The following report is by Jonathan Tennenbaum, and astrophysicist and plasma physicist Eric Lerner via The Asia Times:
Introduction By Jonathan Tennenbaum
The Big Bang theory asserts (among other things) that our universe was born in a gigantic explosion 13.8 billion years ago. The Big Bang is one of the most stubborn dogmas in science today. Thousands of scientific papers, textbooks, popular books and articles have treated the Big Bang theory as if it were essentially a proven fact.
The opposite is the case. In an exclusive four-part November 2020 interview with Asia Times under the banner “The Big Bang never happened,” the well-known astrophysicist and plasma physicist Eric Lerner revealed how the Big Bang theory is contradicted by an overwhelming mass of astronomical evidence – evidence that is constantly accumulating – while mainstream cosmologists continue to twist and turn in attempts to save the theory and discredit its critics.
On September 3, the New York Times published a guest essay by physicists Adam Frank and Marcelo Gleiser entitled “The Story of Our Universe May Be Starting to Unravel.”
The authors suggest that recent observations by the James Web Space Telescope, on top of other pieces of astronomical evidence, contradict the so-called “standard model” of cosmology and thus call for scientists to “rethink key features of the origin and development of the universe.” A “conceptual revolution” may be needed, they say.
Frank and Gleiser are familiar to the public through their books and media appearances but not, so far, as critics of the Big Bang theory. Strangely, despite the sensational title, the authors do not question the Big Bang itself, but only other assertions of the “standard model” that are contradicted by observations.
But, needless to say, the Big Bang is the most essential feature of the “story of our universe” that mainstream cosmologists have been telling us. Whether Frank and Gleiser intended it or not, their essay provides further evidence that the Big Bang theory is on the way out.
We asked Eric Lerner, a prominent protagonist in the scientific debate over the Big Bang, what he thought about Frank and Gleiser’s essay. He kindly sent the comments below for publication in Asia Times. – JT
Eric Lerner‘s Comments
Another big step toward an open, public debate over the validity of the Big Bang, expanding-universe hypothesis came September 3 with the publication in the New York Times Opinion section of an article titled “Crisis in Cosmology” (and re-titled online as “The Story of Our Universe May Be Starting to Unravel” ) by Adam Frank and Marcelo Gleiser.
Now, it is hardly news that there is a crisis in cosmology. Researchers have been discussing that for nearly 30 years and it has been big in the mass media since 2019.
But what is new and important is the admission by well-known cosmologists such as Frank and Gleiser that new observations mean we may need “a radical departure from the standard model” of cosmology, one that requires us “to change how we think of the elemental components of the universe, possibly even the nature of space and time.”
In fact, these authors say, we may need a “new story of the universe.”
What the authors don’t actually say is that there already is an alternative “story of the Universe” that is being widely debated among researchers: the story of an evolving universe without a Big Bang or the expansion of space.
This is the scientific hypothesis – sometimes referred to as “plasma cosmology,” developed by Noble Laureate Hannes Alfven and elaborated by myself and many others – that the phenomena we observe in the universe can be explained by the physics we observe in the laboratory: the physics describing electromagnetism, plasma, gravitation and nuclear fusion reactions.
No origin of the universe in time, no inflation, no dark matter nor dark energy is needed. On this basis we have published technical papers correctly predicting what the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) would reveal and elaborating on the evidence against the Big Bang and for a non-expanding universe without dark matter or dark energy.
Frank knows of this alternative. In December of last year, he wrote an opinion piece in The Spectator in which he prominently mentioned me as an advocate of “an alternative model of cosmology” and as the author of an August 2022 article on the Institute of Arts and Ideas website, titled “The Big Bang Didn’t Happen,” which ignited widespread debate in the cosmology community and among sections of the public.
At that time, Frank wrote that the new images from the James Webb Space Telescope posed no threat to the “standard model.”
Does any of this challenge the Big Bang itself? Not even by the tiniest sliver. If we know the Big Bang to mean the idea that the Universe started out in a smooth, hot, dense state that was set into expansion which led to evolution of structure, then no, the Big Bang has not been disproven. If anything, it’s proven the most basic feature of the theory: cosmic evolution.
The results of the James Webb telescope reinforce the idea that the universe does have a story and, most importantly, we are somehow learning to tell it.
