TALKING TO GOD

I try to write as if I were talking with God and God is talking back. Is that so bad? In that way, I believe God writes through me (God'll write through you too, just get in touch). You can believe it or not as you choose, but for the moment let's say this is true. What would you suppose to be enough of a good idea to be called God's Word? Thou shalt not kill? Well, yeah, duh. I'm aiming for what you and I know, deep in our hearts is the right and sensible thing to do in our current circumstances, where there are such vast differences between cultures, between people, between our concepts of God. So, we spend our time together, my God and me, and you too, to try to figure out what is best, not only for ourselves, but for ours to follow. Maybe we presume, but hey, somebody has to speak up.

The face of God (or is it The Devil) appears to me on my desk and is permanently etched there to receive our conversations. Imagine being able to hear, make spiritual contact, thru a desk!

No, it's not The Devil of course; perhaps it's God playing the Devil's Advocate, or is that just an imaginary entity presenting the Other Side? There is an Other Side, you know, to anything.

What!? you expected God to be all-perfect, white beard, heavy eyebrows long gray hair? You got it all wrong. God has been around, and the face of God shows some of the wear and tear. Not that pure countenance anymore, but one with the wrinkles of age, and the scars of the many worries about our civilization

WE PROMOTE BEST
Maybe what the US should do: Hire Salesmen - Ministers of Culture, to all countries in the world. Pay countries for their culture, their music, their dance, their literature, theatre, art, then re-sell it to the world. Maybe that's now our function - Sales - now that other countries, through their willingness to work for less making the things we invented, have skunked us in the competition for manufactured goods. No doubt about it, we are far ahead in the marketing of our products, which really are their products now. Hmm. Wouldn't be a bad job: Travel around, collect culture, dress it up, resell it. One could make a good buck...

PORT WHITMAN TIMES Dec. 30, 2010: As of January 1, 2011 Junk mailers must accept return e-mail for all transmissions coming into Greater Port Whitman. Also, there will be a 1¢ TAX levied to recipients on both sides, receiver and sender, on any e-mail that is opened, which tax shall be paid monthly through both their ISP's. The tax is a sample tryout for a proposed Worldwide tax by the UN, to finance education and modernizing programs everywhere. All ISP's must comply, and submit electronic records with payment or their WWWCC license to operate on the Internet will be suspended.
This is only a test, and since Port Whitman has the various economic levels of population equal to the same percentages in the world population, it is seen to be a valid sample of the world's reaction to the tax. 

The Benefit (along with tax revenue) to onliners all countries: If receivers of spam, other advertising or any message, text or graphic reply to spammers with an an e-mail saying "Remove me from your mailing list" - the sender has to pay for that reply, and will be sure to remove that e-mail address from their list, lest they be taxed again. 
"It's time for Internet users to clean up their acts, and start paying for all this stuff we get for free." said Gary Prost, the interim head of the proposed hard-nosed collection agency under the  WorldWideWeb Communications Commission.

MISTER HENRY PLAYS REQUESTS - Mister Henry brings his rhythm piano and plays and sings the songs you request, from a list of more than 3,000 tunes. The American Songbook comes to life, as Mr. Henry makes up an entire show of the songs you choose for your luncheon or party, complete with dedications or memorials to a person of your choice. (610) 948-5567 or hjohnhenry@verizon.net

THE BANK
Now the bank wants to charge me an "Inactivity Fee" - Just for leaving my money with them and not doing anything with it. Or let THEM do anything with it either. So they are charging me for storing it there, for just letting it lie fallow. But if I make 10 transactions every month, there's no fee; In other words holding me up, for letting my dough sit. Pretty smart, banker, since it was one of yours who enticed me into first opening the account, so I could get a higher rate for letting you use my CD money to lend out!

Now, what if God (The Other Great power in our lives) operated thusly? If you just subsisted, So that if you just did nothing but get by, then you were penalized by not letting God use you for his purposes - "Two years in Purgatory, jack, 'cause you just sat around smoking dope instead of doing something with your life." What do the various Gods, The Father, The Son, The Holy Ghost, Allah, Jehovah, etc., do in a case like that?

