Grabbing the Bull By the Horns page one
	Questions will undoubtedly arise:  What do you do with scripture and the resulting beliefs?  Have you no respect for authority?  Who do you think you are?  How do you dare think of yourself as equal to the prophets and apostles?  How do you just wipe away thousands of years of traditional practices and ritual?  Don’t you think what you are proposing is a whole lot of heretical audaciousness, a dangerous dance with blasphemy?  Aren’t you afraid of damning your soul and the souls of the poor weak-minded ones agreeing with you? I am comfortable with these questions and the many others Beneficent Parentalism raises.  This Unified Theory actually incorporates the essential message of scriptures:  There is a Spirit World and an Overwhelming Presence some refer to as The Creator.  It is possible to have a dynamic awareness of and relationship with this Creator.  Love is the universal unifier.  Each of us is Loveable and capable of Loving.  Distill Scripture to its purest form and what you have is the most powerful force in creation, a Perfect Parent’s Perfect Love. Man is painfully finite.  Each of us operates within staunch, unwavering constraints.  Every thought and every thought produced action depends on our experience.  We are capable of understanding only to the degree our total experience allows. Independence, freedom, personal autonomy, are no more real than wishes and dreams.  We seek to explain to the best of our ability, but our ability to explain is contingent on the tools experience has placed in our unique tool kits.  These tool kits are dependent on our place in history and our geographically influenced cultural experiences. Judeo-Christian Scripture is not the only tradition considered Holy by mankind.  There are many traditions similarly influential.  Because of my experience, I have a relative depth of knowledge regarding the Judeo-Christian tradition and am only superficially aware of the Buddhist, Hindu, Moslem, Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness and other less populated traditions.  In each tradition, man has sought to explain the metaphysical in terms of their collective personal experience. This is to be expected.  For any of man’s creations to endure, they must possess enduring qualities.  It is my position, amongst all the peripheral superficialities, each of the contemporary religious structures contains significant enduring qualities.  These qualities can be categorized under one or more of these headings:  Universal Truth, Wisdom, Beauty and, or Universal Love.  Each of the major religions of the world possess each of these to some degree or another, or they would have faded into the fabric and would no longer exist.  The degree to which they espouse these universal qualities is the degree to which they are valid and deserving of allegiance.  The cultural subjectivity involved in determining this degree is a problem, [understatement].  That no contemporary religious structure has the corner on any one of the universal qualities is a concept I have lived with for most of my life. The Cup is not a one dimensional reality.  It is multi-dimensional.  It has many sides.  It also has many handles. Being finite creatures and not capable of omnipresence, each reaches for the handle available to them. Each varied region is in possession of varied experience.  Varied experience produces varied perceptions, or cultures.  Varied cultures produce varied traditions.  Traditions are culturally influenced handles.  We each reach, or refuse to reach, for the handle our unique traditional perspective has taught us exists.  Again, this is to be expected.  It is entirely natural.  It is also natural that over time, these ancient cultures and traditions amass intimidating structures.  These structures provide a source of security for those able to live a lifestyle complimentary to the tradition common to their particular culture and region.  This source of security is often times confused with authenticity. In time, this sense of authenticity is buttressed with holy writings, prophets, doctrine, ritual, the powerful sense of the ancient, (1.) and the intimidating qualities of large followings and an imbedded cultural presence. Each of the varied holy scriptures is in possession of much Truth.  Each of the varied holy scriptures is in possession of culturally tainted notions.  Wisdom is discerning the Truths amidst all the pervading notions.  Truth is an independent entity.  Truth is indestructible.  Truth is easily recognized as Truth regardless of perspective. Truth is a unifying force. Wisdom, in the discerning sense, is dependent on experience.  The wisdom of one tradition is foolishness to another.  From each of our finite viewpoints, there appears to be only one handle, our handle.  We focus so hard on the handle, we lose sight of The Cup. And, even when one is able to get a glimpse of The Cup, The Cup is only slightly more significant than the handle.  Contrary to human behavior, what is of ultimate significance is not the handle, or even the cup, but what lies within The Cup. 1. …sense of the ancient.  There is a prevalent propensity within people to stand in awe before antiquity.  The PBS program, Antique Road Show, appeals to this human tendency.  Perhaps it is rooted in the knowledge and fear of our own mortality.  That a thing, be it a concept, a name, a book, or such like, has existed a thousand, two thousand, three and four thousand years; this antiquity creates an irresistible aura of immortality.  This aura is electrified with powerful emotions.  Never mind that each tradition is rooted in antiquity, since the culture one lives in has constructed its tradition from a particular set of ancient things, and since this tradition provides a broad-based security structure, a framework of moral codes and ethical guidelines for that geographically located society, it is altogether natural and convenient for that society to assume authenticity regarding their tradition.  One can readily understand how this applies to other traditions, but when applying it to their own tradition, the shoe rarely fits.  There are a whole lot more wicked step-sisters out there than Cinderellas.  A sense of the ancient; antiquity; these have the flavor of immortality.  Immortality is nice.  Immortality is real nice.  Challenging a society’s unique linkage to immortality is not a good way to win friends and positively influence people.  This is the stuff martyrdom is made of.  Notwithstanding, this sense of the ancient is a formidable obstacle to a direct, intimate, personal, one on one relationship with the Creator, which is the essence of mature spirituality.
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