He asked, rhetorically.
It’s clear that Frank’s views have themselves evolved quite a bit in the last nine months as new data flooded down from JWST , dimming the hopes of Big Bang cosmologists that the theory would need only “tweaks.” Then, Frank was sure that the Big Bang was the story, but now he thinks we just might need a “new story,” even a “new way to tell stories.”
So why doesn’t he say outright that there is a possibility that the Big Bang never happened, that the universe may not be expanding, that the story of its evolution might be one without a beginning?
Part of the problem is that Big Bang cosmologists must not only give up on a theory they have repeatedly said is beyond question; they also have to give up on the method that they have been using, and Frank and Gleiser don’t seem ready yet to do that. “Cosmology is not like other sciences,” they write.
That’s where they’re wrong. There really is only one scientific method and it applies to cosmology as well as to the rest of science. That method starts with observation, makes generalizations from these observations (hypotheses) and then tests these generalizations by making predictions about observations that have not yet been made – exact, quantitative predictions about the future.
The Big Bang theory’s predictions have been reliably wrong for decades:
- wrong about the cosmic microwave background, it’s temperature and smoothness;
- wrong about the scale of the largest structures in the universe;
- wrong about the abundance of lithium and helium;
- wrong about the size, age and brightness of distant galaxies.
Instead of abandoning the theory, cosmologists have modified it many times, as Frank and Geisel correctly point out, to fit (as precisely as the Emperor’s New Clothes) what has already been observed and to smooth over previous contradictions.
This “rear-view mirror” method is not the scientific method. Looking only in the rear-view mirror is no better way of learning about the universe than it is of driving a car.
It is instead the same Ptolemaic method of epicycles that supported the geocentric – earth-centered – view of the cosmos, a method totally discredited by the scientific revolution.
Science is useful to humanity only because it allows us to predict the future correctly. The difference between the scientific method and the Ptolemaic method is the difference between an airline that correctly predicts that its planes will safely cross the ocean and one whose planes crash every time but which gives you an explanation for each crash after it happens.
Over 30 year’s ago Sky and Telescope published an essay of mine titled “The Cosmologists’ New Clothes.” Unfortunately, the “emperors’ new clothes effect” is still strong in cosmology.
As I wrote then, a highly centralized structure for funding cosmology research and a tight competition for such funds ensured that if you wrote that the Big Bang did not happen, or if you even raised doubts about that, then you were deemed “either stupid or not fit for your job” and you wouldn’t get any funding.
In more recent years, as more and more gaps appeared between the Big Bang theory-based predictions and observations, it became acceptable to publish articles about specific contradictions with the Big Bang theory (as I and my colleagues have) but never that the theory as a whole was wrong.
This is, as I’ve written, like people in the Andersen fable being allowed to say “I can see the Emperor’s elbow” or “I can see the Emperor’s knee” or even “I can see the Emperor’s bottom” – but not that “The Emperor is wearing no clothes.”
Frank and Geisel have taken that one step farther by writing that we might need a whole new “story of the universe.” That’s sort of like saying, “You can see right through the Emperor’s clothes.”
But free and open debate is essential to obtaining scientific truth. It is long past time for cosmologists to throw off this self-censorship and say openly that the Big Bang/expansion theory may be entirely wrong.
It is also way past time to stop ignoring the alternative – that the universe is evolving, but not expanding, and that there was no hot, dense state of the cosmos nor an origin for the whole cosmos.
Let’s have that open debate begin, in scientific publications and conferences, and in the mass media. It looks like Frank and Gleisel have put on their life jackets on board the sinking cosmic ship “Big Bang” but are not yet ready to enter the lifeboats.
They should not hesitate further. A rescue ship – “No Big Bang” – is standing close by at the ready. Time to get on board and chart a new course for the science of the cosmos.
Besides his work in astrophysics, Eric Lerner is pursuing one of the most promising approaches to fusion energy, based on the so-called dense plasma focus.
