California Free Press

Off the Top of My Head

The Trouble With Belief Systems

by John Lawrence, March 28, 2021

Belief systems lead to cults. A cult can be defined as a group of people who all fervently believe the same things although there is no objective proof for any of their beliefs. People who believe Trump won the election are members of a cult. People who believe their religion is the only correct and true religion and everyone who does not accept their belief system is going to Hell are members of a cult. A lot of wars have been fought because members of one cult dehumanized members of another cult. The European wars of the 16th century were fought because Catholics and Protestants could not accept that there were people who did not have the same cult beliefs as they did. The 30 years war was a war between Protestants and Catholics. The Crusades were wars between Christians and Muslims. People who hold belief systems fervently cannot accept the fact that there are other people in the world who don't hold their same belief system.

There are some things that are unknowable, at least at this point in time, and they form fertile ground for some one or one to develop a belief system around. Charlatans and manipulators realize that there is money to be made by claiming to assuage peoples' anxieties. One of the biggest unknowables is what happens to us after we die. Another is is there a God or, if there is, is He a judgmental or a loving God? The Founding Fathers of the US, cognizant of the European wars of religion, were mainly Deists. They believed that God created the universe, but was not involved with it after that, the so-called "watchmaker God." Founders who fall into the category of Christian Deists include Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was more influenced by the reason-centred Enlightenment than either Adams or Washington. Jefferson also created his own version of the Bible. This Bible was focused only on Jesus, but none of his mystical works. It didn’t include major scenes like the resurrection or ascension to heaven, or miracles like turning water into wine or walking on water. Instead, Jefferson’s Bible focused on Jesus as a man of morals, a teacher whose truths were expressed without the help of miracles or the supernatural powers of God.

Because of our existential anxiety caused by not knowing what's going to happen to us after death or even in this life, belief systems have grown up and attracted adherents. Fervent belief systems are really cults as they exclude and dehumanize people with alternative beliefs. There is no objective proof, but people are willing to kill those who aren't members of their cult. This is from Britannica:

"Deists argued that human experience and rationality—rather than religious dogma and mystery—determine the validity of human beliefs. In his widely read The Age of Reason, Thomas Paine, the principal American exponent of Deism, called Christianity “a fable.” Paine, the protégé of Benjamin Franklin, denied “that the Almighty ever did communicate anything to man, by…speech,…language, or…vision.” Postulating a distant deity whom he called “Nature’s God” (a term also used in the Declaration of Independence), Paine declared in a “profession of faith”: I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life. I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and in endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.''"

The problem with the Trump "true believers" is that they have been sold a bill of goods by those who shamelessly have made money off of feeding this cult a bunch of lies. These people have been conditioned by means of their religion to have a certain set of beliefs which they are willing to fight over. These beliefs coincide with a way of life predicated on an American version of history and an American narrative in which America is a shining city on a hill and a beacon of veracity and truth to the rest of the world. They believe in an America also which is fundamentally white like it's always been in their minds, but that's not the reality any more. American history is not all that noble. Indians were robbed of their lands and Africans were brought here and used as slaves. After they were freed, supposedly, Jim Crow laws made sure that they remained second class citizens. So there is  clash of belief systems. There are those who think the great and noble sentiments expressed by our Founding Fathers should not apply to everyone equally and those who point out the hypocrisy of not doing so.

The problem really is with belief systems which turn into cults. The way forward is really the one expressed by Rodney King: "Can't we all just get along?" With deference to Mission Impossible: your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to make the world a better place for this and future generations without regard to belief systems or ideology. Your vaunted way of life, as perceived to have existed in the past, is irrelevant.

Off the Top of My Head

The Code Breaker

by John Lawrence, March26, 2021

The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson is an exciting new book which details the efforts and the knowledge to edit genes known as CRISPR. That means cutting into the DNA genome and removing "sick" genes and/or replacing them with the correct genes. The book details the quest to discover the mechanism by which this is possible. The book focuses on Jennifer Doudna but many researchers, many of them recent immigrants or workers at foreign universities, are involved. The fundamental insights can be explained in a few sentences. They noticed that bacteria have been fighting off viruses successfully for billions of years, and they were doing this by incorporating the virus DNA into the data base of their own genome. Upon encountering a new virus the bacteria knew how to encode that virus's DNA so that they could identify it in an attack in the future. Secondly, the bacteria knew how to dispatch a portion of RNA that would travel to the site of the virus and encode an enzyme that would then destroy the virus. The messenger RNA knew precisely where to point the enzyme which then cut the virus DNA thereby destroying it. So the e. coli bacterium has known how to edit genes for billions of years. The trick is to figure out exactly how the bacterium does this.

So Jennifer Doudna and cohorts did just that: They figured out how a bacterium cuts a virus's DNA precisely in a certain location. That's what the book is about. That's what gene editing is about. Gene editing is in its infancy, but it has already been used to correct the genetic mutation which causes sickle cell anemia which is caused by the mutation in one gene. Experimentally, it has been shown that if this gene can be cut out and replaced by one that contains the correct genetic information, the disease can be cured. If this can be done early in the development of an embryo, the correct gene can even be transmitted to succeeding generations. An estimated 8 million children are born each year with severe genetic disorders or birth defects. Gene editing can possibly correct some or all of these defects. In order to do this the enzyme which cuts the gene out of the DNA must be told precisely where to cut, and the correct gene must somehow be implanted precisely at this location and the DNA reconnected. In theory the whole idea is very simple. Figuring out how to do this either in the laboratory or in actual animals, much less in humans, is the hard part.

