Faith

My husband is a unique individual. He would have to be to have put up with me for so very long. Tonight we watched the movie the DaVinci Code. My husband is not a Christian, he’s a Taoist. He often says things to me like, “You know the mirror in the bedroom?” I nod, as of course I do it’s atop my dresser. “Does the room you see within it exist if you are not there to view it?” This always causes a moment of hesitation on my part to these questions. I consider that and reply in my logical way. He expects the logical despite the fact I’m female it’s often why he asks me the questions he does. I cannot help but answer logically. It’s the first answer that comes to me, it takes more time for me to ruminate on something to dig up an emotional answer. Logically, the room within the mirror must exist when I am there or not, for simply my viewing it cannot create its existence, to think it would, would be terribly arrogant of me. I am not the creation for things; I am merely a player in a grand stage, so it must exist if I am there or not. I nod and he grins, and asks, “Are you sure?” I consider that for a bit, and nod; he grins again and says nothing. What does this all mean? I have no idea. He does however zing these weird things at me from time to time, I have no idea why, and he never says if I’m right, or wrong, he just grins at me and continues doing whatever he was doing before.

Daily we discuss the hierarchy of gravity versus electro-magnetism, much more so since he’s begun to study the texts of Tesla. Thought a mad man Tesla knew how to create free electricity, drawn simply from the ground for all to use. Branded a mad man by Edison and his financial backers, it’s a small wonder the men was thought insane. You can’t benefit from something that is gained for free, and permanently no less.Were his free electricity be shared with the world that would have more or less put Edison and those who spent millions on his work out in the cold.

Interwoven with these discussions is the thread of God. To me it’s a matter of faith; to him his faith is in science, in fact. It took me years to convince him God could even exist, that the Bible was not a series of silly stories that meant nothing. Years of factual research proving beyond a doubt that these things did in fact occur. Years of books, maps, and literature in pursuit of backing the well known lessons contained in a book I never thought to doubt. It’s been good though, to do such a thing, if anything it’s deepened my faith. It has given him many things to consider.

I still celebrate my religious holidays, Christmas, Easter, and the others, he does not “celebrate” them per se, he does not partake in the true reason for these holidays, but he also does not celebrate “Giftmas” either. That’s what I call the holiday cooked up by most of America that have reduced the birth of Jesus into a gift giving frenzy. I will get him some things for Christmas, as I always do, but we do not “exchange gifts” so to speak. He knows the fact that others have twisted and altered this holiday irritates me, so he does not shop for me, as this is not a holiday he believes in. To him Jesus was a prophet, a man of great wisdom, but that is where it ends for him. To buy gifts for me, to falsely claim celebration of the birth of a religion and a man he does not believe was the son of God would be false to him. I told this to a friend once, despite my misgivings of sharing this bit of information with people, as most do not understand it. He said simply, “That makes perfect sense. He doesn’t celebrate the holiday so why would he? That sounds like Matt.” Most others are horrified at the idea that he doesn’t buy me things for Christmas. Realistically though, is buying items the true meaning of this holiday? Is that why we celebrate it? To get stuff? I don’t, to me it’s more than that, much, much more.

My father understood. Christmas was his favorite holiday. To him it meant friends, family and celebration of a wonderful and magical thing. All this was done with much revelry, dancing and celebration. Well that and lots of lots and LOTS of lights. No such thing as too many lights on that Christmas tree, he and I saw eye to eye on that one. Matt used to pick on me saying he found George H. Bush’s thousand points of light, in our living room, as he’d point to the Christmas tree.

While watching the DaVinci code tonight we began to discuss the changes in theology, the alterations within the faith by men of power. We discussed the fact that Job lived for thousands of years according to the Bible and yet today the number of years simply doesn’t make sense. This is where it gets interesting.

This takes a bit of willingness to consider things that out of hand you may discount as ridiculous. Then again a man living 3 thousand years is of course to our knowing ridiculous, I don’t care how many months the calendar was shorter it would still add up to well over the average age of any human being. Now, in what many deem to be ancient and historical references we have seen evidence of “men from the sky” and things like this. Of course these don’t really refer to aliens or any like things. That is not logical, what they do refer to is simply things people saw within the sky at the time, constellations and other things. These are where the myths of the Greeks and Romans came from as well. They were based upon the planets and stars now our sky does not hold these same amazing images, so we believe it was aliens and that sort of thing. Realistically though, could there not have been a change in the sky in the past 2,000 years? Of course there could, the sky as we know it is not a constant, planets move, orbit and change in different ways each and every year. Look at photos of the moon from 30 years ago, and the ones from 5 years ago. There are new scars, lumps, bumps and things on the moon just in the last 25 years.

