while for whatever might be your reasons. Or maybe you just like fantasy. Humans do, that is one of our most popular genres of fiction writing, and a lot of our fantasy has religious roots.

#  Morality

A moral code that governs how people live in communities is necessary for a culture to survive, but, God, what is morality? Is it defined by religion? Is it defined by culture? Is it defined by family or tribe? Is it absolute regardless of culture? Or does it mean to do the right thing according to the mores of the culture? Or does it mean to do the right thing as defined by human understanding of your ancient words? Is it based on the example of your divine love for all humans (some religions excepted)? Or on your instructions on how to treat those that do not believe? Does the greater good for all humanity define it? Or is it what furthers the survival and wealth of those who define the morality of the culture? Is morality an immutable mindset, a behavior pattern believed to be defined by the concept of the God that defines the culture? Or is it just inherent behavior patterns deeply coded into our genes that developed through the evolution of our species that allowed us to survive and prosper in tribal communities? Or is it an absolute code of conduct that is defined and written by you, God, which instructs us as to how to behave and interact with our fellow humans regardless of the religion followed by the culture? If morality is an absolute code of conduct defined by you, God, why do different religions have different definitions of moral conduct? In the culture of one religion it may be a great moral act to kill as many people as possible that follow a different religion, while in the culture of another religion the greatest moral act may be to restrain from violence even in the face of sure death at the hands of obvious evil. The morality of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam differ greatly. Which is correct in your eyes, God, or is it a completely different moral code? I guess that maybe morality and immorality undefined by an absolute religion is sort of like the much quoted description of pornography coined by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in 1964 and paraphrased as, "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it."

I think that most people, especially those that believe strongly in one religion, have pretty much a belief in a "universal morality", a morality that applies to all people, since according to their religion, all people were created by you. Thus they are all responsible to you, and as such this universal morality that is defined by their religion, should, by definition, apply to all people. And those that are not believers and not adherents to their religion could be good people but are immoral to greater or lesser degree, and probably (most certainly) will not be embraced by you in an afterlife. Generally, the concept of morality is concerned with the big fundamentals of human society, not killing people especially those that practice the same religion, not stealing from others, not engaging in forbidden sexual practices, protecting home and family, taking care of children (making sure that they follow their religion), and other basic behaviors that create a healthy growing and interactive society. Ethics and manners cover the less important cultural behaviors. Thus morality is either an absolute code defined by you, that each human society interprets and applies according to its history and culture; or you gave different cultures different perspectives on morality; or personally you had nothing to with the development of various concepts of morality, and each human society (religion) creates its own morality, which changes through the history and interactions of its particular culture. I favor the latter, but then that's just me.

I have no doubt that the concept of God was born in the human mind, but, of course, whether or not you put it in the human mind is up for question. One thing is for sure, however, whether you are real or not, you have been and will be part and parcel of human culture for probably as long as humanity exists. I do have to tell you, God, that religions, mostly yours (Christianity at 33% and Islam at 21% of all religious adherents), fills a very large space in the hearts and minds of people all over the world. All the scientific proof and reason that shows the impossibility of the accuracy of religious accounts of the creation of matter and life, including human history, are summarily rejected by most "believers" based on an unsubstantiated faith in the existence and intrusion of supernatural beings and events into the physical reality that the planet Earth and the universe presents. If our current level of civilization is to persist, expand, and grow more stable over the next century we are going to have to learn how to turn religion from its primitive, contentious, emotional, and supernatural base into a unifying concept based on a reality that supports cultural stability, environmental stewardship and sustainability, tolerance, equality, and a universal human understanding that the present is but a custodian for the future.

God, I guess the religions that you started thousands of years ago were right for the times, and despite the horrendous wars over the centuries that were rooted in religion (but were also about economics and territory), the religions of those days may have helped as well as hindered the social and technological development of humanity. But most of our societies today have developed through science, research, and reason to the point where adherence to religious myths of the ancient past distort reality and create discord. This is dangerous because often the success or failure of human endeavor depends on how greatly that religion interferes with reality. For example, if the religious objection to receiving a blood transfusion or other medical treatment results in the death of an innocent child, then that is an atrocity that lies at the foot of abhorrent religious practice. You wouldn't condone such a thing, would you–the unnecessary and painful death of a child because of the aberrant religious belief of the parents that it is your supernatural will that determines whether the child lives or dies–and if the child does die then it is their fault because they did not pray hard enough or were not good enough in your eyes to save her; would you do that God?

The histories of the religions that you have created are rife with factual inaccuracies and myths, fables, and legends, which are unfortunately considered as incontrovertible fact by millions of people. For centuries, agnostics, atheists, philosophers, historians, intellectuals, scientists, even religionists of different faiths have gone over in excruciating detail the discrepancies between observable and historical fact and the false teachings and errors of religious dogma as they see them. And almost always, the arguments are based and constructed on an initial foundation of belief or disbelief. I could provide you with a litany of names of brave, independent thinkers, writers, theologians, philosophers, and scientists who have exposed the foibles of the religious dogmas of their day. But I'm sure you already have their names, and undoubtedly, if good intentions are important to you, many of them are sitting near you as I write this. Certainly there are not as many pages devoted to the absurdities of religion as there are to the exultation of religion, but of course, scientific and scholarly reality checks are usually of no avail with the faithful. The concept of you is so deeply entrenched in the hearts and minds of those that believe in you with such unshakable faith in the veracity of their religion that no argument or reality based on reason or fact will dissuade them. And the authoritarian human prophets that you have apparently appointed to explain your presence, and your absence, cavalierly dismiss the obvious natural evolutionary development of life and the chemical and physical structure of our world and the universe, for the supernatural explanations that serve their ends. Yet they eagerly use the products of science and technology developed through secular effort to advance their agendas, and then praise you for creating them.

The people on this little planet, your people, view the reality of their world through a mental lens composed of their heredity factors, their mental capacity, the culture and beliefs of their society, and their personal experiences. For some, relatively few, this lens is clear and their view of reality reveals, to the best of their knowledge, the world and its inhabitants as they naturally exist without supernatural cause and direction. But for most of the people that inhabit this world, the lens through which they view reality is clouded to a greater or lesser extent by a belief in the existence of supernatural beings and supernatural effects in their lives–and you are, in one or more personifications, the center of most of these beliefs. These beliefs are very numerous and very different, and in practice often extremely incompatible with each other. The general trend in almost all of these beliefs is to consider that their own particular faith is the only one that is really true, the only one that you consider as revealing the true essence of who you are and your communications that human beings must use to guide their lives. And the adherents of almost all of these various faiths insist that their beliefs and only their beliefs are true and must or should be adopted by all other human beings. Great efforts are often undertaken to convince and convert others of the truth and validity of a particular religion, and sometimes, even in this enlightened, modern world, conversion and compliance is the only way to avoid torture and death.

We call them faiths because you have not presented the necessary inconvertible real world evidence that would consistently and definitively prove both your existence and your preference for the "true" faith. If there was a body of incontrovertible evidence and fact that posed no question about the veracity of your existence and your directives, then I guess we would call it "certainty" rather than "faith". Frankly, I don't understand the purpose, if there is one, of your requirement for belief without supporting real world conformation of your existence. If we have free will, and as I understand it, we do, I'm sure that there would be many who would still deny allegiance to you (as long as such denial would not bring on torture and death).

One thing I wonder about, God, is why do you need such lavish and constant praise? One would think that a deity capable of creating the entire Universe and the Earth and all its life would have enough self-confidence not to need constant praise. Maybe an atta-boy once in a while, but the constant worship, singing praises like Hosanna, Glory to God, Allah Akbar, Hallelujah (meaning Praise Yahweh), and the simple Praise the Lord repeated endlessly, seems a bit over the top. You did say, however;

_"Let everything that has breath praise the Lord"_ (Psalm 150:6).

I could understand it a bit better if the earth was still the only world there is and the sun revolved around the earth and we were not just a tiny, tiny blue dot in an incredibly vast universe. Then we might think that we have greater importance in the plan of existence than the insignificant micro bit of matter we actually are. Such a requirement for praise, acknowledgment, obedience, and love seems like a much more human need than the need of an omniscient and omnipotent deity, almost like as if a human or maybe a lot of humans created the concept of a God like you. And the reasons you mentioned for the requirement of all this praise and worship is that you need simple obedience, and because you are jealous. Yeah, jealous, I wouldn't think you would be capable of the base human emotion of jealousy, but it says in the Bible that you are a jealous God who demands and desires our praise. But if you are the only God, then who are you jealous of? It also says;

" _You shall have no other gods before Me"_ (Deut. 6:7).

