Over the past few days, as I’ve returned to this forum and responded
to various statements from my own viewpoint, it seems that I’ve caused
a bit of a stir. That’s fine, but I think many have found my
statements confusing in certain ways, particularly in the area of
morality, which seems to be a popular topic on the forum based on the
recent posting titled ‘More morality’. In particular, Lee’s reticence
to accept that a decent morality can be derived from my viewpoint,
especially in light of the proposed loss of free will. So, I feel
compelled to reveal a few of the cards I’ve been holding in this
regard. The following is an excerpt from my book from the chapter
called ‘Sin and Damnation’. This part comes AFTER I’ve described my
theoretical monistic model of which only some of the older members
here are reasonably aware (Essentially, it uses string theory to
describe the universe as a function of one entity of stringy energy
and explains that this one entity, the only entity that really exists
is, in fact, God.). Note: I don’t go into the ‘damnation’ topic in
this excerpt; I’ll retain that card for a moment.
Now, of course, I don’t expect everyone will agree with my
theory, as no one, yet, has come up with a theory to which everyone
subscribes. But I expect that the following excerpt will allay some
fears people have when they realise that the NEW morality that is
derivable from my theory is the old morality. The difference being
that, now, rather than relying solely on faith, we can practice it in
the knowledge that it is based on logic and a scientific view of
reality (given that I work from a premiss that my theory is
correct).
So, to paraphrase The Who, “Meet the new morality. Same as the
old morality.” As always, let me know what you think!! ;-)
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What is sin if there is only one actor in the system? Wise
King Solomon had the answer to that when he told us, in the book of
Ecclesiastes, of the woes begotten of vanity: “Vanity of vanities; all
is vanity.” (Eccl. 1:2)
When a soul thinks “I”, he separates himself from the one that
is. Vanity is when we think “I”. This fundamental grasping of our own
identity is completely counter to the concept of the oneness (rather
than ‘unity’, ‘oneness’ describes God as One without unity) of God.
In Ecclesiastes 1:9, Solomon says, “The thing that hath been, it is
that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be
done; and there is no new thing under the sun.” The first clause of
Eccl. 1:9 is another declaration of the oneness of God, saying that
God (the thing that hath been) is the only thing that exists and is,
thus, that which shall be. The second clause pertains to the argument
of fate vs. free will. In our space-time continuum, all events are
extant in the whole of space-time. The future is just as much “there
and then” as is the past. That which is (to be) done is that which
shall be done. The concept of obligation inherent in the concept
“shall” is also relevant because God is obliged by His very nature to
perform every act at the right time and at the right place everywhere
always. The third clause is saying that there is no new thing under
the sun (a metaphor for God) because there can be nothing other than
the one thing, which IS God. It is also a metaphor for understanding
that energy is neither created nor destroyed, only transformed from
one form to another; because ‘that which exists’ is energy that has
always existed and always will, there can be nothing ‘new’.
In the Torah, eight of the Ten Commandments are negative
commandments, i.e., those that prohibit behaviours. The first
negative commandment is, “I AM the Lord thy God…thou shalt have no
other gods before me”. God states that it is a sin to acknowledge the
existence of Gods OTHER than Him. It would be impossible for a
monistic God to acknowledge an entity other than itself. After all,
He’s omniscient; He would know there was no other. So, too, it is
wrong and vain for man to acknowledge any other.
The second negative commandment is, “Thou shalt not make unto
thee any graven image…of anything that is in Heaven or on the Earth…
for I AM a jealous God.” In this commandment, God gives His reasoning
for the prohibition. Jealous, in THIS usage, means demanding of
complete loyalty. One is not permitted to try to depict God as any
one thing because He demands complete loyalty and, in order to be
completely true to the concept of a monistic God, one would have to
depict the entirety of space-time in order to be comprehensive.
Anything less is a vain attempt. To think that one could, in any
item, truly depict God “in toto” is vain.
The third negative commandment is, “Thou shalt not take the Lord
thy God’s name in vain.” Here, it’s plainly stated. Again, to think
that one could change destiny by calling out the name of God is simply
vain. Remember that all events are extant in the whole of space-time
and it is God that drives them all. There is nothing any of us can do
to alter the will of God and to think we can is to be vain; rather,
that which we do is an enactment of God’s will, as there is no other.
The fourth negative commandment is, “Thou shalt not murder.” To
think that we are as powerful as to be able to snuff out life is
vain. To an object of energy, all events can be boiled down to
various transformations of energy. In our universe, we have
discovered that energy is conserved and not lost. It only changes
from one form to another. At the moment that we call death, there may
well be a series of energy transformations such that the non-corporeal
elements of our existence are separated from the corporeal but that
does not mean that life, which is experienced through our
consciousness, ends. As I’ve mentioned before, once a field of
consciousness has been created, it has an anchor to the Calabi-Yau
space which is outside of time. This field cannot cease to exist. It
stretches outside of time. Energy transforms. That is all.
