Whatever happened to the Holy Ghost?

"What would you believe if you weren't taught what to believe" - G.D.Fury

I was born and raised catholic in the — June and Ward Cleaver, How much is that Doggie in the Window — sanitized world of the 1950s. A time when sensuality and sexuality were underground. Curse words and nudity were banished from the movies and TV. The "one foot on the floor rule " ruled — if a man and a woman appeared on a bed together, at least one of their four feet had to remain on the floor. Bedrooms were for sleeping, and bathrooms — they were unmentioned. Then, the 1960s came, and things started to change!

Through indoctrination at an early age, I was taught to believe that the one part of my life that I should not subject to any sort of critical analysis, was...my religion. It was a time that if you ate meat on friday, or when receiving "Holy Communion" you let the communion wafer touch your teeth, you had committed a mortal sin. If this sin was not confessed, you were condemned to burn and suffer in hell - forever - 'till the end of time - in perpetuity - for eternity!

"Forgive me Father for I have sinned."

This was before all of the sexual abuse scandals were exposed, and catholic priests were held in very high esteem. Every week or two I went to confession. I confessed my standard laundry list of sins including having "bad actions" and "impure thoughts" to a priest, who in retrospect, was conceivably having impure thoughts listening to me. Some priests were very stern and vocal -- I can still remember sitting outside the confessional and hearing Father Walsh scream at my friend Jack, "How many times a day!"

It was a period when the third person in the "Holy Trinity" of God was called the "Holy Ghost," the water you were baptized in and blessed yourself with was "Holy Water," and the church I went to was Holy Rosary Church. The "Holy Ghost is now the "Holy Spirit," Holy Rosary Church, I'm not even sure it still exists, but "Holy Water" I think is still "Holy Water."

At a young age I started to question my faith - I questioned why an omnipotent God got credit for the one person who survived in a catastrophe but was never blamed for the 100,000 who died. "God works in strange ways" was always the answer to any difficult question.

It troubled me when told we were made in the image and likeness of God. God with the body of a human being - I often thought God should be on a higher plane. When I saw people praying I wondered who they visualized praying to - a young stylized El Greco Christ, a realistic looking Salvador Dali Christ, or an older gray-haired Michelangelo God. Did God age?

From the 1970's to the 1990's I explored other teachings and disciplines. I did the EST transformation training, read books by Deepak Chopra, "Timeless Body Ageless Mind," Steven Covey "7 Habits of Highly Effective People," Tony Robbins "Unlimited Power" and a host of other books by self proclaimed guru's. Most of these teachings reinforced what I already knew. Around this time I also got interested in meditation and Zen, reading "The Way of Zen" "Zen Meditation" and "Thoughts without a Thinker." I always found Zen stories and quotes thoughtful and insightful.

During this period I started to form my own viewpoint concerning God, the Universe and the future life.

On an April evening in 2005 Larry King featured religious leaders from all of the major religions discussing God, catastrophes, life, death, the afterlife, etc. The more they talked the more I realized just how intellectually bankrupt they really were. They had so much time and energy invested in their beliefs that they were totally closed-minded to any other thought - their religion discouraged any independent thought.

After listening to these religious leaders my thoughts were reinforced. I concluded - understanding God, the Universe and the future life is beyond our comprehension at this time in our evolution. These men of faith, like me and everyone else on the planet are - simply put - clueless!

Hence an atypical group was conceived - "The Society of Clueless People"

"The Society of Clueless People"

Our name "The Society of Clueless People" is not used in an exploitive or a derogatory way. It is used in recognition and acceptance of our incapacity to fully understand or process the knowledge we possess about God, the universe and the afterlife. Simply put - we lack the intellectual power to understand these mysteries - they are beyond our comprehension.

Leonardo Da Vinci, Albert Einsein, Voltaire, Napoleon, Charles Darwin, Carl Sagan, Ernest Hemmingway, Thomas Jefferson, Bertrand Russell, Isaac Asimov, Mark Twain amongst millions of other human beings living or dead have admitted to being "Clueless."

