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Resolution Theory

Written by Juliet Bennett
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So I (finally) finished reading Shantaram!!! It is a very long book, but well worth the time.

My favourite parts, besides Gregory David Robert’s incredible use of adjectives, is the philosophy of life that Khader Bhai, the Mafia don, shares with Lin. Khader Bhai calls it Resolution Theory, and I think it’s pretty similar to my own philosophy that I, for fun, labeled “Creativism”. While Resolution Theory relates good and evil to the tendency toward or away from complexity, I like to think of it (which is for sure  inspired by books I’ve read even if I can’t remember which exact ones), as the tendency to be Creative or Destructive. (Click here to check out the post: creativism-a-philosophy-for-life)

“The whole universe is moving toward some ultimate complexity. This has been going on since the universe began, and physicists call it the tendency toward complexity. And… anything that kicks this along and helps it is good, and anything that hinders it is evil… And this final complexity… it can be called God or the Universal Spirit, or the Ultimate Complexity, as you please. For myself, there is no problem in calling it God. The whole universe is moving toward God, in a tendency toward the ultimate complexity that God is… In order to know about any act or intention or consequence, we must first ask two questions. One, what would happen if everyone did this thing? Two, would this help or hinder the movement toward complexity?’ p. 550-551.

And I think he makes a very good point when relating such philosophies to the various religious traditions:

“Every guru you meet and every teacher, every prophet and every philosopher should answer these two questions for you: What is an objective, universally acceptable definition of good and evil? And What is the relationship between consciousness and matter?... This is a test that you should apply to every man who tells you that he knows the meaning of life.” p. 708.

How do your beliefs perform in this test???

Photo Credits:

The creative fusion of photos and art is by: Gustavo Tomas Moreno. Check out more of his work on: www.yacophotographer.blogspot.com

More on Resolution Theory: https://julietbennett.com/2010/10/22/a-deeper-exploration-of-resolution-theory/

Truth, ,

We ALL live off a Narrative Of Peace

Written by Juliet Bennett
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Ok so I’m laying in the water enjoying an early morning swim at a nearby harbour-pool when all these thoughts stream into my mind. A sign that my mind has had enough vacation? I’m not sure.. Narratives of Peace is a topic I’m looking at doing a research project on in the second half of this year…

We ALL have a Narrative Of Peace (NOP) – that is, a story we tell ourselves will bring us toward a more peaceful place.

Even suicide bombers have one – acting with the conviction that their action will bring about eternal peace for themselves and their families, and bring about a world of greater peace for their descendants.

Religious narratives are quite obviously based on a NOP. If you do this… believe this… say this… then you will go to heaven and live in eternal peace.

In a capitalist world a majority look for the next purchase that they hope will bring them peace. Or maybe it’s a mortgage paid-off, moving to a bigger house, a better street, buying a boat, accumulating a certain digit on a bank statement. After this and this and this, then I’ll be happy, then I will be at peace.

Politics, ideologies, even the histories as told by the winners – are told in a narrative, one said to lead toward peace. Even our culturally defined pursuits of love and success – are narratives with at root a narrative of peace: a desire for happiness, harmony and completeness.

Evolution is a narrative, although the scientific one might not set its sights on peace. Is that the missing link? Over and above whatever other “missing links” exist… what meaning can be drawn from this 14 billion year process of evolution? What is it that we are evolving towards?

Which narratives are right, which are wrong? I guess that depends on the storyteller. It depends on the lens he or she sees the world through.

Is there a “grand narrative” of truth that transcends them all? If a grand narrative does exist we can be sure we will never know it, not in our present conscious anyway.

I understand where the postmodernists come from – the rejection of a grand-narrative, the rejection of absolute truth. I do see their point.

Today I was thinking about post modernism and the (very little) understanding I have of quantum physics… if all possibilities exist simultaneously until the observer observes one or the other, then surely we, as observers, are the creators of whatever individual truth we wish to create? Maybe postmodernists are right – it seems like at least on quantum levels no one truth exists until we select it.

Ok, crap. Now I think I’ve tied myself in a knot.

I do believe there is a grand narrative in the non-quantum dimension we find ourselves in. Sure I will never know for sure, maybe there are millions of grand narratives sitting, awaiting us to select one to observe. But I like to think there is one grand narrative that exists, one we can engage with and move closer to… and let me tell you why.

I suppose it is reasonable to say that some narratives that exist today are more true than others – depending on the sources of one’s data and the mental processes one engages in.

If we were able to look at our world through a lens that sat outside our universe, observing past, present and future all as one… I suppose it is reasonable to say that this non-earthly perspective or “Godly” perspective, we would be closer to the “truth” than any earthly lens we look through today.

If these to propositions are true then shouldn’t we be setting our sights on discovering this grand narrative, and drawing from it a narrative of peace? What would the world look like from the perspective of The Universe or even from a perspective outside our universe?