Are there any other gods? You said there weren't any others, or are you jealous of gods that do not exist but that are only figments of our amazing human imagination? Maybe you think that humans just should not even conceive of the possibility of another god, despite the minions of supernatural creatures with various talents that occupy the supernatural world. Now if that's the case please don't get mad, just tell us in unambiguous terms which religion is the one that truthfully describes your relationship with, and intent for, humanity today.

In my opinion, I think it is difficult for one to hold a deep and abiding faith in the veracity of the teachings and message of any of these religions in our modern world; Christianity and its various sects, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, and many others. An intelligent person of faith must reject as false and fallacious much of the knowledge that science and reason has developed in the last few centuries–or decide that conflicts between faith and perceived reality are beyond their ken, not really important, and that acceptance and practice of their faith within their culture without doubt and without consideration and contemplation of the things of the world that might challenge their faith, is the way that they will live their life.

#  The True Faith?

I don't know if you are aware of it or not but the notion that one faith is true and all others are not has caused considerable strife, anguish, inhumanity, bloodshed, and cultural warfare throughout the "civilized" period of human existence, and it still does. Often, most of the time, when one society covets the natural resources, the land, water, energy, and even people of other ethnicities and/or religions as slaves, they use their faith and the belief that you support them to the hilt, as justification for the torture, destruction, robbery, slavery, rape, and economic exploitation and servitude of other human beings. To be fair, however, belief in you can also foster great compassion and personal sacrifice to better the condition of other human beings, generally though, with the underlying intent of obtaining conversion to a particular religion. What better way to obtain the trust and loyalty of others than to help them in time of need, be kind and superior in knowledge, and to assure them that the creator of the universe and the world loves them and wants them to be part of greatness in heaven if only they believe (and support the religion presenting the opportunity). Usually the superior societies that teach subservience to a particular religion have an agenda that includes profit to that religion at the expense of the proselytized culture.

In the context of the natural world we call behaviors that promote survival of individuals and groups, predator, prey, and parasite, at the expense of other life, "Survival of the Fittest"; but that's only when non-sentient organisms employ that strategy. Humans see it as fulfilling a divine mandate. However, if you control the details of life in the natural world with the same rationales as humanity uses for their concepts of your intentions, then perhaps even parasites that consume the internal organs of other living creatures enjoy your favor and the animal hosts of those parasites exist only to support them.

Even when two people or two organizations of exactly the same faith are in contest, both sides appeal to you to select them as the most deserving of victory and then rely on you to manipulate events that will assure their victory. If you are actually watching the contest or game, and if you care, I guess you would have to make a determination as to which of the two teams is most deserving of the victory and then skew events so that that team wins. Then, I guess, the losing team has to figure out why they were less deserving of the favor of their God than the winning team, and try to correct their ways so as to be more deserving of your favor the next time.

You know, God, when a religion, or a sect of an established religion, claims that it is the "true" essence of your word, the religion that you have revealed to your anointed prophet/messenger and by definition require your creations to follow and obey the edicts that religion proclaims, two things happen. First that religion proclaims itself as the "truth and the way" and proselytizes to convince and acquire converts to build the body of the religion, and secondly that religion must of course proclaim that all other religions are either false or hold only a mere shadow of the truth of God. I think you can see where I'm going with this train of thought, God, obviously most other religions are not going to roll over and say, "Gee, you guys have the inside track with God, we really want to join with you in these revelations and become a part of the true religion". No, this is not a happy, feel good, situation; it is a blueprint for religious wars.

Our history is rife with destructive wars, slavery, and inhuman acts of religions upon each other, even those that profess the same basic faith, differing only in fine detail. And any victory that you bestow upon them then gives them the right to subjugate, enslave, destroy, and take ownership of the resources of those that did not enjoy your favor. Maybe this is a sort of "reality entertainment" for you and all the other creatures in the supernatural world, or perhaps a just a mechanism that allows the most fervent of your adherents to subjugate and conquer the earth.

And I wonder, when two teams play football, and here I'm not talking about "American football", but "Soccer" which is "Football" to the rest of the world, and the two teams are from countries with different dominant religions or different sects of the same religion, and both teams pray to you for victory–does it mean that you hold the religion of the winning team in greater esteem than the religion of the losing team? If so why don't the teams that practice the religion of the winning team win all the time? Deep religious questions like this boggle the mind, but then I guess just to pose such questions is probably the most advanced form of deity anthropomorphism, that is our assuming that you have human characteristics and human motivations for your behavior. But then we have always had this assumption.

I know I'm jumping around a lot in this letter, God, but you and your concepts and instructions are in one way or another imbedded in every aspect of life in every culture, and I just don't have the intellect, time, and discipline to coherently structure my thoughts and questions to deal succinctly with such a vast and complex sphere of existence. For example, I'm sitting here right now watching as hurricane Isaac approaches my home in the Florida Keys. The storm will be upon us in about two hours, and the rain and wind is increasing in intensity. I assume everything will be fine, it is not predicted to be a bad storm, just a minimal hurricane, if that, but it is still a potential disaster, and my thoughts wander as I deal with this situation.

Should I pray that you will direct the storm away from me, even though if you heed my prayer and divert the storm to where it may adversely affect many others who are much more deserving of being spared from the storm than me? You have no reason to protect me, a doubter and a skeptic, from the storms of life at the expense of others who revere you without question. In almost every disaster there are people that revere and worship you that are destroyed or greatly distressed as well as nonreligious people like me. And there are many, many other people that have no question as to your existence and inherent goodness and yet throughout their lives they suffer great poverty, pain, sickness, disability, and distress. Somewhere in this inequality of life, in the success and apparent happiness of people who find themselves in comfortable environments in compassionate cultures, as contrasted with those that must scrabble for the very elements of survival; somewhere in there I guess some people find refuge in the concepts of heaven and hell, where the good, despite a difficult life, and the evil, despite their creature comforts, receive their just rewards. Perhaps there is comfort in the Beatitude,

" _Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth"_. Mark 5:5

Indeed this final reckoning is almost a universal aspect of human religions. So which choice would reflect the highest morality, to pray for you to spare me and the people closest to me, or to pray that you save those that are closest to you despite the disaster that may befall me?

But speaking of hurricanes, do you remember back in the day when you directed storms, tempests, floods, blizzards, and earthquakes, apparently to punish those that needed punishment? Natural phenomena such as hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes were considered to be sent by you, and many people still think so. But now we have knowledge and technology that tell us why, how, and to a certain extent, where and when, such natural cataclysmic events will occur. We still can't prevent or control these events but we are making progress on knowing why, when, and where they occur and in understanding the natural processes that produce them. I hope we are not impinging on your authority with such knowledge, but it is very helpful to us in predicting and dealing with natural disasters.

# 

#  Prophets, Real or False?

A new religion usually begins with a prophet, an individual that claims a special relationship with you, a direct communication from you, and/or a sure knowledge of your intentions for the world and the human beings that inhabit this world. They usually predict dire consequences in this life or in an afterlife for those that ignore or argue against their pronouncements, and if they acquire a following, soon a religion is born. It's a bit different now, though then it was in your day, God. Modern medicine and psychiatry can define, diagnose, and treat mental illnesses that can cause reality breaks in the rational minds of some individuals and convince them that they are you or that they are your messenger. Their illness is often overt and obvious to most people and we understand that the demons that they profess and/or battle are constructs of their own mind and not creatures from beyond our own reality. These days they can receive modern psychiatric and medical treatment and depending on their particular disorder, they can to a large or small degree be relieved from their hallucinations and disaffections.

