When Atheists Attack - A Discourse in Defense of Faith

As a spiritualist, I often find my hackle rising whilst working out in the everyday world of atheists and cynics. While working in my second job as a barman, just a few days ago, I overheard a conversation between three of the regulars who had been deep in discussion about the ever looming issue of terrorism and religious fundamentalism. Naturally I was eager to hear what they had to say on the matter, having an interest in what motivates people to act as they do, and so I stopped what I was doing to participate in the discussion. I soon wished I hadn't...

"Religion is causing all of the problems in the world!" stated one man who I'll refer to as 'Bill'. I found this proclamation more than rousing for the argumentative facet of my being, and so took up the banner in defense of Faith in general.

"Well, Religion isn't really, is it? People are the cause of the problems, the conflict etc. Religion is merely the scapegoat for all of humanity's wrongdoing, the most convenient excuse that we as a species has adopted to justify the barbarism we perpetrate against one another". Of course, when conversing with middle-aged drunken workmen who know nothing beyond the confines of their work-a-day life, a rational response is not sufficient to sway their opinions in one's favour. and so patron no. 2, who I'll name 'Charlie', chimed in, "It's religion's fault that people do mad things like blow themselves up! If they hadn't been brainwashed by religion into thinking they'll go to heaven for killing people, then it wouldn't happen. Religion is evil, that's what I think!"

Wow... I am powerless to resist your truly flawless logic, sir; for Religion is suddenly a sentient 'thing' capable of brainwashing the masses into doing its bidding. "No," I replied, "People are evil. Religion is simply a means by which greedy, power hungry, murderous megalomaniacs appeal to the minds of those who share their wickedness. Such people who are susceptible to this kind of manipulation are only drawn to religion because they recognise their wickedness and hatred and wish to purge themselves of it but are unable to do so due to their own weak Will." Again, reason failed to breach the walls of human ignorance, and so I was met with this rebuttal...

"No, seriously, what kind of person believes that if they blow themselves up then they'll go to a magical place in the sky where they'll have ninety-six virgins waiting for them? It's stupid!" said Bill haughtily. My veins were starting to run hot with frustration at their lack of deep thought on the matter, but I kept my poker face and replied, "Firstly, heaven is not believed to be a physical place in the sky, but rather another dimension or energetic world which exists within every fabric of this world. Secondly its seventy-two virgins, seventy-two being a sacred number adopted from the Hebrew traditions for the seventy-two names of God and its relevance to the mathematics of natural formations; but you would know this if you would actually take the time and effort to educate yourself and research what you criticise so readily."

Now drunk no. 3, John, decided to have his say, "Well, I think we should do away with religion anyway. Science proves religion wrong every day so why do stupid people cling to it?" Can you guess what my response to this was? Suffice to say that 'calm' was a word fading from my vocabulary at this point. "Because religion isn't the same as dogma; people are brainwashed by manipulating the dogmatic teachings of a religion, but most ignore the dogma and focus on the faith aspect which is the important part. Furthermore, science, at its cutting-edge point at the frontier of quantum physics, and also in astral physics is actually serving to corroborate much of what is written about in the Abrahamic texts. Besides, if we simply do away with religion then humanity will find another excuse to destroy each other, be it land disputes, fighting for non-renewable resources, or the same dogmatic, narrow-minded, hate-fueled ignorance but centered around race or sexuality or political stance etc. Religion solves just as many problems as it 'creates', so disposing of it won't fix anything."

