Peace Dreaming

To my sincere delight, I received an email last week from The Peace Alliance saying that we, the change.org voters, had done it! The establishment of a U. S. Department of Peace was a whopping number two on the top ten list of recommendations that will be presented to President Obama on Inauguration Day.

I whooped when I saw it but probably not for the reason you think. Yes, I'm glad that Peace will have a front seat at the presentation, but the thing that really blew my skirt up is that I am not alone in dreaming peace into reality for our Earth. Thousands of people heard about the opportunity to vote for peace on change.org, and those same thousands took that opportunity, ran with it, and told their peeps.

So, of course, what anonymous quote arrived on my desk this morning?

When we dream alone, it is only a dream. But when we dream together, it is the beginning of a new reality.

Don't you just love the magic of the universe?

The idea that I am dreaming peace alone or that you are dreaming peace alone is what makes peace seem so far from reality. This experience says that I'm not and you're not and we're not . . . dreaming peace alone. Far from it.

We who work for peace do so because we have caught the dream of peace, or perhaps, the dream of peace has caught us. The illustration for this essay is an indigenous instrument called a dream catcher.

Won't you catch the dream of peace for the whole world? No exceptions.

Dr. Susan Corso is an omnifaith minister. What matters to her isn't what you believe--it's that you believe. A published author, a speaker, a corporate consulting chief spiritual officer, a spiritual counselor for over 25 years. She blogs for the Huffington Post and Ode Magazine, and is author of the spiritual fiction series, The Adventures of Mex Stone. Those intrigued are warmly invited to explore her website http://www.susancorso.com and for spiritual nourishment, continually visit her personal blog http://www.seedsforsanctuary.com

An Alternative Version of Adam and the Woman in the Garden of Eden

Can Genesis in the bible be read to mean something completely differently that the various forms of Paulian Christianity deem it to be? Yes it can, and if it is read literally the meaning is surprising.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female he created he them. (Genesis 1-27 KJV)

This was long before Adam and Eve so Adam was not the first 'man'. What was the purpose of man? To have 'dominion' over the earth and everything that lived on it. Basically man was God's caretaker. It is interesting that according the Genesis that at this stage man and all the animals where vegetarian. With man as his caretaker and everything ticking over nicely God could take a rest.

But God did not leave it there, and Genesis continues with a contradiction.

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into hid nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2-7 KJV)

If man (male and female) already existed this could be God giving man a soul. We had progressed from one of the animals to having a soul.

The next section of Genesis, from chapter 2 verses 8 to 14, describes how God created the Garden of Eden. Surprisingly from such a detailed description there is no place on earth that has the physical features of the Garden of Eden. But there is one place that fits. That place is the human brain.

The circular river flowing out into four lands is a match for the Circle of Willis, the blood supply to the human brain. Man suddenly becomes Adam. No reason given or suggestion before this that man had a name. Not surprising since man was the generic name covering both male and female.

It is Adam who is placed in the centre of the Garden of Eden. It could be that Adam is the name given to the newly created soul, and that the soul was placed in the centre of the human brain. This would be about the position of the 'third eye' of Eastern religions. There is progression here.

We start with a humanoid whose purpose is to look after the planet for God. We then progress to humanoid with a soul place at the centre of a developed brain. We are not yet at the human stage as we know it. The next step comes with the naming of the animals.

And Adam gave names to all the cattle, and to all the fowl of the air, and of every beast in the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him. (Genesis 2-20 KJV)

The Book of J version is much clearer than the Christian Old Testament at this point.

'It is not good for man to be alone', said Yahweh. 'I will make a partner to stand beside him' So Yahweh shaped out of the soil all the creatures of the field and birds of the air to see how he would call them. Whatever the man called became the creature's name. Soon all wild animals had names the man gave them, all birds of the air, and creatures of the field, but the man did not his partner amongst them. (Part of Chapter 4, Book of J translated by David Rosenberg, Vintage, New York, 1990)

Man was no longer one of the animals and he was lonely. But 'man' is the generic name. There where others, male and female, so loneliness should not have been a problem. This must have been a special loneliness. If it was Adam that was lonely then it is the soul that was lonely. The soul needed a partner.

