Catechism of the Divine Succession
10 views
Skip to first unread message
CANAAN51USA - Alfred De Grazia
Dec 3, 2010, 8:04:16 AM12/3/10
to CANAAN51USA
Catechism of the Divine Succession
Thirty years ago I offered in my book THE DIVINE SUCCESSION a
catechism. Thomas Jefferson, when asked his religion once, replied:
"My religion is of one man." My religion is also personal but at the
same time is intended to be universal in its principles and fully
scientific and pragmatic. As such it can be adopted by individuals,
groups, even the whole of humanity, for that matter. A few years ago,
I scripted the catechism for an oratorio, and that is the way in which
it is presented below.
The catechism is reprinted here because religious strife is at the
center of Middle East conflicts and especially in the so-called Holy
Land. All those persons who seek to fix themselves in relation to the
general free-for-all struggle going on in Canaan, are welcome to use
the Catechism of the Divine Succession (for whose downloading one may
go also to my grazian-archive website, where you can also find the
full text of my book The Divine Succession.
Alfred de Grazia
ORATORIO of the CATECHISM OF THE DIVINE SUCCESSION*
Program Note
This Catechism is for personal and communal use, and evolves from the
theory of the book, The Divine Succession. But, as an Oratorio, hence
dramatic performance, it calls here for two voices and 85 chords.
Also, it can be sung by a choir, chanted or in harmony. The catechism,
which is a series of evolving statements describing a religion and the
affirmations proposed for it, makes 79 statements, each in the form of
a question and a response, preceded and followed by a musical chord
pre-composed for a synthesizer.
The catechism is divided into five parts: Knowledge (12 statements);
Morals (19 statements); Supernatural (16 statements); Gods (17
statements); and Religion (15 statements). The statements as a duet
are to be chanted by a woman and a man, or whatsoever distinction of
voices, as follows, but the roles can and should be reversed from time
to time: On Knowledge, a woman asks the question while a man gives the
response; on Morals, a man chants the question, a woman gives the
response; on the Supernatural, a woman chants the questions, a man the
answers; on Gods, the man seeks, the woman relates; on Religion, the
woman asks and the man responds.
Allowing 30 seconds for the average chord-question-response triplet,
the time elapsed for the full catechism may extend from 40 to 50
minutes. Chords are to be at the same acoustic level as the voices.
The female voice and the male voice are to be adjusted by amplifier so
that they have the same volume. An extra chord precedes the first
question, followed by the chord that anticipates and addresses the
first question and response. Thereafter a chord precedes each couplet
until the end, when a set of 5 chords are sounded (4 in tempo largo,
increasingly so until the last is distinct and prolonged.
A catechism can summarize the fundamental facts and doctrines of
religion from our perspective. The word "catechism", which now broadly
means an elementary instruction manual in a given field, has for
seventeen hundred years meant, more precisely, exercises for
instructing Christian neophytes. Before the word achieved popularity
in its Latinized Greek form, it may have come from the combined words
"tying down", connoting a binding divine covenant. Less religiously,
it recalls a metaphorical American usage of the same words, as when we
"tie down" a matter so as to put it is form for easy handling.
Our catechism here intends to tie down in a well-known format the
basic facts and doctrines of religion deriving from our study.
Setting forth a catechism exposes to a pitiless light our beliefs
concerning religion. The onus of proselytism comes with it, for a
catechism must tell people what they should believe. There are health
and strength in such an exercise. To the allegation that we are too
complex, abstract, and difficult to understand, we assert that the
ordinary religious catechism merely appears to be understandable,
whereas in truth it conveys to the reciting only the comfort of
magical words. When subjected to scientific, philosophical, logical,
historical, and ethical analysis, traditional catechism, unenlightened
by the theory of the Divine Succession, exhibits errors, myths,
confusions of terms, incoherence, and ultimately an inherent
incapacity to enlighten and persuade minds that have not already been
indoctrinated. A traditional catechism gathers its acceptance from
authority, ambiance and familiarity. Even if the hearer of the
Catechism of the Divine Succession derives at first an illumination
of, say, 20% of what it is capable of providing and pointing to, he
can be fairly certain that the typical religious catechism of
historical tradition affords one, we say, perhaps a score of 5% in
intelligibility.