But there are religious leaders who are in their right minds, claim to be prophets, and prey upon the insecurities, beliefs, and gullibility of the faithful. They are devious, but often "respectable", capable of blending in with a religious society, and are revered by their followers. They are much more difficult to discredit and prosecute than those that are psychopathic or mentally deficient. However, I think that just a small minority of your clergy today are criminal, I think that despite the irrationality of religion, the majority of clergy really believe that you exist and that the teachings of their particular religion are your edicts on what people should believe and how they should behave, and that they have a mandate to teach and show the way. Why this is so, I don't know. What I do think I know, however, is that all modern day prophets, pastors, priests, shamans, seers, modern day religious leaders of all types, and probably all past religious gurus are human beings first and foremost, and any claimed personal and/or spiritual/emotional direct conduit to you is either imagined or false. But then I can't claim to know what happens inside their minds.

In my mind, God, there are three major classes of prophets; (1) ancient prophets, whose words and writings form the base of most religions; (2) the recent and modern day prophets who sincerely believe that they are a conduit between you and the world and strive diligently to do your will as they perceive it; and of course (3) there are the self-proclaimed prophets who profess, preach, interpret, deceive, use you and your words, and create their own words for their own gain without an actual personal belief in your reality. These, of course, are false prophets and they are criminals and often do more harm than thieves that steal only material things. I assume that false prophets will receive what they deserve when they eventually meet up with you. However, if you do not exist, God, then there are no "true" prophets, only those that are under the delusion that they are true prophets. The lines between those that believe that they are "true" prophets and false prophets are vague, often because different faiths and sub sects of faiths disagree strongly on who is, and who is not, a prophet, and anyone with mental aberrations, or even seemingly sane, can claim to be a prophet.

These are just a few of your prophets from most major religions, either anointed by you or perhaps self-anointed, or even just appointed by history: Zoroaster Buddha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Adi Sankara, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Confucius, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haffai, Malachi, Abraham, Noah, Adam, Enoch, Saleh, Ishmael, Isaac, John the Baptist, Jesus, Samuel, Gad, Nathan, Elias, Eliseus, Lugman, Khidr, Dhul-Qarnayn, Plato, Mani, Moses, Daniel, Osee, Joel, Amos, Abdias, Jonas, Micheas, Nahum, Habacuc, Sophonias, Mary, Debbora, Holda, Elijah, Barnabas, Simeon, Isaias, Jeremias, Ezechiel, Aggeus, Zacharias,, Malachias, Manaen, Agabus, Paul, Peter, Mohammad, Bahá'u'lláh, Guru Nanak Dev, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, the Twelve Apostles, First Presidency, Ellen G. White, Charles Taze Russell, Joseph Franklin Rutherford, all the Catholic Popes and saints, John Nelson Darby, E. W. Bullinger, Mary Baker Eddy, Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson, Sun Myung Moon, maybe even L. Ron Hubbard, and many, many others both historical and alive today who claim or are acclaimed to be cloaked with mantle of a Prophet.

Most prophets, major and minor, are of the Abrahamic religions, the big three, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, or various offshoots of these, and many of those mentioned above are claimed as prophets by all three. One person's prophet, however, is another person's apostate. Even Jesus has his detractors. Actually, anyone can claim to be a prophet. All you have to do to be a prophet is to claim to speak for you, God, or another deity(s), or to have a divine inspiration from a supernatural God. You don't have to have a university degree and you don't even have to be rational or even sane. It helps to have "ordinary" people sing your praises as a prophet; this avoids or minimizes the criticism often associated with self-appointment to the status of prophet. And if you perform well as an inspired teacher or leader you will soon, as least in some circles, be considered as a prophet, but usually, in these modern times, you have die first. But that's not too bad because apparently sometimes you get to come back and appear to people as a spirit and continue to give advice and direction. And as the years go by, and the words are written, you may even become the founding figure in a new religion. So it seems, God, that you have talked to a great many people, and evidently still do.

I hope this doesn't come as a surprise to you, God, but some people, a lot of them, use you in nefarious ways. They knowingly prey upon other people that believe in your existence, in your perceived goodness, and what they say are your teachings. For their own profit and aggrandizement, they deceive, they rob, they rape children, they enslave, and they brainwash; and in some instances, even kill those that do not follow them in their particular religious belief. In our modern western societies we try to dissuade those that use you for their own profit and sometimes in egregious cases, we may even incarcerate them for a few years. But this seems to be a rather ineffective method of determent. There is no lack of people that use deception, deceit, and false assurances to bend the faith of others toward their own pockets. It has always been thus, individuals and organizations that farm the faith of good people and move from harvest to harvest.

History and our modern world as well, are rife with attempts to exterminate or marginalize "unofficial" faiths that have resulted in wars and persecution. Sometimes the persecuted religions survive and become successful and dominant over an expanse of territory. One would expect that the remembrance of past domination and servitude would stimulate the new or rejuvenated culture to show compassion toward other cultures that are now in the place they previously occupied. But such is usually not the case. The all too human tendency to profit at the expense of others comes to the fore and other cultures are marginalized, distressed, and usurped, and even destroyed. I fear that we are all just too human.

Even societies and tribes that lived before contact with Europeans dealt much more harshly with false prophets when their divinations failed. As an example, in the essays of Michel de Montaigne, who lived France in the 16th century, he recounts in _Book One, XXX. Of Cannibals_ , a tale told to him by a man in his household who had lived with the natives of Brazil for 12 years at about the year 1557.

" _Divination is a gift of God, and therefore to abuse it, ought to be a punishable imposture. Among the Scythians, where their diviners failed in the promised effect, they were laid, bound hand and foot, upon carts loaded with furze and bavins, and drawn by oxen, on which they were burned to death. Such as only meddle with things subject to the conduct of human capacity, are excusable in doing the best they can: but those other fellows that come to delude us with assurances of an extraordinary faculty, beyond our understanding, ought they not to be punished, when they do not make good the effect of their promise, and for the temerity of their imposture?"_ From the essays of Montaigne, Of Cannibals

But in our modern world we cannot deal with false prophets in such a manner, even the obviously false ones, for who is to say that the prophet of one faith is false and the prophet of another faith is true? Or that the prophet, priest, rabbi, imam, seer, shaman, or pastor in question is not in a right mind? If one faith or even one arm of one faith that professes knowledge of an unverifiable supernatural directive enjoys credence and is extended political protection, then other faiths must have similar protection, or they will suffer discrimination and extermination by the dominant faith. In these days with many governments extending protection to all flavors of religions that do not steal, enslave, or sacrifice children, many new religions flourish.

#  Death and Psychics

Back in your time, God, humans had a rough life. Despite the extraordinary length of human life times reported in the Bible, life expectancy was actually about 30 years in most societies. There was no sanitation, no knowledge of microbes, no significantly effective treatment for disease and injury and little knowledge of the biology and operation of the human body. Life was very precarious and death was frequent at all ages and was always an imminent possibility in human affairs. Religion was then a reasonable explanation for human existence and the postulated existence of you, God, provided answers where only questions were present. Religion provided answers and comfort when capricious death came into families and societies. Death was then, as it is now and always has been, the ultimate weapon to strike fear into a human society and to assure compliance with the powers that be, be they either government or religion, but usually both in one body.

A society's culture is the collective behaviors that result from the beliefs and interactions of the individuals and small groups that compose the society. The life cycle of humanity; the seminal events of birth, reproduction, and death, determine the rhythm of the culture and the behavior patterns that develop and define the religions that control the society. To a sentient mortal being, death is the great unknown. We humans are frail in the face of death. Mortality is not something that deep down in our psyche we understand, especially at a young age. We cannot imagine that the world will continue to exist without our presence. But even though many of us live our lives in towers of concrete, steel, and plastic many stories above the paved-over earth, we are still creatures of blood and bone, born of the earth and destined to return to the earth.

For most of us in the developed countries the actuality of death is no longer a part of our daily life. Loved ones are now cured more often than they die, and we die in special places these days, not in the bed where we slept and loved for most all our years. We do not pass by the gallows or the guillotine on the way to work. Death is with us in the slaughterhouse, the farm, the hunt, and the hospice, but most of us are far removed from these venues. Death is a stranger we fear but most of us do not know him intimately. Those that pass over that ultimate threshold often do so with no one in attendance but an IV drip and a flashing, beeping machine.