Why would the soul need a partner? My hypotheses is that with a single soul mans consciousness would have been external. Mans only source of reference was the animals and birds but this was not enough.

The soul needed a source of reference so that it could know itself. So woman was created from Adam's life (an alternative translation to rib). Woman would have been an exact clone of Adam. Man now had an internal mirror. The soul called Adam would now itself because it could see Eve. The soul called woman would know itself because it could see Adam.

Man was now conscious of itself from within because the soul now had a partner. There is no mention of Eve in the whole story. Eve only appears later as a wife who became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. So now man was now internally conscious. Man now new the meaning of the word 'I'.

Therefore shall a man a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be as one flesh. (Genesis 2-24 KJV)

Man has now moved on and left its heritage behind. Man is now unique in that it is a fully internally conscious species. They have each other but are separate from its half conscious forbearers.

In the centre of the Garden (The Human Brain) are two trees, the Tree of Life (the connection to all life), and the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil (judgment). The only thing we must not do is judge good and evil.

There is a reason for this. The twin soul system of internal consciousness is very elegant. It is an almost perfect system with only one weakness. If the souls start judging each other the system self destructs. As the souls start judging each other the perfect mirror is lost.

There is still an internal mirror but it is a mirror of conflict and the twin souls degenerate into what we know as the soul and the ego at war with each other. The final move is for God to move the souls out of the centre of the brain to the right hemisphere so that they do not interfere with the tree of life.

So why did the souls start to judge? My guess is that there was one thing missing. We did not have an innate sense of self. We know we existed as a separate entity but had no idea who that entity was. That was the beginning of our problems.

There are three questions that caught us out. Who am I? How did I get Here? Why am I here? Given these three unanswerable question it was inevitable that we should judge and invent religion, philosophy, race, creed, color, nationality and sexism in an effort to give ourselves some form of identity.

To view David's work, and to contact David please go to his website http://www.david-young.com.au There is a comment question/answer box on the Article page where you can post your question. You can also link through my Bio link on this page. David Young has been writing for twenty years on any subject relating to the human condition. The human race is capable of much greater things than it has achieved in the past. The key to greater achievements, and the elimination of negatives like war, greed , poverty and oppression (to name a few) is for people to make informed choices based on understanding instead of just leaving it to the experts to tell us what to think. Much of David's work involves looking at issues and translating them into plain language. If the expert spoke in plain language we would understand that the experts know no more than we do. We are both spiritual and physical beings. The two must go together if we are to be complete in this world. When writing on spiritual subjects this is always tempered with bringing our spiritual being into the world. If one or the other is neglected we suffer. These are the twin motivators of my work. Physical well being and understanding issues so that we have choices, and making those choices from a spiritual base of knowing who we are.

Replacement Theology Refuted!

The Bible clearly teaches that the Hebrew God chose Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for a special purpose to ultimately affect all humanity.

God first revealed Himself to "the fathers" and promised to be their God and the God of their descendants. The rest of mankind was "temporarily" left in the dark and to their own devices.

God drafted the 12 Tribes of Israel to become His Servant Nation. Moses rejoiced in ISRAEL'S UNIQUE CREATION (Deut.4:32-34).

The Great Creator God had never chosen any other people to represent Him. He had never inducted any other nation into His international service. He had never revealed Himself and entrusted His "Instruction Manual for Mankind," His holy Law and Word, His Divine Constitution, to any other nation or people in history!

Of physical Israel, God declares: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth" (Amos 3:2), and "He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD" (Ps. 147:19-20).

Yes, God ordained Israel to serve as His Custodian of Divine Revelation, specifically the Jews (Rom. 3:1-2). And please note that this was written AFTER the Church was founded and Jesus had given certain authority to his apostles!

