Two Cent Rant: Islamophobia

The Prophet said, 'There are some who see me by the same light in which I am seeing them. Our natures are one. Without reference to any strands of lineage, without reference to texts or traditions, we drink the life-water together. 

- Rumi

While gunshots were still ringing inside the offices of Charlie Hebdo, one could already hear the cries:

"Islam is violent!"

"Islam is intolerant!"

"Islam is savage and barbaric and hateful!"

Islamophobia is a prime example of blaming the wrench for the mechanic's incompetence. The wrench, in this case, is the Koran and the mechanic is anyone who uses it to destroy rather than to repair. Instead of painting all Muslims with a broad brush, we would do well to step back and employ some critical thinking.

Here, I'll get you started.

First off, anyone who accuses "Islam" of being anything admits their ignorance right off the bat. Islam, like Christianity, is an umbrella term used to describe a bunch of different sects. The only thing uniting all these sects is their belief in the Koran as the word of God. That might sound like a lot but it really isn't because everything comes down to interpretation.

Let's take Jihad, for example. Some Muslims believe it to mean holy war against infidels while others see it as an internal struggle waged not against real people but the animal self and its destructive passions. Same book, radically different interpretation.

Having realized the foolishness of lumping all these different brands of Islam together, educated Islamophobes turn their sights instead to the source: the Koran.

This is only slightly better than criticizing "Islam."

The Koran, like all holy books, is a mirror that reflects our best and worst qualities back to us. It contains powerful truths about human nature. It reveals the good, the bad, and the ugly that resides in every human's inner-world. It's up to individuals to decide how to interpret these messages and apply them in their lives.

You know how ultra-right conservatives cling to a pair of obscure passages in Leviticus to justify their hatred of gays ("it's a sin!") but ignore almost everything else written in that particular book? That's just one example of selective interpretation.

Do you know why I'm almost positive conservatives ignore the rest of Leviticus? Because wedged between the two chapters that condemn homosexuality God warns us not to breed different kinds of animals together, plant two kinds of seed in one field, or wear clothing made of mixed fabrics.

"Let's see the tag on the inside of your shirt there, mr. Bible Thumper! It's just as I thought. Cotton and polyester. Everybody grab some rocks: it's time for a good old fashioned stoning, Old Testament style!"

This kind of selective fixation and interpretation is the extremist's most powerful tool. Of course the Koran contains passages of startling violence, brutality, and intolerance: so does the Old Testament. To say that the Koran is exceptional in its brutality is hypocritical to say the least.

People tend to overlook or downplay the nasty parts of the Bible because Jesus rolled up and softened things up a bit. You could almost say that Christ tried to reboot the Old Testament. He gathered people into a crowd and was like "Hey guys, you know those old books you're all really into? Forget all that shit. Stop cutting your dick-skin. You can even eat pork if you want! It's all good. As long as you love your fellow man, you're doing right by me!"

And Christians still managed to twist and distort this message of universal love and salvation to justify acts of unimaginable violence! Notice I say "Christians used the Bible," not the other way around? Books don't use people. They're just paper and ink.

Terrorists are not created by holy books but by socio-economic and geopolitical conditions. The Koran isn't training these zealots to strap up and go ka-boom: people are.

Imagine you can't feed your family and your neighbourhood gets bombed every other week. Imagine that your country is being attacked, invaded, and occupied by foreigners for reasons you either don't know or don't understand. Imagine holding your little son's body in your arms after a misplaced drone strike. Now when some AK-47 wielding extremist comes looking for recruits and promising eternal life as recompense, well, I don't blame anyone for signing up. It's all about perspective here, folks

Victims of botched drone strike that hit a wedding in Yemen.

Two wrongs don't make a right but push someone into a corner long enough and you better expect some backlash.

To blame religion or a holy book for this is nonsense.

Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jew, Taoist, Hindu, Scientologist: these are labels, nothing more. And when we dig beneath the labels down to the foundation of these belief-systems, we find that they sprang from a single source.

In any case, the Koran is no better and no worse than any other holy book. Case in point: if the Koran truly were a despicable text filled exclusively with hatred, violence, and intolerance, you would expect all who believe it to reflect its contents. With 23% of the world population identifying as Muslim ( approximately 1.6 billion people) you'd think we would be fighting World War X by now.

Clearly Muslims don't all fixate on the same passages. Clearly they don't interpret it the same way radicals do, or else terrorist attacks would be daily occurrences here in the West.

If you want to judge the Koran, you can't just look at the words and deeds of its most unstable and violent adherents: that would be like me judging your entire family based on your one crazy uncle who brought a hooker to thanksgiving dinner at your parent's house that one year.

If you want to gauge the Koran, you have to take in the full spectrum of Islam. Doing so will reveal that the majority of Muslims, just like the majority of people regardless of religious affiliation, are decent people trying to find their way through life.

/rant over

Two Cent Rant - Je Suis Charlie

"It is clear that not in one thing alone, but in many ways equality and freedom of speech are a good thing." 

- Herodotus 

"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use." 

- Soren Kierkegaard

Let me preface this little rant with the following statement: I rate all acts of unprovoked and unjustified violence, whether against individuals or the masses, as despicable and inexcusable. There is in my opinion no valid reason to harm or kill people who haven't attempted to harm or kill you first.

I also support freedom of speech. You should have the right to voice your opinion whenever you like without fear of violent retaliation. You should also have the right to ignore other people's opinions or to engage those who hold opinions you disagree with in open discourse.

That being said, I believe that freedom of speech, when placed in the hands of the ignorant, short-sighted, and ego-driven, is a double-edged sword that can cut both ways. The shootings in Paris last week are a painful example of free speech backfiring on those most eager to exercise it.

Before you accuse me of victim-blaming, allow me to elaborate.

Let's pretend for a moment that you hate Mike Tyson with a passion. If you ran into him at the airport, would you exercise your free speech? Would you tell him he's scum or call him a wife-beater, rapist, and ear-biter?

Why not?

Body, head.

There aren't any laws against insults but there are laws against assault so you should have nothing to fear, right?

It's not that Tyson would be justified in beating you senseless for insulting him, only that you should know better than to poke an angry bear.

Al Queda, ISIS (or ISIL, or whatever the fuck they're calling themselves now), and other extremists are crazed, wounded bears. Free speech your ass off bro, but if you toss insults at those bears, you should expect to be mauled.

