The Gravaton Blog. You’re Already Moving. Where Will You Go?

A dear friend of mine who’s always on the look out for alternative media documentaries and other Fringe Element type stuff, told me about a small independent documentary making the rounds on Google and Yahoo video called Zeitgeist. I confess that once I got through the needlessly long introduction (featuring negative and depressing imagery)… I was only able to sit thought half the film… I’d stopped watching, once it became apparent to me it was a (perhaps unintentional) selective re-presentation of ideas and research I’d first become aware of in the work of the scholarly, brilliant and late Joseph Campbell.

I also became somewhat offended by the films (In my opinion) thinly veiled anti Christian bias. Mr. Campbell’s work (unlike the film I took offense to) deals with the shared mythological roots contained in virtually all religions (including Judaism, Islam and Buddhism as well as Christianity and other religions and does so because it espouses the idea that we all have a shared common conscience and common consciousness and that is why we all draw from the same pool of mythological wisdom in order to teach ourselves the moral concepts we must use as the bedrock of any society.

Mind you…though raised Catholic, I’m not a practicing Christian nor am I devout believer in the mythology of my baptized faith… however… I value… the value… of FAITH and unlike Campbell’s work (which celebrates that shared pool of mythological and symbolic wisdom from which many of the worlds ancient and modern religions base their beliefs) The afforementioned “Zeitgeist” seemed to me to be more concerned with the deconstruction of Christianity for its own sake (and mind you it could have used the same research sources and found material to de-construct any of the worlds major religions). But I digress. The film did lead me to consider just how much mainstream and alternative media tries to discredit religion, people of faith and even the concept of faith in general. Which leads me to wonder….

Why do certain people (those people being the gatekeepers and purveyors of media) seem to have such an interest in downplaying, marginalizing, caricaturing, distorting and otherwise overtly and subversively trying to remove from society… a moral and ethical center? (Stress on CENTER for I’m not writing this Blog as a right wing religious zealot. If you’ve read this or the Gravaton Mini Blog at the Fun Forums you know that by now). So lets explore the question I just posed.

First, since its feared, discredited, ignored and publicly vilified in media so much, lets find some religion!

Being born the feral animals that we are, a long time ago some wise people figured out (or were inspired by the notion) that we need something to instill in children (and adults) the ideals that will make them better able to develop into functional members of their given societies, which means of course, knowing right from wrong, that actions have consequences (beyond the immediate ones) and… the concept that we are all part of a greater whole for which we should assume a shared responsibility… In other words… Religion, morality, ethics and faith and those are not dirty… funny or frightening words for without them, civilization would not exist and in their absence a civilization will fail.

All the successful/lasting societies have always turned to religion (derived from the same mythological wisdom base) in teaching simple common sense morality and ethics. (that gut level sense of right and wrong… where your conscience comes from)… I’M NOT… referring to organized religion (because inevitably someone will come along and organize it and those institutions are always subject to corruption at various points)… I AM… referring to the spiritual universal truths found in all religions which NOT ONLY find expression in the ritual practices of “organized religion” (by well intentioned intelligent people who understand the value of participating in constructs designed to remind them to try to be more human and less animal.) BUT ALSO… form the basis of a societies most important secular laws.

Is easy to see why the socially irresponsible peddlers of mass (and fringe) media would want to disconnect society from its ancestral wisdom in any way they can. If they want to devolve us into operating from our animal instincts (to sell us things and keep us dumb… distracted and controllable)… then they can’t have us trying to better and refocus ourselves in ways that are not compatible with the world they want to create for themselves at our collective expense. So you can always count on them to try to get us to confuse religion… with the abuse and misuse of religious institutions and wisdom by misdirecting us with news coverage, “documentaries” and fiction (“entertainment“) about fanaticism, and inflexible dogmatism. They actually NEED to marginalize religious beliefs, basic morality and faith. Keep that in mind when you sit in front of the glass teat (the screen) or in a darkened movie theater.

Even if you’re a person who loves to do “their own thing”… who “doesn’t want anyone telling them what to do”… unless you live in an isolated cave… the world you live in wouldn’t be the comfortable place for you to practice your rugged individuality in, if the majority of the OTHER people sharing the space with you didn’t adhere to some form of moral standard (if not outright spiritual belief which likely came from an organized religion) and you would not want to live in a world where that majority didn’t exist for you to measure, value and practice your rebellion against.

Along with trashing religion in general, those who want to reform society in the absence of moral standards (not laws mind you, just moral standards), are also always trying to degrade the concept of… Faith.

Don’t confuse faith with religion with blind obedience to dogma or religious leaders (that’s “blind faith”… its blind alright, but its not faith. It’s just fear and ignorance). Faith does not turn off critical thinking. Religious people are often by extension, people of faith so attacking one thing is often a good way to downgrade the other and It’s attacked because…

Faith, as a concept, is most easily discovered through religion but religion is not its prerequisite. Faith is hope and inspiration. It’s belief… in the absence of reasons to believe (yes, it also leads to some goofy ideas but it’s only a minority of people of faith who have those). FAITH is the deepest wisdom and the fundamental distinguishing “HUMAN” characteristic (much more so then simple “intelligence”). Every noteworthy endeavor in the human story always begins with some sort of a leap of faith. We can’t better ourselves without it so any force profiting from keeping the majority in an animal state… needs to attack faith with the same tactics they use to attack religion.

People of faith… never feel powerless, can not be controlled (I’m not taking “blind faith”) and can come from humble beginnings to usurp any earthly power. Christ, Mohamed, and Buda along with Mandela, Gandhi, Hitler, Stalin, and Mao all spring to mind as examples of the power of faith to energize earthshaking change (the later three were mentioned because while religion is powered by faith, faith doesn’t need religion to empower… and that’s why its even more threatening to established power).

Whether through its near complete absence… or the disproportionate over emphasizing of one religion over another (as measured against a countries population) or deliberate overt/subliminal attacks… Media has demonstrated its intention to continue to try and cut faith and or religion out of our lives by any means at their disposal. That they fear it so… is reason enough us to respect it and consider why they are so interested in disconnecting us from it. So…

Lets connect with our ancient wisdom and respect those who choose to do so via religion. It has withstood the test of time for a reason. Its core is within all of us and while we don’t need anyone to organize it for us… we should scrutinize anyone with amoral agendas who wants to disconnect us from it… and its power.

We are imperfect creatures who often corrupt and are corrupted by our religious institutions… However… that is not the fault of the ideals upon which our religious institutions are founded and… measured against historical time frames, organized religion has been a stabilizing, civilizing influence.

The ideals and institutions of religion can (and should) be criticized/scrutinized (but not blindly). They can be (re)interpreted to make them relevant as needed (but look to the agendas of those doing the [re]interpreting) and take note… There is never wisdom in discarding or de-constructing religion (unless you can point to a single instance where any society has been able to flourish in its absence. And lets not forget… in addition to providing the bedrock of any societies moral coding, it’s the gateway to instilling the concept of FAITH. And, to quote a bit of religious scripture,

Welcome To The Gravaton.

Peace

Ren

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