Chapter17: Finding God through One Religion

 

Abstract: The Mathematics of the Concepts has been used very successfully in other areas and I want to use it to provide new insights into a simple means of bringing the existing religions into one core belief with each religion retaining its ‘flavour’, with a long-term aim of amalgamating them into one religion.

 

It was quoted that people prefer to deal with people in their own group as much as possible, and that it is desirable to have, in time and through the generations, the racial characteristics that your family line has worked towards. It was assumed that women would move to other religions in their pursuit of lifestyle, but it is a big step to leave one’s family and religion, as they have done for untold generations, without the dreadful fear of inbreeding hanging over their heads.

 

I am reminded of ‘lumpers and splitters’, those that amalgamate and those that are divisive and what I am suggesting here, is a bringing together of the religions, whereas it is the natural way of people to be divisive and split off groups or cliques, presumably for some form of control of followers etc. The first step in bringing people’s together is to overcome the ‘splitter’ or ‘divide and conquer’ mentality, the second step is to bring the religions together and that is not as difficult as it sounds because the prophets were of like mind, and it has been those who came after, that turned religion to their own ends.

 

As mentioned before, it doesn’t matter where we start, so ‘by their very nature, myths inhere both legitimacy and credibility. Whatever truths they convey have little to do with historical fact. To ask whether Moses actually parted the Red Sea, or whether Jesus truly raised Lazarus from the dead, or whether the word of God indeed poured through the lips of Muhammad, is to ask totally irrelevant questions. The only question that matters with regard to a religion and its mythology is “What do these stories mean?”’ (No god but God, Reza Aslan, xiii)

 

As mentioned before, the first problem is to simplify, and the paragraph above indicates that we should look to the original people involved, and bearing in mind that it was their followers that wrote the Bible and Quran, many years after Jesus and Muhammad’s deaths, that is the best that we can do. I have selected Christianity, the Old Testament for the Jews and Islam because of the inter-linking and the fact that three quarters of the world’s population follow those religions.

 

Origin of Religion – Important Dates in History:

1. 2000 BC: Time of Abraham, the patriarch of Israel.
2. 1200 BC: Time of Moses, the Hebrew leader of the Exodus.
3. 1100 – 500 BC: Hindus compile their holy texts, the Vedas.
4. 563 – 483 BC: Time of Buddha, founder of Buddhism.
5. 551 – 479 BC: Time of Confucius, founder of Confucianism.
6. 200 BC: The Hindu book, Bhagavad Gita, is written.
7. 2 to 4 BC – 32 AD: Time of Jesus Christ, the Messiah and founder of Christianity.
8. 32 AD: The Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
9. 40 – 90 AD: The New Testament is written by the followers of Jesus Christ.
10. 570 – 632 AD: Time of Muhammad, who records the Qur’an as the basis of Islam.

(AllAboutReligion.org)

 

 

As can be seen from the table, the major religions are old and belong to discrete areas, and this has come about, to a large extent by warfare, in spite of the messages of peace from the Prophets. ‘Your religion was your ethnicity, your culture, and your social identity; it defined your politics, your economics, and your ethics. More than anything else, your religion was your citizenship. Thus, the Holy Roman Empire had its officially sanctioned and legally enforced version of Christianity, just as the Sasanian Empire had its officially sanctioned and legally enforced version of Zoroastrianism. In the Indian subcontinent, Vaisnava kingdoms (devotees of Vishnu and his incarnations) vied with Saiva kingdoms (devotees of Shiva) for territorial control, while in China, Buddhist rulers fought Taoist rulers for political ascendancy. Throughout everyone of these regions, but especially in the Near East, where religion explicitly sanctioned the state, territorial expansion was identical to religious proselytization. Thus, every religion was a “religion of the sword.”’ (p 80)

 

That last sentence is very revealing, and it bears repeating that religions that were based on peace and harmony were ‘religions of the sword’ at some time. Another example of how religions can become skewed, ‘perhaps the most important innovation in the doctrine of jihad was its outright prohibition of all but strictly defensive wars. “Fight in the way of God those who fight you,” the Quran says, “but do not begin hostilities; God does not like the aggressor” (2:190). Elsewhere the Quran is more explicit: permission to fight is given only to those who have been oppressed … who have been driven from their homes for saying, ‘God is our Lord’ ” (22:39; emphasis added).’ (p 84)

 

If we compare the last paragraph to the following modern interpretation the disparity is apparent. ‘Today, the traditional image of the Muslim horde has been more or less replaced by a new image: the Islamic terrorist, strapped with explosives, ready to be martyred for Allah, eager to take as many innocent people as possible with him…. Yet the doctrine of jihad, like so many doctrines in Islam, was not fully developed as an ideological expression until long after Muhammad’s death. (p 79)