In the past, one of the strongest pillars of religion was the frequency and intimacy of death. The immediate possibility of a premature death was always just around the corner, and in many places in the world today, it still is. Not so long ago a compound fracture was a death sentence unless the limb could be severed and cauterized with flame (without anesthesia), appendicitis was also a death sentence, as were all manner of afflictions that would require only a short stay in hospital these days. Most of the wounds of war were also non survivable and the death toll from war was horrendous. There are still wars today, God, as ever there have been, wars that are based in religious differences, and in those areas death is ever present. But for most of the world, the deaths caused by wars, disasters, and accidents merge with the fictional death poured over our minds by television and video games. Every night we see dead bodies, victims of supposedly gruesome murders, lying in pools of blood with detectives standing over the bodies telling jokes and discussing humorous personal matters. Or we engage in video games where we can personally (but virtually) kill legions of impersonal human or alien life forms in imaginary quests for treasure or glory. These real and fictional scenarios merge through the magic of television into unreal, impersonal, and ever present virtual depictions of death. So it is no wonder that the specter of death for many of us has taken on fictional dimensions divorced from everyday life and real world suffering and survival. But occasionally, this fiction is breached by catastrophic events that affect hundreds and sometimes thousands of people and they then experience the fragility of life and the surety of death, but the majority of us secure in our superficial technological existence seldom personally experience the difference between real and fictional death and have little need to find solace in religious belief, at least not until the specter of death becomes personal.

Religion was/is a supernatural door in the brick wall of mortality but now life is usually exhausted with age before death arrives; and religion does not enjoy the brinkmanship with death that drove so many into its fold. Death has always been the biological enemy, an enemy that can be postponed, but one that cannot be denied eventual victory. We desperately want to believe that there is something greater and grander than ourselves and that we are part of this greater existence, but alas, there is no evidence that this is true besides the legends of ancient civilizations and the assurances of past and present pastors, priests, imams, psychics, seers, and shamans that profit, sometimes greatly and sometimes not at all, from their august positions as spiritual advisors and conduits to supernatural realms. Unlike the universal knowledge that humans, as do other animals, must breathe, eat, and eliminate waste in order to remain alive; there is no sure knowledge that there is any truth to any of the following subjects that concern life after death and supernatural or extra natural events and abilities.

Parapsychology, Extra Sensory Perception, and supernatural experiences and abilities

Although all of these areas are very different, they do have similarities. After over hundreds of years of debate, investigation, and exposure of fraud there is still no definitive evidence, no undisputable facts, and no replicable experimentation that would prove or even tend to prove that there is any reality in supernatural phenomena; which is phenomena independent of human machinations, human imagination, or human gullibility. These supposedly supernatural capabilities have enough appeal to a great many people who really want to believe in them to convince them that supernatural realms exist and that some living people can communicate with beings in other planes of existence. As with religion, there are those that have no question that one or more of these areas describe an actual reality; those that are skeptical but think that there may be some kernel of truth behind one or more of these topics; and those that dismiss all of them as fabrications of the human mind that are either intentional fictional constructions for profit and/or aggrandizement, or the result of misinterpreted real phenomena or just wishful thinking. Scenarios concerned with these topics are typically developed from within or adjunct to existing religions, but are also developed from themes independent from traditional religions.

It seems to me, God, that there are four categories of questionable, but very common beliefs in supernatural or extraterrestrial phenomena that are essentially modern extensions, expansions, and innovations of quasi-religious themes from ancient and recent historical leitmotifs. Some of these areas are within the fold of some religious beliefs and organizations and some are anathema to these religions. They represent a huge mish-mash of conflicting, shadowy, impossible, and in many instances, firmly believed quasi-religious areas of beliefs. They are miracles, out of body experiences, psychics and mediums, and extra-terrestrial encounters.

Miracles of a religious and/or supernatural basis

Do you do miracles, God? You know, like when you make something happen that is completely beyond the natural order of reality. Things like spontaneous healing, bleeding statues, flying pigs, talking donkeys, raising the dead back to life, physical expansion of limited resources like fish and oil, creating the darkness of night at midday (we did figure that one out), and so many supposedly historical and recent events that seem to be impossible. Religious writings are replete with thousands of miraculous events and that those that have religious belief have no doubt that these miracles are the "gospel truth". If you exist and if you still interact with humanity in various ways, then you probably still do miracles. After all, the definition of a miracle is your intervention with what would be the natural course of events to create a good and beneficial outcome to what would likely have been a small or large disaster, or perhaps a great reward for their veneration of you. People believe that when you do a miracle you often work through an intermediary of some sort: Jesus, a prophet, or a saint or a doctor, or a fireman, or a just a passerby, or sometimes personally, like controlling the apparently totally random activity of the balls in a lottery machine, or directing a lone hiker toward a lost child.

Like beauty, the veracity of a miracle is in the eyes of the beholder. Most of the population of Earth espouses belief in you and by definition, also a belief in miracles. Some see a miracle in every turn of the day, every bloom of a flower, and others only at rare occasions. Confidence men and women, including those of religious bent, who prey upon the strong desire of many people to find confirmation of religious belief, often use belief in miracles to support schemes that fatten their wallet, and often the victims do not know or even suspect that they have been duped. Now God, I don't believe in miracles, events that you control and/or events that occur outside of the reality of the natural world. But I do believe that coincidences occur, and events happen that cannot be explained by the knowledge we possess at the time of the event. The human desire to believe in miracles can often lead one to see much more in an event than what actually occurred, and time cements with belief the memory of what one wants to believe. The human mastery of devious subterfuge uses this tendency to create events that may seem to be miraculous or dependent on foreknowledge. Without a belief in your existence and your intervention, every so called miracle has a real world explanation, even if we do not know what that might be.

Out of body visits to heaven and hell through dreams and near death experiences

There are those among us that are sure beyond doubt that they have experienced a glimpse of life beyond the shadow of death, that they have experienced death and met you, God, in one guise or another, and also interacted with family members that have already left this life. "Out of body" experiences are also often part of such visions. The accounts of these experiences are usually similar, and although some may be deliberate attempts for recognition and attention, others are sincere renditions of what was, or seems to them to be, an actual supernatural experience. One can choose to believe that such accounts are evidence of a supernatural existence after death, or to believe that there are explanations that are not known but that do not involve interaction with a supernatural world, that such experiences originate and are contained within a brain under stress.

There are many accounts of dreams providing a glimpse of supernatural worlds. I cannot "believe" that the explanation for a sincere rendition of a dream experience comes from a "real" encounter with a supernatural world; but I cannot refute that premise by offering a real world proven explanation. Dreams can seem very real. Occasionally I, as do most people, have long and detailed dreams that I remember upon waking. In no way do I think that these dreams are experiences in an alternate reality. If they were, I'm sure that restrooms would be just as easy to find and use in an alternate reality as they are in this reality.

Perhaps the most famous dreams of an alternate reality are the three dreams that are basis of Dante Alighieri's 14th century epic poem of _The Devine Comedy_. The first of these is known as Dante's Inferno, a tale of an epic journey through Hell guided by the Roman poet Virgil. It is a very complex and detailed tale of a journey through the many levels of Hell and although it may have been sparked by a dream, it seems that the details and complexity of the structure of Hell must have been filled in by a conscious imagination. I don't think that you, God, had anything to do with Dante's tale but many people through the centuries think that you did. Dreams can seem very real to a mind that is inclined toward supernatural belief and recounting a dream, with perhaps some embellishment, can become a form of reality both to the dreamers and those that listen to them. Somehow I doubt, God, that if you really wanted to talk with someone about something of great importance, that you would visit them through the media of a vague emanation of a quickly forgotten dream formed from the unconscious activity of the sleeping brain. Given the all-powerful supernatural manifestation that you reportedly possess, I would think that you could just place your presence in the mind of a person and provide an unmistakable dialogue or just an instruction in the conscious mind. And maybe to a chosen few you do just that, but I live with great unbelief and doubt and the knowledge that if those vague dreams do provide a quick glimpse around the impervious wall of reality, then someday, perhaps too late, I may find out for sure.

