THE PROBLEM OF EVIL - 3

RAF Air Marshal Sir Robert Victor Goddard

In 1935, RAF Air Marshal Sir Robert Victor Goddard believed he experienced a parallel universe.

Goddard was aboard a biplane going to inspect a dilapidated out-of-use airfield near Edinburgh, in Scotland.

Goddard encountered very severe weather on his way to the airfield, but upon approach suddenly exited into calm, clear skies.

Looking down at the airfield, which he expected to be a litter strewn, weed choked mess, he saw a completely new and renovated airstrip that was in use.

AIR MARSHAL GODDARD

According to the Gospels, one evening Jesus and his disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee in a boat.

It became very stormy.

Jesus woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" 

Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.


Thailand. In the right state of mind, some people can avoid pain and injury.

1. "Everything is only part of impermanent psychological processes...

"Letting go is the end of suffering." [11]

Buddhism's View That Evil Is an Illusion - John Piippo

Hinduism and Buddhism (and Christian Science) suggest that by applying mind over matter, suffering can disappear.

2. According to Mary Baker Eddy, there is no pain, only "belief in pain"

EVIL AS ILLUSION

3. The Taoist idea of yin-yang suggests that everything is fine if we avoid the extremes.

Some people find it difficult to believe in the God 

of the Old Testament,

the idea for which came from earlier religions.

A lot of the stories in the Old Testament are borrowed

 from the Sumerians.

"The story of Noah and the flood story, 

the creation of man out of clay,

Cain and Abel,

 the gardens of Eden,

 the tree of knowledge, 

creation of Eve from Adams rib, 

and numerous other myths, 

like the throwing of Moses in the river after he was born, 

are all stories found recorded on Sumerian clay tablets

 dating 5000 years back in time."

Hebrew Bible: Plagiarized Mythology.

Evidence of 'near death' experiences lead some people to believe in God.



Eric Dubay refers to the mystery of
"God, Brahma, Tao,
Universal Mind, the One,
the Void, the Field, Infinite Consciousness,
or whatever you want to call it."

God, Brahma, Tao, Void ...

Is God within us?

Jesus said that the Heaven is within us.

Is God a process rather than a being?

Is God not 'a ruler' who directs the world from above, 

but 'a principle' that controls everything from within?

The Taoists and Buddhists might agree.



How real is the world?

Eric Dubay (God, Brahma, Tao, Void ...) writes:

"In dreams you create entire worlds, environments,

 situations, and even other people.

"You interact and converse, create conflict

 and resolutions, get emotional and involved..."

In the parable about the Garden of Eden, 

Adam and Eve created problems for themselves.

Did God create mosquitoes?

Is there an old man in the sky who created the universe?

Su writes in her blog about "the child in a burn ward
screaming, screaming, screaming."

Su refers to Eastern religions and the value of
'Stepping out of mind.....god willing'.

Nina refers to the cruel 'plantation owners' of this world.

Nina refers to the Taoist view of things in
'a select destiny'.



Dawkins does not believe that the CIA

 & its friends did 9 11?

Is there an old man in the sky?

The Jewish, Christian and Moslem religions think so.

The Jewish, Christian and Moslem religions have their

origins in Zoroastrianism, which began in Iran, 

around the 6th century BC .

(Influence of Zoroastrianism on Judaism and 

Christianity - (CAIS)©)

In Zoroastrianism (Zoroastrianism)a:

There is a God who is the Creator and who is all good.

There is an evil force who will ultimately be destroyed.

There is a saviour who will save the world.

In Zoroastrianism we find the equivalents of baptism,

 communion, guardian angels, heaven, 

worship on Sunday, the celebration of Mithras' birthday

 on December 25th, celibate priests who mediate

between man and God, and the Trinity.

(Influence of Zoroastrianism on Judaism and Christianity - (CAIS)©)

People in countries influenced by Buddhism, 

such as Thailand and Indonesia, often seem happier

 than most.

