Theoretical Breakthroughs

Table of Contents

1 First Things 5

1.1 Logo 6

1.2 Other Books 6

1.3 For More Information 6

1.4 Cover Graphic 6

1.5 License 6

1.6 A Unique Approach 7

2 Intellectual Breakthroughs 9

2.1 Philosophical Positions 10

2.1.1 Hermeneutic (Method of Interpretation) 10

Practice and Bible Derived Reasoning 10

2.1.2 Contrasting Theories of Education 10

2.1.3 Unified Social Theory of Natural Science 11

2.2 College Education 11

2.2.1 Conservative Curriculum 11

2.2.2 Liberal Arts 12

2.2.3 College Football 13

2.2.4 Lost Opportunities 13

2.3 Philosophy of Religion 14

2.3.1 Theology includes Philosophy 14

2.3.2 Honesty 16

2.3.3 Freedom of Choice 17

2.4 Striking Back 18

2.4.1 What is Rational? 18

2.4.2 Where Blame is Due 20

2.4.3 God and Country 21

2.4.4 Medieval Morality 22

2.4.5 A Matter of Faith 23

2.4.6 Circular Argument 24

2.4.7 Only One Answer 25

3 Social Breakthroughs 27

3.1 Religion 28

3.1.1 Philosophy of Life and Death 28

3.1.2 Future World Religion Trends 28

3.1.3 The Case for Liberal Christianity 29

3.2 Innocence Lost 29

3.2.1 Technology 30

3.2.2 Human Relationships 30

3.3 The Public Mind and American Democracy 31

3.4 The Protestant Ethic 31

3.4.1 Hard Work 31

3.4.2 American Philosophy 32

3.4.3 Faith and Work 33

3.4.4 Bad Monk 34

3.4.5 Religion of Isolation 34

3.4.6 Worldly 35

3.4.7 Who Can Help Themselves 36

3.5 Capitalism and Atheism 37

3.5.1 Un American 37

3.5.2 Democracy vs. Capitalism 37

3.5.3 Freedom and Terror 38

3.5.4 More than Bread 39

3.5.5 Conscience 40

3.5.6 Logic and Religion 41

3.5.7 On Marx and Engels 43

3.5.8 Marxism is Defeated 45

3.6 What If? 46

3.6.1 Buddhists Missionaries 46

3.6.2 European Backwaters 47

3.6.3 Christian World 48

3.6.4 Contemporary Jesus 49

3.6.5 Toy Society 51

3.6.6 Farm Society 52

4 Emotional Breakthroughs 54

4.1 Son of Strength 55

4.2 Heaven and Earth 55

4.3 The Breakthrough 56

4.3.1 History 56

4.3.2 Background 57

4.3.3 Questions 57

4.3.4 The Letter 58

4.3.5 More Thoughts 58

4.3.6 In Verse 58

5 Nature of God 60

5.1 Jesus Poetry 61

5.1.1 The One 61

5.1.2 The Majestic Down to Earth 61

5.1.3 Jesus 62

5.2 Self Poetry 63

5.2.1 With one material, many souls 63

5.2.2 Directions 64

5.2.3 Holy Spirit 65

5.3 Heavenly Father Poetry 65

5.3.1 The Perfect Programmer 65

5.3.2 Praise and Criticism 66

5.3.3 Praise God for Everything 67

5.3.4 Awesome God 68

5.3.5 Family Appreciation 68

5.3.6 Tolerance 69

5.3.7 God, Help! 70

5.3.8 Walking Forward 71

5.3.9 Morning Sunshine 72

5.4 Son of God Poetry 73

5.4.1 The Missionaries 73

5.4.2 God Speaks 73

5.4.3 Religion Means Education 74

5.4.4 Campus Community 75

5.4.5 Open Market 75

5.4.6 Epic Hero 76

5.4.7 Ancestor 77

5.4.8 Center of Gravity 78

5.4.9 Crossroads 78

I should explain what the logo is meant to be representing. The guy is a pen, which is me, which comes from my first poem in Philosophy Core, called Creative Process, where I refer to myself as doing Tai Chi, with my pen being my body. The idea is based on "the pen is mightier than the sword" so I created "the Bible is mightier than the pen".

The Bible is shooting out flames because in Ephesians it talks about spiritual warfare and the Bible is the only armament that is offensive. (It means offensive instead of defensive. These are common terms used in combat. The sword is the only spiritual weapon. All the other armaments expressed in Ephesians are protective and defensive in nature like a shield, a helmet, a breastplate, etc.) The flames are meant as in James when it talks about being purified by fire or struggles with temptation in our lives. Isaiah also was purified by a live coal to his lips by a Seraphim. So the usage of fire is not evil or anything violent. Think of it as purifying.