I. KNOWLEDGE
1. How was the universe created?
The world has always existed in some of its infinitely possible
manifestations, and is being created in some others today, and so it
will go on.
2. How long will this Earth endure?
The Earth will endure for an inestimable time, depending upon mostly
unpredictable natural, and divine human events.
3. How much can a person know about the world?
One can know more than one can learn and much less than what exists.
4. Can one know oneself?
One can know oneself within the limits of one's abilities to know
oneself.
5. Are the limits of these abilities known and achievable?
The limits of the abilities to know oneself are unknown but more
extensive than the abilities anyone has shown.
6. What should a person know of oneself?
One should appreciate one's operative complex of self-- controls.
7. Does a person have free will?
One acts in accord with one's nature and circumstances; free will as
action in ignorance of one's nature and circumstances can exist, but
is not characteristic of an autonomous rational person.
8. What is known absolutely?
Nothing that matters. The absolute should be ignored because its main
function is to promote absolute fear.
9. What is absolutely clear?
Nothing, and tolerance of ambiguity should be a religious principle,
both to combat fear and to express the supernatural.
10. What is science?
Science may be usefully defined as the method of choosing the largest
chance of certainty in solving problems whose conditions and
objectives are known.
11. How should science relate to religion?
Science should solve an increasingly large number of the indefinitely
large number of problems of religion, while religion expresses some of
the directives and limits of science.
12. How should we express our relation to cosmos?
We should relate to the Cosmos by understanding it and celebrating it.
As toward animals and plants, in descending series of their divinity.
II. MORALS
13. What needs has one?
One's needs are fearlessly to subsist, to experience, and to be
treated justly.
14. What duties has one?
One's duties are to help others fearlessly to subsist, to experience,
and to be justly treated.
15. Who is divine among people?
Whoever studies and expresses the divine is divine.
16. What differences exist between means and ends?
A means is a process of action that contributes to a more general
process of action; it is rational according to how it works; it is
deemed good or bad in its own effects and therefore contributes more
or less good or bad to the end process.
17. Is good rewarded?
Insofar as the religious and secular realms are consonant, good action
is rewarded in both; the rewards of religion should be in its practice
and in the health of character that it fosters.
18. Should evil be punished?
Evil should be compensated for, personally and socially, not punished;
it should be treated as a problem of coping with natural forces.
19. Do right and wrong belong in the realm of the gods?
Yes, they belong where the human and divine realms interact.
20. Can a person distinguish right and wrong?
Yes, by exercising himself in the fringes of the supernatural realm
where the mundane realm fashions its judgments.
21. What is right or wrong?
Right is a determination of consistency in the consequences of an
action with the divine aspect of a person.
22. By what rules should a person act?
A person should act by the rules of one's nature adjusted to the
related ordinances of a consensus of like-minded others.
23. How should a person behave toward oneself?
One should accommodate consistently one's divine and mundane
character.
24. How should a person behave towards others?
One should act towards others as to a differently shaped development
of oneself, hence part of oneself, hence considerately, hence
helpfully.
25. How should a person behave toward plants and animals?
One should behave toward plants and animals as toward others, while
recognizing in them an acute differentiation from oneself in the
tragic divine need to derive instinctive gratification from their
exploitation.
26. How should a person behave toward natural objects?
As toward animals and plants, in descending series of their divinity.
27. How should a person behave toward the supernatural?
One should practice an understanding of its potential.
28. What morality is devoid of religious significance?
All morality should be religiously and politically promoted.
29. Of what consists such morality that should be religiously and
politically promoted?
Morality should be promoted which comes from a constitution that is
based upon consensus and offering procedures that among other effects
tend to establish the dominion of divinity in humans.
30. Is a person without religion bound to be wrong and evil?
His views are narrow and he may not understand his own religiousness,
but his actions may neither err nor have bad consequences.
31. What function does a person serve in the world?
The person represents and takes part in universal manifestations.
III. THE SUPERNATURAL
32. Is there a supernatural part of the world?
What one cannot perceive and what one cannot understand, even if he
learns something about it is the supernatural.
33. Is the supernatural divine?
The supernatural is divine insofar as it is meaningfully integrated
into human mentation, but divinity implies no superiority over the
pragmatically knowable.
34. What is the divine on Earth?
The divine on Earth is a uniquely human way of looking upon oneself
and the world.