What is the point? How will it help us?

Ok. Consider the fact that fundamentalist religions are experiencing the most rapid growth they have ever experienced. Why??? I think it is because they offer a grand narrative. Granted they are a grand narratives based on words of historical men misinterpreted in our modernistic mentalities (mythos interpreted as logos, Jewish midrash as literal event, symbolic meanings stripped to create historical “truths” that our degenerating modern minds can understand)… but what they do offer the masses is something that evolution as it stands is often not presented to offer. Religions offer people a sense of wholeness: a sense of completeness; a sense of meaning; a purpose for one’s life.

Ok, now consider the “clash of civilisations” predicted to come from the clash of such fundamentalist movements. And the growing animosity between atheism and theism. Surely that is motivation to identify gaps and seek bridges?

Evolution as it stands, particularly since the dawn of post modernism, has failed to provide such a perspective. Where does my tiny individual consciousness fit into the big monstrous picture of an expanding universe? Evolution provided us a grand-narrative but somehow we abandoned it after WW2. We don’t need to look for a new ideology or new religion to replace it, we just need to take another look – reinterpret what it means to be a part of the grand evolutionary process.

If we little humans are but tiny pieces of a universal puzzle that continuously becomes more complicated as the space expands, what the heck can we do about it? Can we actually have a role to play?

Yes, I believe we can. I believe we do. The self-awareness of human consciousness is more advanced and complex than any other form of consciousness that we are aware of. And rather than running away from this gift we have to embrace it, figure out whatever the heck we are going to do with it in the millions of years to come.

As far as we know this awareness is new, extraordinarily new – given that our bodily shape has only been in this form for 700,000 years, and our minds have expanded exponentially faster through to the speed of change and information transmission we are witnessing today.

Recognising this gift. Living in awe of our awareness. And hopefully preventing it from imminent self-destruction has surely got to be a step in the pursuit of peace.

Have I lost you? I might even have lost myself in this one. Somewhere in my mind this makes sense but the rest of my mind hasn’t quite caught on. Maybe when these ideas are clearer in my own cognition I’ll be able to share this a little better than I’m doing today.

Peace, Truth, ,

The Religion Debate

Written by Juliet Bennett
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1. “Is there or isn’t there a God?”

2. “Is my god the True God or is yours?”

These debates are entirely based on one’s definition of the word “God.” So, shouldn’t we be a little more focused on the question as to what is God???

People define God in different ways, and then we call those different definitions “different gods”… but they are not. They are different definitions of God. Different interpretations of God. Different personifications of God – or a decision not to personify the force behind evolution.

That’s why religious debates don’t get anywhere – they have become identity battles that disregard the linguistics they are based on.

Why do religions still claim to know the “real God” and that everyone else has been deceived into believing in “fake gods”? Why do atheists debate that “there is no God” rather than explaining to theists that they are simply choosing not to personify the force behind evolution while accepting that some people prefers a more personal construct? Does not a rose by any other name still smell as sweet?

I don’t think any religions still believe God is a super human-like man sitting above the clouds. We know how big the universe is. We know the mountains don’t hold up the sky and we know that angels aren’t moving our sun, moon and stars into their place at night. Religions imagine God as a transcendent being that is omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), and omnipresent (present everywhere) – so might we consider the physics of such a claim… is it not a cause to consider quantum physics and what that might be telling us about the “mind of God”???

Sure, we are not useless consequences of some set random manifestations reacting to other random manifestations of a single particle of matter, which appeared from nowhere. But nor are we hand designed by a super-human who lives above us reading our every thought and watching our every move, awaiting the day he or she wishes to bring us into his realm or cut the rope, destroy life on earth and reward “His” chosen people with eternal life in heaven – simply based on the background of the family one was born into. This concept no longer makes sense in my mind anyway.

Something greater than us exists. There is something more than what we see. We are a tiny little component of a fantastical, expanding, creative universe. The ultimate unexplainable creative force behind the evolution of life; the energetic force that caused the first cell to split into two; the power behind and inside everything that exists, and everything that doesn’t… the power we can label The Universe, or as has been done throughout history we can personify as God, Allah, Dios, YHWH, the great “I Am”, Krishna, Bhagwan, Zeus etc. etc… is quite an incredible power, and almost just as incredible is our ability to be conscious of this force, to be aware of it, to be in awe of it. I don’t see anything wrong with personifying this force differently depending on our understanding of ourselves in a culture and at different points history, but essentially (and quite obviously no?) we are personifying the same force. The Jewish name YHWH, which means I AM, makes a lot more sense than most definitions. There is what there is, and that is God, that is The Universe.

I speak of “God” and I speak of “The Universe”, depending on my mood. I still pray. I still speak to “God” and I understand that the “person” I speak to is my personification of an abstract unknowable force, and I’m ok with that. In fact I even see some value in it, a personal interface to an abstract energy.