Mediums and channelers that contact supernatural beings

There are many people who claim to be psychics, channelers, and mediums, those that claim that they can communicate with the dead, and/or access the supernatural world to provide information and consultation. They usually provide "readings" for a price to family members that desperately wish to know that loved ones that have passed are still in existence and aware of life on this physical plane. Typically, psychics and mediums get messages from human souls that have passed, and channelers allow themselves to be "occupied" by a supernatural entity of various origins, a "spirit guide" that provides information from real and supernatural sources. This information may be only short notes or entire books. The practice of engaging supernatural sources is rife with fraud, deceit, and larceny, but there are some that are very skilled in seeming to be able to engage beings not of this world. Most mediums and channelers are very accomplished in what they do; and the typical response they give those that question their abilities and reject the premise that they actually receive messages from entities in another plane of existence is a deprecatory smile and the comment, "It doesn't matter what you think or say, I know what I do and I know that it is real". It's basically a no win situation. If one claims that they own a new Rolls Royce automobile, well, that can be proven to be true or false; but if one claims to communicate with the dead, or with God, or angels and demons, no matter how outlandish the claim; it cannot be proven in real world terms, at least not to the acceptance of a nonbeliever in the supernatural, that such is or is not the case–just as it can't be proven in real world terms, God, that you do or do not exist.

A psychic uses careful observation, leading questions, sometimes preliminary research, and a finely honed ability to recognize and follow the subject's response to generalities. The subject almost always has an intense desire to believe that the psychic's connection with the departed is real and they strive to aid the psychic in the quest to make contact and communicate with the soul on the other side of life. The subject is also usually religious to some extent which provides the psychic with a subject that already has a belief that a supernatural world exists. All this often leads to a convincing performance by the psychic that confirms the subject's beliefs and validates the information that the psychic is able to provide. Psychics are typically nothing more than con men or women who make a living, sometimes a very lucrative living, preying on gullible and emotionally hurting people. Perhaps they justify their actions with the rationalization that they are healing psychological wounds and scars and providing succor for emotional distress, or perhaps they mistake a talent for keen observation as an ability to receive information from supernatural sources. But if they do have a line of communication with departed souls and supernatural creatures, one would think that they could do a better and more accurate job with their amazing gift of insight and communication into supernatural realms. Now there are remarkable stories of the accuracy and helpfulness of psychic readings and of the amazing revelations of channelers like Edward Casey and Nostradamus, and many, many others of lesser fame. And there are also books by reformed psychics and skeptics that expose and debunk the techniques of mediums and psychics. It is a veritable war of words. But skeptics cannot prevent psychics from plying their trade, and reason and exposure of subterfuge and tricks seems not to seriously affect the activity of psychics and the belief of their clients. Such is the way of the world of humanity.

You may have noticed God, that psychics and mediums seldom if ever, bring you into the reports they get from the other world. Considering your position in the supernatural as well as in the physical world, one would think that if there is some kernel of truth in the performance of psychics, mediums, and channelers that they would have a great enough knowledge of your existence and activity to at least refer to your presence, but no, at least in a public venue they usually avoid any mention of your presence and/or involvement with the entities they contact. Perhaps that is because you seem not to have a very high opinion of their activities, or perhaps they do not want to limit their divinations to one religion or sect, or go on record with claiming the veracity of a particular religion, or incite controversy and possible condemnation from adherents of different religions. What is your opinion, God, of those that enter into your realm to communicate with its occupants?

I realize that you may have many opinions, God, determined by which religion one consults to determine what your opinion might be. Christianity, through the Bible, has a rather explicit attitude toward those that practice divination. For example:

" _Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God."_ Leviticus 19:31

" _I will set my face against the person who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostitute himself by following them, and I will cut him off from his people."_ Leviticus 20:6

" _A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death. You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads."_ Leviticus 20:27

" _No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries,"_ (Daniel 2:27) _, "for it is God who "alone has all wisdom and power,"_ who _"reveals deep and mysterious things and knows what lies hidden in darkness, though he himself is surrounded by light,"_ (Daniel 2: 20, 22).

" _He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger."_ 2 Kings 21:6

There are other verses in your Bible, God, that show your displeasure with those that consult mediums and spiritists so I can see why modern day psychics and mediums would not want to involve you in their practice.

Islam doesn't seem to be quite so specific about castigating mediums, seers, and psychics, but consulting one who communicates with the supernatural world is considered haraam (sinful and displeasing to Allah) and requires repentance. People who claim to have "knowledge of the unseen" get any such information from jinns and shaitans (demons) because no one has knowledge of the unseen except Allah thus all information from psychics is false and according to the Holy Prophet Sallallahu Alaihe Wa Sallam is strictly prohibited. Evidently one who consults unseen sources is not a good Muslim. The Quran states:

" _Say, "No one in the heavens and the earth has the knowledge of the Unseen except Allah." And they do not know when they will be raised again."_ [al-Naml verse65]

Although the Abrahamic religions are followed by the majority of religious people on the Earth, there are many other religions, many older than the Abrahamic versions. Hinduism, Buddism, Confucianism, and Taoism are very different from the Abrahamic religions; there are many Gods and/or supernatural concepts and many various interactions with the spiritual world. Psychics, palmists, astrologers, and soothsayers are all believed to draw their powers from the spirits that inhabit these nether worlds. The influence of the spirits and gods is real and pervasive to many people and just superstition to many others. Thus, as with Western religions, there are those that believe psychics and those that do not.

Extra-terrestrials, either supernatural beings from another reality or real beings from other planets

This is a very interesting subject, God. It could be "supernatural" if one assumes that there are actually more or less 11 other parallel universes that can communicate with ours through black holes or other extra-natural phenomena that might serve as conduits for either energy and/or material substance from other realms –or it could be "natural" in that life from other locations in our galaxy and/or universe has attained the seemingly impossible capability of deep space travel and has visited our Earth in the distant past and/or surreptitiously in the present for purposes that we can only guess. Both of these "possibilities" are far outside of the reality that we deal with every day and we visit them only in our fictional imagination.

I wonder God, if parallel universes do exist, are you the god of those universes also, or just this one. And if just this one, the one in which I currently exist, do those other universes have a god or gods of their own, and if so, do you communicate with them? And if you do, is your relationship with them friendly? Do you have meetings or conferences every year or every million years to compare notes and explore what atomic configurations and evolutionary schemes are the most productive? Yeah, my wonderments are anthropomorphic, God, but gee, all I have to think with is my limited human based capability, knowledge, and experience.

We have built up great imaginings on the subjects of parallel universes and advanced beings from other planets. It would take many books to tell you all about them, and actually I would never get done with these subjects because they expand and develop daily in fictional and speculative areas as human imagination takes science and religion into realms far from the reality with which we know and live. It is great fun, but it doesn't advance us with the things we have to do to maintain the sustainable ecology of our little blue world.

#  Disbelief

Religion doesn't like it much when it is not in control of things. Organized religion usually feels that it is your "mouthpiece" and as such everyone, and they mean **Everyone** , should obey them and live their life according to their particular interpretation of your wishes. Despite some recent concessions, forced by science and the rule of law, religion doesn't really like reason and science. I think, that perhaps as Bertrand Russell suggested, theology tolerates science only because science provides the creature comforts, the healing arts, and the technology that can all be bent to the furtherance and well-being of theology. When I listen to those that lead the numerous organized, and unorganized religions and religious assemblies of the world today, and hear their message in the light of science and reason, the picture that comes to mind is that of the Wizard of Oz announcing in in a resounding voice through the thunder of the loudspeaker, "Pay no attention to that little man behind the curtain, he is just an atheistic scientist".

As I understand it, God, you are all powerful, omniscient, and omnipotent, and very, very concerned with humanity, and you know that we have and are sinning against your will, your concept, and your instructions. And we know this from the ancient texts that you directed, and through your prophets and messengers that are among us. And these prophets and messengers go to great lengths to instruct and assure us that it is not their power, not their intelligence, not their direction, not their welfare, not their standing in society that is important–no, it is only your word and your direction that they are transmitting to the faithful and the prospective faithful. They are only the messenger, favored by you perhaps, but only a channel between you and those that seek salvation and eternal life in a "better place". These prophets/messengers want us to believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that you actually exist, that you care deeply about their salvation; that unless one really believes in you; you have the power to destroy them, send them to hell, and make their life on Earth a hell. Of if they do believe, then you can give them guidance and success in this world and grant them a wonderful eternal life–and all that they have to is to suspend their belief in the reality around them and trust you, and your messenger, to guide them into a life of religious belief and subservience to a faith.

