The Church of Allan - The Plain Truth About God

A serialization of the book, The Plain Truth About God.

Chapter 12. Thanks for the Meme-ories!

If you are sitting in a state of blissful ignorance about a Meme-infestation, what are the tell tale signs to look for? Imagine how a medical symposium might describe the symptoms.

1. The patient finds him/herself impelled by some deep inner conviction that something feels true, right, or the way it should be; a conviction that does not have any evidence or reason, but which, nevertheless, they feel is totally compelling or convincing!

Doctors refer to such a belief as “faith.”

The typical patient will make it a positive virtue to have his/her “faith” strong and unshakeable.

This feeling of superiority or righteousness will persist in spite of a lack of evidence. In fact most people will believe that the less evidence there is ----the more virtuous the belief!

This lack of evidence is a positive virtue where faith is concerned because if is a self-sustaining program. This means that once a proposition is believed, it automatically undermines opposition to itself.

The “lack of evidence is a virtue” idea is admirable since it teams up with “faith” itself to form a mutually supportive viral program!

2. Along with the two already mentioned symptoms of a Memics infection, we have a related symptom that may also be present in a faith-sufferer.

This is the conviction that “mystery” (i.e. the mystery of faith) is not something to be solved. It is not a virtue to solve mysteries, but rather we should enjoy them and revel in their insolubility.

Roman Catholics, for example, have a belief in infallible authority, which compels them to accept that wine becomes physically transformed into blood.

By the same token, they have the exact same trick performed in the “mystery” of the Trinity!

3. If you have a faith bug, it is statistically overwhelming that it is the same faith as your parents and grandparents had.

Moving stories and parables, along with stirring music and magnificent houses of worship have had some influence, but by and large, the most important variable in determining your religion is an accident of birth!

The convictions that you so passionately believe would have been a completely different set of beliefs if you had been born somewhere, or by someone else!

4. The infected persons may find themselves behaving intolerantly towards rival faiths, in extreme cases even killing them or advocating their deaths. They may be similarly inclined towards apostates or heretics!

This feeling of animosity can even be translated into hostility towards other modes of thought that are potentially inimical to their faith, such as the scientific method (evolution, etc.) which may be an anti-viral agent to him/her.

The road that leads to denunciation of another person’s faith is a long and perilous journey at best.

Because these viruses implant themselves so deeply into our psyche, often from a very early age on, to challenge them or attempt to “bring down the house of cards” can have serious consequences for the individual.

The threat to kill the distinguished novelist Salmon Rushdie or the Danish cartoonist who made fun of Muhammad is only one in a long list of sad examples.

Murder is an extreme example of course, but we have examples of even more extreme behavior in the suicide of the militant observers of a faith.

Like a soldier ant in a colony of Arab, or Japanese, or Sikh extremists, (ants) they are programmed to sacrifice their life.

To die in a holy war is the quickest way to heaven.

'On the surface, this may seems outright preposterous, but remember, the true test of a faith is the ability to believe without question!

Memes are not only immaterial thoughts, but can also manifest themselves as concrete objects when they are employed as the bases for objects such as a book.

A book is a successful way of transmitting a Meme and we are going to look at one of the most successful Memes of all time. The Bible!

In terms of the number of copies in existence, the Bible represents one of the most prolific books ever produced. Where other great texts of the ancient world have either been lost or else exist only in a relatively small number of copies, the Bible is everywhere!

The Bible has existed generally in its present form for the last two millennia.

If “survival of the fittest” has any validity as an evolutionary slogan, then the Bible seems a fair candidate for the accolade of the fittest of all books.

It exists today in over two thousand different languages and is distributed worldwide making it one of the best examples of a self-propagating “Meme.”

The Bible has exerted more influence on Western and even World culture than any other book. In art, literature, politics and religion, the biblical narratives and quotations are all-pervasive.

As Western culture became globalized, so to did the Bible. For example, fully one quarter to one third of all Japanese households today possess a bible. This in a country where only one or two percent of the population has any Christian adherence whatsoever.

The Bible has propagated itself so well in Japan because it is regarded as essential background for a proper understanding of Western culture.

This means that one effect of the spread of Western culture through trade, conquest and missionary activity has been the spread of an ancient Hebrew and Greek text to every corner of the globe.

Where Western culture goes, so goes the Bible.

“What a Meme!” And remember, a Meme has exactly the same psychological motivation for us as a chain letter; “If you propagate me then something nice will happen. If not, then something horrible will happen!” (Hell?)

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Chuch of Allan - The Plain Truth About God

A serialization of the book, The Plain Truth About God.

Chapter 10. - Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up!

To quote James Breech once more: “Your concept of the kingdom of God, whether it belongs to the future mythological conceived, in either eschatological or apocalyptic terms, misses the reality of the kingdom.

The symbolism really refers to a power that is a basic factor in human experience!”

In the teachings attributed to Jesus, it is abundantly clear that he was an apocalyptic teacher who believed that the world would end within the lifetime of the people to which he was speaking.

The foundation of these teachings was that human beings could be saved by both believing his word and by modeling their lives on the higher moral law of God.
That higher moral law was the foundation of Jewish law.

To this end, he believed that Pharisaical teaching were an appropriate guide to following this higher moral law.

His criticism of the Pharisees was that they did not live by what they taught.

In line with this higher moral law, Jesus of Nazareth preached an ethics of selfless concern for the welfare of others, rejection of material wealth, and non-retribution, all of which were standard in Jewish ethics.

The religion that he taught was an intensely individual religion. Righteousness, which means the performance of right actions, was not a quality of actions but rather a quality of the interior state of the individual.

There is also abundant evidence in the Gospels that Jesus considered his teachings to be for Jews only.

This is a curious tradition to maintain in the face of the massive spread of Christianity into the Gentile world.

However, nowhere does Jesus of Nazareth construe his teachings or the religion he is espousing as anything other than for Jews and in one place explicitly says that his mission is only to the Jews.

Ultimately, the Jesus who emerges from the gospels is concerned with preparing the Jews for the last event in history.

The Christian religion was at first, obviously, a Jewish religion. It was a movement amongst the population in the immediate area of the land Jesus lived in.

Its message aimed directly at a Jewish audience by Jews.

However, with the advent of the Prophet Paul the message changed and was geared towards a Gentile population that was eager for the “word” as well.

Onto this template, Paul of Tarsus would add a new emphasis Jesus as a dead and risen God co-extensive with God.

This developed into two branches, which we could call a Jewish Christian and a Pauline (Gentile) Christian.

They not only lived side by side, but also competed for the same converts.

It was not until the Romans suppressed an uprising by the Jews in c A.D. 66-74 and again A.D. 132-135 that led to the destruction of Massada that the Pauline Christians gradually won out.

They became the defenders of the faith while the Jewish Christians were left by the wayside.

(Actually in the ashes of Massada!)

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Church of Allan - The Plain Truth About God

A serialization of the book, The Plain Truth About God.

Chapter 9. ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS .

**”So many gods, so many creeds;
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind
Is all the sad world needs.”—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919)

We have to keep in mind, and never lose sight of the fact that the historical “Jesus” was culturally a product of the ancient Near East, and in an area under Roman sovereignty.

“Christ” was a product of the people and times that came after him, most notably Pauline thought, as well as a Greek influence.

The parables and stories of the historical Jesus were the product of a first century Jewish “rabbi-sage-cynic” from Galilee who had an enormous influence on a handful of people around him.

We will refer to the historical figure as “Jesus” from now on, and the person of mythology as being the “Christ” of our modern religion.

Christianity, in its simplest terms, is the result of previous centuries of Jewish and Greek myth and conjecture.

It’s all about the coming of a “Messiah,” and revolves around the Resurrection.

The teachings of Jesus were altered to fit the legend but definitely took a secondary role.

We all know that the gospels were composed many years after the death of not only Jesus, but even of most of the people who knew him directly.

Not only were these Gospels displaced in time, but were also displaced culturally, and since Greek speaking Christians composed them, even further meaning was lost in translation from the Aramaic.

There are now two main, and disparate, schools of thought about the origin of Christianity.

The first, and mistaken belief is that Jesus himself, as well as his teachings, was the founder.

The other is that the Christ or “Anointed One” of the Resurrection, (Shaped by Pauline thought) is the bases of this religion.

This may seem to be a small distinction upon first inspection, but in the end a very crucial one.

If it is based on the teachings, and more importantly, the example of Jesus, then his words take on enormous significance.

If, on the other hand, the “Resurrection” and “Pauline thought” is taken as the bases for Christianity, then it is based on the ideas and beliefs of the people who came after him!

The Problem with the Historical Jesus (as postulated by Dr. Burton Mack.)

1. The historical Jesus is to be distinguished from the gospel portraits of him.
2. Jesus taught his disciples orally. Jesus wrote nothing.
3. Traditions about Jesus were circulated by word of mouth for many years after Jesus' death. Oral tradition is fluid.
4. The oral mentality remembers, not the precise words, but the core of what was said.
5. Jesus' mother tongue was Aramaic; the gospels were written in Greek.
6. Jesus was itinerant: he moved around and adapted his sayings and parables to the occasion. Jesus' disciples were also oral and itinerant: they moved around and revised his sayings and parables as the situation demanded.
7. The oral tradition exhibits little interest in biographical data about Jesus.

Chronology

1. At least two decades separate the death of Jesus from the first written records.
2. Forty years elapsed after the death of Jesus before the first canonical gospel was composed.
3. Mark was the first of the canonical gospels to be written. (Mark was not an eyewitness of the events he reports.)
4. The synoptic gospels - Mark, Matthew, Luke - share a common view of Jesus in contrast to the gospel of John.
5. Between them Matthew and Luke incorporate nearly all of Mark into their gospels, often almost word for word, and they also make use of a sayings gospel, known as Q, often almost word-for-word. (Q is a collection of sayings without a narrative framework.)

