Chapter 12
THE SPIRITUAL PATH
Religions
Although the intention of this book was simply to compare Genesis with science, it has been inevitable to analyze Eden; and while analyzing Eden was also inevitable to analyze the origin of the Jewish people, the chosen people.
By becoming aware of the task given to the chosen people I have understood so many attitudes and policies that have upset me, both of the Jewish people and the Catholic Church.
Now I understand why the Jews did not want to mix; the reason that the Catholic Church has replaced the pagan celebrations by their own festivities; or why they have replaced the pagan gods for the God of the Hebrews, the God of Catholics, the God of the Hindus, the god of the Buddhists, ultimately, by the one God.
Perhaps it is time for humanity to understand that we are ready to take a new step, the next step in this spiritual path; and accept that if there is only one God that God should be the same for all religions.
Sometimes I think that religions are like fleas on a car.
The idea, the image I would like to convey is this: there are fleas scattered by a car. Some of them have the revelation of "seeing" beyond and try to share it with the others; then one says, "I have seen God and know how He is." Then those around it ask: "How is He? Tell us, how is God?” The one that had the revelation answers: "It's black, soft and jagged." Sure, that's its vision because it was on one of the wheels. Another, who also had a revelation, however says: "No, I saw God, and He is red, smooth and glossy" -of course, it describes Him this way because it was on the body. Another exclaims: "All of you are wrong, for I have seen God, and He is not like you say. God is gray and oily." -the latter was located in the engine.
In fact, all have seen God and all have part of the truth, and the only difference and where the problem of the alleged contradictions lies is, in my view, that they have accessed Him from different perspectives; they have witnessed many facets, visions of divinity, and, being unable to access the full view of God, as it were, there's no way they can possibly agree.
The question is: is there anyone who has had a full view? The answer is: No. God is immeasurable, infinite, and a human mind, finite, measurable, cannot understand by its own nature the immeasurable.
Lao Tse [14] said that, if one could describe God, they were actually talking about something else, because God could not be described. God -he said- is abstract, amorphous, intangible, inaudible and incomprehensible; as he argued that man has the need to name things, thus he referred to it with the word Tao [15].
And why can´t we see God completely?
Perhaps simply because we do not want, or perhaps because we do not want to give up the installments.
But there is no hurry. The spiritual path is a path that we all run at our own pace, and God is the place where we will all arrive, inexorably, sooner or later...
14 - Lao-tse, also called Lao Tzu, Lao Zi, Laozi or Laocio, pinyin: the (ozi (literally 'Old Master'.) is a figure whose historical existence is debated; he is one of the most important philosophers of Chinese civilization. Chinese tradition states that he lived in the sixth century BC., but many modern scholars argue that he may have lived in about the fourth century BC.
15 - Tao is a metaphysical concept originating from Taoism, but also widely used in Confucianism and Chan Buddhism (Zen in Japanese) and in the Chinese religion and philosophy. The word itself can be translated literally as the way, the path, or the route; or as the method or doctrine as well. In Taoism it refers to the primordial essence or fundamental aspect of the universe; it is the natural order of existence, which actually cannot be named, in contrast to the countless “nameable” things in which it manifests itself.
Next...
APENDIX I
The Bible
The Bible is a compilation of texts that were originally separate documents (called "books") first written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek for a very lengthy period, then assembled to form the Tanakh (Old Testament to Christians) and then the New Testament. Both testaments form the Christian Bible. The Bible as such was written over 1000 years (from 900 BC to100 AD). The oldest texts are in the Book of Judges ("Song of Deborah") and in the so-called "E" (Elohist tradition) and "J" (Yahwistic tradition) sources of the Torah (called Pentateuch by Christians) which is dated at the time of the two kingdoms (tenth to eighth century BC). The oldest complete book, that of Hosea, is also from the same era. The Jewish people identify the Bible with the Tanakh, not indulging in any way the term Old Testament; and they do not accept the validity of the so-called New Testament, but identifying the Tanakh as the only sacred text....