BUT, what if the Zoroastrians have not got it quite right?

The Buddhists believe in some kind of life after death, 

but they keep a noble silence on the idea of God.

The Taoists refer to some kind of divine force 

called the Tao, but they say that it cannot be described 

in words.

It is difficult to imagine an old man in the sky 

designing this world on his design board.

It is difficult to imagine him designing a world 

in which one creatures survives by eating 

another creature.

So, maybe there was no Bible-style creation.

Maybe things have always existed.

Maybe there is a mysterious something which nourishes us.

Maybe we reap what we sow.

Maybe what we are now is due to what we thought in the past.

Maybe what we will become is what we are thinking now.

...

We quote from: 'a select destiny' (Deep Into Artlife West - blogspot)

"Something we cannot define with science and logic is happening here, a grand design, some not-of-this-world intention we are simply not at the rightful stage of development to comprehend regardless of our effort.

"I believe this makes us a unique product of evolution to remain invincible in the face of pure unadulterated evil where vast and continuing material loss strips us to the lowest category of Earthly life and it has no influence at all...

"We go on in trust, always looking forward, accepting each test as triathlon athletes determined to pass and not just well, but intact, because in spite of the incessant repeats, it makes the good, the pure, the honest, the natural reverent and holy, gifts from somewhere else reminding us the world we desire really does exist and one day we are destined to reach it." 

Science and Religion.

Here are some people's thoughts about life:

1. "It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered or how much attention you have received.

"It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters." 

- Amit Ray

2. "Nature doesn't disdain what lives only for a day. 

"It pours the whole of itself into the each moment. We don't value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. 

"Life's bounty is in its flow, later is too late. 

"Where is the song when it's been sung? The dance when it's been danced?"  

- Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia

3. 'Religion comes in opposites to be attractive to different personalities.'

- Steven Reiss , a professor of psychologist at Ohio State University.

According to Reiss, organised religions address the 16 basic human desires - curiosity, acceptance, family, honour, idealism, independence, order, physical activity, power, romance, saving, social contact, eating, status, tranquility and vengeance.

...
Bart D. Ehrman

4.  The real Jesus reportedly taught that we should tune in to the Holy Spirit, love our enemies, see our own faults before we see the faults of others, heal the sick, feed the hungry and treat our fellow citizens as our brothers.

Most of the rest of the stuff about Jesus is apparently invention.

Tony Bushby writes: "In the fourth century, the Roman Emperor Constantine united all religious factions under one composite deity, and ordered the compilation of new and old writings into a uniform collection that became the New Testament."

"Constantine's intention at Nicaea was to create an entirely new god for his empire... 

"Presbyters were asked to debate and decide who their new god would be... The names of 53 gods were tabled for discussion."

(God's Book of Eskra, Prof. S. L. MacGuire's translation, Salisbury, 1922, chapter xlviii, paragraphs 36, 41).

The Forged Origins of The New Testament.

"The earliest of the manuscripts of the New Testament which are still in existence, do not date back beyond the middle of the fourth century AD."

(Catholic Encyclopedia, op. cit., pp. 656-7).

The World's oldest Bible is the Sinai Bible.

"When the New Testament in the Sinai Bible is compared with a modern-day New Testament, a staggering 14,800 editorial alterations can be identified."

The Forged Origins of The New Testament.

5. Lyndon Nadel writes:

You may have seen this Symbol. It is a Dragon eating his own Tail. It is the ancient symbol for time.

It represents Infinite time, where time begins, ends, and continues all at the same point.

What we live in, is named Infinite time. Meaning that time has already begun, finished and continued down every path.

Every possible scenario that could be carried out in time, has already done so.

Every possible dimension that could exist, has already existed and is currently in existence. All at the same moment.

The time in which we are experiencing at this present moment, has already been concluded, in every possible direction that it could occur.

In one dimension, we all die of a nuclear world war III, in another we all live prosporous lives and man kind reaches out into the stars after conquering human suffering.

It has already happened, and it will happen again.