35. How does one worship the divine?
The rituals for worshiping the divine are whatever exercises are
useful to achieve it.
36. What is sacred?
Everything viewed in its supernatural and divine manifestations is
sacred.
37. What is faith?
Faith is positive morale, a conviction of meaningfulness about what
one is thinking and doing, which when related to the divine is
religious faith.
38. What is revelation?
Revelation is the recognition by an internal or external stimulus of
an important pattern to existence, not previously experienced, to
which, if a divine element is present, the term "religious" can be
attached.
39. What is discovery?
Discovery is a revelation purposefully brought about, whose
applications are readily apparent and available to others.
40. What should authority be?
Authority should be the legitimate power of one person over another,
which may be religious; it should receive its legitimacy by the
consensus of those ruled and should lose its legitimacy to the extent
to which it is physically and mentally coercive.
41. How should we behave toward the sacred?
As toward the mundane, although, as with mundane varieties, we should
act toward the sacred appropriately in accord with its distinctions.
42. How much of our energies should be given to the divine?
As much as necessary in order to receive divine energies in return,
from ourselves, others, the world and gods.
43. What is divine energy?
Divine energy is the morale that comes from developing relations with
the supernatural.
44. Is there a sacred community?
Yes, the community of those whose understanding of the divine is
similar in forms, scope and intensity.
45. Will the cosmos ever be divine?
The theotropic universe should ultimately dominate the entropic
universe.
46. Is the divine also god?
Yes, insofar as its mental integration functions as a presentation of
the human mind, the divine is godly.
47. To what futures should a person relate?
A person chooses and lives partially in whatever futures one wants and
is capable of participating in, except that upon death one's future is
resolved into the cosmos and reconstructed beyond personal minding and
control.
IV. THE GODS
48. Is it proper to expect gods?
It is proper to expect gods, as it is to expect enlightenment.
49. What is a god?
A god is a generalized and immanent being, manifesting itself in
material ways and through a demonstrable external cosmic spirit,
operating in the human mind as the repository of the supernatural.
50. Is god material existence?
All material is effective: insofar as the divine is effective
existence, and existence is all material, the divine is material, and
so is god.
51. Where is god?
The god is wherever it can be and acts so as to be.
52. Is there one god or many?
There are both one and many gods, depending upon how the mind
assembles the divine facets in its behavior.
53. Do gods behave like humans?
Yes, but only as the human in its universal and supernatural aspects.
54. How many gods exist?
We have not discovered how many, if any, gods exist on Earth, while in
the universe myriad gods exist.
55. What proofs do we have that there exists a supernatural, a divine,
and a god?
That divine beings exist is known by the logical extension of our
ignorance and limitations into areas where divinity must being and
exist.
56. Do all gods have the same traits and behavior?
Traits and behavior are limited ideas and actions to which the gods
cannot be bound.
57. Where is god in relation to the human?
The god is where the human mind is affected by the supernatural and
the divine, or may ultimately be in conscious contact with it.
58. How is a person related to god?
Personally, as to an aspect of oneself, socially as to a joint aspect
of oneself and others.
59. Does a person elect god?
A person chooses god but his election is jointly with others to the
extent that the gods of others permit a joint representation.
60. Can I will against gods?
One can will against gods entropically for self or universally,
including reductionism to greater instinctive animality.
61. Can all historical gods be attributed to catastrophes and other
natural causes?
All historical gods are in at least some of their manifestations
catastrophic.
62. Are gods historical?
Historical gods have been the outcome of persons interacting with
events, and, though probably non-existent, persist in some of their
earlier manifestations, so that all are partly gone and partly
present.
63. Should a person obey historical gods in their original ascribed
apparitions?
The gods of the past are to be treated as hypothetical models to avoid
and imitate as they reflect upon the present and future and satisfy
today's conditions of existence.
64. Are the gods rational and welcome?
Insofar as they are theotropic rather than entropic, the gods are
rational and welcome, and are to be preferred.
V. RELIGION
65. Can society hold together without religion?
Society cannot be conceived without religion and therefore cannot hold
together without it.
66. Should two persons have the same religion?
No two persons can have or should have the same religion; all religion
is therefore personal.
67. How are persons united by religion?
Persons sharing significant religious perspectives identify with each
other and constitute a church if they recognize their mutual identity.
