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We could all use a little more faith

I do a lot of reading in my old age. I guess it may be because my eyeballs are more acceptable to movement than my legs. My lounge chair is very comfortable. I read a lot of what I would call Christian philosophy. That is about Christianity in general, more than any particular church. There are too many different Christian churches. Is Christianity that confusing?

It is as if Christianity has not revealed the truth about who or what we are. Have the teachings of Jesus been polluted by the rulers of our societies, who found it as the easiest way to keep us under control? Or is it because those in power at the time, and since, did not believe in the teaching of Jesus, or allow us the truth about what Jesus taught?

Richard Rohr, a Franciscan Priest in Texas wrote in his book “The Universal Christ” “that the first seven Councils of the Church, both East and West, were all either convened or resided over by emperors.” This had to be after the life of Jesus, and emperors were not likely to give away their power to what they considered a renegade.

Jesus recruited his disciples from people who were uneducated. I would assume that is because he saw it unlikely, that those who were educated in the realities of the day, would accept his new understandings of humanity. His teachings of the realities of humanity were very different from the teachings of existence at that time.

Jesus taught his disciples that they were capable of things that humanity in general thought impossible, at least to the common man. He did things that he expected his disciples to do also. Were they born of virgins? They were too swamped in a life of muck and mire of what they had observed for years as man’s reality, that while they recognized his power, they (deep down) thought it not really possible for themselves.

It would seem that the stories of the virgin birth of Jesus were very likely written after he left this world. They made his feats acceptable and meaningful. It cataloged them as not really possible for a man born of sin. In other words, the powers that were, while they could not disclaim his deeds, gave them reality in the explanations of his ability, which discredited the common man from the accomplishments of a divine being. Are all reproductions of life sinful? I think not. Without it there would be no life on earth. Not even butterflies.

Nothing comes from nothing, Unreality is a random product of the imagination. Something is real only if it actually happens, only then is it true. It is the result of something else that also exists. The imagination of man can seem to produce any number of things, as our novels, movies and other stories. Imagination may give excitement, but not reality. We don’t always understand that imagination, although it may be exciting, is not always reality.

Jesus did live, and teach us that we, like everything else, are the product of a power that created the universe. After all these years, we still do not understand what life is, or how an acorn can actually become an oak tree, or how a microscopic, fertilizing sperm in the ovum of the uterus, can become an Albert Einstein. We are slowly becoming aware that life is growing, and that man’s intelligence is growing with it. Our destiny is not to be held in the hands of a power seeker on an ego trip, but in the hands of our intellect and God. We may have been ruled by those who seek only power over others for thousands of years. They see themselves as our gods, but we are now in an age which must recognize the true destiny of mankind. We must stand aside, and allow ourselves to grow in true intelligence, and self development, to become the humanity we have been destined to become. May God bless America.

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

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