I would ideally like it to show the sword turned inward to his chest, symbolizing like in many fantasy books that when they defeat the great evil force in the world, they are left with the greatest task, which is to defeat the evil within. The Bible is said to be a 2 sided sword, with the ability to cut between bone and marrow, and show the truth. Christ’s tongue is said to be a 2 edged sword in Revelations, to defeat the Devil with. The reason I didn’t show this is it looks like he is committing suicide.

The spiritual warfare is not against people, ideas, or even spirits. It is about fighting for the purity of our own minds. It is an internal thing. Like the Native American proverb "my greatest enemy is myself." This purity is in regard to our own sins and does not refer to purity in any other sense. But this is a process, not an outcome, as it is not possible for us to live without sin.

This warfare is only spiritual in the sense that it is not militant, social, economic, or political. This is for my own moral and ethical development and consists of practical qualities I try, with Christ’s help, to cultivate like humility, compassion, kindness, and seriousness and do not correspond to anything supernatural.

My text books and picture books contain most of my work over the past 10 years. These include my reading of some 235 books containing the philosophical and religious thinking of the worldÕs cultures for several thousand years and the application of the main themes of some of the major Old Testament Prophets and major works of the New Testament.

The main point of this work is to get people to stopping living their lives with their minds, but instead follow their hearts. I bring a radically different combination of viewpoints that you have not heard of before. I am not asking people to follow what I have written, but rather let the words stir up some sort of emotional response in your heart.

I challenge my readers to come up with their own unique ideas and that can lead the world in a new direction. We need a much broader diversity of ideas in our culture to deal with the problems we are facing in America and throughout the rest of the world.

For more books and information, visit me on the web at http://benjamin-newton.com/

Feel free to send me e-mail regarding the books and website at ben@benjamin-newton.com I even enjoy constructive criticism

This entire PDF is licensed together under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License as a whole, and nothing is to be separated, added on to, or modified in any manner.

the material content and design must be copied as a whole (everything contained in this pdf file)

There seems to be a tendency among those in the West to go to extremes in their approach to studying the Asian classics. Many Christians see any other ideas that don’t come directly from the Bible as either not important to study or that lump all non-Christian books together as New Age and therefore see them as forbidden. Many non-Christians think that anything that is not the Bible or is not an Abrahamic religion to be legitimate for study. I have chosen a third option. Not every belief system should be totally rejected or totally embraced.

I think that there are many things that a number of Asian classics can teach people that have ideas that can be compatible with the Bible. I think what Christians don’t understand is that there were centuries of time and billions of people who never heard of the Gospel and did their best to find the truth as they knew it. Many traditional cultures in Africa and the former communist countries in Asia are very open to the Gospel and did not intend to worship anything the Bible would describe as forbidden or evil.

I think that many non-Christians are ignorant about the dangers of just embracing any belief system without being a critical thinker. Not everything is as it appears at first. Ironically, many things that turn non-Christians away from Christian beliefs and the Bible, are actually forbidden by the Bible. Many of the things that bother non-Christians about the Bible are true about other belief systems as well. There are also negatives about belief systems other than Christianity that Christians don’t have to deal with.

Another thing to realize is that it is considered perfectly acceptable to mix and match different aspects of different Asian belief systems other than the Abrahamic religions, while the Bible forbids just taking select aspects of Christianity that they prefer. So, for a Christian to bridge this gap, they should embrace all Biblical doctrines but only select the elements of the other Eastern belief systems that are compatible with Christianity, or, in other words, say something similar.

Another thing to realize is that although you may find similar meanings in Asian classics other than the Bible, that they don’t necessarily mean the same thing the Bible does and almost definitely are not meant to be understood in the same context. Taoists were not all trying to find Christ and in Hinduism, the 3 major gods are not equivalent to the Christian Trinity. Another consequence of this principle is that there is not the same perspective on what is forbidden, so although some philosophies and religions may be useful to Christians while some of the combinations of those beliefs, could likely be forbidden by the Bible. What the Bible forbids are the things that people keep hidden or do in secret. Some of the terms for this are esoteric or mysteries.

