The general purpose for commencing this blog is the subject of this first post.
It appears to me that for the entire period of mankind's history, there has existed an indwelling level of need within his ongoing nature that demands he has some form of list of do's and dont's in order to allow him to look in the mirror, and see that which is peering back at him; as being at the very least; acceptable in his own eyes. He seeks a kind of perfection or completion in himself personally and most likely also; others. No individual has ever been immune to this indwelling need, such that; he/she being focused upon seeking for him/herself as; 'below average' as possible. After all, if nothing else, our personal sanity is closely linked to that face we study in reverse. We are all either born with, or develop into a being that seeks 'the best for me', ultimately in the expectation of revealing me as 'good', by whatever parameter is considered important.
Whilst admittedly any such list of prerequisites, to which I might adhere, and a counterbalancing list of negatives, which I choose to reject (my do's and dont's list); might appear to project me as 'good', at least in my own eyes; yet by definition, this will be the most subjective of perspectives, and subsequently, the most short lived; in duration as well as satisfaction. So the next step in my seeking for personal acceptance, will necessarily be to develop a community around me of similarly minded adherents to my list of 'requirements'. Of course, the greater the number of like-minded brothers and sisters I can maneuver into my doctrinal system of 'requirements', the more objective our communal list of perfectionizing activities will appear to be, and the greater 'universal' appeal the system will seem to present. But the question has to be asked: Who, if anyone; is receiving true benefit, or alternatively; being deceived in this process?
Now, you (the reader) will easily recognize the obvious smoke signals developing in our scenario above; being that of a structure we see all around us today, known as (yet another) religion, and strangely enough, the more rigorous our list of dogmatic do's and dont's as applied to our new religion, the more pious and 'righteous' our symbolic group of adherents will be, as presented to their own attention, if not others. So, for the sake of developing our analogy, we will now foster a name for our new religious establishment, which will give us a (theoretical) blog church to use for the purpose of furthering our exploration into these things, as we progress.
The word 'Holy' is often a worthy starting point, upon which we will announce ourselves as being an official 'organization'. Now comes the tricky part, as we really don't wish for others to see our congregation as surrendering to a series of decrees and requirements (bad for business); so we will offer up an alternative sweeter sounding focus, upon which the well recognized concepts can find root, such as is embodied in the word 'God', and something to finish off with a little magical (and especially profitable) resonance, as within today's climate; so perhaps 'Gifts'.
So our new congregation will be announced to the world as; the "Holy Organization of Godly Gifts" (HOGG), because as all religious people know, any church worth it's salt is a well endowed pontification of assorted requirements and decrees (henceforth referred to as 'Gifts'); leading the adherent (me) all the way to that much sought after destination, commonly referred to as 'Heaven', and hence; away from that (at least) equally feared alternative, which due to our inculcated terrorized trembling, we shall avoid mentioning by name.
It was Karl Marx, who first penned the statement; 'Religion is the opium of the masses', and I suspect that due to the nature of the remainder of his ideology, it has become an all too easy indulgence, to brush aside such a statement. Yet, as observations go, I would suggest that this particular example is a little more erudite than we have so far given it due credit as being. For, as we can see from the above illustration, whilst religion might present as being quite the supplicating and caressing antidote for a world going entirely wacky, yet the foundations may be little more than, as Mr. Marx would have it; a stupefying opiate without any true integrity or redemptive solution, other than what may be fundamentally founded in millennially established superstitions and myths.
Well, such is Mr. Marx's c perspective at least, yet it would appear that there are more people today, who agree with such a concept than might disagree. I am not implying that they would openly verbalize such words, but their actions see them staying away in droves from the long established religious institutions, disciplines and services. So they are in fact; voting absolutely with their feet! Therefore I would assert that they are at least in a kind of agreement with Karl Marx, which by default indicates that there remains a mere minority of us that disagree.
Unfortunately there will be the odd religiously adherent reader who may feel somewhat grated upon by some of the particular words and expressions used above; eg. 'superstition' and 'myth', as relating to religion. Yet it is not our purpose here to offend anyone; but rather to offer up some suggestions that might promote a little contemplation and discussion based upon logic and evidence. Admittedly, such a process might sound sufficiently empirical to place it into the realm of scientific analysis, and I am not about to deny that science will be making it's substantial mark as we delve. After all, it has a most relevant place in our blog title.
Our seeking will be much more along the lines of the scientist, in that it will be based mainly upon reason and logic through observation, with some discernment and insight from perhaps the more spiritual side of cognition. So, although I have so far mainly referenced the religious concept/s of our well formatted mental activities, yet I assure you that the scientific side of the equation will soon enough also be making it's substantial voice heard in it's place.
So that completes this first post, and offers up the first part of the general outline of the projected intention of this blog discussion.
Common ground from between the two conceptual pillars as witness to the true picture of our existence.
About This Blog
JOINING THE DOTS
This blog is not for the purpose of argument, but rather for logical and (even) impassioned discussion as generally between the concepts that humans have long chosen as comfortable to lean upon; and thereby placing their trust. As such, the two main pillars of understanding are clearly; 'religion', and 'science'. For the purposes of this discussion, we are including a third (YAHWEH), with the expectation that such will be the revealing 'common ground' concept between these two fundamentals of traditional steadfastness.
Truth, it has been said, is different things to different people, however there MUST exist something that might be referred to as 'Ultimate Truth', which does not rely upon anyone (at all) accepting it, for it's rightful existence in the cosmos. We expect such a concept will reveal itself in the process of this discussion forum, as a self explanatory resolve to the age old argument between the two conceptual pillars of understanding, as mentioned above. Therefore, it is expected that the resolve reached will not be so much 'common ground', as undeniable truth, and hence referred to as our 'YAHWEH" option.
Naturally, it is to be expected that the die hard extremists from either side will necessarily reject the revealing outcomes, whilst not being entirely able to argue their way around the emerging joining of hitherto unconnected factual dots, leading us towards the resultant completed picture, hereby referred to as 'YAHWEH'.
So, this will be an exercise as it were, in joining up the FACTUAL dots, in order to reveal what has been long hidden in a mind-boggling plethora of various pieces of abounding information; which includes both fact and myth, provable and debatable; as presented from both sides of the equation.
Impossible you say? Maybe, but let's put our collective mind in a place where reason, discernment and fact have a fighting chance to converge and amalgamate. After all, we will not be inventing the resultant amalgam of 'WHAT IS' and 'why it is so', but merely allowing ourselves to recognize the validity of what has always been.
That which is not acceptable
As an ongoing discussion, this blog is interested only in facts and truth as emerging from our efforts to JOIN THE DOTS. As such, certain words, phrases and attitudes are to be disallowed as within this purpose. Included are such as defamatory and/or derogatory terms against any individual and any harsh language which is not absolutely necessary in the making of the particular point on offer. Also, whilst passion in varying belief/s and even attitudes is encouraged; any form of suggested violence towards any individual (contributor or otherwise) will not be tolerated, and will result in the contribution being excluded.
Blog Archive
About Me
- Zootsoup
- Zootsoup **Is NOT a religious soul and adheres NOT to any known religious accord, however has a reasonable level of scriptural insight and (to a relative degree): TRUST. **Is NOT a scientist, however has a reasonable level of scientific perception and (to a relative degree): TRUST. So one's main objective is to be as free a thinker and WITNESS of **WHAT IS** as possible, for the place has long since passed of a sense that any level of indoctrination into the belief systems of others is where one is required. And it's a must to add that one much prefers oneself when one is allowing oneself to freely develop the 'one'. And how obvious should that be?