Jesus, Ruling the Universe

Editor's Note: All essays published in The Truthless Reconciler are rough drafts, and are published as they are written, one sentence at at a time, in their raw form, wthout revision or editing. The reader can literally watch them being written, and can view them at all stages of their composition. At times we omit proof reading, to ensure and maintain their complete originality.... I CAN"T RECALL the context of the Facebook post, but it struck me, as I'm sure it did many people, as rather fantastic, not in a flattering way. Facebook is alluring in that over time you can structure what they give you by merely expressing your preferences; they aim to please,and to manipulate, and exploit, and maybe a few other unsavory things. Rumors abound. I just try to stay above the fray, and stick to bashing conservatives, trying to bring down Trump, and promoting this website. Oh, and maybe a girl chase here and there, just for fun...but, I digress. I like to look at cats, big and small, scenic beauty,and astrophotography, and Facebook knows it. So, we're both happy. It must have been one of those gorgeous, awe inspiring astrophotographs, of the sort we see so many of, thanks to the Hubble and Webb telescopes. I gave up my favorite hobby of my youth, astronomy, partly because, even as early as the nineteen seventies, the big telescopes were putting me to shame, and making it easy for me just to grab a book, and admire from the comfort of my couch, instead of spending frigid winter nights and sweltering mosquito infested summer nights out under the stars, searching, straining my eyes, losing sleep. Now, I just grab a computer. These pictures all can inspire a sense of almost religious reverence, for creation, by whomever. So it was hardly surprising when a deeply religions person chimed in, a person who could with justification be called a "religious fanatic". What he typed in, obviously inspired but seemingly unprovoked, was: "Humanity's ultimate, unbelievable destiny is to rule the universe, not by man's (or woman's?) will, but by God's,through Jesus Christ. Anyone can reach the end of the universe who loves Christ." Full stop. Then he, made reference to somethng called "The Seven Missions of Jesus", as if it were a book, which perhaps it is. I had always thought the expression was simply a matter of theology, but maybe its a book now too.. As they say: "what do I know?". Very little, it would seem, compared to whomever wote this especially "intriguing" Facebook comment. If nothing else,he got one thing right:the part about "unbelievable". What he was trying to do was to find a way to reconcile (I love that word) his religion, with our actual modern, new and improved knowledge of the universe, the real one, not the one depicted in that quaint and curious collection of ancient manuscripts the Christians put so much undeserving stock in. The one which alternately describes stars as little glass trinkets hanging from the dome of heaven, which, at the end of days, will fall and smash to pieces on the flat Earth, as such glass trinkets are prone to do, and/or pin prick puncture holes in aforementioned heavenly dome, through which the glaring blazing light of heaven blindingly shines. That one. One would have to wear some serious sunglaees in heaven, it seems. The larger the real universe becomes, the smaller the Christian one becomes. Christians of the devout kind are and have forever been twisting their minds and theologies into veritable pretzels,using pretzel logic, as Steely Dan might say, to reconcile (again, that lovely word) their biblical but outdated version of reality with reality. Bless their dogmatic hearts. Knock themsevles out,as we say in boxing circles and acedemia. Why they don't just give up the epistomologically hopeless ghost and update their religion to suit modern reality - well, we all know why. They can't. They just can't. We cling to our illusions tenaciously, all of us. And, as Goethe said, we should let all of us do precisely that, stumble along in a perpetual voyage of discovery by trial and error, as we tend, at an early age, to do with children. And so, to our Christian brethren and sistern, Jesus Christ of Nazerath either goes from planet to planet, all across the universe, sacrificing himself over and over again for the sins of billions of species of extraterrestrial beings (one would get tired of that, one would think), doesn't give a hang for any intelligent species other than yours truly, very flattering to us but seemingly very unlikely. Or,most frightening of all, came to Earth only because only Earth harbors intelligent life. With Homosapines destined, htrough christ, to rule over the entire universe, we can safely wager which of these alternatives the writer of the Facebook embreaces. Butone quick question> If we the human species is inded all that the universe has to offer,heaven help teh unverse,why then, what need is their for us to reach out into it, and ultimately, unbelievably onquer it,in the name of Jesus Christ or anyone else? Don't w, in effect already onw and control it, sans resistence. Or rather, doesn't Jesus already own and control it? If not we through him,who else/