Consciousness is, if anything, freed from the confinements of the body
at death as much as it is when we dream. In our dreams, we can act
without fear because there is nothing there, truly, but ourselves. To
think otherwise is to deny one’s own being. Life, in this case, more
properly, one’s ability to remain self-aware cannot be ended so long
as there is an extra-spatio-temporal aspect to the field of
consciousness. To think otherwise is vain because it denies the
oneness and the continuity of God’s self-awareness.
The fifth negative commandment is, “Thou shalt not commit
adultery.” This is about internal consistency, loyalty and acting in
good faith. In creating this universe, God has said “These things
will happen”. And those things will happen. There is no changing the
will of God. To act in such a way as to break our will, which is
implied as adultery is an act against a solemn vow to NOT act in a
particular way, is to deny the oneness of God. There is no new thing
under the sun. To think that we have acted in such a way as to break
the will of God, is vain and it is, also, to believe that God is not
omnipotent. If something happens, then it must have been in
accordance with God’s will, otherwise God is less than omnipotent.
And THAT is not the case. Also, we cannot act against our OWN will.
Will is resolute. If it is ones will to do A, A will be done. If A
is not done, it could only have been a desire to perform A, followed
by a desire to not do A. Will is always performed. If adultery is
perceived to occur, a wise man should realise that it was never the
partner’s will to remain faithful but, rather a desire to remain
faithful, followed by a desire to not be faithful. In the Torah, Jews
are entreated to not make vows lightly as vows are a declaration of
will. If a man presumes to declare his will and acts otherwise, he
soon loses the respect of his peers. Simply put, adultery is
seemingly duplicitous behaviour and “One” cannot be duplicitous. That
alone would be enough but God, also, acts ONLY on will, as God has no
desires. Desires are based on a perceived lack of something and God
lacks nothing. When you are all that there is, what could you
possibly desire?
The sixth negative commandment is, “Thou shalt not steal.” The
well-respected Torah commentator Rashi states that this commandment
pertains to kidnapping, i.e., the stealing of other people (The
punishment for breaking any of the Ten Commandments was death and the
Ten Commandments dealt with relationships between man and God and
between man and man. Theft of property was punishable by fines and/or
material compensation. Kidnapping, though, was punishable by
death.). In a broader sense, it deals with the concept of owning an
individual. If you steal someone, you have taken them like you would
take an object. You hold a claim of ownership over the individual.
Slavery is a form of kidnapping where the victim is first stolen and
then forced to work for the captor. To think that one is capable of
owning another is vain. To believe that we are powerful enough to own
another human with a living soul is to deny the oneness of God by way
of thinking that the Creation, or aspects of the Creation, is separate
from God. What can you remove from God? All is all. Even the taking
of items does not remove them from God and to think that you can steal—
to remove anything from the presence of God—is vain.
The seventh negative commandment is, “Thou shalt not bear false
witness.” To think that you can hide the truth from He who is
omniscient is vain. To believe that we are actually capable of
preventing the truth from being known is a logical tautology. We know
the truth, therefore, the truth is known and, through us, God knows
the truth. Our recognition that “others” may not know the truth does
not prevent the truth from being known (by God) and it is vain to
think otherwise.
The eighth negative commandment is, “Thou shalt not covet
anything that is thy neighbour’s.” To desire material things is to
become attached to transient objects. To feel that God has not
provided us with all that we need is vain. We will encounter, in our
lives, everything that we will encounter. There is no part of our
experiences where we can gather more to us than was allotted to us.
To think otherwise is to deny the oneness of God and His Creation.
Our lives are His and there is nothing that is not already God’s.
The negative commandments define actions that cannot be performed
by the One God and oblige us to act godly:
The One God cannot recognise another. (You should have no other.)
The One God cannot make nor create any item that is a subset of the
whole that can fairly represent the whole. (You should not make any
image attempting to depict God.)
The One God cannot change that which will be. (Both taking the Lord’s
Name in vain and committing adultery are derived from this principle,
as you should not ask God for help when YOU can help yourself nor
should you act duplicitously.)
