Observance of “taboo” was primitive man’s effort to dodge ill luck. It is the ancestor of savages’ self control. And the respect these taboos commanded in the mind of the primitive savage, exactly equaled his fear of the powers who were suppose to enforce them.

Fear of chance and the dread of bad luck literally have driven us into the inventions of religions, as supposed insurance against these calamities. Every tribe of us has had its tree of forbidden fruit, literally consisting of branches hanging heavily with thousands of ‘thou shall nots’.

As our savage mind developed to the point we could idea-ize both good and bad, the stage was set for the belief in “sin”. For it was only through the concept of “sin” and transgression against some ‘spirit’ or ‘spook’ or ‘ghost’ that our primitive minds could understand natural death.

Habitual violation of taboo is what became known as “vice”. Primitive law made vice a “crime”, while religion made it a “sin”. “Confession” was a public proclamation of corruption and defilement, followed by meaningless ceremonies and ritualistic schemes of purification.

Renunciation and rituals mortifying the flesh came next.

All this was what was needed to teach savages self control and self denial. To teach us to decrease our personal demands instead of attempting to increase our self gratification. Early cults were especially active in believing in the virtue of physical suffering, forming the basis for the Hebrew, Hindu and Buddhist doctrine of physical humiliation through castration. Vows of self denial and self torture were imagined as ways towards earning spiritual brownie points with god. Especially during times of emotional duress. Pledges that are harmful and of an extreme nature can still be observed among certain groups of us today.

What originated as a ritual among soldiers before going into battle, the denial of sexual gratification in order to heighten senses and awareness, became a continence cult known for tolerating marriage only as a lessor evil then fornication. This led to looking down upon women and started a war against creativity and the home. (Our institution of human progress.)

The formation of celibate priesthoods has all been based on these beliefs in ancient continence cults of self denial and self negation: fasting, deprivation, asceticism, humiliation, sanctification through sorrow and the mortification of the flesh.

We aren’t savages anymore. Self control, self discipline and becoming self governing as a policy of human behavior is wiser then extreme self denial. As a savage we did not understand about peptides. We did not understand about brain chemicals and our ability to produce them on a regular and constant basis. These chemicals our hypothalamus creates and floods the cells of our systems with…

making what we feel, a result of what we believe.

Primitive man imagined a grasping, emotionally insecure god, fashioning it out of his own image. A creditor deity that required all sorts of priests and potentates in order to administer meaningless rituals and sacrifices over an entire lifetime in order to get a man out of ‘spiritual debt’.

Jesus did not teach these unreasonable and irrational views.

Nor did he allow any savage and primal fear of death, dissuade him from delivering his message of unconditional love and all embracing forgiveness.

Is Satan real?

Only to those of us too lazy and emotionally self indulgent to claim our own fears and insecurities AS OUR OWN FEARS AND INSECURITIES.

“Satan” is the name we give our imaginary boogie monster, when we’re too small and bankrupt in inner substance of character to embrace our own demons.

Ah me, ah my. As the saying goes: the outside is a reflection of the inside.

An economic structure of a creditor deity that requires an entire lifetime of self negation to buy our way out of debt.

- Urantia

Notice that even in this work, it is a perspective of denial.  One of Judgement and Condemnation.  Since this tone is very much present in the work, it is easy to see that while intellectually beautiful, it is Spiritually sterile in Understanding of Spiritual realities.  Intellect  is still very much functioning as a slave/servant to instinctual emotions, until transcended through Intuition.  The work in and of itself, is an expression of beliefs in conditional Love, thus is contaminated with polarity/duality concepts.

There is a fundamental flaw in the thinking pattern that approaches experiences in life from a perspective of rejection and /or condemnation. And that fundamental flaw is the fact that there is NO way we will ever UNDERSTAND, so long as our attitude is to reject. The choice has been made to separate our self from the experience.  It is a perspective expressing being ill at ease with life.

It’s simple common sense. Things never add up through subtraction.

There are literally millions of us throughout the world with a genuine desire to understand and very few teachers at the moment. While the numbers of those of us who feed off conflict grow more desperate in their feeding everyday. Such is the reason I respond the way I do sometimes, when a genuine desire for understanding is not expressed.

http://savemenot.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/in-response-to-is-satan-real/#comments

It is a fundamental fact that life consists of both positive AND negative experiences. Highs and lows. Bliss and sorrow. Solomon said it like this: Crooked stick, straight stick, a stick is still a stick.

Each moment in Life is a Present. A Gift. Even when those moments are spent in pain and terror.

I often ask the pointed question: How much do you Love Life?

Because the majority of us can only extend our embrace and our love of it, to include the positive experiences in it, never the negative.

We’re emotionally disabled in our development. We do not know how to emotionally cope with life experiences, most notably, the ones we qualify as ‘negative’. Now I’m not implying we all become sadistic in our pleasures, enjoying the ‘negative’ especially. I am saying we need to find a way to mentally and emotionally deal with it, rather then keep trying to push it away or wipe it off the face of the earth.

Let’s talk about death why don’t we? It’s such a basic and primal fear that it’s easily used to enslave populations and cultures. I’m sure the young Amish ladies did not consciously desire to die. Anymore then any of those who perished in the 9-11- incident desired to die. Or those that were lost in the McMurrough blast in Oklahoma City. Or the residents of Waco, TX. Or Ruby Ridge.

How many of us have to give our lives in order to bring something in front of our mass awareness before we address the problem?

And the problem is…

why are some of us being led to perform such desperate acts in order to be heard and noticed? what drove them to such behavior?

and we won’t ever know nor understand what and why, so long as we’re rejecting and condemning their acts.

Maybe the young women were truly incredible souls? Maybe it was an earnest and genuine desire of their hearts to serve their community and God, too? Their community who’s way of dealing with things in life is to conflict and argue and reject and condemn. Maybe through them, their community saw there was a different choice to make?

One of genuine Integrity? One where Forgiveness is not only preached but practiced. One where understanding is extended and sought rather then retaliation and vengeance. Maybe the young ladies were Handmaidans of Christ? Dedicating their lives to the extension of the Lily rather then a crown of thorns?

Everything has causes, if we but bother to look deep enough. There are no such things as Victims.

It is the nature of Reality to keep shoving in our faces, the exact same experiences we reject and condemn.

When we quit calling things ‘evil’, then ‘evil’ will cease to exist. And we’ll see ignorance, hurt and suffering instead.

It’s that simple.

As an exercise, go outside and try to love a rock. Try to experience any kind of warm fuzzies with an inanimate object. It won’t happen. And the reason it won’t is because what we Love is Life itself, not the form it happens to be expressing itself in and through. The form may “die” but Life continues just the same as waves come and waves go but, the ocean continues.

A wave doesn’t die. It simply returns to the embrace of the ocean.

We don’t die. We simply return home.

It’s a matter of Identity and whether our life is invested in maintaining an identity separate from the Whole or Totality.

To Be One with All That Is, Was and Will Ever Be, requires inclusion of EVERYTHING: positive AND negative, good AND bad, light AND dark birth AND death.

Always embraces ALL ways.

Existence includes everything and everybody.