Abstract

Sunday, September 24, 2000

Hey Mike! My name is Kenny Lane. I’ve been checking out your website and I must say as a "born-again" Christian your findings have only increased my faith, beleive it or not. I always knew there were problems with the Bible I was reading but I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

Have you read a book called The Hiram Key? It has two authors; Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas. There both members of the Freemasons, and they had set out to find the origins of freemasonry. They unearthed a lot of the same stuff that you have about Jesus. Instead of this gentle person we’ve always been lead to beleive he was; He ends up being this militant Jewish patriot. Anyway I’m sure you’ve probably already heard of the book, but in case you havn’t please check it out. By the way do you sell any of your books through regular bookstores or is it strictly via the internet? Well! gotta go now. Have a great day!

I had reason to mention The Hiram Key in an e-mail response only yesterday. I have been intending to do something about the Freemasons for awhile, but there are too many other things to find out about.

Regarding your increased faith, I am not really surprised because Christians have managed to keep their faith perversely for at least a century. We all know, Christian and sceptic, that there is no sense in Christian belief, so why should any of us be surprised. It just seems sad to me that people in this sophisticated world can believe 2000 year old myths and base their existence on them.

I and my colleague, Shirlie, argue that Christianity is a major reason for the unstable state of the world today and the potential for the destruction of the biosphere. Despite some insincere attempts to claim the earth for Christianity, the Christian has always treated it as expendable, merely an obstacle course between them and salvation. The earth will never be treasured while people dream insanely of a better world after death. You never have any way of complaining when it does not come true. That is what makes it such a great scam for hugely rich churches and preachers.

Anyway, I hope you learn a more useful way of living, but I don’t expect you will.

Any good bookstore ought to be able to order the books for you, and they are available through Amazon, but none of them will hold stocks (except perhaps Borders) so they will have to order them from us. You might feel safer getting them from your regular dealers but it will probably be cheaper for you to take advantage of our discounts.

Believe me, Kenny, we don’t make millionaire profits on our deals! Kind thoughts.

Well! Isn’t it interesting that the very people who tell everyone else how the need to be so open-minded and not stereotype others on the of their race or religion are the ones doing the stereotyping. Just because I gave myself the title "Born Again Christian" does not mean I identify myself with those money grabbers who couldn’t care less about the environment. I’m smarter than that and there are other B.O.C’s out there just like me.

So before you decide that all Christians must be thrown into concentration camps and exterminated in the name of mother earth concider this. If my memory serves me correctly; wasn’t the nation formerly known as the USSR run by communists who were also athiests. UH! Let me see here! doesn’t that mean that they were non-christians? And hasn’t Russia been declared an environmental disaster area caused by people who don’t even believe in God? Trust me, I’m a very very open-minded "Born Again Christian" and I resent the fact that so many people are so quick to just label us all and put us in a box which is the very thing I thought you people were so strongly against.

Whoops! Seem to have touched a raw nerve.

I am not saying that anyone who is not a Christian is wonderful. There are millions of Muslim Mullahs as proof. You raise other examples. I am saying that Christian Theology is incompatible with preserving the earth. You can say you love the earth and that you are a Christian, if you like, but your two principles are incompatible. You have to choose between them to keep honest.

As to labelling or stereotyping people, you repeatedly say you are a BOC, so I took you to mean it. You labelled yourself.

So, relax, Kenny. I was only responding to your e-mail.

You know what Dr. Mike. You’re absolutely right. The two principles don’t mix. I had a born-again experience. Or maybe it was really more of a heightened state of awareness of who I really am.

That is what we think, and it is sad that for so many centuries, people have been led to seek the explantion of mystical experiences and revelatory experiences in the never-never land instead of where we live and breathe. It is true that the awareness is of something wonderful, but it is an indictment of the attitude of patriarchal religion to the real world that what is wonderful cannot be sought here but only in a fantasy world somewhere else. Effectively we walk about with our eyes closed to the amazing nature of reality while dreaming of heaven. We think it is insanity to do this and the appreciation of mysticism as an opening of our eyes to this world is the start of a cure, if it is appreciated correctly.

So it’s hard to understand a creator who would approve the destruction of his/her own creation.

It must surely be true that it is undoing God’s own work and that could not be right, if you believe in the creator God.

Many of my Christian friends will say that it doesn’t matter that there’s global warming or that entire species are going extinct at such an alarming rate, because Christ is coming again soon and we’re all just going to be caught up in this glorious rapture, and Jesus will restore the earth with his magic scepter and we’ll all live happily ever-after.

I have never heard it better expressed. It is a terribly dangerous and frightening belief, so bad that anyone inclined to believe in forces for good or evil could only conclude it was the work of the evil and not the good force. Christians cannot even seem to consider that the Devil could fool them.

If I was still single and knowing what I know now I would try to find a better way to live. But it’s just not that easy right now.

Sure thing, but it must be worth considering the sort of world your children will live in. There are things we can do that are not so taxing and actually save us money. My colleague Shirlie’s adelphiasophism.com website covers it all. You’ve probably visited it but take another look from time to time. It is full of practical ways of venerating Nature without costing you the arm and the leg that it might cost our children, if we do not act soon.

Anyway; Thanks for the e-mails and I’m looking forward to reading your books. Let me know what you find on the freemasons. Also if you have any info on the book of Revelation I’d be interested in what you’ve discovered on that subject as well. Kind thoughts Kenny Lane.