Now my husband proposed to me that what if Saturn which we cannot explain why it is gas giant, was in fact a burnt out sun. Turned out of orbit by our present sun, the only large object in our solar system that does not orbit on the same axis? If indeed a brown dwarf was the sun of old, the “True Sun”, then of course not only gravity would be effected but also longevity. So the idea a man could indeed live to be 3,000 years old would and could be realistic. The objects seen in the sky that many say are aliens would be the electromagnetic polar opposite pulls of two objects trying to push apart, such as Venus and Saturn, Venus and Mars. Interesting concept, though I am not entirely convinced but it would explain much. The giant 2 ton blocks laid by men that we cannot move now even with our largest cranes, yet put there thousands of years BC. Aliens? Likely not, logically there is a reasonable explanation. If gravity were different, Saturn being the sun at the time, the 2 ton block would be the weight of perhaps 1/1,000 of what it is now, making it moveable and even likely that it was simply rolled upon logs. Logical? Yes that would make much more sense.

I’m a fan of Occam’s razor. “All other things being equal, the simplest solution is the best.” Simple explanations are usually true, in all things. It’s the way of nature. Nature does not lend itself to over complex things when a simple thing is easier. People tend to like complications so they tend to make things more complicated than they are, but nature likes things simple. Trees need to protect their leaves from the rays of the sun so the leaves do not burn, and yet they need the red spectrum light to grow, so they have a self protection allowing for this on the top of their leaves. They also need water to grow, and yet the self protection does not allow for water to get through easily, so when it rains, leaves flip over, and the water is much more easily absorbed. Simple, easy, logical.

Getting back to the movie, is it possible that Jesus did in fact father a child? Well he was human and yet divine, and all things being equal….well logically yes. Is it a faith breaker that a man could father a child and still be divine? I don’t think so. Could he have taken a wife? Certainly. Was Mary Magdelene a prostitute? Historians and theologists now say no, she was not. In fact many say it was a smear campaign by the church itself. Logical? Yup. Lets face it, the church while it has done many good things has done some very awful ones. No I don’t mean the Crusades, do some research on that one, it’s not what the general media would have you believe. That was actually a fight to preserve life and freedom. I am referring to the more recent issues with priests. And while I spoke with a friend of mine on this subject and he said it wasn’t “that big of a deal.” It made me want to strangle him, since I worked sex crimes for six years. I find that molesting hundreds of children, or one child, a big deal, and yes it was hundreds, and it was more than a singular priest that did such things to children. Faith should never cause a person to turn a blind eye to fact. So accounting for the fact the church knew such things to be so and covered it up in order to preserve itself, could they have also covered other things? Of course. Remember the church itself is merely a vessel that delivers the message. The men and women who dedicate their lives to the church are as human as you or I am. They are frail, imperfect and human. All things being equal could they make a mistake? Commit a crime? Could they despite their giving their lives to the church see the church as a greater entity than God himself? Sure. They are after all human. No I’m not saying all are like this, but in any profession in any path of life there are those who trod from the path of God’s words to the path of their own, for reasons they see as protecting the church, themselves, or to protect the view of God himself, as if such a thing would be required from a human being.

Is it possible for a child to be born from a man who is divine? Or would God deny his son the chance to be a father? Interesting. Not something I came up with actually, but rather something my husband said, a man who is not of Christian faith. The same man who asks me if the bedroom reflection exists when I walk out of the room. Logically I can find the answer to the question of God denying someone a basic principle of life much easier to come by than the reflection one.

Although Matt does not believe Jesus to be divine, and I do he’s willing to afford my faith the possibility that it could be so. Science and faith do not mesh; they never have despite what anyone says. You cannot prove something on faith alone when it comes to science. You need actual results based upon all sorts of findings and things you can repeat 40 billion times. Faith does not require such things, it requires only belief.

And one may choose to believe as they see fit, for God has given us free will, and in that free will a boy, given First Communion can indeed grow up to become a Taoist and ask his wife if the bedroom reflection exists when she walks out of the room. And a girl who grew up in awe of the sanctity of church, in the security of the ritual, moved by the wonderments of the sacrament, and driven to tears of joy by the mysteries of her faith can also wonder if indeed the son of God could be not only a son but a father as well.