The lying proponents of "replacement theology" deny that there's any advantage to being a Jew or an Israelite. The apostle Paul, under inspiration, strongly disagrees! He wisely continues Jesus' recognition of the Jew's God-given authority: "The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do" (Matt. 23:2-3). And Moses prophesied that the Jews are to retain their God-given authority until Christ restores Israel as "One Nation under God."

Moses didn't say that Gentiles or the Church had any right to covet or steal that responsibility from the Jews: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, UNTIL Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be" (Gen. 49:10). Jesus didn't do that at His first coming, which is why His disciples asked Him after His resurrection and just before His ascension: "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6). The King of the Jews will accomplish that divine mission when He returns!

God formed Israel as His Holy Nation, instructed them as His Son, and inducted them into His Divine Service. They received a special calling to become a KINGDOM OF PRIESTS, a MODEL NATION, a LIGHT TO ALL NATIONS. God decreed Israel would be "above [not equal to] all people, And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation" (Ex. 19:5-6).

NO OTHER NATION CAN COMPARE TO GOD'S RELATIONSHIP WITH ISRAEL AND HIS REVELATION TO THEM! (Deut. 4:5-8). Please understand that this utterly unique relationship and revelation is what made Israel great, it wasn't something inherent within them. It was a gift and a blessing they had received from God, despite themselves. It wasn't because they were any better than anybody else; it wasn't because of their race; it was because of GOD'S PURPOSE AND GRACE (Deut. 7:7-8; 9:5; Matt. 3:9; Rom. 3:23; 9:10-18).

The apostle Paul wrote to Church brethren, about their different gifts and calling (they weren't all equal): "For who makes thee to differ from another? And what do you have that you didn't receive? Now if you received it, why do you glory, as if you hadn't received it?" (1 Cor. 4:7). It is by God's design that individuals and nations should have different and distinct gifts and callings.

It is our Heavenly Father who directs and establishes us where we belong in His plan, whether it's in the Church or among the nations (Deut. 32:8). Who are we to question His wisdom or to quarrel about positions? (Isa. 45:9-10; Matt. 20:23; 1 Cor. 12:18).

Jesus is the Firstborn of many brethren, the Church is the collective firstfruits of humanity, and ISRAEL IS THE FIRSTBORN OF MANY NATIONS! In fact, Isaiah 19:25 pronounces: "Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance." God has dealt with those three nations more than any others on earth. That is His choice and prerogative. But for now, God has privately tutored Israel like He commands fathers to teach their sons (Deut. 6:7).

God has never referred to any other nation as His Son! Only Israel has that honor: "Thou art my Son" (Ps. 2:7), and "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt" (Hos. 11:1). We're the little boy that will show the way to the whole world, once God has subdued our sins, conquered our enemies and changed their bestial natures to befriend us (Micah 7:19-20; Isa. 11:6; Zech. 8:23).

We need to grow up and we will. Israel has been given a head-start in spiritual education, a special advantage, compared to others. We're not yet mature as a grown man but at least we're a child while others are still acting like animals! (Lev. 26:22; Rev. 13:18). Nevertheless, "I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light to the Gentiles; I am the LORDand my glory will I not give to another" (Isa. 42:6,8).

God will faithfully fulfill His purpose for calling physical Israel. He will finish what He's started with our nation! He won't offer that opportunity to any other! God promises, despite the demonic doctrine of replacement theology: "This people [Israel] have I formed for myself: they shall show forth my praise" (Isa. 43:21). Not Germany or Italy or Ethiopia! Do we believe God? Do we doubt He's capable of redeeming Israel? Replacement theology doesn't trust God and denies His saving power! It attempts to limit the Holy One of Israel!