 

The above makes it clear that people and forces, after the time of the prophets, have created a momentum and a religion that has little to do with the original words. There is the point that religion has grown with time and circumstance over the millennia, but the original meaning has been lost or changed. ‘Like so many prophets before him, Muhammad never claimed to have invented a new religion. By his own admission, Muhammad’s message was an attempt to reform the existing religious beliefs and cultural practices of pre-Islamic Arabia so as to bring the God of the Jews and Christians to the Arab peoples. “[God] has established for you [the Arabs] the same religion enjoined on Noah, on Abraham, on Moses, and on Jesus,” the Quran says (42:13). (p 17)

 

It is apparent that something has gone monumentally wrong with the religious world, in which the vast majority of the word’s population is engaged to some degree. I would liken the problem to the need to invent writing and the recording of numbers, in order to keep accurate records for business, and in the same way the Mathematics of the Mind is the means of recording concepts and their contexts and keeping track of them over time. The Mathematics of the Mind forces uniqueness through the Logic of the Half-truth and keeps the attractors distinct, over time, but available for use, in the same way that the brain uses the strength of neurotransmitters to form a sub-conscious which is both there and not there in the half-truth sense. To continue this ‘chain of thought’, the half-truth created the universe, rules the universe and is the operator that is the fifth dimension that we use together with space-time in our daily lives. Truly, God is the God of Truth, and we are made in God’s image as our mind is based on (mathematical) Truth! Also, the judiciary set laws in time and a sentence is made on the laws in force at the time of the offence, and similarly, journal articles provide a reference in time for concepts and context that can be quoted by authors.

 

To repeat the above, ‘the only question that matters with regard to a religion and its mythology is “What do these stories mean?” ’ (p xiii) There have been many ‘prophets’ and the religions have selected those that they want and discarded the rest. In the main, these prophets were poor, railing against the economic structure of the day, and possibly delusional to some degree, on the other hand, Muhammad was a successful businessman and did not meet an untimely end. Their sayings, such as have been recorded, provide the ‘nuggets’ to be gleaned over, and to simplify, we can forget the building of the religions over the millennia, as people, circumstances and times changed. The present time is our time, and we need to interpret the original stories in terms of ‘our time’ and the means is through the Mathematics of the Mind.

 

To repeat, ‘by his own admission, Muhammad’s message was an attempt to reform the existing religious beliefs and cultural practices of pre-Islamic Arabia so as to bring the God of the Jews and Christians to the Arab peoples.’ If so many people believe his words, who are we to disbelieve the above? Clearly, it is the organized religions that have ‘mired’ themselves in orthodoxy and have refused to accommodate change. From Chapter 1, the idea was put forward that the Christian Church has ‘lost’ or has not kept up with the one third of the teachings about the Holy Spirit. Perhaps the Council of Chalcedon in 451 C.E. ‘over-stepped the mark’ in entrenching the doctrine of the Trinity into the teachings, because the Church functions quite well in its traditional role with leaving the second Law of Life in ‘limbo’. Unfortunately, not so for the world which is suffering a multitude of problems exacerbated by the churches’ position, but it does indicate that the Churches are fallible.

 

Elsewhere it was derived that people should work towards a family of the colour and stature that they are content with so there is no concept of racial discrimination, one religion to prevent inevitable sectarian violence, dressing similarly and so forth. Animals have always tried to blend in with the surroundings to remain invisible to predators and religious sects that dress ‘differently’ are risking sectarian violence. Flaunting difference in dress is isolating themselves from the rest of the population and creating tension and resistance to members moving out of the group into the wider community, which is the motive of the ‘splitters’.

 

The major problem at hand is to make one religion by overcoming the ‘splitters’, and the answer is, to combine what we can of the religions into one. However, religions have been around for thousands of years and this could take time, but given the immediate threat of global warming etc, a start should be made.

 

Sometimes there are very easy ways to control complex situations, and I am reminded of the problem of the poker machines, where, the solution is simple, but the politics was not and lead to this concept of the Mathematic of the Mind. The Mathematics of the Mind is overarching, and the Old Testament is overarching, but the New Testament and Muhammad are about close relationships and I am ignoring the concepts, so there is no appearance of the Mathematics of the Mind, but the rest of the book provides the context to this climactic problem. I will be content to provide a possible solution and leave the discussion to those better qualified.