Is this to say that radical Islam should be left untouched? That we should reprimand people who criticize religion or sensor magazines, blogs, and news articles to avoid offending certain people?

Of course not.

Radicalism, be it theological, ideological, or political, is a mind-virus that spreads like wild fire under the right conditions. These conditions are ignorance, poverty, oppression, and disillusionment. Anyone who tells you that all the answers to your problems can be found in a 1,500 year old book is a bold-faced liar, and the only way you'll believe that lie is if you're poor, ignorant, and angry enough.

The answer is never found at the polar extremes but somewhere between the two, in the nebulous grey zone. Radical ideologies are oversimplifications; they create the illusion that only two valid answers exist to a certain question. They force a "this or that" scenario onto people even when no such scenario exists.

When you buy into one of these answers, you trade freedom of thought for freedom of speech.

A lot of these "new" (see: radical) atheists pretend to be modern-day crusaders liberating believers from the shackles of religion. They claim that, behind the sarcasm and venom lurks a concern for the wellbeing of their fellow humans.

They would have us believe they champion truth and education, but one need only look at their methods to see that words and deeds don't align.

If radical ideologies perpetuate themselves best when certain conditions abound, and we know what those conditions are, shouldn't we try to alleviate them? Isn't that the best way to fight the good fight?

I'm no teacher but I'm pretty sure scorn, mockery, and insults are horrible ways to teach anyone anything. You want to convince a group of people that their ways are wrong? Try not profaning their holiest symbols first. That sorta kills the dialogue.

These anti-theists and radical atheists aren't solving any problems: they're making them worse.

Charlie Hebdo, the magazine targeted by the radicals in Paris, made a point of taunting some of the most unstable and dangerous people on the planet. These terrorists are so disillusioned with the world they live in and so hateful of Westerners that they would gladly die just to take a few of infidels down with them.

Those twelve people certainly didn't deserve to die, but is it surprising that they did? Not really, especially considering Charlie Hebdo was bombed only three years ago. The people who worked and died for that magazine are the sorriest martyrs I've ever heard of, but they're martyrs nonetheless: they died for their cause.

Do you own a magazine and want to wage war against radical Islam? Here's what you do: superimpose pictures of atrocities committed in Allah's name with passages from the Qu'ran that prohibit said atrocities.

"What actions are most excellent? To gladden the heart of human beings, to feed the hungry, to help the afflicted, to lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful, and to remove the sufferings of the injured." 

Or point out the contradictions between radical Islam and its moderate cousins. Or highlight the good, selfless deeds of Muslims around the world. Or educate people on the different branches of Islam.

"How is that a solution? Terrorists are beyond educating. They don't want to talk or 'be saved;' they just want to kill infidels."

True, education and respectful dialogue won't stop terrorists, but neither will drawing pictures of Muhammad blowing the pope. Truth is, the most extreme cases are beyond repair.

The goal isn't to save the guys wearing bomb-vests--once you resolve to give your life in Allah's name, it's probably too late for you--it's to prevent Muslims from putting on the vest in the first place.

If you want to help, do anything but troll.

Unless of course you never wanted to help in the first place. In that case, be a troll. Say what you want, poke fun, satirize, whatever: it's your right and I'll defend it with you if anyone tries to take it away.

Just don't pretend you're on a noble crusade to spread truth and save those who have been deceived by evil organized religion.

/rant over

(P.S. Terrorist attacks always spark off a bunch of this "Islam is a religion of hate" nonsense. People love to demonize the youngest of the Abrahamic religions, quoting brutal passages as evidence that it is far worse than both Judaism and Christianity. I'll tackle this topic in my next post so stay tuned.)

Long Lost Logos

That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.
- Albert Einstein 

For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
- Jesus Christ

Are humans merely a fancy breed of ape, no more special than any other beast on the planet? Is our existence inherently devoid of purpose? Is the search for meaning, happiness, and fulfilment a pointless pursuit?

Or are we different from other animals? Were we chosen by a higher power for a special purpose? Do we hold within ourselves a fragment of the divine, and is this fragment key to achieving joy and fulfillment?

Dan Meilleur did a fantastic job laying out the particulars of this debate in his post entitled "Special or Not?" In it, Meilleur clearly disagrees with the Judeo-Christian view of humanity's superior status. He states that

human life is no more important or intrinsically valuable than that of a kangaroo, a carrot, or a flea. Our sentience is different, yes, but our importance--our “special-ness”--is not.

Meilleur rightfully blames the Judeo-Christian view--that the creator of the universe personally made us, takes an interest in our daily activities, and that the earth is our birthright--for some of the problems we are facing as a species today. By thinking that we are superior to other lifeforms and that the earth is ours to subjugate, we can pollute and destroy without a shred of remorse.

On the other hand, blaming a book or ideology for human behavior is like blaming a wrench for the mechanic's sloppy work. The Bible isn't at fault: our interpretation of the Bible is.

There are splinters of wisdom and insight embedded within the Bible but in order to glimpse them we must read the Bible symbolically, as it was always meant to be read. The problem is that many people interpret the Bible as a literal history of the universe and in doing so miss the truth contained within its pages.

What truth?

That humans are indeed special; that we were chosen by a higher power for a specific purpose; that we carry a shard of that higher power within ourselves; and, that this shard of the divine is key to  discovering our purpose and achieving happiness.

Best of all, this truth does not contradict reason or modern scientific understanding; to the contrary, the two sides, seemingly at odds, compliment each other remarkably well. Let's examine the statements listed above.

We are Special

This isn't hubris, folks. Just look around you for a moment. You see the cars driving by, buildings towering above, and planes shooting across the sky? Did gorillas make these wonders? Did ants? Fleas? Seagulls?

I'm not saying we're special as in "better" or "superior" to other animals, nor am I saying that we aren't animals: we most certainly are. When I say special, I only mean that we are otherwise different from what is usual. If humans are animals, and no other animal has come close to rivalling our accomplishments, then one cannot deny that we are somehow different.

What is it that distinguishes us from our animal relatives?

The ability to analyze, hypothesize, organize, predict, and override our biological programming. Combined, these allow us to literally rearrange the world around us into forms that serve our needs. Tables, street-signs, wheelchairs, pace-makers, computers, and every other human-made object on the planet was once raw material which we extracted and reshaped for our own purposes.

No other animal on earth can do this.

That's not to say that we should mistreat other animals or subject them to needless cruelty; only that we are indeed different from them. As you will see, the thing that makes us different also demands that we take care of one another and treat all lifeforms with dignity and respect.

