Life’s Comfort Zones

It is inherent in the human species to question the meaning of life, where did we come from, and where are we going after the certainty of death finally overtakes us.

All people want to try to settle these questions for themselves so that they can find some rationale or philosophy that gives comfort and lets us quell our fears. It is called a “comfort zone”. We all desire and want to stay in our comfort zone and so it is a very human trait to stop questioning as soon as we find a system of belief that allows us to stay there. It is also very evident that, even though further evidence is being presented to show that the belief system that gives us the comfort that we crave is totally flawed, people will close them out. We hear statements such as “I have all the evidence that I need” and “All the truths of the universe are very clear to me” and “god has revealed everything to me and I am not one to question god”.

Even though much more eloquent, beautiful, and logical explanations for the origin of life, the universe and the world that we live on are known, people will still cling to one form or another of a supernatural power that made everything happen, including the very life of the individual. The human tenancy is to reject such as theories and cling to the comfort zone of unfounded and illogical explanations formulated before we, the human race, knew anything at all about ourselves or our world.

Now we know what causes sickness, and it is not because of our wicked thoughts or actions. We know what causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and it is not because we did not make enough blood sacrifices. We know that there is no greater plan for the world and the people in it than the one that we can make for ourselves.

The real tragedy of belief in a supernatural power is that it makes people yearn for it all to be over – for this “vale of tears” to be destroyed and the evil people get their punishment and the “good and faithful servants” to get their reward. To attempt to retard research and learning, to stop inquiry into the causes of sickness and to prevent the further exploration of our own world and beyond, is the innate desire to be a slave – the want to be subject to a higher power and surrender ourselves to the will of a dictator, benevolent of otherwise. This is intolerable for any reasonable thinking person. We are all so very fortunate that we live in this age of antibiotics, vaccination, wonder drugs, communications, and above all freedom. These have come about not as a result of any benevolent supernatural overseer but in spite of the fact that many people hold beliefs in such a notion and so close their mind to what is really possible for our species.

We can feel some excitement that so many people today are starting to wake up – to step out of their comfort zones and start to ask questions and refuse to settle for the same old vague and illogical answers. It is this medium, electronic communications and dissemination of information, that is driving this movement. Perhaps sooner rather than later, the world envisioned by Carl Sagan and other similarly minded people will come about. The sooner the better for the people in the world and for the survival of the very earth that we all have to live on.

My Religious Journey

Religious inquiry

From the time that I was a teenager, and starting to look around at the views of the differing churches and beliefs, I really did start to wonder about all the contrary views that are held. Why was it that god let so many people have such very different interpretations of what it was that god was supposed to have said. God was giving the people of the world his divine guidance, right? So, why was it that his guidance was always so grey and difficult to understand?

Having been raised in a strictly protestant (the one that was build on the family values of Henry VIII) home and that I was taught to sing “Jesus loves me this I know because the bible tells me so” as soon as I was old enough to start to put sentences together on my own. The bible, being held universally as the “good book”, the source of all truth, god’s word given to us through divinely inspired men, could not be doubted and certainly no blasphemous thoughts could be tolerated when it came to discussions about the bible. It is so revered that you even put your hand on it when giving your oath to tell the truth in the courts of our highest legal processes! No doubt at all that the indoctrination of the truth and validity of the bible was complete and unassailable.

With that kind of background, the existence of god went without any question whatsoever. The question that I was trying to answer for myself was “Where is he?” and “What exactly does he want from me?” I was actually afraid to even entertain any thoughts that god might not exist because I was assured that this would only be allowing satan to influence my thinking and lead me away. I now see how utterly illogical that thinking was. How could I be at all concerned that satan exists if I was thinking that god does not exist? As confused as all this was for me in those years, I am sure that I was no different to everyone else that I ever knew in those times although no one ever talked about it all that much.

The only source of information at the time was from those who were actively out there preaching all this religion stuff. The result is that you only get the same arguments for god but generally dished up with a different flavor. I was happy to discuss all kinds of subjects with missionaries who happened to call, talked with believers in various faiths, and did a lot of observation, thinking that if I get the full overview of this jesus story it will become very clear to me and I would then know that it was all true.