Lyndon Nadel writes:

We do not have the power to alter or change time; our brains only offer us the opportunity to choose the destiny that we witness. 

We pick and choose every moment, which dimension we head down in our finite lives.

Bare in mind, that you are not altering the universe in anyway; you are not changing what will occur; you are merely chosing between the events you wish to witness in this life.

Because every senario has has a different ending, and every moment leads to a different dimension...

Reincarnation Explained.   Time is NOT linear.

...

6. Anthony Peake takes the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics as a literal truth and merges this idea with the time theory of John William Dunne (1875–1949) which says that the past, present and future all exist simultaneously with the outcome being that people can enter the future in dreams or the past by deja vu.

We encounter 'a pretty teenage girl'.

What we perceive is our brain's best guess at what the girl is like.

Donald Hoffman believes that human perceptions of girls and other things are all illusions.

Donald D. Hoffman is a Professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, with joint appointments in the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, and the School of Computer Science.

...

The scientists who study quantum physics say that an object does not exist until we observe it/

....

"The current understanding - that all probabilities all exist at once, in the same reality, until you measure or observe them - is mind-blowing. And yet the math is there to prove it."

What is Reality?


Norway 1905

"When we produce a thought, that thought can change us and can change the world in a good way or in a bad way.

"If it is right thought, if that thought is produced in line with right thinking, then it will have a healing, nourishing effect on our body and on the world.

"Just by producing right thinking you can change the world. You can make the world a better place to live..."

Dharma Talk: The Buddhist Understanding of Reality



In John's Gospel, Jesus says: "It is the Father who lives in me who carries out his work through me...

"If you live your life in me, and my words live in your hearts, you can ask for whatever you like and it will come true for you."

In Luke's Gospel, Jesus says: "Give and men will give to you - yes, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will they pour into your lap...

"The kingdom of God is inside you."

At its best after 4 minutes.

How to explain the world?

0 = +x -x

Particles are constantly popping in and out of existence, according to the scientists.

The +x -x could be seen as representing all possible things.

According to the scientists, a bottle of Coke exists in all possible locations, until it is observed existing in one particular location.

Atom Is Seen in 2 Places at Once - New York Times 

The observer apparently decides where the bottle of Coke is to be found.

And, just as a bottle of Coke can be in more than one place at once, it can also be in more than one time period at once.

The observer apparently decides the time period in which the bottle of Coke is to be found.

Our understanding of time and space may be out of date, according to the scientists.

"The world has the incomprehensible property of existing in a 'superposition' of possible states and every so often plumps for one or another."

Can Quantum Mechanics Explain Free Will?

Jean Piaget[7] stated that young children have to learn about time and space.

There is a lion somewhere ahead of us.

Perhaps we observe it right in front of us, about to eat us.

Or, perhaps we observe it sitting peacefully, eating manna from heaven.

Particles appear to exist in all states simultaneously according to the experiments in quantum superposition

"Experiments in quantum physics seem to demonstrate the need for an observer to be present to make potentialities become real... 

"Basically, what quantum theory says is that fundamental particles are empty of inherent existence and exist in an undefined state of potentialities. 

"They have no inherent existence from their own side and do not become 'real' until a mind interacts with them and gives them meaning. 

"Whenever and wherever there is no mind there is no meaning and no reality."

Buddhism and Quantum 

'TRUE SELF'

I met a taxi driver called Bob who had once been clinically dead and who had had an out of body experience. 

As he floated above his body he could see the doctor trying to get him back to life. He could hear the doctor's American accent and he could see the doctor's red hair. 

After he had come back to life, the taxi driver discovered that the doctor was indeed American and did indeed have red hair.

It would seem that our 'spirit' can exist without the body.

I met a hotel owner who had once been clinically dead and who had had an out of body experience. 

While 'dead' he met dead relatives who told him that he had a sibling that he did not know about and who had died very young.

After he had come back to life, the hotel owner checked the old records and discovered that he had indeed had a sibling who had died very young.