We were Chosen

It's important not to get hung up on terminology here. When I say we were chosen by a higher power, I don't mean that we were hand-crafted by a bearded sky-father. I don't mean that a deity told us that earth and everything on it was ours to do with as we please.

When I say we were chosen, I mean that we are the product of evolution, which is also called natural selection. This implies that certain lifeforms are selected or chosen to survive, breed, and evolve further. And since we exist here and now, we can safely assume that we are among the races chosen by nature to survive and fulfill our purpose.

When I say higher power, I'm not referring to an anthropomorphic deity who judges and doles out punishment to his unruly children; I'm talking about the "superior reasoning power which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe," as Einstein put it. It's the pantheistic God, aka the Universe. Nature is simply the creative spirit organizing God's parts into ever more complex forms.

Humans just so happen to be the most complex form on earth and, in all likelihood, in the solar system. If that doesn't make us special, I don't know what does.

We have a Purpose

When comparing like objects, what leads us to judge one as superior to the other? For instance, what makes one type of car better or more valuable than another? Only this: that one fulfills its purpose more efficiently, beautifully, and effectively than the other.

If a garden produces an abundance of fruit and another very little, one will judge the first to be better than the second. It is because a garden serves a purpose: to bear fruit.

We hold in our minds ideas of what different things ought to do and prize those that do it best.

In order to discern our purpose as a species, we must look at the basic functions or traits of human beings. What are some hallmarks of humanity? What is unique about us? What do we do better than other animals?

In other words, what is our function?

First, we are social animals. This isn't a unique trait, of course. Most animals function in packs, tribes, colonies, etc. but no other species has devised such vast and complex social networks, nor leveraged them into a global civilization. No other animal has developed advanced methods of communication, nor the ability to contact others instantly across vast distances.

Second, and more importantly, we are reasoning animals. This, I believe, is the thing that also makes us special. Without the ability to recognize and analyze patterns, organize information, plan, predict, and rationalize, we would be no different from our cousins, the great apes.

There is no other trait that is uniquely ours. Everything else we do, every other skill or attribute we possess, exists in the animal world in greater abundance. We are not the strongest, fastest, or most resilient beast in the animal kingdom. Only reason allows us to reshape the world around us and more importantly, override our biological programming or instincts so that we may act rationally.

And so, in order to fulfill our purpose as human beings, we must first employ reason, our greatest tool, in all aspects of our lives and second concern ourselves with the common good of those around us.

The Divine is Within

If you agree with the above, this last one--which at first glance is probably the least believable of the bunch--becomes much easier to grasp.

The Universe is a higher power and Nature is the creative spirit that shapes and governs its parts. Using Nature, the Universe recycles and reinvents itself, moving from simplicity to complexity and manifesting itself into new forms.

Doesn't that sound a whole lot like what we do with our surroundings? We take existing matter in its crude form, refine it, reshape it, assemble it, and put it to work fulfilling some new purpose. It's this very ability that distinguishes us from other animals, and coincidentally, it is the very thing that drives the Universe along.

If we regard Nature as the intellectual force of the Universe, the thing that drives evolution in all its myriad forms, and we alone of all the animals on earth are capable of imitating the Universe, doesn't it stand to reason that we too must possess a fragment of the universal intellect?

That's what a bunch of ancient philosophers believed. They called this piece of the divine intellect the Logos and they claimed that only through it could humans find salvation.  Oddly enough, Christianity agrees with this notion. In the opening verses of John's Gospel, the author refers to the Logos by name, claiming that

In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

We later find out that the Logos came down to earth in the form a man named Jesus Christ, who tells us that he is "the way and the truth and the life" and that "no one comes to the Father" except through him.

The Father is none other than the wondrous Universe itself and the only way we can truly know God and find salvation is through the Logos, which dwells within each and every one of us.

Conclusion

We have inherited a great and powerful gift that no other animal on earth possesses. That makes us special, but not invincible, and it certainly doesn't give us the right to poison our beautiful planet or abuse the other lifeforms who dwell upon it.

We would do well to remember Uncle Ben's warning to a young Peter Parker: "With great power comes great responsibility."

Atheists like to point to the book of Genesis as the source of our reckless behavior and ego-centrism. What they ignore is the second chapter of this book, which retells the creation story from a slightly different perspective. Here we are told that God made us to look after his garden. In other words, we are the earth's caretakers, not its masters.

As such, we must look out for our home and all its inhabitants. We must strengthen reason in our minds and use it to govern our instincts and passions. We must banish ignorance and destroy greed. We must put our petty, superficial differences aside and look to one another for strength, love, and support.

Alone even the mightiest human can accomplish very little; but together, working coherently toward a set of common goals, we can finally stop worshiping imaginary gods and become gods ourselves.

Look around you again. Clearly we've already begun our transformation but our progress is hindered. Along with the Logos, we carry the baggage of our animal heritage--our tendencies toward tribalism, violence, competition, insecurity, and fear--and this burden threatens to grind our progress to a halt.

Only the light of the Logos can frighten the animal mind into its cage where it rightfully belongs.

The holy spirit isn't upon you: it's inside you. You need only awaken it to transform your life and the lives of those around you.

/rant over

Two Cent Rant: Jesus

Was Jesus Christ a real person or a fabrication? Was he a miracle worker, wise teacher, political radical, or a mix of all three? Was he truly God personified or just a regular dude? For whatever it's worth, here's my two cents.

People have long debated the existence of Jesus and called into question the details of his life. The four Gospels of the New Testament provide enough contradictions to fuel the debate alone; throw in the 52 Gnostic Gospels and lack of corroborating testimony in secular historical records and you're looking at a difficult case to crack.

To make matters even more difficult, those who maintain that Jesus was real and that the Biblical accounts of his life are 100% literal and accurate cannot be swayed by evidence or a lack thereof. Why should they care that the only clear references to Jesus are contained in the New Testament and no where else? To these people, the Bible is the perfect word of God and contains all the evidence they need regarding the existence of Jesus.

Here's how we can resolve the historicity debate: we can stop having it.

It's another pointless argument that leads both sides to a place I like to call butt-fuck no where. Neither side can win but more importantly it's a pointless debate because both sides are focusing on the wrong thing.

Whether a flesh-and-bones Jesus ever lived is irrelevant. The Christ meme--the idea, mythos, or character of Jesus Christ, the son of God who traveled the Levant performing miracles and teaching the masses, died, and was resurrected--exists and is alive and well. It thrives in the minds of millions around the world, affecting how they think, speak, behave, and believe.

