Born Again

For thousands of years, religious leaders and cultists have substituted religiosity for realism and fanaticism for truth. Evolutionary ethics teaches us that in a very real sense, our own thinking and our own being are the spirit and the substance of the deity we seek and the evil we wish to circumvent.

When we accept our place at the center of the universe, the human spirit, like the Phoenix, will arise from the ashes of superstition, sectarianism, orthodoxy, abstruse creeds and arrogant dogma to reenergize itself as a divine entity to fulfill its destiny and become a primary moving force capable of bringing peace and harmony to the human race.

Only after we have acknowledged the truly divine character of living humanity and after we have accepted the principle that every human life has explicit value because it is a life, will we be able to look beyond the superficial cloak of physical differences in humans that now divide us. Finally, the paradise that we have dreamed about as Heaven, Nirvana, Valhalla will no longer elude us but will materialize right here on the earth.

That real earthly paradise will be occupied by living, loving, mortal humans who no longer need glorify a mythical deity in a faraway region, because we will have recognized the celestial entity embodied within our own living spirit. Human minds will at long last accept a deity which is common to all humans–the life within our mortal bodies.

We will be born again and a new world-wide religion will be possible; the principle tenet of which will be reverence for life–all life. Human longing and dreams expressed for centuries in literature, music, painting, and sculpture can be fulfilled. The world can be free of the pointless destruction of life which has been the result of distorted values, irrational thinking and human willfulness.

The new religion can bring about the emancipation of the human mind. We will no longer be burdened by fear and by the everlasting need to pay homage to invisible external spirits and we can finally escape the slavish marionette like existence that one inevitably suffers from in a Christian or nihilist atheist, (communist) world. I still can vividly remember my own experience when I realized that Christianity and communism were not the real things that created me and that I was the one thing that was real and they were merely figments of my imagination. It was as if a great weight had been lifted off my shoulders and I felt suddenly independent, important, valuable and free. I looked around me as though I had been blind all my life and had just been allowed to see. I saw children playing and houses being built and a magnificent civilization. All built by man, every idea, every stone, every post. I looked at the buildings and saw that I had built them and that they were good. I looked at the other people and saw that they were just like me. And I realized that his was real. Life was not futile. The things that I saw were real and were the result of man's love, ambition and divinity. I saw it stretch for miles beyond my sight. I looked back in time and saw centuries stretch back of men doing the same thing, giving, dedicating their lives, suffering and dying. Why? Not for nothing, but so that I might live today. All the men who have ever lived had given their lives for me. What courage, nobility, purpose.

As part of the immortal organism of man, I had the same opportunity, the same destiny, the same purpose and the same duty to further the progress of man. I realized that I was the one thing that mattered in the universe: that I was the center and purpose of everything that had ever been or would ever be. As the only consciousness in the universe, I was the fulcrum and focus of everything that was seen and understood and done. I knew suddenly what the ancient Christians felt when they contemplated God. I was born again. I was no longer an alien intruder in the universe or among mankind. I knew that I was not alone. I felt kinship with all men. They were all part of the same eternal organism of man that I was. We are all brothers working together for the next generation.

I saw that I was part of a larger purpose and that all my ancestors had fought for my survival and had eventually given their lives so that I might live today and that it was my destiny and my duty to do the same for my children. I saw that all the scientists, teachers and farmers of all preceding generations had worked and lived so that I might be born. I thought back to my school teachers and even tried to imagine the doctor who delivered me. I looked at the city and knew that it was the magnificent culmination of the work of millions of men for untold thousands of years. I saw that the things that I needed for my comfort and survival were put there by man; car, house, food all in their infinite care for my survival.

There was no longer a feeling of emptiness. No longer a lack of purpose. I was the fulcrum of everything. Even unto the smallest frustration, not a moment of life was devoid of meaning. What I saw was God seeing, God doing, God feeling, God suffering. I was my ancestors succeeding and living into the present and on to eternity. Anything that was accomplished was of earthshaking importance. If the farmers did not produce food, the children would starve exactly as my ancestors would have a hundred years ago if the farmers had not produced then. If Bruno had not given his life for us, we would never have gone to the moon. And if Saulk and Harvey had not spent their lives to help us, we might not be alive at all. Who can tell what disease or plague they man have prevented?

I realized that together with my ancestors I shared credit for going to the moon as well as blame for the 30 years war. I understood that the children of the future were an extension of my immortality and that what I did during my life would have a direct bearing on whether these children would exist. I was one link in the eternal chain of creation. I was not an unthinking machine. I was not unimportant. I was the most important thing in the universe.

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