What is the point of Christians reading about other belief systems? One of the reasons is that Biblical doctrines have already been compromised and changed in order to mix better with Greek philosophy and paganism. Some of the things that has been compromised is that many Christians think it is ok to study Greek mythology and the Church has tried to ignore the supernatural aspects of the Bible and its implications. Another corruption of Christian doctrine caused by the Greek pagan and philosophical influence is that the paradoxical doctrines of the Bible have been altered to a divisive theology where people think they can pick one or the other when the Bible clearly specifies both.

Studying Asian philosophies helps a Christian to see the Bible more closely to what it really is - an Asian religion. Another reason is to study non-White cultures and understand why many non-Europeans believe different than Christians and how this affects world history and politics. If you understand what people believe and elements of their culture, it is easier to share Christian beliefs with them. Another reason is that Paul was an intellectual and understood the belief systems of his time and showed us by his example that we should do the same.

So, where do you start? To find some great books written by Asians, look at my Book of Books, which has 78 Asian classics, other than Bible books. You will find all the information about how to obtain them and which ones to choose, based on your interests. I promise that if you stick to the list, you won’t find anything that is forbidden by the Bible.

• I use primary sources to derive theology or philosophy for a particular belief system

• I focus on what I see as the pure or original interpretation of the philosophy or theology

• My theory is based on what the Bible says about theology and what helps influence a person do the right thing.

• I back track the way people should act according to the Bible and what the Bible says about God into a theory that is most consistent with these outcomes.

• My theology, Towards a Philosophy of the Bible, mirrors what the Bible says about God and a solution to suffering that best answers this problem.

• My ethics, Still Theory, are based on a combination of the philosophies most consistent with the Bible and having the least major ethical dilemmas and answers postmodern questions about suffering and uncertainty.

• My psychology, Liberation Psychology/Theology, enables the person to be their own advocate and focuses on religion as a secondary approach to solving lingering problems with Schizophrenia, as the most effective practice is to take the medication.

• My aesthetics, Bible Model Aesthetics, works to solve practical issues like accessibility, morality, and quality from a Biblical perspective.

• My sociology/biology, Community through the Humanities, focuses on finding harmony with the groups of people we come into contact with in real world situations and applying ethics from Still Theory.

• My theory of education, Learning of the Heart, is based on the realities of life and how people can know what is right and wrong.

• The establishment assumes that public education through high school prepares a person for the world

• The establishment assumes that everyone should be educated in the same manner

• The establishment assumes that they know best what the public needs to learn

• The establishment assumes that what they believe is right and wrong should be imposed on everyone else

• The establishment assumes that public education improves people’s social status and morality

• The establishment assumes that with slight modifications, they will get radically different societies

I believe that being prepared for the world is a combination of different things, which the public school system fails at all of them, including:

• understand how the establishment works, how to use it to improve one’s life, and avoid it changing the individual or placing more limits than normal on the individual

• develop critical thinking skills and determine what is right and wrong by conscience

• I believe that people’s social status is determined by who they know and what status their parents have and their morality is determined by personal choice

• I believe that in order to radically change society, we must make major changes

• People have social and physical power over animals and are responsible for their well being

• Water and cells should be carefully looked after as they are the building blocks of life

• Although animals and people may be perceived as the same, the human has a responsibility to look after the animal

• Not subjecting sentient beings to physical pain is just the beginning of a social ethic

• Humans should use their resources to actively advocate for the well being of all sentient beings

Many Christians see salvation as an end and not just a beginning. They absolve themselves of doing any help in the world, because they see the world as corrupt and take the easy answer of letting the world fall apart. They look knowingly at each other and think they are so much better, because they are saved.

This is based on the theology of saved by faith alone, but it is not consistent, even within its own system. If God saved us, because we repent of our sins, then why do we think we are better than others? We are all equally bad and God’s criteria for reaching out to us is just that we humble ourselves before God and consider ourselves equal to unbelievers. If we can’t even do that, how can we consider ourselves to be born again or followers of Christ?

If Christ, who is God Himself, did not even consider Himself equal to God and submitted Himself to the authority of men, then where do we get off thinking that we are better than unbelievers. Often, theologians compare Christ’s descent to being human as equivalent to us descending to being a bug, but this is a gross exaggeration of our worth and gross simplification of God’s glory above man. Christ being born as a human is more equivalent to use giving up our existence permanently.

God is not limited by any thing and He is so far above us that we amount to a grand total of zero in comparison to God. It is a miracle that any of us is actually saved and the effort is almost entirely on God’s side. It is not that our submission to God means anything, but just a rightful understanding of our place in the universe; it is the grace of God that does the work.