If one can't deny Christ's effect on the millions who worship him, how can we deny his existence?

Memes are selfish replicators. They try to achieve two simple  things: survival and reproduction. Religious memes are particularly good at this because they learned long ago to exploit our fear of mortality and hunger for meaning. By offering followers a special purpose in life and continued existence after death, religious memes secure their prolonged survival.

Christianity is by far the most successful religious meme in history. A few hundred years after its birth it spread across the whole of Europe, pushing all other religious and philosophical memes to the brink of extinction.

"Hold up!" I can hear some of you atheists shouting. "Christianity only achieved supremacy by using violence, barbarity, and other underhanded tactics. The Church forced people to adopt Christianity. There's nothing special about that!"

Like I said, memes don't give a shit how they survive, just so long as they do. They will throw people under the bus, wipe out entire populations of non-believers, cheat, lie, steal, whatever.

Even so, Christianity didn't start off burning witches and torturing pagans. Anyone with a passing knowledge of history will tell you that early Christians were literally fed to the lions by the Romans.

So how did Christianity go from Rome's favorite whipping boy to dominant state religion? And why is it that millions continue to identify as Christians despite clear evidence that the Bible is just a collection of quasi-historical myths and stories?

In other words, what is it about this particular meme that captures the human mind so easily and firmly?

First, Christianity's success in Rome was due by and large to its adoption of existing pagan symbols and themes, the most influential of which is the Solar Saviour myth.

Allow me to summarize.

Throughout history we find essentially the same legend told over and over again. The legend is allegorical, a reflection of events that take place annually in the heavens above, and is remarkably consistent in its many incarnations. The story revolves around a hero or savior figure, typically born of a virgin, whose coming is heralded by a prophet in the wilderness and who gathers around him twelve disciples. The hero eventually dies and, three days later, rises from the dead.

I could go on but this topic is far too lengthy to tackle in a 1,000 word rant. If you want to learn more or just want to have your mind blown, check out this video. And if you want a more in-depth look, I highly recommend Tom Harpur's book "The Pagan Christ." Needless to say, a large part of the Jesus meme is simply a rehashing of time-worn myths.

Adopting this well-known motif might've helped early Christians convert pagans and become the dominant religion of Rome but it doesn't explain how Christianity continues to sway so many humans in the modern age. People nowadays aren't attracted to Christianity by the miracles Jesus supposedly performed. In fact, many Christians eschew literal interpretations of the Gospel altogether in favor of symbolic or metaphorical readings.

Christianity's power lies not in a list of plagiarized miracles but in the message attributed to Jesus (and moreover to the Apostle Paul, whom many believe to be the true father of Christianity as we know it). The message is in no way unique--we can find bits and pieces of it in Buddhism, Stoicism, Platonism, Zoroastrianism, and Taoism--but Christianity is perhaps the first meme to bring so many fragments together under one roof.

What is this message?

That we are all God's children; that God's Kingdom resides within each and everyone of us; that this Kingdom is accessible only through the Logos (the author of John's Gospel calls it the "Word" and equates it with Jesus, but more on that Friday); and finally, that God is love.

Byproducts of this message include loving your neighbor, treating others as you would like to be treated, turning the other cheek, living in the now, and holding in low regard earthly or material possessions.

Christ's message contains within it elements of Truth, hence why it continues to resonate with so many people. Unfortunately for those people, centuries of literal interpretation and meddling from religious and political organizations have obscured Jesus' teachings and fragmented the Christian community into countless sects and sub-sects.

Nowadays, most people who identify as Christian know very little about the man (whether real, fabricated, or a little bit of both) who gave them their name. They support political parties that claim to be Christian but whose deeds prove the opposite.

Any politician who spews lies and hatred, cuts funding to welfare and education, or who attempts to impose his personal beliefs onto others by way of government, is announcing his apostasy to the world.

Whether physically real or not, Jesus was a wise dude and more so-called Christians would do well to abide by his teachings. If everyone who claimed to be a Christian actually acted like it, they wouldn't have to wait to go to paradise: they would already be there.

/rant over

Blame the Mechanic

If we can’t transform our secular humanist, consumerist worldview into one in which we have this sense of responsibility, awe and wonder for the planet and all life, then we can’t invent a global ethic. Yet we need it to create a transnational, mythic structure to sustain the global civilization that’s emerging. 

- Stuart Kaufmann

Pretend your car breaks down. You bring it to the mechanic who assesses the problem and tells you to come back in a few hours. You run some errands, have lunch, and return at the appointed time.

"All done," says the mechanic as he hands you the  keys. You pay the man and drive off.

Now say you drive a block or two and hear that clanking noise again, or smell something burning, or notice the temperature gauge rising quickly. Say you're at a red light and smoke starts billowing from the hood.

Upon returning to the garage, would you give the mechanic a piece of your mind for doing such a piss-poor job or would you criticize his tools for the faulty repairs?

When people attack religion and blame it for humanity's problems, they're blaming the wrench for the mechanic's mistake.

***

Just as a wrench can be used to repair or bludgeon so too can religion be used to unite or divide.

Just as it can bring people together, give them hope and purpose, and promote love, peace, and cooperation, so too can it be used to justify racism, sexism, and bigotry, ignite conflicts between different faiths, and control the masses.

The tool is always without blame. Those who wield it inappropriately, on the other hand, should be reviled.

One can't argue that people have perpetrated atrocities of the worst kind in the name of religion. But that's just the point, isn't it? Religion can't be blamed for the actions of tyrants and con-artists. Religion isn't a person, it's a notion. It's formless and without power until it takes root in someone's mind.

And even then religion can't force someone's hand. It can't transform an otherwise loving individual into a hateful bigot. The believer is always responsible for his actions not matter how he justifies them.

Every holy book contains virtue and vice and rarely in equal parts. It's up to individuals to decide what principles they take to heart and which ones they disregard altogether.

Scripture and doctrine belong to us: they aren't written in stone or divinely inspired.

Primitive men scrawled their ideas on clay tablets and launched them into the future where they eventually fell into our hands. On their own scriptures are neither good nor evil, only a jumble of words. It's our interpretation that determines their value.

The problem is that most believers are spoon-fed their beliefs.

Don't rely on the guidance of so-called authorities. Self-proclaimed prophets, visionaries, and spiritual leaders are mere humans, no less flawed or biased than you or I. 