Professor Robert Lanza believes that Death is an illusion.

He believes that it is our minds that create space and time.

• THE MIND CREATES THE REALITY?

Are we all connected?

Scientists have discovered that pairs of tiny particles can be invisibly connected even when they are some distance apart.

When the scientists carry out an action on one particle, the other particle is instananeously affected, even though it is many miles apart.

A Dutch team has proven that 'spooky action at a distance' is real.

dailymail.

According to Jack Kornfield - 

No Self or True Self? - Identity and Selflessness

Persian mystics say we are 'sparks of the divine'.

Christian mystics say we are filled with God.

Some say - We are one with all things.

Some say - The world is all illusion.

Some say -  consciousness creates life to express all possibilities, to be able to love, to know oneself.



Others point out how consciousness gets lost in its patterns, loses its way, incarnates out of ignorance.

Hindu yogas call the world a lila, or a dance of the divine.

Buddhist texts describe how consciousness itself creates the world like a dream or a mirage. 

Modern accounts of near-death experiences are filled with reports of wonderful ease after leaving the body, of golden light and luminous beings. 

(The Buddhists believe that there is no unchanging “soul” to reincarnate.

(What is reborn is not the person. 

(What is reborn is an “evolving consciousness” or “stream of consciousness”, whose quality has been conditioned by karma.)

REINCARNATION - REBIRTH - Aangirfan

REINCARNATION - Aangirfan / VENGEROV AND REINCARNATION - aangirfan
CHILDREN'S MEMORIES OF PAST LIVES - aangirfan

The Buddha came to the conclusion that we do not exist as separate beings. 

He saw  the human tendency to identify with a limited sense of existence - 

'Consciousness creating identity by entering form -

'Attaching to certain forms, feelings, desires, images, and actions to create a sense of self.

'This belief in an individual small self is an illusion. 

'It causes suffering and removes us from the freedom and mystery of life.' 

WHO CREATED THE SELF?

Buddha described us as a collection of  changing processes:

The processes of the physical body, feelings, perceptions, responses, and the flow of consciousness. 

Our sense of self arises whenever we identify with these changing processes. 

We might identify with the role of being a woman or a man, a parent or a child. 

We might take our family history, our genetics, and our heredity to be who we are. 

Sometimes we identify with our desires: sexual, aesthetic, or spiritual. 

We can choose the archetype of hero, lover, mother, ne’er-do-well, adventurer, clown, or thief as our identity and live a year or a whole lifetime based on that. 

To the extent that we grasp these false identities, we fear their loss.

One master would say, “I am none of that. I am not this body, so I was never born and will never die. I am nothing and I am everything. 

"Your identities make all your problems. Discover what is beyond them, the delight of the timeless, the deathless.”

DIFFERENT KINDS OF SELF

Christian texts speak of losing the self in God. 

Taoists and Hindus speak of merging with a True Self beyond all identity.

Buddhists speak of emptiness and of no self.

Emptiness does not mean that things don’t exist, nor does “no self” mean that we don’t exist. 

Emptiness refers to the underlying nonseparation of life and the energy that gives rise to all forms of life. 

We are in some relationship with our cars, our home, our family, our jobs, but whatever that relationship is, it is “ours” only for a short time. In the end, things, people, or tasks die or change or we lose them. Nothing is exempt.

WE OWN NOTHING

When we bring attention to any moment of experience, we discover that we do not possess it either. 

As we look, we find that we neither invite our thoughts nor own them. 

We might even wish them to stop, but our thoughts seem to think themselves, arising and passing according to their nature.

The same is true of our feelings. 

How many of us believe we control our feelings? 

As we pay attention, we see that they are more like the weather; moods and feelings change according to certain conditions, and are neither possessed nor directed by our consciousness or desires. 

Do we order happiness, sadness, irritation, excitement, or restlessness to come? 

Feelings arise by themselves, as the breath breathes itself, as sounds sound themselves.

