the question of Athens vs Jerusalem, of reason vs revelation…
reason vs the voice of authority, which is revelation of the truth…
we still fight this battle when we listen and obey the voice of
authority…for the greatest crime is the crime of disobedience,
of insubordination to the voice of authority…
that was the crime for which Adam and Eve were convicted upon,
the crime that lead to original sin…
it wasn’t gaining of knowledge that was the crime, but of disobeying
god that was the crime of sin……
and the biggest question in many people’s life is the question of salvation…
how am I to be saved? and the answer according to revelation/authority
is to obey… to obey god, to obey authority, to obey the state, if the
question is how to be saved, the answer lies in obedience………
reason, the quest to understand by the light of one’s own reason oftentimes
requires, no, demands, that we listen to the answers provided by reason…
and so we engage in disobedience… the greatest crime of a human being…
salvation is tied up into obedience or disobedience… so the question of
salvation, of how am I to be saved, for me, is irrelevant, unimportant,
unnecessary…… I don’t need to be saved, I don’t need salvation…
to be saved for what? to have salvation requires something to be saved from,
what am I being saved from? Original sin? I don’t believe in original sin…
to be saved from being a human being, well to be honest, I am not a human being,
at least not yet, I am still in the animal/human stage of development…
I strive to become human, not to be saved…
perhaps that is why the religious means so little to me…
the original and most important question of religion revolves
around salvation and being saved……
I am not a fallen man… I am a being attempting to become something
more then what I am…I am attempting to discover my possibilities
and then fulfill those possibilities…what does salvation or being saved
have to do with finding or becoming my full possibilities?
I seek knowledge but more importantly then knowledge, I need
to know what to do with that knowledge…… the fact is, some knowledge
is just not that important… the fact that the earth is 93 million miles from
the Sun is interesting but frankly, that knowledge doesn’t move the needle
in any way, shape or form… the knowledge that I am mortal… now that
moves the needle… death is coming for me… but I then release that
death comes for life… and in fact, to say, death comes for, is rather a lie…
for death is inherent within life… to be alive, to be born is to die at some point…
the one lies within the other…I can no more escape death then I can change my
appearance to a shark or to a dog……… death is simply an unavoidable fact……
and no amount of talk is going to change that…no amount of knowledge is going
to change that and no amount of faith is going to change that fact of my
coming death…to live is to die…simple statement of fact……
that is another reason why religion doesn’t appeal to me… why should I attempt
to have a “second” life or be “immortal”…I have never understood the need to escape
death even by the metaphysical means of religion…
to even wonder about what lies after death takes me aware from my primary
concern… the here and now leading to what I might become…
going from animal/human to becoming fully human…
to be honest, I resent any attempt to take me away from what I see as
my first and primary mission of being, which is to work my way to the
next stage of existence… to find and fulfill my possibilities and to
become fully human…….
anything that takes me away from that, I resent … especially
work or the family when it is time to do the mundane tasks of day to day living…
taking out the garbage or to make the bed or to do laundry (which is what
I am doing right now) I hate that shit because it takes me away from
working out my questions of existence…
but I cannot commit the crime of disobedience… to disobey is to
be without a wife………so this question of the greatest crime of
being human which is disobedience… becomes front and center
in our existence… obedience to the state, obedience to the family,
obedience to the voice of authority… regardless if the authority
is god, the state, a policeman, a judge or society………
and the question becomes… am I willing to pay the price of
disobedience to those of authority and am I willing to be punished
for the crime of disobedience? I was, once a long time ago…
now at my advance age, not so much…it isn’t fear as much
as comfort… am I willing to sacrifice my bodily comfort, for
which I admit I have a fondness for, for the greater question
of obedience… is obeying the state to preserve my own personal
comfort, part of being saved? does my salvation require me to
hold to my principles even if it means quite a personal sacrifice?
or is my being saved, my salvation require obedience to the voice
of authority?
I don’t know…perhaps if I hold to my original stated goal of
becoming… of traveling from animal, to animal/human, to becoming
fully human should take precedence over my own personal salvation or
perhaps, perhaps my being saved, my salvation comes from my
journey of becoming, from animal to animal/human to being human…
perhaps that is how we are to be saved? perhaps our salvation comes
from finding our possibilities and then fulfilling those possibilities…
quite often the journey requires us to simply start walking in some
direction and hope that direction can lead us to some answers…
perhaps… perhaps…
Kropotkin