It is important that we make a choice, to submit ourselves before God, but this is just the beginning of the path. Just because we can’t get beyond grace, salvation, and faith, does not mean that we do not make the effort to grow. Just because the world is going to end soon is no reason to let everybody suffer, without attempting any way, to help reduce the suffering.

The majority of the Bible tells about how we should live our lives, while on earth. If we really want mass conversions to the Christianity of the Bible, we are going to have to show unbelievers that we truly value life.

For a person to choose a philosophy of death and to totally give up on improving the world is a defeatist mentality. How can we expect to have victory in Christ if it doesn’t start by reaching out to our own communities in Christ reflected love?

By the year 2050, the term White Christian will be an oxymoron. If you take into account the actual faithfulness of people calling themselves Christian, the Christian world has already shifted to the Southern Hemisphere. In many of the countries throughout the world, they are not as honest at doing statistics as in the United States, where predominantly Muslim countries are going to severely undercount the number of Christians and the same will happen in the predominantly Hindu country of India.

Europe had not entirely converted to Christianity until the 14th century and there were more Christians in Asia than in Europe, until the years 1000. Most of the reduction of Christians in the Middle East happened in the late 19th and 20th century. The first big reduction of Christians in the Middle East came, after they supported the Mongol Empire. The conversion of non-Muslims to Islam was largely brought about by the missionary efforts of the Sufis. 10 percent of the populations of Egypt and Syria are still Christian. Islam is now experiencing a major fundamentalist revival and many more nations are going to be governed under Islamic law.

Many of the most populous African nations have a mixture of Christians and Muslims and there is not the same idea of separation between church and state in Africa than there is as in the West. When a predominantly Christian nation, with a large Muslim minority, declares itself to be a Christian nation or the exact opposite situation occurs, we are going continue to have major wars in Africa. And now we have nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons on the open black market.

At the same time, Europe is going to have more and more immigrants from Africa, for there to be enough labor pool to keep Europe’s economy going. America is going to continue to have a strong Christian minority, reinforced from a strong influx of Christian immigrants from all over the world, especially Latin America. The Pentecostal movement is very strong in Latin America. Europe and the United States are going to be dependent on oil for a long time and this will dramatically affect our alliances. We will continue to be afraid of angering the Muslim nations and will continue to bend over backwards, to keep our supply of oil coming.

Some of the biggest world religions by 2050 will be Pentecostalism, Catholicism and Islam, just counting in the population increase and not on any new converts. Buddhism, which not long ago had 20 percent of the population of Asia, now has shrunk to 5 percent, due to the spread of Communism in traditionally Buddhist countries. Whenever China allows more freedom of religion, it will not be surprising if we find out 10 percent of China is Christian already, even under extreme persecution.

The Christian South tends to be: much more conservative in sexual morality, supernaturally and community oriented, and by all evidence much more biblically based. The most popular book in the Bible in Christian Africa is Revelations. Much of this is due to cultural backgrounds of those in the Southern hemisphere, where: they are coming from animist religions and are in extreme poverty, they experience persecution regularly and have large refugee populations, all of which reinforce the relevance of the Biblical narrative of God’s work with Israel, in the Law and in the Prophets.

If we follow the example of the early Church, as recorded in Acts, we see the early Christians as members of a ideal collective community like an Ashram, Kibbutz, or Monastery. If we follow Jesus example, we would carry out the Gospel, while doing good works, especially in service of those rejected by society. Convincing people to be born again was originally linked with helping out those in need in practical situations. Christianity is inherently liberal in its social aspects.

Now we see famous people, like the American president claim that they are born again Christians, the word Christianity loses all meaning. Voting conservative counters all the money sent to help starving people in Africa. Conservatives (in other word, people following atheistic convictions) voting either Republican or the very similar Democrat, in the United States, just perpetuate the establishment, which is referred to in the Bible as the world and Christ told us to be no part of. In fact, Jesus was most critical of the equivalent of the Church establishment, which at that time was in the form of the Jewish establishment - these are the people referred to as the Pharisees and Saducees.

Although I believe that Christianity is socially liberal, I hold to what the Bible says on salvation and eternity. I see helping others out who are in need, as another note in the same song on the same instrument.

I believe that our American society is pluralistic and that holding people to Biblical standards who aren’t born again doesn’t make any sense, if you believe in eternal salvation and a literal interpretation of the miraculous of the Bible. The Bible is not about a set of rules, but about a relationship with God. According to Jesus, following the Ten Commandments alone not only doesn’t get you to Heaven, but is impossible. And according to Paul, the only way we can keep from sin is by the direct divine intervention of our savior, Christ.