Our body, too, follows its own laws. The body which we carry is a bag of bones and fluid that belong to no one. It ages, gets sick, or changes in ways we might not wish it to, all according to its own nature.

The more we look, in fact, the more deeply we see that we possess nothing within or without.

EVERYTHING FROM NOTHING

'Where has the past week or the past month or our childhood gone? They arose, did a little dance, and now they’ve vanished.

'Experience becomes like the particle waves described in modern physics, a pattern not quite solid, ever-changing.

According to Jack Kornfield - 

No Self or True Self? - Identity and Selflessness

DISCOVER INTERCONNECTEDNESS

'The real world is beyond our thoughts and ideas; we see it through the net of our desires, divided into pleasure and pain, right and wrong, inner and outer. To see the universe as it is, you must step beyond the net. It is not hard to do so, for the net is full of holes' — Sri Nisargadatta

As we open and empty ourselves, we come to experience an interconnectedness. The teacher depends on the student, the airplane depends on the sky.

NO SELF IS NOT APATHY

'So while purification, kindness, and attention can certainly improve our habits, no amount of self-denial or self-torture can rid us of a self, for it was never there.'

From A Path With Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life.

Happiness is about forgetting your own happiness and being part of a happy team?

Standford neurophysiologist Karl Pribram believes in the holographic nature of reality.

Every part of a hologram contains all the information possessed by the whole.

In a holographic universe there are no limits to the extent to which we can alter reality.

What we see as reality is a canvas where we can draw any picture we want.

The Buddhists believe that what we are thinking now, is what we will become.

Research has suggested that Buddhists are able to get their brains to feel happiness.



What we are now is the result of our past thoughts.

We are the creator of our circumstances.

By right thought and right action we can gradually purify ourselves and eventually reach enlightenment and Nirvana and beyond.

• OUT OF BODY
• Consciousness Outside the Body?
• THINK 'HAPPY TEAM'
• FREE WILL?
• NON ATTACHMENT; HEALING 
• THE PROBLEM OF EVIL - 1
• THE PROBLEM OF EVIL - 2
• THE PROBLEM OF EVIL - 3
• THE PROBLEM OF EVIL - 4 

FREE WILL

So, what about free willy? "Do you believe that you have control over your destiny? If you do not, then you are more prone to bad behavior." (Free Will / free will)

John decided to holiday in Sousse because his upbringing and heredity have determined that Sousse is his kind of place.

In other words, a 'causal chain' led John to Sousse.

It can be argued that John was not forced to go to Sousse, and that in a sense his decision was 'free'.

It can be argued that 'conscious, determined decisions' are 'free will decisions'.

It turns out that there was trouble in Sousse, and John had made a bad decision.


"If there is an explosion in a public place, hotel, or shopping mall, you should know that it is the Tunisian special forces who planned it." Thus said El Hocine Khafi, a former official at the Ministry of Interior of Tunisia.Une base militaire américaine à la frontière tuniso-algérienne.

William decided not to holiday in Sharm el Sheikh, even though his upbringing and heredity have determined that Sharm el Sheikh is his kind of place.

Why does one person make 'wrong' decisions and another make 'right' decisions?

Chance or randomness can affect our decisions.

Quite by chance, William had come across a travel exhibition and discovered that there were at least a dozen places better than Sharm el Sheikh.

The chance visit to the travel exhibition broke the 'causal chain' and allowed William to make a better choice.



Philosopher Daniel Dennet says you can exercise free will by doing something unpredictable.

This could mean going to Paramaribo rather than Las Vegas.

Daniel Dennett says determinism and free will are not incompatible.

Does free will really exist?

There is simple causation (one ball hits another one and it causes the second one to move) and causation that results from careful thinking.

A criminal might commit a crime 'because he was born criminal and brought up criminal."

But, the criminal is free to do the 'unpredictable' and to be good.

The criminal is free to think about his actions.

You can be unpredictable.

You can avoid being manipulated.

"Freedom, of the important kind, of the kind worth wanting, is freedom from being manipulated."

