CAUSATION and RELATIVE EVENTS AND BEHAVIORS: “Evil?” or “Ignorance, Stupidity, and Insanity”?

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CAUSATION and RELATIVE EVENTS AND BEHAVIORS: 

“Evil?” or “Ignorance, Stupidity, and Insanity”?

“I HAVE NO FAITH IN ANYTHING WHICH HAS EVER BEEN TOLD . . . . ”
 
“I HAVE NO FAITH IN ANYTHING . . . .”
 
“I HAVE NO FAITH . . . .” 

--Scrutinizing a Maharaj quote by focusing on its parts

The invitation for the next few days is to consider the words of Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj in determining which of the following statements is factual: 

A. “Evil is the cause of all bad things that happen on the planet” 

or 

B. “Ignorance, stupidity, and / or insanity are three of the key elements in a long chain of causation in which the cause of all is ultimately . . . all.” 

Maharaj said, “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told, not even what has been told by the Vedas.”

By the end of his teaching career, his pointers were based in the Natural Yoga along, having turned his back on Hinduism and the Vedas and anything else that was outside that which he understood from his “own experience.” 

His words over the next several days will be applied to certain contemporary examples in order to examine the evidence. First, his words regarding “faith.” 

Consider: “I have no faith in anything which has ever been told . . . .”; “I have no faith in anything . . . .”; “I have no faith . . . .”

Next, consider the headlines from recent newspaper articles dealing with two events in the U.S. that share in common the key elements of “faith” and “killing / death.” 

In the U.S., there was one case in which the actions of two Christians led to the death of two children; in the second case, the actions of two Muslims led to the death of a child and two adults. Consider how differently the public is reacting to the two events that share those key factors in common: 

    CATHERINE AND HERBERT SCHAIBLE'S SECOND CHILD  DIES AFTER PARENTS USE PRAYER, NOT MEDICINE (AS HAPPENED EARLIER WITH THEIR FIRST CHILD)

April 23, 2013 

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A couple serving probation for the 2009 death of their toddler after they turned to prayer instead of a doctor could face new charges now that another son has died. 

Herbert and Catherine Schaible belong to a fundamentalist Christian church that believes in faith healing. They lost their 8-month-old son, Brandon, last week after he suffered from diarrhea and breathing problems for at least a week, and stopped eating. Four years ago, another son died from bacterial pneumonia. 

Herbert Schaible, 44, and his 43-year-old wife grew up in the First Century Gospel Church in northeast Philadelphia and have served as teachers there. The church's website has a sermon titled “Healing – From God or Medicine?” that quotes Bible verses purportedly forbidding Christians from visiting doctors or taking medicine. 

“It is a definite sin to trust in medical help and pills; and it is real faith to trust on the Name of Jesus for healing,” says the message from last May. 

At a hearing Monday, a judge told the couple they had violated the terms of their probation, noting the Schaibles had told investigators that they prayed to God to make Brandon well instead of seeking medical attention. 

“You did that once, and the consequences were tragic,” Philadelphia Common Pleas Judge Benjamin Lerner said.

Their defense attorney said: “Nobody argues that these aren't very loving, nurturing parents.” 

So which is it? “Evil?” Or “ignorance, stupidity, and insanity?” 

Case #2:

(Headline Boston) BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECTS APPARENTLY MOTIVATED BY FAITH

April 22, 2013 

UPDATE: The two brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon appear to have been motivated by their religious faith but do not seem connected to any Muslim terrorist groups, U.S. officials said Monday after interrogating the severely wounded younger man. 

In this second case, it is not likely that many in the U.S. will say that “nobody argues that these aren't very loving, nurturing people.”
 
Again, Maharaj: “After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions are by hearsay.” 

The acquisition in the first case: “You are 'Christians' who have the power to heal through prayer. Please God by using that power, not doctors and medicine, to heal your sick children.”

The acquisition in the second case: “You are 'Muslims' who have the power to kill when vengeance is called for. Please Allah by becoming 'The Avengers' against American imperialism in Iraq and Afghanistan.” 

Is it not insanity when one invents a concept and then allows it to drive all future thoughts and words and actions? And what - other than the invention of a particular faith and a particular “God” - drives humanity more when 97% claim an affiliation with one organized religion or another and when millions more claim to be “spiritual, not religious” and worship a God and beg for things? Maharaj on that “invention of a God”:

“First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God. Then you worship such a God and ... you pray to that God for something good to happen to you.” 

See, there are on the planet hundreds of “different nationalities,” many “different skin colors,” and thousands of “different ethnicities,” all generating beliefs about “different-from-ment”; 

however, there is only one thing that 98% have in common: they believe in the tenets of a religion and they believe in a god (or gods and goddesses).

Thus, nothing drives the thoughts and the words and the actions of the seven billion persons on the planet more than religion and religious and / or spiritual faith and religious and / or spiritual beliefs.

And those result in a planet-wide sense of “different-from-ment” because the tenets and practices and god or gods of all of those religions are numerous and different.

Add in the fact that nothing generates more emotional intoxication than religious debates and arguments and disagreements and it should become clear why more persons on the planet have died from religious ignorance and religious fighting and religious wars than any other causes besides “natural” causes.

Is the conclusion that “all religious people are evil”? No, there are no persons who are either good or evil. The conclusion points to ignorance, stupidity and insanity.

Consider the points offered in these exchanges: 

Questioner: “Do you mean to say that between good and evil there is no wall?” 

