Freedom Of Opinion - Not Facts!!!

Recently I became aware of a reply to my article by Jim Loewen on the History News Network entitled George Zimmerman, Travon Martin, And Me, wherein Jim wrote about my article entitled Are Mormons Christian?   In the article I quote Mr. Loewen's insightful statement: "People have a right to their own opinions, but not to their own facts. Evidence must be located, not created, and opinions not backed by evidence cannot be given much weight" -- and in the article itself he writes: At some point, I should relate all this to the study of history as taught in our K-12 schools—on which I've spent much of the past twenty years—so let's do so now. One reason why many Americans are not critical readers and do not insist upon facts stems from their history textbooks. Bear in mind that five-sixths of all Americans never take a history course after leaving high school. High school history textbooks include no footnotes or other system of references.  Moreover, even when issues remain contested, such as when and how did people first get to the Americas, textbooks cite no evidence—in this case, from archaeology, human biology, or anthropology. They just go on blandly relating certainties, even on topics still ruled by uncertainty.

While Mr. Loewen makes this above statement in reference to the history of the Americas, this falsification of facts that Jim makes note of is minuscule in comparison to the text-book censorship and rewriting of history when it comes to the true facts of religious history.   The fact is, that the censorship and misrepresentation of what is presented to the student is so great, that I always assumed that school text-books used a secular version of a Jehovah's Witness propaganda pamphlet as their source -- which to a large degree requires a desire to be duped, and a total suspension of reason and intellect.  

In his article Mr. Loewen takes exception to my statement portraying "Religion As The True System Of Education", but this is evidently because he never read the link (see Religion As A System Of Education).  Which goes to the core of Jim Loewen's statement where pseudo-facts are manufactured, in order to support partisan opinion.   At the foregoing link I site the facts of history that one of the primary concerns of pre-Nicene Christianity was "...the heightening and enlargement of human consciousness” -- which is of course the objective of true education.   But the crux of the problem is seen in the fact where the meaning of the word religion has become confused with philosophy -- and in conjunction with the censorship and suppression of the facts, most people live their whole life not understanding the difference.    Is it religion?  Or philosophy?  Or philosophy cloaked in the garb of Genuine Religion?   Which of course goes to the very core of Jim Loewen's statement that "People have a right to their own opinions, but not to their own facts".

While philosophy is based upon opinion, belief and the assumption of unproven ideas, religion is the lifestyle that one lives in order to prove one's philosophy.   And the fact that few people are even aware that the very purpose of religion is to not only prove the validity of one's beliefs, but to learn the indisputable Truth of all Truths, is due to both the promotion of opinion as facts, and the suppression of the Truth in support of sectarian and secular propaganda.   

Its too bad that Jim Loewen didn't take the time to read the article Ann Coulter - The Fine Print - If You Can Find A Better Deal, Take It!   If he had, he would have gotten an eye-full of the mass censorship and manufacture of pseudo-facts that has gone into the foundation of modern Christianity.   In fact, using the Bible, the article demonstrates that every dogmatic belief associated with modern Christianity is rejected and even condemned as apostasy by the New Testament authors.   Therefore, it is virtually impossible for the modern believer to actually practice and live their religion while holding firm to the dogma of the Church -- which dogma is built upon manufactured pseudo-facts intended to support man-made Church dogmatic philosophy -- dogma that was forced upon a religion by a series of ruthless emperors who murdered whoever disagreed with them, and destroyed all evidence which contradicted their decrees.  In the words of Prof. Elaine Pagles:  “It is the winners who write history - their way. No wonder, then, that the viewpoint of the successful majority has dominated all traditional accounts of the origin of Christianity… It suggests that these religious debates - questions of the nature of God, or of Christ - simultaneously bear social and political implications that are crucial to the development of Christianity as an institutional religion. In simplest terms, ideas which bear implications contrary to that development come to be labeled as heresy; ideas which implicitly support it become orthodox” (see Pagles, The Gnostic Gospels).

I did not write that religious-oriented philosophy which is little more than speculation and belief, is "...The True System Of Education"  -- and in confusing what is portrayed through the use of pseudo-facts as religion, with genuine religion, Jim Loewen has permitted himself to be duped by the very opinion-based propaganda that he writes about in his book, Lies My Teacher Told Me.   The religion that I was making reference to, is the system of mental and spiritual development that was outlawed and condemned as heresy by the institutionalized Church which does more to inhibit the seekers progress, than to support the original Gospel objectives.