Gospel of Thomas

1. The Gospel of Thomas has provided a new and important source for the Jesus tradition. It consists of 114 sayings without a narrative framework.
2. Thomas represents an earlier stage of the tradition than do the canonical gospels and represents an independent witness to the Jesus tradition.

Age of the written gospels: (Now agreed upon most scholars!)

1. Q and Thomas were composed during the period 50-60 C.E.
2. Mark was written about 70 C.E.
3. Matthew was composed about 85 C.E.
4. Luke-Acts was created around 90 C.E.
5. The signs gospel embedded in the Gospel of John was composed during the period 60-80 C.E.
6. The first edition of John appeared between 80 and 100 C.E.

Independent and derivative gospels:

1. The major independent sources of information about Jesus are Q, Thomas, Mark, and the signs gospel embedded in the Gospel of John. The earliest sources are “Q” and Thomas.

Assessment of written sources:

1. Only a small portion of the sayings attributed to Jesus in the gospels was actually spoken by him.
2. The greater part of the sayings tradition was created or borrowed from common lore by the transmitters of the oral tradition and the authors of the gospels.

Surviving copies of the gospels:

1. The original manuscripts of the gospels have disappeared.
2. The earliest small surviving fragments of any gospels date from about 125 C.E.
3. The earliest major surviving fragments of the gospels date from about 200 C.E.
4. The earliest complete copy of the gospels dates from about 300 C.E.
5. Prior to 1454 C.E. no two surviving copies of the same gospel are exactly alike.
6. In the copying process, copies of the gospels were "improved" and "corrupted."

Research Methods: Revolt against dogma:

1. The same methods of study should be applied to the Bible that are used in the study of other ancient texts.
2. Jesus should be studied like other historical persons
3. The Bible should be studied without being bound to theological claims made by the church, after all, Jesus was not a Christian. He was a Jew.

Oral Evidence

1. In the oral transmission of Jesus' words, his disciples remembered only the core or gist of his sayings and parables, not his precise words.
2. The bedrock of the sayings tradition is made up of single aphorisms and parables that once circulated independently.
3. The simpler forms of saying and parables are more likely to be original with Jesus. More complicated forms may mask earlier and simpler forms.
4. Words are frequently borrowed from the fund of common lore or from the Old Testament and put on the lips of Jesus.

TOMORROW; THE LAST DAYS!

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Church of Allan - The Plain Truth About God

A serialization of the book, The Plain Truth About God.

Chapter 8. Let My People Go!

Of all the civilizations archaeologists have studied there seems to be a special interest in the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians.

This is probably because Babylon and Assyria had a close connection with the world that was depicted in the Old Testament of the Bible.

A great part of archaeology revolves around attempts by people to find records of this culture that lend support to their faith in the Bible.

So much so, that with the beginning of a critical study of the Bible, questions were posed as to the accuracy of many of the passages that had been considered historical fact instead of the metaphorical stories they were intended to be. (See forward: by Dr. Burton L. Mack)

It was this desire to find corroboration of the Biblical narrative that first started scholars on their search throughout the Babylonian and Assyrian area of the Middle East.

It was known from the Old Testament that there was a close relationship between the civilizations of the Hebrew and the Babylonian-Assyrian people.

Abraham himself had become a migrant to the west when he left the Babylonian city of Ur after the Assyrians and Babylonians became a political threat to the independence of the Hebrew people.

The ten northern tribes of the Hebrews were eventually dispersed by the Assyrians, while a small group continued in Babylonian captivity.

With the superior force of their enemies, the Hebrews were to begin their Exile, much as they had endured the Exodus about 600 years before.

The Babylonians, much like the Assyrians and the Egyptians had many writings that were in the nature of scripture but they never set aside a specific book that was described as having Divine origin.

It is without doubt that there was much borrowing between the Hebrews and Babylonians though, and from this “borrowing,” we have a remarkable similarity between Babylonian and Egyptian stories.

1. The creation and flood story
2. Hymns and prayers
3. Ritual texts
4. Their legal code and -
5. Omens, all of which find some correspondence in the Bible.

** Moses came down from the mountain carrying two stone tablets. Today he would have gotten the information over the Internet and on a CD disc! -A.W. J.

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Chaldeans and the Babylonian empire, started to deport most of the prominent citizens of Judah about 597 B.C.E., and by 586, B.C.E. Judah ceased to be an independent kingdom.

Although most of the professionals, priests, artisans and the wealthy were deported, the “people of the land” were allowed to stay and then gathered in a single place by Nebuchadnezzar.

These people called themselves the “Gola.” (Exiles) They forged a new national identity and a new religion that was a reworking of the cult of Yahweh.

These “exiles” lived in a time of despair and loneliness that was brought about by the realization that the ‘Exile’ itself was unexplainable.

Hebrew history had been built on the promise of Yahweh (God) protecting them and using them for his purposes throughout human history.

This defeat and the loss of land promised to them by Yahweh implied that their faith in him was somehow misplaced.

This crisis, when their view of reality and the fact of reality did not match, resulted in a most profound despair.

It eventually led to a reworking of the Hebrew “world-view” that had existed until then.

Biblical texts such as Lamentations, Job, and many of the Psalms were written at this time.

Job in particular, an upright deserving man, is made to suffer the worst series of calamities possible.

When he finally despairs and states that there is no cosmic justice, the only answer he receives is that humans should not question God’s will!

Out of shear necessity, the Jews of Babylon had to re-make themselves.

They grew to blame the disaster of the Exile on their own impurity and lack of direction in following the word of Yahweh.

They had betrayed God and allowed their laws and practices to become corrupt.
Their exile was the final proof of God’s displeasure.

It was during this period that the direction and emphasis of the Jewish faith changed from a religion of judgment to a theology of salvation.

In texts such as Isaiah and Ezekiel there was talk of a purified and renewed faith where the Israelites would be gathered together in a purified religion and just society.

They talked about the re-establishment of a Davidic kingdom.

It was also during this period of resurgence in Jewish tradition that the Torah started to take its final shape and became the central text of the Jewish faith, helped along by “Cyrus the Persian.”

When “Cyrus the Great” conquered Mesopotamia around 535 BCE, he set in motion a series of events that was to shape the Jewish people and faith for all time!

The Persian people before that time (1000-800 B.C.E.) were a rag-tag group of tribes living north of Mesopotamia and part of the widespread group of Indo-European families.

The Mesopotamians had considered them no better than animals and they were largely ignored.

All this changed about 750 BCE when the followers of the “prophet” Zarathustra, already well entrenched in other areas of the Middle East, came to the fore in this area as well.

They spread their religion of Zoroastrianism which stated that Cosmic history was simply the epic battle between the two Divine forces of good and evil.

At the end time, a climactic battle would decide, once and for all, which of the two forces would dominate the universe.

Human beings were part of this struggle, as well as all the gods and religions.

Cyrus the Great was a follower of Zarathustra and set out to conquer not only the Middle East, but also the entire world.

He did this out of a wish to guarantee his territorial safety by conquering potential enemies, but he also wanted the whole world united for religious reasons.

Cyrus believed that the final battle between good and evil (The End Time) was fast approaching and the legions of humanity had to be brought to the side of the good forces.

He sought to conquer the entire known world, much like Alexander the Great did some few hundred years later.

Cyrus was the greatest conqueror the world had ever seen up to that point and his empire reached a sized never before imagined by anyone.

He was wondering about the circumstances for the Armageddon to come and believed that the Hebrew God “Yahweh” was aligned on the side of good and visited him one night in a vision.

In this vision he was commanded to re-establish Yahweh worship in Jerusalem and rebuild the temple there.

After the temple was rebuilt, Cyrus ordered the Jews in Babylon to return to Jerusalem and worship Yahweh for the forgiveness of their sins.

At the same time during this Exile, the Jews had set about “purifying” their religion and were attempting to return to the laws and cultic practices of their Mosaic origins.

This newfound concern with cultic purity and the Mosaic laws, combined with the re-establishment of Judah as a theological state, produced a totally different society from what had gone on before.

The Jews had adapted many things from the Persians and included these elements into their religion as well. This attempt to purify their faith resulted in a belief in a dualistic universe.

In early history everything happened from two forces, Yahweh and human will.

Now, in an effort to make sense of the Exile, the Hebrews adapted the Persian idea that the universe is composed of two opposite forces, one good, and the other evil!

This development closely followed the Zoroastrian concept of duality, which was now the foundation of their faith. Therefore, after the Babylonian exile, the Hebrews talk of an evil force opposed to God, which became the “Devil” in Christianity.

Before the Exile, the Hebrews believed that the soul of a person lived on for a short time before fading completely from existence, thus making it a this-world religion.

The Persians, meanwhile, believed the souls of good people would re-unite with the forces of good in eternal bliss and the souls of evil people would reunite with the forces of darkness until the final defeat of Evil.

This view of the afterlife that was adapted by the Hebrews explained all the suffering of this life, such as the Exile, and made it apparent that cosmic justice was apparent only after one’s death rather than during their lifetime.

This laid the foundation of the Judaism we have today!

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Church of Allan - The Plain Truth About God.

A serialization of the book, The Plain Truth About God (Chapter 5 - Timelines)

Chapter 5 – TIMELINE
You cannot tell who, or where you are, unless you know how you got there!