“My religion has done some good, so can’t we just forget the murderous bad it’s done these last couple of millennia?” Forgiveness is one thing but I’m not so sure the Inquisitions, the Crusades and the myriad “missions” imposed on indigenous peoples around the world are not exactly easy to forget.

But what is most important is the future: is a religion causing good today, or is it still a source of violence? If a religion can see itself in its historical perspective, and not make exclusivist claims over their particular personification of God or about their particular interpretations of physical and spiritual realms; and if they can avoid using their connection with people’s identity as a cause for destruction – they can be a cause for good. But if this perspective can’t be found then maybe the atheists are right… maybe it is better for religion to end. It all comes down to the clarity from which a religion can bring, to one’s creative purpose in life. Can religion be a force for good? Maybe.

Coming back to those debates:

1. “Is there or isn’t there a God?” Yes AND No. Yes if you personify the energy behind life, and no if you prefer to refer to it in a scientific, abstract form.

2. “My God or your god?” Mine AND Yours. Surely we can accept the cultural roots of different personifications developed throughout history, and understand that they were “right” and “true” in their day, and that there is something to learn from all of them.

Can someone please explain to me why, when the human mind is capable of thinking through these questions logically and we know these debates are based on a loaded word that is not properly understood, are we still debating them?

Isn’t it time to look for the meaning of our evolution, the meaning of our place in this universe, the meaning of our connection to “God”, our connection to What Is? To look at how this impacts on our lives today, and how it can provide a positive impact on our lives in the future?

I think these are more important questions that would be much more beneficial to society than illogical ego-driven debates over identity… but what do I know 🙂

Truth, , ,

Consumerised misinterpreted pagan traditions

Written by Juliet Bennett
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Surrounded by the mayhem of people spending money in desperation to tick the boxes and announce that those glorious words: “I have finished all my Christmas shopping”, when something dawned on me. It is not the nicest thing to day one day before the holiday many people have looked forward to all year but to be brutally honest I realised I like Christmas about as much as I like loosing my ipod.

I looked down at my own list, cursing myself for not getting organised earlier, chewed down hard and repetitively on the gum in my mouth to prevent me from punching a big stand of useless shit. What the heck was I doing there???

It’s not that I don’t like giving presents. I do. I love giving presents. I love the smile and sparkle in the eyes of someone who likes something you have chosen for them. But I don’t like having to buy this present by a certain deadline. It turns a pleasure into a chore.

I feel like I have this big assessment due on the 25th of December. And until I have ticked all my boxes I am afraid that I’ll be up at the midnight mall on Christmas Eve doing a rush job to get it in on time. Am I missing something here?

Sure I could buy gifts throughout the year in preparation. I often do. But the lack-of-patience leads me to give my gift straight away. Then I get to see the smile sooner. And they can enjoy it now. Can someone please explain why I should have to hold onto that present until the anniversary of a consumerised mis-interpreted pagan tradition???

For a second let’s just consider the real meaning of Christmas, the reason our ancestors had a big party on the 25th of December each year, that is: the celebration of the winter solstice. The celebration of the last short day and rebirth of the sun.

I celebrate that too – in JUNE! Here in Australia, the middle of January is our summer solstice – the last of our long days and beginning of shorter ones. If we are going to celebrate Christmas shouldn’t we at least do it at the appropriate time?

When you think about it, Christmas is just another overbearing example of continuing colonialism, Western hypocrisy and chronic consumerist Capitalism on steroids.

“But it’s tradition.”

And now that all my boxes have been ticked I am actually looking forward to it. I am looking forward to dinner at Mums tonight. Amongst the move and my Opa’s death it has been weeks if not months since we have sat down for a relaxed meal together. Now that I think about it I really really really am looking forward to it, and the wonderful fruit-filled breakfast we will have Christmas morning as we laugh and play games and exchange gifts by the tree.

I am looking forward to checking out the Sydney to Hobart boats getting ready down their big race, a burgeoning tradition I do with my sisters, Dad and Stepmom, that nicely breaks up the wonderful food and wine we will enjoy that night with my cousins and grandma and my sister’s fiancee’s family. Those are some pretty special moments – I guess I shouldn’t write-off Christmas altogether.

I wonder, is it possible to enjoy these moments without the chaotic consumerist prelude???

What if next Christmas I buy each of my loved ones a tree to be planted in the Amazon – something that will provide oxygen for them and the generations to come. My friend’s family put their gift money together to sponsor a child for a year. That’s a good one too!

The years come and go so fast I think I’m happy for Christmas to come every 4 years like the Olympics. Last Christmas I was at the top of Machu Picchu and I’m already dreaming of next Christmas – in India. Or China. Or Africa. Somewhere away from the shopping malls and plastic wrapping. I don’t need a pagan tradition to bring me to see my family, nor to give them presents. I do that throughout the year and prefer it that way.