In his article Jim Loewen writes: Elsewhere on his site, he states that he holds to "Religion As The True System Of Education"—again at odds with education based on fact -- and if Jim had read at the heading The Heightening And Expansion Of Mind, he would have encountered my example of faith-based philosophy vs Spiritual Religion where I write: ...the original teachings of Jesus was not the blind faith and belief in a prophet or god-man -- but rather, the means to transform all Christian disciples of TheWay into prophets and mystics as demonstrated in the words: "...From this perspective mysticism played a vital part in the early church. Early Christianity was a religion of the spirit that expressed itself in the heightening and enlargement of human consciousness”.   But, we must then pose the question: Just what is a "...religion of the spirit"?    Like an astronaut who travels beyond the limits of the earth's atmosphere into outer space, a spiritual religion prepares the seeker/disciple to transcend the barrier of this physical world, and enter into what the biblical authors portrayed as the Kingdom of God which Jesus taught was within us.   But to accomplish this spiritual transcendence, you had to first prepare the physical body to make it an environment that would permit "...the heightening and enlargement of human consciousness” to be brought about -- and this requires a great amount of effort and preparation.     And in the same way that charlatans peddle get-rich schemes which rob the people of their wealth and prosperity, wolves in sheep's attire peddled short-cut schemes -- and it was these counterfeit shepherds who seduced the naive into handing over their money and support so they could live lucratively off the collection plate.  The spiritual Christians who followed in TheWay and prepared themselves to transcend the natural physical limitations of the body, possessed the Divine Knowledge of the Kingdom which they had succeeded in entering.   And the Spiritual Christians were opposed by those who portrayed themselves as Orthodox -- who more often than not were charlatans who for the sake of mammon and the political power of this world, ardently opposed the Spiritual Christians because they represented a direct threat to their base of money and political power. 

How can I portray the position of Jim Loewen who took exception to my statement respecting Spiritual Religion being "...The True System Of Education"???  When Christopher Columbus returned from his journey to the New World, he witnessed to facts that could only be confirmed by those who endeavored to make the journey themselves.   As a Spiritual Explorer and Shepherd, all I can do is demonstrate that the vast majority of people dwell under the grave misconception that they know about the founding and objectives of Christianity, based upon pseudo-facts that were manufactured in order to support the man-made dogmatic doctrines of the 4th century Church of Rome.  And that by the power of the sword of Constantine, the True Spiritual Christians were hunted down and murdered as heretics, because they refused to accept the religion of the emperor.   Further, it is easily proven that the New Testament itself was corrupted to make it support the dogma of pagan Rome (see www.BibleCorruption.com ).   Yet, based upon manufactured pseudo-facts, the vast majority of people remain clueless as the true purpose and spiritual objectives of the Gospel teachings.  Which also means that modern Christian dogma is not representative of religion at all -- bur rather, secular philosophy imposed upon the Church by a series of Roman Emperors who dictated to the believers what was acceptable to believe.  

In this life I was in my younger years the product of the thinking which was derived from the very same text-books that Jim Loewen makes note of.   I believed that Jesus was God.   That the Church was the expression of the Gospel teachings.  And I had no reason to question what I believed.   In time, though, I found myself doing exactly what Jim Loewen suggests -- i.e., "...Evidence must be located, not created, and opinions not backed by evidence cannot be given much weight".   When I was exposed to the Near Death Experience accounts of the Being of Light (see http://BeingOfLight.com ), I asked myself the question: Why does a person have to physically die, to prove the validity of these accounts?   And thus, like Columbus, I set out to make the journey in search of that place which I have come to call The Realm Of Souls.   In preparation for the journey, I had to follow Jim's advice and recognize that "...opinions not backed by evidence cannot be given much weight".  And after successfully completing the journey many times over the course of years, I basically had to rid myself of virtually everything that I thought I knew based upon the pseudo-facts of our history books.   Resulting in the fact that, everything that I have learned is the result of either (1) tapping into the previous lifetimes my soul has lived as; (2) learned directly from my higher soul-self (see http://SoulSelf.org ); or, (3) learned directly from what the earliest disciples of Jesus portrayed as The True Prophet.   Ultimately, I proved the validity of Jim Loewen's words!  And the extent of my massive writings is for the sole purpose of clearing out the grave misconceptions based upon the pseudo-facts propagated in our text and reference books, and convey to the seeker of True Facts what they must do to make the Journey in TheWay -- and Prove the Truth for themselves.   In the same way that I proved Jim Loewen correct, I also proved the words of Thomas Paine correct when he stated: "Such is the irresistible nature of truth that all it asks, and all it wants, is the liberty of appearing".  

In defense of Jim Loewen, his subject-matter interests are not the same as mine -- and thus, he applied his formula for finding truth in a totally different direction than I did.   But the facts are that both of us applied the same formula which he writes is necessary to find the truth.   And while in this life Jim is a couple of years older than I am, let me go on record as stating that Jim has only touched the surface in his research, and if he begins to connect with his true self -- i.e., his higher soul-self (see http://SoulSelf.org ) -- he will learn more in an instant, than he has over the course of his entire life.  And while I can't prove this to Jim unless he is willing to make the Journey in TheWay -- what I am writing will eventually be confirmed when he passes from this life and is no longer subject to the limitations of the physical body.   And thus, in these very words the difference between religious philosophy and genuine Spiritual Religion is presented -- in that, while religious philosophy is speculation and (blind) belief pertaining to one's faith in the unknown, Genuine Spiritual Religion is the mindset and lifestyle necessary to prove the Truth.