68. How should we regard existing religions.?
We should regard existing religions as in large part historically
invalidated, in terms of the ongoing and future historical process of
religion, and encourage their voluntary assimilation and development
into current standards of validation.
69. Should there be priests?
Priesthood as religious leadership must exist, and should be practiced
ideally by all when they can, and by the fewest possible full time and
forever.
70. What gifts should religion bring?
Religion should bring joy of thought, wonderful awe, a divine
community, and freedom from fear.
71. What gifts should be made to religion?
The gods of the past are to be treated as hypothetical models to avoid
and imitate as they reflect upon the present and future and satisfy
today's conditions of existence.
72. What does religion offer to human suffering of mind and body?
Religion offers to the suffering body and mind the knowledge of self,
morale, scientific pragmatic support, and a cosmic sense of
proportion.
73. What symbols should be sacred?
Symbols that retain the least historical implications and represent
the major points of this catechism should be created and promoted and
become subjects of admiration and stimulation; present sacred symbols
should be reduced in significance and intensity.
74. What are sacred scriptures?
All graphic and written material that was ever sacred is still sacred
and worthy of wonder and study, but at a reduced level of psychic
investment, while new contributions intended as sacred scriptures
should be no more sacred than any other sacrally intended or
scientific or literary work for which merit is claimed.
75. Should our rites be simple or elaborate?
Rituals should be as elaborate as necessary to learn the purpose of
the ritual, as stressed as necessary to enjoy its reassurances, as
simple as the available energies would afford, and should be
productive of other goods aesthetically and otherwise.
76. What is the educative task of religion?
Religion should educate people theotropically, which is the
constructive life force.
77. What is the task of politics?
The task of politics is the same as religion morally, but politics
contends largely with the pragmatic problems issuing from theotropism.
78. To what extent should we be bound by our religion?
We should be bound to our religion to the extent and so long as it
helps us fulfill our obligations to ourselves and the world.
79. How long will it be before humanity becomes religious?
Mankind will become religious when it discovers the existence of gods
on experiential principles and without delusion.
CONTACT US AT: canaa...@gmail.com
OR VISIT THE FOLLOWING WEBSITES:
http://www.canaanblog.americanstateofcanaan.com/latest/index.html
http://www.grazian-arhive.com
ALFRED DE GRAZIA
Thirty years ago I offered in my book THE DIVINE SUCCESSION a
catechism. Thomas Jefferson, when asked his religion once, replied:
"My religion is of one man." My religion is also personal but at the
same time is intended to be universal in its principles and fully
scientific and pragmatic. As such it can be adopted by individuals,
groups, even the whole of humanity, for that matter. A few years ago,
I scripted the catechism for an oratorio, and that is the way in which
it is presented below.
The catechism is reprinted here because religious strife is at the
center of Middle East conflicts and especially in the so-called Holy
Land. All those persons who seek to fix themselves in relation to the
general free-for-all struggle going on in Canaan, are welcome to use
the Catechism of the Divine Succession (for whose downloading one may
go also to my grazian-archive website, where you can also find the
full text of my book The Divine Succession.
Alfred de Grazia
ORATORIO of the CATECHISM OF THE DIVINE SUCCESSION*
Program Note
This Catechism is for personal and communal use, and evolves from the
theory of the book, The Divine Succession. But, as an Oratorio, hence
dramatic performance, it calls here for two voices and 85 chords.
Also, it can be sung by a choir, chanted or in harmony. The catechism,
which is a series of evolving statements describing a religion and the
affirmations proposed for it, makes 79 statements, each in the form of
a question and a response, preceded and followed by a musical chord
pre-composed for a synthesizer.
The catechism is divided into five parts: Knowledge (12 statements);
Morals (19 statements); Supernatural (16 statements); Gods (17
statements); and Religion (15 statements). The statements as a duet
are to be chanted by a woman and a man, or whatsoever distinction of
voices, as follows, but the roles can and should be reversed from time
to time: On Knowledge, a woman asks the question while a man gives the
response; on Morals, a man chants the question, a woman gives the
response; on the Supernatural, a woman chants the questions, a man the
answers; on Gods, the man seeks, the woman relates; on Religion, the
woman asks and the man responds.
Allowing 30 seconds for the average chord-question-response triplet,
the time elapsed for the full catechism may extend from 40 to 50
minutes. Chords are to be at the same acoustic level as the voices.
