Theology | A Scientific Theology

A Scientific Theology

(c)2022 by Vernon Miles Kerr and VernonMilesKerr.com

We will start with the GOOD NEWS!

There is no such thing as “sin.”

Those in the Judaeo-Christian and Islamic traditions will scoff, maybe thinking,
“Yeah, it’s easy to get rid of your responsibilities by sweeping them under the rug.”
But that’s just it, folks, that burden of “responsibility” is based upon a ridiculous Genesis-myth about our alleged “first-mother” being enticed, by a large serpent, to break lock-step obedience to the “God” depicted in the myth, by taking a bite of the one-and-only prohibited fruit in the garden called “Eden.”

Modern adherents, to the Bible will say, “Oh, but, that’s just metaphor” Okay, then, what else in the Bible is metaphor and how does one distinguish between metaphor and literal meanings? As soon as Darwin, et al began publishing, in the Mid-nineteenth Century. many adherents and scholars of the Judaeo-Christian-Islamic tradition began a scramble to explain why many of the ancient scriptures disagreed with science. The most ridiculous of these “apologias” was that “Satan created the fossil record to confuse humans.”

Lay people to Geology may not know that oil prospecting companies use “paleo-microbiologists” to microscopically examine core samples at various levels of rock-strata to determine if oil-bearing layers are near. I have one such core that my father gave me from a drilling site he worked on. It looks like basalt and, on it, is scratched the phrase, “Chino Hills, 18,000 ft.” Seems like a lot of work for Satan to affect rock layers nearly as deep as Alaska’s Denali is tall. Clearly, life existed long before the Biblical Genesis.

Beyond that “Satan did it,” rhetorical silliness, is the very concept of an angelic Lucifer having turned into Satan. A created spirit-being having the “neediness” and “Ego” which defines a narcissist in our material realm is an oxymoron. “Ego” is merely the Greek word for “I,” the big “I.” A being composed of the same essence as its creator-spirit-being would theoretically have NO needs, no neediness, and therefore, no Ego. Like so much in the Bible, those characters, including Satan and the one described as “God,” seem to be created in the image of the writers, not visa versa.

Getting back to the original sin of Eve: she purloined a cookie from the cookie jar, lied about it and therefore condemned her progeny to death-row, unless some kind of sacrificial atonement were performed to save them. Until the destruction of the Second Temple in First-Century Jerusalem, Jewish priests conducted a continual, daily round of gruesome animal sacrifices, to try to atone for Eve’s folly. These facts about the Temple are historical—and ones that any current Jewish Rabbi will verify.

With the Advent (the coming) of Jesus, the story says God came to Earth in human form and willingly walked into a gruesome death in order to make a final sacrificial atonement for any human who was willing to accept His sacrifice. Done deal.

This paradigm was the basis for the staggering propagation of Christianity from Jerusalem into all the world, in just a few centuries. Thomas Edison said the key to successful invention is “Find a need and fill it.” Is the snake story an example of “Create a need and fill it”?

Those early “apostles” of (at least) 100 years after Jesus’s death, went out to spread the “good news” that saying the magic words, “I accept Jesus as my personal savior,” would save the speaker from Eve’s folly. The “wages of sin” would be reversed. As far as empire-building goes, it worked didn’t it? Today’s count on Wolfram Alpha**: 2.07 Billion Christians. The tally didn’t include the Mormons, they are at near 17 Million now. Aside: the most amazing components of this 2.07 Billion were, Catholicism 1 billion…Pentecostalism a half billion.

In conclusion, I’m not out to destroy the happiness of those who still adhere to the traditional Christian view of “sin and redemption.” If they are happy and don’t mind supporting the applicable religious empire of their own churches, God bless them. Rather, I’m here to address those who suffer from guilt because they left that tradition, or have been too busy to get involved in that tradition.

There should be no guilt. There should be no “fear of missing out.” The love of the Universe’s God is freely available for the asking. No organized religion is necessary. Meditate on that.

VMK

**https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=Christianity&assumption=%22ClashPrefs%22+-%3E+%7B%22Religion%22%2C+%22Christian%22%7D