May 17, 2011 ~ Day 158 Will I Need Swim Goggles For The Lake Of Fire?

Apparently the world is ending in a few days. Or it isn't.

I'm obviously not much of a Christian if it took an article off of Google News to alert me to this apparently grave prospect straight out of The Book of Revelation.

Somehow though, I doubt that my fellow Unitarians are paying much heed to the panic over impending fire and brimstone from a certain sect of the religious right.

Granted, my family hasn't been to church on Sunday for a little while - so maybe I've missed the big announcement in the weekly newsletter. But having just checked the official website for our church, I found mainly an invitation from our associate minister extended to the entire congregation to come to her upcoming wedding on May 27th. So I'm pretty sure most Unitarians believe the Earth will still be here on Sunday.

Last night I pulled out a Bible to see where the whole notion of a destroyed planet and the second coming of Jesus comes from. I have to say, I had a spiritual problem with many of the passages in the Book of Revelation - most especially this one: "And whosever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."

Um, really?

To me this sounds like the original exclusive club, "Saved" vs. "Unsaved" where if you don't get your name on the right list, you're out of luck. I really hate the notion of an afterlife that is exclusive only to the elect - without the love of a merciful Christ extended to all beings, 'worthy' and 'unworthy' alike.

Heaven as described by The Book of Revelation sounds like a big sorority or fraternity segregated by a rush party. Based on what I saw of that stuff in college, I'd rather belong to the larger group of equally decent people who *weren't* invited to join the club.

So I guess there you have it - by the very nature of my questioning and analytical personality I fall into the category of "the fearful and the unbelieving" who will burn in a lake with fire and brimstone. I suppose I should be worried about this prospect, but quite honestly, I'm not. There is no room for a lake of punishing fire in my concept of the Divine.

I read an article once that discussed the link between genetics and faith - indicating that there is a genetic predisposition in some people to believe, moreso than in others. It has been termed the "God Gene" by geneticist Dean Hamer - a set of genes that human beings inherit which predisposes them to having spiritual or mystical experiences. Apparently it works by altering the person's monoamine levels.

I'm not sure what I think of any of this... but it would make sense to me that faith would be genetic, as my father was an atheist and his children are not people of profound spirituality... while my mother is extremely faithful and her children have shown a much greater capacity for and tendency toward faith.

Where does this leave me, I wonder, as the sole offspring of both parents combined? Perhaps exactly where I am - one who yearns ardently to experience the profound and true spirituality that I see my husband embody daily... while I myself study, read and try earnestly to understand the core tenets of all faiths but have trouble integrating most of them into my heart.

For me, the only faiths that make sense and actually overwhelm my body and soul with their purity and truth are (a) music, and (b) Love. Love being the most important, and music being a key expression of Love.

I have no idea if the world will really end on May 21st for most of us, or if that is just a bunch of hogwash perpetrated by a Christian Radio host named Harold Camping who predicted the Apocalypse to happen first in 1994. When it didn't happen as he'd prophesied, he recalibrated his dates and came up with May 21, 2011. I wonder what he will say to his followers on Sunday, May 22 if the world still exists?

What I do believe is that Love and music are part of a larger pattern of energy that will continue beyond all human life, and that my energy is closely mingled with the two. I do believe that Love outlasts death, and also music. Aren't radio waves we sent into deep space eighty years ago still giving off their frequency today?

This blog is meant to chronicle the meaning of life as I see it, one day at a time. My children - who share only half of my DNA - may take after their father with an innate connection to Christianity and a deep belief in God. I yearn for them to have this gift, something that I as a striving believer do not feel but aspire to.

If the world does survive long enough for the three of them to read this someday (when they are old enough to read, LOL!) my message for this post to my own children is that in their mother's personal opinion, no human being can either 'know the mind of God' or accurately predict earthquakes and tsunamis.

Rather than worrying over the doomsday predictions given by various men and women throughout history - none of which have come to pass so far - it would better then to spend one's time celebrating the life we've been given and focusing on forging a deep connection with beauty in the world. As long as we're alive it makes sense to give Love, make music and work on developing our individual and collective relationship with the Divine... whatever that means to you.