"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.” Albert Einstein, Theoretical physicist

An agnostic is a person who feels that God's existence can neither be proved nor disproved, on the basis of current knowledge and evidence. Agnostics note that since the beginning of time theologians and philosophers have tried to prove that God exist. Others have attempted to prove that God does not exist. Agnostics feel that neither side has convincingly succeeded in making their case.

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence..."Carl Sagan, American astrobiologist

TSOCP CREED - Information, Logic and Common Sense
The creed of the Society of Clueless People is based on facts and a perspective predicated on logic, common sense and - as best as we can determine - factual information. It is not based on any faith, theory, spiritual belief or ideology. We believe knowledge of God the universe and the afterlife is beyond our comprehension at this time in human evolution - but we are open to any proof to the contrary.

The site/book will use a series of essays, arguments, commentaries and stories relative to subjects that are germane to our premise. We have no answers or conclusions - we supply pertinent information on various subjects - you form your own conclusions.

As part of our premise we would like to feature some of the leading proponents of different religious and non-religious movements - Andrew Sullivan, Catholic - Rick Warren, Christian - Neale Donald Walsch, New Age Spiritualist - Paul Kurtz, Humanist - Michael Shermer, Secularist - Sam Harris, Atheist - plus noted Jewish, Buddhist and Muslim voices.

Most of these prominent people come from a place of conclusion - some kind of absolute truth - of certainty. We feel they are all more likely wrong than any one being right.

The Society of Clueless people come from a place of no-certainty and no-conclusion. We realize there are many points of view and many different answers, but - we believe - there is no absolute answer. We like to think of our point of view as a "breath of fresh air!"

"Are you smart enough to know your Clueless?"G.D.Fury

Check out Good Storm.com for "The Society of Clueless People" T-Shirt.

Skeptics consider the "prophecies" of Nostradamus to be mainly gibberish.

Have you ever wondered why the so called "great prophets" of the past made predictions for hundreds of years in the future and didn't predict what would happen the next week or better yet the next day. The reason they didn't predict what was going to happen the next day - is - because they couldn't!
If they had really been capable of seeing the future they could have saved the world an incredible amount of pain and suffering.

History and religious books are full of those who claim to be able to see the future, to communicate with the dead, and who can read minds. If these so called psychics can really foresee the future they should be telling us when and where the next earthquake or tsunami is going to hit, where the next hurricane will strike or how global warming might affect the planet thus saving millions of lives. If they have the ability to see into the future they should be able to envision winning lottery numbers and make themselves rich beyond belief by winning a multi-million dollar lottery - don't hold your breath.

Modern day prophets, psychics, mediums, clairvoyants and healers are alive and well - John Edwards, Sylvia Brown, Benny Hinn and James Van Praagh to name a few, are practicing their craft.
Michael Shermer of Skeptics.com said about James Van Praagh (a medium who talks to the dead.)

"Death is a part of life, and pretending that the dead are gathering in a television studio in New York to talk twaddle with a former ballroom-dance instructor is an insult to the intelligence and humanity of the living."

Michel Nostradamus was a 16th-century French physician and astrologer. His modern followers see him as a prophet. His prophecies have a magical quality for those who study them: They are muddled and obscure before the predicted event, but become crystal clear after the event has occurred.
Skeptics consider the "prophecies" of Nostradamus to be mainly gibberish. For example:

"The year 1999 seven months
From the sky will come the great King of Terror.
To resuscitate the great king of the Mongols. Before and after Mars reigns by good luck."

Nobody, not even the most fanatical of Nostradamus's disciples, had a clue what this passage might have meant before July 1999. However, after John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette and her sister Lauren Bessette, were killed in a plane crash on July 18, 1999, the retroprophets shoehorned the event to the "prophecy."

Gibberish!

This holds true for modern day prophets - it's very apparent a lot of the new phony prophets are sucking the life and money out of a lot of sorrowfully gullible people.

For more articles on this subject refer to - "Gods, Deities, Prophets, Religion and the Bible"

Read: Randi, James. The Mask of Nostradamus : the prophecies of the world's most famous seer (Buffalo, N.Y. : Prometheus Books, 1993).

One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge

The James Randi Educational Foundation has a standing offer of a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event.
The Foundation is committed to providing reliable information about paranormal claims. It both supports and conducts original research into such claims.
On September 3, 2001, Sylvia Browne accepted the specific protocol for a definitive test for the JREF million-dollar challenge, on Larry King Live. It is now over 260 weeks since that date. And, it has been more than 290 weeks since she first agreed to be tested on March 6, 2001!

Wars, Atrocities, Natural Disasters and Andrea Yates!

"Don't blame a demon or credit a god for what man is responsible for!" - G.D.Fury

During the 20th century an estimated 160 million people died in wars including 55 million in WW2, 18 million in WW1, 5-9 million in the Russian civil war and 3-5 million during the Vietnam war.
During WW2 after 2 hours of bombardment the wooden city of Tokyo was engulfed in a firestorm.
The aftermath of the incendiary bombings lead to an estimated 100,000 Japanese dead.
During the holocaust German soldiers murdered some 6 million Jews. Nearly a million people were slaughtered in the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and presently nearly a half million have been killed in Darfur.
In the 14th century the Black Death (bubonic plague) killed 25 million people in europe, one-third of europe's population at the time. In 1932 a Russian famine claimed 5 million lives.
More recently the tsunami 0f 2004 killed 220,000 people and displaced well over a million from their homes. The 9/11 terrorist attack in New York took the lives of almost 3,000 americans and Katrina killed a thousand people, tens of thousands lost all their earthly possessions and it left a million homeless.
In the past few years some of the most disturbing atrocities have been perpetrated by individuals including Andrea Yates who methodically, one at a time, drowned her 5 young children claiming "God asked her to do it."
A truck driver, Charles Carl Robert, burst into a one-room schoolhouse in Lancaster Pa. (an Amish community), lined up at least 11 little girls against a blackboard, and then shot them "execution style," killing six of them and claiming in a note he was "mad at God."
Tiffany Hall 24, killed close friend 23-year-old Jimella Tunstall and her unborn baby by using a pair of scissors to tear the fetus from her womb - later the decomposing bodies of Tunstall's three children, ages one, two and seven were found stuffed in a washing machine after being drowned.
Horrible accidents also happen every day - three boys who suffocated in the trunk of a car in Camden, N.J were thought to have been alive for at least 17 hours and maybe up to 33 hours after they became trapped.
It has been reported that around the world a child dies every 3 seconds from disease, hunger, unclean water and other poverty related causes - that's amost 30 thousand a day and over 10 million a year.

Thinking about these horrible occurences questions arise -
If there is a God does he cause these events? - Does God have any power over these events? - Is he a "Good God" or an "Evil God?" - If he is a "good god" how could he let these catastrophes happen knowing the excruciating suffering it inflicts on the victims and the pain so many other people suffer including loved ones, relatives, and friends?
Are religions a remedy or causing many of the wars and atrocities?
It has been said that in the name of religion more people on this earth have been killed than by disasters, diseases and pestilence combined.
Philosophers have speculated on the question of God for thousands of years - It's certainly something to ponder.

For more articles on this subject refer to - "Wars, Atrocities and Natural Disasters"

Incooo,ooo,ooo,ooomprehensible!

"... the total number of stars in the universe is greater than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth." Carl Sagan, American astrobiologist

Although the size of the universe can be measured, its vastness is unfathomable. Imagine gathering all the beaches on earth and placing them in one pile. The pile represents the universe and a single grain of sand, the sun. What about our planet, earth? To represent it, you would have to use a speck that is 1/300,000th the mass of a single grain of sand.
Can you see why finding a needle in a haystack is infinitely easier than finding planet earth in the universe?