Disbelief is the great enemy, an enemy guided by the dark forces of Satan himself, to steal one's soul and send one to the everlasting lake of fire. Well, OK, God, but to me, it sure looks like an excellent way to "Power by Proxy", whether by malicious intent or by innocent belief by those that profess to have an inside track to understanding your wishes. Unfortunately, many people find power in religion, if they are articulate, confidant, and strong of will, and demonstrate, accurately or not, a knowledge and understanding of the writings that claim to be from you; then they can find a following and for good or evil, develop a power over those that follow them–sometimes to the extent of controlling their lives and even their finances.

In my view, religion is like a velvet glove over an iron hand that has a death grip on the throat of civilization. To my rational mind, those that BELIEVE, believe mainly through emotion and culture–and if they have question, it often cannot be expressed because the iron hand will squeeze off the flow of culture and/or life. But often only the velvet glove is in evidence to an unquestioning human life, and it provides comfort, companionship, love, and reason for being. But humanity is learning to conquer nature, explore the realms beyond our planet, and slip the bonds of disease and early death for much of civilized humanity, and if the velvet glove of religion doesn't help us to learn how to contain human life within the carrying capacity of our Earth, the results within a relatively short period of time, will be disastrous.

Even though I'm sort of talking to you, God, I didn't intend for these letters to be a form of prayer. Actually, I don't really understand what prayer is. Synonyms for prayer are numerous; request, supplication, desire, plea, and entreaty are listed along with many other terms. I think most folks use prayer to ask you for things, sometimes material things and perhaps more often things like good health, good grades, a winning team, and help for themselves and others that are facing life changing and life threating circumstances and disasters. I can sort of see how quiet individual prayer can be very helpful. When one is alone and apart from the stressful and hectic affairs of the business of modern life, it is calming and helpful to consider where one is in life, what the meaning is of what one is doing and what plans for the future one might have, and how what one does can add to the betterment of family and community. If it helps to use the concept of a dialogue with a supernatural deity in these ruminations, and call it prayer, well that may be an honest expression of one's belief and faith and if so, that is part one's concept of reality, either carefully considered or just rote.

What I don't understand at all is the other two kinds of prayer, at least as I see it. These are leader prayer and ritual prayer. Leader prayer is when everyone in a group sits quietly in a reverent posture with eyes closed and listens to a religious leader present to you (a one way conversation) about any manner of things and profess to represent the opinions, beliefs, and requests of the entire group. I'm sure that not everyone in that congregation agrees with everything the leader expresses. I wonder if anyone is adding aside comments to that often long and involved soliloquy, opting out from some statements or requests and adding others. I know that if I was a believer, I would certainly have objections and additions to many leader prayers. As far as I know you never reply to such prayers from sane leaders but I guess these prayers do serve to enhance continuity within the religious community.

Ritual prayer is when everyone recites a formal prayer at the same time, like the Lord's Prayer or the Nicene Creed. I'm not sure what good that does except perhaps to unify the congregation in belief and purpose, something that cements the sense of tribal unity and community, things that help to unify and fortify the social hierarchy of the religious organization. I'm sure that you aren't sitting in a throne of gold and silver surrounded by angels and basking in the obsequious and mindless supplication of ritual prayer. That would be a strange and very primitive human-like response to attainment of great political and/or religious power. I am of the mind that ritual prayer serves the need of religious organizations much more than it serves to stroke your ego.

Since I don't believe that you actually exist, I am not really expecting any answers. So if you do exist, I doubt that you will bother to reply to my questions, especially the not very respectful ones. Perhaps one has to have what they call a "personal relationship" with you in order to believe that you might supernaturally interfere with the natural flow of real world events to help them out. So don't worry about my musings and wonderments, I'm sure you have a lot more important things to do.

But what I think you should do, for what it's worth, and if you exist, and if I can be so bold as to give you advice, is to come back to Earth, as you said you would do, and simply tell everyone:

" **Stop! All of you, just Stop! You all have multiplied enough now, more than enough. Stop fighting, get your house in order, protect this wondrous planet I gave you and use your innate talents and drives to extend your presence into a sustainable future. Stop worrying about me, I don't need you to invent religions and rituals to worship me, I'm bigger than that, I tried to tell you that before, but nooooo, you persist in thinking that I'll be happy with you if you kill and destroy everyone else that doesn't believe exactly what you may think I want you to believe. And I don't need you to expend ridiculous funds and efforts on building these huge, elaborate houses for me, I don't need them, but I do like your music. I'll be happy with you if you just control yourselves, take care of each other and take care of your world. I can't give you another one if you don't take care of this one. You have to stop digging a hole in your lifeboat to try to fit more people into it; it should be obvious what will happen if you do. And if you can't do this, I can't promise you another chance. And I'm not going to tell you what happens, if anything, after you die, that's only for me to know. "**

So God, you should come back soon and put a stop to all this human and environmental abuse. But if you do it will really tick off a whole lot of people that use you to further their own ends. You would be amazed how many evil things are done in your name. I think, I hope, that you don't know about all this, but I'm afraid you do, and that you don't want to bother to correct things. Yeah, it doesn't make much sense, so I guess "they" are correct, your ways are mysterious and beyond the ken of mere mortals.

#  Why

Consideration and study of the How and Why of our existence–from the vast immensity of the universe to the interaction of sub atomic particles, to the amazing cosmic activity that resulted in our solar system and planet Earth, to the atomic, physical, and chemical properties of matter that led to the origin and development of life on Earth, to the workings of the human brain with consciousness and intelligence–has always produced four kinds of people.

1/ There are those for which the How is all that can be and need be considered, Why is but an inexplicable mystery with no answers possible and not worth the time to contemplate.

2/ There are those that explore only the Why, the How is but an extension of the Why, and once the Why is answered, there is no need to explain or pursue the How.

3/ Then there are those that work to understand the How and explore the Why in the light of what the How teaches.

4/ And of course there are those that worry not about the How, or the Why, and prefer only another beer and good game on the TV, or any of many other trivial pursuits.

Interestingly, the more we learn about the How, the more mysterious, unknown, and intriguing is the Why.

Many of us live our modern lives surrounded by the beneficial presence of a technology created by the intellect and reason of our scientists, doctors, technicians and mechanics, and yet we thank you, the giver of all good things, for the largesse of our modern existence. I wonder; if all this came from you, why did you wait so long, 200,000 years, 5,000 years or even 2,000 years to bestow all this upon us? Could you not have done this long, long, ago? We would have been so much further ahead by now if you had done it earlier. Maybe we wouldn't have trashed our environment as badly if you had, and while I'm thinking of all those lost years (like the Dark Ages), why didn't you establish only one religion in the very beginning, since that seems to be the basis of most of our societies, and through that you might have created the ethos that would have led us to live within carrying capacity of our environment when we did discover the science and technology that allowed us to conquer the Earth.

To me religions, especially yours, are like the typical hollow chocolate Easter bunny. It looks really great, it tastes good, it makes you happy, but when you break it open it's just an empty shell, there is no reality inside. Apparently, for most people, that chocolaty, nicely sculptured, tasty exterior is all the reality they need (or maybe they can see a reality that I can't see), but for them it's evidently all the comfort and reason for being that is important in life. But for others who require a reality of substance and truth, the pursuit of reason and knowledge provides the truth and the reality that is missing in a hollow chocolate Easter bunny. In my mind it would be wonderful if we could just fill that chocolate Easter bunny with reality, but still keep the social qualities that religion provides to so many people.

The battle between religion and modern secular society is now being waged on many fronts, some violent, some contentious, even some polite exchanges that end with an agreement to disagree. The topics are scientific, legal, ideological, political, social, moral, economic, and some are antagonist even between religious realms. I think it would be good if you, God, and human secular culture could interact and develop a better, if separate, understanding of these different cultural realities. If so, I think the world would be better able to face the challenges that lie ahead. Would it be possible, I wonder, for established churches/religions to encourage a relationship with free thinking individuals that find the compassionate and social values of modern religion of great worth, but cannot honestly accept the unreal and uncomfortable supplication to the supernatural aspects of religion? Would it be possible to establish within a church an associated "supernatural free", secular assembly that can function socially within the church and provide assistance, insight, and support without conformation and agreement with the supernatural tenets of the faith? This might attract individuals into the church community that recognize, agree with, and support the compassionate outreach and fellowship provided by the social and charitable aspects of the church community.

