Meet Jesus

by Dr. Edward A. Shipwash

The science of Darwinian evolution does not tell us whether God exists or not. It indicates how life and other systems developed on Earth. As far as science is concerned, God could have chosen Darwinian evolution as a way for life to develop on Earth. He could have chosen the Big Bang as a method to create the Universe.  Albert Einstein once said, “ I do not think that it is necessarily the case that science and religion are natural opposites. In fact, I think that there is a very close connection between the two.  Further, I think that science without religion is lame and, conversely, that religion without science is blind. Both are important and should work.”

The Son was significant of what happened.

There is no greater figure in human history than Jesus. His teachings, based in love, forgiveness, peace, tolerance, compassion, open mindedness, and charity are very beneficial to society and have survived the test of time. Jesus did not trust authority figures.  He openly criticized them and rebelled.  And, of course, this is why He was crucified.  I think everyone would agree that Jesus had all of the characteristics listed below.  So what characteristics would an anti-Christ, the opposite of Jesus, have?  Table 1 lists various traits Jesus had and the opposite of those traits (anti-Christ traits).

Table 1

*So we can see that the Anti-Christ is the right-wing authoritarians and their followers. 

 The literal interpretation of the Bible has been proven false, and organized religion rooted in pagan superstitions has caused more human suffering than any other aspect of our culture. All organized religions are based on superstitions. Both science and superstition involve observing the world and describing the causes that make things happen. But science is different from superstition. We can do experiments to test science ideas. In science results can be exactly reproduced. And science has reasonable explanations for how causes produce their effects. The Christian religion is rooted in pagan superstitions. Many of these superstitions existed long before the birth of Jesus and were added to his teachings long after his death.  We need to separate what Jesus taught from these pagan superstitions.    

The Flag God

Worshiping false gods is not new.  Recently, the US flag has become a god.  People have hence decided to worship cloth or cellulose.  The flag is not alive; it cannot take in energy from the environment and use it to build its structures as living things can.  It has no stored information in DNA.  It cannot reproduce.  It has none of the attributes of life.  It is not made happy by those who worship it.  And it cannot feel any pain when it is burned.  Other forms of cellulose are toilet paper and all sorts of litter and trash.  These products are found in billions of tons at garbage dumpsites through out the world.  So equation 1 is:

Equation 1:

1.  Flag + Flag=cloth=cellulose

Toilet paper is cellulose; hence the flag is toilet paper.

Trash is largely cellulose; hence the flag is trash.

So why is our congress trying to amend the constitution to keep us from burning trash? Not only is flag burning a harmless form of nonviolent protest, it is part of our culture.  By burning our flag, we show the world that we live in a free society.  We are giving memorable examples of free speech.  We show that our values and freedoms outweigh fear-driven groupthink that has engulfed this country after 9/11.  We are free to view the flag as merely cloth or paper, which is all that it really is.  Perhaps our congress should be forced to study elementary chemistry so that they may know that the flag is cellulose.

Pledging allegiance to a flag is a form of idol worship.  And “ one nation under God” is certainly an insult to God.  Remember, God had one son, not one nation.  When viewed in relation to the teachings of Christ, America can be considered as an anti-Christ in many regards.  And putting the words “ in God we trust” on money shows how money has become a false God too.  By associating God with money and American Flags, we are associating God with evil.  Our history is not very godly.  Genocide, slavery, burning people at the stake, organized crime, massive pornography, prostitution, high murder and crime rates are all a part of our short history as a nation.  I am not proud to be an American.  I was born in the US, so for me, American citizenship may be viewed as a birth defect.   And all of the money that is used to pay for these crimes has God printed on it.  And money is made of cellulose just as the flag.  Can you thing of something else that was made of cellulose? That’s right.  The cross that was used to crucify Jesus and so many others was made of cellulose.  One could argue that cellulose is an evil molecule.  Cellulose is very abundant in on earth.  In fact, it is the most abundant biological molecule.  Of course, I am joking.  I don’t believe in an evil molecule.  I am using the kinds of logic and arguments used by some religious leaders. 