 

I know very little about the complexities of the various religions, but, as I have said before, the first job is to simplify, and as I know so little, I am possibly, a good candidate for the job! From above, we have to ‘lump’ and to do that, which is against the desires of multiculturalism and the religions that we know today, we have to legislate and use the power of the state. Politicians have problems because they are discriminating against a segment of voters, but are there alternatives? (Actually there are, but see later)

 

Religion is part of the third Law of Life, and the State is mainly the second Law and is far stronger because the Holy Spirit has been neglected and the Church has kept the niche that it has had for centuries. The State controls the Churches through taxation and they could start the process of bringing the Churches together by their congregations sharing the different Church buildings for services on a rotation of times. The basic idea is for the various congregations to, if not mix socially for a start, at least see each other and tax the laggard religions. If we are serious about the world’s problems, governments have to act seriously.

 

At the same time, the Religions have to ‘absorb’ the later prophets into their religion, after all, can the ‘spirit’ of the prophets be ‘bad’ when so many people support them. Eventually, the religions must become one! Muhammad considered, above, that he was a prophet in the vein of those that came before. Could the other religions accept him now that the world has changed so much and faces Armageddon? As an example, I am thinking of the Jews of Israel and the Arabs of Gaza putting aside their differences, but it is probably a land problem as much as religious differences, but would the presence of the others matter if they had similar religions! Is it such a big step when Muhammad, himself, thought that he was carrying on the tradition?

 

This time of change is also a good opportunity to bring the sects together, such as the Catholic Church, the Church of England and others. Also, ‘legal institutions empowered with the binding authority of God’s Law. The modern Sunni world has four such schools. The Shafti School, which now dominates Southeast Asia … the Maliki School, which is primarily observed in West Africa … the Hanafi School … which prevails across most of Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, is by far the largest … the Hanbali School … dominates ultraconservative countries like Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan … Shi’ite school of law (p 165)

 

It is interesting to consider the ‘splitter’ case and it aligns with what I have said previously and there appears to be the same case of overcrowding, sectarian violence etc and ultimately as living standards decline, a ‘superior race’ will emerge, and it can be seen gathering momentum now. In fact, that is the purpose of this book, to restart evolution without leaving the disadvantaged to become another race or species.

 

The Mathematics of the Mind demands a prediction and I would like to quote the following: ‘one spring morning in tenth-century Baghdad, the frenetic but scrupulously controlled markets of the capital city were thrown into a state of agitation when a raggedly dressed man named Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj – one of the earliest and most renowned Sufi masters – burst onto the crowded square and exclaimed at the top of his voice, Ana al-Haqq! “I am the Truth!” by which he meant, “I am God!” The market authorities were scandalized. They immediately arrested al-Hallaj and handed him over to the Ulama for judgement….. He further alienated the Ulama by focusing the bulk of his teachings on Jesus, whom he considered to be a Hidden Sufi. For these declarations, he was condemned as a fanatic and a “secret Christian”…. The Caliph had al-Hallaj tortured, flogged, mutilated, and crucified; his corpse was decapitated, his body dismembered, his remains burned, and the ashes scattered in the Tigris River.’ (p 204)

 

One cannot help but be struck by the similarities of the above and the different outcome in Christianity. This question will be taken up later.

 

‘Al-Hallij’s offence was not the sacrilege of his startling declaration, but its imprudent disclosure to those who could not possibly understand what he meant. Sufi teaching can never be revealed to the unprepared or the spiritually immature. As al-Hujwiri (d. 1075) argued, it is all too easy for the uninitiated to “mistake the [Sufi’s] intention, and repudiate not his real meaning, but a notion which they formed for themselves.” (p 206)

 

The book, of which this chapter is an extract, has been written in such a way as to increase the readers creativity and knowledge to an extent that they can take notice of the above paragraph and link it to this article and the rest of the book. Enough references have been made to show the context of the problem and if all else fails, the Forever Club is moving forward and, if necessary, leave those that can’t change to be superseded as has been happening for the last 3,000 million years through evolution.

 

The next step is to analyse religions using the Logic of the Half-truth:

 

A religion is:     true (which contains God and the ‘true’ prophets because God

is Truth in all religions. Notice above that “I am the Truth!” by which he meant, “I am God!” and previously that I determined that God must be the God of Truth because truth is the only determinant in our universe),

 

false (which contains Satan and the ‘false’ prophets),

 

indeterminate (which contains those situations, like the case of Jesus and Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj where the outcome could go either way, also this indeterminacy determines the existence of the universe in probability space. It should be noted that this existence of the universe [world P] is a natural phenomenon and is separate to the existence [world O and P] of God),

 

chaos (which is the case when something is both true and false at the same time, and too difficult to deal with at the moment, also, it would include all of the trappings of the religions that have built up over thousands of years and seem a bit pointless).