Changing the Climate, Despite Denials

CLIMATE SCIENCE, like meteorology, is rather complicated, which is why weather forecasting has always been and remains inexact,or, as some would say, unreliable. During my lifetime, however, the local weathermen and women have vastly improved their predictive capabilities, thanks to advances in science, including commputer modeling and satellite launching. The most recent studies,just released,indicate that the warming of the atmosphere is proceeding at a rate much higher than scientists previously believed, particularly in the polar regions, alarmingly. The scientific complexities of climate science might have something to do with why conservatives often reject it, why they reject science generally in preference to blind religious faith. Also, of course, since the stark reality of climate change necessitates great change in human politics and economics to eliminate it, conservatives, by nature opposed to change, clinging to comfortable tradition, are quite naturally resistant to accepting this reality. Science adances. We learn more. One of hte remaining, lingering questions about the impact of climate change has only recently been answered. Does the frequency, intensity, size, and severity of hurricanes and tropical storms increase because of it? The answer is "yes, they do". Because of climate change, what would otherwise have been a "Category One" hurricane in the absence of climate change is now a "Category Two". And a hurricane season which would normally have featured five named hurricanes now features six. The increase in the number of hurricanes has not been verified as conclusively as the increase in their severity. However, it has been established, to the satisfaction of climate scientists, if not evangelical Christian conservatives. NASA scientist James Hanson delivered the first formal, dire warning about human caused climate change to Congress in 1988. Einstein and others were aware of it before World War Two. Einstein even thought it might be a good idea,to increase agricultural output. Some scientists had figured out by 1900 that all the coal dust lingering above European cities in the late nineteenth century would ultimately, inevitably trap heat and cause global warming. European cities were generally inundated in, bathed in smog througout the nineteenth century. In a four day period in London in 1852, several thousand Londoners dropped dead on the streets as a massive cloud of coal smoke lingered over the city, and near total darkness was unbroken by sunlight. Although we can't say that we weren't warned and didn't know, many still do. One of the most prevelant and fatuous conservative claims in denial of climate change is that we used to say that carbon dioxide was the culprit; now we say that carbon is. We used to call it "global warming". Now we call it "climate change". It seems that these minor changes in terminoogy, intended only to offer clarity and greater simplicity to the ignorant deniers, are proof of a conspriacy among scientists, the liberal media, and perhaps the Russians and Chinese to create an artificial crisis, a "hoax", as a pretext for government control of every aspect of our otherwise ideal fossil fuel burning lives. The sheer idiocy of these "objections" is apparent, but typical of conservative thinking. Perhaps the most fatuous of all religious conservative denials of our impending doom is the one which says that since the Lord is going to return to Earth soon, climate change doesn't really matter, and is a "non issue". Most alarming of all is that, as the recent election establishes, these alarming benighted people are soon coming to power in the United States, which will undoubtedly bring to a halt, at least for four crucial years, all American particpation in efforts to solve clear and present danger, the current and encroaching climate crisis. As an ancient Greek philosopher said: "Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain. Yesterday I moticed that iris shoots have sprung up above ground in my yard, in December. Go figure.