But Christmas is here and I can relax. I too can happily announce “I have finished all my Christmas shopping”! I am ready to enjoy the food and festivities keeping my fingers crossed that when the time comes for plastic wrapping to be unveiled, my gifts deliver a smile.

Truth, ,

Potentialism: a philosophy for life

Written by Juliet Bennett
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Potentialism: a philosophy for life

Discovering your ultimate creative potential: you as your individual conscious, you as your society and you as the universe – playing your role in the creation of a future reality you desire.

Syncretic paradigms:

1. The purpose of life is to discover and fulfill your creative potential in a way that brings the most benefit to others.

This is the purpose of all life

This is “living God’s will”

This is expressing Who You Truly Are and Who You Want To Be

This is discovering your inner being, your intuition, and listening to it

As Shakespeare said, “Above all things, to thyself be true”

2. We are defined not only by our separate identity, but are in fact a collective identity of humanity, of living organisms and of the universe.

In the same way that our body is not separate from the living micro atoms that make it up

In the same way that science describes all matter, us included, as made of the same substance: atoms, which at quantum levels flash in and out of physical existence

In the same way the Buddhists imagine God to be everything

In the same way Christians describe God, as three forms: the father, the son and the Holy Spirit, yet one God; simultaneously omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent ie all-knowing, all-powerful and present everywhere.

These ideas do  not contradict – they complement. They are each other’s missing link – the way such abstract concepts maybe by physically actualised.

3. Peace is a state of harmony, when the body, mind and spirit are united

Key principles:

4. Listen to “God”/ The Universe / Your Intuition

Thoughts – ideas, images, and words that come into your mind

Intuition – the deep feeling inside that says ‘yes’ or ‘no’

Omens/signs – notice the things in the world around you that you are conscious of at each particular point in time

Words of other people – be it in conversation, a religious, fiction or nonfiction text, or a song on the radio, everything that enters your world is God communicating with you

5. Minimize fear and maximize love

Fear leads to insecurity, hate, and greed

Love leads to security, generosity, and kindness

6. Commit to the process not the result –

Creative potential is infinite and there is no end. An end means a beginning, and the circle of life continues.

Living in the present – it’s a present, a gift from God, pre-sent to you as an accumulation of all your life experiences and thoughts.

7. Realise that all problems can be solved with:

Will – desire to solve the problem

Honesty – about everything

Empathy – understanding where the other is coming from

Creativity – finding solutions

Transform and transcend:

8. Equal care for self and others

When we understand the inseparable connectedness between ourselves and others, we realise our happiness depends on the happiness of everyone else.

Hence our goal: to maximise our collaborative creative potential – expressing our own creativity, and encouraging others to express theirs

9. Consequences of this paradigm:

Selfishness transforms into selflessness – I want the best for me, and since you are me, I want the best for you.

Greed becomes generosity – I want everyone else to have as much as they can, because everyone else is me.

Jealousy and envy becomes pride and happiness for one another – others achievements are achievements of other expressions of myself

The concept of hate disappears – we cannot hate what is you

Self confidence increases, as we feel other’s trying to bring us up, not put us down

We truly put into action Jesus teaching to “do unto others as you’d have them do to yourself” (check wording + add equivilant teaching from other religions)

10. Self-reflection and self-transcendence

Breaking down defensiveness, building up confidence to critically evaluate one’s self and acknowledge our wrongs or harms we have done to others – allow us to repent and allow them to forgive

Rid yourself of your own grievances and any desire for vengeance for injuries inflicted by others – through empathy with the Other, we learn to forgive and move on

11. Create your own happiness

Make the decision to be happy – it is the biggest decision you will ever make in your life.

Begin with gratefulness, for what you have, even if it is little

Study the past, analyse different perspectives, take lessons from it and use it to expand your creative potential

Don’t cultivate feelings of regrets, everything has happened for a reason, figure out what that reason is, and how the past can help you in your quest for creative potential.

Bad decisions do not exist, that is judgement you make yet instead you can realise that this results may have led you to challenging times, from which you can now learn. These consequences were a small sacrifice, part of the process of discovering your creative potential.

Do not cultivate feelings of guilt. Guilt is of no benefit for you nor for those around you. Forgive yourself and let it go. Learn from the past, but keep your mind in the present, and an eye on the future

12. Cultivating wisdom

Facts are never static, but are the closest statement of the truth, at a particular point in time. If the data changes, facts also change. We must remain open to new data, ready to evaluate it in order to constantly progress towards a more truthful truth.

Taoists belief “what is impossible today may become possible tomorrow, and what is good today may become evil tomorrow; what seems right from one point of view may from another view seem completely wrong.”

