Why, if God is love, is nature so cruel?
Anyone who has any compassion, who has witnessed the horrendous way animals kill each other on this planet is aware of this dilemma. Some religions like to express the idea that God created animals in a paradise where they didn't eat each other. For me, common sense shows beyond doubt that some animals were made to eat each other. When you think of the horrendous eating machines nature has created what kind of love is that?
As a part of our species, I have witnessed in my life, horrendous things happen to good people including some wonderful Christians I knew. Although some tried to make sense of it I knew they were all reaching.
Jesus and Gandhi were my mentors in all things spiritual. I considered them spiritual geniuses who tried to teach the world other ways to come together. 
But neither of these concepts was perfect. As for Gandhi's "passive resistance" I found that sometimes violence is needed because some people on this plane
t have missed the empathy boat a long time ago. Jesus inspired me but disappointed me. I found the final judgment with Jesus just unacceptable. The idea that a compassionate God would just wipe people out because they didn't believe in him on a planet where love is so hard to come by just didn't seem consistent with a loving God.
What helped me realize that there was a creator, which no one on this earth has defined, was the mystical experiences I had. One experience could have even saved my life. The first thing I did when this happened was to question if this happened. However each time I was lucky enough to have friends with me who confirmed, even years later, what had happened was real.
In the end I realized my human definition of love was sorely lacking. The creator had endowed nature with the greatest type of love, the love of freedom. That God didn't need to be co-dependent on God's creation, a nudge here and there is all it took in the creator's vision. However God didn't leave us hanging in a dark universe this being created the mystical experiences to let us know something else intelligent is out there.
But what of aliens; are they these wonderful spiritual beings we all hope for or is it possible some, or all, of them are atheistic, and if so, what would it mean?
Of all the subjects that the UFO community write about there is hardly a word about Atheism and UFOs ETs. All of us in the UFO community have been led to believe that these entities believe in God. They point to the idea that ETs have never invaded us. There seems to be some idea out there that if any Alien race was atheistic it would mean real trouble for our species because they wouldn't care about us. This implies that somehow being an atheist would mean they would be devoid of compassion or high ethical standards. This is not true on earth, although communism included atheistic ideas. Hitler the most horrible dictator 
was perfectly comfortable with religion. Persecution and torture of members of one Christian religion by another Christian religion is layered throughout history even to modern times.
So religious or spiritual belief doesn't ensure compassion and love….especially toward other species. If you read the bible, nowhere does Jehovah send a strong message of love and compassion for animals, no pets, just ownership and sacrifices. That is what they were there for. This, of course, was a sign of the times during which the bible was written. All domesticated animals had to pull their own weight.
There is also, if were honest, a scary side to religion. The idea of fundamentalism in religion goes way back. One of the scarcest ideas of religious dogma is whatever actions any member takes approved by their dogma is approved by God. All of us have read about the thousands of years of rigid religions and the horrible things which were justified by their interpretations of scripture. Today we have the same thing .
Reports from the base in the UFO community, claim ETs are millions of years ahead of us in spiritual growth…so I guess that means their right and we're wrong about our belief system.However If you look at some of the people with the highest I Qs on this planet many of them are atheists, so high intelligence is no stranger to atheism. Would a very atheistic ET race make contact with a planet riddled with different religious dogma? Would the Catholic Church welcome the ETs with open arms if they were confirmed atheist?
The question should be asked: would ETs disguised themselves as spiritual beings to help handle the human reactions to them? What we find in the ancient astronaut theory is the arriving "sky beings" seemed to have very little compunction about the local natives believing they were Gods. As we can so readily see within our UFO community a great deal of scary ungodly actions can be overlooked, if the group who is doing it, is thought of as part of the divine.
Some atheistic aliens are not only possible but probable. The chances are that even as atheists these beings could be full of compassion and empathy for the human species. We may find out when contact is made that some aliens, with their own brand of religions, are the scarcest ETs of all.
Joseph Capp
UFO Media Matters
Non-Commercial Blog
Maybe the behavior of animals in nature are a reflection of the men who have dominion over it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jeff,
ReplyDeleteAnimals have behaved like that long before humans were roaming around on earth. However, if you look at nature through love, the Creator has given all living things equal love to survive. The spider and the Otter all have the same chance to continue their species. This is the love I misunderstood.