As Lerner discusses in his earlier Asia Times ‘Big Bang never happened’ interview, the same self-organizing phenomena that we observe in plasma focus experiments here on Earth provide the key to understanding processes on the astronomical scale of our Universe, without any Big Bang and without the various exotic entities, such as dark matter, that have been invented ad hoc in the effort to rescue the Big Bang theory.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
[20] O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: [21] Which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen. 1 Timothy 6:20-21
The “Big Bang” THEORY is one of the biggest and dumbest lies ever perpetuated in the history of man. The idea that this so-called “cosmic pea” – something that existed in the black nothingness void, so small it cannot be seen by the naked eye, but was still there – exploded and then life slowly evolved over the course of billions of years from celestial dust, to slime, to monkeys, to us – is one the dumbest things ever perpetuated; but that is because it was needed to remove all standards and morality from the future generations, to strip away the fear of God, and the Bible as a book of scraps and copiest errors; trying to explain away their false gods to control societies.
Not one shred of scientific proof has ever been provided, nor can there ever be, hence why this was called a THEORY, but was perpetuated and treated as fact; just as Ernst Hackel’s embryo’s and embryology was patently false and outright lies when he drummed up that idea, but is still taught today as fact.
And yet, as seen in this article, the fools still refuse to acknowledge the existence of God who created all of this. They just cannot for the life of them concede to that point, and that their evolution “science” has never been proven true. Just like AI, these geeks create the devices and metrics to tell themselves what they wanted to believe.
The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD.
Proverbs 19:3
As the Big Bang is finally falling apart a new narrative must be adopted. If I had to guess, the new mainstream narrative that will find its way into the textbooks will be to say we sprung from aliens from some other interdimensional universe. A lot of people have already accepted this idea that we are just living in some simulation created by aliens in another dimension, and we are just their evolved children from a science experiment that probably went wrong. I know the History Channel airs this alien rhetoric incessantly, and I knew friends in high school that were entertaining that idea back then.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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People also believe we live in a matrix. Stupidity has no bounds. Regardless, they will believe the new narrative due to being heavily indoctrinated and brainwashed by public schools.
Think of the time and money wasted on all of these studies and articles; millions of papers written and still what do they have, NOTHING. Face it goons; the Bible gives you the truth of what happened and what will happen. So to all the educated scientists; prove the KJV1611 Bible wrong
Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
LeMaitre was a mystical Jesuit, the likes of Teilhard du Jardin. Those guys will promote whatever ‘theory’ and ‘science’ their devils, ‘angels’, familiar spirits, ‘ancestors’, ‘superiors’ etc tell them to. It blows my mind that Ruckman was calling this stuff out back in the ’80’s and ’90’s, back when I had no clue & was being steered away from the King James Bible, Riplinger & Ruckman by trusted ‘conservative evangelicals’& ‘fundamentalists’ even, as the Lord led us through & out of the blasted, ‘transformed’ remains of church after church after church.
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He even warned & demonstrated how our Constitution, & Bill of Rights, was already worthless back in the ’90’s, showing the legislation by which it was accomplished. But his BIG sin, was exposing the true culprits ecumenizing & drawing the ‘separated brethren’ back to Mama Harlot Babylon…..and that was light which they could not yet stand. Not until they’d amassed enough political power & clout, & had their aparatchiks in place……..and the whole time the Lord was laughing at them, & trying, sorting the souls of many as they were confronted with truth and scripture: for many are called, few chosen (with Judas proving that the antichrist factions are ‘chosen’ too….just not electing to ally themselves to share in the sufferings of Christ & his saints by clinging to truth & the scriptures as they were made known to them, to watch & wait on Christ, rather than trying to craft their own cunning idolatrous ways).
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It’s so plain now! And throughout the word. Reading the Psalms now, and it’s shot through with dispensational truth about the millennium & so forth. Our own disobedience & wilful ignorance believing & following liars may end with many suffering under these things now coming on the world, but no man nor any other power can separate the truly repentant, redeemed from the love of God, nor pluck them from his hand….though great suffering & chastening is more than possible. Just reading the history of Israel & Judah, with the epistles, make that plain.
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What a blessing the hymnal review has proven to be! We have had that hymnal in our possession for years now, since shortly after it’s publication….but never reached those final hymns celebrating the soon fall of Babylon. Please, if anyone can provide audio or midi, whatever, for The City on Seven Hills, it would be much appreciated. ‘Babylon Is Fallen’ is already a blessing, though coming of Irish puritanical Protestants thinking themselves crusaders & overcomers going into the time of Jacob’ trouble, & sadly, in many cases, likely correct as they join themselves in spirit to what they think themselves to be resisting!