Along the way, of course, I encountered some quite bizarre claims about god, jesus, miracles, anecdotal evidence for god, and listened to many people very sincerely telling me that god is there (er, somewhere, er, well, actually everywhere), that he loves me, is waiting to help me, and he wants to help me so much. But first, I have to open my heart and mind to the teachings, accept everything totally, and all would be well. All the “teachers” were careful to point out that I should be reject any reading or listening to “non faith promoting” material. Now, I thought first that this caution was being given to make sure that I was protected from evil and the terrible consequences that could come of it for my life. I have since learned that this was just to ensure that I stayed in the fold and did not start to listen to stories (you know, facts) that could lead to questions, and the questions would be a little too difficult for the teachers to have to deal with.

When I did have doubts, and I had many, I tended to look at all the people around me who were so devout in their belief in god. I considered myself a person who was not nearly as bright, educated and well read in religion as they seemed to be. This led me to rationalize that if it were good enough for that person, whom I respected and who seemed to be leading a happy and successful life, then I should put away my doubts and believe just as they do. This was quite easy to do, and by professing faith as they did always led to praise and acceptance, something that we all crave especially when we are young. All the guilt trips going on in my mind were kept sufficiently buried as to only affect me personally, but not my great performance when in company.

Joining and falling away from churches

I even joined some churches, but soon fell away. In particular, I was a practicing mormon for about four years. However, that ended abruptly when I found that the bishop, the same man who had asked me some very personal and embarrassing questions about my personal worthiness to be in god’s church, was having a quiet little affair with a young and very attractive woman in the church whose husband was had become an invalid through an accident. He was one of the guys that I thought to be so devout and righteous. This led me to start to look a little more critically at those whose opinions I had valued so highly for so long. My naïve view of people and acceptance at face value had finally been given a wake-up call. End result of these excursions into the world of church going christianity was that I simply stopped believing that god was available to me through an organized social structure like a church or group of other believers. It seemed now that god had to be only available to me as a personal god and that I would seek him out in my own way.

Actually, the process was much slower than the narrative here would suggest. I actually just carried on with my life and did not consider the matter of religious belief too seriously – about the same as the greater number of people who call themselves christians today. If asked on any documentation or in conversation, I would respond that I was Christian protestant. Finally, I stepped back and asked myself why I perpetuated this lie. I was no more a christian protestant then I was a muslim or member of any other specified belief system or church. I finally had the courage to state that I was simply of “no religion”. I felt much more comfortable with this statement than leading people to think that I actually had belief in god, even though the lingering indoctrination of my childhood still haunted me in my quieter moments of reflection.

The new search

In the last few years, I have thought it best to pursue the matter and put to rest once and for all if this god stuff has any merit and just how true it all really is. One of the main catalysts for this action was that now the information is so easy to access. I can comfortably sit and get a huge amount of information from all sides and all persuasions.

In this new search for god I have tried to be very open minded and put aside the previously held views, notions, explanations, interpretations and teachings, none of which I could actually give much credence due to their performance so far. It was time to take a quiet, rational, subjective look at why I should believe and accept the notion of a god as actually being true. I set out with the guideline that that the truth is the truth and that it does not vary and cannot be injured by any line of enquiry. Truth just stands like a rock so if religious texts are actually true as they purport to be, and god actually exists, then those simple facts would stand and be unassailable.

The picture took quite a while. There is just so much information available and you have to go through so much to get a balanced viewpoint. I had long ago given up on listening to people’s interpretation of the scriptures. Surely, if a scripture is divinely given for the benefit of mankind, especially for me, then surely I must be able to figure it out for myself. After all, it is my interpretation that is important, and not the spin given to them by those with a vested interest in the outcome.

My inquiries now, at this stage in my life, have followed the process of identifying and evaluating the different aspects of  all the beliefs, examining them individually, and accepting or discarding them as they were demonstrably and definitively proven to be true or false. Of course, once a “truth” is shown to be false by this process, it has a knock on effect. Once one belief is shown up to be false, it invariably takes down another, then another, and pretty soon the whole house of cards is coming down.

Bathwater

What finally ends up happening is that you have thrown out all the bath water and discovered that there is no baby! It was ALL just bathwater, and very murky bathwater at that. I can very clearly see why faith is so important. All the churches have to offer is the bathwater and the promise that the baby is there but that is the bit that you have to take on faith.

Read the good book

At this time, I thought it best to actually read the bible. Yes, just like most people who say that they believe the bible to be the absolute and definitive word of god, I had not actually read it. When I was young I was not really a reader of books, not seriously anyway, and certainly any attempt to read the bible did not last long since I found it very tedious. So I had left the task to all the aforementioned “teachers” and let them show me the few passages that clearly proved the various points, and accepted their interpretations. After all, these were the people who were actually paid to do this stuff, right? They had the job of being god’s messenger to us all, to study and preach the gospel and let us know what it said and what god needed us to do to be a “good and faithful servant”.