God refers to future events as if they had already happened, since He knows He'll bring them to pass! (Rom. 4:17). Israel is the first nation that God has called out of spiritual Babylon, but they're only the first and not the last. God has called physical Israel to prepare them to serve as a CONVERTED NATION with but under His brilliant Kingdom of God-Beings, just like the GLORIFIED CHURCH is destined to serve as Immortal Priest-Kings, with but under Christ! (Rev. 3:21; 20:6).ISRAEL WILL BE THE FIRST NATION TO RECEIVE THE HOLY SPIRIT! (Ezek. 39:29; Isa. 44:3). Then we'll share our spiritual blessings with all mankind: "But ye [Israel] shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God; And [Israel's] seed [physical descendants] shall be known among the Gentiles, and their [literal] offspring among the people: all that see them shall [finally] ACKNOWLEDGE THEM, that they are the seed which the LORD hath blessed" (Isa. 61:6,9; Isa. 60:14). And at that time the tribes of Israel will acknowledge Judah for faithful service (Gen. 49:8, Zech. 8:23).

Christ will rule from Jerusalem as Israel's God-King, and yet there will also be a human prince and other mortals reigning under Him (Jer. 30:21; 33:26; Ezek. 46; Zech. 14:16). Likewise, internationally, the human nation of Israel will rule with but under the divine Kingdom-Family of God, and Zadok's physical descendants will faithfully serve in the Temple at headquarters (Ezek. 44:15).

All of the above glorifies God for his tender mercies and faithfulness to our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It reveals that "with God all things are possible." It confirms that "I would not, [Gentile] brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, UNTIL the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so, all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is my covenant with them, when I shall take away their sins; as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob), FOR THE GIFTS AND CALLING OF GOD ARE IRREVOCABLE" (Rom. 11:25-29).

Those who foolishly push replacement theology are "wise in their own conceits." They have shamefully twisted the Scriptures that refer to spiritual Jews, to spiritual Jerusalem, the spiritual Temple and spiritual Israel - that generously admits repentant Gentiles into the SPIRITUAL COMMONWEALTH OF ISRAEL - to spiritualize away God's faithful promises to physical Israel! Now that they've been admitted, they jealously want to exclude Judah and usurp Israel from their rightful place in God's plan! (Rom. 11:24). Individual Israelites may fall away, converted Gentiles grafted in, but the NATION OF ISRAEL is here to stay!

"O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance; We are thine: thou never barest rule over them [Gentiles]; they were not called by thy name" (Isa. 63:17-19).

Some Gentiles have forgotten that God hasn't called Israel to become spiritual Gentiles, but has called everyone to become spiritual Israelites! They've forgotten that ISRAEL IS THE HOLY ROOT to which they've become attached. Paul warned them: "Boast not against the branches. But if you boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee" (Rom. 11:18).

They forget that the Church is CONVERTED ISRAEL that embraces righteous Gentiles. They've ignored the biblical principle of DUALITY. That there's the physical and there's the spiritual, and that both have their ordained place. Satan is the one who would love to spiritualize Israel away into oblivion. He wants God to break His promises to physical Israel and let them die in a spiritual holocaust!

However, God refuses to forget His physical people Israel and His holy purpose for them! "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee" (Isa. 49:14-15,Jer. 31:20).

We're supposed to ENCOURAGE ISRAEL TO REMEMBER THEIR ROOTS AND JUDAH HIS RESPONSIBILITY BEFORE GOD, not discourage them. Nevertheless, God remembers them and places His special protective seal upon 144,000 Israelites before the Day of the Lord (Rev. 7:4), and purposely names the 12 gates of the New Jerusalem after the 12 Tribes! (Rev. 21:12). This ought to prove that Israel remains first and foremost in God's Mind (Zech. 2:8). After all, salvation is to the Jew first and then to the Gentile (Acts 3:26; Rom. 1:16).

Paul addresses the nonsense of those who would belittle Israel by asking, "Has God cast away his people? GOD FORBID!" He goes on to show that God has always graciously preserved an ISRAELITE REMNANT, a "holy lump," even when He permitted the majority of Israel to go astray so that He could meanwhile recruit Gentiles (Rom. 11:1,5,16).