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Luke 9:55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
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Yet, it does my heart & soul good to hear & to sing those words, knowing of their inevitable fulfillment & truth: Babylon is fallen, is fallen…..Babylon is fallen, to rise no more. “Clap ye saints, and blow the flame’!! …. Not by joining in spirit with witches and pagan nations who will be used to that end, then put down at Armageddon…but finally knowing the full truth of the matter by the grace of God & the power of his Spirit by the scriptures, the word of God.
King Saul is also a type of that sort of ‘chosen’. The Lord ‘chose’ him to the chastening & sorting of Israel, and his true character & heart revealed in his consulting with the witch at Endor, the ‘gods’ ascending from the earth, the pit….and the cloaked figure calling itself ‘Samuel’ contradicting the word of God….devilish necromancy always careful to care for, strengthen & puff the flesh, while poisoning the soul & contradicting the word of God. It’s a pity that those most strenuously asserting that fact have fallen to the lies of philosophical Augustinian eschatology & to pride, rejecting the blessed hope which by no means excludes the saints of suffering in this life, history & scripture both testifying …….but the Lord knows what he is doing.
I forgot to post the scripture reference proving the statement above: 1 Samuel 28:6 And when Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets.
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He let him be deceived of devils as surely as in the case of Ahab’s lying prophets. 1 Kings 22:22-23 KJB. Choice, confusion, & death underlined even in the verse numberings…..and they claim that men conceived that Book. NOT ON YOUR LIFE.
A Philosophical Viewpoint
Regarding the origins of the use of the human imagination
By those that wish to control humanity
What I write here stems from a lifetime of thought and particularly observation. Nowadays I lead a relatively simple life with few possessions, in very modest accommodation. No one pays me to write, no one “owns” my thoughts; I am not a “Prophet”, simply a free man and these are my honestly held beliefs gleaned from my own intellect.
At the age of 18 I left an engineering apprenticeship and joined HM Forestry Commission to train as a Forester. Early spring 1963 while riding on the back of a wagon to deliver logs for a sawmill, through what is the Ornamental Drive, close by Lyndhurst in the New Forest, I found myself in tears as we passed beneath an almost transparent canopy of light green, freshly leafed, ancient Beech trees, all splashed with a shower of rain with a rainbow caressing the tree tops. The entire vision was overwhelming. Another time while watching a Badger set, a young badger slowly came towards me; sniffing the underside of the leaves on the ground as he ploughed his nose through them. When he got to my foot he stopped for a moment, looked up, saw me and cried out and suddenly turned tail; rushing noisily back to his family and the safety of home. Much more recently, upon rising first thing in the morning, I discovered a tiny, very young mouse, with his back to me sitting on his haunches, his right hand paw stretched out to balance upon the Gas box by my front door. He was bright pink with great big pink ears, as only a very young mouse is; but that mouse was sitting there as though he owned the view. By the time I got back with my camera, he was gone. Even more recently, again when first arising in the morning, as I unbolted the front door; a Sparrow, busy pecking away at a fat ball placed there for the birds to eat, in the hedge opposite the door suddenly stopped. He, (or she), had heard a strange sound, and very slowly turned right around to scan the house, then, having seen nothing to cause fear; continued pecking the fat ball. All of these experiences, and many more besides, taught me that every living thing possesses, to one degree or another, imagination. Imagination comes in two distinct versions; joy and fear. When a song bird sings it’s heart out at the top of a tree, it is imagining that their sweetheart will hear them and come to them; when the same bird hears an unusual sound, it is imagining that sound spells the potential for danger. We see these two aspects of imagination all around us. At night, even the humble Earth worm, upon your casting a sudden light upon it eating the edge of a leaf, will suddenly draw back into the ground. That is imagination at work. The fly that speeds away from your hand, does so to protect itself from any possible danger; again, that is
imagination at work. It is my profound belief that the power of imagination is the driving force for the evolution of how all species of animal and insect relate to each other; moreover; since the dawn of their evolution on this planet.