Now the true heart of the issue emerged, the propensity of people to blame all aspects of religion because they personally don't agree with it in general. Bill piped up, "Well I'm an atheist, so I don't have that problem." This gave me all the ammunition I needed to launch my counter attack in defense of faith. "Ah Atheism, the most dangerous religion on the planet, that one." The three looked at me, puzzled, so I elaborated. "Religion, though it has been twisted into a system of socio-political control, provides a moral framework for a majority of people. Studies have already demonstrated that those who ascribe to a set faith have higher IQs than self proclaimed atheists, and that materialistic atheism, i.e. a general lack of belief in a supreme primordial creating consciousness or anything beyond the confines of what can be empirically demonstrated through experimentation, is in fact a form of mental illness, exhibiting the same neuro-chemical markers as the likes of schizophrenia! Religion sets rules, which are based on the social climate of the time and the area in which they are formed, which is why they started out primitive and backwards, but have subsequently evolved and modernised. They teach people to respect themselves and others, to do no harm and to care for the world, to refrain from selfish thoughts and actions, to refrain from lifestyles and practices which are detrimental to mental or physical well being, and they give people something to strive for, something to care about and some hope for the future, even in the face of their own mortality; what does atheism preach? It preaches that there is no creator, there is no design in the universe, there is nothing before or after death, that everything in existence is accidental, everything is meaningless, life has no purpose, and ultimately that because there is nothing after death, we need not fear judgement for our wrongdoing. It strips mankind of its sovereignty, its purpose, its compassion and its accountability. It permits the individual to pursue a life of material gain at any cost, even to the environment or human life, to do as they please with absolute impunity, because 'why bother sticking to the rules? Might as well live life while you can regardless of the consequences!' That is more destructive than any religious dogma I can think of, lacking all reason or real contemplative value, and responsible for more wars than those perpetrated in the name of any God."

I hit a nerve, having inadvertently (or rather intentionally) calling the men not only stupid, but also psychotic. The response was expected and typically focused on only one of the many points conveyed. "Religious people aren't smarter! Even if you're not a Muslim, Christians have to stupid to believe that Jesus went to heaven on a winged white horse! Nothing in history has ever even existed like that, winged white horses never have! So it's all rubbish!" Not only did Charlie unknowingly imply that any winged horse that wasn't white could have existed, he also completely missed the key point in any theological discussion regarding scripture; the stories are not to be taken literally! I made this point transparent. "Has it ever crossed your mind that the winged white horse might actually be symbolic? That the story could be an allegory for something much more profound yet credible, happening in the individual's mind? Even if Jesus wasn't an real person in history, though archaeological evidence suggests that he was, he is still a character formed to represent the 'Universal Man', that is to say, a character whom any ordinary person can try to relate to. His journey and teachings are to guide people in a certain way of living to achieve a state of happiness and oneness with everything in the universe, and so the winged white horse is used to represent the ascent of the physical man to a state of transcendence through a change in thought process and lifestyle. Even the crucifixion is used to teach sacrifice for the betterment of others, to submit yourself to hardship in order to fully take responsibility for your actions and your own life. If you actually thought about what you are saying the you might understand this and not say such things." John seemed to agree with this way of thinking, Billy seemed contemplative on the subject, but Charlie was unwavering in his admonishment of religion and spirituality in general, stating that it obviously doesn't work or else people wouldn't be killing each other in the name of God. Having come full circle I felt unable to muster the Will to bash my head against the proverbial brick wall any longer, and resigned myself to going about my duties on the bar. A similar discussion played out just last night, albeit considerably shorter, with no frustration and a more constructive outcome, after a young american joked that he had been raised a Catholic until he was old enough to actually think for himself. We parted on good terms having reached an agreement that people just need to look deeper into anything and everything they are told rather than taking it at face value, and we laughed about the fossilised specimens of intellectual Darwinism with whom I had conversed previously.

It seems that no matter how hard we try to spread knowledge, how strongly we stand against the tide of ignorance in western society, or how aptly we convey reason to the unenlightened multitudes, we will always be met with disdain, ridicule, adversity, and people who simply don't know and refuse to learn. Do not follow my example; keep cool, collected and keep the flame of compassion burning in your hearts. Do not allow yourselves to be troubled by other people's lack of understanding, or lose your temper when others lose theirs. We are not put on this Earth to make everyone understand or accept us or our views, and we were not put here to care about what they think. I hope this give some people the stockpile of responses necessary to combat opposition from others, and perhaps it can help some people find a way to deal with talking about their faith openly to family or friends by whom they may feel judged. Whatever you gain from this discourse, I hope it helps. Have a good day or night, wherever you are in the world, and may your Gods be with you.

Enki Endymion. O(

The 3am Discourses, Conversations and Ruminations in the Dead of Night - Mathematics in Nature

My most recent late night discussion with my wife began on the topic of how people push us to follow certain paths in life simply to draw benefit for themselves. I have always loved music and wanted to pursue music as my life path for many years; however, over time I was pulled away from following this dream by a series of unfortunate life circumstances, and settled into an average work-a-day life just to get by. Some people in my life have repeatedly tried to push me to pursue that dream, even though doing so would now be detrimental to the life and security I have built over the years; and to all external appearance, these people only want to see me succeed and be happy, but I have come to understand that one person in particular has an ulterior motive for their 'encouragement', for through me pursuing and mastering a working understanding of musical theory, I would then be in a position to fill in gaps in that person's knowledge of the divine mathematics of all musical systems, which the individual has struggled with for many years.