Don't let scripture intimidate you: you possess the only tool necessary to decipher verse and passage. and separate timeless truth from primitive nonsense. The rational mind, when stripped of distractions, points to truth as a compass points north. Put your faith in reason and you wont easily be deceived.

As a tool, religion may yet guide humanity to salvation--not a future-salvation but something both tangible and possible in our lifetime.

Any salvation worth pursuing must exist in this world, not a hypothetical future time.

By salvation I mean the continued survival and prosperity of the human family; the elimination of war, poverty, and needless suffering; the destruction of imaginary borders; and freedom from oppression and injustice.

Things are changing rapidly and our stubborn refusal to adapt, to learn, and to evolve threatens our very existence.We must replace the supernatural, the subjective, and the historical with the scientific, the objective, and the timeless. We must abandon old doctrines that promote divisiveness, violence, hatred, and divine authority in favor of those promoting unity, peace, love, and personal sovereignty.

Where should we find these new doctrines?

In  the very faiths we endeavor to supplant.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all promote principles of love, peace, acceptance, generosity, and forgiveness. Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and Hinduism promote principles of oneness, interconnectedness, and harmony. Add to these the various secular and new-age philosophies and you begin to form a concrete picture of what a truly modern, truly universal religion might look like.

We humans yearn to give ourselves over to something greater, a cause, principle, or belief system that transcends the flesh and makes us feel connected, not only to others like us but to the universe itself--to God.

In the absence of something meaningful to fill this void, people worship money, celebrities, national identities, and sports teams--to disastrous effect.

Or worse, they fall prey to the desperate spokesmen of repugnant pseudo-religions and cults. These ones are keenly aware that their time is drawing to a close and they wish to delay the end as long as possible.

Until there's a viable replacement or alternative to the world religions of old, we will continue to see progressively more backward and dangerous fringe movements and sects rising to fill the vacuum of belief and propagating a culture of false dichotomies. 

In order to regain our collective center again, we need a modern belief-system rooted in the knowable universe that forgoes super-naturalism in favor of principles of peace, love, and harmony. 

Whatever you think of the old religions, you should at least admire the minds that birthed and carried them from the dawn of civilization 5,000 years ago to the present day. Clearly there is something compelling in these holy books or else they would've died out centuries ago. Sure, they got a lot of things wrong but they also contain slivers of truth that might not have survived otherwise.

It would be a shame to ignore timeless human truths simply because we hate the vehicle in which they come to us.

/rant over

Special vs. Not: The Core of Our Religious Problem

(In an effort to branch out and connect with other like-minded individuals, I've invited Daniel Meilleur to write a guest-post. Meilleur is a teacher, humanist, free-thinker, and life-long student of world religions. He is currently working on his first book, The Atheist's Bible. You can contact him with your comments at danielmeilleur83@hotmail.com)

With the exception of Humanism, all recognized major world religions promote in an almost subliminal and unspoken manner the principal idea that humanity is special, chosen, and unique. In their estimation, a human life is worth more than any other. You, my fellow reader, are the most important person in all of the Cosmos.

High five, G.

In Judaism, God chose the Jews, vowed to protect them and smite their enemies, and gave them the Earth and all that exists upon it as their exploitable possession. In Christianity, God sacrificed his only son in order to save us from eternal death and gave us the opportunity to merit an infinite and blissful afterlife. So it goes in Islam, where Muhammad pleaded with the polytheistic Arabs to live righteous lives and honour Allah so that they might be saved from eternal sufferance and torment, because Allah cared about and recorded every human action.

But the Abrahamic religions are not the only ones to indulge in a self-centred view of the cosmos. The Buddha preached that the path to enlightenment could be found exclusively within us and in his pursuit of nirvana, he abandoned his young child and wife. In Hinduism, one must focus on the karmic ramification of their daily actions in order to climb the ladder of the caste system in their upcoming rebirth.

The egocentric nature of our world’s most followed faiths stems from their dates of origin. Until the invention of the telescope in the early 17th century, humanity assumed that our fair planet was of a significant size compared to the greater Universe. This, combined with the illusion that the celestial bodies revolve around us and not the other way around, led to a conviction that human life was of great importance. 

We now know this to be false. We cannot blame our forefathers for their faulty conclusions but we can blame ourselves for continuing to entertain them.

It is crucial that we come to terms with this stone-cold fact: that human life is no more important or intrinsically valuable than that of a kangaroo, a carrot, or a flea. Our sentience is different, yes, but our importance--our “special-ness”--is not.

Moreover, we must accept that the Universe will continue to exist without us, and more importantly, without the Earth. Compared to the size of the Cosmos, the Earth is smaller than a single grain of sand on all of the planet’s beaches combined. Our importance follows suit. The Cosmos will not care when you die. Our own galaxy will be, for all intents and purposes, unaffected when the Earth--and even our Sun--dies. 

How important are we?

Because our outdated religious beliefs have seeped into most aspects of our social order, we run our  lives as though we are special. Evidence of our perceived importance can be found all around us. It can be found in the rhetoric and promises our politicians spew to win votes and in the way corporations appeal to our outlandish egocentricity to sell us their products. 

Our society fails take adequate responsibility for its toxic behaviour due to this same belief. When we pollute the planet, fight wars, overpopulate, and put the Earth’s--and in turn our own--existence in peril, we seldom hear our leaders insist that we are the root cause of these problems. Introspection is never a solution in our God-given society. After all, when we die, all will be made right.

A Muslim acquaintance of mine once told me that Humanists are too arrogant to capture and comprehend God’s work in this life. From the years of research I have done, I have only encountered opposite proof of this claim. Humanists do not believe they are unique, special, or chosen. Moreover, they believe that they are extremely lucky to be alive in the first place. We appreciate what we have in this life and this disallows our capacity to take existence for granted. 

All will not be made right when we die. The only afterlife worth living for is the life of our children--the only life that will assuredly continue after our own. We must preserve the Earth; she is not only our creator but also our only home. 

We are all human. We are all equal. We are all in this together, if only for the simple reason that we have nowhere else to go. If we do not soon come to terms with some fundamental truths, our species will fade away like so many before it. The conviction that we are “special” creates a sub-current within us, informing us that humanity will be around forever. All evidence contradicts this sentiment. We will all die, eventually. The only goal conducive to humanity as a whole is the preservation of human life, first on Earth, and perhaps one day in the Cosmos. 

