John Collet's Bible

John Collet’s Bible

Introduction

  When I think about it, I've always needed my own Bible. Jefferson had one, why not me? But Jefferson just cut and pasted from the Christian Bible. I think I need a Bible, mostly original, that reflects my life.

The writings of Christianity, Judaism,

Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other religions seem to flow from a hierarchical worldview.

There are three things I can't relate to in main religions. First, I don't believe in atonement: the idea that a just God demands a sacrifice. Second, I don't believe in eternal life. I think the Universe has and will go on forever, but our individual concentrations of energy need to be returned to the system and re-purposed. Third, I don't believe in an all-powerful, hierarchical God. I believe in horizontal flows of energy between entities, and not the concentrations of power and resources commonly found in religions, corporations and governments. Of course, the Universe itself, with stars, galaxies, galactic clusters, and super-massive black holes, appears to be a hierarchical model, but I don't think it has to be that way. I subscribe more to the blockchain model, which currently is used mostly with crypto-currencies,

but could be used to in other societal interactions.

All of the above notwithstanding, I have gained lot of perspective from the Christian Bible, and parsed some wisdom from the Navajo through the writings of Tony Hillerman. But I think everyone needs to synthesize their own beliefs.

Most people seem to have no problem with a hierarchical concentrated system as can be seen from people's veneration of the British royal family and the current fad of authoritarian leaders.

But most of my life, I've had a libertarian bent, and have felt a disaffection with leaders and power and the like.

Chapter 1

Infinity

Infinitely in time and space, the great fabric of the Universe extended in all directions. Quarks pop into existence like drops of oil in a four dimensional frying pan. The Quarkpopper could have made order out of the chaos, but free will is free will and to give one must give totally and unconditionally.

As time goes on, infinitely in all directions, the quarks swirled. As they come close to each other, they spin closer and form objects of greater mass. And then stars, planets, comets, black holes and other objects form. And life forms based on the environment that develops.

Most people believe that life is created by a Creator. But if there is free will, life has to develop on its own, based on the conditions.

Chapter 2

Harmony

As life develops, certain rules are developed, to help that life survive, be it hundreds or thousands or millions of years.

My favorite saying out of all the religious texts I've read comes from Micah 6:8 in the Hebrew Scriptures: to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly. I like to shorten this to: Harmony, Kindness, Humility.

I like to replace Justice with Harmony. Justice seems to be a concept of industrial society. When life revolves around money and property rights and time is a commodity, it's easier just to slap people with a penalty or lock them up.

Harmony is a pre-industrial concept that takes more time. This was a survival concept, because if someone was out of sorts with the community or in a dispute with another member, it could result in a blood feud that would wipe out the whole community. The Elders had to figure out a way to get people back in harmony with one another. There's something of this concept in trying rehabilitate prisoners into jobs when they get out, but rehabilitation usually stops short of getting the wronger and the wrongee back in harmony, especially if a death or abuse was involved.

And I have to interject here, that the concept of Harmony runs into a brick wall when dealing with serial killers or sexual predators in whom there appears to be no concept of community. Maybe in time, we'll figure that out.

Kindness can mean just not being mean to people. When someone cuts you off on the road, just take a deep breath and ease up on the accelerator.

And it can go up to include as Jesus said in the Christian New Testament: Greater love has no one than to lay down their life for a friend. Here's where the concept of God looking out for you ( I know, very non-libertarian) gives you the freedom to use your resources to help others.

Humility can be misunderstood. It doesn't necessarily mean to be meek and be a wallflower. But to be self-confident in your abilities, that you can let others take the limelight, just so long the community benefits.

Chapter 3

Words To Live By

In Matthew 11:30 of the Christian New Testament, Jesus says, my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I like to extend this out to the concept that if you have enough people working together no one is overburdened.

Sometimes in a church, city or corporation, 20% of the people are doing 80% of the work. And if people try to help, they are told, you are doing it the wrong way. And sometimes in government, people feel like, I'm doing all the work, I can take a little extra for myself. Then you have a corruption problem.

But if you get enough people involved and you can let them do stuff, even if it isn't exactly the way you would do it, then no one is overworked and everyone enjoys helping.

In Luke 3:11-14 of the Christian New Testament, people ask John the Baptist how to live. He says: Whoever has two coats, give one to someone who has none. And whoever has food, do likewise. He says to the tax collectors or it could be anyone in business(paraphrased): Charge a fair price. He said to the soldiers and it could apply to anyone: Do violence to no one, neither accuse falsely; and be content with your wages.

And this last one, I've gleaned from reading a lot of things: Never think of anyone else as the other. If you are sandbagging your house against a flood, if someone offers to help, you aren't going to turn them down because of their color, creed, or nationality.

Chapter 4

Inspiring Words

In Isaiah 2:4 of the Hebrew Scriptures: They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war anymore……..my hope for the future.

Isaiah 41:31 says:  But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint……….”the Lord" isn't a libertarian concept, but it is still an inspiring saying.

Chapter 5

.The Future

In the introduction, I said I had an aversion to the hierarchical view of the Universe, but when you look at it, that's the way it's set up. There are concentrations of power be it CEOs of large corporations or super-massive black holes at the center of galaxies. But black holes are slowly leaking energy and progressive CEOs delegate their power to employees.

Scientists say what the mass we can see in the Universe is only about 10% of the mass in the Universe. The rest is dark matter and dark energy, which can be detected and measured but can't be seen and no one is quite sure what they are.

But maybe, sometime in the future, (or maybe some life somewhere in the Universe has already figured it out) people will figure out how to tap into this dark energy directly, without having to rely on energy from a star.

Maybe this is why we haven't detected life on other planets. The life there has already figured out how to tap into this unlimited energy.

Maybe somewhere, the Han Solos of the Universe, are out doing their own thing. If the Universe is infinite, there is infinite energy out there. Go for it!