(God playing Hitler now)"You vill be punished accordingly ffforrr your sins of commission or OMISSION, zat's rrright, vat you didn't do ven you could haff, or vat you ever thought about doing (or not doing)" - It's just too complicated; and think of what God has to go through to deal with all this for billions of people, not only while they're alive, but all of the dead ones who ever got to Heaven too. It's a logistical nightmare. "It'z a catastrastroke!" Durante used to say.

Remember: God is everywhere ("WOO, WOO, WOO!") like Santa Claus "He sees you while you're sleeping, knows when you're awake, what you're dreaming. Everything. No hiding from God.

So that's how it's getting to be, folks, you do nothing, time gets subtracted from your eternity. Not while you're here, but in-between here and there, for when you aren't there yet, yet not here anymore. Not like burning in Hell of course, more like endlessly standing in line, while you see others whom you consider less deserving than yourself being passed in. Oh, the injustice! - And the virgins, the servers of the good food, the perfect golf game, are lining up around the block waiting for you.

So God says "Get off your ass, Osama, and help save the world, not destroy it.
It's time to start controlling the population, for the sake of The Earth, not by blowing it up, but by more sensible means."

So start building up your eternity time, Eternity doesn't last forever, y'know. Time is fungible. And when someone says "Time's up" - That's the end.

Special to
The Port Whitman Times
Henry Francisco

NAZI VIDEO BEGETS PROTESTS

PORT WHITMAN: December 23, 2010 - Marchers picketed singing Christmas carols around the entire shopping center where WhamBanger TV is located yesterday, objecting to the recently discovered and marketed video of a movie taken in 1944 in the bunker below Berlin, where Adolf Hitler plays Christmas Eve Santa Claus to what remains of the Nazi high command. The original film was shot in black and white with a Zeiss 16mm movie camera by Eva Braun, who was the consort of Der Fuhrer and perished with him in a joint-suicide only a few months later as allied forces closed in. Since the surfacing of the movie, it has been restored, colorized, and digitized, coming in a spanking new DVD package with a photo of Hitler in Santa costume and a Nazi Swastika on the jewel case. It sells for $22.50 and is code-protected limiting play to one DVD player only.

The movie had recently been discovered in the personal effects of a Nazi escapee to Salvador, Brazil, Hermann Hess, a former member of the Berlin bunker's food service, who also doubled as an aide to Josef Goebbels. It shows the Christmas party in full swing, with the entire hierarchy of the 3rd Reich drinking champagne and eating cake and mini-sausages around a huge Christmas tree. The hum of bombers can barely be detected in the background, and viewers can discern that the partygoers are trying to blank out the noise by singing Holiday songs, specializing in the Instant Christmas Carol (see below), which was sung in English, with Ernst "Ratzi" Guterstaengl at the piano, in the few seconds that elapsed between bomb concussions. Dust can be seen falling from the ceiling in several shots, as the ground reverberates from the implosive impact of American bombing raids.

However, not to be deterred by the grim war news from celebrating the holiday and deriving maximum sentimentality, especially in those last days of the German Reich, Adolf Hitler makes a dramatic appearance as Santa Claus, bestowing gifts, spirited siegheils, and kisses for the little children of Dr. Goebbles and other bunker personnel who braved the attacks to bring their little ones into what could at any time be the final presence of their Fuhrer. Much weeping could be detected as the party and singing progressed, the participants realizing that their time was severely limited, and that a decade of Nazi rule would be coming to its end very soon. Yet, during the film, all sit on Santa's lap, and tell him what they want for Christmas (mostly that the Nazi atom bomb project will be finished so that Germany can win the war). Santa assures everyone that they'll get what's coming to them.

WhamBanger is betting that this DVD could almost instantly become a collectors item, as it is producing and marketing copies in limited amounts in their dozen stores in shopping centers along the East Coast, strictly as a Christmas special in 2010, just as the stores are about to close their doors due to bankruptcy at the end of the year. The international copyrights to the material are co-owned privately by an anonymous WhamBanger investor, and the family of Horst Fleckenstein, grandson of Hermann Hess.