Those who preach the polluted propaganda of replacement theology would say physical Israel doesn't matter any more, but Paul clearly fought against such damnable lies! He also reminded his Gentile audience that it's the Israelites who were given everything from the Land Covenant to the Law (Rom. 9:4-5).

Those who preach Satan's lies against Israel had better read and believe and take warning! God says, despite Israel's horrible sins, "I WILL NOT CAST THEM AWAY, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God. But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their [physical] ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD" (Lev. 26:44-45).

And with physical Judah and Israel, God promises to enter into a new or renewed covenant: "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a NEW COVENANT with the House of Israel, and with the House of Judah" (Jer. 31:31). God also states emphatically that just as surely as the sun, moon and stars continue to shine, "If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a NATION before me forever. Thus saith the LORD: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD" (Jer. 31:35-37).

Again, God has heard the lies of those who say that He's spiritualized away His precious promises, that the TWO PHYSICAL FAMILIES OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH (and literal descendants of David and Levi) aren't important anymore, and says such blasphemers "Have despised my people, that they should be no more a NATION before them. Thus saith the LORD; If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; Then will I cast away the SEED of Jacob (unconverted Israel), and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be RULERS over the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them" (Jer. 33:17-26).

GOD'S WORD STANDS: Those who deny it will be history! "For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed" (Malachi 3:6). God will keep His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to their physical descendants: Israel will become His model nation, His Kingdom of Priests and His light to all nations (Lk. 1:68-75). We can bet our lives on it!

David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer in Ohio and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out Beyond Babylon.

Developing Spirituality

Most people define spirituality as some sort of feeling generated from calmness of mind or some sort of place to go where one feels secure and comfortable in times of need. My own definition of spirituality slowly evolved over many years.

At first I wasn't looking for spirituality, nor was I interested in what it was. I was interested in fighting, specifically karate. My whole thrust was to learn how to fight. Although I had heard the word spirituality, I had no idea of its meaning, nor was I interested. Looking back I could see that actually I was headed in the right direction without realizing it. I was traveling the road to spirituality by undertaking a modality specifically geared to introducing one to himself or herself. That hidden part of us rarely mentioned, but felt.

You go about finding yourself through testing your limits within a modality such as yoga or martial arts. The limits are both physical and mental. From learning the precise movements of the kata (fighting an imaginary opponent) of karate to sitting in an uncomfortable posture while trying to meditate in yoga. It is all the same. Discipline occupies our minds as our bodies rebel against the movements or postures of the modality. Yet they must be done over and over again until no thought is involved in their practice. You become the practice and the practice leads you to yourself.

Once you have started to open the door to your real self, calmness starts to become your real environment. You function out of a stillness generated from within, and that within is your link to the understanding of spirituality. Spirituality is that link to the universe found deep within our psyches. It is the glue that binds us together. We are all spiritual beings seeking out ourselves and manifesting our true nature in our everyday lives. It's like traveling a long circular road and upon reaching your starting point you realize that you were always there, going nowhere, forever traveling back to yourself.

Find a modality specific to your personality and make it your own through your practice.

http://www.realyoga.org/

Peace Dreaming

To my sincere delight, I received an email last week from The Peace Alliance saying that we, the change.org voters, had done it! The establishment of a U. S. Department of Peace was a whopping number two on the top ten list of recommendations that will be presented to President Obama on Inauguration Day.

I whooped when I saw it but probably not for the reason you think. Yes, I'm glad that Peace will have a front seat at the presentation, but the thing that really blew my skirt up is that I am not alone in dreaming peace into reality for our Earth. Thousands of people heard about the opportunity to vote for peace on change.org, and those same thousands took that opportunity, ran with it, and told their peeps.

So, of course, what anonymous quote arrived on my desk this morning?

When we dream alone, it is only a dream. But when we dream together, it is the beginning of a new reality.

Don't you just love the magic of the universe?

