While I may shock some of you with comments I make in this article, I do consider myself a Christian. I believe in the teachings of Jesus. I also believe in the destiny of mankind.

We speak of, and accept the Bible, as the word of God. We must remember, however, that it was not written by God. The New Testament was written by dedicated people who considered Jesus as the son of God, but not common man. They could not believe that any man could do as Jesus did, even though that is what he taught. We are not certain, beyond our assumptions, who wrote many biblical chapters. I am somewhat confused by some stories we read in the bible. I am sure they are true, however, much of it was written many years after it happened. The writer wasn’t there, and it certainly must include the various authors impressions of the facts, as well as the facts themselves. In those times, like these, people did not always understand reality.

Jesus was an unusual child. He came forward as an unusually gifted young man at the age of 30. At this time he recruited his followers, and began his teaching and healing.

My basic criticism comes from the fact that Christian churches today, while they teach about Jesus, they attribute his unusual abilities to the fact that he was the actual son of God. Doesn’t Christianity say that about everyone? Jesus taught his disciples that they also could do what he did.

In the story of his walking on water, he rebuked his disciple Peter, because Peter did not have enough faith to do the same. He expected his followers to do the same as himself. This was a continuous teaching of Jesus. We are more satisfied to simply accept the idea that he was able to do what no man could do, because of his divine origin. It also puts a curse on common man that we cannot do it because we were all born in sin, as though all sex is a sin, no matter the circumstance, and regardless of the relationship that may exist between two people.

The union between my wife and myself produced three wonderful, intelligent people. They were conceived as a part of our mutual love, which we did not consider sinful, not because we were married, but because they were conceived in a spirit of mutual love. All life on earth is reproduced by the union of two parents, even in very primary lives, with help from bees etc. This idea that sex is a sinful act, no matter how, or when it occurs, only reflects that mankind has misused the practice, in so many sinful ways. That does not make it always sinful. The misuse use of sex or money is often sinful, but neither is unconditionally sinful regardless.

Mankind, to reach his ultimate destiny, must learn to respect himself, and his fellow humans, rather than treat them as rivals.

We all have more ability and intelligence than we realize. As we slowly learn more and more about the realities of life, our progeny shall advance far beyond what we see as the modern world today, just as today we have advanced far beyond the days of those who came before us, even only a few lifetimes ago.

In our ignorance, you and I are not aware of what the future may hold. We may, as we have done before, make many backward steps, but as we travel two steps forward for every one step back we shall eventually gain the future of mankind, beyond anything we may understand today.

I am reminded of the phrase I’ve used before from the book “This Thing Called You” by Ernest Holmes which says, “The limitation of locomotion and travel in ox cart days was not imposed by divine fiat. It was imposed by ignorance.”

Ignorance is our main problem. Ignorance has no intelligence, and shall inevitably be completely overcome. May God bless America.

Richard Westlund is a Collins resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com