13. The pleasure of extremes, and joys of balance

Life and death, hot and cold, love and hate, good and bad – you can’t have one without the other. This is the dualistic nature of life, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’d prefer a passionate love, even if it sometimes slips over to hate, than a mediocre love all the time. The extremes are much more fun. Ups and downs are what make life interesting. It’s the challenges that bring the most satisfaction.

Happiness when pushed to the extreme becomes sickly and dull.  Beauty overdone becomes ugly. Even too much chocolate makes feel sick…

14. Rid your life of fear

In the same way that millions of skin cells die every day, and yet our human body continues to live

Our consciousness is already connected, and will continue to be connected even when the separateness of our present memory no longer functions, our consciousness will continue to live on through others – that are ourselves

15. Cultivate faith

Faith is about cultivating a state in your heart and mind whereby you give yourself to God* – not about conforming to a set of “beliefs”

Don’t worry, don’t struggle, allow the will of God/ the Universe to be done

Is not about belief in hocus pocus or confession to any kind of autocratic dogma – faith is about a state of heart and mind

Even things that seem to have no reason whatsoever, in time, you will see how it expanded your, or another’s, creative potential

16. Get in-touch with your creative side

We ALL have one, you just have to give it a go

Try everything, don’t be afraid of anything

Know that time and effort are what give results; if you are prepared to invest yourself in something, you can do whatever you want to do.

In order to maximise happiness in life:

17. Right investment

(a) Of your time

Spend it with people who motivate and encourage

In an occupation that allows you to learn and express your creativity

Feelings of daily happiness are essential to stimulate your creative potential

Expanding other’s creative potential, and the creative potential of other forms of life, including the planet

In ways that will provide maximum benefit to the most people

Spend some time in silence, connecting to your conscious and giving it room to create; meditation, walking, driving, prayer

(b) Of your money

Money should be a reflection of the amount of time and effort that you have expended, and can henceforth use in exchange for others’ time and effort.

In your purchases, buying what is good for yourself and good for others

In your financial investments, in businesses that are helping life move toward it’s creative potential

18. Not no conflict but no violence

No circumstance ever substantiates violence

The ideology of Potentialism must never be fought for – this is against the nature of creative potential. Fighting for an ideology destroys creativity, which may be trying to morph into new forms, in which case, this is it’s achievement of creative potential.

Fighting against nature is fighting against the will of God, that is, fighting against the deepest drive of each of us,

Potentialism seeks organic expansion through love, it is never forced or forged, but is the result of a synergy between selfish and selfless – working together for the good of all-life itself, all which is God.

19. The power of the mind

The universe operates through spontaneous creativity, and through patterned phenomena – your role may be to contribute to either

Thoughts are powerful in ways we don’t yet understand. We do know they are measurable on wavelengths, like radio waves, but have not tapped in to harness them yet. Experiments have shown the incredible impact of positive thoughts on plants, water molecules, and even the nature of atoms.

Harness this power. Dream, make goals, pray, meditate, make them reality.

20. The power for world peace lies with you

Each of us have, together, the power to change the world

All it takes is a vision: what do we want the world to look like?

And then in each of us the will to reconnect with our life’s purpose and play out our roles in this transformation.

It begins with finding the peace within ourselves.

Anything is possible!


Some notes on terminology and origins:

What is a Creativist?

A Creativist is someone who sees Creativity as the expression of the Divine Creator present in all life and the universe. Creativity is humanity’s source of greatest pleasure, satisfaction, and act of generosity. Creativity expresses your individual consciousness and shares it with others, simultaneously expressing the collective conscious and providing avenues for your individual conscious to learn.

Creativism or Creationism?

Just to clarify – this is NOT to be confused with “Creationism” which refers to a belief in a 6-day creation 6000 years ago. NO. Creativism is about CREATIVITY and the role WE play in the ONGOING CREATION PROCESS of our universe. These ideas are a work-in-progress (that I wrote one year ago and haven’t touched since) hence I thought I’d put out there. Everything in life always seems to be a work-in-progress, so carpe diem…

Expressions of Creativity:

Creativity is not only for those left-brainers; creativity is for everyone. Analyse the sources of pleasure in your life, you will probably find they involve some form of creation that you contribute to. For example:

–       art of any kind: photography, draw, write,

–       in numbers, in science, in business: look for creative solutions to problems

–       food and wine: play with life’s little pleasures

–       breathe: take pleasure in every breath, it feeds your cells and contributes to the production of new ones

–       look for improvement: in every aspect of your life, each little bit of creative expression adds value

–       in interior and exterior of your house, fashion, self expression

–       make babies: the most amazing creation a human can make

Did I make this up?

I think you’ll find there’s nothing really new about what you’re read above … we are all so connected that I have this feeling when you finish reading this, you’ll feel like I’ve just typed out a transcript of your own mind. I may be wrong – all of the following may make no sense to anyone other than myself…

The writings above are a summation of my beliefs around July 2008. They outpoured form my brain as a stream of consciousness and are most likely inspired by all the books I’ve read and all the experiences I’ve incurred, so I don’t take credit for any of it. That’s how ideas grow and form – a culmination of the past, remoulded/stated a little differently, into something that can be used for the future.