The One God cannot extinguish, at any time, that which has a portion
outside of time. (You should not murder)
The One God cannot remove anything from the whole of space-time. (You
should not steal)
The One God cannot NOT know the truth. (You should not lie)
The One God cannot add anything to the whole of space-time. (You
should not covet)
These negative commandments tell us that we should not act in a
way that denies the oneness of God and imagining that we have the
power to actually DO these things is the vanity of all vanities to
which Solomon referred when he said, “Vanity of vanities; all is
vanity”. The more absorbed in the physical we get, the less absorbed
we are by the One. Roman Catholicism has contributed greatly to our
understanding of the spiritual harm done by indulging ourselves in
outlining the Seven Deadly Sins: Lust, Avarice, Vanity, Pride, Sloth,
Anger and Gluttony (For a good monistic, mnemonic, acronymic aphorism
for the 7 Deadlies, try “Look, Acting Vainly Pits Self Against God”).
These desires prey on our sense of self and make us act ungodly, as
God has no desires. So, we should act selflessly. We only have a
sense of self because God has a sense of self. Because THAT self is
the selfsame as our self, we literally owe our selves to God.
The positive commandments are of a different ilk, as they don’t
outline sins. What they do, though, is encourage us to remember our
past by honouring our parents and to encourage us to have hope in the
future by remembering the Sabbath. By honouring our parents, we have
a strong link to our origins and, if they have honoured theirs, our
link extends even further back and we have an even greater sense of
our place in history. This will allow us to learn from our past and
not have to repeat some of the same lessons. The machinery of our
bodies works better, generally, if we have at least some break from
work. So, too, much of the machinery that mankind has created works
better when occasionally rested. And, it’s all too common in today’s
world, on Monday morning, to have our eyes firmly focused on the
weekend (the modern, Western Sabbath). It gives us something to look
forward to. It gives us a reason to continue. Remembering the
Sabbath was not about remembering the previous one or even the concept
OF the Sabbath but remembering that another one is soon to come and
our lives will be better after it. So, very subtly, the Ten
Commandments tell us the things that God can’t do (so we shouldn’t)
and they tell us how to learn from the past and how to have hope for
the future.
In the New Testament, Jesus is asked regarding the greatest
commandments of the Torah. In other words, what is the greatest bit
of advice in the Torah that would help mankind become closer to God?
His response is, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all
your soul, and with all your mind”; i.e., think God, feel God, BE
God. And Jesus followed that by saying the second greatest
commandment is, “Love your neighbour as yourself”. The Hebrew (Some
may think, “Why Hebrew? Jesus spoke Aramaic.” But Jesus was quoting
the Torah, so his response would have been in Hebrew.) preposition ‘K’
translated as “as” does not mean “as much as” but, rather, “as if
equal to” like the “as” in “A is to B as Y is to Z”. Jesus is
teaching that we should love our fellow humans “as if they were”
ourselves. And, of course, love is spiritual gravity, the attractive
spiritual force. We are entreated to fully attract ourselves to God,
gravitate towards Him, and to consider others as no different from
ourselves.
In a monistic system, the focus is the Self. The aim is to
realise that one’s own self is no different than the One Self of God.
When we act selfishly, we increase the difference between us and God,
so vanity or selfishness is sinful. However, when we act selflessly—
the monistic virtue—and put God first in our hearts our minds and our
very being, we lose our transient selves and gain our True Self.
Each of us is here to do that which we will do. So what is it
that you would like to do? Remember the old adage of "God helps those
who help themselves"? God works through His creation. Armed with the
rather dichotomous and Rumsfeldian knowledge that we know we don't
know our own future, irrespective of how fixed it is, you still have
to get there. So we should each be trying to be the very best 'us' we
can be as well as promoting others to do the same. Also realise that,
in a monistic system, the only will is that of the One. We can sit
back and be depressed and think, "Why bother, if my life is fixed?" or
we can work towards doing the things we've always wanted to see done
in the world. Actions cause reactions and that is an overriding
factor. This is a universe where action is important: energy DOES.
So if we want to DO something or see something DONE, we must strive
for it. The knowledge that when we act, it is, in fact, God acting,
should serve to infuse us with great confidence knowing that each and
every one of us is an Ambassador of God's Will. Of course, some
people, who put themselves before the One, could (have and will) use
that to justify horrifying actions; most people, I believe, would like
to be of benefit to the world in some way and would naturally act
ethically, if given the chance to DO so.
Jesus reiterated the importance of the Torah's commandments that
we should put God first and love one another as if there were no
difference between us. With those incredibly monistic guidelines, if
followed, we would act far more empathetically and, if we tried to
understand others more, we'd probably learn a lot more about ourselves
in the process. Imagine a world of people that really cared for one
another. It can only happen, though, one at a time and, as there is
only one, one can only motivate oneself.
copyright © Patrick D. Harrington 2009 All Rights reserved
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