The primary example of this musical mathematics presented itself in the circle of fifths, a diagrammatic representation of the formation of chords in both major and minor scales. the circle is depicted with twelve notes around its circumference representing all of the sharp and flat notes constituting the major scale, and another twelve notes on the inside circumference of the circle representing those sharps and flats in the minor scale. The major scale typically begins with the key note of 'C' at the top of the circle, followed by 'G' in the 1 o'clock position, then 'D', and so on. the structure of chords can be determined by tracing a line across the area of the circle, joining each of the notes which make up the chord, and in doing so, geometric shapes are created. Also, the fact that there are twenty-four notes in the circle in total, but two of them are the key note 'B natural' which does not factor into the formation of any major key chord structures, means that only twenty-two notes are regarded as 'active'. This coupled with the fact that there are seven notes in an octave (the eighth being the same as the first not in the scale), gives us the enigmatic ratio of 22/7. Michael Hayes writes in his groundbreaking book The Infinite Harmony, that 22/7 is the first whole number ratio arising from Pi, since 22÷7=3.142857, and is 0.001% accurate to the true value of Pi (3.141592).

This led us on to discussing the relationship between Pi and Phi (1.61803), and their presence in all natural organic and inorganic structures. We found it interesting that whilst Pi has its whole number representation in the circle of fifths and the ratio of 22/7, Phi has its whole number equivalent in the Fibonacci sequence, in which each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers (i.e. 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21 etc). Pi holds the root to forming geometric shapes whilst Phi holds the root of the Golden Spiral, which is present in everything from microscopic sea life, to the proportions of the human body, to weather systems and spiral-arm galaxies. The even more intriguing aspect to these mathematical works of art is that they are fractal in nature, meaning that they are self replicating in accordance with their own mathematical law, reproducing the same shapes of patterns within and from themselves to infinity. My other observation was that, at least in the case of 22/7, the sequence of decimals appears to decrease in value as it progresses (3.142857142856142855 etc). This got us thinking about how when one tries to draw a circle around a square, then repeat this on a larger scale whilst adhering to the Phi ratio, the corners of the square will not touch the inner circumference of the circle as it did the first time. Only on the fourth repetition do the two shapes reunite perfectly before falling out of alignment again until the seventh repetition, though not as far out of alignment as they were before. This is another visual demonstration of the fundamental laws of natural formations, that absolute perfection is non-existent despite the initial appearance of it. However, just as the shapes grow further apart before realigning, all things in nature correct themselves in order to realign with a pre-existing principle of natural order, all things adjust and adapt their imperfections to achieve a state closer to perfection than what they had before. In the same way, the decimal numbers in 22/7 decrease to come ever closer to a more rational number, a more complete or whole number. It is mathematics' way of striving to achieve perfection, oneness with itself, trying to return to a single point of unity with everything. Just as numbers refine themselves, and geometric shapes fall in and out of alignment to finer and finer degrees, all natural structures, be they people, animals, plants, minerals, weather patterns, sub-atomic formations etc., they will always strive for unity with all other things in existence, all strive for perfection in accordance with the laws of Phi and Pi, the thumb print of the Gods, the tell-tale signs of intelligent design in the universe.

And with that soul-stirring realisation, my wife paused with a satisfied look on her face and concluded the discussion with, "...and that's why we need to poo!" I could not control my laughter, nor could I understand how this was relevant; but she laid my confusion and hysterics to rest by explaining that all things need to take in pat of something else to sustain themselves, an exchange of energy, and in recompense, all things excrete waste which then serves in sustaining something else. Nature takes our imperfections and uses them to the advantage of other living things in the constant pursuit of universal unity and perfection. So folks, if you're ever wondering why everybody poops, you know it's all because of mathematics! Thank you for reading this article. I hope it was helpful and/or interesting. To all of you, have a good day or night, wherever you are in the world, and may the Gods be with you!

Enki Endymion. O(