I’m not sure how the term “creativism” first came into my head, probably on one of my long walks, where all my other ideas come from, and when I googled it I discovered it was a term being used by a few people to describe a similar concept of what I wanted to use it to describe.

There is even a definition in the Urban Dictionary: Creativism = ‘The theory or practice of creation as a way to live and understand life’ and a Creativist = ‘someone who is attuned creatively to their surroundings; a person who understands and expresses their life through creative works or motifs.’

I came across the term “Potentialist” in an article inside a flight magazine. See: https://julietbennett.com/2010/04/26/potentialism/

I couldn’t find a definition of “potentialist” so I made up my own: A “potentialist” is an alchemist of potential – someone who strives to achieve their mental, physical and spiritual potential.

The end and the beginning

Anyway if you have got through this essay then I have to say I’m extremely impressed. Six pages worth of babble… anyway I would really really really love to know what you think. And do you like the title Creativism or Potentialism, or can you think of something better???

Thank you!!!

Juliet xxx


Truth, , , , ,

Journey of an Inquisitive Christian

Written by Juliet Bennett
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It is up to us individually to question everything we are told, everything we read and even those things we see and feel. We must always consider the source of our information, and what were those sources are influenced and motivated by.

When we read the Bible, we must consider the author, the author’s sources and the author’s sources’ sources. What were these people’s motivations and influences? In what context were they written, and what did the author’s original words and sentences mean to him.

We must consider various theological and historical perspectives of translations and adaptations through the passage of time, how and why we interpret these passages in the way we do, and are there alternative interpretations which may be more accurate to the intentions of the writer, or to the way God may intend us to be inspired by these words today.

This process of questioning isn’t easy. It not only takes a lot of time. It can involve a roller coaster of emotions. It can cause conflict within yourself, as you question the roots of how you understand the world. It can cause conflict within social groups, even between you and family members. For me it was all these things. And so here, in hope of easing the pain of anyone else that might be facing the same dilemma, I offer my story:

Chapter 1 – Introduction Click here

Chapter 2 – Is the Bible the “Word of God”? Click here

Chapter 3 – Is Jesus Christ the “Son of God?” Click here

Chapter 4 – Discussing the contradictions Click here

Chapter 5 – What does this mean for my life today? Click here

Chapter 6 – My conclusions Click here

Please excuse the quality of my writing – these were written between 2007-2008 and my writing skills have improved a lot in more recent years…

Extras:

From a diary in 2000 Click here

This is a script copied from a piece of paper I found that considering what it talks about I date it back to some time in 2000. It provides an interesting insight into just how much a person’s mind can change in a matter of 10 years…

My Thunderbolt Moment Click here

This is an account of my journey that might be more coherent check out this one I wrote as an appendix to my masters thesis which was entitled An Ethical Dilemma: Childhood Conversion in Christian Fundamentalism.

Link to a PBS documentary Click here

This documentary presents what seems to be a non-biased scholarly exploration of early Christianity – I particularly recommend the first few chapters of Part Two which looks at the writers of the gospels, their sources and their motives.

Over to you…

Being a Christian seems comes down to two key things:

1. Loving “God” – which means loving the universe, our planet, all life

2. Loving “your Neighbours” – loving everyone around you.

That is the WAY Jesus envisaged. That is the TRUTH Jesus preached. That is the LIFE Jesus exemplified. Without showing and receiving love for each other and for our world there’s no way to know “God” and understand our place within It.

This is not supernatural, not elitist, and not discriminatory; it is completely natural, allows for constant questioning, and the only hell it refers to is the hell-on-earth that results from not loving each other and not loving our planet.

That concludes my journey so far. I wish you all the best in your religious journeys, and if you care to share some of it with me – I’d love to about it!

 

Truth, ,

A scrap of paper from 2000

Written by Juliet Bennett
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It was the year 2000, my first year out of school and first year of university. I would have been 17 or 18 years old.

My strength at this time came from my strong faith in God.

I went to church on Sunday nights, taught children’s Sunday school on Sunday mornings. Friday nights were youth group at church and once a week on the evening i went to a bible study group at someone from the church’s house. On top of all of this I had daily private times where I would read the bible or a biblical book and I would pray. I was told how I should live my life. I also did my best to obey all the commandments and teachings from the bible, including giving about 10% of the money I earned. I believed and obeyed everything I was told.

A scrap of paper I found and dated to sometime in 2000 reads:

“I love my Mum and I love my Dad. I love my sisters as well as my relatives and every one of my friends. I love God. God loves me. God loves every person so much that he sent his son to suffer, living hell after dying on a cross, just so that I may live eternally. this is the key to becoming a Christian, accepting God’s grace, through faith, so that when I die I know that I will live eternally in heaven.