How can people own parts of the Earth that was created by and is owned by God? The Earth is over 4.5 billions old and people only live a minute fraction of this time.  So we are only hear for a very short time, and we cannot really own any property.  The Republicans’ attempt to eliminate the estate tax is comical.  Not only do they think they own property, but they think they can still own it after they die.  

Religion- fanatical and contradictory beliefs invented by humankind based on falsehoods, superstitions and mythologies that create and propagate evil

Of course, evil can exist without religion and many good people are deeply religious.  But religion often pollutes the minds of good people and by its very nature seeks to control the behavior of large groups of people in order to achieve genuinely evil purposes—wars, hatred, bigotry, and the loss of civil liberties. 

Religions evolve by Natural Selection

People evolved as social animals with the need to rally around some sort of god (any god will do, the flag god is one example).  Our science teaches us that all organized religions are based on superstition and mythology, not reality.  For example, every branch of science including biology, geology, biochemistry, physics, chemistry, and astronomy has disproved many of the teachings of the Christian Bible.  Many religions teach behaviors and values that are very advantageous for humanity, and those religions that promote advantageous behaviors evolve and are propagated by natural selection in a Darwinian manner.  Evolution by natural selection works on cultures and economies.  Unfortunately, capitalism works according to Darwin’s rules for the survival of the fittest.  And when we mix capitalism with religion we find that capitalism has a higher Darwinian driving force.  The selection now is simply on the ability to generate large sums of money, which aid in growing the religion due to its ability to raise money rather than its beneficial role for society.

Today, the Christian Religion in American is a corporation.  It strives to make a profit and raise money, which it uses to raise more money.  In many cases, it promotes fear, ignorance and hatred.  Its leaders become wealthy and have political influences.  Because the selection has changed from a beneficial impact to a system that raises money by promoting ignorance, hatred and fear, religion has become detrimental to society in America.  And now it is able to use the US Congress and President to act against the best interests of the citizens of the United States of America. 

Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection as the mechanism for perpetuating religions, corporations, and politicians involve four conditions:

1.  Religions, politicians or corporations in a population of humans vary.

2.  Human society produces more religions, politicians and corporations than the environment can support.

3.  Religions, politicians and corporations compete for survival and propagation success.

4.  Religions, politicians and corporations whose characteristics increase their ability to survive, spread and propagate are most likely to succeed.  

Capitalism is the Anti-Christ

If there were an anti-Christ, it could be a way of life and values that are opposite to the teachings of Christ.  Capitalism and the “so called” American Dream where the goal is to obtain wealth and properties rather than to care for the sick, the poor, and the disabled, represents the closest thing the world has seen to the anti-Christ.  People assume that the anti-Christ is a person; but it could just as well be a way of life that is the exact opposite of what Jesus taught.  So capitalism could be the anti-Christ. 

Capitalism follows a Darwinian model of survival of the fittest.  This is why capitalism works so well.  Socialism, on the other hand, is what Jesus was teaching.  This is obvious and has been stated many times.  Socialism is another word for applied Christianity.  It takes more work to implement than capitalism, which follows a natural law. From a thermodynamic point of view, there is more entropy in capitalism than in socialism.  Civilization should not be modeled on the law of the jungle (Darwinism) and chaos (increasing randomness or entropy).    

Magic will be created when an unconventional person comes to stay

Jesus was an unconventional person.  If Jesus were walking the streets today, He would be considered a bum.  He would certainly be diagnosed with a mental illness (bipolar disorder).  So He would have a disability and would be subjected to all of the negative stigmas, hatred and discriminations that many people with disabilities face in America today.  He would no doubt be living in poverty along with millions of Americans with disabilities.  He would probably be among the homeless as well. Jesus had no property and told the wealthy to give up their possessions and follow Him.  And how much more clearly could he have said it?  “ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a wealthy man to get into the kingdom of heaven.” And what would Jesus think about capitalism and the American Dream?  He was preaching socialism.  Furthermore, Jesus was a teacher.  He did not want to be worshiped.  Instead, he wanted people to follow his teachings.  He was all about taking care of the poor, disabled, and sick.  So why are the very people Jesus told us to love and care for the ones who are despised by so many in America while those who do the exact opposite of what He taught are praised and looked upon as gods.  Consider celebrity worship in America--the American Idol, indeed.