The production is said to be financed by Asagatange Bonoluba Epu, an ex patria Nigerian prince who made millions persuading thousands of Facebook Members to help him rescue his confiscated funds from the National Bank of Nigeria, in conjunction with the semi-official organization "Jews-for-having-the-last-laugh" in Port Whitman.

The Instant Christmas Carol:
"Deck The Halls With Holy Angels We Have Heard All Ye Faithful, Joyful Herald Angels Sing That Glorious Song Of Old Three Kings Of Orient Are In A Manger No Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen For Tis The Season To Be Red-Nosed Reindeer Fa-la-la-la-LA-la-la-la-la!"
The Instant Christmas Carol (Music)

Special to
The Port Whitman Times
Henry Francisco

DIVIDE, INFORM, CONQUER!

STOP GERRYMANDERING!
Every state in the USA has a pinpointed geographic center. See them at
State Geographic Centers
Now if we took each state's geographic center and drew pie slices out to the edges of the state, the number of pie slices being the number of representatives for that state in the U.S. House of representatives, and the width of each pie slice reflecting equal numbers of the population of that state, the gerrymandering, i.e., political juggling of seats in the U.S. House by re-drawing district lines, would be eliminated; thus, fair and equal representation would result.
For example, Pennsylvania currently represents 12,604,767 citizens, and has 19 congressional districts, so each member of congress represents 663,409 citizens. If you drew lines out from the center of the state (around Bellefonte, PA) with each slice representing 663,409 citizens, then probably the Philadelphia area would have 5 slices, Pittsburgh area 4 slices, one each to Erie and Scranton-Wilkes-Barre areas, and the other eight slices would be divided among the more suburban and rural areas in the middle of the state. All according to population. There would be no more making jiggly-lined boundaries to favor or minimize populations of one stripe or another.
Seems fair. Why not do it?
Here's another alternative: Concentric circles radiating out from the same center, each section representing the same number of people (663,409), the sections starting out fatter at the middle because the population is more sparse, and thinner around the edges where the population is more dense. Same result: gerrymandering defeated. What!? You don't want to defeat gerrymandering? You must be a Republican, or a Democrat, screaming "Raw deal!" every ten years when the census mandates a re-evaluation of the democratic process and the political maneuvering takes place. One can hardly believe that the framers of the constitution intended the political juggling that takes place in the present system. Hey, we have computers now, that can pinpoint population changes and democratize the way we, the citizenry, are represented. Probably anything would be better than the current system...

HENRY'S ICE CREAM LIVES!
In the center of Port Whitman's ethnic district lies Henry's, still making our own ice cream, and issuing cracker-barrel advice to the well-intentioned and self-aggrandizing heads currently running the world:
1. Stop considering less fortunate people less than your equal.
2. There are plenty of potential consumers in the world. Why are there not more producers? Greed is bad.
3. Get rid of God as a government model. God has better things to do. Base government on practicality, not faith in the unknown.

Ev'rything's ephemeral
Only it's online now
BULLETIN: Nothing is hammered in stone anymore.
Get used to it.

THE WAR ON IGNORANCE
The USA needs to set out to conquer the world peacefully - With knowledge of what is, of what exists right now. Drop iPads instead of bombs. iPads written in the local language with subtitles in English, then eventually, only in English. Our advantage is the greatest language the world has ever known, and it's the language of the greatest communicative technology in history, the Internet. Sure would be a lot cheaper than the technology of war. Thus we win... Howzabout the U.S. Department of Promotion, promoting our way of life, such as it is, which is a whole lot better than some I can think of.
Looking in the realistic crystal ball, it's evident that the USA is gradually losing influence and money as a manufacturing entity in the world. However, we still are a communications and promotional giant. We need to become salespeople to the world, representing all the manufacturing countries, to the undeveloped countries, giving everyone on earth a way of life in which they can have the things and conveniences that we have here, and that other developed societies have. We promote, they buy, we take a commission, thus we profit, the world improves. Face it, the USA is a service society. So let's serve, and make a living at it.