The idea that I am dreaming peace alone or that you are dreaming peace alone is what makes peace seem so far from reality. This experience says that I'm not and you're not and we're not . . . dreaming peace alone. Far from it.

We who work for peace do so because we have caught the dream of peace, or perhaps, the dream of peace has caught us. The illustration for this essay is an indigenous instrument called a dream catcher.

Won't you catch the dream of peace for the whole world? No exceptions.

Dr. Susan Corso is an omnifaith minister. What matters to her isn't what you believe--it's that you believe. A published author, a speaker, a corporate consulting chief spiritual officer, a spiritual counselor for over 25 years. She blogs for the Huffington Post and Ode Magazine, and is author of the spiritual fiction series, The Adventures of Mex Stone. Those intrigued are warmly invited to explore her website http://www.susancorso.com and for spiritual nourishment, continually visit her personal blog http://www.seedsforsanctuary.com

An Alternative Version of Adam and the Woman in the Garden of Eden

Can Genesis in the bible be read to mean something completely differently that the various forms of Paulian Christianity deem it to be? Yes it can, and if it is read literally the meaning is surprising.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female he created he them. (Genesis 1-27 KJV)

This was long before Adam and Eve so Adam was not the first 'man'. What was the purpose of man? To have 'dominion' over the earth and everything that lived on it. Basically man was God's caretaker. It is interesting that according the Genesis that at this stage man and all the animals where vegetarian. With man as his caretaker and everything ticking over nicely God could take a rest.

But God did not leave it there, and Genesis continues with a contradiction.

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into hid nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2-7 KJV)

If man (male and female) already existed this could be God giving man a soul. We had progressed from one of the animals to having a soul.

The next section of Genesis, from chapter 2 verses 8 to 14, describes how God created the Garden of Eden. Surprisingly from such a detailed description there is no place on earth that has the physical features of the Garden of Eden. But there is one place that fits. That place is the human brain.

The circular river flowing out into four lands is a match for the Circle of Willis, the blood supply to the human brain. Man suddenly becomes Adam. No reason given or suggestion before this that man had a name. Not surprising since man was the generic name covering both male and female.

It is Adam who is placed in the centre of the Garden of Eden. It could be that Adam is the name given to the newly created soul, and that the soul was placed in the centre of the human brain. This would be about the position of the 'third eye' of Eastern religions. There is progression here.

We start with a humanoid whose purpose is to look after the planet for God. We then progress to humanoid with a soul place at the centre of a developed brain. We are not yet at the human stage as we know it. The next step comes with the naming of the animals.

And Adam gave names to all the cattle, and to all the fowl of the air, and of every beast in the field; but for Adam there was not found a help meet for him. (Genesis 2-20 KJV)

The Book of J version is much clearer than the Christian Old Testament at this point.

'It is not good for man to be alone', said Yahweh. 'I will make a partner to stand beside him' So Yahweh shaped out of the soil all the creatures of the field and birds of the air to see how he would call them. Whatever the man called became the creature's name. Soon all wild animals had names the man gave them, all birds of the air, and creatures of the field, but the man did not his partner amongst them. (Part of Chapter 4, Book of J translated by David Rosenberg, Vintage, New York, 1990)

Man was no longer one of the animals and he was lonely. But 'man' is the generic name. There where others, male and female, so loneliness should not have been a problem. This must have been a special loneliness. If it was Adam that was lonely then it is the soul that was lonely. The soul needed a partner.

Why would the soul need a partner? My hypotheses is that with a single soul mans consciousness would have been external. Mans only source of reference was the animals and birds but this was not enough.

The soul needed a source of reference so that it could know itself. So woman was created from Adam's life (an alternative translation to rib). Woman would have been an exact clone of Adam. Man now had an internal mirror. The soul called Adam would now itself because it could see Eve. The soul called woman would know itself because it could see Adam.