The first step in ensuring our success in this mission is to accept that we are not chosen or special: we just are. 

Trinity

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead. 

A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, our perceptions of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which only in their most primitive forms are accessible to our minds: it is this knowledge and this emotion that constitute true religiosity. In this sense, and only this sense, I am a deeply religious man." 

--Albert Einstein

There is embedded deep inside the human psyche a powerful urge to venerate, worship, kneel before, and praise forces that transcend and overwhelm our limited mental faculties. It’s no wonder: we’re surrounded on all sides by the wonders and terrors of nature and beyond that by an endless black sea dotted with twinkling stars, each one a nuclear furnace suspended by unseen hands in the great void of space.

In eras past we gave these forces names, faces, and personalities eerily like our own. We grafted humanity onto the elemental. We saw the workings of a superior intellect in the unfeeling, unthinking forces of nature and attributed commandments to it.

Now, in this age of science, we have lost our gods and replaced them with false idols. We worship money, praise celebrity, and place ourselves on altars of our own making. We no longer look upon the cosmos with awe and wonder as our ancestors did. We no longer love that which made us and sustains us.

We have lost touch with the divine that is all around us.

We need not worship false gods or false idols when real deities abound. We can praise our creators without violating the laws of science. Reason and spirituality are not foes: they come from the same source, that undying spark smoldering in the unexplored recesses of your mind, and can be potent allies.

Let us give praise to those who played a hand in our creation; not the gods fabricated by our ancestors but those we can see, touch, hear, and feel.

Let us venerate a holy trinity deserving of our love, fascination, and respect.

Universe
Grand Creator, your thunderous and violent awakening 13.7 billion years ago made possible all that we see today, from the star-studded firmament to the earth beneath our feet.

Like a child roused from sleep you unfolded and stretched forth your limbs across the void, giving form to the formless. We approach you humbly, mere bacteria in your galactic gut, and thank you for bestowing upon each of us consciousness, reason, and free-will so that we may have a brief moment of awareness against the backdrop of Eternity.

We humans are but parts in your galactic machinery, awakened by way of the Logos to the nature of the machinery itself.

We are the culmination of your intelligent design, for what is evolution if not the most intelligent design of all? You worked tirelessly throughout the epochs, painstakingly weeding out organisms ill-suited for life on earth, until there rose an organism capable of receiving your holy spirit and deciphering your secret language.

We gladly accept your gifts, Grand Creator, and employ them to unravel the layers of mystery in which you are cloaked.

Sun

The ancients recognized your power and importance, Mighty Sun. They watched your movements obsessively, tracing your path across the heavens and calculating with great accuracy the waxing and waning of your reign. Our ancestors used your journey through the stars as a model for some of their most poignant myths, many of which live on to this very day.

They saw in your cyclical journey a parallel to the human life. Childhood, adulthood, middle age, and old age: these are the seasons and the transition from each to the other is akin to death and rebirth.

Even the final passage from life is but the dissolution of our parts back to the earth, which yields up more life--another rebirth--until time indefinite.

Imagine if the ancients knew that you set the planets in their orbits and that your light make life as we know it possible; how much would they have worshiped you then? Yet even in their ignorance, they venerated you above all others.

You formed the worlds that surround you and made life possible on this, our one and only home. For this we thank you.

Earth

Enduring and benevolent Mother, you bore life in your womb from its infancy and released it upon dry land. Aided by evolution--the master-worker--and nourished by the Mighty Sun's rays, that life matured and spread forth to cover every inch of you and to become one with your flesh.

The jungles and forests are your lungs; the soil your skin; the mountains your bones; the seas and winds your circulatory system.

We are not your masters, as some would believe, nor have you been given to us for subjugation. We are but lice clinging to your hide. We depend on you for protection, hiding beneath your invisible cloak from the poisons of space. We depend on your for food and drink. In fact, all that we possess--all the discoveries we have made and wonders we have erected--is made possible only by your grace.

We ought to approach you in reverence and thanks; instead, we inject poison into your flesh and fill your lungs with noxious gasses. We are a sickness unto you but by no means a terminal one.

You will endure long after all traces of our existence have faded away.

It is only ourselves who need be concerned with the destruction we sew upon you. The forces of greed and ignorance cause you discomfort perhaps, but threaten to bring us to a final extinction.

We come to you begging for guidance: teach us to live in harmony with you and the plethora of life you have birthed; to restore balance to your body; and to cleanse you of the filth we have spread into every part of you.

Amun.

/rant over

Language, Self, & the Timeless Garden

When it comes to curiosity, nothing on earth beats human beings. A dog might sniff at a foreign object curiously but he is not likely to ponder his origins, place in the cosmos, or destiny; nor is he likely to question the morality of his actions or dwell on the topic of his inevitable death.

A dog may answer to his name, come when you call him, sit on command, and so on, but these are the results of classical conditioning and should not the confused with free-will. Animals operate primarily on instinct. Biological urges dictate their actions. They are slaves to their bodies and as such are deprived of free-will as we know it.

Were it not for a single innovation developed in our distant past we too would be at the mercy of our instincts and biological needs. We would still be wandering in small groups beneath the open sky, barely clinging to survival. This innovation allowed us to codify thoughts and pieces of the external world and share them with others easily and accurately. Its discovery triggered the intellectual and technological revolution which continues to drive human progress forward to this very day.

The emergence of the self, that is the sense of "I" imbued in each one of us, would not have occurred without this innovation. And since self-awareness is the only thing that allows us to consciously override our biological urges in favour of a higher purpose or common goal, we should be thankful for this crucial development.

This all-important innovation, if you haven't already guessed, is language. Without language there are no laws to hold complex societies together; without complex societies there is no science, no history, no philosophy, and no individual.

Think about it. No, literally think about it. You hear that little voice in your mind? It wouldn't exist without language. Rational thought, creativity, ingenuity, and curiosity are all descendants of language, for how can you question something without language? How can you study the world, learn from it, and transmit your findings to subsequent generations without words? Before language and the emergence of the self, we were no different from the dog who eats another dog's shit despite his master's obvious displeasure.

Without language, we would be incapable of pondering the future. We'd be shackled to the present, quelling desire after desire after desire until our unforeseen demise.

The emergence of the Self serves as the foundation of all subsequent human accomplishments. It should be no surprise that this pivotal moment, whenever and wherever it actually took place, has been immortalized in various myths and religions. All around the world, in different regions and eras, we find myths detailing this moment of self-realization.