1534 A.D. - Henry V111 marries Anne Boleyn. Excommunicated by Clement V11.
- Henry V111 breaks away from the Catholic Church and makes himself the head of the Episcopal Church, or, Church of England.
1534 A.D. - John Calvin publishes his first edition of the “Institute of the Christian Religion.” This work is destined to become one of the most influential works of Protestantism. The book details his theology of Humanities depravity, the necessity of grace for salvation and predestination.
1535 A.D. - House of Hapsburg drives Turks out of Hungary.
1536 A.D. – Portugal has its own version of the “Inquisition.”
1543 A.D. - Spanish Catholics begin burning Protestants at the Stake while Sweden made Lutheranism the official state religion and banned Catholicism.
And, oh yes. Did not burn anyone!
1540 A.D. - Copernicus refuses to publish “De Revolutionibus Purbitum Coelestium” out of fear of Church censure.
** Is it so bad to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.-Ralph Waldo Emerson
1542 A.D. - Pope Paul 1V decides that Rome needs its own Inquisition, vows that Rome will not be outdone by Spain. New twist to an old tale, he boiled them rather than burnt them!
1545-1563 A.D. - Council of Trent Catholic Reformation, or Counter Reformation, met Protestant challenge by clearly defining an official theology.
1553-1558 A.D. - Catholic Queen Mary reigned in England, persecuting Protestants and restoring Catholicism as the official religion.
1558 A.D. - Elizabeth 1 succeeded Mary as Queen of England and restored Protestantism as the official religion. - The Puritan movement develops among those dissatisfied with her reforms of the church.
1560 A.D. - Phillip 1 inherits Spain for House of Hapsburg.
1550-1580 A.D. - John Knox publishes “The First blast of the trumpet against the monstrous regiment of women.” Deploring the authority of women. “Misogynists to the left of us, Misogynists to the right!” Scotch Presbyterian Church founded by John Knox. Knox was a follower of Calvin because of his disagreement with Lutherans over sacraments and church government.
1604 A.D. - John Smith establishes Baptist Church. - King James bible.
1616 A.D. - The Church prohibits Galileo from further scientific work
**“I do not believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use.” -Galileo
1620A.D. - English Puritans, known as Pilgrims, established a colony in America at Plymouth Rock to escape religious pluralism in England. **By the way, they only stopped at Plymouth Rock because they “ran out of beer” and had to stop for more supplies!
1633 A.D. - Galileo forced by the Inquisition to renounce theories of Copernicus.
- Descartes stops publishing in France in response to the Churches attacks on Galileo.
1647 A.D. - George Fox founded the Society of Friends. (Quakers)
1648 A.D. - Peace of Westphalia ends thirty years war - Guarantees greater religious freedoms and........... The Beginning of the Modern Era;

Let us take a quick refresher course in European history. Civilization in the West evolved following the disintegration of the Roman Empire in the late 5th century.
The adoption of Christianity as a major state religion in Rome and the absence of Imperial authority saw the eventual birth of the medieval world.
The major emphasis of this culture was humankind’s relationship with God. Popes, Bishop’s, Priests and Monks were extremely influential and exercised an enormous amount of power.
There was only one Church, and it was referred to as “universal,” or in Latin, the Catholic church. Judaism was more or less tolerated, but its followers often became the focus of persecution during times of distress.
Because of this “Catholic” viewpoint, Western Europe eventually followed a path that led in a completely different direction than that of the Eastern World. This included the Near East and the territories, which would become Eastern Europe and Russia.
The most deciding factor had been the split during the Early Middle Ages between East and West over the issue of the supremacy of the Pope.
Elsewhere, the Near East and Africa (including what is now Spain) remained more or less unified by Islam and it retained supremacy unrivaled in either Western or Eastern Europe until the coming of the Renaissance.
It was during the Renaissance period when Humanist philosophers began to question their contemporary culture that the medieval framework began to breakdown.
As these scholars began to look at the classical past, the ideology of man’s place in the world started to rival the ideology of man’s place in heaven. Eventually Renaissance humanism caused some to question the Church’s monopoly on thought and we slowly emerged from the dark ages that started when Otto the First turned out the lights in 962 A.D.
Of the people that questioned the Churches theology, most were burned at the stake. One of them, however, a monk by the name of Martin Luther, was able to avoid the flames, at the same time causing some flames of his own.
Luther’s ideas were not new. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
The political situation in Germany was greatly divided. For centuries, the disorganized principalities had been paying tribute to Rome in an attempt to court Papal favor.
The princes saw Luther’s ideology of religious reform as a means to circumvent the Papacy and so he gained the backing and protection of a majority of influential German princes.
Luther’s “Reformation” eventually fragmented into groups that adopted some of his beliefs and rejected others.
The result was that Europe became divided into two camps, the Protestants (including Lutherans and other offshoots of Lutheranism), and the Catholics.
The Catholic Church then launched a Counter-Reformation in an attempt to restore the “universitality” of Christian belief.
Despite its attempts at eternal reform, most notably the Council of Trent and the creation of the Jesuits, the Catholic effort to restore Catholicism to all of Western Europe eventually failed. However, not before a great deal of blood was shed on both sides.
The bloodiest struggle, and one of the most terrible wars in all of history, began in 1618. The fighting, which raged off and on all over Europe came to be known as “The Thirty Years War.” A conflict that at its heart was due to the manipulations of the Church and the Hapsburgs.
The war was a last attempt by Catholic forces to restore Religious unity in Europe.
It was a dismal failure and the Catholic Church finally surrendered to the fact that their religion was no longer “universal.” This failure led to a new European worldview. One that included the possibility of alternative thought.
The exploration of new ways of thinking began with religion, but did not end there.

**This is the turning point historians mark as the beginning of the Modern Era.

1653 A.D. - Oliver Cromwell becomes “Lord Protector” of England.
1664 A.D. - First women were condemned as witches in the new world, leading up to the Salem witch panic in Salem, Massachusetts.
1720-1760 A.D. - American Colonies experienced the “Great Awakening,” involving the widespread conversions to Charismatic Protestant Churches emphasizing personal piety and individual interpretations of the Bible. (Influenced the “Founding Fathers”)
1727 A.D. - Death of Sir Isaac Newton. - Voltaire preaches ideas of political freedom. - Methodist Church founded by John Wesley.
1776 A.D. – The American Revolution
1788 A.D. - The French Revolution
1827 A.D. - Mormon Church established by Joseph Smith because of visions of the Angel Moroni. - Degradation of women still practiced by allowing men to have multiple wives. (Not quite as good as seventy two virgins upon arrival in Paradise, but what the hell!)
1832 A.D. - Spanish Inquisition was finally abolished.
1858 A.D. - “Mary” in a one-night engagement at Lourdes. - Florence Nightingale held over during the Crimean War.
1859 A.D. - Charles Darwin publishes “Origin of Species.”
1863 A.D. -House OF Hapsburg - King Maximilian of Austria made Emperor of Mexico. – (Hapsburg’s attempt to get into North America.) - Maximilian shot dead in 1867. -So much for that!
1870 A.D. - First Vatican Council affirmed the doctrine of Papal infallibility.
1896 A.D. - Billy Sunday, American Presbyterian evangelist, began his preaching with road shows. Attracted huge crowds and foreshadowed the modern-day evangelists and televangelists.
1901 A.D. - Beginning of Pentecostal Church.
1914 A.D. - Archduke Ferdinand of the “House of Hapsburg” is assassinated by a Serbian Nationalist leading to the start of the “war to end all wars.” -World War 1.
1917 A.D. - “Mary” comes back for an encore after Lourdes and appears at Fatima, Portugal. Reportedly witnessed by 100,000 people.
1918 A.D. - With the end of the First World War in 1918, most of the House of Hapsburg’s possessions and titles were either taken away or abolished. This ended a thousand years of significant control over most of Europe. Many claims by various members of the House of Hapsburg to have titles or land reinstated are still going through the courts in Europe here in the 21st century!
1925 A.D. - “Scopes Monkey Trial” John T. Scopes convicted of teaching evolution in public school.
1947 A.D. - Discovery of the “Qumran” or “Essene” scrolls. (Dead Sea Scrolls.)
- Discovery of the “Gospel of Thomas” sayings of Jesus written down shortly after his death.
1957 A.D. - Founding of Church (?) of Scientology.
1962-65 A.D. - Second Vatican Council.
1979 C.E. - The Iranian Revolution results in the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the first Islamic state in the modern era.
2000 C.E. - Pope John Paul 11 offers apology and asks for forgiveness for Catholicism’s history of “Violence in the service of truth.”
Now that’s one small step for a man and a giant leap for humanity!


**”And so it goes!” - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.


Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Church of Allan - The Plain Truth About God.

A serialization of the book, The Plain Truth About God (Chapter 5 - Timelines)

Chapter 5 – TIMELINE
You cannot tell who, or where you are, unless you know how you got there!