This gives me feelings of peace as it shows that the eighty so years on earth, in perspective are so small and eternity so long, that we must always remember what is important is to love God and love others.

God loves me and has blessed me a thousand billion times and with my life I want to strive to please him.

I thank God every day for my blessings, for everyone that I know, for the fact that I can know them, love them and I thank him so much that they love me in return. I have said this to God every morning when I wake up for as long as I can remember and I will always as nothing can change this.

When I die I wish that everyone that knows me can know how much I love them and how much God loves them.

I hope that through my death, others can come to know Christ. If I could die tomorrow and my friends would come to know the love of God, I would without a second thought. When i die I hope everyone can rejoice over the life I lived and thank God for my life, as I do.

Everyone should rejoice in knowing that I will be eternally living with my God and will be waiting for them to join me.

What I want out of life

1. To please God and do his will. he has a plan for my life and he knows the best way (He created me so he must know!)

I know that without God I can achieve nothing, so why try to control my life without him? All it leads to is dissatisfaction. Look at Mariah Carey, for example, you would think she would be satisfied as she has everything materialistically you could ask for: money, guys, fame, talent… yet she tried to kill herself. She was unsatisfied. Materialism can only satisfy you to a point. There will always be a huge hole without God. Thus I wish to follow him and let Him do what he can. i trust that he has a plan and will lead me to a satisfying life.

2. Friends and family

I hope that my friends and family can be happy, healthy and also live satisfying lives on all levels. Especially that they will come to know God.

3. Materialistically and selfishly

I’d like what everyone wants: money, fame, love, nice house etc! No seriously… I want a job that I enjoy – working with great people and being able to support myself with a good income. I want to meet a guy, love him with all my heart and marry and have a happy marriage with God in the centre. We will live in a nice house, possibly with a couple of kids (eventually), have great holidays etc. Our kids will grow up to be also strong Christians. I will put my family before”

It finishes there and I can’t find the next page.

In fact, this is the only piece of writing that I have from this time in my life. It does a good job in summarising my mind at that time. I read this and I smile, laugh at the Mariah Carey commend, then cringe and feel my stomach turn. My innocent mind: pure, kind and loving – but so naive, indoctrinated and, excuse my language, fucked up.

This year brings tears to my eyes to think about – I gave every part of myself to everyone around me, and everyone around me took and took, like vampires on their prey. Noone realised the pain they put me through. At the time, not even I was aware.

To read about my journey from the very conformist fundamentalist Christian worldview above, into the questioning Christian / spiritually Buddhist / peace-loving Atheist I might classify myself today, check out:

My Thunderbolt Moment Click Here

And for Christians who haven’t had the time to question, I documented my questions, answers and my contemplation of the contradictions, which you can read here:

Further Reading:

Chapter 1 – Introduction Click here

Chapter 2 – Is the Bible the “Word of God”? Click here

Chapter 3 – Is Jesus Christ the “Son of God?” Click here

Chapter 4 – Discussing the contradictions Click here

Chapter 5 – What does this mean for my life today? Click here

Chapter 6 – My conclusions Click here

 

Truth, ,

God and fundamentalisms

Written by Juliet Bennett
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This may sound strange but I LOVE our universe. I love that we are conscious of our selves, that we understand so much about our location in space and time, and I love that there is so much we don’t know – the mystery and intrigue keeps life exciting. It reminds you of the importance of the process, not the result. Dreaming and working to achieve your dreams so that when you make it you can dream a new dream. There’s always more to learn. There’s always new ways to create. The universe has infinite creative potential. This is God.

I love capturing beauty with my camera. I love thinking about the beautiful things I can see, hear, smell, taste – thinking about why I can see, hear, smell and taste them, and what gives me the ability to think about these things. The language that allows me to put feelings into thoughts and into words.

I love contemplating what this process of creation tells us  about the nature “God”, about the nature of our expanding universe and the nature of ourselves and our role in this ongoing evolution. I love learning about religions and I try to keep an open and empathetic attitude to ideas and perspectives different to my own. Each perspective has come from somewhere, every person has a story, and every idea has its purpose and its place. Like people, perspectives and ideas, and like our universe and our understanding of God – CONSTANTLY CHANGE. We constantly know more. We will never know everything. And that in itself is what makes life so fantastic.

Today I went to St Matthews Church in Manly to listen to Ken Duncan, the famous landscape photographer, speak about Life’s Adventure, and the process of capturing the beauty and glory of God in these landscapes. I enjoyed this very much, until the end.

What I enjoyed was hearing the story behind the amazing panoramas. Each photo took patience and intuition – listening to that voice inside of you that Ken attributed to God. I do that too. And I find that listening to this voice is how I get my shots. It’s how I find the words. It’s how I live my life. Connecting myself with the all-power energy that surrounds us and connects all of life. To say no

Confronted with images from Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion – with the blood and guts of an Anglo-Saxon Jesus suffering “for me” on the cross – juxtaposed with his amazingly beautiful panoramas. I felt sick to the stomach.