The first people to develop a sense of self and the ability to ponder the mysteries of the cosmos were stepping out of a timeless past. Good, evil, life, death, past, present, and future are all concepts that find no foothold in the pre-self world. These concepts cannot exist without a conscious observer; as a result, they are unique to the human psyche, their existence a by-product of language and the emergence of the self.

Perhaps the best-known mythological account of this crucial moment, this stepping out of transcendence into the realm of dualities, is found in the Old Testament book of Genesis. Now when taken literally, Genesis as a whole and the story of the Garden of Eden in particular crumble in the face of critical thought; but interpreted symbolically, the story of Eden appears to commemorate the moment in which we became aware, not only of ourselves as individuals but also of mortality and morality.

I assume you're all familiar with the story. God creates Adam and Eve and places them in the Garden of Eden where they are invited to eat from all but one tree. And God says, "But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will certainly die." Note the name of this forbidden tree. Isn't it curious that the knowledge of good and bad should cause Adam and Eve to "certainly die?"

As I said, the Garden narrative is neither unique nor logical. It's rife with contradictions and fallacies. Read symbolically though, the answer becomes obvious: before eating from the tree, Adam and Eve were blissfully ignorant of duality. They knew neither good nor evil, life nor death. They wandered in the nude, as animals do, and gave zero fucks.

The lesson as I see it is that, before language and self-awareness, we were as Adam and Eve in the garden: immortal, but only in our ignorance of death; perfect, but only in our ignorance of sin. We were free to do as we pleased but lacked free-will in any sense of the word. Enslaved by our biological urges, we gave no thought to matters of morality, no credence to questions of origin and purpose.

Free-will, tied inextricably to the sense of "I," only appeared after we tasted the forbidden fruit and our awareness of self and duality came only after we left the garden. Without options to choose from, one cannot truly know free-will, and without duality there are no options, only the needs of your meat-vehicle.

Watch the Discovery channel or Oasis HD for an hour and you will quickly realize that the animal kingdom is amoral. Predators do not pause to question whether their treatment of prey is ethical. They do not discuss what happens after death or worship some unseen creator. They obey their biology, just as humans did before they had reason to do otherwise.

The ability to label, categorize, symbolize, and mythologize distinguishes us from the beasts of the field. Language gave rise to the self; the self, in turn, forced us to question the nature of reality; and lastly, these queries birthed all that we see and know today.

This leads me to believe that there indeed exists a higher power, a divine creator. This highest power is not out there watching us from some hidden vantage point; it is inside each one of us. It is constantly creating and recreating the world before our very eyes, spurring discoveries, forging ideologies, and dishing out revelations.

All praise the scumbag brain. Amen.

/rant over

Mysterious Machine, Part 2

The three most popular spokesmen say that the others got it all wrong, that there's only one person responsible for the mysterious machine. They call him the Great Machinist and apparently he made us to look after the machine, tune it up, maintain it, and keep it running smoothly.

"So we all work for the Great Machinist?"

You got it! 

The three spokesmen disagree on pretty much everything else. They each round up their supporters for a pep talk. Don't listen to those other clowns. They're lying about the GM (Great Machinist) but I know the real truth. Oh and by the way, the GM wanted me to give you guys some new rules.

Don't eat this. Don't touch that. Don't work on this day. When you give thanks to the GM (which you should be doing every day) make sure you do it this way. Don't wear this. Don't eat that either.  

And most importantly, don't hoard money. You can't take it with you when you die! Give it to the GM instead.

Most people do as they're told. The machine is too complex and dangerous to ignore. It still lashes out at us regularly, killing and maiming without remorse. Which is weird because according to the spokesmen the GM really loves us. He has a strange way of showing it.

It's not for us to question how the machine works.

We disagree. We think it's precisely our duty to figure out the machine. That's why we climb the fence every night. Equipped with flashlights, measuring tapes, and notepads, we study the machine obsessively. We stare at the little pieces hanging above our heads and track their movements. We scrutinize the machine's smallest components beneath microscopes, and every time we think we've identified the machine's most basic building-block someone comes along with a bigger microscope and sends us back to the drawing board. Every component is made up of smaller parts, and those parts are made of smaller parts, and those parts...

You get the point.

Even those who do as they're told and leave the machine alone make startling discoveries. They study the human body and find that people, like the machine, are made up of various parts. Different organs serve different functions; they pump oxygen into the blood, regulate digestion, collect and organize data, etc.

"I am the sum of my parts, the culmination of systems and organs interacting in various ways. I am a meat machine."

And what happens when these meat-machines interact with each other? They become components in a greater whole, a system, a network of limbs and minds. Doesn't it sound like we're pieces of the mysterious machine too?

Hey fuckers! You're not messing with the machine, are you? I thought I told you only the chosen ones can do that. The spokesmen and their cronies lock us up, set us on fire, or throw big rocks at us. But it's too late. We've hit the truth on the head. We press ahead, fueled by curiosity, pride, certainty.


By now we can pry the machine open. We peer inside and guess what? There's no Great Machinist, just tiny gears and gyres engaged in a complex dance. Every piece of this wondrous device appears to be governed by basic laws, mechanistic rules that translate into mathematical formulas.


"See! There's no GM in there."

Liars! The GM works in mysterious ways. You just can't see him, that's all.

***

Our universe is a mysterious machine whose ultimate function is unknown. Maybe it doesn't have a purpose. Maybe it just is. We may never know the answer but there are plenty of things we do know about it.

The universe has a structure. Its various parts--stars, black holes, planets, and interstellar debris-- interact with a set of mechanistic laws to create solar systems, galaxies, clusters, and super-clusters.

I say mechanistic because they are reliable and constant. Even our ancient ancestors could predict the movement of the stars with great accuracy, all without advanced computers or telescopes. Using these laws as our guide we have been able to determine the speed of light, the distance between far-fetched stars, the age of our universe, and much more. Studying this mysterious machine of ours has yielded all that you see around you today: skyscrapers, smartphones, space-shuttles, satellites, cars, etc. 

If the universe truly is a giant machine, what does that make us? What role can our species play in such a massive cosmological system? For now, a very minor one. Our interactions are limited to a tiny piece of the machine: earth.

Our planet is also the sum of its parts. Oceans, continents, plant-life, atmosphere, plate tectonics, weather patterns, the animal kingdom, and the human race are all interconnected. It is only humans, upon gaining self-awareness, who think themselves as separate from the whole. We explain our place in the universe by means of  anthropomorphism when in truth no such explanation is required.