Not only is it non-sensical to expect people to follow the laws of the Bible, without becoming born again first, it actually goes against an orthodox interpretation of the Bible. Furthermore, if I had the choice of living in an idealistic society with conservative "Christians" as leaders and live in a predominantly atheistic society, I would definitely choose the later. The only kind of Christian dominated society I would want to live under would be directly under the authority of Christ, in the flesh.

The thing on the mind of most conservatives to change about society is to persecute or severely limit the rights of people who are homosexual. Although I believe that homosexuality is a sin, I believe divorce is also, but I don’t see many conservatives giving up sexual relations with their previously divorced spouse. And these are the same kinds of people with the same reasons for discriminating against people of color and women in previous generations.

Instead of targeting people, because I don’t agree with their values, I seek to help those out who society has rejected. The most rejected by society are animals. Cute little furry animals are kept as prisoners and tortured, so that the chemical and meat industries can collect more cash from unsafe products. Their habitat is destroyed all over the world, in a senseless rush to use up all the world’s potentially renewable resources in a couple generations. Also, prisoners are discriminated against. We often see them as the enemy in our society, but we all have sinned and are to forgive our neighbors. So we should help people who have made mistakes to get back a productive place in society and find a way to keep from getting sent back to jail.

I used to think that the common conception, that earlier decades of this century or earlier centuries were more innocent, was just nostalgia. But, as I now enjoy watching TV shows that I watched in my youth, I am reminded about how much simpler things were, even 15-20 years ago

One of the things that has really complicated life is the increased complexity in software, games, phones, mainly centered around the Internet.

I remember when I first used a computer, the main difference between using the computer for word processing rather than by hand or on a type writer was the ability to cut and paste. When you make the jump from producing for print, to producing for the web or email, the complexity increases at an exponential rate. Things like structured documents and file size matter much less, when you are not moving documents around primarily in an electronic format.

I think the problem is, that things are advancing so fast that we are not able to adjust our society, in a useful way. Criminals, people in the sex industry, and the military understand technology well and make good use of it. But for the average person, just understanding what the main features are, or even what the feature descriptions mean the software does is overwhelming, even for as simple a thing as a word processor, even for me.

I was reading about 2 things over the last several weeks, that sound like very useful technologies, one quite old and the other not even ready for use yet. One is Web 3.0 or the Semantic Web and the other is the RISC OS operating system.

The RISC OS is a operating system first made by the BBC and comes from the United Kingdom (also known as Great Britain). It is not well known anywhere, especially in the United States, but this system is easier to use and more suited to desktop publishing than the latest Mac. It is relatively expensive and is not compatible with many things, but it makes up for this in its well thought out design.

The Semantic Web is a way of getting computers to understand human language better, by making the information smarter. This means giving extra information for the computer, along with the writing designed to be read by humans. This is built on what is called an ontology, or system of knowledge, where the computer is shown how words are related. This is a very simple level of complexity for the computer to handle, but should make things easier for us. For example, when you search for pizza, the computer doesn’t understand that Italian food is related to pizza, so if you search for pizza places, it is not going to list the Italian restaurant.

This is a great idea, but the problem is who gets to decide which ontology to use. What if the ontology said that Jesus Christ is the same as Buddha or Allah?

As our jobs become more and more directly associated with computers, we socialize mainly with computers, and we get entertainment mainly with computers, the less culture we will have. Art created based on watching people type into computers is not a interesting subject for most artists. When I was a kid, if someone could use a computer on a TV show, they were a nerd and specialist and they were only used, as one of many skills. Now on TV shows, almost everyone uses a computer and the computer specialists know a tremendous level of background knowledge and skill, in almost every area of computers.

Over the last 20 years, the family and other social interactions have changed rapidly and are quite different then they were even a few years ago.

When I was a kid, no one was talking about Gay rights or discrimination against homosexuals. I never thought of the idea of same-sex marriages. There were no actors playing gay main characters on any of the TV shows I watched. Now we have numerous shows where men even kiss on TV and everyone has an opinion on gay marriage.

International relations were different when I was younger. We didn’t worry much about terrorism in America and Russia was our main enemy. Russia was falling apart and so we were entering a time of peace without there being any conceivable future threats. When the first Gulf War happened it was fought in a few days.