Being A Traitor, To Trump

I AM A TRAITOR to the United States in the same way that those who opposed Hitler in Germany were traitors to Germany. WE the American people got a good dose of Trump before, then a pleasant respite, and now we prepare to endure him, in all his reprehensible immoral criminality, yet again. When he left office the first time, amid a cloud of insurrection and impeachment, the thought that he would ever be backin power was unthinkable. At that time he seemed to be on his way to multi criminal convictions and probably incarceration, but, like some devilish Houdini, he worked the system, using delay and legal distratction tactics, to run out the clock, while his cult following remained loyal and entranced, perhaps by the sheer power of his spectacular evil, a reflection of their own. The Republican party became his cult, in the public,as well as in all three branches of government. Trump and Congress stacked the Supreme Court with their own kind, and they dutifully rewarded him by declaring him above the law. The American sytem of justice was thus, as it has been many times before, exposed as a sham, a system of the the rich and powerful, by the rich and powerful, made for them, built by them. In retrospect, it now seems likely that even had he not been reelected president, that he would have eluded justice. Just as the poor and the dark skinned are given less justice in the supposed land of the free, and always have been, so the rich, famous, and powerful accorded more. It eventuated that opposing Hitler was the patriotic course of action in Germany, not the treasonous traitorous. So it already seems regarding Trump,a failed insurrectionist traitor who, in Hitlerian, phoenix like fashion, has risen from apparent political death to political power. Just as the United States has always eschewed equal justice under law, making a mockery of it while proclaiming fidelity to it by engraving it on the Supreme Court buiding, so has it always brought shame upon iself, by founding itself in genocide and slave labor. As Thomas Jefferson said: "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that his justice cannot sleep forever". We who oppose Trump opppose him and his MAGA cult in almost exactly the same way that the Germans who opposed Hitler and his NAZI party gang members resisted fascism. Now it is our turn to fight against encroaching fascism. There is one one major difference: in the United States, opposition to power and dissent are still recogized as legitimate forms of expression. In NAZI Germany they were criminal acts. Powerful men have tried to criminalize dissent and opposition to power in the United States before. John Adams made it illegal to critizice him while president, and Thomas Jefferson reversed this infamous un-american "Alien and Sedition Act". Abraham Lincoln became a tyrant, perhaps by perceived necessity, when he suspended the habeas corpus law, so foundational to a system of justice base on law. And then, of course, there was the notorious F.D. Roosevelt locking up of more than a hundred thosuand American ciizens, for the "crime" of being of Japanese descent. Just as it was in NAZI Germany, it is Trump who is the traitor, and his opponents who are the patriots. This will become evident to all soon enough, if it isn't already. We can expect Trump to follow in the footsteps of John Adams and Abraham Lincoln in attempting to silence dissent and punish his opponents. It is up to his opponents to stand firm against this forthcoming onslaught against their liberty, to prevail in their sacred mission to destroy Trump and his malignant MAGA minions,and, if it is the will of God, to preserve what freedom, liberty, and equal justice under law still exist or have ever existed in these United States.

Trump, Destroying the American Government

DONALD TRUMP is evidently determined to destroy the federal government, to which he has always been opposed. Like some teenaged internet junkie on crystal meth, he refers to some imaginary organization he and the other right wing extremists call "the deep state", by which he means nothing than the roughly two million federal bureaucratic employees who work diligently daily to provide the numerous services we the American people demand and expect. They make lower middle class money, and they go home to patriotic families, and for the most part they not only do not conspire to do anything to Trump, the don't even know each other. They are all improtant; their jobs exist for a reason, as stated above. Eliminate even a few thousand of them and the wheels of government turn more slowly and inefficiently; fire a significant portion fo them, the wheels come grinding to a halt, elimate all of them, and we the American people and our government are reduced to anarchy. Replace them with Trump loyalists, and the incompetance of the Trump lackies and lack of experience will have much the same effect. If Trump and his Republican sycophantic Congressional servants dare do this, and what they actually dare to do is considerably less than they arrogantly boast, thankfully, so many millions of Americans will suffer so severely that the blessed downfall of Trump is inevitable. So, for the good of America, maybe it needs to happen. Trump is systematically nominating for positions of power and responsibility people dedicated to the destruction of the agencies and departments for which they, if the Republican Congress approves their nominations as it appears it will, will be responsible. Trump's nominee for the Environmental Protection Agency head insists that there is nothing wrong with the environment, and intends to render impotent the all important E.P.A., and the environmental protections which have been so effective in cleaning up the environment and preventing further damage. His nominee for U.S. Attorney General is a person dedicated to using the Department of Justice not to represent the best interests of the United States, but rather, to attack and destroy the perceived enemies of Trump; in other words, people who have partiicpated in bringing the criminal president elect to justice. Trump's nominee for FBI director is dedicated to the desruction and elimination of the FBI, almost as if he seeks to work himself out of a job. Fully aware of this, what are the current thousands of FBI agents and employees thinking? Were I one of them, I would be thinking that at this point, its either Trump, or me, Trump, or my job, Trump or the law enforcement agency to which I have committed my life and energies. Much as Trump hates the FBI on a personal level, surely there are many within the vaunted Bureau who reciprocate. The greatest threat to American national security, according to the Department of Defense, human made climate change, will be ignored by the Trump administration, which will do nothing to mitigate, reverse, and eliminate it,but will actually foster it by reverting to a policy of encouraging and subsidizing the production and utilization of fossil fuels, oil and coal included. The incoming Trump adminstration is nothing less than a gang of fascist traitors to the United States, just as Trump himself is demonstrably a criminal traitor. The fact that Trump currently enjoys the support of nearly half of the American people changes nothing, it only makes our duty as patriotic Americans more burdensome, which is to remove from office and estroy Trump and his fascist MAGA movement, since Trump, like his role model Hitler, will enjoy some measure of popular support no matter how bad the situation becomes. And, do not doubt that it will become bad, much worse, before it becomes better.