Of course there is the danger that in supporting and interacting in close quarters with people that cannot accept the supernatural basis of the faith that some members of the church that believe in these supernatural tenets may be dissuaded of their belief. But that may be countered by the possibility that some with only a secular locus may be persuaded by social and/or supernatural factors to accept membership among those that are believers. However, the interaction between those that are secure in their faith, and those without religious faith but see the beneficial societal and fellowship aspects of most religious communities–may produce many interesting discussions and personal growth in many dimensions. What do you think, God, any chance of something like that being workable? Yeah, I don't know either. Given the history of humanity and religions, and the aggressive polarity of human views of religion, I'm pessimistic about it too. I doubt that very many churches would welcome a nest of secular humanists and free thinkers into their fold, unless, of course, they would be very generous when the collection plate and tithing time comes around.

#  A Strange New World

The world has changed for humanity (and the Earth) in the last few hundred years. It's a strange world down here now, God, it's very different than it was for many, many thousands of years. But almost all of us (at least 6 billion people ) still believe that to a greater or lesser extent, supernatural forces (you) in some way or another control the direction, development, and final outcome of their lives and the existence of humanity–yet, through science, technology, reason, and the accumulation of basic knowledge, we understand and use the raw elements and resources of the Earth to create a civilization more complex in every way than we could even imagine just a hundred years ago, much less five hundred years ago. The moon has gone from a supernatural light in the sky to a mysterious planetoid revolving around our world, to a physical destination which we have visited and returned, and now pretty much understand geologically. We know the sun is a star and that the night sky shines with the light of billions of galaxies and billions and billions of stars, actually the number of stars in the universe is thought to be about an octillion, that writes out to be 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, although the number of red dwarf stars may increase that number substantially. We have an understanding of what stars are and how they develop and how they die. We have also visited the deepest oceanic depth, the Marianas Trench, the north and south poles, and have explored almost every area of the planet.

Even an ordinary man like me can fly to any destination at almost any point on the globe in only a relatively few hours. I can get in my automobile (we call them cars) and travel at speeds beyond human comprehension only a short time ago–over vast networks of hard paved roads that cover all but one of the continents of the earth. With artificial satellites, a technology developed in my lifetime, we can look down at almost any location on the planet take pictures with incredible detail and with these satellites, I can communicate instantly with almost anyone in the world. The knowledge of what humanity now knows fills huge libraries with both physical books and digital information and much of this knowledge is now available in minutes to anyone with a computer.

People can be cured of cancer, restored from critical brain injury, and mental illness can be cured or controlled. The advances in medical and biological science and technology have been staggering. Some diseases such as diabetes cannot be cured, yet, but we now know how to control them and allow those afflicted to live a relatively normal life. We can now even transplant organs from a brain dead trauma victim to a patient with organ failure and create an extended life from a tragic death, and also cure some diseases by correcting the basic codes of life, the DNA molecules that direct the biochemistry of life in our bodies. In your day, as Arthur Clark said, such capabilities would be akin to magic.

And every year the world gets stranger and stranger. Science and technology advance the frontier of knowledge further and further into areas that weren't thought possible only a few years ago, or weren't even thought of at that time. The specter of extensive religious wars grows ever larger with each year, our natural resources dwindle and decline more and more rapidly each year, and our populations grow, and grow, and the separation of the rich and the poor continues to expand. Do you have any answers for us, God? How should we face the future?

#  War and Religion

Humanity has a long and horrendous history of violent aggression, intense warfare, and passionate rebellion between and within religions. And even when war is absent; oppression, marginalization, exploitation, and enslavement occurs between cultures that live together in "peaceful" times. Of course there are the underlying factors of cultural expansion, economic competition, competition for natural resources, and territorial disputes; but the frosting on the cake of war, armed conflict, and terror, is almost always religion in one way or another. It may not be the root cause of the conflict but it is almost always a primary difference between the conflicting cultures that is exploited by all sides to justify war. The relatively recent religious conflicts, both hot and warm, that plague human societies are Islam vs Christianity, Islam vs Judaism, Islam vs Hindu, Sunni Islam vs Shite Islam, fundamentalist Islam vs moderate Islam, Protestant vs Catholic, Protestant vs Mormon, various Protestant sects vs various Protestant sects, Christianity vs Judaism, Hindu vs Buddhism, Sikh vs Hindu, Buddhism vs Catholic, Islam vs Buddhism, and many more major and minor aggressive interactions. I have to tell you God, historically, your religions don't really get along very well.

Here's a question for you God, would humanity benefit, short term, long term, from a worldwide war that would, in effect, create a religion that would dominate life in all countries? The great experiment of secular government and the option for freedom from religion would vanish from the earth. In some religious circles that would not be a bad thing, in fact, fundamentalists and extremists in quite a few religions would not hesitate, and have not hesitated, to try to create a world where every knee will bow to your supremacy according to their interpretations of their religion. And actually you predict in Revelations that such a thing is going to happen, for example the final battle between good and evil in the End Times is a common thread in religious doctrines.

Of course the question as to whether humanity would benefit from such a turn of events depends on one's point of view. Aside from the fantastical supernatural religious scenarios where you and your favored believers and supernatural minions reign supreme with ultimate power and destroy Satan and the powers of evil on the Plains of Megiddo in the Battle of Armageddon and if that actually happens, then ultimate reality is very, very, different from what I perceive. But in the real world, I think it might be possible that religions in one way or another could instigate such a war, as they have done so in the past. It would probably not be a total worldwide conflagration, but certainly a game changer for humanity. I don't see a supernatural ending, just the remains of another cataclysmic encounter between religions, but with modern weapons in many countries. However, if one religion emerges so victorious that it can subjugate all nations into its fold (as inconceivable as that may seem), what would then become of humanity?

Certainly in the short term the death and destruction created by such a war would not benefit those that suffer a violent and torturous death, and those that survive would either celebrate a pyrrhic victory or live the rest of their lives in religious enslavement. I would also suppose that much of the scientific and cultural advancements created during the previous brief span of human freedom from the tethers of religion would be lost or submerged in the chaos of religious infighting among the victorious believers. And this would be on a scale far greater then were the surviving elements of the prior faiths during the emergence of Christianity and its various partitions, Islam, and other religions. The victorious religion seems to always strive to crumble into ruins and ashes the glories and insights of the vanquished religion, but the vanquished religion always survives although reduced and modified in one form or another. Why is it, God, that religion with power is often so full of hate and intolerance?

The most likely result of a great religious war would probably not be the total genocide of adherents of the losing religion as long as there is enough land, food, and water to support the population. Human nature does generally favor forceful subservience and slavery over total annihilation. I think that over time dominance of one religion over all others might foster peace in the way that military occupation fosters peace. I doubt that this would produce the intellectual freedom that nurtures scientific, philosophical, and economic development and I think that social control and domination would rule the day. The middle ages under the Roman Catholic Church and modern Islam under Sharia Law may be examples of such total religious control. The world may be peaceful under the oppression of one religion, but a human life might not be worth living.

Even today, despite our scientific knowledge of ourselves and our world, we are still yoked with religion and supernatural beliefs that in one way or another control the lives of almost everyone in almost every way. Here in the United States, arguably the most powerful and scientifically advanced nation in the world, it is very difficult to get elected to almost any public office, including dog catcher and the presidency, without professing a belief in your existence and in your ability to control events if only we pray to you for guidance and the outcome we wish. In fact, believe it not, in this world some of us still wage wars and apply violent oppression because we think that it is your will that we do so (and so much the better if it also serves the economic and social purposes of those that wield the power). War and the elements of war are a major part of our worldwide economy. Defensive wars are prepared for and waged by almost all nations. Interestingly, almost all wars have been ostensibly defensive wars by the nations that start them. We start wars to defend our country from perceived or manufactured invasion or to recover disputed territory, to free ourselves and others from actual or threatened tyranny, to defend and/or extend our religions because God has told us that we must defend Him from those that offend Him, and to seek revenge for occupation, actual or perceived aggression, and even just as revenge for perceived verbal insult.