When I went to school, my parents supported the teachers and we followed the principals rules. Today, parents can get the schools to do anything they want them to by threatening to sue. When I went to school, we didn’t know of anyone who was an illegal immigrant. I did not know of anyone on paid school staff who did translating. When we learned about history, it was just about American history and a little history of England. When I went to school, we didn’t have any after school programs. But we had numerous sports to choose from.

On sitcoms today, the relationships are totally different. We see the mothers as the leaders of the family, and the dads act like kids. The kids are seen as equal partners in decision making. The parents have the same amount of maturity as their kids. Sex is commonly talked about and the women don’t want to get married any more than the men. Women are as interested in the way the guy looks, as the kind of job he has.

Many young people are critical of America and then my parent’s generation will say "it is the worst form of government, except for all others". American democracy works, but not for the reasons people think. Sure we are free to vote, but there are only 2 parties that have a chance of winning and they are almost identical.

Many young people get upset because they want real change and they believe that our democracy should allow them to make radical changes. Then, when they realize it is not possible: they stop voting, they get involved in violent protests and sabotage, they take out their frustrations with their cars, drink heavily or take drugs, or try to do various lobbying efforts.

The reality is that we are not ruled by a democracy but by a dictatorship, but instead of using violence to control people, the dictatorship uses the media to control our world-view. People say that is not true because we can say almost anything we want about the government and there are no censors. As long as it is not communicated to enough people in a way that will convince them, then the government doesn’t care.

Controlling people’s minds is the best way to control the government. People will put up with almost anything, as long as they think they are well enough off financially. People like to talk about freedom, but really all most people want to do is just follow orders. Most people don’t care about doing what is right or wrong, as long as they are members of a large group that can tell them what to believe. It is not that the average person wants to cause problems for others, its just that they are unwilling to change anything about their lives to help.

They key for individuals, who want to do what is the right thing and not just what is comfortable, I would like to introduce: the concept of "no blood on my hands" where we work to limit the amount of destruction we cause to others and use creativity to go "under the radar" so that we are following all the laws, but we are at the same time freeing them from the media controlling our minds and we work to "free others" on a small scale.

"No blood on my hands" means limiting our impact on the environment and the poor. Many things fall under this, which is often called the voluntary simplicity movement. Some of the things I do are: use shampoo and detergent that are not tested on animals, I don’t eat beef, I don’t drink alcohol, I use open source software, and I give to help farm animals left to starve to death and to Christian ministries in prisons.

"Going under the radar" seems the easiest to do on the Internet. Be part of the long tail, where you appeal to a small segment of the market or a given specialty. You can effectively compete with the likes of Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft in concert with many other specialty sites, without any coordination necessary. You can subvert the media by licensing your work under a creative commons license.

"Freeing others" comes from sharing information that condemns consumerism and materialism. Instead of consuming the information that is produced for the masses, get your information from foreign books and international news from other countries. Another way to free others is to be positive and encourage others. Pray for them and find news of positive things going on in the world.

Most importantly, do not invent any technology that would upset the economy, even in a way that would help others. The government doesn’t look to kindly on people figuring out how to produce energy for free or anything that fundamentally advances Science.

Have you ever wondered why so many Republicans are Evangelicals and why so many Evangelicals are Republicans? Because many are both interested in making money. But many are moral because they never spend it - that would be pagan. You too can get rich if you join our church. Our theologians have found the secret to creating wealth - having lots of money to start with.

What if the Chinese didn’t close down their fleet of ships after Zheng He’s expeditions in the Ming Dynasty (about 1433 AD) ?

The Chinese had the largest wooden ships ever built and and more than any European power at that time - and may have sailed as far as the New World, but they could not afford to anymore with other projects and wars related to conflicts with Mongolia, as they didn’t sail in order to make money.

What if we found another world that worshipped Jesus and was much more technologically advanced than us?

I have developed the idea of raising the bar, once I reach the level that was once my goal, for a higher goal and then on and on until I die. I think I reached rock bottom recently. I have developed the ability to understand philosophy despite having Schizophrenia and with it the near impossibility of understanding abstract thought.

Based on this insight, I surmised that I could do the same thing with my physical body. I would strengthen my will to the point that I could force my body to do what it couldn’t physically much as Special Forces do. The problem is that in the Special Forces, when the training is done, that at some point the service member gets to rest. They don’t tire out the service members to the point that they have no energy, before they drop them onto classified missions.