While Europe was caught up in the conflict between Pope and Emperor, a storm was brewing in Asia. Genghis Khan united the Mongols in a military confederation and achieved such a series of conquests that has no parallel in history.
1220 A.D. - The earlier Mongols conquests drove a tribe of Turks out of Turkistan into Asia Minor. There they established the Ottoman Empire, which advanced until it controlled the entire eastern Mediterranean.
Heavy custom tolls levied by the Ottomans, who controlled the Black Sea trade, stimulated the European search for alternative routes to the Orient.
1225-1274 A.D. - Life of theologian Thomas Aquinas, who codified Catholic theology, marking the high point of the medieval scholastic movement.
1228 A.D. - Sixth Crusade launched. - The (Papal) Inquisition prohibited the reading of the bible by laypersons.
1233 A.D. - After proclaiming the Excommunicqamus two years before, Pope Gregory 1X established the HOLY INQUISITION to abolish heresy wherever it could be found. This provided the church with literally hundreds of years of entertainment.
1252 A.D. - The papacy approves the use of torture for religious disobedience.
1258 A.D. Pope Alexander 1V issues decree Ut Negotium, which allowed inquisitors to absolve one another of any “irregularities” while at work! …………“It’s a rough job but somebody has to do it!”
1270 A.D. - The crusades come to an end. - Marco Polo begins his journey to China to see Kublai Khan. (Grandson of Genghis Khan)
1273 A.D. - Rudolph 1 becomes first House of Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor after extinction of the House of Lenzberg.
1302 A.D. - Pope Boniface VIII issued the papal bull Unum Sanctum, declaring that the pope had supreme and final authority in all matters, both civic and spiritual.
1327 A.D. - German Dominican Master Eckhart defined the individual soul as a “spark” of the Divine at its most basic element.
1336 A.D. 100 Years War – Here’s a good lesson in history why wars and most human endeavors are so foolish. English nobility began to imitate French aristocrats in the thirteenth and fourteen centuries and changed from being beer drinkers to wine connoisseurs.
There was only one problem, and that was ---- all the vineyards were in France!
To gain access to the grapes, England fostered civil war in the area of Flanders in the hope a gaining control of them for wine production. This brought England and France into direct conflict and resulted in a war that was actually on and off for 229 years. (1336-1565)
C-1350 A.D. - “Black Death” Bubonic plague sweeps across Europe.
1350 A.D. - Renaissance begins in Italy.
1368 A.D. - Ming Dynasty established in China by a monk who led a 13-year long rebellion against corrupt and ineffectual Mongol rulers.
1378A.D. - The “Great Schism” when the election of Pope Urban V1 was challenged by French Cardinals who elected Clement V11 instead.
Rome and France had rival Popes for 40 years.
1429-1430 A.D. - Joan OF Arc. Led French rebellion during 100 Years War and drove out most of the English troops
1438 A.D. - Johan Gutenberg invents the printing press and movable type. Created the Gutenberg bible and was responsible for the Reformation to be so wide spread instead of a local insurrection. He made it possible for Martin Luther’s 95 Theses to be mass printed for distribution across most of central Europe.
1439 A.D. Albert 11 - House of Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor. From here on in, Hapsburg, Holy Roman Emperor, and German King were all the same.
This zenith of the Hapsburg rule was achieved through many wide and varied marriages, as we will see in the list of Hapsburgs that stretches from the tenth to the twentieth centuries.
Their overriding motto seemed to be; “Let others wage war, we get married!”
Habsburg (in English sometimes written "Hapsburg") and the successor family, Habsburg-Lorraine, were important ruling houses of Europe and are best known as the ruling Houses of Austria (and the Austrian Empire) for over six centuries.
Their principal roles were as:
• Kings of Germany (several centuries to 1806), mostly also as
• Holy Roman Emperors, and
• Rulers of Austria (as Dukes 1282–1453, Archdukes 1453–1804, and
• Emperors of Austria 1804–1918),
• Kings of Bohemia (1306, 1437–1457 1526–1918),
• Kings of Hungary (1437–1439, 1445–1457, 1526–1918),
• Kings of Croatia (1437–1439, 1445–1457, 1527–1918),
• Kings of Spain (1516–1700),
• Kings of Portugal (1580–1640),
• Kings of Galizia and Lodomeria (1772–1918), and
• Grand Princes of Transylvania (1690–1867).
• Grand Dukes of Tuscany (1737–1801; 1814-1860).
• Archdukes of Austria-Este {1771}. (One of Hapsburg’s Castles!)
Other crowns held briefly by the House:
• King-consort of England (1554-1558)
• Dukes of Parma (1814–1847)
• Dukes of Modena (1814–1859)
• Emperor of Mexico (1864–1867)

The family first started to gain prominence around 950 c.e. and continues to this day. Although known primarily for their role in the Austria-Hungarian Empire, they had a major influence in every country in Europe for the last thousand years!
One of the greatest influences the family had on history was in 1914 when Archduke Ferdinand of Austria (A Hapsburg) was assasinated by a Serbian nationalist. This led to the start of WW 1 and the eventual dissolution of the Hapsburg Dynasty and most of the royal Houses of Europe. (Many of the legal ramifications of the dissolution of the Hapsburg Empire are still before the courts of Europe to this day! A further history of the Hapsburgs is presented in the index pages)
1478 - Spanish Inquisition - Ferdinand and Isabella end Muslim rule in Spain.
1483 A.D. - Martin Luther born. (The Reformation)
1492 A.D. - Ferdinand and Isabella send Christopher on a mission - Columbus sails the ocean blue. (Five hundred years after the Vikings!)
1496 A.D. - Spanish Crown marries into Austrian House of Hapsburg
1502 A.D. - Reign of Aztec Ruler Montezuma.
- Persian Shah executes any Sunnis who refuse to accept Shiite version of Islam.
(Not that you think that it was just the Christians that got carried away.)
1505 A..D. - John Knox, Protestant reformer, born in Scotland.
1509 A.D. - Birth of John Calvin. (Started Calvinism, which preached predetermination and good conduct.)
1514 A.D. - “Albrecht” Archbishop of Mainz - sold indulgences in return for contributions to building the new St. Peters Basilica in Rome.
1516 A.D. -House of Hapsburg Charles V now King over Germany, Netherlands, and Spain.
1517 A.D. - October 31, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on indulgences to a church door in Wittenberg. He protested the selling of indulgences and other corrupt church practices.
Some people got a hold of this piece of paper and printed thousands of copies. (Thanks to the recently discovered printing press!) They were then distributed across most of Europe to start the Protestant Reformation.
- Luther had intended this to be a local protest and had no idea it would spread the way it did due to mass dissatisfaction with the church.
1520 A.D. - Papal bull “Exsurge Domine” gave Martin Luther 60 days to recant or be excommunicated. Luther burns the papal bull. - The next year he was condemned as a heretic and outlaw at the “Diet of Worms.”
- Charles V divides Hapsburg Empire between Austria and Spain.
1525 A.D. - Northern Italy re-taken from France by House of Hapsburg.
- Hungarian and Bohemian crowns unite with Austrian Hapsburgs.
1530 A.D. - Luther publishes his Large Catechism and Small Catechism.
- A south German peasant uprising, inspired by Luther’s reform work began 150 years of religious wars. - Jesuit order is founded. -The term “Protestant” was first used at the Diet of Speyer.
1532 A.D. - In Denmark a royal decree made Lutheranism the sole religion. Martin Luther, as an outlaw, could not attend the Diet of Augsburg. He was held in an attempt to end religious division of the Holy Roman Empire.
Phillip Melanchthon, Luther’s co-worker, presented the “Augsburg Confession,” a statement of Lutheran beliefs. - Starts the Lutheran Church.

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Church of Allan - The Plain Truth About God.

A serialization of the book, The Plain Truth About God (Chapter 5 - Timelines)

Chapter 5 – TIMELINE
You cannot tell who, or where you are, unless you know how you got there!