And, of course, the nation under attack, physical or verbal, must also engage in a defensive war. Modern warfare is never as simple as one nation declaring an offensive war on another nation or society that has something they want or need and then simply go to war, kill and destroy, and take what they want by superior physical force. No, that was in the past, now it's always a righteous, defensive war, often waged to defend you, God, and their flavor of your religion.

There's something else I worry about God, I worry about it whenever war and religion come together, which is frequently. It's been with humanity ever since we became aware that the future exists and that we could think about what might happen when the future arrives in our lives. The basic idea is that just a human belief, true or false, can shape future events. This understanding of human behavior can be found in ancient literature but one of the earliest modern descriptions was put forth by Edward Gibbon in the _Decline of the Roman Empire_ (published in 1776-89, chapter 1, part 11):

"During many ages, the prediction, as it is usual, contributed to its own accomplishment".

But we didn't actually begin to define it until W. I. Thomas and D. S. Thomas in their 1928 book, _The child in America: Behavior problems and programs_ presented this insightful phrase:

" _If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences"._

Then Robert Merton in his 1948 book In his book _Social Theory and Social Structure_ , further described it more fully as:

" _a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the originally false conception come true"._

There are now many other names for this phenomena; the Oedipus effect, the observer-expectancy effect, Hawthorne effect, Barnesian performativity, bootstrapped induction, the placebo effect, the stereotype threat, and a few others. However, the most common expression of the concept is in the phrase, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A self-fulfilling prophecy can have either a positive or a negative effect. It can be a simple individual situation; for example, if a student feels positive and confident and believes he will do well before taking a test, the results are likely to be much better than if the student feels apprehensive and fearful and believes he may fail. Or the effect can be widespread such as an unfounded rumor leading to a belief that a stock will either rise or fall in value, and buyers and sellers acting on false belief fulfill the false prophecy (sometimes bad people take advantage of that aspect of human behavior).

But, what I worry about God, is that often this phenomena has a religious basis which develops into a real world effect. For example, If a religious community believes that there is a real threat that the world will end, they act accordingly, giving away their worldly possessions and gathering on a mountain top at the prescribed time. And when the cataclysmic event doesn't happen, they either reset the date or look for a more accurate seer. But what can happen, and can happen especially when governments under religious authority harbor a false belief that they should go to war to fulfill your desires and commands, or when there is a widely held belief that a government plans to disarm the populace and/or force abandonment or institution of a particular religious belief, the possible ensuing violence and war based on false belief can destroy nations and kill multitudes of innocent people, all because of belief in the supernatural. I can see today the development of a deadly and toxic mix of religious belief and the technology developed for mass violence and destructive war, and I shudder for the future.

So God, the message here is clear. We humans live by prophesy, some by what they think is your prophesy, however, most "prophesy" is what we think the future holds for us both individually and collectively, and we consciously and unconsciously work toward fulfillment of that prophesy. Usually this is positive, but unfortunately, it is often negative for ourselves and/or for society as a whole. Religion usually teaches us to form "prophesies" that will fulfill the tenets, objectives, and goals of a particular religion. What is clear is that we have to be very careful about the "prophesies" we build, whether or not they are tied to a religion. If they are built on the tenets of a religion, there is the danger that the result will be based on a false view of reality that holds to the prophesy that human civilization will end in a inconceivably horrible violent supernatural war. But, as they say, we should "think positive", and strive to build a self-fulfilling prophesy that will protect human life and well being, human future, and our earthly environments. And I think that in things large and small a good self-fulfilling prophesy will require sacrifice in the present for survival in the future.

#  Do You Care, God?

Do you care, God, that there are so many different religions in the world? It seems almost like you couldn't make up your mind about how you want humans to define you. Each religion is sure, absolutely sure, that you have told them who and what you are and how to relate to you. Some believe that you are strong and vengeful and they should smite with force and violence those that oppose you or just don't agree with them about you; others believe that there are a lot of you, each with different characters and purposes; others believe that through caring and concern for all, their "true" religion will convince all humanity of your true nature; and others see you as a vague and distant deity with only a casual interest in the affairs of humans.

Theoretically you can do whatever it is that you wish to do, so it seems that you either want to perpetuate religious chaos for some reason; or you just don't care about how humanity perceives you; or you really want people to find the "true religion" on their own, or you want people to independently struggle to find you; or you really are not at all in control of human activity; or, in my opinion, most likely you just don't exist.

To sum up this first part of my letter, God, I think that there are basically four possibilities that could describe our existence.

1/ One may believe that God exists and that that this supernatural entity we call God planed and designed the universe, the Earth, and all life. And that a specific religion established by this God describes the nature, purpose, and intent of this deity with regard to the existence, development, nature, and behavior of humanity–and that this deity created intelligent, sentient life, humanity, for a purpose that exceeds the physical existence of each individual human.

2/ One may believe that a supernatural God exists and that it created the universe and all life, including the unique sentient human species, and instilled in humanity an instinctive knowledge of the existence of a deity and a desire to know it, but that no specific religion captures the essence of this deity.

3/ One may believe or consider it possible that a supernatural entity or force created the universe with the specific characteristics of matter, endowed the subatomic particles with the inherent energy and structure to form atomic particles, elements and molecules that in turn have the capacity to form stars, planets, and life–and that this entity may or may not have an interest in humanity or in individual human lives.

4/ Or one may believe that the origin and structure of the universe, including life and sentient life, was not directed by an intelligent entity and although the innate forces that stimulated the universe to develop are not fully understood by humanity at this time, it may be possible in the future, if human civilization continues to develop scientifically, technologically, and socially, to develop a better understanding of the universe we occupy.

In my case I favor the last possibility; I only hope that we as a species can exist long enough to better understand the elements of our existence.

At the end of the day, one either fully believes in a supernatural god, or one does not. I think religious belief is largely grounded in a cultural authority. It seems obvious that arguments for existence of God(s) based on labored logic derived from ancient historical texts, and unverifiable supernatural experiences do not prove the truth of any particular religion. And on the other side, science cannot unequivocally prove or disprove the existence of a supernatural deity. True belief in a God and a religion requires faith, which is an emotional assurance that one's belief is grounded in a truth beyond all reason and belief in this truth stems from supernatural revelation. According to some Christian prostalization, the formula for acquiring faith is, (1) Believe, (2) Receive, and (3) Become. Thus one must have a prior belief that a supernatural God exists before supernatural forces can bestow a confidence in that belief that will then allow one to become a true believer in a particular religion. Once that level of conviction is reached (usually with cultural prodding), then no rational arguments based on real world factual knowledge can convince a staunch believer that the God and religion that they have accepted is not rational and does not reflect reality. Religion knows very well that once one has publicly admitted conviction of a faith and become a member of a congregation, it is difficult to renounce that decision.

I wonder, God, why does one have to be receptive before one can hear your voice? After all, if your child wants to go play in traffic, one does not wait till the child is receptive of the message before one delivers instructions emphatically in no uncertain terms. But I guess religion is different and your motivations are not of human orgin. If one has thought realistically about religion and wrestled with unbelief, it seems that religious conviction must come from a source perhaps beyond but certainly within the psyche of the individual. The 19th century American philosopher and psychologist William James summed up my thoughts very well in this quote.

" _I myself believe that the evidence of God lies primarily in inner personal experiences."_ William James

If this is the case, and if you do exist, and if true belief depends on your presence within us, than all the rhetoric wars are for naught, your presence within the human mind is the deciding factor. There is and long has been a worldwide war of words, and often with weapons, between various believers and nonbelievers about the veracity of the basis of a religious faith. The word war between religious fundamentalism and scientific exposition has developed greatly in the last 200 years as scientific knowledge of our world and ourselves has expunged much of the supernatural basis for belief. There will be no end to the conflict between religion and rationality, God, unless you somehow find a way without all the smoke and mirrors to let us know what's really going on with you, not only thousands of years in the past, but today as well.

Now with the world filling up with humanity, all of us alive because of what we have accomplished through science and technology, and beginning to struggle to find a way for civilization to survive–we are in a way like a little bird emerging from the egg and looking with wonder at the new world before it, but the shell of religion clings to its wings and prevents it from flying into a survivable future.

