Just before the last stretch, still closed, of new highway going to the base of Mount Whitney, Sol and I spent the day with me conducting upgrades and repairs.
Late in the afternoon one of the hikers, this is a Trailhead until the road opens in several days, a hiker sort of circles Sol, and then stood to get my attention.
Looking up there was a very pretty young Asian girl, early twenties Maybe? Are you a Christian? No, I said, it is the real man that I Revere, not what the church has been making up for two thousand years.
I speak this as the tired truth. She did not seem to take offense. And then began a series of questions which I responded to for probably 5 minutes or more which is a long time for me. She showed little reaction to each thing that I shared, other than as a basis to calculate what question to ask next,, and anyone reviewing this site can pretty well guess what I shared.
I didn't catch on. And that's okay. Finally, well, I believe the Bible is without error she said, that was earlier in the conversation, and now, well may I at least tell you my Christian beliefs.
Thinking for a moment I said, no, that would be unkind of me.
Unkind, why?
Because it would help you think that I was not really sad about your belief system. Why is that? She asked. Because it is the Hallmark of a soul that is not very alive.
But only this morning upon Awakening did I more fully grasp what I encountered which is a broader phenomenon that I have encountered many times. But it presented itself in a deeper understanding.
Google agents send me a daily summary on probably 30 different topics in which I have interest, every day. Most of it is not useful but some of it is. One was an article of a credible study looking at Christian fundamentalism, and finding that it correlates quite highly with brain damage of the prefrontal cortex. The study was of combat veterans as I recall. The article was not read extremely carefully by me but I reflected this morning, and somewhat last night, that the church is systemic War Of Destruction on the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that Embraces new ideas and change and Truth. And that when that's gone, the study went on, what is embraced instead is Dogma although that's not the word that they used. The security of Dogma.
The church is systemic Relentless war, and I'm speaking of the church communities, the fundamentalist groups, the Christian groups at large that Embrace such things as the inerrancy of the toilet paper Bible knit together by thousands of hands one in a million of which had any grasp of Soul, any grasp of the Divine. Despite their best efforts.
By incorporating such inane garbage the prefrontal cortex experiences Assault, it withdraws, it atrophies, and it essentially dies.
This was an extremely valuab insight for me. Surprising that it didn't come till now.
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