Henry Francisco
Special to
The Port Whitman Times

LIVE LONGER

1. Moderate your bad habits. Maybe completely eliminating them is not as easy as you thought, they have a "gotcha" on you to a degree; but to moderate them... so your body can catch up in between episodes - Don't eat, drink, sleep, go on benders, lost weekends, etc. Just a little bit on a regular basis, every day, every week, little enough so you can handle it with no really ill effects.

2. Same goes for your good habits - a little dab'll do ya daily better than thrice weekly. A little walk, a short run, a bike ride, a dip in the pool. Most convenient is a bike ride or a walk. You put on your coat and go, without having to go to a special place, suiting up, showering, scheduling, paying. Just go out, ride or walk to a destination, then back, or in a large circle ending where you started. A shopping center is great, where on a bike you can zoom around the parking lot early before the cars come, to the rear where the trucks go, in and out lightly up and down, fast, slow, sharp turns keeping you sharp, watchful. Same with walking of course, AND you can shop - Food, Supplies, whatever you need into your backpack.

3. New Idea: Learn to throw a ball with either hand. If you're a righty, then with your left, or vice-versa. Oh sure, you you throw OK with your main hand. Try try the other now - start with a tennis ball, throwing it against a wall and catching it on one bounce. Throw first with your main hand, then imitate what you did with your main hand with the other hand, right down to the stretch, the windup, the grip, the fingers, the tightness, the roll of the ball off the fingertips. Later a heavier ball like a rubber lacrosse ball. See how easy it is with your main hand, and how it gets easier with your other hand every time you throw. Right, left, right, left, aim for a spot on the wall. Catch, throw. You're training the whole other side of your body, yes, of your brain, which, after all, controls your body, right? Training your reflexes, your internal mechanisms. Think that's strange? There's a pitcher in the New York Yankees farm system who flings with either hand, causing some consternation among batters, finally resulting in a new rule in baseball as to the order of things: RULE: The pitcher must decide FIRST which hand he's throwing with, THEN the batter decides which side he's going to bat from. (Then of course the fielders shift, the umpires get out of the way, the dugouts protect themselves, the fans shift their attention, have another beer...).
It's important you "learn" that other side. Who knows when you'll need it? Start shaving, combing, brushing teeth, eating, painting, hammering, mouse-ing, maybe even writing - everything. Try it. Maybe you have a whole 'nother lifetime to live...

Henry Francisco

Fickle Faddle

We are a fickle nation. Lest the Republicans and the Tea Partiers think that this past election is a mandate for them, they should be cautioned that the American Public is dissatisfied with EVERYTHING its congress, sent to Washington to accomplish, failed to accomplish in the past two years, and they're taking it out on the incumbents, whomever they may be, electing those who present the best arguments NOT to elect the other guy/gal. All you had to do was see the endless, scurrilous ads (to which, Tony, you were [fortunately] not exposed) to realize that. As in the 2008 elections, those who showed up with the most money and promises, albeit at the cost of the reputation of the opponents, won the election. Of course there were obvious exceptions, eg., Odonnell in Delaware, the Bigmoney Babes in California (echoes of Palin in 2008), all just too far out in right field to engender serious contemplation, thus left in the wake of what the public deems progress-to-come this year.

We'll have to see what the newbies can actually accomplish, beyond trashing the president so he doesn't get reelected (McConnell), wasting time repealing HealthCare (veto), pushing less taxes for the superrich, etc. Not a good idea for actually fixing things in the bunch, just a lot of vilification and blather during the election campaign with a lot of generalities ("I have a plan..." [Yeah, but what IS it?]), amounting to a good sales pitches, nothing more. We can only hope for progress...

Congress seems to be becoming more and more of just a machine to get reelected, and to prevent the opposition FROM winning office. We'd have been better off if, when he had the chance, Nixon had taken over the government, closed congress until a constitutional convention could take place, and TODAY (well, THEN) could be taken into consideration. Even moreso now. Our system needs FIXING. China, with its streamlined government and economy is gonna stomp us into oblivion, we don't watch out. Our representatives waste their time arguing, nitpicking one another, at the behest of the people who finance the advertising that gets them elected, and at the expense of the business they've been sent to do.

The one thing Obama still has is the bully pulpit, let's hope he uses it to expose the true colors of the people on the congressional gravy train who are supposed to be representing the people back in the hinterland. I say "Fight, Barack, your back's to the wall."

Henry Francisco

The Postman Always Brings Junk

Ninety percent of what we receive in our mailboxes is junk mail. Perhaps instead of continuously raising the postal rates of all mail, including real business mail and personal letters or cards we send to friends and relatives, the USPS ought to raise the rates on all the commercial junk mail we constantly tear up without reading and throw away. Then the large companies, i.e., insurance companies, banks, real estate dealers, supermarkets and other organizations that blanket areas with commercial mail would surely consider qualifying their mailing lists more tightly, to send mail to residents who might actually be prospects for their products or services. With the rates as low as they are, the USPS is just helping fill up the landfills, and losing money at it to boot.

Re closing the post offices on Saturdays: Surely we can wait another couple of days to receive the personal cards and letters from folks we know, so cutting out mail deliveries on Saturdays seems reasonable. However, it should be recommended to keep post offices open to receive packages and mail we might not be able to send on other days due to work and other schedules. This is the way the USPS can cut down and still keep the general public serviced adequately. After all, it's pointless to have deliveries on Saturdays just to deliver more junk mail, but the real mail where people, customers, are paying top rates, must go through. Wasn't that the original spirit of the Postal Service?

Henry Francisco, Special to

The Port Whitman Times

Dear Holy Father The Pope,

I know this might be a sudden request, but in these days of world turmoil, drastic measures might indeed be necessary. I would like to become a saint, a legitimate saint of the Church, with all the benefits of sainthood, designated by you in your official capacity as the Church's leader. I realize canonization is something that in the past has occurred after death and intense investigation, after a life of good works including in some cases martyrdom, but I am operating at a disadvantage here - First of all, I'm not poor nor an official member of the religious community. In fact I see myself as well off, and frankly I'm not really interested in giving up my rather comfortable life unless I can be given an ironclad blessed assurance, by someone of your high office, that I will be guaranteed a seat at the hand of The Lord, it doesn't matter which, left or right. In that case, with your assurance and blessing, I am prepared to do anything, absolutely ANYTHING, no exceptions, to secure my eternal happiness in Heaven.

The reason I am proposing this is I see now that other religions, which shall be nameless here though we both know who they are, are providing guarantees to individuals who go out and along with their own martyrdom relieve the world of non-believers merely by killing, bombing and other violent acts, and I wonder if you might consider the same path to salvation for some of your own followers, simply to keep up with modern methods. I would like to state at the outset that I would not ask for virgins or special food or worldly-type rewards of a sensory nature, only to spend my eternity in the presence of The Lord, and to hang out with the other saints already consecrated or so honored down through the centuries, with guarantees of the same benefits accorded to them in their afterlives, plus small perquisites here on earth, such as my own statue (modern dress please) and portrait in a suitable place for venerating, my own Holy Day somewhere in the liturgical calendar with a mention in the mass of that day, an official listing and bio in "The Lives Of The Saints," and a designation as the Patron Saint of something, might I suggest saint of "Final Solutions," and a memorial medal struck from a suitable mineral. But with all due respect I would leave the choice of patronage up to you and your staff.