That the power of imagination, both imagining something to fear, or to love; drives every aspect of every living thing; how we think; who we are; where we see ourselves in the underlying order of the wider ancient universe that surrounds us. That everything we, as human beings have created; stems from the long term evolution of the power of imagination; that the power of imagination is an embedded instinct in every living thing here on Earth. A major part of my present thinking stems from my lifetime work on the subject of the origins of the universe; where I ask everyone to understand that we have to see our recent human history of a few thousand years; in relation to the immense timescales involved with the surrounding universe: How long has our industrial civilisation been on Earth? A few hundred years, if that! Recorded human history only covers about five or six thousand years at most.
The universe is older and larger than we have imaginations to conceive. What we are looking at is simply the range of our limited technology to observe…… How much knowledge has already been discovered and lost as the universe has evolved? That there are other civilisations out there is a certainty. What we will never know is the sum of all the knowledge, though I guess that at some point, someone else has tried to gather it all into one repository. How far off the centre are we? For all we know, we are just an insignificant dot that lies at a distance from the centre of the universe that is beyond our imaginations ability to conceive. Then again, we may have evolved close to the centre of a thriving community of civilisations. It is important that the reader understands that my views about the power of the human imagination extend beyond the hum drum matters of life for the song bird or the age of the universe, into a very profound respect for religion; any religion ….. That teaches peaceful acceptance of human frailty through rules that permit freedom to think and debate. That is surely the way forward for all humanity? To be able to achieve such freedom, we have to learn that all religious beliefs are simply a product of the wonderful imagination of the human species. That a very long time ago, long before recorded history; some form of a celestial being was invented to explain what was to the majority – inexplicable. Why new fresh plant growth, (which so empowered my own emotions when a young man travelling through an ancient forest); appears after the ground has been frozen solid for months, is a very good example. It is thus my philosophical belief that, throughout the ages, the concept of a God is just another aspect of the power of that truly wonderful thing, the human imagination; that the human race has to come to terms with that as a fact and adjust religious beliefs to suit reality. Religion is a wonderful idea, full of useful rules for all society to live by; in peace. On the other hand, religion fails when it creates dreadfully uncivilised doctrine, based upon the idea that anyone not abiding by the rules will become a target for hatred, mutilation, or even murder; where fear in turn leads to thousands of wasted years drenched in war between communities in every corner of the planet. At the extreme we face today; such use of fear has very clearly opened the door to psychotic madness.
For the human race to remain a civilisation; in the truest sense; we have to have the courage to embrace both sides of our wonderful imaginations; we must display the courage to embrace joy, as well as to learn to understand how to control our fear. History has come full circle In a series of lectures delivered at Oxford in the Easter terms of 1893 and 1894, James Anthony Froude set out the reasons for the failure of the Spanish inquisition to defeat the English. His book, English Seamen in the sixteenth century, shows how the very same use of fear, led to the defeat of the Spanish Armada. “English commerce was beginning to grow in spite of the Protector’s experiments; but a new and infinitely dangerous element had been introduced by the change of religion into the relations of English sailors with the Catholic Powers, and especially with Spain. In their zeal to keep out heresy, the Spanish Government placed their harbours under the control of the Holy Office. Any vessel in which an heretical book was found was confiscated and her crew carried to the inquisition prisons. It had begun in Henry’s time. The Inquisitors attempted to treat schism as heresy and arrest Englishmen in their ports. But Henry spoke up stoutly to Charles V, and the Holy Office had been made to hold its hand. All was altered now. It was not necessary that a poor sailor should have been found teaching heresy. It was enough if he had an English Bible and Prayer Book with him in his kit; and stories would come into Dartmouth or Plymouth how some lad that everybody knew – Bill or Jack or Tom, who had wife or father or mother among them, perhaps – had been seized hold of for no other crime, been flung into a dungeon, tortured, starved, set to work in the galleys, or burned in a fool’s coat, as they called it, at an auto-da-fé at Seville. The object of the Inquisition was partly political: it was meant to embarrass trade and make the people impatient of changes which produced so much inconvenience. The effect was exactly the opposite. Such accounts when brought home created fury. There grew up in the seagoing population an enthusiasm of hatred for that holy institution, and a passionate desire for revenge.”
The sad truth is; during the sixteenth century, more than five hundred years ago; an English seaman, shipwrecked on Spanish shores, faced being publicly burned at the stake by a Spanish Roman Catholic Inquisition, simply because he was not a practising Roman Catholic. Will someone from Islam please tell me what difference is there between Roman Catholic imagined heresy then and fundamentalist Islamic imagined heresy today?