Man was now conscious of itself from within because the soul now had a partner. There is no mention of Eve in the whole story. Eve only appears later as a wife who became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. So now man was now internally conscious. Man now new the meaning of the word 'I'.

Therefore shall a man a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be as one flesh. (Genesis 2-24 KJV)

Man has now moved on and left its heritage behind. Man is now unique in that it is a fully internally conscious species. They have each other but are separate from its half conscious forbearers.

In the centre of the Garden (The Human Brain) are two trees, the Tree of Life (the connection to all life), and the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil (judgment). The only thing we must not do is judge good and evil.

There is a reason for this. The twin soul system of internal consciousness is very elegant. It is an almost perfect system with only one weakness. If the souls start judging each other the system self destructs. As the souls start judging each other the perfect mirror is lost.

There is still an internal mirror but it is a mirror of conflict and the twin souls degenerate into what we know as the soul and the ego at war with each other. The final move is for God to move the souls out of the centre of the brain to the right hemisphere so that they do not interfere with the tree of life.

So why did the souls start to judge? My guess is that there was one thing missing. We did not have an innate sense of self. We know we existed as a separate entity but had no idea who that entity was. That was the beginning of our problems.

There are three questions that caught us out. Who am I? How did I get Here? Why am I here? Given these three unanswerable question it was inevitable that we should judge and invent religion, philosophy, race, creed, color, nationality and sexism in an effort to give ourselves some form of identity.

To view David's work, and to contact David please go to his website http://www.david-young.com.au There is a comment question/answer box on the Article page where you can post your question. You can also link through my Bio link on this page. David Young has been writing for twenty years on any subject relating to the human condition. The human race is capable of much greater things than it has achieved in the past. The key to greater achievements, and the elimination of negatives like war, greed , poverty and oppression (to name a few) is for people to make informed choices based on understanding instead of just leaving it to the experts to tell us what to think. Much of David's work involves looking at issues and translating them into plain language. If the expert spoke in plain language we would understand that the experts know no more than we do. We are both spiritual and physical beings. The two must go together if we are to be complete in this world. When writing on spiritual subjects this is always tempered with bringing our spiritual being into the world. If one or the other is neglected we suffer. These are the twin motivators of my work. Physical well being and understanding issues so that we have choices, and making those choices from a spiritual base of knowing who we are.

How Did You Choose Your Religion

How do we come to believe in a religion, one that most of us never even chose? How many people reading this article right now believe in the same religion of their parents and how many of your parents believe in the same religion of their ancestors.

Do you think it has anything to do with repetition? If your parents made it through life, you can do the same and if they went to church every Sunday, by god that's what you're going to do. If these people save their money up for retirement and worked at a 40 hour a week jobs, with all the other hardships that life seems to pass on us, you can do exactly the same thing.

I'm not too familiar with other religions but seem to know a lot about Christianity. As a young Christian I was baptized and went to church every Sunday. The most important part to me about going to church, was the snack I would receive during Sunday school. I really can't tell you what I remember or if I learned very much while attending my church classes.

I do however remember my parents creating a belief in my mind of a God and that God was in charge of everything. If I was bad, God wouldn't like that at all, but if I was good god would like me and maybe if I was even good enough, one day I would get to go to heaven and heaven is a wonderful place to be.

Is this how you came about your religion? You just seemed to follow the path of your parents, family or friends with very little thought, this is just the way it is and you're fine with that. Or are you one of those believers that is almost cult like and could never be convinced that your religion is wrong. You know without a doubt that you need to spread the message of your religion to everyone on earth.

Are you one of the rare individuals who have studied about their childhood religion and have now chosen another path. Has someone convinced you that their religion is better than your old one and now you have switched and can't believe how happy you are.

Thinking about how I never chose my religion, forced me to study other religions, to see which one was right. I am even more confused than when I first started but no longer believe in my childhood religion. I've often wondered what our world would be like without organized religion or somebody trying to control us like the government. Both of these organizations seem to do a pretty good job making us believe they're looking out for our best interests.