Buy Silver, Sell God.

People are often EMOTIONALLY involved with religion so REASONING with them is completely off the table.

5 years ago, in a Comparative Religions class (Calif. Secondary School) I said: "There is but one god - Aten - and Akhenaten is his prophet."

Of course, that was a setup for: "There is but one god - Allah - and Muhammad is his prophet" mentioned later in the course (and about 1500 years later in history).

BTW, do not confuse the issue: Akhenaten influenced the Levant and not the other way about. Some say Akhenaten and Moses were one and the same man!

God was added to American coinage during the Civil War.

"God" was "a device" that was useful in keeping the union from falling apart.

Then, by 1956, SILVER no longer backed paper money. If you can't trust paper currency that is backed by SILVER, then what do you "sell' to the populace as backing paper? GOD is the emotional answer.

HERE is an 1866 50¢ coin without the MOTTO.

and here is a worthless $100 bill - backed by God!

You have been sold a bill - with no goods behind it!

MORE

Later, the SILVER was removed from coins! All that remains is an illusion!

Cognition, recognition...

With more than 30 percent of the Bible market, the NIV has loyal following. When translators introduced a language update of the NIV (the TNIV), ass-backwards "Americans sounded the alarm."

First, translations are - by no means - certain. A word-for-word translation has limited value because while languages change, the speakers of those languages recycle old words to fit new meaning (thereby erasing recognition - or cognitive equivalence). Translation of the cognitive equivalents (e.g. thought-for-thought) is -at best- a patchwork of approximations because no one today is certain just WHAT the ancients were thinking or to what they might have been alluding. Also, parallels (cypher) have been lost more often than not. Add that puns and wordplay were often employed by the pre-standup comic element of the genre [of scriptural writers].

Bible translation differences clearly point out how modern words are 'best estimate' selected to translate or illuminate the metaphor in the ancient scripture.

Let me add that the same word-for-word and thought-for-thought problem exists for Buddhist Scriptures (including the more recent - comparatively - writing of Dogen)! Furthermore, more recent examples are available.

The debate itself is informative of how little we know - or can know. It also explains the generation-to-generation language gap.

So, my advice to those who wish to endlessly argue over minutia: "Shut the f*ck up!"

Besides, it's not creation that is being described in Genesis 1, it is only a sunrise (over the Gulf of Aden to the east of Ethiopia)! The spirit (e.g. breath) of god was carried by a bird - the BA - fluttering over the ocean at dawn.

Ignorant or free?

Thomas Jefferson once wrote:
"I have sworn upon an altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. A nation cannot be both ignorant and free."

The Peale portrait (1791) is here:

Ignorance is the cause of much suffering.

Oh, I know, desire (or craving) are the cause of suffering. Craving POWER, craving wealth, craving recognition - in short, being a paranoid republican.

Why are Buddhists happier?

Because they CAN be.

Why are most republicans miserable?

Because they are ignorant.

And in their ignorance, they can never be free. Pity the ignorant, pity the republican.

If you really believe...

Then serve god... (how?)

(serve god) Pizza!

You can even BURN THE BACON which, despite it's lack of kosherness, may please the nostrils of your particular god(s).

Multiple Names of God.

A monotheistic God evolved from the polytheistic nature (of gods) because the Gods had many names and titles for all of their works (e.g. storm, sea, sun, rain, death, seperation). Therefore, the Gods who were judges or the abortionist wagers of wars...

Some concepts of God are worth noting because they capture some ancient psychological truth.

The Egyptian speaker of truth (Toth) created everything from sound.

The Norse Balder was crucified, died, and was freed from Hel.

Trinities:

» Christianity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

» Romans (Archaic Triad). The Archaic triad was Jupiter, Juno and Minerva. Jupiter (papa), Juno (the gate keeper), Minerva (mother) (father, son, mother of son).

» Greeks (Capitoline Triad). After 500 BC, the Romans modified the Greek gods Zeus (Jupiter), Athena (Minerva) and...

» Hindu (Vedas). Agni (the sun, god of fire), Vayu (god of air), Surya (god of spirit, breath of life, or ghost - manifested in the birth water).

» Hindu (Puranas). Vishnu exists in three forms: Brahma (creator), Vishnu (preserver), Shiva (destroyer).

» Norse. Odin (the all-father), Freja (Athena), Balder.

Consider: the god of the toilet, the god of the dump, and the god of the flush. Why make arbitrary limits? Who ordained YOU to limit god(s)?

Estimating the number of atheists is rather complex (e.g. "there is no simple answer). Some adults who describe themselves as atheists also believe in God (Pew Research Center). And some people who identify with religions (e.g., are Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, etc.) do not believe in God.

I have no concerns whatsoever either way. The real question is: "Do you believe in Pizza? (I do not.)

The universe could be merely a hologram - nothing more

The universe could be merely a projected hologram.

The hologram could be a projection of mind.

The mind could be merely a projection of consciousness.

And consciousness could be merely a universe that is self-aware.

The top of the three COBE images is the background radiation - 3° Kelvin.

The center of the three COBE images shows the warped spin in the temperature of the universe - suggesting that the axis of spin folds back on itself (in a dimension that we can not observe).

The bottom of the three COBE images shows the granularity that suggests matter (e.g. concentrations of temperature).

But is COULD be illusionary.

"In the teachings of Buddha (e.g. Gautama Shakyamuni- as there are many many Buddhas) we have a concept, corresponding to that of maya in Hinduism. This is the called sanyatta which is sanskrit and translates as 'emptiness' in english. This concept describes how all the objects around us and all material things exist only as an appearances and behind that appearance is emptiness. That is, they don't really exist and therefore it is only consciousness that exists. So physical objects and the material world exist only as projections of our conscious state. Conscious states themselves being manifestations of the one God or in Buddhist parlance 'the Void'. This original meaning is sometimes misinterpreted by modern day Buddhists to mean that things are only empty of value. i.e. that the things we perceive as having value, lose their value for us if we can make ourselves see things differently. However, an ancient legend describes how when Buddha gave a sermon about sanyatta, many of the listeners suddenly had heart attacks. This story should not be taken literally. It was created to show that sanyatta is a shocking meta-physical assertion about the nature of reality not merely some statement about the relative value of things. This true interpretation of sanyatta or emptiness is kept alive today mainly in some of the Mahayana strands of Buddhism and also by Vajrayana Buddhist sects from Tibet. Also, the fact that Buddhism is derived from Hinduism supports the case that sanyatta and maya are interchangeable concepts. That is they both talk about the illusory nature of reality. "

So, not only are you all gods, you are all popes!

And that consciousness is singular.