Introduction

What in the world is God doing? Is there any purpose behind the pain of existence? Have we concocted a god of our own creation in a search for meaning? Or, has God created an interactive virtual reality designed to force us to seek answers? Is there any sense to life at all? Have we caused God to simply throw up metaphorical hands in frustration and go off fishing? These questions MUST resonate in the mind of all introspective individual. Those operating at a basically emotional level can hide on one side of the issue or the other. But, the truly introspective individual is left in a quandary. How can a loving God be the author of the world in which we find ourselves?

Atheists will smugly proclaim "there is no God. It's survival of the fittest." But, an intelligent thinker sees design in nature and wonders at the symbiosis of it all. Neither the termite nor its cellulose-digesting bacteria can exist without one another. The bee could not survive a single season without the flower and vice versa. Just how did the Arctic Tern learn to leave its habitat at one polar region, just when its food supply is at its most plentiful, flying over trackless oceans in-between, so it would arrive just as food becomes available at the opposing polar region? It had to get it right the first time. And, what of such other "divine jokes" such as the angler fish, the archerfish, and the duckbilled platypus? Doesn't the fact that they even exist tell us something? Oh, yeah, and why does water expand just before freezing into its solid form - the only liquid to do so? If it didn't, life would not be possible. Ultimate design demands an ultimate designer.

Fundamentalists would insist "all these churches cannot be wrong." The stock answer to any particular challenge to their faith seems to be, "Scripture plainly says…" But, if scripture is so plain, why are there so many differing interpretations? Christianity is a crazy quilt of contradictory representations. It doesn't require a mathematician to see that, if any one of "all these churches" is right, then the others are wrong by elimination. Roman Catholics arrogantly proclaim their Traditions prove them to be The One. But, scripture plainly says, "Ye have made my laws to null effect by your vain traditions."

The "little flock" founded by Jesus was torn from the very beginning by it's own disagreements, just as his seamless robe was rent asunder by the Romans. Is it any wonder, then, that the church that emerged from the Great Persecution of Emperor Nero bore little resemblance to that which had descended into this dark page of history? So, how can we insist that our faith is based on scriptures that contain the literal Word of God, especially when those self-same scriptures can be twisted to support diametrically opposing points of view?

It doesn't take a Ph.D. in History, just an open-minded student, to perceive while we may not all be right; we could certainly all be wrong. And, this dichotomy spreads itself like the proverbial primordial ooze over the entire spectrum of Man's religious systems. So, again I ask, what in the world is God doing? To ask such a question is to enter the realm of independent thought otherwise thought of as heresy (heresos: <Gr.> to form one's own opinion).

One's beliefs need not question the divinity of Jesus the Christ, or even be dead wrong in other presumptions to be considered heretical. One need only threaten the established control structure to end up the guest of honor at a weenie roast. Such notables as Galileo Galilee have achieved such note by pointing out obvious errors, such as the relationship of the Earth to the Sun, Moon, and stars, thus denying the place of our place at the center of everything. Lesser knowns like Giordano Bruno suffered the ultimate penalty for something as simple as speculating on the infiniteness of creation. Then there is the enigma of Martin Luther who went from Orthodoxy to accused heretic, proclaiming the right of all to seek out a private relationship with God. Then, ultimately, returning full circle, persecuting as heretics those in disagreement with his newly established Lutheran orthodoxy. Therein lies the basic problem with the established religions of mankind.

Christian history should resonate with examples of those who put personal well being aside in the search for ultimate truth. Alas, in an attempt to promote uniformity at the expense of truth, the Religious Establishment has sought to dig up their graves and grind their bones of contention into the dusts of oblivion. "The Faith has always been one," they proclaim; but this is a lie. Nothing could be further from the truth. In the ensuing chapters, I will endeavor to prove my case.

In the first centuries CE, diversity of faith was the rule rather than the exception. Fueled by the rich context of the Greek speaking world, this marriage Hellenistic Judaism powered Christian thought. We might think that the message and nature of Jesus would have been a commonly held agreement, but such was in no way the case. Even among those who agreed in the deity of Jesus, the question of whether he had been created or eternally present was hotly debated.

So much was the young religion fractured that, when the Roman Emperor Constantine decided to elevate Christianity to the level of State Religion, he was dismayed by the intensity of infighting. At the First Counsel of Nicaea, the Emperor "made an offer they couldn’t refuse," orchestrating unity of faith at the pain of death or banishment. Empire demanded a hero at least as immortal as those being supplanted. A human Jesus would be totally unacceptable. The Roman Empire deserved no less than a Jesus glorified to deity – worthy of worship. The resultant organism would become so powerful, it would survive the collapse of its host - the Roman Empire.

How did this self-effacing carpenter of Nazareth become the ultimate icon of mind control? Do today's churches represent His message of mercy, or has Christianity completely lost its groove? Are we posed at the threshold of actual or metaphorical return Jesus as the Christ? If so, would He bomb Iraq? Read on. The higher knowledge lifts us, the broader the horizon becomes. However, no matter how high we should rise into the Cosmos, we still can see but one side of the orb of our beliefs without orbiting to the other hemisphere to view an opposing perspective.

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