“The only way to God is through Jesus Christ”

I’m sorry. I do not agree. I can not.

Why not?

a) People of other religions also connect with “God” (even if they speak another language and call this great force by another name like Allah or Jehovah – all the same MONOTHEISTIC god…) Who the heck would I be to say they are all deceived while the Western religion has magically got it right?

b) The power behind life I call “God” is more powerful than what this simple narrative makes out. What kind of God would REQUIRE a human incarnation of itself to suffer and die in order to have a relationship with me? Couldn’t an all-powerful God conquer death without requiring a death?

I’m still searching for answers. I’ll share more of my Christian journey when I get time to read through the writings I have done over the past few years. But there are just some times I have to speak up. This was one of those times, and I had to communicate these few points with Ken Duncan… so I wrote the above little essay on a feedback form and hope he gets in touch with me to discuss. If you are going to go out and tell everyone about Jesus, then maybe he has some answers. Those with exclusive perspectives of their own religion have a lot to answer for – not least the Clash of Civilisations predicted as a consequence of identities mixed up in such opposing exclusive views.

I do have to say though I was really impressed with Ken’s talk and I absolutely LOVE his work. And i loved his wonderful example of faith and listening to “God”. I relate to that. But when I see something that seems to me to be at the roots of world violence I can’t just sit back and watch. I have to say something.

Yes, a Jewish revolutionary was crucified 2000 years ago. Yes, this man changed the lives of many people – telling them to forget the church’s bureaucratic rules and instead follow his example and discover a personal direct relationship the divine power behind creation. He told them to be pacifists – to let your enemy slap the other cheek. The earliest Christians did this. Shame we don’t do it anymore, instead ignoring the Sermon on the Mount and focusing on the human theological interpretations of a narrative, mis-interpreting premodern writings in our modern paradigms. Focusing on rules, on separation, and on literal interpretations of myths.

Jesus said to forget the bullshit – life is not about obedience to autocratic rules. It’s about two things:

1. Love “God”.

2. Love your neighbour as yourself.

I find myself seeking the divine power behind our existence, connecting with it and allowing that connection to guide my life and help me pursue my unique role in the unveiling of the universe’s expansion. I am still debating whether or not I want to personify this power – it seems to have benefits of comfort and communication, but at the danger of tricking the mind to really think this power is actually a person. I don’t think anybody really believes God is a person, which is why I find the THEIST / ATHEIST debate so strange.

It seems to me it’s not a question of “is there a God?” but is actually question of “what is this power we call God?” and how can we best understand and connect with this power? Should we seek it through a deeper understanding quantum physics? Through looking at the major religions and identifying common elements – separating human-designed theologies from the original messages of the prophets? Or through seeking a deeper understanding of ourselves and our own potential to have a prophetic-like relationship with the divine.

Sometimes I find myself truly seeing other people and other forms of life as other expressions of myself. If i was born into their situation, I would be living and responding just as they do. This is why the concept of “sin” seems so foreign – most of the time these actions are derived from their life’s experience, and when you seek the cause of destructive behaviour, it is not something that the person had control over.

I love those moments where my separate identity disappears and I feel at one with the universe. Floating in the ocean allowing waves to carry your body up and down is one of the most meditative states that make me realise my separateness is a temporary condition – one I must enjoy each moment without fear of it’s inevitable end.

“But what do I know, I’m just a model”

And it’s late, I’m running on 5 hours sleep, my eyes are heavy so I’m going to post this, have a shower and go to bed.

🙂

The picture I used for this post is a meditation poster called Supreme Light from the Brahma Kumaris, a spiritual university – www.bkwsu.org

Truth, ,

Meaning of life

Written by Juliet Bennett
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Something sure to come up a lot on this blog is the question of meaning – why the f**k are we here on this planet??? It is something I contemplate regularly.

The human condition is a strange one –  born no different from other animals we are educated into languages, enculturated into structures of thinking, sets of values, morals, dreams. We grow up and play out our roles in society, dedicating our life to our relationships, our religions, our jobs, the building up materialistic goods, searching for our identity, trying to achieve the world’s ideals, create a family, pay off our mortgages or work for whatever other causes we see as valuable. But WHY??? Only to blink and find ourselves retired then old and dying. We may travel, meet people, enjoy food, beautiful sites, other cultures… still what’s the purpose of it all?

I have come across a fantastic fantastic website that contains interviews with some of the most amazing minds in our world today. www.meaningoflife.tv.

So far I’ve watched Karen Armstrong (a scholar of religion) and John Polkinghorne (a Cambridge scholar of physics and Anglican priest), and I definitely recommend both. Each interview is long but well worthwhile 🙂

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