570 A.D. - Muhammad born in Mecca.
610A.D. - According to Muslim belief, at the age of 40, Muhammad is visited by the angel Gabriel while on retreat in a cave near Mecca.
The angel recites to him the first revelations of the Koran and informs him that he is God’s prophet.
Later, Muhammad is told to call his people to the worship of the “One God,” but they react with hostility and begin to persecute him and his followers.
622 A.D. - After enduring persecution in Mecca, Muhammad and his followers migrate to the nearby town of Yathrib (later to be known as Medina), the people there accepted Islam. This marks the “hijrah” or “emigration,” and the beginning of the Islamic calendar.
In Medina, Muhammad establishes an Islamic state based on the laws revealed in the Koran and the inspired guidance coming to him from God. Eventually he begins to invite other tribes and nations to Islam.
625A.D. - MUHAMMAD BEGINS DICTATING THE KORAN.
- Muhammad begins either dictating or writing the Holy Koran. (There is a lot of debate as to whether he could read and write, although the popular consensus is that he was a trader and therefore probably literate!)
]630 A.D. - Muhammad returns to Mecca with a large number of his followers. He enters the city peacefully, and eventually all its citizens accept Islam. The prophet clears the idols and images out of the Kaaba and rededicates it to the worship of God alone.
633 A.D. - Muhammad dies after a prolonged illness. The Muslim community elects his father-in-law and close associate, Abu Bakr, as caliph, - This leads to the schism between the Sunni and Shiite sects.
635-638 A.D... - Muslims begin conquest of Persia and Syria. - Muslims enter the area north of Arabia, known as “Sham,” including Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq.
641 A.D. - Muslims enter Egypt and rout the Byzantine army. Muslims consider their conquest as the liberation of subjugated people, since in most instances they were under oppressive rule. - Islam begins to spread throughout North Africa.
661 A.D. - Imam Ali is killed, bringing to an end the rule of the four “righteous caliphs:” Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali. This also marks the beginning of the Umayyad rule and the dispute between Shiite and Sunni Sects.
695 A.D. - Spain begins persecution of Jews in mistaken belief that they, and not the Romans, were responsible for the death of “Christ.”
711 A.D... - Muslims (Moors) enter Spain in the west and India in the east. Eventually almost the entire Iberian Peninsula is under Islamic control.
712 A.D. - Less than one hundred years after the founding of Islam, Christian and Muslim armies are already at war when Pelayo, a Visigoth King, defeats the Muslim Army in Covadonga, thus beginning the Christian Re-conquest of Spain.
732 A.D. - Muslim forces defeated at Tours by the Christian Armies under the command of Charles Martel.
750 A.D. - First great British epic poem, Beowulf, written in Old English. It exemplifies early medieval society and shows roots in Old Testament Law!
768-814A.D. - Charlemagne is crowned emperor by Pope Leo 111 at St. Peters Basilica in Rome. This Coronation marks the beginning of a new relationship between the church and state, with the emperor’s temporal authority depending upon the blessing of the pope.
871 A.D. -Alfred the Great of England constructs a system of government and education that allows for the unification of smaller Anglo-Saxon states in the ninth and tenth centuries. This was the start of the codification of English law, public interest in local government, and the reorganization of the army. He founds schools, promotes literacy, and a national culture.
900-1000 A.D. - House of Hapsburg starts accumulation of land and power with Otto 1st. -Forget about the British Royal Family or any of the other monarchies; this is who really pulled most of the strings in Europe for over a THOUSAND years!
-Vikings settle Iceland; establish Althing, the oldest body of representative government in Europe.
962 A.D.-Leif Ericsson explores North American coast. Calls it “Vineland!”
- Mayans immigrate to Yucatan Peninsula. - Otto 1 expands German Empire to Poland and Austria. Under Otto 1, the Holy Roman Empire (German) [House of Hapsburg] is officially revived making Catholicism the prevalent and dominant religion throughout Europe. - Europe immediately descends into the dark ages. (Coincidence?) - Exact start of Dark Ages unknown - too dark!
980 A.D. - As Europe descends into the ‘Dark Ages’ menaced by Vikings and Magyars alike, the Byzantine Empire struggles endlessly with Persia where the Arabs suddenly flare out in splendor under the banner of Islam.
1050-1200 A.D. - First agricultural revolution of Medieval Europe begins in 1050 A.D. with a shift to the northern lands for cultivation, along with a period of improved climate from 700 to 1200 A.D. in Western Europe.
This was combined with the widespread use and perfection of new farming techniques including the use of the heavy plow, the three field system of crop rotation, the use of mills for processing cloth, crushing pulp for paper manufacture, and the widespread use of iron and horses, and last, but not least, the brewing of beer!
With an increase in agricultural advancements, western towns and trade grow exponentially to the point where Western Europe runs on a money economy, in no small part started by the House of Hapsburg.
1054 A.D. - Schism between the Western Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches finalizes a long standing split between them when Pope Leo 1X and Patriarch Cerlarius excommunicate each other!
1066 A.D. - William the Conqueror invades England and claims the throne at the Battle of Hastings. England is, for the next few centuries, heavily influenced by French language and culture to the point where French becomes the language of the political realm. - William goes on to establish the feudal system.
1073 A.D. - Pope Gregory V11 begins widespread reforms of church practice, liturgies, and administration. - One of his first acts is to excommunicate all married priests.
1085 -1099 A.D. - At the Council of Claremont, Pope Urban 11 called the First Crusade (out of a total of eight) against Muslims in the Holy Lands. This crusade was carried out in an effort to aid Byzantine Christians against Muslim invaders. They sacked Jerusalem and killed 40,000 people!
1120 A.D. - Founding of the “Knights Templar” in Jerusalem.
1122 A.D. - Diet of Worms finally ends the long-standing investiture fight with a compromise, which retains church authority over Europe. -Death of Omar Khayyam, Persian poet.
1147-1149 A.D. - Second Crusade.
1184 A.D. - Spanish Theologian Dominic founded the Dominican Order of Monks. The group was authorized by Pope Innocent 111 the convert Muslims and Jews and put an end to Heresy. (This Medieval Inquisition was actually a practice run for three later Inquisitions)
1189-1192 A.D. - Third Crusade, lead by Frederick of Germany, Philip of France and Richard the Lion Heart of England. (The time of Robin Hood!)
1198-1216 A.D. - Power of the medieval papacy reaches its height with the reign of Innocent 111 who manages to excommunicate both Holy Roman emperor Otto1V and King John of England at the same time in 1209
1202 A.D. - Fourth crusade launched. – El Cid.
1204 A.D. - St. Francis of Assisi launched a monastic revolution in the Latin Church. Started the “Franciscans” in 1210 C.E.
1206 A.D. - Venetians convince soldiers to attack Constantinople before moving to the holy land. The residents of the city suffer the worst devastation on the city’s history. As a result, Latin domination of the Eastern Church began!
1208 A.D. - “Now we find a new game to play.” First witchcraft trial in England took place. Gideon, alleged to be a sorcerer, was acquitted!
1215 A.D. - Pope Innocent III organized the Fourth Lateran Council in Rome in order to discuss and define central dogmas of Christianity. It was one of the most important councils ever held, and its canons sum up Innocent’s ideas for the church. It recognizes the necessity of the Eucharist and penance as sacraments for salvation.
1215 A.D. - Magna Carta was signed by King John when English Barons forced him to agree to a statement of their rights. - The Children’s Crusade was launched. More than 50,000 children sold into slavery. (Pied Piper legend.)
While Europe was caught up in the conflict between Pope and Emperor, a storm was brewing in Asia. Genghis Khan united the Mongols in a military confederation and achieved such a series of conquests that has no parallel in history.

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site http://www.god-101.com/

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Church of Allan - The Plain Truth About God.

A serialization of the book, The Plain Truth About God (Chapter 5 - Timelines)

Chapter 5 – TIMELINE
You cannot tell who, or where you are, unless you know how you got there!

** Life of Jesus of Nazareth
Just for old times sake we are going to use A.D. instead of the current C.E.
(Common Era)

36-65 A.D. - Oral period of Christianity between Jesus and Gospel of Mark. - Only about 120 initial believers, then quickly to 3000 and 5000. - Paul converts to “Apostle of the Gentiles” - Main activity of Christianity shifts from “Jewish-Christians” of Judea and Galilee to “Gentile - Christians” led by Paul and his Patroness Phoebe. - The stoning death of St. Stephen, who became the first Christian martyr.
31-37 A.D. - Saul of Tarsus, formerly a rabbi and enemy of early Christianity, converts and becomes St. Paul.
37-41 A.D. - Caligula rules Rome. - Early Gnostics.
58 A.D. - Ming-Ti, Chinese Emperor, introduces Buddhism to China.
60 A.D. - Paul was imprisoned in Rome for sedition, and martyred for treason in…
62 A.D... It was also during this time that nearly everyone connected with Jesus was executed by Rome. (In one way or another) - A hard way to start a faith!
62 A.D. - James, brother of Jesus, and some others, were brought before a group of judges and accused of transgressing the law. They were then stoned to death. - “Q” documents circulated and Dead Sea Scrolls hidden in various caves. - Gospel of Thomas, based on Q?
64 A.D. - Great fire of Rome. Nero fiddled and then accused the Christians of setting the fire. He suppressed them for a while, but like the fire, they were too far advanced to be put out.
66-73 A.D. - Roman-Jewish war, final destruction of Herod’s Temple.
70 A.D. - Gospel of Mark, ends at Mk 16:8; (New ending added in c400 CE.) - Signs Gospel, hypothetical Greek text later used in Gospel of John to prove Jesus is Messiah. - Center of Christianity shifts from Jerusalem to Antioch, Alexandria and Rome.
73 A.D. - Massada, stronghold of Jewish zealots’ falls to Roman assault.
79 A.D. - August 24th, Mount Vesuvius destroys Pompeii.
79-91 A.D. - Pope Anacletus. (Titus the Blameless?)
80- 90 A.D. - Gospel of Mathew, second Gospel and most popular of the early church, comprised of Mark and Q. - Gospel of Luke / Acts, based on Mark and Q.
91-101 A.D. - Pope Clement 1 - In two or three instances, he speaks of remembering “the words” of Christ, so it seems he had a written record in mind, but does not call it “gospel.” He knows several of Paul’s epistles, and values them highly for their content; the same can be said of the Epistle of the Hebrews, with which he is well acquainted.
Although these writings obviously possess for Clement 1 considerable significance, he never refers to them as authoritative “Scripture.” What he does is write a letter arguing that church leaders possess a Divine authority inherited from Christ and his Apostles. So here, less than a hundred years after Jesus, we already have the Church trying to supplant God!
91-150 A.D. - Secret Book of James. - Gospel of Mary Magdalene, - Early Gospels of Thomas and James. - Secret gospel of Mark.
105 A.D. - Ts’ai Lun of China invents paper.
110 A.D. - Ignatius, 3rd Bishop of Antioch, martyred in Rome, letters subjected to heavy Christian forgery.
100-125 A.D. - Justin Martyr, first apologist to offer a defense of Christianity. - Gospel of John composed!
c150 A.D. - “Western Reviser” Probably one of St. Paul’s companions, transcribed Luke’s book (Acts) after the authors death and inserted details of which had personal knowledge. He made other alterations in accordance with his own taste, on which he regarded himself as having authority equal to that of Luke!
c160 A.D. -Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, complained Christians were changing and faking his own letters just as they had changed the Gospels.
-School of Alexandria founded in Egypt. Becomes a major centre for both Christian theology and Greek philosophy.
c190 A.D. - Pope Victor 1: First Latin Pope. Called council in 190 to determine “official” new date of Easter but failed. - Excommunicated Eastern Churches that continued to observe Easter on old Biblical time. - New Testament cannon are fixed in currently known form.
235-284 A.D. - Germans, Goths, and Persians attack Rome. Ruin Athens, Sparta and Corinth. - While Rome and China slowly disintegrated under Barbarian invasions, India, secured from Nomadic attacks behind a revived Persian civilization, enters classical age under the Gupta kings.
286 A.D. - Emperor Diocletian divides Roman Empire in two, forming Modern Greece. (The Byzantine Empire) - Christians banned from Roman army. - Constantine defeats Maxentius to become the absolute ruler of Rome. - Converts to Christianity after a vision of a cross in the sky and the words: “In Hoc Signo Vinces” {“With this sign, (the cross) you shall conquer.”}
315 A.D. - Roman Empire split into Eastern (Byzantine) and West (Rome)
325 A.D. - First Ecumenical Council of Nicea convened by Emperor Constantine; establishes Nicene Creed as the fundamental statement of Christian doctrine.
Constantine offered to make the sect the official state religion if they would settle their differences.
By compiling a book of sacred writings that they could all agree on Constantine thought this would give authority to the new church.
Composed of about 300 religious leaders, this council was given the task of separating the divinely inspired writings from those of questionable origin.
The actual compilation of the Bible was an incredibly complicated project since it came three hundred years after the death of Jesus and involved churchmen of varying beliefs, in an atmosphere of dissension, jealousy, intolerance, and bigotry.
To add to the dissention, they were split into two groups that questioned the divinity of Jesus.
The purpose was to settle the dispute over the teachings of Arius, that Christ was not equal in divinity to God.
The council (in their wisdom) declared that Jesus WAS equal in divinity to God by a majority vote and declares Arianism a heresy.
(Dateline-Middle East Times - “Jesus declared equal by majority vote!” “Jesus relieved, would like to thank all his supporters.)”(Byzantine Empress Irene convened the second council of 787 CE the 7th ecumenical council. - It was called to refute “iconoclasm” and the council declared that images ought to be venerated - but not worshiped, and ordered them restored in the churches. It is the last council accepted by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Eastern Church as ecumenical.)
380 A.D. - Christianity becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire under the reign of Theodosius 1.
381 A.D. - First Council of Constantinople decides that the “Holy Spirit” has the same divinity as “The Son.” (Decided by the Council of Nicea 56 years earlier)
(GOD at first objected strenuously to having to share Divinity three ways, but eventually consented to a “Trinity!” ;-)
C.400 A.D. - Great library at Alexandria burned by Christian Zealots, destroying 750,000 works including most of the world’s historical pagan literature on religion!
405 A.D. - St. Jerome completes the Vulgate - a Latin translation of both the Old and New Testaments. This remains the Latin Bible of the Roman Catholic Church.
433-453 A.D. - Attila the Hun, known-world tour!
476 A.D. - The Western Roman Empire falls to barbarian armies, leaving the church as the primary authority in the West. - In the East, the Byzantine Empire, based in Constantinople, continues for the next 977 years.
500 A.D.-600 A.D. - The Talmud, a compilation of Jewish oral laws and traditions is put in its final form in Babylonia. - It consists of two parts: an oral law (Mishna) in Hebrew, and commentaries (Gemara) in Aramaic.
520-550 A.D. - Zen Buddhism evolves in China.
570 A.D. - Muhammad born in Mecca.


Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site http://www.god-101.com/

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Church of Allan - The Plain Truth About God.

A serialization of the book, The Plain Truth About God (Chapter 5 - Timelines)

Chapter 5 – TIMELINE
You cannot tell who, or where you are, unless you know how you got there!

100,000 B.C.E. – Although highly speculative, it is thought that this is about the time when humans first attained all the traits (Including consciousness) that we see in people today!
90,000 B.C.E. - Early Gravettian man competes with Neanderthals for space and game in regions of Southern Europe centered on the hills of Southern France.
50,000 B.C.E. - Early men reach the Pacific Islands and Australia. Ice cover in Northern and Southern Hemispheres at their maximum.
30,000 B.C.E. - First ancient artwork found in Dordogne, Southern France. (Other than cave paintings) Clay figurines representing a Fertility goddess. Invention of the bow and arrow.
10,000 B.C.E. - Neolithic Age: Glaciers retreating, warmer climate develops in California, S W Australia, Chile, SW Africa and then deserts in sub-tropic regions.
8000 B.C.E. - World population 5 million. Copper age, silkworm cultivation in China. - Plants domesticated and first pottery in China and Japan.
7000 B.C.E. -Walls of Jericho erected. - The area that is now central Turkey sees the beginning of Indo-European language—the mother tongue of all modern European languages.
6000 B.C.E. -Wheel invented and chickens domesticated.
5500 B.C.E. - With the melting of the polar ice caps and a gigantic shift-and-melting of the ice fields in northern Canada, world ocean levels rise dramatically. •The The Greenland Ice cap melts and the Mediterranean Sea breaks through at the location of modern Istanbul (Bosporus) to flood what is now the Black Sea. It floods the basin fast enough to wipe out entire villages and towns giving rise to the world flood legends. Evidence of the old shoreline still there under hundreds of metres of water.
5000 B.C.E. - Earliest small cities. - Horses domesticated. (Modern horses not native to North America - introduced by the Spanish)
3761 B.C.E. - (Year of Creation) October 7 - Year 1, Jewish calendar.

HUMANITY FIRST STARTS TO BECOME A CIVILIZED SOCIETY!

3600 B.C.E. - Troy founded. - Beginning of Sumerian Culture in the Tigris-Euphrates river basin and first crude writing. The Sumerians (Aryans) make use of many agricultural advances, such as domestic animals to pull plows, irrigation of the land, drained marshlands and more. - A large, cosmopolitan civilization appears.
- The increased output of food allows for the further development of a “leisure class” which does not have to work for food, allowing them to become priests, artist, merchants, scholars, etc. - The Sumerians also develop oar-powered ships, animal-drawn wheeled chariots, and other, similar vehicles. - Bronze objects and written cuneiform alphabet begun.
3500-3000 B.C.E. - Man’s earliest civilizations developed in Mesopotamia and Egypt. -The Indus Valley followed soon afterwards and later a farming population emerged along the Yellow River in China.
3000-2800 B.C.E. - World population 100M. (Increased twenty-fold in five thousand years due to agriculture.) - The subsequent history of Eurasia became a contest between the superior military ability of the Nomads in the North, and the superior numbers of people made possible by farming in the South. - In the North, the wide grasslands of the steppes provided a feeding ground for the herds of the Nomads. The mobility of the warlike Nomads provided them with an advantage in any military confrontation with the richer farming communities further south. - Sea levels about at present levels after rising 1000’-1500’ with the melting of the polar ice caps. - Bering Straight, English Channel, low costal areas of the Mediterranean, large parts of Indonesia, and many other locations now under water. - Rising water levels may also have flooded some ancient coastal or island civilization to give rise to the “Atlantis” theory. (Such as the Mediterranean breaking through the Bosporus Straight and flooding what is now the Black Sea!)
2800 B.C.E. - Advances in Sumerian Cuneiform writing. - Agriculture in Peru. - Chinese alphabet and early Minoan pictographic writing.
2767 B.C.E. -Methuselah tree, oldest living thing. (Carbon dated!)
2637 B.C.E. -Year 1 of Chinese calendar.
2600 B.C.E. - Historical Gilgamesh? King of Uruk, Sumeria. (First and oldest person referred to in ancient literature, Epic of Gilgamesh; written c.1200 B.C.E.) - Fu Hsi, first Chinese King?
2550 B.C.E. - Old Egypt - Beginning of Pyramids and mummies
2400 B.C.E. - Harappan Civilization before Indo-European Invasions
2350 B.C.E. -Walls of Jericho fall.
2200 B.C.E. - Troy sacked. - Hsiao dynasty in China - Indo-European invaders come over and under Black Sea and enter the mainland of Greece. - Stonehenge built in Britain.
2000 B.C.E. - Rise of Babylon and Minoan Civilization on Crete.
1800? B.C.E. - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
1800 B.C.E (?) - Approximate date of historical Zoroaster (???) and beginning of cult of Zoroastrianism! (Date for Zarathustra could have been before this time, could be around this time or could be later - around 600-700 B.C. when his teachings finally became very widespread in Mesopotamia.) – He was a major influence on Cyrus the Great and so inadvertently saved the Jews. Zoroastrian dogma also a great influence on Judaism, Christianity and then - Islam!
1800-1700 B.C.E. -Vedic period. Aryan invasion of Indus Valley in India.
1750 B.C.E. -Founding of Hittite Empire
1750 B.C.E. - Mesopotamia/Babylon - Development of “Code of Laws.” - Hammurabi created his code of laws, which consists of 282 laws, in the year 1750 B.C.E. The code of laws encouraged people to accept the authority of a king, who was trying to give common rules to govern the subjects’ behavior. The actual laws range from public to private matters, with humane approaches to societal problems.
The code of laws applies to the entire Babylonian society. The penalties of the code varied according to the status of the victim. The law of retaliation protected the patricians, while the lower classes received only monetary compensation.
The purpose of the Code of Hammurabi was to use political power to create common bonds among the diverse people of the society. It greatly influenced a total dependence on the power of their one ruler, and it was a conscious effort to exalt the king as the source, the only source, of earthly powers.
It unified the empire by offering the standards for moral values, class structure, gender relationships, and religion. It was the most important of all Mesopotamian contributions to civilization.
1700 B.C.E. -Joseph in Egypt. - Cult of Yahweh (Jewish “God.”) - Beginning of Persian Empire! - The Mycenaean Civilization emerges.
1628 B.C.E. -Santorini Greece destroyed by volcano. (Legend of Atlantis?)
1595 B.C.E. -Babylon sacked for first time.
1500 B.CE. -Beginning of Iron Age. -Shang dynasty in China 1492 B.CE.
1470 B.C.E. - Minoan Civilization destroyed by volcanoes and earthquake. (Possible site of Atlantis!)
1450 B.C.E - Mycenaean civilization replaces Minoa after the destruction of Thera and Knossos. Dominates the Aegean world for 200 years.
1400 B.C.E. - Cult of Mithra starts some where between Persia and India. Based on, or even a part of Zoroaster’s ideology, it becomes a major player in the region until finally being driven into extinction in Rome by the fledgling Catholic Church.
1350 B.C.E. (?) - Ten Commandments given to Moses.- EXODUS out of Egypt – Parting of the Red Sea. Israelites refuse to enter Canaan and wander the desert for forty years. Etc.
1325 B.C.E. (?) - Tutankhamen assassinated. (3300 years later, King Tut-farewell tour - coming soon to a city near you!)
1300 B.C.E. For several generations the Hittites and Egyptians remained diplomatic and military rivals.
The great battle of Kadesh was fought between these superpowers around 1300 BC and was commemorated in Egypt by a great pictorial relief, an epic poem, and an official written record. Despite the heroics of Rameses II, the battle apparently was a draw.
After several decades of uneasy peace, the two powers signed a peace treaty and mutual defense pact, perhaps in response to growing Assyrian power to the east.
A copy of the treaty was inscribed on the walls of an Egyptian temple at Karnack where it can still be read today.
1284 B.C.E. - Troy Sacked again, one possible date for Homers Trojan War! Because of its strategic location, sacking Troy was a regional pastime for almost 1000 years!
1280? B.C.E. - The next eighty years were relatively peaceful and prosperous for the Hittites and much of the Middle East.
1200 B.C.E - The Hittite Empire was destroyed, leaving only the shell of a civilization that was overrun 500 years later by the Assyrian’s Collapse of Mediterranean trade world. ** This era, at times referred to as the “great catastrophe” saw a time when invaders finally learned how to overcome chariots in battle and many civilizations were overrun. - Joshua