I realize that given the Church's current approach to salvation and good works, I could be asking something that would be somewhat out of the ordinary right now today, but lately the competition for people's souls seems to be getting to be downright cutthroat - literally. In future years what I am proposing might well turn out to be a universally accepted path to sainthood, though now it would seem like overkill, but look around and you're bound to conclude that excess is the order of the day; surely as leader of your flock, you would not want the Church to lag behind in that regard. With that in mind, I would like volunteer to be the first in line to serve, and with your indulgence and consent, devote some small final act of my life, now nearly at an end anyway, to this cause, and in that way become
Your Humble Servant,

Henry Francisco, Special to

The Port Whitman Times

(You may use my full name in the rolls of sainthood, to differentiate me from other Saint Henry's that might conflict)
THE PORT WHITMAN TIMES

Be MY Valentine

Christmas is the time at which Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, though it has become more all-inclusive with the incarnation of Santa Claus, making the giving of gifts and sending of cards more generally acceptable. Gifts are given, cards are sent. Merry Christmas. Oh, and Happy New Year too. It's institutional.

Easter is the time at which Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus after His crucifixion, and the redemption of us all through His sacrifice. It's more religious, but institutional too, combined with Passover, including most of us. We pray, we ask God's blessing and indulgence on our humble lives. We eat, the Easter Bunny comes and leaves goodies. Cards are sent. Happy Easter, Spring is here!

Thanksgiving celebrates those things we have and what we have been able to accomplish in the life that has been allotted to us. The sheaves are brought in, the harvest is a fait accompli. We get together, feast, give thanks, watch football. Some send cards... Happy Thanksgiving! (Christmas is just around the corner.)

But Valentine's Day - This is a personal affair, between two people who proclaim the reciprocation of their love for each other, if it is truly reciprocal, and even then they fake it if they have doubts from which they can't escape. Valentine's Day is not a family or group celebration, but one where mutual love is somehow declared, choices are made, and expressed. The only card to be sent is that to your love, hopefully your lover. It's not a "Happy Valentine's Day to everybody" festivity.

I remember a long time ago, my first Valentine's Day in early elementary school, when each of us placed ONE valentine in the white slotted box decorated with hearts, our valentine sent to the one we fancied with a plea to "Be My Valentine" - A singular entreaty to a single person. There were, unfortunately, those to whom no valentines were sent, none received, thus they would have ended up unchosen, ostensibly unloved; but our provident sister/teacher, foreseeing this situation and coming to the rescue, kept a ready store of valentines addressed to every student just-in-case, signed "From a Secret Admirer" preventing hearts, alas, from being broken through disappointment on this day of expressed love. Smart sister/teacher. Then, as it developed through the years, to spare hurt feelings, the rule was finally made that everyone had to send a valentine to everyone in the class, thus totally diluting the whole idea, but of course great for the purveyors of valentines, Hallmark and the like. As a result, the whole classroom valentine "celebration" added up to - not much. Everybody began sending valentines to everybody. Another "family" day. Net result: Good business for Hallmark and the US Postal Service. Still in some cases, of the most sensitive, hurt feelings, disappointment of another kind, a result of pre-emption.

I still subscribe to the notion that Valentine's Day is a personal celebration of the love, such as it may be, between TWO people, the "such-as-it-is" part being applied possibly to the likes of married folks who are for-better-or-for-worse-ing. It's a time-out-for-love day when all the other picayune differences are forgotten, and the love is allowed to emerge, thus the celebratory part. However, when it becomes a general day for everybody to send cards and give gifts and express wishes to everybody, it co-opts the personal love of the individuals, to the point where it robs them of the inclination to make their own declarations, affirm their own personal choices, put their own special "Be My Valentine" in the slot in the white box decorated with the red hearts.

Henry Francisco, Special to

The Port Whitman Times

God Revealed

Milton Berle's Favorite Joke:

MARTIN LUTHER KING TO GOD: "We've seen an Italian pope, a Polish Pope, now a German pope. Do you ever think we'll have a Black pope?"
GOD: "Perhaps someday, my son, but not while I'm God."

But seriously folks...

The point of the joke is the belief that God is eternal, unlike man who lives a few years and then dies. God never dies, but we think, in our minds, of God as drawn in our image, a great white bearded father who benevolently looks down upon us from the lofts of Heaven, and in some way sometimes affects what happens here on Earth. Well, maybe so...

