by Ernest L. Norman
It might be conceded that the context of the foregoing paragraphs is indeed startling or even shocking to some of those who read them. Indeed it might even appear that the author is atheistic, and attempting to destroy Christianity and perhaps other religions of the world. Therefore, to soften such shocks or to justify to the reader, not in defense for no defense is needed in the presentation as this material was drawn from various existing histories, these are facts which may be a part of either private or public libraries. Indeed the reader may find that the author has presented this historical background of Christianity very briefly and that further studies along these lines would not only clarify and enlarge the forgoing contents, but would add other similar parallels to this background of Christianity.
For instance, in Mithraism before it became merged into Christianity, the custom of baptism was a ritual of purification wherein the subject being so baptised was completely immersed in pure cow urine. Could this be the same baptismal, the same symbol of purification, the washing away of sins etc., which is dramatically described in the New Testament, when John baptized Jesus in the river Jordan; and if baptism is for purification, why then did the “only begotten Son of God” need purifying?
The places of Mithraic worship which were among the tall forest trees or sometimes in caves or grottos, re-formed themselves in Christian places of worship as the tall, columned or pillared church, or cathedral edifices with the arched grotto-like niches at the ends which housed the altars. The liturgy of Christianity contains many other parallels with not only Mithraism but in many other pagan or deistic religions of the world, both modern and ancient.
So far as the philosophical teachings of Christianity are concerned (and as is contained in the Bible), it is indeed a strange and extremely complex matrix of symbologies, ideologies, superstitions, etc., combined with some rather questionable historical data. Nor can the reader take refuge in attempting to justify his past understandings by referring to the Dead Sea Scrolls, for these scrolls only substantiate, to some degree, this historical content of the Old Testament. Such verifications, however, must not be confused with the supernatural ideologies which are contained within these texts, and that by and large and from any historical source whatsoever, the Jehovah of the Old Testament is and always will remain a pagan god, and any conduct individually or collectively which implies moral or religious intercourse in the belief of this Jehovah is therefore paganistic, and that this Jehovah was completely disproved by Jesus.
Christianity also contains other strange paradoxes which, to the rational thinker, would be immediately apparent. For instance, Jesus taught that all men were equal in the sight of God; therefore every man, woman, and child on the face of the earth was a child of this God, irrespective of race, color, or creed, and that so far as God was concerned, all had the same rights and considerations. All were quite worthy of any help which could be given them; this, Jesus demonstrated by healing and teaching to all, regardless of whether they were Jew, Pharisee, Arab or slave. However, the modern church liturgy believes that according to a certain prophecy in Revelations, “Only 144,000 people will be saved to inhabit the new city of Jerusalem.” What then about the countless billions of people who have swarmed upon the face of this earth, most of whom have not known about Jesus or this so-called Christian way to salvation?
With the destruction of these people and on the judgment day, as is believed by the Christian, God would therefore defeat His own plan and purpose of salvation. For, if and when such a plan was conceived by the Almighty, He would not have needed to have created the earth nor all of the races of mankind. He could have saved Himself all this bother, time, and work by taking enough mud and ribs and making Himself 144,000 people and putting them in His new city and keeping them there, much like a boy keeps a bunch of pet rabbits.
Of course this is ridiculous and asinine and no person with a grain of intelligence would believe in this malarkey which has been handed down from generation to generation, race to race, era to era, and epoch to epoch, by these old witch doctors who have, through successive evolutions, reappeared from time to time and donned the robes of various temples and churches to again purvey this religious tripe.
To intimidate and coerce through fear and other reactive elements in the subconscious; to take advantage of every emotional weakness in their fellow man – this they have done in the past and this they are doing in the present and will continue to do in the future so long as there are those who will support them by going to their temples and churches with their generosity which is one of the more godlike attributes each man possesses.
No indeed, the author is not attempting to destroy Christianity or any other religion; he knows how essential such systems are in the first progressive steps of evolution and which are man’s first acknowledgment of the great mysterious creative forces. He knows that as every man started as a small cell or entity of consciousness which began to reappear or reincarnate in cyclic movements from life to life, that through frequency relationship this entity of consciousness gathered about it and wove together other entities which were harmonically attuned to it. Thus begins each man as he has always begun and, as he starts this evolutionary pathway, so will he find this pathway threading its way among the things with which he is familiar and which were either partly or wholly responsible for this regenerative process stemming from the Infinite Source.
For, as this Infinite Source is Infinite, and that this Infinity IS all things Visible and invisible, known and unknown, so like-wise must this Infinity be maintained by an infinite number of finite forms. Man therefore becomes the collective agency of this infinite number of forms, which he does by living from life to life through the doorway of experience; thus becoming another one of the ultimate achievements of this regenerative process of the Infinite Mind.
For as each man becomes godlike in nature and expression, so must he too, just as does this Infinite Mind, know of all things; and, in the knowing of these things, becomes a participating agent or element, not as a reactionary force in a negative way, but as a positive polarity which supplies a spiritual life, libido or drive, a constructive purpose, and again a reliving of consciousness with the Infinite. Until such time therefore, that any particular individual can conceive or realize these creative principles, he must therefore support his purpose of life, his evolution and all of the things with which he is so concerned at any given time or moment, with all of the elements of the world in which he lives, for these too are but products of his evolution.
As he was before, so he is, and thus he goes from day to day, from life to life and in each day, or each life, he adds or subtracts but very little, for the unknown is a great and terrible monster, more to be feared than the evils of his present moment. Not until he realizes the constructive interplay of the Infinite Mind does he begin to Light his own pathway; the gloomy shadows will disappear, and there will be no unknown monsters. He will, in this self-realization, realize that new dimensions of consciousness are not attained by continuing to ascribe to local social systems and religions, for in these things he listens and sees only with the ears and eyes of other people.
Self-realization is realization of the Infinite Mind, and the position of self as a constructive participating element of consciousness with this Infinite. How useless then is anything, save that it serves a purpose, and that having served its purpose must pass on. How well it is for us to realize its purpose and to witness its passing in the realization of new purposes, for this indeed is progressive evolution – the dynamics of the Infinite Mind in the never-ending, never-ceasing, recreative process of thought, form, and consciousness. “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, which is within, and all things shall be added unto thee.”
Excerpt from Infinite Contact