The Bible is filled with contradictions; hence, it is a fraud.  The Bible implies that Jesus is not God; Jesus submits to the will of God (the father), and the word God is used through out the Bible to refer to the father.  Jesus taught that the father was greater than him and calls Him God.  The Trinity is obviously a fraud.  So the Bible teaches that the Bible is a fraud.  It was Sir Isaac Newton who first pointed out that the Trinity is a fraud. 

It is obvious that the Old Testament contradicts the New Testament. 

God and torture

With all of the attention that torture has received recently, one may ask who created the most sadistic torture chamber? Was it Saddam or Hitler?  The answer is God.  And our congress has recently passed laws against torture.  So are we going to punish God for his plan to torture people indefinitely?  The Biblical description of hell reveals the most brutal torture chamber ever described.  Not only do people burn alive, but also they burn for eternity.  So God uses his power not to end suffering on Earth, but to devise a torture chamber where the most painful forms of torture are inflicted on humanity for all of time.  This obviously contradicts what Jesus taught.  But, as I said, Jesus was not a God.  And how do we end up in God’s torture chamber? One way is by not believing in the nonsensical and disproved writings of the Bible.  This is a perfect example of natural selection at work.  Once all logic and intelligence has disproved the concepts of the Bible, they have an escape clause by threatening people who do not believe with torture.  Fear is part of our survival instincts, but it seems to be more abundant in religious people.  The term “God fearing,” for example, is meant to be a good trait in religious people despite the fact that fear is not generally considered a good trait.  Another word for “God fearing” is coward.  So they prey upon our fears while punishing our intelligence or logic.  This is an example of selection of those who exhibit fear, ignorance and blindly follow the leader.  The tendency of humans to blindly follow a leader can explain how Hitler came into power and how George W. Bush got re-elected.  In addition to humans, sheep are herd animals that occur in flocks.  They blindly follow the Shepard.  Do you find it interesting that Jesus referred to himself as the Shepard and to us as sheep? So He was telling us that we are herd animals.  I am surprised that, based on what we know in the 21^st century, the threat of torture by God works with most people. 

Our DNA tells us to believe in God

Our genes control a lot of human behavior.  This is well-established science.  We are all different based on our genetic polymorphisms, and we behave differently based on our genetic traits.  My hypothesis is that there are religion genes that make otherwise intelligent people believe in religious superstitions although they defy logical thinking.  This idea is probably not new.  As we evolved, the formation of social groups centered on leaders or Gods was advantageous.  Those ancient people who did not live in groups were less likely to reproduce since they could not benefit form the division of labor and protection offered by group life.  The behavior of cooperating with authority figures and doing what one is directed to do without hesitation or thought would be advantageous for the survival and reproductive success of the group, and genes that promote this behavior would be selected by natural selection. This gene would also be needed for the military where one is expected to follow orders without thinking.  Evolution works at the population level.  There is always genetic variability in populations, so some of us would not get the religion genes in their dominant forms.  This can explain why religious superstitions, although proven to be fraudulent, are still perpetuated in our society today.  It appears that a high percentage of people, 75 % or so, get the religion gene in its dominant form.  This would explain why some people who are very intelligent are also very religious.  People who have the dominant religion gene and believe in religious fantasies not rooted in reality could be viewed as having a genetically based mental illness. This can explain why some people “feel the spirit of God in their soles”, and that is why they “know” He exists.  The gene causes this feeling.  Historically society has punished genius when it manifests itself in ways that do not fit into the so-called norm.  The religion gene may also explain this. It promotes ignorance and groupthink and causes mobs possessing it to punish those who are independent, open-minded and creative.  Thus, it is because of this gene that people, for the most part, do not have a true freedom of will.  This belief keeps me from losing my temper with those among us who are good people but unknowingly follow an evil agenda directed by religious and political leaders. 