So for me to assume that I could will myself into mastering my body is a flawed assertion at best. But that was very arrogant to assume that I could reach that level of intensity, without having even attempting that kind of training. Anyway, when I came back from my run, which I was able to push myself past more pain than I was able to do in any of my cross country running, I tasted blood in my lungs and at the point when I got back to my retirement center, one of the managers thought I was having a heart attack.

This showed me that I need to slow down and be aware that although I can dream of saving the world, I do not have the energy to.

In addition to never being able to feel fully rested no matter how much sleep I have had, I can’t push past it with greater mental strength, as I don’t even have the control over my mind as a normal person does.

What the Apostle Paul said in Romans is at the heart of (Christian) Existentialism. We cannot do what we want to. We are not strong enough mentally to reach our goals. We must leave saving the world to God and just help in small ways or else we will not survive long enough to see the fruits of our efforts.

I have finally realized that having Schizophrenia is not just a mental illness; it is a physical one as well. If your medicine is being effective on giving you some control of your thoughts, then you will have no energy to do anything.

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

I have recently arrived at the conclusion that the increased suffering of the world recently is the direct fault of Christians not following what God has called them to do, and in response to the fact and because I am in the wealthiest nation on the earth and because of my gifts of intelligence and creativity that I should be able to make a measurable dent in the amount of suffering that the sentient beings of the earth must feel. But the problem is I don’t have the strength to have the reach that I believe I should have.

Many of the problems of the world, if they are to be solved by people, need more resources than I have been given. I will just have to accept that there is some reason that God is allowing this to happen by conscious choice alone.

I have had to struggle with whether to say I believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and that he was both man and God or that that is a fact. I have recently come to understand that belief is stronger than facts. Similarly to how I said when we had to mark opinion as false and fact as true that opinions could be truths but facts are not consequential enough to be truths. So it shows more certainty to say that I believe in Heaven and Hell than to say flatly that there is a Heaven and Hell and that is the truth whether you agree with it or not you will go to one, because of course its true to the limits of my knowledge which is all I can guarantee by saying it is the truth, but to say I believe something to be true means that I haven’t just proved it intellectually, but it is so true that I risk eternity on it.

In Elementary School, I was so bored, as the classes were so stupefied and repetitious, that I daydreamed most of the time. Middle School was a dark time for me, as I had a very painful time getting rid of some huge warts. I also struggled with people kicking and hitting me, especially on the bus and in shop class.

High school was a renaissance for me, as I had always looked forward, to being in clubs. By my junior year, I was involved in Cheerleading, Boy Scouts, Summer Camp Counselor, Explorer Scouts, Catering, French Club, Model United Nations, Speech Team, a Political Club I started, a multimedia CD-ROM project with Sony, Future Business Leaders of America, a student journal, and a number of other ones I cannot remember. Other years I did Cross Country and Long Distance Track, instead of Cheerleading. I put as much work into each of these, as I was able to, with the most time spent on: the Political Club I started, Cheerleading, Speech Team, and Boy Scouts.

At the end of my junior year, I signed up for the military, under the delayed entry program, so that I shipped, off for Basic Training a month, after I graduated from High School. I spent the whole year getting into shape for the Army and reduced my load of activities down to the seven I enjoyed most. Some of the reasons for joining the military were: serving my country, money for college, getting a break from school, and getting experiences for my resume. The military was harder than anything I had done before and I proved that anyone could do it, if they put in as much effort, as I did.

When I left the military, due to mental illness, I went into school right away, but I began writing some poetry, about a year through, and was inspired by learning about Postmodernism in an English Writing class, Chinese philosophy ,in my year long Chinese literature course, and Existentialism and Ecofeminism in some summer courses. I started out with a Business major, but later switched to Journalism, as I hated business so much and was not very good at it. I was always good at writing and so Journalism was a much better match.

Then on December 11th 1999, I was voluntarily admitted to the psychiatric ward of the local private hospital. I did not write for several months afterwards because I couldn’t. I didn’t know if I could write or understand philosophy again, but I continued to pursue it for a number of months and when I switched to a newer medicine I began to be able to write well again and understand philosophy.

I have studied philosophy, religion, and literature, both European and Asian for 9 years, to help give myself a multicultural understanding of the Bible. I believe that theological traditions, in American culture, have kept us, from understanding what the Bible is really about. What is really misunderstood is who the Holy Spirit is and how God’s Spirit works, in the world, and in our hearts.

