Listening to God

Several days ago I got a visit from a couple of nice young men who were on a “mission.” They were interested in offering any assistance that we may need at our household regarding any physically laborious tasks, which I found to be an awfully nice gesture. They also wanted to make sure that my family was aware that the aforementioned mission was to offer this kindness in the name of their belief system. This was not presented in a way that suggested that should we accept their offer of help with raking leaves, for example, we would become obligated to sign-up for attendance of their church services.
Although their presentation was nothing close to being pushy—as some door-to-door zealots might be considered—these poor gentlemen were obviously not aware that I have been teaching philosophy of Universal Truth for two and a half decades in this very region, and that as one of a handful of people in the modern world who have lived primitively in the wilderness for a year, I’ve been the subject of numerous articles on Tracking, martial arts, and wildlife. They did not know, as of our introduction, that I am one of the most outspoken advocates for nature and natural rights who has contributed oodles of editorials regarding nature, natural philosophy, and other topics for at least ten of that twenty-five year duration.
I don’t know how long the average visit and dissemination takes for the missionaries, but they were not leaving my door until nearly two hours after succumbing to their very own, private sermon from yours truly. As I said, to the apparently befuddled boys, “You’re not preaching to the choir; you’re preaching to the preacher.” And it turns out that within my lecture, speaking on behalf of nature, they were able to draw many similarities and recognitions to their own belief system.
Because nature is the common thread of all beings, it is easy to find parallels in all belief systems based upon this baseline of reality being truth. In other words, since nature is the only universal truth upon which no being can realistically disagree without being a walking contradiction, then it follows that there will be common core elements, even if fuzzy, between interpretations of that reality. Unfortunately, however, most, if not all, religions are moving drastically far away from the core truths and morphing into self-serving doctrine that humans utilize to mitigate fears and guilt, as well as to create subjective forms of ethics and justice. Ethics and justice, when based upon natural law, are universal. No one religion can corner the proverbial market on what is inherently fair or just for any being, culture, nation, or species. It has to work for all beings—and not strictly human beings—in order for it to be just.
The problem stems from a grave disconnection from the natural world. I’ve already written about and illustrated that “Sustainable Living,” which is supposedly the new fad available to make us feel “more connected” by “preserving natural resources” and getting the most out of them with the least waste. The idea that this form of sustainable living is further a form of “connection” is a farce. It is a wholly subjective, self-centered, idealistic concept of having one’s cake and eating it, too, which is little more than prolonged, environmental rape. (I’ve tried being nice and p.c. about these issues for around twenty of my twenty-five years, now, and nice and p.c. don’t really seem to get the message through. If it’s not in the form of an action movie or a rock-song, then society seems to overlook it because we have evolved into an infantile culture that embraces ignorance of things we do not wish to hear, no matter how true. We go through great lengths to avoid uncomfortable issues that are not directly facing us down in a tangible way. We lie to others and ourselves; we censor, delete, throw away, turn the channel or the page, and also turn deaf-ears to topics that disturb or challenge our beliefs and comforts. This is unhealthy for everyone.) So, yes; it is rape. It is what it is, whether you like it or not.
So I’m not going to re-write the volumes of information I’ve published at other times. I’m going to stick to the point of the thought that started this article: listening to “God.” (God is quoted because with so many religions come so many names, and “God” is the accepted, generic form.)
While speaking with these young men at my door--a relatively captive audience for not wanting to be rude by cutting me off and turning on their heels to bolt--one of them said that he knew that God spoke to him because he could feel the presence of a late family member in his life, and he knew that God was showing him that he was still loved and considered by this deceased person. He told me that he knew that God spoke to him regularly and that he knew how to listen because he could feel it in his heart. Here’s the thing, though: If we are to believe that God speaks to us based upon our emotions and suppositions, then that must imply that all belief systems are correct, because that’s simply how EVERYONE believes they hear the thoughts and beliefs, from their God, which drive them. That every religion is right, of course, is impossible, because any system of God’s truth, which is universal truth, must work for all beings, not for only humans, not for only one culture, not for only one person. We are all related, and we cannot have separate realities. We can interpret realities differently—which is what causes so much conflict and hatred in the first place—but that does not change reality.
Nature is real. Nature is the manifestation of God. Even if you don’t believe in a “God”, you have to know that you are created by and sustained by nature. It is a universal truth. Without nature, you do not exist. Therefore, the only truth that we can use as a baseline is reality, which is nature, which consists of mind, body, and spirit. All truths are derived from this reality. That means that subjective interpretations are not viable. If it doesn’t follow natural law, then it must be abandoned. Justice and ethics should be based upon natural law, not by biased, self-serving interpretations of natural laws. Now our laws and ethics are corrupt and selfish, catering to power, money, and emotion. In order to understand reality, one must be unbiased, which means being tempered, which means understanding the true place and purpose of self. This can only be accomplished by living in reality, in God’s world, directly connected with nature. It cannot be accomplished by living in an artificial world, because the artificial world disconnects us from our true place and purpose according to natural law. Again, I’ve already proven this in extensive writing that can be found elsewhere. Regardless, your job is to prove me right or prove me wrong. This isn’t my information. It’s not my “belief system.” It simply is truth. This comes from eons of wisdom gained by primitive cultures that lived by natural laws as everyday life. We have moved away from our natural place and purpose. When cells in a body do this, what do we call it? We are similar to cells in a body, as the Earth is our host, a holistic organism that sustains us, from which we breathe, feed, and exist.
Living in the natural world doesn’t mean camping out once in a while. It requires a commitment and an investment of time and energy into learning the skills that our ancestors utilized in order to live in a relative balance with their environment in order to survive, also in order to ensure the survival of their progeny for generations. It means having respect and reverence for life at all levels—much further than saying grace before supper and going to church--and it means not worshipping money or cheapening life by putting a financial value upon it. God cannot be heard in the fabricated world by anyone who contributes to the destruction of God’s creation by participating in a system of materialism, hungry for power and immortality. God doesn’t want us to live forever. God doesn’t want us to have money, fancy cars, big houses, televisions, cell phones, and property lines. That’s what WE want. God doesn’t actually advocate wiping out forests—even if we plant idealistic monocultures after eliminating pristine old-growth tracts—and God doesn’t really like us to dump oil, heavy metals, and other toxins into the waters, nor into the air. If you have been raised by any belief system that advocates these things, even indirectly (which most do), or if you’ve participated in any of these “self-help” courses that teach you how to assimilate to a sick society, then you might want to reconsider where it all pans out in the big picture. Natural law will always prevail over any manmade law, whether we survive it or not.