Both stem from exactly the same mindset; a refusal to accept any other thinking than that which had been taught to them from their own childhood. That it is our childhood teachings that have defined us as a species. We do know a lot about how the thinking of cultures embracing Islam developed from the very personal experience of T. E. Lawrence set out in his book; Seven Pillars of Wisdom and I recommend everyone read Chapters II and III where he sets out the origins of the many tribes within the Arab movement. “The origin of these peoples was an academic question; but for the understanding of their revolt their present social and political differences were important, and could only be grasped by looking at their geography…………. These inhabited hills and plains framed a gulf of thirsty desert, in whose heart was an archipelago of watered and populous oases……The desert lapped it round and kept it pure of contact“ “…. Their imaginations were vivid, but not creative. There was so little Arab art in Asia that they could almost be said to have no art,…….. Nor did they handle great industries: they had no organisations of mind or body. They invented no systems of philosophy, no complex mythologies….. They were a people of spasms, of upheavals, of ideas, the race of the individual genius. Their convictions were by instinct, their activities intuitional. Their largest manufacture was of creeds: almost they were monopolists of revealed religions. Three of these efforts had endured among them: two of the three had also borne export (in modified forms) to non-Semitic peoples. Christianity, translated into the diverse spirits of Greek and Latin and Teutonic tongues, had conquered Europe and America. Islam in various transformations was subjecting Africa and parts of Asia. These were Semantic successes. Their failures they kept to themselves. The fringes of their deserts were strewn with broken faiths.
It was significant that this wrack of fallen religions lay about the meeting of the desert and the sown. It pointed to the generation of all these creeds. They were assertions, not arguments; so they required a prophet to set them forth. The Arabs said there had been forty thousand prophets: we had record of at least some hundreds. ……….” We might very well ask; how many prophets? To get at an answer, may I suggest you all read; The Faiths of the World, a Dictionary of all Religions and of all Religious Sects, their Doctrines, Rites, Ceremonies and Customs, by The Rev James Gardner M.A. published by A Fullerton & Co, (my copy stamped Argyle Sunday School Reference Library, Presented by Mrs. W. L. Williams), wherein you will discover some two thousand pages describing the immense diversity of the religious beliefs of the planet.
Perhaps at last, we can come to grips with the truth of our problem; a desperate debate between two forms of the use of the human imagination: Arab culture creating many of these religious beliefs; strictly controlled by the edict of the writings of various prophets claiming access to celestial knowledge; yet signally unable to understand that they have been trapped into a very small corner of the potential; and the complex use of the imagination in every walk of life of what we call Western culture; exploring every possible use of the imagination. Once again, we face the daemons created by untrammelled imaginations that have come to the surface after many centuries; believing that the murder of innocents has a place within ANY religious institution.
We need to look a long way back in time; to be able to see forward Human history goes back millions of years. It is not a recent construct; it did not start three, four or five thousand years ago. To start to get at the truth we have to re-learn why our ancestors of old created what we call today; children’s bedtime stories. Why do we tell children such fairy tales? Why do they often involve strange, mythological creatures? For that matter, why do children enjoy them, just before falling asleep? We need to take our thinking back to an earlier age; back to the formation of what I believe was the early understanding of the power of the imagination; where we learned the need to teach children to understand their own imaginations; to enable them to live without fear from the power of the imagination. That a child was always vulnerable to fear from imagined thoughts. That teaching a child to understand the power of their imagination; was a necessary education. No parent wishes their child to wake at night crying out from fear created by a nightmare. A child’s nightmares must have been just as prevalent, millions of years ago. Parents, all adults, throughout
the evolution of the minds of the evolving early hominoids, would have had their own experience of how the power of the imagination would bring them joy from the love of another; while at one and the same time; fear of any potential enemy; particularly, one created by the imagination.
Have you ever watched a dog asleep, dreaming, its feet twitching as though running; acting as if running from, or to, a figment of its imagination? If a dog can dream today, a humanoid a million years ago would have dreamt thoughts garnered from their own slowly evolving imaginations too.