- End of the Bronze Age.

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Church of Allan, or, The Plain Truth About God

Chapter 4 - Stairway to Heaven:

Society imposes limits on human desires and constitutes a regulative force that plays the same role for moral needs as the small group provides for physical needs.

Without social controls, any society, whether primitive or modern, is bound to degenerate and decay! The natural insatiability of the human animal can only be held in check by external controls.

Religion plays this role perfectly by providing a disciplinary, cohesive, vitalizing, and euphoric social force. Rituals prepare people for social life by imposing self-discipline and parameters on our everyday interactions.

Religious ceremonies bring people together and so serve to re-affirm their common bonds and re-enforce social solidarity! Observance maintains and revitalizes the social heritage of the group and helps transmit its enduring values to future generations.

It also has a euphoric function in that it serves to counteract feelings of frustration and loss of faith by re-establishing the believer’s sense of well being.

In general, religion is a social institution that serves to give meaning to man’s predicaments by tying the individual to a set of values which is ultimately rooted in society.

Emile Durkheim

In the Old Testament of the bible, it is interesting to note that there are some similarities between religion and science at an early stage of the game.

Adam and Eve were described as proto-human, that is, not fully human with no moral sense, and no knowledge of good and evil as we now define it.

According to the bible, God wanted the couple to stay in this stage of innocent, un-aware, partly developed existence that afforded them a life free from worry and strife.

In Genesis, 2:17 God said; “Do not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

When they did this anyway, they became fully human and aware of the difference between right and wrong, developed an ethical sense, and became cognizant of their own mortality.

Self-consciousness was a truly momentous human development that was lacking in all other creatures.

The animals of the land lived, met their needs to survive, and eventually died with no anticipatory anxiety or a real awareness of whom or what they were.

We humans on the other hand, became quite different.

We were blessed, (If I may use that word) with advanced reasoning abilities and relied less on instinct.

We became pro-active instead of re-active. Each generation building on the knowledge of its forbearers and developing new ways of coping, planning, and co-operation.

** “The gulf between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom is so great because of our unique outlook and appreciation of existence! We might see flashes of pseudo-cognizance in fido’s eyes every now and then, but I can tell you for sure that fido and his buddies do not sit around and discuss the merits of art or literature!”

We became aware that people are largely helpless, insignificant, and insecure.

Human beings do not like chronic anxiety and some coping mechanism had to be developed.

Many theologians and anthropologists felt that our ancestors had to develop a primitive human concept of God to lesson their anxiety about what life was going to deal them next.

The hunter-gatherer societies began the first religion of Animism by assuming that since they were aware and self-conscious themselves, then the same could be said of their surroundings.

This would apply to the forests, sky, sun and heavens, moon, land animals, birds, fishes and all manner of things they were in contact with in their daily lives.

With the belief that all these things were animated by a spirit or contained vital powers, the village shamans, native healers and wise men played leadership roles in this religion because dread of the unknown dissipated somewhat when our ancestors felt more in control of their lives and future.

This early explanation of religion was solely a product of human creation to ease an otherwise intolerable situation brought about by day-to-day living.

Animist’s ancestors created their god’s and myths because they couldn’t comprehend the real Supreme Being! Gods did not reveal themselves to the tribes. The tribes had to invent the gods.

*”In Essentials, all religions are the same.
They differ only in non-essentials.
The wise appreciate the essentials.
The base dispute over the non-essentials.”
-Unknown

The religion of early Australian Aboriginal Cultures was, essentially, identical to the first religions practiced by hunter-gatherer societies worldwide.

Australian Aboriginal Cultures have a chain of practices virtually unbroken. It extends back over 50,000 years to a time when their ancestors first settled the continent. It is also a society has remained almost unchanged since the advent of self-awareness.

Totemism and Animism were one of the elementary and first forms of religion. The Australian Aboriginal Religion therefore, is the perfect model for religion in its original form.

Ritual is formal ceremonial behavior used to approach or deal with the supernatural. Rituals act out or dramatize scenes from the religious and social origins of society - its methodology depicts how its members believe they came to be a distinct people.

A society’s collective consciousness therefore is re-enforced in group experiences.

These experiences acted out as rituals in a religious context create and sustain a sense of identity within their own group. As opposed to other groups who have different beliefs and rituals.

Rituals seem to evoke high levels of emotion, and with the worship of a God, they re-create the story of how they came to be a group.

The Australian Aborigines found their meaning for life in the stories and songs of their particular tribe. The answers to questions such as “who am I?” and “where do I belong?” and “what happens after I die?” all were found in their local legends and beliefs.

Their stories and songs related accounts of ancestral beings taking the form of animals, birds, and other creatures during the creation period known as the……….

“Dream-Time.”

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

The Church of Allan. Reflections on the Human Condition!

A serialization of the Book; The Plain Truth About God! @2002

Humanity is on an incredible journey of which we are only now slowly becoming aware.

Whether our universe has been around for seven thousand or more than ten billion years is not relevant to this journey, this book, or people in general.

Let me explain; the common thinking now is that our universe is some ten to fifteen billion years old, with the most likely figure somewhere around thirteen and a half billion.

Meanwhile, the thought, (sorry, the belief) among some North American Fundamentalist Christians is that we are some seven thousand years on this planet and no more!

Although this line of thinking is patently absurd, it really has nothing to do with the basic reason we are here. Or, why so many people devote so much of their time to wondering about it.

It is the mere fact that we can, and do wonder about it, that sets us apart from all the other creatures of this planet.

As far as we know, not even the great apes, dolphins, whales, dogs, cats, or any other living thing has ever given even the slightest thought to our reason for being!

** You will never hear fido say to you, “What’s it all about - Alfie?”

People, on the other hand, spend an inordinate amount of time and effort on the question of purpose. So much so, that it seems to influence almost every aspect of not only our lives, but also everything around us.

It is a feeling everyone has felt at some time or other, to a greater or lesser degree. These are but small examples of the Divine spirit of God that is within us all.

There are many grand and spectacular wonders to be seen no matter where we look.

Nevertheless, it is the quiet affirmation of a loving God, and that sense of peace and tranquility, that is a constant reminder that we are not alone!

After all is said and done, the crux of the matter is that we do not want to be alone with the knowledge of our own mortality.

There is a basic human belief that is a common denominator among every culture and group on this planet. It is a sense that in a universe this grand, and even overpowering, there is a purpose to it all. We cannot imagine that we are here by random chance or luck and that our existence is dependant upon a simple roll of the dice!

**”God not only plays dice with the universe, He sometimes throws the dice where they cannot be seen.” - Steven Hawking

When viewed from space our planet is in stark contrast with everything else we have so far observed. Yes, we are minuscule in comparison to the rest of the universe, and no, we are not at the physical centre of things as was once believed.

We are however, central to creation in a very special way.

We, alone as human beings, are able to look out at the rest of creation and reflect upon it.

Whether anyone else on some other planet is in the position to observe and reflect upon this majestic universe is unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

Sure, it would make it a little less lonely if there were other intelligences' out there, but the mere fact that our planet Terra is a harbor of self-awareness makes us a very rare and precious jewel in the vast empty reaches of the universe.

** “I AM.” – GOD”
**” I Think, Therefore I am.” -Descartes
**” I yam what I yam, and that’s all what I yam.” – PopeyeAll the different worlds we have studied seem bereft of life. Terra, on the other hand, is recognized as something quite different and out of the ordinary, no matter from what distance it is viewed from.

Terra, through incredible luck or Divine intervention, is not only just the right distance from the Sun, but has an amazing list of fortunate events that led up to our development. It is beyond imagination, let alone comprehension. It is a list far too long to have happened merely by chance.

Does this mean that we are unique in the universe? No! We are however, certainly so rare that when life does occur, it is to be cherished and celebrated.