How about this: God as a great Spirit which has lived forever, and Heaven as an omnipresent Spiritual "place" that is somewhere and everywhere all at once, as Spiritual places are wont to be. This might make God more acceptable to those who can't seem to fathom the creationism of the bible, which, with all due respect, is all that the people of the earth, led by people who wrote it down, could come up with at the time thousands of years ago. Seemed logical then, even now, to some.

But God as a Spirit - only a Spirit- might not be swallow-able to them, until now, now when we can first-hand see the enormity of "creation," can go to the places in the Universe that heretofore were believed to be actually created by the God of the bible. "How could this be?" we say. "How could one entity have created all this, all that too? (indicating the sky)" "God always was, always will be." we were taught. But what if it's the Universe that always was, always will be, and the God we faithfully worship is the eternal Spirit that pervades it all, from then - way back when - right up to now? Actually that might be easier to imagine or comprehend, since we can actually see the physical Universe now, through the scientifically proven age of it all, in millions of years and thus be skeptical of the "creation" process, yet even more accepting of the Spirit of the Divinity that is the basis for faith.

The Spirit of God - The Holy Spirit if you will - Now that's a matter of real faith, because not only can we not see it, thus not imagine its form, we can't locate it in a "Heaven," and can only contact it, and it us, at the deepest levels of our consciousness.

But back to the original point: "Not while I'm God." - Could the God we imagine, the being we see in our own image, actually be a temporary entity, a sort of franchise passed down through generations? How could that be? Think of it this way...

We are at a point now where all the so-called "miracles" of the bible, old and new testaments, could be created by any competent magician. OK, the parting of the Red Sea, a myth that might be a problem, but the "Voice of God" the "Burning Bush" Moses on Mt. Sinai, Noah and The Great Flood, Curing the Sick, Making the Blind See, even Raising the Dead, Water into Wine - Phenomena all explainable in modern terms.We have mastered the science of all of it, and now we could go to another planet where the civilization is at the same stage Earth was thousands of years ago, and amaze the people of that planet by re-creating the same phenomena all over again, proclaiming God's hand in all we do. They would believe it as we did, knowing only the level of their knowledge at the time, which was the level of our knowledge until a few hundred years ago. That established, we let them go on as we did, build their churches, synagogues, mosques, leave them alone. God is eternal, ever watching, you might think going on, creating new worlds such as theirs, such as our own.

But I digress. The nature of God is what is under consideration here. God and this omnipotent being that "Shazam" let there be light, made the sun and stars, sea and land, the creatures thereon and therein, and as a final stroke, made man, then from him woman. But if we take the other tack, if the Universe always was, and if various species, including homo sapiens, simply developed over the millennia as Darwin said, suddenly a whole different light is cast upon our idea of a Diety, yet the notion of the Divine Spirit, the Holy Ghost if you will, remains quite fathomable even as God the creator recedes in the pantheon of belief. The Spirit lives, though The Father dies. How can this be?

Suppose that thousands of years ago, somewhere on another planet among the millions in the Universe, our species - homo sapiens - had developed to the stage at which we find ourselves now, able to travel among the planets, to cure illnesses, make the blind see, raise the dead etc., even duplicate ourselves, i.e., cloning from DNA, and they decided to invest all the Spiritual knowledge into one person that they would name "God," and then, throughout millions of years, thousands of generations, proceeded to re-clone that individual again and again, until now, investing him/her with the divine qualities we associate with God or Jehovah or Allah or whatever Diety you might name. The humans die, the divine clone lives on, and on and ON. Think of the knowledge we have today; Imagine we are that first planet, and we go to another underdeveloped planet, uninhabited but just like ours, and we plant our own Adam and Eve, cloned from our cloned "God," there with the ability to live and procreate an entire new civilization for thousands of years to come...

Think it couldn't be done? Think again. We are skirting the edges of just that capability.

But the Spirit, the Divine Spirit that lways was and always will be - We've only nibbled at the edges of that, though it lives all around us, in us, between us, among us, and it's the same Spirit that has permeated the Universe and all of "creation" from time immemorial. From time existential. From, well, way back when.

Henry Francisco, Special to

The Port Whitman Times