The question to ask today is; who first learned from these early, primitive teachings; that one may create their own interpretation of how to control either love or fear? Of even more importance; as an explanation of that which the majority did not fully understand? That teaching children was the route to power over others? Remember, every single night the sky was clear above them. Shooting stars, Comets; every star we see today, was entirely visible to every primitive hominoid. It is my belief that when you put together the power of the evolving imaginations of the early hominoids
with what they could see above them; then it is easy to understand how we evolved to believe in a power that went beyond immediate understanding; to an ephemeral being, a construct of the human imagination: That God is the rationalisation for anything we do not fully understand; anything that takes us beyond the power of our imaginations, where neither science nor existing knowledge can offer explanation.
Now step forward to early human history. Place yourself into the mind of someone that both understands the power of the imagination and wishes to add a manner of control over others surrounding them. How would they achieve that additional power? They would use whatever means of communication was available to them; in the first instance, the spoken word is a very powerful tool; the written word holds even more potential to control others. Now imagine a world where others around you fear what they do not understand. And you use your own imagination to construct an imaginary answer to their perceived fear. Of even more importance, you start to teach children to believe in your proposed use of the power of fear. This is not something arrived at by any recent prophet; we are talking of millions of years of different individuals trying out the same thought on those around them; each with a quite different result; each result becoming a part of the oral history passed down through the ages.
Now we start to understand how differences will emerge; many will enhance the power to appreciate natural artistic skills. Those drawings of ancient animals on the walls of caves in France were created by a natural artist who lived many tens of thousands of years ago. Such an artist would have passed on the knowledge of how they created such art to others around them; just as an artist does so today. Art is a peaceful skill. Artists thrive in peaceful communities. On the other hand, we can be equally certain that, by the same token; the power to control through the use of fear will also have been regularly expressed and equally appreciated by those that thrive within a world of imagined threat. A warrior, as much as an artist, demonstrates abilities to control our emotions; one through the power to protect us; the other to open our hearts to love of beautiful things. At what point does someone arrive who comes to believe that if they speak, say, a poem, others appreciate the sound and meaning of the words? Remember, oral history goes back much further than any written history; the use of verbal description must have been the first means of general communication between scattered groups or tribal communities.
At what point does another realise that, by the same token, they can create words that can control others? What fears would those words need to address? If you are creating words that you wish others to believe were created by someone or something other than yourself; what would you need to do to achieve the illusion of another author? How would you create rules to prevent others from questioning what you have spoken? When you walk out into the surrounding wilderness, say to the top of a local mountain; how do you convince others upon your return that the words you now speak; are not from your own imagination? How do you prevent others from engaging with your words and use their own imaginations to deconstruct what you have said? Allowing them to learn the truth; that you are the author of everything spoken by you, not someone or something else? How do you prevent that? Am I not correct to suggest? You would do everything within your power to suppress the use of imagination to question what you say. That you would set out to create rigid rules specifically designed to control the message. You use fear of dire consequences to cover up your own culpability in creating the rules in the first place. So the deliberate suppression of any and every use of the imagination; other than the minimal usage that
does not threaten to expose the truth; is always to your advantage. The very first rule is never draw an image of you; such that you are never identified as the original author; in which case you will always attribute the words to another; either a person from the past, or a celestial “someone” that is already deeply embedded within the imaginations of your audience. Remember, the message will swing from one extreme to the other as it evolves. From creating simple generous rules of responsible tribal citizenship on the one hand; to, in the worst case, you set out to encourage everyone to kill anyone who argues against what you say…………. Indeed, order that no one either listens to or reads another version. Is that the origins of the concept of “Heresy” ? Then add a belief in a wonderful life after death, which is dramatically exploited to ensure that an impressionable individual, (even a ten year old girl); will kill themselves to so murder “unbelievers” as their guaranteed route to an exceptional afterlife involving riches beyond anything possible here while alive……
Again, one tribe might well wish to steal another tribes land, why not say that it was given to your tribe by a celestial forefather? A very neat argument; so who first used it to take control of another tribes land? And in both tribes; who can you believe when the spoken words purport to stem from celestial teachings? Yes, I am certain that I will have hit a very raw nerve here, not just within any one religion. The truth is we must now learn to see that all of these contrived beliefs; were always designed to take control of the majority. Leadership control demands the control of the imagination; what better than to attribute that control to an unknowable celestial “God”? Wherein the most extreme cases we see today argue that: Singing a song; especially as though a song bird, from the heart; is to be seen as a threat. Flying a kite to emulate the flight of a bird is a threat; as such kite flying stimulates the imagination. Art in all its wonderful forms is a feared use of the imagination. The ability to engage against you with words is another use of the imagination that must be suppressed. The use of words and art combined; is even more to be feared.