Today we'd call Jesus "bipolar"

Many people who are creative geniuses have "bipolar disorder".  This disorder is genetic and occurs at about 2% of the population in the US.  It is a mental illness.  The dynamic passions of highly creative people and manic people can be identical.

From His behavior, it seems obvious that Jesus had bipolar disorder.  This would explain many of His actions like his fearless rioting against the "money changers" (Matthew 21:12).  Often people with bipolar disorder are great thinkers, great speakers, great writers, artists, philosophers and scientists.  Isaac Newton was a genius.  He was the greatest scientist of all time.  He had bipolar disorder.  It was Newton who first pointed out that the Trinity is a fraud.  And they think Einstein had bipolar disorder too.  Winston Churchill, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, Abram Lincoln, and Plato had bipolar disorder.  During periods of bipolar mania, people have delusions of grandeur; they commonly think that they are God with special powers; they have enhanced cognitive functions and lowered inhibitions.  They also have heightened creativity, sensitivity, and productivity and are more goal-driven.  They have very strong convictions about the correctness of their ideas and often place themselves in dangerous situations.  They defy authority figures and are unafraid.  These same people become depressed where their feelings are the opposite of mania.  During periods of depression, bipolar people often commit suicide.  So many of the behaviors of Jesus can be described by a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.  For example, his belief that he had a special relationship with God (son of God) is typical for bipolar mania.  His rebellion against authority figures can easily be explained by bipolar disorder.  His creative teachings, sensitivity and productivity can all be explained by bipolar mania.  Even His death, which he instigated, can be viewed as suicide.  Some mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder, are advantageous to human society.  For example, our understanding of the universe is rooted in the works of bipolar scientists (Newton and Einstein).  A religious person may consider this to be part of God’s plan.     

I remember when America was a good country.  We have been good at taking care of the poor and disabled.  But we should do this with no strings attached.  In recent years, the Democrats have made attempts to do some good for society (for example, providing health care for all Americans) It seems that the Democrats represent those who want to do something good for humanity and all Americans, but the main goal of the Republicans, on the other hand, is merely to block the Democrats from doing any good.  We can see this by studying the behavior of congress.  Flag burning is not a problem in America.  And gay marriage is not a problem.  But the Republicans bring these issues before the congress merely as a highly organized effort to gain re-election by promoting ignorance, hatred and bigotry.  They try to diminish our constitution and freedoms. 

So we see that not only are corporations and religions controlled by Darwinian selection, but politics is also under the direct influence of Darwinian selection.  The survival of the fittest is selecting politicians who can simply get re-elected.  No matter what evil means they use, the selective pressure is simply favoring those who can get re-elected.  Politicians whose characteristics increase their ability to survive and spread (get re-elected) are most likely to succeed.  

In a world controlled by Darwinian selection, we need to see if we can identify what is being selected.  Corporations are not the most successful because they are the most ethical or kind or even because they produce the best or most ingenious and useful products.  The selection is at the level of making profits.  How the profits are made are not necessarily important.  The same is now true for religion corporations.  And how did George W. Bush get re-elected?  It was by running the most unethical political campaign in US history.  So in this case selection was for the candidate willing to be the most brutal in their political attacks.

The pharmaceutical industry works under the influence of Darwinian selection.  They are not in the business of curing diseases.  They are in the business of making profits.  If there is not a lot of profit to be made, they are happy to watch people die from diseases, which they could cure.  But instead they are focusing on revising existing drug formulas slightly to extend patent rights.  They make more money by keeping 90 year old Alzheimer’s patients alive for two more years than they would by curing childhood cancers.  So that’s what they do.  They also receive enormous amounts of money form the government in the form of grants.  So the taxpayers are supporting this self-serving industry. 