The passages, that deal with the Holy Spirit, are some of the most cited and the most unread of the Bible. The Holy Spirit spoke through David, in the Psalms, and through God’s prophets, as well as in Paul’s letters. I have developed a philosophy that combines Philosophical Taoism and Christian Existentialism, to help people understand God in a new way that originally comes from Scripture itself. This philosophy is meant to help seekers understand biblically based Christianity better and this also serves as an inspiration for Christianity, starting several hundred years from now.

But, I have pursued this as much, as I have the ability to and I will need to rely on God, to keep this around as long as it is His will to do so. For most people, their problem is ignoring what God is telling them, but my problem is that I take too much of it on myself. I have to realize, that God can do any of the work, that needs to be done that I cannot complete. This is not an excuse, to neglect God’s voice, and fail to do the work He has prepared for us, but there is a balance in God’s expectations and I have fallen on the side, of being a workaholic.

And the search for rest and my struggle with doing too much is an important theme in the philosophy. My understanding of Chinese philosophy is based on my upbringing as a Confucian scholar, which in western terms would be considered a workaholic. Ironically, Existentialism and Taoism have a lot to do with rest and enjoyment of life, but the paradox is that the father of Existentialism, Kierkegaard, worked himself to death.

I have recently had the opportunity to see a number of contemporary Chinese philosophy influenced works of art, in a museum near where I live, and the common theme is the magnitude of work and the precision involved in creating it. When I compare European art, to Asian art, I laugh, because it is so simplistic. But I have also seen the freedom in western art especially the Impressionists and in the work of Picasso.

I have constantly been fighting, to save the world, since my departure from the military, but I have finally realized, that it is ok to rest and that my work is finished.

It is commonly thought, that if you believe in the Bible, it answers all your questions, so you don’t have to think. You often hear people, who call themselves Christians, say they believe in all these absolutes and that they have life all figured out. This is totally wrong. While the Bible does give assurance of salvation, provided you repent of your sins and believe in Jesus’ resurrection, there is not much else the Bible gives specific answers to.

Once you get past a couple of basic theological ideas about God, man, and their relationship, the more you look through the Bible, the more you will be surprised, at the implications of scripture. Did you know that Scripture never says, that we can’t travel through time or different dimensions? Did you know that the Scriptures describe something, that sounds a lot like a UFO? Did you know that the Bible doesn’t even refer to those, who can be saved, as human beings and that the Bible never says, that there aren’t aliens? In fact, the more bizarre Science gets, the more the Bible lines up, with these new theories.

It is commonly thought, that only atheists are skeptics and that uncertainty is not a Biblical theme. The truth is that there are very few absolutes, in the Bible. The Bible is also very Asian, in its content. Most of the Bible is poetry and one of the main unifying themes, of the Bible, is suffering. The Bible speaks against the occult and even Greek philosophy, but not Eastern Philosophy or Christian mysticism.

Christians, who are honest, have to admit, that they constantly struggle with sins, doubts about promises in the Bible and various psychological issues, like addictions and depression. The Bible doesn’t say, that all suffering comes from sin. In fact, King David suffered from depression and paranoia and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. Although the Bible helps us recognize, that there is a spiritual component to most issues, it leaves open the idea, that we can have psychological conditions, as well as physical ailments, that aren’t necessarily the result of sin.

I realized that I constantly looked for ways to improve my philosophy and my website in my mind and I have come, to the conclusion, that there is nothing more I can do, with the philosophy. I have just started telling myself, that I do not need to solve all the world’s problems, by myself.

I have to wait on God, to solve the world’s problems, in His time. I have gone as far as I can, in this direction. I have realized, that God doesn’t require us to do some gigantic special project, and we are only responsible, for ourselves.

Just because other people have no vision and are not bright enough, to think of anything other than sports, does not mean what I have done is of no value. There is no reason why most people need to understand what I have done. I don’t need to constantly improve myself.

It is OK, to just enjoy life. If people don’t share my interests or values, maybe it is their problem and not mine. People being rude to me, or not liking me is not always my problem. I don’t always need to be the one to change.

I do not need to be able to answer everyone’s problems, that keep them from salvation. I am only responsible, for myself, and keeping the right attitude, before God.

I don’t have to always be learning new things. I don’t always have to do everything, for a reason. I don’t always have to make ten backups, of everything I create. I don’t have to publish everything I do. I don’t have to worry about all the possible bad things people could use, what I have created, to do.

I don’t have to constantly get more talented, at everything. I don’t have to master every discipline. I don’t have to complete everything, as soon as I think of it. If something is that important, it will come back to me later.

We are inseparable with the One even when at the farthest reaches of the universe