They say that the bible is the product of revelation. Well, by reading it, it was certainly a revelation to me! When reading about the behavior of god as he is depicted in this absolutely inerrant book, I was amazed at how he could possibly be held in such high regard by so many people. The answer can only be that they have never actually read the bible. I was quite shocked to read about why Cain killed his brother. I was shocked to read about the life and times of Abraham. This is the guy who started the whole thing, the first of god’s men and considered the father of the three main monotheisms which all profess to worship the god of Abraham.  Turns out he was a liar, cheat, adulterer and coward who prostituted his wife to the pharaoh of Egypt and that was how he acquired his enormous wealth. Then there was Lot, you know, the guy with the pillar of salt wife. God liked him, but what a guy! You gotta read that one – he is the one who, at the end of a very long violent day, his daughters raped him so that his progeny could be sure to carry on. Job, the guy god used to win a bet, sure proved a few points. Another great story when you read it all, especially the bit about leviathan.

Read it yourself – you can know what is true

At the end of this, the main message and purpose I have in writing this and publishing it is to let any believer or inquirer or searcher out there know that it is all in the bible. Yes, cut to the bottom line right away. Stop listening to all the preachers and the well intentioned friends who all have their own personal story of salvation, and read the bible. Just be sure that you read it as a standalone text – no embellishments, interpretations, excuses for the nasty bits, embarrassingly stupid explanations, and without the preconceived notions that you may also have been indoctrinated with as a child. Just read it!

What would I do…..

…if anyone could show me any example in the history of the world of a single psychic who has been able to prove under reasonable experimental conditions that they are able to read minds…

…and if anyone could show me any example in the history of the world of a single astrologer who has been able prove under reasonable experimental conditions that they can predict future human events by interpreting celestial signs…

…and if anyone could show me any example in the history of the world of a single homeopathic practitioner who has been able to demonstrate under reasonable experimental conditions that solutions made up of infinitely tiny particles of good stuff dissolved repeatedly into relatively huge quantities of water have a consistently higher medicinal value than a similarly administered placebo…

…and if anyone could show me any example in the history of the world of a single instance of a faith healer actually providing healing in a controlled environment where the processes and results can be verified…

…and if anyone could show me any example in the history of the world of a single spiritual person who has been able to show either empirically or logically the existence of a higher power with any consciousness or interest in the human race or ability to punish or reward humans for their moral choices or that there is any reason other than fear to believe in any version of an afterlife …

…hmmmmm.

In the history of the world so far, there has never been anyone who is able to demonstrate under any reasonably verifiable conditions that any of these things exist anywhere in the world except in the mind of those people who choose to believe that they exist and so…

…I will defer the mental effort of trying to figure out what I would do, refuse to waste my precious time on nonsense, claptrap, rubbish, mumbo jumbo, pseudo science, and all other forms of bullshit, and get on with those things that are in the real world and that I can actually control and influence and that contribute in a real, positive and meaningful way to my life, my happiness, the happiness and well being of those near and dear to me, and encourage as many other people as possible to do the same.

Judgment Day went by, but..

Following on from http://wheelingcircles.wordpress.com/2011/05/13/judgment-day-may-21-2011/ we are now at May 26th, alive and well, and thinking that maybe all the raturists will all now settle down and get on with living in the real world.

However, our doomsayer, brother Mike (as he likes to call himself) has published his new view of the world following the May 21 debacle that he deliberately immersed himself into fully. Here is the opening paragraph, which at first makes you think that he has come to his senses at least a little.

First of all, let me apologize to everyone for having said that there would be a huge earthquake and a literal rapture or catching up into heaven of God’s people on May 21. Obviously, this did not happen. I have no pride in this issue. I was sincerely wrong at least in this respect, and for this, I beg your forgiveness in like manner to how the Lord Jesus Christ has already forgiven me.

So, he knows the mind of jesus and that he is forgiven. Too bad he did not know the mind of jesus when telling everyone that he was all fired up (pardon the pun) to get on down here and set about torching the whole world and (nearly) everyone in it. I guess now feeling that jesus has let him off the hook, he doesn’t need to take any further time feeling guilty about all the poor gullible folks that he has caused to do things that are harmful to their lives because he filled them up with guilt and fear. But that is standard procedure for these people who claim to know god so well they can predict what he is about to do, and never feel any concern for other people, especially those who don’t believe as they do.

