Logical Thinking - Salem-News.Com

I do not doubt God has a plan, but I believe, on the basis of what we know from History and Science, not excluding common-sense, that His plan is concerned more with the large than small details.

(PASO ROBLES, Calif.) - Bibles differ, a reasonable truth considering how many versions have been published over time for various denominations

At a concert performed in a Lutheran Church I perused the Book of Isaiah and was surprised that some words were missing in its Bible compared to the one I researched I checked my Bible when I got home and there it was; Isaiah 1; 22 - Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water. If something is not mentioned in the Bible it doesn’t mean God is unaware of it. But if a thing is in the Bible, and is changed or eliminated, what of God; is the Bible the work of man after all? As for the missing passage, the so-called miracle of turning water into wine is explained by replacing a watered-down bottle with an undiluted bottle of wine; simple enough.

The Gospels of Matthew and Mark [Matthew: 21; 1-11 and Mark: 11; 1-10]. tell of Jesus who, to fulfill prophecy, asked for and rode into Jerusalem on the back of an untamed ass, an event celebrated today by Christians as Good Friday. The significance is not explained in the text, but the ass is referred to as a “Worthy Bearer of Divinity.” Christians who embrace their givens in the innocent conviction they can accept the Bible or the opinion of Evangelist-pretenders without question are themselves worthy bearers no more aware of their divinity than was Jesus’ chosen beast of burden.

Many Evangelists pretend to know what logically they cannot, and try to persuade others to share their misguided opinion. They don’t re-write the Bible, but often preach as if it is irrelevant. Where did Mike Huckabee get the idea the U.S. Constitution should reflect the will of his “Living God,“ or Rod Parsley divine that American-Christians are duty-bound to destroy Islam? Not from the Bible. And who tried in four states to have voters decide on Nov.4th 2008 if life begins at conception? In Oregon, Montana and Georgia, the proposed proposition never made it to the ballot for lack of signatures, and in Colorado, where it did, the proposition was voted down decisively. Evangelists also claim that contraception is a form of abortion. What nonsense! God’s-will decided by majority vote on state ballots? Abortion without conception? What the hell?

I do not doubt God has a plan, but I believe, on the basis of what we know from History and Science, not excluding common-sense, that His plan is concerned more with the large than small details. Having provided man with a brain, I presume God means it should be used. I cannot believe it was issued to conform to the precept of persons who pretend to speak in God's name and of His will which is beyond human understanding. God’s invisible plan seems more a progression of a normal-curve-of-distribution along a moving track into an indefinite future. The “curve” is of every known element and moves to the imperceptible but undeniable will of God, not the smallness of man’s mind..

Presidents and Popes are symbols of authority within their respective realms, but in fact they are beholden to a higher authority. The Republican Religious Right believes in a divine commandment [Rod Parsley’s?] that supposedly justifies pre-emptive strikes to further the Christian cause on a sacrifice vs. benefit basis, a theology Evangelists elect to support. Geo. W. Bush actually was less the decider he claimed to be, than a puppet during his Administrations. He, as are the popes, are instruments of a higher authority that looks beyond the lives of individuals to an ultimate goal. Much of World History is understandable if considered from this point of view.

Pope Innocent VIII did what he must when he sanctioned the Edict of Faith and the Malleus Maleficarum that insisted witches and their craft were real contrary to the Canon Episcopi that from Christianity’s very beginning denied witches existed . It was not God, but the Holy See’s Edict of Faith that required its faithful to accept the reality of witches on pain of death. The Church in the 15th Century desperately hoped to prevent defections from Catholicism, and the cost in lives of its failure was enormous.

The Iraq War gave President Bush as Commander in Chief the authority do as he and his Holy See what they wanted contrary to the Constitution because Republican Evangels want the U.S. to be a Political Theocracy under its control, rather than be what it was meant to be, a Secular State separate from religious dominance, enjoying the fruits of a Democracy as guaranteed for all in the Constitution and The Bill of Rights.

That America has moved as close as it has to the goal of the Religious Right is a dubious tribute to Evangelists who ever try to gather more power to themselves. It is true that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Americans must be alert to avoid returning to the Middle Age toward which Evangelists would leading us.