KISS, Me

I remember as a child my father taking me for a ride in his car.  It was getting dark, driving to a relative's home.  A child does not know the word controversy.  It was one relative of one faith marrying one of the other faith.  

"Even children have an innate sense of morality, knowing right from wrong," from his story of children playing game of marbles, a game of simple rules "The Righteous Mind" by Jonathan Haidt

As the title of my article suggests, I'm keeping my argument simple; my marbles revolve around a few findings in reading and observations in life.

“Religion is belief in someone else’s experience. Spirituality is having your own experience.” Deepak Chopra

We’re all born to this world with individual wonderment of the same universe. Life is an individual journey and sharing gives life to that wonderment.  I'm reminded of Abraham Joshua Heschel saying “Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.”

From a Native American, their religion is not faith based but real, breathing the air, drinking clean water, seeing the sun, feeling and smelling the earth, living plants and animals in harmony - living, loving, sharing

Adding to confusion, the Bible has many controversies.  Over centuries, Scribes upon Scribes, upon more Scribes rewriting lead to distortions. Maybe one Scribe had a bad day with his wife relegating her to “Sit Down & Be Quiet” lol

Imagine trying to read script with no spaces or punctuation?

imaginescriptwithnospacesorpunctuation

Charlemagne, 8th century, created Carolingian Minuscule, a calligraphic standard: Upper Lower cases, spaces between words, and punctuation. I'm reminded of the importance of a Sentence Comma: Junior High vs Junior, High (emotions)

I’ve not only read the entire bible, along with audio cd's, but inspired further study with courses through The Great Courses: “Comparative Religion” Dr. Charles Kimball, University of Oklahoma,“The Old Testament” Amy-Jill Levine, also  “The New Testament” Amy-Jill Levine, “Great Figures of the New Testament” Amy-Jill Levine Vanderbilt University.

Paul's writings dealt with the struggles of the early churches, and Luke's Acts gives testimony to the struggles of the Apostles.  I want to skip the Epistles, except for one quote in my ending, and share what feeds Dr. Heschel's words of living is amazing.  

The wisdom and harmony of Gleaners, Leviticus 19:9-10. 'Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, leave for the poor" and Jubilee, the forgiveness of debt  Leviticus 25:1–4, 8–10 and Matthew 25 "invite the stranger, tend to the sick, give food to the hungry", and Matthew 5 Sermon on the Mount giving moral instructions, all giving strength to Dr. Heschel's wish.

I'm sure that we all have favorite scripture sayings, and my favorite which gives summary is 1 Corinthians 13:13 "And now these three remain "faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love."