Does free will really exist?

Who are the people who are being manipulated and who are therefore not free?

It is mainly the ultra-conservatives, the extremists and the fundamentalists.

Think of the fundamentalist Jew who is not free to marry a Moslem.

Think of the White racist who is not free to make friends with a Black neighbour. 



You could argue that William's 'guardian angel' led him to the travel exhibition.

You could argue that people are only 'free' when they are tuned in to 'the Holy Spirit'.

Why does one person make 'wrong' decisions and another make 'right' decisions?



Some Taoists would argue that every 'thing' and every 'action' is a mixture of 'good' and 'evil'.

Both Sharm el Sheikh and Paramaribo have their 'good' and 'bad' bits.

According to the Taoists, everything in the universe is single, whole, but composed of opposites.

"Taoists believe that nature is a continual balance between yin and yang, and that any attempt to go toward one extreme or the other will be ineffective, self-defeating, and short-lived."

What Taoists Believe

The Buddhists would argue that 'ignorance' is the cause of bad decisions and suffering.

Socrates would agree.

The Buddhists would also say that our sense of being a separate 'self' is an illusion.

"The death of his younger brother, Edmund, from measles on 2 February 1900 deeply affected Hitler. He changed from being confident and outgoing and an excellent student, to a morose, detached, and sullen boy who constantly fought with his father and teachers.... After his father's sudden death on 3 January 1903, Hitler's behaviour at the technical school became even more disruptive, and he was asked to leave in 1904."

Alvin Plantinga defends God with his "free will defense"

"It is possible that God ... could not create a world with free creatures who never choose evil. 

"It is possible that God .... would desire to create a world which contains evil - if moral goodness requires free moral creatures."

Jesus said that 'some seed fell on stony ground'.

Is that just bad luck?

One can speculate that if God is going to create 'a real world', then, as with a game of golf, there has to be an element of chance.



Discoveries in 'Quantum Physics' suggest that 'determinism' may be wrong.

The movement of 'particles' cannot always be predicted.

Dostoevsky points to characters who do bad things, knowing that they are bad, in order to assert their uniquness and independence.

Some might say that God does not have this burden, as, presumably, he is incapable of choosing evil?

Dostoevsky, and others, seem to suggest that all creatures go through a long learning process, which can involve suffering, in order to achieve enlightenment.



But what about 'justice'?

Let us assume that there is a God who is 'just' and 'fair'.

Jesus said that 'some seed fell on stony ground'.

How can God ensure that those who, by chance, have gone astray, are rescued from their bad luck?

For life to be fair, every single soul has eventually to reach perfection and salvation.

And every single soul has to experience the same range of 'ups' and 'downs'.



Life magazine reported (The Mystery of Chance):

On 1 March 1950, all the fifteen members of a church choir in Beatrice, Nebraska, due at practice at 7:20, were late.

For example, one couldn't start her car; and one mother and daughter were late because the mother had to call the daughter twice to wake her from a nap.

At 7:25 the church building was destroyed in an explosion. The members of the choir, Life reported, wondered if their delay was "an act of God."

...

To the Hindu, we are all part of God; our sense of being a separate individual, such as John or William, is an illusion; and all our souls eventually join up with God.

According to The Upanishads, the Hindu New Testament (Life And Death Explained?):

God is within all the created world (immanent) and outside all the created world (transcendent).

God becomes immanent (within all) until the end of evolution when the immanent has all again become transcendent (outside the created world). The created world evolves into the transcendent God.

Why? 

For the joy of creation.

Why is there evil? 

For the joy of good arising from it.

"Eventually suffering destroys the ego."

A Quote by Eckhart Tolle on suffering.

Why darkness? That the light may shine more.

Why suffering? For the instruction of the soul and the joy of sacrifice. 

Why the infinite play of creation and evolution? For pure joy.

The Buddhists teach that "it is only conventionally, not ultimately, true that we are persons."

Buddhist 'No-Self' Doctrine.