The slime-mold organism

When the Anthropologist Loren Eiseley retired from the University of Pennsylvania, the Board of Regents of that institution issued the following statement: “Loren Eiseley has been the most distinguished scholar of this University since Benjamin Franklin.” Before he retired Dr. Eiseley wrote the following observation: “Man has become the slime mold organism of the planet earth.” (“slime mold”: a parasitic fungi that destroys the host)

In the view of the Anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, “humanity these days recalls the behavior of maggots in a sack of flour. When the population of these worms increases, even before they meet, or become conscious of one another, they secrete certain toxins that kill at a distance…that is they poison the flour they are in, and they die.” The drama inside that self-contaminated bag of maggots is a metaphor for the human predicament.

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Biblical scholars

The vast majority of ministers are NOT biblical scholars. I am not. I must depend on top scholars who have the highest academic credentials. I want to define biblical scholar. When I use that term, I am referring to those scholars who are looked upon as competent authorities in the departments of religion in our MAJOR universities of the world, or MAJOR theological seminaries. I am not talking about someone in some small denominational seminary somewhere who must repeat the party line to hold his job. And I am not talking about some “teacher” in some fundamentalist seminary with such low standards of academic requirements that they cannot even be accredited. 

The vast majority of ministers are NOT biblical scholars. They have rather been indoctrinated only with what their particular denomination wanted them to propagate and sustain. 

About 99% of ministers who are called “Doctor” are not really doctors at all, and have not earned a Doctor’s degree or a Ph.D. The doctorate is an honorary Doctorate of Divinity, presented usually by some small church college in their own denomination after a financial contribution from the church. Or else the degree can be bought from any number of small, non-accredited schools for 50 bucks. I have only known ONE minister with an EARNED Ph.D. in Religious Studies in my forty years of church associations. And to add to the sham is the fact that the vast majority of the resumes of fundamentalist ministers are so phony and false it is embarrassing. Do you remember that the Dean of Jerry Falwells College had a PhD from Oxford listed on his resume. Some reporter thought that anyone that stupid could not possibly have a degree from Oxford. He checked it out. Sure enough, Oxford never heard of him. 

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Sunday morning quiz

A good Sunday morning to you, Santa Barbara. How about a little quiz to go with your morning coffee and croissant? Here is the situation: We have two groups of people in this country, each thinking that the other group is full of nothing but weirdos. I am talking about the Christian fundamentalists and the New Age Movement. Now, every group, movement and profession has flakes and crazies but, obviously, some seem to have more of their share than others. So, I will give you a brief profile in the short space that I have and then you can decide which group is composed of the most flakes and weirdo’s.

CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISTS AND PENTECOSTALS

1. Believe that the bible is to be taken literally. Some wrap rattlesnakes around their neck to prove their faith, quoting from the bible. The rattlesnakes, who do not believe the bible, bite them. They die. Conclusion: the rattlesnakes understand biblical literature better than the fundamentalists.
2. Many believe that the voice of the “true”, 100%, “spirit” is coming through them when they talk in “tongues”. (“Tongues…unintelligible utterance…” Webster’s dictionary). When they talk, this is what you hear from the “spirit”: mana…glub-glub…kee do koo-koo…slipwash…feenless…popah…and so on. The “spirit” just cannot learn English. Read more