A thought experiment for another day. Perhaps that is a 'flaw' in not religion but how it is practiced. Some cannot or will not accept that others can or should believe differently. More then likely just a 'flaw' in us as humans and not in religion in general. But isn't/shouldn't that be a basic teaching in religion? Kind of the 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you'? Or is it 'get them before they get you'. I keep getting confused.
Anyway.......I accept that Jesus is the Son of God and sent for Mankind's salvation. But, and HERE'S my thought experiment - why was he sent to the Middle East?
Why not Asia? The raising populations of what would be Japan, China, India. In fact this area had a much greater population then the Middle East.
Or how about Africa? The soon to be 'birthplace' of Islam? Why not put in place an alternative to the future teachings?
Or how about Central or South America? As a counter to the Gods worshiped in the Mayan and Aztec cultures?
Or why not to the nomadic tribes of North America? Now what a fretile ground THIS would have been to establish and eventually spread the teachings of Jesus. And what a different World it would be when Columbus sailed and discovered this.
Perhaps the 1000 years of repression of the Dark Ages would not have occured if Jesus had not been in the Middle East. (More thoughts experiments) Perhaps religion would not have had such a strong growth and such a tight hold on life itself, smothering all discovery (And still more).
So why was Jesus 'sent' to the Middle East rather then some other place? Were they not 'worthy' or was the Middle East deemed more necessary?
And another........
Are we, the human race, running out of purpose?
We began millions of years ago as hunters and gatherers. Survival of the fittest. A purpose. But as communities. Not individuals. We quickly understood, if we wanted to survive, that our strength was in numbers. We gathered together for protection, support, stability.
That was our purpose. To survive and then explore. Both in the immediate World around us and then outward.
And from pre-industrial revolution survival and exploration came post industrial revolution and with that, the advancement of the quality of life. Large advances in education, health care, standards of living. Quality and quanity of food, water and shelter. We understood that we would only be as strong as our weakest link.
Links who's numbers drasticly increased with the post revolution population boom.
Although individuals have used and abused the power we often held in our greater numbers, the drive of humans was always been for the greater good. Advancing our 'Civilization'. The quality of our lives.
But have we gone from 'hunters and gatherers' to 'greedy hoarders'?
A so very few hold so much wealth and power. But for what purpose?
I'm not talking about the 'redistribution of wealth' but our short and long term purpose as a Civilization. Not a 'spiritual' purpose but the 'nuts and bolts' purpose. Building 'Civilizations' for all not 'Empires' for the elite.
For millennium our, humans, purpose was to explore and conquer the World. This was our home and to survive we needed to know it and dominate it.
And having done that, we then began to concentrate on the quality of life. Using the vast resources of the Planet and the vast resources of a growing work force.
And now after that? - what is our purpose?
The thrist of knowledge is still there but in an ever shrinking World of known and unknown. And the ever shrinking World of smaller public revenues vs. spending those on war, security, intelligence - NOT on advancing knowledge or quality of life.
The ever shrinking World of the 'have's' and the growing World of the 'have not's'.
Do we now favor hording and profit over the advancement for the greater good?
That great line from Star trek II: THe Wrath Of Khan, when Spock after saving the ship tells Kirk 'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few'.
That WAS humanity but is it still?
Again looking around as so few hold so much. Has their 'World' become the survival of the fittest at the expense of the rest of us? Is their power and domination for the good of themselves or the good of humanity? As we pollute the planet, our only 'home' or stand helpless as millions slowly starve. Millions and millions have no access to clean water, basic health care, basic education.
Has our 'purpose' become so narrow, so defined so directed by so few that it is driven by the selfish greed of hoarding?
Have we stopped 'paying it forward'?
Are we 'Hallow Men'?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15029924
Not with a bang but a whimper?
Have we run out of purpose? Or has our 'purpose' changed form the 'greater good' to the 'selfish need', the 'NEW' survival of the fittest?
Will this be our last millennium?
Do we need an answer and NOW to the 'Ten Foot Pole Question?'
The Hollow Men
A penny for the Old Guy
I
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when 5
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass 10
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom
Remember us - if at all - not as lost 15
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.
II
Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom 20
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are 25
In the wind's singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.
Let me be no nearer
In death's dream kingdom 30
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves 35
No nearer -
Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom
III
This is the dead land
This is cactus land 40
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.
Is it like this 45
In death's other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss 50
Form prayers to broken stone.
IV
The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley 55
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms
In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river 60
Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom 65
The hope only
Of empty men.
V
Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear 70
At five o'clock in the morning.
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act 75
Falls the Shadow
For Thine is the Kingdom
Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion 80
And the response
Falls the Shadow
Life is very long
Between the desire
And the spasm 85
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow 90
For Thine is the Kingdom
For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the
This is the way the world ends 95
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
From : http://www.aduni.org/~heather/occs/honors/Poem.htm
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