The female voice and the male voice are to be adjusted by amplifier so
that they have the same volume. An extra chord precedes the first
question, followed by the chord that anticipates and addresses the
first question and response. Thereafter a chord precedes each couplet
until the end, when a set of 5 chords are sounded (4 in tempo largo,
increasingly so until the last is distinct and prolonged.
A catechism can summarize the fundamental facts and doctrines of
religion from our perspective. The word "catechism", which now broadly
means an elementary instruction manual in a given field, has for
seventeen hundred years meant, more precisely, exercises for
instructing Christian neophytes. Before the word achieved popularity
in its Latinized Greek form, it may have come from the combined words
"tying down", connoting a binding divine covenant. Less religiously,
it recalls a metaphorical American usage of the same words, as when we
"tie down" a matter so as to put it is form for easy handling.
Our catechism here intends to tie down in a well-known format the
basic facts and doctrines of religion deriving from our study.
Setting forth a catechism exposes to a pitiless light our beliefs
concerning religion. The onus of proselytism comes with it, for a
catechism must tell people what they should believe. There are health
and strength in such an exercise. To the allegation that we are too
complex, abstract, and difficult to understand, we assert that the
ordinary religious catechism merely appears to be understandable,
whereas in truth it conveys to the reciting only the comfort of
magical words. When subjected to scientific, philosophical, logical,
historical, and ethical analysis, traditional catechism, unenlightened
by the theory of the Divine Succession, exhibits errors, myths,
confusions of terms, incoherence, and ultimately an inherent
incapacity to enlighten and persuade minds that have not already been
indoctrinated. A traditional catechism gathers its acceptance from
authority, ambiance and familiarity. Even if the hearer of the
Catechism of the Divine Succession derives at first an illumination
of, say, 20% of what it is capable of providing and pointing to, he
can be fairly certain that the typical religious catechism of
historical tradition affords one, we say, perhaps a score of 5% in
intelligibility.
I. KNOWLEDGE
1. How was the universe created?
The world has always existed in some of its infinitely possible
manifestations, and is being created in some others today, and so it
will go on.
2. How long will this Earth endure?
The Earth will endure for an inestimable time, depending upon mostly
unpredictable natural, and divine human events.
3. How much can a person know about the world?
One can know more than one can learn and much less than what exists.
4. Can one know oneself?
One can know oneself within the limits of one's abilities to know
oneself.
5. Are the limits of these abilities known and achievable?
The limits of the abilities to know oneself are unknown but more
extensive than the abilities anyone has shown.
6. What should a person know of oneself?
One should appreciate one's operative complex of self-- controls.
7. Does a person have free will?
One acts in accord with one's nature and circumstances; free will as
action in ignorance of one's nature and circumstances can exist, but
is not characteristic of an autonomous rational person.
8. What is known absolutely?
Nothing that matters. The absolute should be ignored because its main
function is to promote absolute fear.
9. What is absolutely clear?
Nothing, and tolerance of ambiguity should be a religious principle,
both to combat fear and to express the supernatural.
10. What is science?
Science may be usefully defined as the method of choosing the largest
chance of certainty in solving problems whose conditions and
objectives are known.
11. How should science relate to religion?
Science should solve an increasingly large number of the indefinitely
large number of problems of religion, while religion expresses some of
the directives and limits of science.
12. How should we express our relation to cosmos?
We should relate to the Cosmos by understanding it and celebrating it.
As toward animals and plants, in descending series of their divinity.
II. MORALS
13. What needs has one?
One's needs are fearlessly to subsist, to experience, and to be
treated justly.
14. What duties has one?
One's duties are to help others fearlessly to subsist, to experience,
and to be justly treated.
15. Who is divine among people?
Whoever studies and expresses the divine is divine.
16. What differences exist between means and ends?
A means is a process of action that contributes to a more general
process of action; it is rational according to how it works; it is
deemed good or bad in its own effects and therefore contributes more
or less good or bad to the end process.
17. Is good rewarded?
Insofar as the religious and secular realms are consonant, good action
is rewarded in both; the rewards of religion should be in its practice
and in the health of character that it fosters.
18. Should evil be punished?
Evil should be compensated for, personally and socially, not punished;
it should be treated as a problem of coping with natural forces.