Joe
UFOMM
Joesph,
ReplyDeleteAnother penetrating post. There is also another possibility, that a non human species further up the evolutionary ladder, ( if we assume their self awareness matches their knowledge )they may be pantheists, that require no intermediary, monarchical entity that micromanages everything. What they experience is evidence in of itself, that humans have no greater rung in the scheme of things than a sea lion occupies. This may be a form of values and sacredness toward life itself without a over ruling theology and have no great desire or impetus to manipulate the scheme of things either to benefit or to lower our state. They may simply be conscientious in that the onus is upon us to discover our own nature. In other words, a possibility that somewhat mirrors the view of the governments toward UFO's in that they might know as little as we do. I think it's probable that the enigma of life has an infinite horizon, just when we think we know enough to be considered by our own measure to be "omniscient" reality bites us and perhaps them in the ass. Do they make errors? Are they often wrong? I think that's more likely than a mistaken conclusion that they are certain of themselves to the extent of making the world in their own image as we have. They may feel the opposite, and we in comparison have no basis of any dialog with them just as a raccoon would not be given a chair in the U.N. If they are atheists, given their presumed capacity to witness life in many environments, then they could be more loony than we are. Which is also a possibility. How common are the psychological maladies that effect our species elsewhere, across the universe? I happen to think (subjectively) that we are a product of isolation, and bad critical assumptions unless we learn to communicate with other sentient species here on Earth. We might get an ear-full.
Best Wishes
Bruce
Dear Bruce,
ReplyDeleteThank you for a insightful response. One of the top questions I would ask ET is: "Do you know what the paranormal and intelligent survival after death is all about.
Some of the clues to the Creator may be hidden there
Thanks
Bruce
joe
Why do we persist upon trying to tag the UFO phenomenon within the confines of OUR value/belief system? Atheist aliens? As aliens go, we may as well include Republicans and Democrats in that mix.
ReplyDeleteUFO's have been around for a very long time as biblical accounts have suggested, if you wish to interpret them as such. The history of sightings cannot, in any way, be attributed to mass-hallucination, or any other nonsensical cover-up theories as there is substantial physical evidence for many, which always seems to be swept under the rug.
If we're to believe aliens are of an extraterrestrial origin, ie: from another planet far,far away, then we have to re-examine our acceptance of the limitations to light-speed travel as proposed ( and theoretically proven) by Einstein. Another possibility is they might be trans-dimensional as suggested by the Calabi-Yau manifold, and that theory is no less credible than Einstein's.
Either way, they're here.
Any society a million years more advanced than ours would likely approach us with the same curiosity as we might when walking through the woods and encountering a very large ant-hill. We're amazed at the organization and social structure it appears to abide by, but are confounded as to how they manage it, and perplexed as to why they're obsessed with waging war on other ant species in an all-out effort to defend their turf. Can't they just get along? We're inspired to study them and we make efforts to preserve their habitat so as not to tip them off as to our intentions. That might change their behavioral patterns. As scientists, we certainly have no intention of stomping them out.
A favorite Larson cartoon goes like this:
Fish #1 - " Suddenly I found myself transported to a mysterious craft from another world. These creatures measured and weighed me and inserted some device under my skin. Next thing I know, I'm back here."
Fish #2 - " Yeah....right."
Great blog Joe. :-)
Why do we persist upon trying to tag the UFO phenomenon within the confines of OUR value/belief system? Atheist aliens? As aliens go, we may as well include Republicans and Democrats in that mix.
ReplyDeleteUFO's have been around for a very long time as biblical accounts have suggested, if you wish to interpret them as such. The history of sightings cannot, in any way, be attributed to mass-hallucination, or any other nonsensical cover-up theories as there is substantial physical evidence for many, which always seems to be swept under the rug.
If we're to believe aliens are of an extraterrestrial origin, ie: from another planet far,far away, then we have to re-examine our acceptance of the limitations to light-speed travel as proposed ( and theoretically proven) by Einstein. Another possibility is they might be trans-dimensional as suggested by the Calabi-Yau manifold, and that theory is no less credible than Einstein's.
Either way, they're here.
Any society a million years more advanced than ours would likely approach us with the same curiosity as we might when walking through the woods and encountering a very large ant-hill. We're amazed at the organization and social structure it appears to abide by, but are confounded as to how they manage it, and perplexed as to why they're obsessed with waging war on other ant species in an all-out effort to defend their turf. Can't they just get along? We're inspired to study them and we make efforts to preserve their habitat so as not to tip them off as to our intentions. That might change their behavioral patterns. As scientists, we certainly have no intention of stomping them out.
A favorite Larson cartoon goes like this:
Fish #1 - " Suddenly I found myself transported to a mysterious craft from another world. These creatures measured and weighed me and inserted some device under my skin. Next thing I know, I'm back here."
Fish #2 - " Yeah....right."
Great blog Joe. :-)
Dear Dave,
ReplyDeleteHere Here,
Thanks
JOe
We can all get creative in how we think the animal reflect the love of the creator, if there is one. But what of the children. Why is there no commandment thou shall not molest children, but there is one about stealing another man's wife? Somethings just don't add up and we all have to admit it. Btw, I did a blog on aliens and spirituality: http://alienscreams.blogspot.com/2010/01/dont-kill-messenger.html
ReplyDelete