There is a feeling of purpose that seems to pervade all of creation.

It is a feeling of connection felt by everyone who has ever lived. It is a feeling that will continue to carry us down through the ages and is a need that is inherent in all of humanity. It is the basis of all our religious beliefs and superstitions.

Since our ancestors first huddled together around a fire so many hundreds of thousands of years ago, we collectively tried to protect ourselves against the dangers and terrors of the world.

Then, with the advent of a rudimentary language, blind acceptance of our lot in life gradually gave way to questioning the meaning to all of the suffering that fell upon us. With the gift of awareness however, also came the curse of knowledge.

The knowledge of our own fate!

By taking the responsibility for life’s hardships from our own shoulders and putting it onto some Higher Power, Humanity’s misfortunes became easier to accept. “It’s not our fault,” became the haunting cry of humanity as it echoed down through the millennia!

The concept of a Supreme Being, whose pleasure / displeasure could influence how life treated us, was a thought that gradually evolved over time. When we had a feeling that we were being punished for some presumed misdeed, like a small child that was being admonished, we could make it right again with the proper thought or attitude!

If this great God, or many gods for that matter, could be appeased, then it put us into a position where we finally had some measure of control over the worst that life could throw at us.

Sure life was tough. Our fate hinged on the whim of a Deity we could never really know or understand. But, if we followed some simple rules and kept our nose clean, then we would at least have some hope that the human condition would eventually improve. If not in this life, then certainly in the next!

Naturally, our lot in life usually stayed the same, or if anything got even worse! In the natural order of things, events always seemed to go from bad to worse.

If, despite the constant homage and sacrifices made to the Great Spirits, things did not improve, then a crisis of confidence would develop.

This meant some other means of comfort was required and this is where early humans developed one of the most remarkable and insightful theories about how the world works.

By showing how well we could suffer and still carry on, we showed the gods our courage, tenacity, --- and above all, our Faith!

Everyone soon realized that our willingness to suffer for a higher cause was all that was required of us to gain the promise of reward at some time in the future.

“Voila,” the afterlife was born.

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com

THE CHURCH OF ALLAN

As an introduction to this church, I will have to get a bit on the lengthly side but feel it is rather necessary for a good understanding of it. Later installments will not be as windy.

1.
In The Church of Allan, (Or a better name if you can think of one!)our doctrine will look at the great truths and also the myths and legends that have shaped our lives.

We will examine the story of Jesus and Muhammad, the rise of Christianity and Islam, and the forces that have shaped our religions (Both East and West) over the centuries.

First, I would like to say that this religion (Or Belief) is not in any way against God, or for that matter really about God at all, since that it a subject that everyone professes to be an expert in while in reality knowing nothing for sure.

Rather it is about the human experience concerning God, and how we have taken the Divine and used it for our own ends.

Within The Church of Allan, as part of our doctrine, we will look at how we as a civilization got to where we are now in both our physical and spiritual development.

It's catechism will give a history of Humanities development of religion and spirituality.

It will also allow us to take a long look at ourselves as a people and a civilization.

Plus, we will examine our religious beliefs and how practices of the “priesthood” have made our world here in the twenty first century the way it is!

There now seems to be as many different types of spiritual beliefs and practices as there are groups or tribes in the world, yet in spite of this diversity of belief systems, there is an underlying commonality present in every practitioner of every belief!

This common denominator is very simply the overwhelming need to have that belief system in the first place.

2.
There are so many types of belief’s present in the world today that naturally they cannot all be right. It seems logical that only one of them could be the “True” religion.

This by default means that all the rest are wrong.

Actually, in the light of day, they are probably all wrong to a greater or lesser degree.

However, in spite of this, the universality of our common craving for a belief system makes a very convincing argument for a Higher Power.

Remember the old saying “If there was no God, man would have to invent one.”

The only real question is how do we separate the fact of a “God” with the myths of man that have so shaped our lives?

For this, we will attempt to find some answers.

3.
My hope in starting this religion is to have people come back to God without the trappings and false impressions that have been fostered on us by organized religion and the "Priesthood" over the centuries.

Spirituality is what brings us closer to the Divine while the practices of the “priest-hood” or “priest-craft” leads us in the opposite direction and could even be called the devils work.

What I object to is the human trait of forming special interest groups whose purpose is to give only their explanation of God, and making proclamations and laws in God’s name.

This to me is the height of human arrogance and self-deception.

We can look with awe and reverence upon God but the minute we put ourselves into the position of interpreters of “Gods Will” it seems to suggest a plot to twist all that is holy into a perversion of God’s works.

Probably the best example of this is the fact that some of the greatest wars and atrocities in humanity’s history have been perpetrated in the name of “religion!”

4.
Historically, the study of religion was central to the discipline of sociology, with early figures such as Durkheim and Max Weber writing extensively on the role and function of religion in human society.

Social scientists who study religion perform a vital function in helping journalists and the general public make sense of religious themes. They study how religion influences television, political conflicts, personal issues such as abortion and homosexuality, and highly publicized “cult” tragedies.

They also examine the collision course that Christianity and Islam seems to be on!

The discipline of sociology of religion has much to teach about how religion functions for the individual and in society. Unfortunately, research done by sociologists of religion seldom filters out of the “ivory towers” to those “in the trenches.”

I would like to thank Burton L. Mack for his insightful work in “The Lost Gospel- The book of Q,” and I would also like to thank James Breech for his work “The Silence of Jesus” and Tom Harpur with “For Christ’s Sake” and now “The Pagan Christ.”

Richard Dawkins and Susan Blackmore also bear special mention for their work in “Memics.” Especially for “Viruses of the Mind” and “The Selfish Gene - the Study of Meme’s.”

The same goes for Max Weber, Carl Jung, Descartes, Nietzsche, Durkheim, and a host of others.

5.
An old story here that we probably all know by heart. It is said that once upon a time a king gathered a few men who had been born blind.

They were asked to describe an elephant, but each one was presented with only a certain part of it.

To one was presented the head of the elephant, to another the trunk, to another its ears, to another the leg, the body, the tail, tuft of the tail, etc.

The one presented with the head said, “The elephant is like a pot!”

The one who was presented the trunk answered, “The elephant is like a hose.”

The one who touched only the ears thought that the elephant was a fan, and the others said that it was a pillar, a wall, a rope, a brush, etc.

Then they quarreled among themselves, each thinking that he was the only one right and the others were wrong.

The obvious truth is that the elephant is a unity of many parts, a unity that they could not grasp in their ignorance.

Christianity, Judaism and Islam (as well as their individual sects) claim to be the only right path to God and although this vision arouses a lot of enthusiasm amongst it's adherents, it is important to know that these are not the only views.

We need only look at the Eastern religions.

According to the pattern suggested by this tale of the elephant, it is often said that world religions form a unity, and only this total unity provides the right perspective on ultimate truth.

6.
Theoretically, two possibilities exist!

If the first is true (all religions lead us to the same goal), and we choose the second (only one of them is right), we have not lost anything.

Despite our ignorance, we will arrive at the same happy end as the other travelers who have chosen different spiritual paths.

A less happy situation would be given by the second possibility, that a single spiritual path is valid and we have chosen the wrong one. In this case, we are courting a spiritual disaster.

(A third possibility, that all spiritual paths are wrong, is denied by the very nature of our spiritual quest itself.

This search demands a real fulfillment, otherwise our hunger for ultimate truth could not be justified, and all religions would be nothing but fantasy.)

By default then, because one option is so unpalatable, (that there is nothing after life) we would have to choose the view that all religions lead us to the same goal, it is just their method that is wrong!

The following pages are not meant merely to generate rational proofs for justifying one or another alternative.

No matter how complex and logical the proofs of one or the other causes might be, it is possible to find counterpoints of the same nature. At a rational level, these disputes could fill many books with no benefit to anyone.

No one can be persuaded or converted to another religious perspective only through rational proof and logic. This may be possible in science, but not in religion. Otherwise, everyone would already be of one faith!

However, rational proofs have to be considered because we are rational beings.
Reason should not be rejected and belief proclaimed the only way of knowing truth.

No divorce between reason and belief should be accepted because they are complementary and work together. Neither should exclude the other.

7.
We do not have to reject the proof of reason in our spiritual quests, whatever their nature might be. Rather than generating sterile debates, the information presented here should help you clarify your own views toward comparative religion and develop a critical ability to analyze today’s spiritual market.

The analysis that will be presented here focuses on Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and the major Eastern Religions because they play the biggest role in defining today’s world spirituality from a Western viewpoint.

Some believe that a comparative analysis like this may fuel religious hatred and intolerance, but this is wrong. Religious tolerance and freedom cannot be built on ignorance, but rather should be built on the understanding of commonalities.

Therefore, as Jesus said: “Loving the person is possible even if one rejects his or her religious convictions!”

** This doctrine after all is said and done, will not have “The meaning of life” or anything closely resembling it! After reading these pages, we might not find out what God or religion is, but we might have a better understanding of what God and religion is not!

This is approaching the whole subject matter through the back door, but at our present level of understanding of the Divine, maybe it is the best we can do!

** “The world of poetry, mythology, and religion represents the world as a man would like to have it, while science represents the world as he gradually comes to discover it.” ---Joseph Wood Krutch

**”Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair, but manifestations of strength and resolution.” - -Kahlil Gibran

Taken from the book, "The Plain Truth About God" (what the church doesn't want you to know!)

To be continued now and then!

Allan W Janssen is the author of the book The Plain Truth About God (What the mainstream religions don't want you to know!) and is available at the web site www.God-101.com

Visit the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com