19. Do right and wrong belong in the realm of the gods?
Yes, they belong where the human and divine realms interact.
20. Can a person distinguish right and wrong?
Yes, by exercising himself in the fringes of the supernatural realm
where the mundane realm fashions its judgments.
21. What is right or wrong?
Right is a determination of consistency in the consequences of an
action with the divine aspect of a person.
22. By what rules should a person act?
A person should act by the rules of one's nature adjusted to the
related ordinances of a consensus of like-minded others.
23. How should a person behave toward oneself?
One should accommodate consistently one's divine and mundane
character.
24. How should a person behave towards others?
One should act towards others as to a differently shaped development
of oneself, hence part of oneself, hence considerately, hence
helpfully.
25. How should a person behave toward plants and animals?
One should behave toward plants and animals as toward others, while
recognizing in them an acute differentiation from oneself in the
tragic divine need to derive instinctive gratification from their
exploitation.
26. How should a person behave toward natural objects?
As toward animals and plants, in descending series of their divinity.
27. How should a person behave toward the supernatural?
One should practice an understanding of its potential.
28. What morality is devoid of religious significance?
All morality should be religiously and politically promoted.
29. Of what consists such morality that should be religiously and
politically promoted?
Morality should be promoted which comes from a constitution that is
based upon consensus and offering procedures that among other effects
tend to establish the dominion of divinity in humans.
30. Is a person without religion bound to be wrong and evil?
His views are narrow and he may not understand his own religiousness,
but his actions may neither err nor have bad consequences.
31. What function does a person serve in the world?
The person represents and takes part in universal manifestations.
III. THE SUPERNATURAL
32. Is there a supernatural part of the world?
What one cannot perceive and what one cannot understand, even if he
learns something about it is the supernatural.
33. Is the supernatural divine?
The supernatural is divine insofar as it is meaningfully integrated
into human mentation, but divinity implies no superiority over the
pragmatically knowable.
34. What is the divine on Earth?
The divine on Earth is a uniquely human way of looking upon oneself
and the world.
35. How does one worship the divine?
The rituals for worshiping the divine are whatever exercises are
useful to achieve it.
36. What is sacred?
Everything viewed in its supernatural and divine manifestations is
sacred.
37. What is faith?
Faith is positive morale, a conviction of meaningfulness about what
one is thinking and doing, which when related to the divine is
religious faith.
38. What is revelation?
Revelation is the recognition by an internal or external stimulus of
an important pattern to existence, not previously experienced, to
which, if a divine element is present, the term "religious" can be
attached.
39. What is discovery?
Discovery is a revelation purposefully brought about, whose
applications are readily apparent and available to others.
40. What should authority be?
Authority should be the legitimate power of one person over another,
which may be religious; it should receive its legitimacy by the
consensus of those ruled and should lose its legitimacy to the extent
to which it is physically and mentally coercive.
41. How should we behave toward the sacred?
As toward the mundane, although, as with mundane varieties, we should
act toward the sacred appropriately in accord with its distinctions.
42. How much of our energies should be given to the divine?
As much as necessary in order to receive divine energies in return,
from ourselves, others, the world and gods.
43. What is divine energy?
Divine energy is the morale that comes from developing relations with
the supernatural.
44. Is there a sacred community?
Yes, the community of those whose understanding of the divine is
similar in forms, scope and intensity.
45. Will the cosmos ever be divine?
The theotropic universe should ultimately dominate the entropic
universe.
46. Is the divine also god?
Yes, insofar as its mental integration functions as a presentation of
the human mind, the divine is godly.
47. To what futures should a person relate?
A person chooses and lives partially in whatever futures one wants and
is capable of participating in, except that upon death one's future is
resolved into the cosmos and reconstructed beyond personal minding and
control.
IV. THE GODS
48. Is it proper to expect gods?
It is proper to expect gods, as it is to expect enlightenment.
49. What is a god?
A god is a generalized and immanent being, manifesting itself in
material ways and through a demonstrable external cosmic spirit,
operating in the human mind as the repository of the supernatural.
50. Is god material existence?
All material is effective: insofar as the divine is effective
existence, and existence is all material, the divine is material, and
so is god.
51. Where is god?
The god is wherever it can be and acts so as to be.
52. Is there one god or many?
There are both one and many gods, depending upon how the mind
assembles the divine facets in its behavior.