Mike goes on, predictably, with some quotations of scripture, carefully selected to ram home his point about saying that jesus loves him, has forgiven him, and everything is now all patched up between them. He then wanders off even further into this bible inspired fantasy world – if you can believe that possible after then nonsense prior to May 21.

The Rapture, NO!  But Judgment Day, YES! – screams the next headline.

I must still believe based on all the biblical proofs and evidences that, although May 21 was not the time of the earthquake or rapture, May 21 was the beginning of Judgment Day and the end of any possibility for salvation as we have always taught. I must also still believe that the world is set to be destroyed on October 21 as we have always taught.

Dear brother Mike then goes on to make some more of his own interpretations of bible passages that also conclusively show that he is, once again, infallibly right! He also puts a lot of emphasis on the children’s story of Noah from the bible, and taking every word of this as if it were journalists accounts of real events instead of fables written by primitive people who had no real understanding of anything. Now, of course, we know conclusively that these things did not happen. Indeed, they could not happen, and only someone who is totally given themselves over to these fantasy stories, calling it faith and thinking that makes it virtuous and so all the better, could possibly think otherwise.

God’s people were never meant to be raptured on May 21, and this misunderstanding of believing they were to be raptured has certainly not invalidated the biblical calendar in any way, which still reveals that the time for salvation is now gone forever since May 21 – exactly what we had declared – and the end of the world will still be October 21, 2011 when this world will be completely destroyed by fire – exactly what we had and are still declaring.

So, there is it. The vengeful god of death is still there and just waiting to pounce and kill billions of people because they have not been willing to be reduced to the status of abject slave, close their minds, and commit their lives to the eternal praise of the dictator in the sky. Old testament stuff with a new testament revelations twist to really make you cringe in fear.

This stuff would be quite comical if it weren’t so terribly sad. Such delusions in society are becoming very dangerous, and certainly are harmful to those who harbor them. With the zealous spreading of this kind of nonsense, there will always be gullible people who will be made to suffer fear and emotional distress. So sad when there is so much about the world and humanity that we should be spending our time celebrating. Life is to be lived, and not to be wished away and only spent in fear and hoping for some mercy and salvation from a celestial power that does not exist, and never has existed.

It does seem that another 5 months of this nonsense are now going to be infilcted on the rest of us. I will be so looking forward to October 22 this year when we can be sure that there will be whole new interpretation to cover all the absurdities preached above and once again, put judgment day on the calendar for a not-too-distant date in the future.

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UPDATE May 29

I sent dear Mike an email at the time that I posted this, but still have not received a response. Oh well, I guess we will probably have to wait until October 22. Content of my mail is below:

Subject: My response to your response to May 21!
Dear Mike,
To read your new take on things is certainly a surprise. Your assumptions are nothing short of total delusion. You are mentally ill and should seek help.
What will you do after you continue in this way for another 5 months and we get to October 22 and there is still the same result? Perhaps when jesus fails to show up again to take you off to heaven, you will do what you have to do to go off and be with him, as so many others have done before you when this mental virus of religion is let run out to its full and monsterous conclusion.
I feel sorry for your children. It must be terrible for them living with you. Your world is  world of death, and you worship a god of death. The world has so much joy and human achievement, and all you yearn for is for it all to be over, ended, and destroyed with the wholesale death of everyone except, of course, for yourself and people who have the same mental virus you have.
I hope that you can seek help and maybe you can actually find some worthwhile purpose for your life other than this insanity.
Regards,
Geoff.

To the judgment day prophets

With all the people out there who are promoting the second coming of jesus on May 21^st, that is only on Saturday next week (as I write this), I decided to ask some of the promoters of this story what they are going to do should it not actually happen. Here are three of the enquiries that I made and the results.

I sent an email to the these email addresses:

familyradio@familyradio.org

webservant@familyradio.org 

info@familyradio.org

with the following message:

Please make sure that you spend as much money on your apology as you do with the promotion of this May 21 rubbish!

The world will be watching…… so if Jesus doesn’t come and get you, as you so fervently hope that he will….. you better be sure that the rest of us will!

The destruction of the lives of gullible people will be entirely your responsibility, and I hope that we will be seeing lots of your christian charity at work to help them when all this rubbish is shown up to be just that…… total rubbish.

They have not responded.

Family Radio is, of course, the outfit set up by harold camping, the originator of all this lunacy about may 21, 2011 being the day of the second coming of their god to earth to clean up things and take them, the faithful followers, off to heaven and happily barbecue the rest of us.

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I also sent a message to:

info@raptureletters.com

This is the nutty website made for the even nuttier people who want to send an email message to their “unsaved” friends and relatives after they have been taken up into the clouds to be with jesus at the rapture.

My email text:

I guess you must be thrilled that the rapture is about to happen on May 21.

Perhaps your website had got an extra upsurge in traffic? That feels very satisfying?

Well, I do hope that some day, you will be able to finally use your own intelligence, and stop blindly believing the total rubbish that you obviously so fervently believe right now.

If what you preach were true, then you (I presume that you think that you will be among the “saved”), and all the other “christians”, who profess to follow the commandment to love their neighbor as themselves, will happily watch down from heaven while their neighbors fry in hell and perpetual torment.

Don’t you see the obvious contradiction? Christians so look forward to the day when they can feel so smug about being right while they watch the unbelievers get their just reward of eternal hell fire.

Try to step back for a few minutes, and see how totally absurd this whole rapture thing is, please.

Geoff

I have not received a response. Guess they think that I am better to be burned up while they (the righteous) get to watch from their armchairs in the clouds and receiving their “Well done thou good and faithful servant” message from jesus. And they can all feel so smug and wag their tails like a trained dog as it gobbles down a meaty-bite treat for obeying the command to roll over.

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But I have saved the best for last…..

Everyone’s friend, and sincere do gooders at Ebiblefellowship made the wonderful offer of sending out a free bible to anyone who wanted to apply for one. This offered on their site http://www.ebiblefellowship.com/free_bible/. This site is impressive, translated into many languages, and right now, it is all about judgment day on May 21, as I write this, 7 days remaining. (I better get this post up really fast). But as you can see, it now says that they cannot send out bibles because the shipping time would mean that you would not get it in time. This has been up for more than a week already (more than two weeks from judgment day), and I wondered about that since it would not take that long for me to receive the shipment and maybe being the recipient of their wonderful christian gesture and jesus inspired gift of a free bible might well have saved me.

But, if you go here – http://www.ebiblefellowship.com/donate/ there still seems to be time for them to receive your donation. PayPal and Credit cards are accepted, and you can even send them a check! They have not put a notice on there saying to keep your money as we would not have time to receive it, much less spend the money. I guess that they have a super fast clearance time on checks but a super slow delivery system for the free bibles?

My email text to them to express my disappointment:

I really wanted a bible, and, first, find it hard to get one where I live and work, and my allowance does not leave me any spare money. This is not a request for a free bible, as I know that you have said that it would not be honored, but I never expected that it would be anyway from you under any circumstances.

I had hoped that you would be able to send me one, just to show that you are not like all the other slick bible salesmen, even though the time is so short between now and May 21, the end of the world as we know it at the hand of god.

Too bad that you now say that you won’t send me one, but I find it very interesting that you are still accepting donations from this site. How come you cannot send a bible but you still want the money?

Sorry, but this sounds like just another money grabbing cult. I hope that is not too strong?

I do look forward to reading your site on the days after May 21 when nothing happens!

They did indeed respond with the following:

It wont get there in enough time. It’s as plain and simple as that.

You may feel this is all the proof you need, to decide not to trust in May 21, 2011 as Judgment Day. However, the Bible guarantees it, so no matter what your opinion of us is, in relation to not being able to receive a Bible, it has no effect on God’s truth. Judgment Day WILL come. In less than two weeks.

May God bless you,

The EBF Response Team

So, god bless you, but too bad for you, we are not even going to try to get a bible to you, but do keep those donations coming in.

And, they won’t commit on what they would do if/when jesus failed to turn up next saturday. I guess when they say that the bible guarantees it, they really do believe this nonsense. Stood up again by jesus just does not seem to enter their thinking.

I did send another mail with the following, to which, predictably, they have not responsed.

Hmmm, well, deliveries take about 5 business days, and maybe receiving a bible and reading it for myself just might have been enough to have saved me. Shame that you declined to honor the promise and blame the imminent return of jesus.

I wonder what he will say to you about your excuse if/when you are chatting with him on saturday week?

