Flat earth, anyone?

Would it be prudent to take spiritual advice about the afterlife from a religion that is demonstrably out of touch with reality? For example, what if someone was telling you what you should do to get to heaven, but also insisted the earth is flat in spite of all evidence to the contrary. Wouldn't it damage that religion's credibility on spiritual matters if it can be so easily proven wrong about something that has so much physical evidence? Wouldn't you question that person's sanity or at the very least, their ability to reason clearly?

Take it further, what if that religion had a relatively large percentage of the population bamboozled into thinking the earth is really flat, and those well-meaning but misguided people heavily lobbied school boards and politicians to demand equal time for the flat earth theory, citing "academic fairness" and "teach the controversy" as their slogans?

What if that religion ignored tons of evidence of many different types that clearly falsified its views, and denied or distorted the evidence it didn't ignore to bamboozle its followers into thinking there actually was any substance to their argument. What if there had been a dozen major court cases the past forty years where that religion could have presented evidence to support their view, or evidence to falsify the idea the earth isn't flat, yet failed to do so. What if there was actually NO scientific evidence, none at all, to support that religion's view. Does it still seem right or fair to give it "equal time" in public school science classrooms?

That is EXACTLY the situation in America today with regard to the teaching of evolution. This is not a straw man argument. To deny the overwhelming evidence for evolution is just as ridiculous and just as wrong as to insist the earth is really flat. The situation is exactly as I describe it, no exaggeration, no distortion. It would be funny if the potential negative consequences for America, humanity and the planet were not so grave. How can so many people be so ignorant in the 21st century?

Note that I am not claiming that the evidence for evolution somehow disproves God. What I am saying is that the evidence does exist; it is not as most creationists describe it, and many people are basing their opinion on faulty information. If God exists, God apparently used evolution as a tool of creation, and if it didn't happen that way, then God is apparently a trickster to plant so MUCH evidence suggesting that it did.

Are Republicans getting stupider nationwide?

Any candidate for public office who is so out of touch with reality as to deny the fact that evolution happens should be disqualified. Anyone that ignorant and that gullible should not be in any position of authority. I am amazed we are having this debate in the 21st century. It shames America that nearly half of its adults are so misinformed on this matter. It is just as ridiculous and just as wrong as if half the adults thought the earth is flat.

In a governor's race going on in Alabama, one Republican candidate accused the other of daring to teach science in science classrooms instead of teaching religion in science classrooms. In his reply to this attack, the accused Republican said he is just as much of a moron as the other guy attacking him for allegedly being sane.

In a governor's race in Maine, seven Republican candidates were asked if they thought intelligent design or creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public school science classrooms. Three said yes, and one (Matt Jacobson) said to teach evolution in philosophy class and teach science in science class.

For candidates in Alabama to make such a big deal about being fundamentalist Christians is no surprise, but Maine too? Are Republicans around the country brain-dead idiots out of touch with what is real? Why is fundamentalist evangelical Christianity doing this to America, to humanity? Do they think they bring honor to God or Christ by spreading lies that are easily shown to be false by anyone who honestly examines the evidence for evolution and the age of the earth?

Thank God for Evolution!

I just saw Michael Dowd speak about evolutionary theology at a local church. He is the author of Thank God for Evolution! and other works. I was leery of his ideas at first, but what he said for the most part agrees with what I know to be true.

While walking to the church (a few blocks from my house), I passed an elderly couple who were walking to their church, a fundamentalist evangelical Christian one. The subject of evolution came up, and the old man said it is a lie. He said the final result will be who gets to go to heaven. I said that the Bible teaches God made man from dust and science says much the same thing. My final words to him were to ask if he also believed the earth was flat, because that is what a literal reading of the Bible indicates. I said if you're going to insist on fundamentalism, you might as well go all the way.

I went up to see Michael Dowd after his presentation. I commented that I recognized he was familiar with Alan Watts, since he had used the analogy of people coming out of the universe the same way apples come out of apple trees, one that Alan Watts used in many of his talks. Michael Dowd did not remember where he had heard it, but thanked me for giving him the source. The subject of plagiarism came up, and I mentioned the famous case of George Harrison. I was surprised nobody knew about it, so I explained how My Sweet Lord used the same chords and melody as the Chiffons' He's So Fine.