Maharaj: “There is no wall, because there is no good and no evil.”
and 

Questioner: “How is it that there is so much evil in my world?”
 
Maharaj: “There is no evil . . . .”

Again, Maharaj: “After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions are by hearsay.” 

“You are a Christian” is “hearsay”? Yes. 

Based in that additional persona acquisition, were there, as a judge said this week in one case, “consequences [that] were tragic” because of the “further acquisition” of a faith-based, additional identity / persona / personality?

Relatively speaking, yes. For five thousand years or more, there have been “tragic consequences,” relatively speaking, as a result of the “further acquisition” of faith-based identities / faith-based personas / faith-based personalities.

“You are a Muslim” is “hearsay”? Yes. 

Based in that additional persona acquisition, were there, as a judge said this week in one case, “consequences [that] were tragic” because of the “further acquisition” of a faith-based, additional identity / persona / personality?

Relatively speaking, yes. For five thousand years or more, there have been “tragic consequences,” relatively speaking, as a result of the “further acquisition” of faith-based identities / faith-based personas / faith-based personalities. 

In the next chapter: And what if a child were given the “further acquisition” from early on that he is a bird? And what if all of the persons in his culture supported that lie? And what if he and a friend died as a result of that belief?

The question then is, “Having brought about relative 'tragic consequences' while acting like a bird because he was told that he was a bird, would that child have been driven by 'evil' or would that child have been driven by the ignorance and insanity that was disseminated in his home and in his culture?”

One book offered on the author’s website is entitled “FREEDOM FROM BELIEFS (Believers, Non-Believers, and “No-Belief-ers).

Are you seeing why there can be no such thing as “freedom” if beliefs are present?

To be continued.

Please enter into the silence of contemplation.

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Here, with those who are still driven to talk about "god," the "Son of god," the "Holy Spirit," "Buddha," "Krishna," etc., etc., etc., the invitation to them is to view those as verbs, not nouns.

THE EXPLANATION

If looked at as nouns, they point to illusions and are, therefore, a total waste of time to even discuss; if looked at as verbs which are resulting in certain sane but rare behaviors among humanity, then they are worthy of some attention during the relative existence.

Meaning? There are members of certain groups who say things such as "My concept of god in the past was of a weak god, an absentee god, A Santa Claus-type god, a mean, punishing, vindictive god, etc. Today, I am in close contact with a loving and caring god whom I worship and praise and glorify and give thanks to."

The reply to that usually goes like this: "If you are in contact with a god that wants to be worshipped and praised and glorified, then you're dealing with someone like yourself - a narcissist - and hanging out with narcissists will never bring an end to your narcissism (that narcissism evidenced by the fact that you think you are "godly").

Next, in the phrase 'loving and caring god,' any supposed god that truly had her or his act together would tell you that the totally irrelevant part of that phrase is 'god' and that the only part that is relevant is the "loving and caring" part.

"That is, a non-narcissistic their god / their goddess would say, "I care not an iota about being worshipped and praised and glorified by you or anyone else. How arrogant and insecure and needy would I have to be to want that? Forget the man-made, dreamed up noun 'god' and focus on the 'god as a verb' understanding and then go forth and let loving and caring be verbs - not adjectives - and let them generate the act of love and the act of caring and let those actions manifest through you." 

Yeshu'a (Jesus) and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were spot on:

"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within"

--Yeshu'a (Jesus)

and 

"Heaven and earth shall fade away."

--Yeshu'a (Jesus)

and 

"Heaven and hell are not geographic places

but are states of mind, nothing more than

concepts dreamed up by men."

--Pope John Paul II 

"There is no hell."

--Pope Francis, the current pope

in an interview with journalist Eugenio Scalfari,

a writer used by the Pope to issue off the record

teachings which become a part of the Papal Magisterium.

[That said, would that the popes who have shown the courage to reject a core concept of their dogma - namely, "hell" - would find the additional courage required to question the very existence of their institution in light of the centuries-long cover-up of their history of raping children and in light of the mental and emotional and psychological scarring of billions of their members past and present.

And that need for courage also applies as questions need to be asked about why so many other sky cults are still being supported and allowed to continue to exist as well. When certain types of programming and conditioning have been shown to blind the masses, they should end. Will they? Not likely. Why?

Because what the masses think and say and do is most influenced by the international crime families which hold sway over the masses as criminals conduct their planet-wide operations. What are the major international crime families and which are the most influential and have the largest memberships?

The Mafia / La Cosa Nostra; the Catholic Church (with it 1.2 billion followers) whose Vatican Bank worked for decades with the Mafia while laundering mob earnings (for a 15% all-profit charge by the Bank); Protestant and Evangelical Churches (with over 1.2 billion followers) like the one I was raised in where the youth director molested and sexually assaulted young girls; big business which has long created environments in which people have been abused; powerful political bodies like the U.S. Congress, etc., etc., etc.)

With all of those crime families, neither the followers nor the leadership ever voluntarily step down or shut down their criminal activities. Be they gangs, organized crime families, religions, big business, politicians, etc., they all want control and they all want power and they all want money, and nothing internal will interfere with the driving forces at play.

The masses must demand that all those in charge must step down and their groups and institutions must shut down, and there's the real problem because the continuation of their crimes are enabled not as much by the people running such crime organizations as they are enabled by the masses of people who - wanting some perceived "payoff" - remain involved with them and give them money and support them and aid and abet the continued existence of those criminal enterprises and thus facilitate the ability of church criminals and political criminals and other types of criminals to continue to commit their crimes.] 

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