I am still waiting on their response. Again, looks like the christians must think that I am not worth the time, and that it will be much more fun to sit in their armchairs in the clouds with jesus and watch me get burned up. Love thy neighbor and love thy enemy, but screw him if he is not a beliver coz we don’t have time. We are so excited that jesus is about to come and take us off to heaven, and leave the shmucks like you behind – And we are glad that you are going to be left behind because you would only spoil the heaven party anyway.

Again, I am amazed at the people who live in the 21st century who prefer to align their thinking with the primitive tribes of the middle east who lived in a flat earth society and were ignorant about just about everything. However, I guess that when these believers get sick, they will still go to their modern day doctor and then take their prescription drugs invented by modern science to make themselves well again. And then, of course, give the credit for the cure to almighty god.

Final comment – Thaks for the offer, but you can keep your salvation. I am not interested in going off to eternally praise and worship the great leader who commands that you simultaneously love and fear him. A celestial North Korea that I don’t want to spend eternity in. As opposed to your vengful dictator, the alternative sounds like a better deal anyway – except that ALL of it is just fantasyland.

Judgment Day May 21, 2011

The person who is responsible for www.may-212011.com is one of the many who are actively preaching about the rapture (as Christians have come to call it) and judgment day coming on May 21 (next week as I write this).

I have been intrigued by the claim that “the bible guarantees it” and then goes on to give a hodgepodge of verses selected from all over the place from the bible to back up this claim. I am always amazed, and perhaps a little bemused, at how such people can become so passionate about their cause, even in spite of all the evidence against everything that they believe to be true. The garden of eden, talking snake, original sin, universal flood with a man hundreds of years old saving ALL the species of animals on the planet, woman turned to a pillar of salt, build a tower but they all only got separated by all the languages of the world, on and on… the list is endless – and all totally baseless in fact. But these people read the bible like they are reading journalist accounts of actual events. Quite incredible to me that an intelligent mind in the 21st century can actually believe in the same way that uneducated peoples of the primitive middle east did thousands of years ago.

Being just a little skeptical, I wrote an email to this website as follows:

I so look forward to your website postings on May 22 and in the days and months following, when all this rubbish will be shown up for what it is – rubbish. I do wonder if you will be publishing apologies for leading so many gullible people astray, and causing them loss and shame because they believed people like you.

Perhaps after this debacle, you will start to think again…. or maybe not. I am sure that this is a great money spinner for you promoting this kind of nonsense on people who live in fear due to your teachings and the threats of what will happen to them if they don’t believe.

Well, maybe I was a little more than skeptical. Okay, I can take that criticism.

I was surprised to receive a reply:

GEOFF, I first address your message and then give some updates!

We have no option but to declare what the Word of God teaches. What you think about it is not important. As the scriptue says,

Ac 5:29  … We ought to obey God rather than men.

If you will carefully study all things on the Lord’s site, hopefully you will see that all this comes from the Word of God. I encourage you to listen to “The only Way of Escape” and “How cAn I Be Saved?” as well as many other biblical teachings on salvation here.

In my prayers!

Brother Mike

http://May-212011.com

So, brother Mike is going to keep me in his prayers while I go and listen to his on line audio files and here is how the first one gets warmed up:

“Hello and welcome! This is brother Mike, of may-212011.com and in this section I will ask “how can I be saved?”. This is without a doubt the most important question for each and every one of us…” blah blah “path to glory or path to eternal destruction” and then.. “Salvation has not been taught correctly by any of the churches or by anyone else.” Then on to “Time has become far too short” … “Make sure that you know the only way to escape the just anger and wrath of almighty god which is soon to be unleashed on the entire human race beginning on May 21, 2011 as taught by my website at May-212011.com.”  

All this in the first 88 seconds of this 35+ minute audio file. Fantastic stuff that, for this guy, even all the churches are wrong, and only by going to his website can you learn what is the right way and save yourself from the fire.

I did not bother to listen any further, and I am sure that you can see why. No one would want to listen to this tirade of self righteous, bible bashing nonsense! The other links were to more audio files of Brother Mike thrilling himself with the sound of his own voice as he warns us of the same stuff and in the same tone.

Now, I am an obliging sort of guy, and this person who wants to identify himself as my brother so much that he only refers to himself as “Brother Mike”, had taken the time to send me a personal reply deserved to at least receive a reply from me in return. I started in the same way that he did to me:

MIKE, Thanks for taking the time to send me a reply.

I have read the bible, and thanks for offering to explain it to me, but I think that I get it already, and don’t need the little snippets that people are always offering me to explain things. The entire context is the important thing.