I waited a bit and then offered to play my evolution song for Mr. Dowd and those standing around. Nobody minded, so I played it. The television reporter asked if I had written it, and I said it was one of hundreds of songs I had written playing guitar while riding a bicycle for tens of thousands of miles. Mr. Dowd expressed surprise at that, and the television reporter assured him that it was true, that he (the reporter) had seen me himself and I had been in the local newspaper.

Later a woman came up and asked Mr. Dowd to explain how free will exists. He said we have a choice to decide which of the many conflicting drives within us we will follow. I mentioned the episode of The Changeling from the original Star Trek television series, where a robot spacecraft absorbed the contents of Lieutenant Uhura's mind and described it as "a mass of conflicting impulses."

I could have stayed longer but it was getting late so I left.

Metaphysical analysis of the lyrics to the Beatles song Help!

This analysis copyright 2008 to The Bicycling Guitarist.

Here's a wee bit more about John Lennon's song Help! by the Beatles.

It struck me the other day that the lyrics of Help! can be interpreted in a Christian way. Let me be plain that I do not consider myself a Christian, at least not the way that most Christian denominations define themselves. When I say "Christ" in the following paragraphs, one can substitute "awareness of divine consciousness" and be closer to what I understand.

So John sings "When I was younger, so much younger than today, I never needed anybody's help in any way." Okay. Not strictly true. We humans are social animals, and even those who live alone by choice rely on help from the environment if nothing else to provide food and such. I see each of us as an incarnation of God, and the environment as an incarnation of God, and each of us not truly separate from the environment. This is obviously quite different from mainstream Christian theology where only Jesus is begotten, not made, and where the Creation is separate from the Creator.

"But now these days are gone..." Notice John says these days, not those days. Some philosophers say that only now is real, that all time (past, present and future) is a field of now-moments. When John says these days, it implies the present or recent past. While the recent past can be considered "gone" in a sense, how can one consider the present to be gone? The present isn't gone of course, but the idea of time does not apply to the eternal now.

"...I'm not so self-assured." Self-assured: assured of the self as being a separate ego? If I'm not so self-assured, that might be considered good even though the statement is phrased as a negative. Most if not all spiritual teachings say to let go and let God, to surrender one's will or ego to direction by a higher power.

"Now I find, I've changed my mind and opened up the doors." I had a eureka moment (find), and I've changed my mind from the little mind of the ego-self to what the Buddhists call the Big Mind. I opened up the doors, opening the boundaries so there is no separation. I am reminded of the way Christians describe Jesus knocking at the "door" of your heart, and so on.

"Help me if you can I'm feeling down..." Down can be good. Sometimes you have to hit bottom to realize you are in a bad lifestyle, i.e., thinking you are a separate ego self "poor me" with the universe against you.

"..., and I do appreciate your being 'round." I appreciate that the divine consciousness that is our ground of being is always present. To put it in Christian terms, Christ is always there.

"Help me get my feet back on the ground." I am most struck here that one is NOT asking God to carry you as in the popular story of footprints in the sand where sometimes you only see one set of footprints, etc. Instead, one is asking God (or your own awareness of divine consciousness within yourself) to help you get your feet back on the ground, perhaps so YOU can carry others. Infinite compassion.

"Won't you please, please help me?" Who is asking? Who is being asked? Is there really a difference if you're talking to yourself? Who are you, really, if not an expression of what the entire cosmos is doing at a point called here and now.

"And now my life has changed in oh so many ways." Change is the only constant in the universe. "My independence seems to vanish in the haze." Independence again as a sense of being separate? So this sense seems to vanish? Good!

"But every now and then I feel so insecure. I know that I just need you like I never done before." Now is mentioned in every verse of this song. As for "like I never done before," awareness of the higher power within is not something you get or achieve: it is always there. It is here and now. You don't need to do anything.

The third verse has the same lyrics as the first verse. Then the song ends: "Help me if you can I'm feeling down, and I do appreciate your being 'round. Help me get my feet back on the ground. Won't you please, please help me, help me, help me...oh." Well I don't know if I can help you, John, but you have helped me with your gift of song. Thank you, wherever you are.