I’ve spent years in consideration of this subject. Thinking about God as Tripartite Being and Man having been made in 'God’s Image.'
TO my mind, the question is: Was Man made in God’s Image? Or was God made in Man’s image? Our ancient ancestors were some very shrewd people for all that they lived in the late stone/early bronze-age.
In the common Christian view, God is represented as being three distinct characters who share one 'Godhood.' 'The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.' We can reduce that to Mind, Body, Soul (or spirit)
We are reflected in the image of God in another way, as well. In Human marriage, we also take on the aspect of mirroring God, as told to us in the bible. Husband/Protector, Wife/Nurturer and the spirit of love that the two engender.
The ancients who made those connections, realized a basic fact, Nature builds on threes. A structure of three is provably the most stable. Pyramids are four triangular structures, joined at the points; in Chemistry, there is a naturally occurring complex hydrocarbon molecule called the “Bucky Ball” after Physicist R. Buckminster Fuller. Bucky Fuller also invented the Geodesic Dome, and other triangular-based shapes. Fuller showed us that the ’Bucky Ball’ can be created and that it will hold and store molecules. Without the rule of threes, we wouldn’t have ever invented triangulation. Triangulation is the basic method we still use to determine how far away something is. Surveyors use it to determine lines. Without that, we’d have never invented the Astrolabe and become aware of Latitudes, or later, the Sextant, so that we could calculate both Latitude and Longitude We wouldn't even have modern GPS without the theory of threes.
So, moving along. We perceive ourselves as a three-part Being. We are made up of our Body, Mind and Spirit. All three parts demand attention and growth. We feed and water our bodies, we exercise them, we take care of them. We strengthen or at least maintain them to some degree of meaningful health. We take care of our minds. We learn and discuss and experiment. We imagine a thing, then we exercise our minds to discover how to make that thing, we do well in taking care of our bodies and minds in general. Our spirit is a completely different matter. We spend our whole lives on 'Spiritual Quests.' We try to grow it, we revere things that we find inspirational. Over the history of Human-kind, we've created Gods and whole Societies in order to serve them. We've worshiped these Gods as if they were real Beings, we’ve devoted untold lives and untold amounts of blood and sorrow to them over the Millennia.
Some people find a balance of Peace with religion, some can’t reconcile the worship of an improbable God with the reality of the physical world around them. Others find their balance in Meditation, in Yoga or in creating art or buildings or whatever. There are many ways to find spiritual balance, to grow and nurture the spirit within us. Yet more and more people are searching for that balance. Most have found some sort of balance, but are constantly questing for something that fits them better. Some have given up on their quest for spiritual balance and are in a perpetual state of unbalance.
What really disturbs me is that when you find a state of spiritual balance, it is often within a Religious Denomination of some sort. A social 'Gathering' of people who have come to the same belief as you have. I can see that it is comforting for the ones who believe. Others find a balance in Nature and the world around them. They don’t see evidence of a god. They don’t feel animosity toward those who have, they simply don’t see the world in the same way. Very often the people who have found their balance in an 'Organized Religious' affiliation become adamant that anyone who sees things differently than they do are stupid or recalcitrant or just plain ignorant, and so they take it upon themselves to ’educate’ the others and ’bring them into the fold,’ as it were. It is, after all, Human Nature to want your friends and family in the same social grouping as you are. Unfortunately for the religious person’s balance, the non-religious person, who is perfectly happy where he or she is at, reacts badly to the perception of being forced. Frequently these people tried a church environment and found it to be spiritually stifling for them. So arguments, back and forth, ensue. At times, very bitter arguments, even animosity and much bloodshed have occurred in these disputes.
Personally, I think that an organization that is founded on bloodshed, restrictive behaviors, and forced monetary donations are not healthy and although many people within the structures seem to find the spiritual support they crave, overall they are contributing to an Evil Organization. The Church Organization, large or small, seeks to control it’s members through the shame of possibly having committed a ’sin.’ It controls them through peer-pressure. Members shouldn’t be seen with ’those people,’ or ’that guy.’ Some restrict singing or dancing, some restrict drinking alcoholic beverages and/or eating meats or certain varieties of meats. Some proclaim that women must dress or wear their hair in a certain way. It’s all about conformity and creating a peer group to keep members in line. It puts one into ’sheep’ mode and makes the whole group easier to control. Church Organizations are, ultimately, in the business of controlling people. If you control them, you have their wealth, you have their backing and support for whatever you choose to do. All of the great religions display this behavior. Taking advantage of people who simply want to feed, grow and balance their spirits and usually aren’t even aware of their true need.
Religions and Religious Societies are responsible for almost all of everything that is wrong in the world today. Wars, famines, gangs, drug-usage, slavery, avarice, gluttony and many more can be laid directly at the feet of religion. There was a time when religions were purposed to do good things, to support and aid communities, to provide structure where people could help each other in their lives. That time is long-gone. In the 11th, 12th and 13th Centuries, the Popes declared a Holy war to ’take back the Holy Land’ from the Muslims. Thus the Crusades ensued. Christians and Muslims have been fighting every since and the current series of events, from the 1970’s through to today are nothing short of a new Crusade/Jihad. The Christian church, starting with Catholicism, has a history of refuting scientific discovery, of keeping it’s people in a Feudal or even slave-state system as much as is possible. Of seeking out and destroying anyone who disagrees with their Philosophies; Waldensians, Cathars, Armenians, Jews. They teach you that their God is a 'God of Love.' That He(It) is 'Love incarnate.' Nothing could be further from the truth. You can see it in their actions, their own bible tells us, that “By their deeds, ye shall know them.” They are bigoted, recalcitrant, hateful of anyone who disagrees with them, claim to be keeping to a philosophy of ‘right-to-life’ but only where unborn babies are concerned. Those babies have a ‘right to live,’ but homosexuals don’t, neither do criminals or people of other faiths, even people of other sects within the Worldwide Christian community. They all deal together and talk together but at the same time, they despise each other and gladly proclaim that the others, along with everyone else who disagrees, will burn forever in a lake of fire kindly provided to them by their God who 'Loves Us All,' while they dance and rejoice on the walls of the “New Jerusalem.” What about the Jews? They are the actual descendants of Abraham, Master Goatherd and the 'Father' of the big three religions. When not trying to eradicate each other, both the Christians and Islamists have been seriously engaged in (and, at times, unified in...) making every attempt to commit Jewish Genocide. All of the current Major Religions permit, even condone, slavery and rape. They preach execution by stoning for the most innocuous offense. AND in some places in the world today, they still carry these religious executions out. They do it regularly and openly in the Islamic sphere of influence. A lot of Christians are upset that Islam has their religious law inclusive of their governmental law. They live by a code-of-law known as Sharia. It’s barbaric. What the Christians don’t tell you is that if they had their way, the 'Western World' (well really the whole world) would be living under Levitical Law which is the same, with a little different wording.
Now, imagine the spiritual growth and harmony of a world where mankind accepts all of the differences that go into making us unique individuals, invited and accepted each other as fellow Human-Beings with similarities and differences that make us all unique. Imagine that Mankind was able to harness that spirit that we share between us all and, in accord, utilize our differences as strengths and encouraged each other to explore, to build, to search, to learn, and share without threat of censure or death simply for holding to a belief or for being a different color or speaking a different language.
Just imagine what the world of Man could be if we would only accept the value of each and every other person and actually work together to set things right.
How far could a person go if they were a fully capable, fully 'Integrated Being,' someone who’s body, mind, and spirit were in harmony and at peace.
My name is Fred and I am a tripartite Human Being.
©FredC.Pierce 7.19.2011
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