Whether or not this research will lead to an understanding of the origins of life is an open question. Perhaps there is a sub-atomic entity sort of like a neutrino which is massless and ubiquitous in the universe which is the progenitor of life wherever conditions are propitious. Perhaps it is able to generate an organism with the minimal genome, something which has never been discovered in nature. Even a virus which has the simplest known genomic structure has three thousand base pairs, compared to the three billion base pairs in human genomes. A base pair consists of the 4 nucleotides called A, C, G, T   which comprise one rung of the DNA ladder. So a successful gene edit would have to identify the precise rung of the DNA ladder where the mutation had occurred which means at least one of the 4 letters of the base pair was incorrect and correct it.

So I theorize that a life progenitor would have to be something that is ubiquitous in the universe and capable of starting life with a minimal genome which consists of only a few base pairs. This is a mystery but certainly not the only one. Gravity is an every day phenomenon but no one has detected a graviton which is thought to be the physical entity that distorts space time according to Einstein's theory of relativity. No one understands the "dark energy" which is thought to be responsible for the fact that the universe is not only expanding but accelerating. No one understands what Einstein called "spooky action at a distance" which has been demonstrated to be a reality in quantum theory. Just as the line is blurred between what is material and what is massless energy, the line is blurred between what is spiritual and what is material. Is the creation of life in the universe a physical, material phenomenon or a spiritual one?

Off the Top of My Head

We Have Been Given a Great Gift: Our Individual Identities

by John Lawrence

Whether or not we were created by God, the universe, evolution or the Great Whatever, we got here somehow. It's not clear exactly how but in any case we have been given an individual identity and we have free will. We can pretty much, within certain constraints, decide what we are going to do today. This gift may be time limited in that it might end at some point in time just as it had a beginning at some point in time. It doesn't make it any less of a gift if it does end, if it doesn't continue in some other time and space after we die.

If someone gives you a gift, say $10,000, you don't complain that they didn't give you a bigger gift. The gift was limited in its monetary value but it still was a gift to be thankful for. By the same token if the gift of individual identity doesn't continue after we die, it is still a tremendous gift to be grateful for. Life still goes on with other life forms including people and perhaps in other places in the universe. And whether this gift was given to us by God or the Great Whatever, it is still a gift to be thankful for.

The Equivalence Principle plays a big part in science. In the theory of general relativity, the Equivalence Principle as developed by Albert Einstein was that the gravitational force as experienced locally while standing on the Earth is the same as the pseudo-force experienced by an observer in an accelerated frame of reference. I think that the Equivalence Principle as applied to life is that whatever happens to any lifeform after death is the same for all lifeforms.

So if I swat a fly on the wall, thereby causing its life to come to a sudden end, whatever then happens to that fly is the same thing that will happen to me or any other life form after its life ends. But I don't really believe there is a fly afterlife or a fly heaven. I believe individual lives are time limited. It makes that life no less a gift to be thankful for. Rather than saying, but you should have given me more, say gee that was great and thanks for that even if at some point it's over. Same applies to a gift of money or a relationship for that matter.

Even if our individual identity ends, it was still a great gift while it lasted.

Eve Can Dance

By Dr. Carol Carnes

There seem to be two Americas. There is the America of lilt and swing and there is the America of march and control. These are musical references which show how our culture has been influence by the Puritan European reigning in of nature and the African freedom with its joyful expression of all that is natural. It is the contrast between ballroom dance with its precise foot-steps and free style movement which celebrates the whole body.

The young tend to lilt and swing and to rebel against march and control until they discover that lilt and swing do not usually produce a good income! Not in this culture. These references were part of a talk by the late Alan Watts, but I have often thought myself that if we did not have the influence of our Black rhythm culture, we would be marching in lockstep, forever trying to defeat Nature. Racism is the tension between the two impulses: as Watts said, there is a distrust of African American culture in those people who fear freedom. This goes back to old time religious notions of sin and retribution. Of course, today we are all one big American family, but the distinctions are still being made.

Lately I have seen more clearly than ever, the destructive effects of Institutionalized religion which equates with institutionalized masculinity, which has robbed men of the joy of feeling whole and fulfilled. Designed to reign in the people, to control them and to get them in line to march into domination over nature, it has done its job well. As we used to say, it has done a number on us! This is not to denounce devotion, reverence and the very real feeling of a responsive universe. There is a natural spirituality in us that will always come to the forefront as we live in accord with Nature. My stance on religion is about superstition and dogma which have no basis in truth. This is about our fear of being alive and responsible for our experience. We blame a made up evil power for our violence or attribute the cause of suffering to the will of some male God in the sky. Our hearts have been co-opted and our minds have been corrupted.

The feminine aspect of our true nature belongs with the lilt and swing camp. Our hips sway, our bodies are fluid and in tune with the moon. The Feminine is free but she is not out of control. She is in charge of the environment. She is the organizer of families. She is the keeper of the flame. She will dance to the drum, but she is fierce when called to defend her brood. She is desperately needed in our world view, in our policy making, in our decisions for our future. She is desperately needed in our men. Without her, the sacred masculine cannot emerge.

For more about the Sacred masculine check out the writings of Matthew Fox, founder of Creation Spirituality.

Dr. Carol Carnes: Keynote speaker, meditation teacher, mother of two, grandmother of  two, member of the Leadership Council of the Association for Global New Thought. Spiritual teacher of Science of Mind. Honorary member of the Board of Preachers at Morehouse College, MLK Jr. School of Divinity. Co-convenor of three Synthesis Dialogues with HH the Dalai Lama and other world leaders in various  disciplines. www.carolcarnes.com