The War in Iraq

Consider a giant scale of Justice.  Then imagine that we place all of the dead children killed in Iraq by US troops on one side of the scale.  How many American flags would we have to place on the other side to balance the mass of the dead children? That is basically what we have been doing by printing more and more American flags as we kill more and more children in Iraq.  Imagine that President Bush killed your son or daughter.  And then he said that he was sorry.  Would you forgive him? What if he said he was sorry, but continued to kill other peoples’ children?  But what if he didn’t even say that he was sorry?  What if he made jokes about not finding weapons of mass destruction and was laughing about it? And all of this is after he killed your children.  I cannot believe that any American still supports this unjust, unconstitutional and unnecessary war.  

So, since we know that Darwinian selection is controlling everything, if we want to change the world, we should aim at changing what is being selected.  This would take heroic leadership and intelligence.  But we have had great leaders in the past. 

The Enormous Cost of Religion in America

For thousands of years religion has caused murder, fear, poverty, wars, hatred, bigotry and ignorance.  And through all of history the independent thinkers have been murdered, tortured, and imprisoned.  For example, the Catholic Church imprisoned Galileo for life and burned Bruno at the stake for their ingenious scientific discoveries and independent thinking.  Although religious superstitions have been proven false by science, they are still promoted because of the enormous profits made by religious organizations.  Their multi-billion dollar incomes and properties are exempt from taxes.  They also get billions of dollars in grants from the government.  This enormous wealth is used to promote religion through the press, TV, radio and schools and obtain enormous political influence.  Tax cuts could be given to the struggling poor and middle class if churches paid their share.  Furthermore, it is absolutely unconstitutional for churches to be exempt from taxes.  Do you find it strange that churches have billions of dollars in assets and continue to receive government grants while senior citizens and children are living in the streets of American cities?

The Origins of Life-The Sun was Significant of what happened

Much is known about the origin of the Universe, the origin of the Earth, the origin of chemical elements and the origin of life on the Earth.  From the distance of different galaxies and the speed from which they are moving relative to one another, it has been established that all energy and matter originated from a single location about 20 billion years ago in the Big Bang.  Although there are over 100 known chemical elements the vast majority of matter in the Universe is composed of just two elements, hydrogen and helium.  The hydrogen and helium produced in the aftermath of the Big Bang formed stars and the chemical elements that comprise matter, including humans, were formed in the centers of stars by nuclear fusion.  Planets formed from the same Nebula as the Sun.  Living organisms are highly organized chemical systems driven by the sun.  All living systems on the Earth are composed of membrane-enclosed structures called cells.  Cells thrive and replicate in the surrounding environment.  Living cells require a steady supply of building material and energy.  Ultimately, these are provided by photosynthetic life (e.g. green plants). Living systems were created as part of the Earth’s biogeochemistry as open systems of chemical reactions driven by the sun.  Living systems store information in the sequence of bases in DNA.  Biochemical pathways give us strong clues to how life originated on Earth.  The primordial atmosphere of the Earth was suitable for the origin of the building block molecules of cells.  Biomolecules (nucleic acids, amino acids, lipids, nucleotide bases and carbohydrates) have been shown to form spontaneously under conditions mimicking the primordial Earth’s atmosphere.  All proteins, the God-like molecules that make things alive, from bacteria to man are made using the same set of 20 amino acids and the same genetic code. The evolution of life is well documented in the fossil record.  Protein evolution in combination with the fossil record has been used for decades to establish the evolutionary history of life.  The protein sequence of amino acids in a given protein is compared between different organisms having the same protein (e.g. hemoglobin)--the more similar the sequence; the more closely related the organisms.  For example, the human and chimpanzee have hemoglobin proteins that are 99% identical in amino acid sequence.  Nucleic acids, the biomolecules that store information, have been shown to make copies of themselves spontaneously.  Membranes made of lipid molecules form spontaneously.  The fossil record shows that bacterial life arose on the Earth about 3.8 billion years ago.  From the fossil record and the sequences of proteins and nucleic acids, it has been established that all living organisms share a common ancestor, the bacteria.  The theory of evolution by natural selection is supported by thousands of studies.  Bacteria have been shown to evolve in the laboratory.  This bacterial evolution accounts for drug resistant strains of bacteria.  Viruses, although not alive, show many attributes of life including storing information in nucleic acid sequences and evolving by natural selection.  Viruses demonstrate how very simple non-living systems can store information in genes and evolve like living organisms.  So, once the Earth cooled sufficiently, the molecules that would later form parts of living organisms formed.  Over millions of years, these molecules slowly joined into units able to reproduce themselves, and the first cells were born.  Today, because of evolution, there are millions of types of cells and organisms on Earth that evolved from those early beginnings.  It all started with hydrogen! So one may argue that God invented hydrogen and let Nature take its course.  