 

So, the result is that religions contain God, and it is a question of classifying the prophets as ‘true’ and ‘false’, but what of the Old Testament? It is interesting that ‘the God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.’ (The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins, p 31)

 

The Old Testament was written 3000 to 4000 years ago and probably is a historical record of a tribe as well as a religion or creation myth to hold the people together. Perhaps, in the light of the paragraph above, it should be rewritten, especially de-humanized in line with the thoughts presented here and in the rest of the chapter. The Old Testament evolved on the basis of the three Laws of Life and thousands of years later these Laws were overlain with the Trinity, which is invoked, but neglected today. I have pointed to certain areas that the Mathematics of the Mind and the Half-truth have outlined, and it is up to someone to redefine religion within this logic and carry it forward.

 

The way to do this is now clear, that each religion can agree on what is in the ‘true’ section of the Half-truth and that is the religion for all, but the remainder, which is a ‘history’ is separate to each religion and is an ‘adjunct’ or the ‘feeling’ of that religion and is kept separate and known for what it is, and that is the possibility of an ‘indeterminate’ part for disputed events and the final part for the ‘trappings’ of the religions along the lines of the Half-truth. This is a necessary step to a ‘Second Coming’ and there would be one religion world-wide with different ‘feeling’, but not meaning. As people become similar in mind and ways of life through the electronic media, so will the religions be forced into one through cooperation or contest.

 

postscript: As mentioned above, I have been wondering why the Jewish, Islamic and Christian religions have steadfastly refused to get together as seems sensible and I ascribed it to the ‘splitter’ effect, but perhaps there is a more generous reason, and I will outline it as ‘cultural’.

 

The Jews have an ancient religion and, as mentioned above, their (one) God is not very pleasant. The Christians have one god, divided into three parts, God, the Father, God, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Islam says there is only one God. Can these three views be reconciled? Let’s see. Measurement needs a mind and a ‘perception’ to view the problem through, just as the experimenter must be part of the experiment and has to design the experiment for the measurement to exist. Put another way, measurement needs both concept and context, which leads to the Mathematics of the Mind.

 

We evolved a consciousness along with survival of the fittest (Chapter 28), but religion, as a ‘creation myth’ didn’t need to be ‘rooted’ in a reality because (presumably) it was heritable that we believe the new tribe’s creation myth and fit into a new tribe to minimize the risk of inbreeding.

 

However, it has come about that we need to focus our mind on the state of the world and as religions play such an important part, we need to focus the mind through a perception that brings the religions into a ‘controllable’ unit that will enable them to help restore order in the world.

 

A previous derivation found that there are three Laws of Life that describe ourselves and our relationship to the universe. These laws are approximate and ‘weaker’ contributors are neglected, but they should be ‘robust’ enough for our purposes. There is room for a God of Truth and it was shown that we are made in his image. Using these as attractors, we can move the religions around to see how other attractors influence (or influenced) them. Note that the Mathematics of the Mind and the Logic of the Half-truth are time dependent, where mathematics and logic are not.

 

The God of the Old Testament was close to His People for thousands of years and it would be strange if He did not gain some aspects of humanity in the stories of the Bible. The writers/recorders used the Mathematics of the Mind (concepts) to envision God and they did it through the Tribe because there was nothing else. The same as the experimenter defines the experiment and MUST be part of the experiment, so, of course the God of the Old Testament had human failings.

 

The Christians were much later in time, and, I imagine, recognizing the three Laws of Life, which are not particularly difficult to discern and being immersed in the Mathematics of the Mind, ascribed the Workings of God into three categories for ease of understanding by their followers. Concepts were the ‘mathematics’ of the time and they used them to simplify and show how God was everywhere. God the Father was the Creator, God the Son was the family and between peoples and the Holy Spirit was the environment (state of mind, nutrition and exercise which are crucially important because they form componentization, which is the ‘key’ to life).

 

Islam grew in the environment that created mathematics, which is a special case of the Mathematics of the Mind and its uniqueness would have appealed to traders, I imagine, because traders don’t need concepts, they need the certainty that one is one, not three! This change of thinking suited the simple concept of one God.

 

In conclusion, firstly, the mind influences the reporting of religious events, secondly, the ‘state’ or sophistication of the mind interprets the religious event, thirdly, time effects must be taken into account to changes in sophistication, and fourthly, rationality must be applied to foil deviants or extremists, because religion is too important to society be left to evolve haphazardly.

 

What I have done is to propose a trinity, much as the Christians did, again to try to simplify concepts, that shows three different ‘faces’ of God as seen through the minds of peoples separated in time and space, and yet, these are the same God. This aligns with the above idea of taking the ‘essence’ of all the religions into a hierarchy to start the process of combination into one religion, and it also shows how easy it is to ‘split’ rather than build or ‘lump’, and that should help define our choice of cleric.