So, interposed between many peaceful words that set out to guide normal everyday life; what to eat, what to wear, how to treat with others in your religion; you add words that bring fear to the surface to prevent anyone not agreeing with your construct being permitted to show everyone else the truth. Describe everyone in that other tribe as heathen, or “terrorists”. Use fear to justify their destruction if they refuse to accept your interpretation; your imaginative construct designed to control them. Yes, indeed, we see a lot of this today; but surely, this was not the first time these methods were used?
As I see it, there will have been many occasions, over millions of years of the evolution of humanity, where individuals repeatedly tried out such ideas, gleaned from their own rich imaginations. That over such immense timescales; surely every form of such control was tried and tested; perhaps often to the point of the complete destruction of the community wherein such trials occurred? Why would such history repeat itself? Surely, if there have been other attempts to gain such control; why do we not today; live upon a planet that is entirely under such control?
The answer is to my way of thinking, very clear; human society will have seen repeated episodes of the use of fear that seem to have burned brightly before collapsing. Attila the Hun is a good example; he murdered and killed right across Asia; the Roman Empire; the same end result; the Roman Catholic Inquisition as Froude above describes, is another; each time we see relatively brief success before complete collapse. This is not a construct of any single group at this one point in time; this is a repeating failure; each time a failure to recognise the ultimate power of the majority of human society; in their wish to preserve a peaceful existence with each other. The history of the evolution of humanity has once again come full circle.
Every step forward we learn new things about how we all think; what is ultimately important to the majority. We learn more about the power of our imaginations and the power of the use of imagination over us. We learn that the majority reject the use of fear and embrace the use of love.
Why religion remains important?
A lifetime has also taught me that religion; peaceful religion; is a wonderful thing. That by far the majority of peaceful religions create a wonderful sense of community; bringing everyone together under a canopy of rules that engage and encourage the ongoing peaceful interaction between everyone. Good religion also accommodates dissent; accepts that others among the majority may not believe as they do; accepts other influences, doctrines; even to the secular where there is no belief in God! There are some very good, peaceful religions; that do great works; we must encourage them while also accepting that human society has evolved to live in peace; with each allowed their own use of their imagination; in their own ways; with their own interpretations. We smile at the use of the God Thor, or Titan, or Mars. Every one of you will have your own version to add to those I highlight herein.
We live on a small planet, surrounded by a vast and ancient universe itself inhabited by trillions of star systems, many of which will, inevitably, carry their own form of life within their oceans and on their continents and islands. It is time for our own imaginations to spread out from here, into the wider universe. We simply have to learn to use our imaginations; peacefully; without at one and the same moment being trammelled by fear; particularly fear created as a cover for another to try and control the majority; an exploit that always fails eventually. A lesson some here, with us today; have yet to learn. We are a peaceful species who love art and all forms of creativity. We have to learn to make God our friend; for he is simply just another product of our wonderful human imagination.
If you learn anything about your own thinking from reading this then I have achieved something. That is all that anyone can ever wish for, to enlighten, in the smallest way, any other individual. But
whatever you do, never let anyone else bully you into believing that there is no value to your own thinking. Upon these principles is founded the concept of debate. One may be wrong in ones thinking, but to express the thought gives the chance for another to challenge that thinking, as I do here. Debate requires acceptance of the possibility of right or wrong to be on both sides and accepted by both sides in equal part and in good humour. Gender; age; experience; who you are or where you have come from; has no part to play. Everyone has the right to think, to speak their mind; verbally, artistically, with the written word, or even satirically, using both words and art in combination; and be listened to. By the same token, no one, absolutely no one; has any right to use any form of coercion to try and impose their viewpoint on anyone else. Freedom of speech is essential. The freedom to think and speak without fear or favour; is an absolute individual right in any debate, on any subject, at all times.”