Singing "Holly Holy"

I LOVE SINGING, alone,in the shower, at the computer, anywhere. I, like my sister, always have a tune in my head, which coms, by necessity, out of my mouth. We both sing well, so we are told. I love singing in the gospel group at the senior center,and I like singing at the church, although the hymnal at church, (Presbyterian) is utterly foreign to me, my having attended for only about six months. In the gospel group, I have long become familiar with the hymnal, which is of the Baptist breed if I aint mistaken, and since we sing essentially the same songs every Monday morning, I know them quite well, although I despise most of them. I despise most gospel songs because I consider religion in general to be nonsensical, and the Christian religion in particular nonsensical, primitive, barbaric, cruel, and bloody. Washing away my sins in the blood of Jesus, or anyone else, I find repulsive. For me, soap and water'll do. What I love are a few of the messages attributed to the probably fictional character Jesus Christ, aka Yeshua ben Joseph, the ones aboutlove, forgiveness, redemption, rendering unto, giving unto, casting not stones. That's all it takes to get me to church, to hear and celebrate the sublime messages with a few good folks. In a previous essay I detailed how I had approached the piano playin' lady at the senior center, had told her the there exists a gospel song I love even more than "How Great Thou Art", and that that gospel song to which I refer was written and sung by the great singer song writer Neil Diamond. The name of the song is "Holly Holy", and I challenge anyone to name or sing a gospel song that'll get you up on your feet and screaming the lyrics with pure joy any quicker. Google it, listen to it, rejoice. Neil Diamond, now eighty four, came out with this masterpiece in 1969, as he was several years into the height of his iconic decades long career, with more than a hundred fifty million Long Play vynal records sold. Neil Diamond was "born and raised' in the Jewish faith, as his name might vaguely imply, but, like millions of other people, his non Christian faith does not prevent him from loving Jesus, and singing about him. The Christian faith has no monopoly on either God or Jesus, and if any conservative evanlgelical Christian tries to tell you that it does, he or she is full of it, and it is your right to tell him or her so, politely, if possible. Since most of these types support Trump, we know damned well that they are full of it Politemess thus becomes optional.God ahd Jesus, I proclaim, are much larger and greater than any single primitive barbaric religious tradition. Well, now I've taken it a step further. Not only did I mention my love of Neil's iconic song to the most important person, the elderly lady piano player; I have begun mentioning it to other people, my sister included, and including other members of the gospel group. Stealthy as a wrathy painter (panther), as my hero David (Davy) Crockett might say, I am embarked on a mission to inculcate, to insinuate, my favorite gospel song of all time into the gospel group song canon. It might be a tough sell, especially among the three or four Pentecostal singers, and the piano lady, who is, of course, by virtue of her piano, of paramount importance. But, like David mighta said: "I'll stand up to my rack, fodder or no fodder, all holler, come hell or high water, and may the devil take the hindmost". Sooner, rather than later, we'll be singin' "Holl Holy", when the sheet music comes in.