53. Do gods behave like humans?
Yes, but only as the human in its universal and supernatural aspects.
54. How many gods exist?
We have not discovered how many, if any, gods exist on Earth, while in
the universe myriad gods exist.
55. What proofs do we have that there exists a supernatural, a divine,
and a god?
That divine beings exist is known by the logical extension of our
ignorance and limitations into areas where divinity must being and
exist.
56. Do all gods have the same traits and behavior?
Traits and behavior are limited ideas and actions to which the gods
cannot be bound.
57. Where is god in relation to the human?
The god is where the human mind is affected by the supernatural and
the divine, or may ultimately be in conscious contact with it.
58. How is a person related to god?
Personally, as to an aspect of oneself, socially as to a joint aspect
of oneself and others.
59. Does a person elect god?
A person chooses god but his election is jointly with others to the
extent that the gods of others permit a joint representation.
60. Can I will against gods?
One can will against gods entropically for self or universally,
including reductionism to greater instinctive animality.
61. Can all historical gods be attributed to catastrophes and other
natural causes?
All historical gods are in at least some of their manifestations
catastrophic.
62. Are gods historical?
Historical gods have been the outcome of persons interacting with
events, and, though probably non-existent, persist in some of their
earlier manifestations, so that all are partly gone and partly
present.
63. Should a person obey historical gods in their original ascribed
apparitions?
The gods of the past are to be treated as hypothetical models to avoid
and imitate as they reflect upon the present and future and satisfy
today's conditions of existence.
64. Are the gods rational and welcome?
Insofar as they are theotropic rather than entropic, the gods are
rational and welcome, and are to be preferred.
V. RELIGION
65. Can society hold together without religion?
Society cannot be conceived without religion and therefore cannot hold
together without it.
66. Should two persons have the same religion?
No two persons can have or should have the same religion; all religion
is therefore personal.
67. How are persons united by religion?
Persons sharing significant religious perspectives identify with each
other and constitute a church if they recognize their mutual identity.
68. How should we regard existing religions.?
We should regard existing religions as in large part historically
invalidated, in terms of the ongoing and future historical process of
religion, and encourage their voluntary assimilation and development
into current standards of validation.
69. Should there be priests?
Priesthood as religious leadership must exist, and should be practiced
ideally by all when they can, and by the fewest possible full time and
forever.
70. What gifts should religion bring?
Religion should bring joy of thought, wonderful awe, a divine
community, and freedom from fear.
71. What gifts should be made to religion?
The gods of the past are to be treated as hypothetical models to avoid
and imitate as they reflect upon the present and future and satisfy
today's conditions of existence.
72. What does religion offer to human suffering of mind and body?
Religion offers to the suffering body and mind the knowledge of self,
morale, scientific pragmatic support, and a cosmic sense of
proportion.
73. What symbols should be sacred?
Symbols that retain the least historical implications and represent
the major points of this catechism should be created and promoted and
become subjects of admiration and stimulation; present sacred symbols
should be reduced in significance and intensity.
74. What are sacred scriptures?
All graphic and written material that was ever sacred is still sacred
and worthy of wonder and study, but at a reduced level of psychic
investment, while new contributions intended as sacred scriptures
should be no more sacred than any other sacrally intended or
scientific or literary work for which merit is claimed.
75. Should our rites be simple or elaborate?
Rituals should be as elaborate as necessary to learn the purpose of
the ritual, as stressed as necessary to enjoy its reassurances, as
simple as the available energies would afford, and should be
productive of other goods aesthetically and otherwise.
76. What is the educative task of religion?
Religion should educate people theotropically, which is the
constructive life force.
77. What is the task of politics?
The task of politics is the same as religion morally, but politics
contends largely with the pragmatic problems issuing from theotropism.
78. To what extent should we be bound by our religion?
We should be bound to our religion to the extent and so long as it
helps us fulfill our obligations to ourselves and the world.
79. How long will it be before humanity becomes religious?
Mankind will become religious when it discovers the existence of gods
on experiential principles and without delusion.
CONTACT US AT: canaa...@gmail.com
OR VISIT THE FOLLOWING WEBSITES:
http://www.canaanblog.americanstateofcanaan.com/latest/index.html
http://www.grazian-arhive.com
ALFRED DE GRAZIA
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages