There was a post this morning where someone asked what each person has done to “awaken” those around them, to tell the public “the truth”. I responded saying that all I’m personally concerned about is my wife, and close friends. The world, itself, can crash and burn for all I care.

Other than that, running around spouting conspiracy theories isn’t going to get you any positive attention. I still find conspiracy theories fascinating, but I personally believe the majority is complete rubbish.

I try to approach each topic as a skeptic. That’s not because I’m hoping to disprove everything, but because I’m hoping to run into something that actually stands up to logical thought. Something where the proper questions are asked, and the possibility still exists even after the answers are found.

For example, do I believe in aliens? Ya, I’d have to say that I do believe in the possibility. To me, based on the scientific reading that I’ve done, it seems to me that it would be stranger if we are the only life out there. I think the truly amazing thing would be to find that we are the only life in the universe. For me, that would be much harder to swallow. I think this is a logical stance to have based on the information we have right now. Using that to suggest that reptile aliens are controlling our government? Ya, that’s pretty nutty in my mind, and it wouldn’t stand up to even the most basic logical questions, so I reject the idea as ridiculous.

A large problem I have with making people see “the truth” is that truth is somewhat subjective. People want to believe there’s mystery in life so bad that they will see conspiracy in the oddest places. I won’t fault people for wanting the mystery. In fact I think that’s one of the largest problems with the world right now; the lack of mystery. As science makes increasingly far-reaching discoveries, it chips away at some of the mystery that’s surrounded our lives as human beings. I worry what will happen when there’s no mystery left. Honestly, I think we might end up worse off than we are now.

The real way to change the world is to start local. By local I mean yourself, your family and friends. If you choose to “enlighten” someone, make sure you’ve asked those skeptical questions (after all, whoever you tell will ask them and put you on the spot, so better to have already thought about it and be able to respond). If a “truth” can’t hold up to the most basic questions, what you’re believing is probably false, or at least has to be rethought.

Also remember that you are still “sheep” if you blindly believe something regardless of where you learn it. Going along with popular conspiracy theories simply because many other people believe it, when you’ve done no research and asked no questions yourself, is still being a “sheep”.

Someone recently pointed out to me a historian by the name of Flavius Josephus.  He wrote various books on the wars around the time of Jesus of Nazarene, and some of  the books he wrote had stories with coinciding data from some of the books in The Bible.

Here’s the thing.  Two books telling similar stories by long-dead authors is hardly proof that the stories are true.  By that logic, that would mean aliens exist.  Whole scores of people write coinciding stories about them, so they’ve gotta be real, right? Who cares that most of us have never seen one? There are books about them, so they’re real.

Some historians theorize that parts of the Bible weren’t written by witnesses, but by people who heard the stories from people who heard the stories, ad nauseum.  Unfortunately for us, we’ve yet to perfect the science of raising the dead (and especially ones whose remains we can’t find even a trace of), so we can’t ask any of the authors how they came about their knowledge.

Which brings me to another point of contention: In the Christian faith (excluding, of course, Papal infallibility) only the Christian god is infallible.  Humans, by their very nature, make mistakes.  Otherwise, we wouldn’t have sin, and Heaven would be overcrowded.

Aside from that, by the time Christ was born, we had been granted free will by God himself.  Which means that God couldn’t go against his word and tell the “prophets” they could only write what he wanted them to write without proving that he is, in fact, fallible.

Quite the conundrum, huh?

Humans, throughout history, have proven, time and again, that they cannot be trusted to follow God’s will.  So why do people believe, without a doubt, that what they wrote down is the Gospel? And what the churches eventually decided to put in The Bible, to boot.

You don’t honestly think they put everything ever written about God and Jesus in The Bible, do you? The church admits to leaving out books that didn’t fit their image of Christianity.  And that’s allowable by God, for Jesus said, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  Matthew 16:19

I can quote The Bible, too.

Someone suggested that the mere fact that “B.C.” stands for “Before Christ” and “A.D.” stands for “Anno Domini” (The Year of Our Lord) proves that Jesus of Nazarene absolutely existed.  But that isn’t entirely true.  We can only guess at the day and year Jesus was born and died.  Different versions of the story say different things.

The Gregorian Calender (which is what put the terms B.C. and A.D. into place) was put into place by the Pope and many Catholics by the year 1582, but it wasn’t accepted as a standard by any specific countries until the year 1700, well after anyone alive knew anyone who had lived during Christ’s life.

All we have to go on, really, is old word-of-mouth tales, a book put together by the church and some speculation about whether or not Jesus of Nazarene lived and died, and if he really was who The Bible says he was.

Someone offered up (what some believe to be) the physical proof that Moses lived and parted the Red Sea, and that Sodom and Gomorrah did fall.   But I never said The Bible is complete fiction.  I remember widespread news stories, during my childhood and teenage years, about physical evidence suggesting that a number of the stories (Moses’s and Sodom and Gomorrah, being the two I remember clearest) have some truth to them.

My thing is a lot of books (movies, plays, etc.) have some truth in them.  Tons of stories, both written and word-of-mouth, have some historical value to them.

For example, there is a science-fiction series that is completely based on world history, but plays out on a “counter Earth”, and rather than our attempt at an equal society, women are subservient to men, and sometimes enslaved.  Are fanatics suggesting that because there is some truth to the story, I should believe there is an alien planet following Earth’s orbit and stealing women from Earth on a regular basis to make them sex slaves?

I hope they’re right.  I hope there is a beautiful place called “Heaven” with tons of chorus-singing angels where people feel no pain.  That would be so awesome!

Unfortunately, I’m pretty convinced you make your own “Heaven” and the best time you’ll have is here on Earth.

Sucks, doesn’t it?