I would love to “study all things on the Lord’s site”, however, I cannot find any domain that the Lord has registered – only the sites made by people. If you can direct me to his site, I will be most happy to log on and study it.

As said, I will be most interested to read the postings that you and all the rest of the doomsday preachers have to say then. I do hope that there will be apologies and you will be making amends to the gullible people whose lives you have damaged by filling their heads with all this nonsense..

Geoff.

Now, my newly found brother did respond again to me, but this time did not start with any kind of salutation, nor even put my name at the top of the email. He simply started off, predictably, with another carefully selected bible quotation, then gives me the bad news:

Lu 10:16  He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me.

If you will not hear God’s people, you will not hear God either. As much as you would like to separate God’s people from Him, it is not possible. Whenever one of God’s people register a site, the Lord has done so with them. Therefore, It is not my site, but the Lord’s site, and you would be wise to listen.

You have offered nothing from God’s Word to refute what we are saying. Quite frankly, I would not want to be in your shoes, for as a false prophet, you will perish.

Brother Mike

http://May-212011.com

Now, as you can guess, I am really starting to warm up to this guy – after all, he is my brother. And, I felt truly inspired by his message, and sent him the following reply:

Thanks again, Brother, for your response to me. I do feel that I have to write to you again just to clear up a few points that you have now raised with me.

First, you have stated that I want to separate gods people from him, but this is not true. If people want god, and think that they can find him, then I totally respect their right to carry on as they choose. As far as I am concerned, they can cognate in their churches, synagogues, mosques, whatever, and carry on whatever rituals they choose. They can pray, recite incantations, verbalize their testimonies of faith, and conduct whatever other practices they choose as much as they choose, and I have absolutely no objection to that whatsoever.

However, what I cannot agree with is that these same people continue to send out missionaries, flood the internet, news media, billboards, leaflet handouts, etc. etc. in an effort to make otherwise ordinary, rational, and genuine people believe as they do… and they don’t seem to be happy until they can indeed “convert” or “save” (read – make them think as we do or they are wrong) as many other people as possible.

And then, when such other people respond in a way that is anything other than total agreement with their views, they start to become belligerent, and throwing around the crazy notions of hell fire, damnation, false prophet, and “you will perish” kind of statements.

“You have offered nothing from gods word”…. That is quite an absurd statement, although I can understand why you made it. Since you are totally committed to believing that the ramblings of some eccentric and schizophrenic writers from the primitive middle east living in a flat earth society, you cannot accept any evidence from any other source.

I quite simply believe that people should do as they choose and that there are only two taboos…. do no harm for other people, and, live in such a way that maybe you can leave the world some small legacy that makes it a better place than it was when you arrived.

You have also avoided my question entirely. Simply tell me that when, on May 22, and the world is not changed in any way, will you then concede that you are wrong, and will you do anything to apologize to the people that you have harmed by your “prophesies” and statements of “truth” that if they don’t start to believe as you do, they will die horribly at the hand of your dictator and vengeful god?

Just one more point on the “false prophet” accusation made in your response… I never claimed to be a prophet – that is, someone who claims to have been contacted by, or in communication, with a supernatural power – in your case, the christian god. But, by your same statement, will it make me a true prophet on May 22 when nothing happens? And will it let you see that it certainly is not I who turns out to be a false prophet?

I am not your enemy, so don’t bother to waste any time praying for me, or loving me, as you have been “commanded” to do. I would just ask that you also do no harm to other people and start working toward doing something that will leave the world a better place for your having been in it – not just focusing on doomsday and how you are going to do what you think you have to do to dodge a bullet for yourself.

Cheers, brother.

Geoff.

I am still waiting for a response, and I do hope that he can get that to me quickly. Given that god is about to start on the genocide and willful destruction of the entire world by arson in only a matter of days. Oh, yeah, that is right, he said that he would never do it again with water, and put up a rainbow to prove it. So, after this one, I wonder what next? Ah, we have done the burning bush thing, and a flaming cross smacks a bit of KKK in southern USA in the 60′s so not a good one. Um…. Oh well, I am sure that he will figure out something – clearly he is quite creative when in the mood, that just does not seem to happen all that often.

I will update this post as soon as possible and just hope that I can get that before my newly found brother is taken up to the clouds to be with jesus, and I am left just cruising around down here trying to figure out how the fire extinguisher works.