Who is Dr. Shipwash? The Son was significant of what happened.

I am Jesus; I am Isaac Newton; I am the devil; I am Albert Einstein; I am God.

Equation 2:

Homo sapiens=Homo sapiens=Homo sapiens

The general equals the private. 

The king equals the peasant.

The President equals the homeless person. 

And Jesus equals the homeless person. 

So Jesus equals George W. Bush

And Jesus equals Dr. Shipwash

So Dr. Shipwash must be George W. Bush, the President. 

Where’s my paycheck?

1/1=1, 2/2=1, 3/3=1, therefore, Jesus/Jesus=1, hence there must be one Son of God.  Infinity/Infinity=1; hence Jesus=Infinity=eternity=all of time and space.  And since all of time and space (plus) equals God, Jesus equals God. 

And since Dr. Shipwash/Dr. Shipwash=1=the Son of God=infinity, Dr. Shipwash must be God. 

People are people, but I am God.  And I don’t think science can prove that I am not.

This is the type of nonsensical “logic” used by many organized religions. I do not think that I am God.  People who follow a strict word-by-word reading of the Bible generally believe that God made man at the same time He made all of the other creatures. They believe that the Earth is only several thousand years old. They believe that they can change the future by prayer. These are established falsehoods. I said that science couldn’t prove that God does not exist. Furthermore, science cannot prove that the tooth fairy does not exist. The same sorts of mythologies and superstitions that man has used to create the tooth fairy were used to create our image of God. 

What the World needs Now

Mahatma Gandhi was one of greatest political and spiritual leaders of the 20^th century.  He remained committed to non-violence and truth through out his life.  He made his own clothes and lived on a simple vegetarian diet.  He tried to unify various religions and organized poor laborers to protest oppressive taxation and widespread discrimination.  Gandhi was the pioneer of resistance through mass civil disobedience strongly based on total non-violence that inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.  His methods were very much in line with the teachings if Christ.  He was very much against modern western societies big corporations that he felt harmed the poor and benefited the rich.  We desperately need leaders like Gandhi today.  If we look at table 1, we can see that Gandhi had all of the traits in the Jesus column but none of those in the Anti-Christ column.  And he was a Hindu. 

Equation 3:

Religion=Religion

 

All religions are essentially the same. They are all based on superstitions and mythologies. They have all been used for evil purposes. Based on what we know, it is surprising that the majority of people still believe in nonsensical stories that defy reason and science. The ability to believe in these disproved fantasies is no doubt caused by some genetic traits that may be described as a mental disorder; hence, most of us do not have free wills. Most religious people simply view God as a sort of sugar daddy from whose blessings they hope to benefit and whose punishment they fear. These are petty and selfish human motives. Others may feel a genuine spirit and euphoria that they associate with God. This feeling may be explained by a chemical change in the brain that is a manifestation of the “God gene”, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, or some other genetic trait. Heroic and beneficial spiritual leaders including Jesus, Gandhi and Martin Leathern King Jr. teach us that religion can work for the good of humanity. But the teachings of our heroic leaders must be separated from religious superstitions if religion is to work for the benefit of all humanity.