Mother Earth birthed us in her watery womb and Father Evolution did the rest. We are made from the same building blocks as everything else in the universe. We aren't separate or distinct in any way. Believing that the universe was made especially for us, that we have a right to subjugate and abuse our planet, is a disastrous fallacy that could very well lead to our annihilation.

From the sub-atomic to the macro-cosmic, everything operates in an orderly fashion. All matter is arranged in a neat hierarchy. Everything is made up of the same basic building blocks and underlying those there is a set of quantum coding not unlike the 1's and 0's of computer programming.

Humanity is the sum of its parts. That's you and me, my friends. In order for a machine to operate properly, the parts must work in unison and harmony. Your car's function--to get you from point A to point B quickly and safely--is greatly hindered by a blown tire or broken fan-belt.

Likewise, how can we expect to thrive and evolve beyond this pale blue dot if we're all working against each other or worse, against the planet which houses our species?

Exploitation serves the few while cooperation serves the many. Don't let the spokesmen--be they religious, political, corporate, or media--lead you astray. We're all connected, pieces of the universe trying to interpret itself.

The sooner we come to grips with that, the better.

Mysterious Machine Part 1

When we discover the machine most of it is buried and hidden from sight. The piece we see is just the tip of the iceberg, a tiny fraction of the whole, but even that is enough to incite awe and wonder in our hearts. It's a thing of beauty, a gigantic piece of art, a device so complex and magnificent it stops us dead in our tracks. 

We circle the exposed portion of the machine cautiously, studying its moving parts. There are countless pieces in all shapes and sizes and they interact together in strange ways. Some of the pieces come together and produce new components; other pieces consume lesser parts, assimilating them into their own circuitry. Some parts are stationary. Others move but appear to serve no purpose whatsoever. 

It isn't long before we start asking ourselves questions. Where did the device come from? Who built it and why? What is its purpose or function? How does it work? How do the parts move and function  without help? 

Crowds gather around to marvel at the machine. This one guy steps forward brimming with confidence and he rolls his eyes at our questions. Things don't just move of their own accord, you morons! There's clearly people hiding inside the machine and moving the pieces. And since they know how it works, they must've built it, too!

We label the myriad parts, record their movements and interactions, and note their function. Some parts move with regularity, allowing us to keep track of time. Other parts yield food and drink at regular intervals. There are even pieces that can be manipulated to produce resources for making tools and clothes!

As more and more people poke and prod at the machine it begins to reveal a sinister side. It produces fire and lightning, striking down unlucky ones. It acts without prompting, injuring and killing for no apparent reason. One time it opens up and swallows this poor lady whole.

We're scared of the machine now but we're too intrigued and dependent on its gifts to leave it alone. We keep tinkering, ignoring the risks. 
 

The arrogant know-it-all shows up again. This time he claims that the PIM (people inside the machine) chose him to be their spokesman. We ask the spokesman why the machine has turned against us and he replies like a parent answering a child's annoying question. They want gifts for their hard work. If you don't give them what they want, they’ll keep turning the machine against you.

We start singing, praising, and dancing but the PIM never acknowledge our worship. They want you to build a temple in their name, the spokesman says. We use materials provided by the machine to build a temple. We dedicate it to the PIM and furnish it with all kinds of trinkets. 

The spokesman moves into the temple promptly. The PIM are pleased, he announces. Carry on.

Now people are lining up to ask the spokesman questions. 

"Where did the PIM come from?"

They didn't come from anywhere. They've always been here.

"Why did they make the machine?"

Because they were bored and wanted to make something awesome. Next!

"Where do we come from?"

The spokesman pauses. "The PIM made us so that someone might use their machine."

"Why does the machine harm us sometimes?"

The machine only hurts you when you make the PIM angry. As long as you do what they ask, the machine will continue to serve us.

"How do we know what the PIM want with us?"

The spokesman smiles. I'll tell you what they want, that's how.

Most people are content with the spokesman's answers. They give up tinkering with the mysterious machine and start doing the spokesman's bidding.

Some of us can't help ourselves. The spokesman might be right or he might be wrong. Why take his word for it when the machine is right there for us to see and touch and study? We keep experimenting, pulling levers and flipping switches. In doing so we learn more about the machine and develop better tools with which to study it. 

The more we learn about the machine and its myriad parts, the better we get at developing new tools. We start to dig around the machine, discovering new parts and pieces. We take better and better measurements of it. We compare notes with others who have studied the machine. 

As we learn more about the machine we realize we don't really understand the machine at all. It's bigger than we imagined, bigger than we can imagine. Some start doubting the spokesman and his story about the PIM. How is it that the PIM have always been here? We all come from somewhere.

And if the PIM do exist and they're smart and powerful enough to make this wondrous and mysterious machine, why can't they come out and explain how it works to us directly? Why did they pick this one guy as their spokesman? Seems like a pretty silly way to do things, which is weird because it the PIM supposedly built this amazing device capable of miraculous things.

A brave few start to doubt the PIM's existence. "What if the machine works all by itself through some unknown mechanism or power-source? Sure, that doesn't explain who made the machine, but then again why does the machine require a maker? Maybe the machine is the ultimate maker. Maybe its function is to create and destroy."

"Maybe the machine made itself. Maybe it is constantly building and rebuilding, building and rebuilding, endlessly and forever."

"Wait. What if the machine made us?"

"If that's the case then we're no different from the other components, parts, and pieces we have been studying. We're just another cog in the wheel, another set of gears interacting with each other and the myriad parts in strange and wonderful ways!"

Blasphemy! says the spokesman. You wouldn't expect a watch to make itself, would you? 

By now the spokesman has lost some of his prestige. Dozens of other spokesmen have risen from the rank and file, each one claiming to have a direct line to whoever or whatever made the machine. Each one provides a different explanation about the machine's purpose, gathering his own set of followers.

These new spokesmen build a fence around the machine. The machine is sacred, a gift from the Makers, they announce. Only the chosen ones may study and interpret the machine's functions. Anyone else who dares approach the machine will be shot. Now get back to work!

Most people listen but there's one or two of us who can't leave the machine alone. It's captured our imagination and promises to reveal mind-blowing secrets if we just keep messing with it. 

At night, when everyone is asleep, we climb the fences. We keep digging, noting, and experimenting.

What good is a life of lies, anyway? Better death and truth, we say.

To be continued...