"We are a blink of the eye in time - a subatomic speck of dust in space!" G.D.Fury

Our Galaxy, has approximately 400 billion stars. What is the total number of galaxies in the universe? Carl Sagan assumed 100 billion. Others calculate 130 billion galaxies, slightly larger than Sagans estimate. Then the number of stars in the universe is 400 billion x 130 billion, or about 50,000 billion billion.

A billion billion. That's 1,000,000,000,000,000,000. So, grasp the concept of a billion billion, then think of 50 thousand of those. Easy!

Not to question what we have been taught about the creation of the world, god and religion seems kind of silly.

"Is there meaning to this story...perhaps"

There is a Buddist story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his magnificent prize stallion ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. "Such bad luck, we're so sorry" they said sympathetically. "Perhaps," the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other superb wild horses. "How great, this is really wonderful" the neighbors exclaimed. "Perhaps," replied the old man. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sincere sympathy on his misfortune. "Perhaps," answered the farmer. A few days later, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army that was fighting a particularly deadly war. Since the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. "Perhaps," said the farmer.

Some lessons of the story:

Who knows what tomorrow may bring - Look for the good in the bad - Go with the flow - Trying to predict the future may be a waste of time - Something that at a particular time may seem good may turn out to be bad and vice-versa - Are there other lessons in this story? perhaps...

For more Zen stories refer to - "God's, Deities, Prophets, Religions and the Bible"/Zen and Taoist Stories

"Nothing is known everything is imagined"

At this time of TV debate show - "I'm Right-You're Wrong" - madness, everyone seems to have all the answers to all the questions about everything and anything. This site is about speaking-out regarding illogical answers and the real lack of knowledge we possess regarding God, the universe, where we came from and where we are golng. It's also about using common sense, logical thinking and being opened minded about coming to any conclusions.

"Nothing is known everything is imagined" Federico Fellini, Italian film-maker

Did God create us or did we create god? - All religions are based on faith, good and evil, rewards and punishment. We'll explore the bible, different faiths, gods - ancient and present - religious sects, prophets, beliefs, superstitions and other haunting questions.

Agnostics and like-thinking Freethinkers, Humanists and other supernatural-free perspectives will be heard from - An agnostic is a person who feels that God's existence can neither be proved nor disproved, on the basis of current knowledge and evidence. Agnostics note that since the beginning of time theologians and philosophers have tried to prove that God exist. Others have attempted to prove that God does not exist. Agnostics feel that neither side has convincingly succeeded in making there case.

For more articles on this subject refer to - "Agnostics, Thinkers and Organizations"

Quotes on God, Prophets, Religion the Truth and more...

"Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it."Andre Gide, French author

"Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it." Buddha

"Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth." Ludwig Borne, French author

"Man has created heaven above and hell on earth." G.D. Fury

"To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today." Isaac Asimov, American author, biochemist

"Fear prophets and those prepared to die for the truth, for as a rule they make many others die with them, often before them, at times instead of them."Umberto Eco, Italian philosopher

“We created God in our own image and likeness" George Carlin, American comedian

"The groundhog is like most other prophets; it delivers its prediction and then disappears." Bill Vaughan, American author

"The wisest prophets make sure of the event first." Horace Walpole, English politician, writer

“When I look upon seamen, men of science and philosophers, man is the wisest of all beings; when I look upon priests and prophets nothing is as contemptible as man” Diogenes, Greek philosopher

“History deals mainly with captains and kings, gods and prophets, exploiters and despoilers, not with useful men”
Henry Louis Mencken, American journalist

“If you keep saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet. ” Isaac Bashevis Singer, Polish-American novelist

“It is far better that we admitted a thousand devils to roam at large than that we permitted one such impostor and monster as Moses, Joshua, Samuel, and the Bible prophets, to come with the pretended word of God and have credit among us” Thomas Paine, English scholar

“Common Sense is not so common" Voltaire, French writer, philosopher

"Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man -- living in the sky -- who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time! But He loves you." George Carlin, American comedian

Be sure to check out Good Storm.com for "The Society of Clueless People" T-Shirt.