——————————————————-

UPDATE – MAY 19, 2011 – Received an email (spammed out to his mailing list) from my brother Mike.

Subject: My Final Farewell & Final Updates!

Dear Email Subscribers to May-212011.com:
Let me first of all apologize for not being able to answer many of your emails in these last few days,or having not been able to answer them with the detail in which I would have liked over the lastseveral weeks. I am now receiving up to hundreds of emails a day, and I must surrender to the fact that I will not be able to get to most of your emails before May 21. And, beginning Friday, I am completely resigned to spend the last day or so with my family members. PLEASE PRAY FOR MY FAMILY (wife, 5 kids and I) as most do not believe they are saved. I have prayed for you all!
I thank all of you who have helped this ministry in some way, and I look forward to seeing God’s people on Saturday May 21 in heaven. This is all the fulfillment of what we believers have been awaiting for thousands of years – absolutely awesome!
Next, with respect to final updates, I have completed a radio tour of 6 radio stations this morning, which should air tomorrow, and I have already received and put an audio copy of one of these on the site for listening to here (scroll down to bottom of page).  As I receive the other audio copies, which I hope to receive more of them tomorrow, I will put these on site as well as time permits.
Tomorrow, Thursday, May 19th I have 3 more radio interviews to do listed below. Pray, pray, and pray!
In farewell, I beg you out of love to examine yourselves whether you are in the faith before it is too late on May 21. Listen to “The Only Way Of Escape” (or download) and “How Can I Be Saved?” (or download) and many other teachings on salvation here.  The pamphlet entitled “I Hope God Will Save Me” is excellent!

I have no comment on all this stuff, but post it here as it needs to be kept for reference on May 22 and onward so that we can all remember how misled some people can be with their fanatical reading of the bible and interpreting it to say just about anything that they have currently rattling around in their empty heads.

Rainbow

THE RAINBOW

There are few visions that truly take your breath away, but if you are really alive, and really looking, they are all around. This particular vision was one such vision and I doubt that many people have had such a glorious experience as this.

Dining by the Chao Prya River in the Thailand town of Nakon Sawan (250km north of Bangkok) is always a most pleasant experience. We arrived in the later afternoon, and the rain was just starting as we walked into the restaurant. This is an open air restaurant with views across and up and down the river. Upstream on the river to the north we can see the main road bridges and they are particularly impressive at night and really a beautiful sight. To the south, the river winding its way down ultimately to Bangkok. This is actually the birth place of the Chao Prya as it is born from four smaller rivers just to the north of the main city.

As we dined, the stormy rain and wind swirled around and we had to move further inside the restaurant to avoid being wet from the rain being driven in by the blustery wind – a typical Thailand afternoon in the rainy season that seems to have started a bit early this year.

Suddenly the rain stopped, and the sun burst through the stormy clouds low in the western sky bathing the whole area with a bright and slightly golden light. My view was restricted by the roof line of the restaurant, but I looked out across the river and saw the most extraordinary sight of just the end of a rainbow just on the opposite bank of the river. Running out to the balcony I then beheld the sight of a rainbow such as I have never seen before.

The rain was still tinkling down a little, and I was getting a bit wet, although I hardly notices. It was a sight to leave you breathless and that is what happened. Without moving for some time, I just stood and stared. I wished I had a camera, and the only thing I had was my mobile phone, so that came out and I started to snap away. The entire rainbow seemed very near, and it was impossible to fit it all into the frame in one shot, so I took a few sequences to capture all of it.

The surrounding sky was the most amazing blue while inside the bow was strangely much brighter and a very golden color. The rainbow itself was almost shimmering, and became a double bow and was equally bright over the whole thing from end to end. I have never seen anything like that before, so perfectly formed and bright.

Then I became aware of the other diners in the restaurant who were looking at me rather curiously. They seemed more amazed at my reaction than they ever were about the rainbow itself even though, I would think none had ever seen such a dazzling display themselves either.

I really did want to ask those watching me and seeming to ignore the rainbow if they really knew what it was out there that we were all witnessing. Depending on your viewpoint, this spectacle is either a clear demonstration of God’s promise never to destroy the world with a universal flood again – or it is purely a matter of physics with a wonderful display of the interaction of sunlight through the heavily moisture laden air causing it to refract into its various wavelengths of light and so colour.

For me, it was a glimpse into the wonders of the universe. Truely an eternal monent.

 

“Someday we’ll find it
The Rainbow Connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me”