In The God Alternative I offer an in-depth study of the notion of a personal anthropomorphic God and posit as an alternative the possibility that another pantheistic force – a universal intelligence – a post-Big Bang energy field became the blueprint for creation and evolution of all matter and life.
As a child, I attended Sunday school and was Christened and Confirmed in the Church of England. I abandoned my faith at eighteen, but during my years of religious exile, I became intrigued as to why so many people devote themselves to a belief system that I, and many others, have difficulty in accepting. In order to determine if I were missing something, I began a systematic study of religion, its history, its concepts, and its impact on human thought.
I learned that there is much we do not know about religion, or at least acknowledge. It has largely been the custom among the devout not to question the Scriptures or the doctrines of other faiths, but for many, this is no longer acceptable.
I have developed a profound belief in the existence of a force of such magnitude that it was responsible for the creation of the universe and everything it contains.
I believe the moment of my conception was the precise instant the energy of my being was created. I believe that I am an extension of the universe and everything in it and that I occupy a physical body which I will shed when I die; but my energy, which cannot be destroyed, will exist for all eternity. As I am part of the great energy of the universe, my having lived will remain imprinted on that energy forever. I do not believe Heaven is a destination; I am already there.
I have become a strong advocate for faith. Faith is the most powerful of all emotions. Faith defines who we are as humans, and as individuals. But what is faith? Faith is a strong conviction that something exists without there necessarily being proof of its existence. Another name for faith is hope. We hope for many things, things which may never be available to us, but without hope, without faith, life would be a void – or worse, a cauldron of despair into which many people unfortunately fall.
What I do not believe in are virgin births, people walking on water, food falling from Heaven, and resurrections. Nor do I believe in Heaven or Hell, or in the concept of a personal anthropomorphic God. I believe in the existence of a universal intelligence which has the capacity to influence our actions and to be influenced in return by our actions, but it is not judgmental and it does not require our worship.
It became apparent to me that the only way we will ever aspire to greater knowledge is to free ourselves from the yoke of creationist thinking. If we expect to achieve religious and scientific enlightenment we must not let the outmoded and unsubstantiated beliefs of two or three millennia ago, devised by men whose vision was limited by the confines of their geographical and mental existence, stand in the way of us reaching our full intellectual potential.
WHY THIS BOOK?
For many, the religious mantra of two thousand years ago is no longer considered appropriate, but the majority do not want to abandon having faith and still seek something in which to believe.
Most of us were introduced to religion as children, that pivotal period in our lives when our thoughts and actions are the most vulnerable to external stimulus and conceptualization. When it comes to questions of faith, many choose not to challenge the status quo, but there is a growing band of people who are confronting their concept of religious belief in response to mounting confusion over the questionable legitimacy of the teachings, and the morality and relevance of the religious institution to which they belong.
Quoting just one of many sources, a five-year study involving 1,296 young people in the United States in the eighteen to twenty-nine year age group who are current or former churchgoers, was conducted between 2007 and 2011 by the Barna Group, a California based research organization that focuses on the intersection of faith and culture. The results, published in: You Lost Me: Why Young People are Leaving the Church and Rethinking Faith, identified six significant themes why nearly three out of every five young Christians (59%) disconnect either permanently or for an extended period of time from church life after they reach age fifteen years.
CHAPTER SYNOPSIS.
Dedication.
Introduction.
Chapter 1: The Psychological Need for Religion.
Chapter 2: God.
Chapter 3: The God Alternative.
Chapter 4: What the Ancient Knew.
Chapter 5: Innate Intelligence: Myth or Master of Neurophysiological Function?
Chapter 6: The Universal Quantum Computer.
Chapter 7: The Concept of Intuitive Cognizance.
Chapter 8: Creation of Evolution?
Epilogue.
References.
OVERVIEW.
Fear of death or dying has long been considered a major reason for adopting a religion, but this view now appears to be too simplistic. Each individual’s personality, upbringing, self-assuredness, needs, ideals, intelligent quotient and q score, may not only influence why a person adopts religion, but may also play a dominant role in choosing the religion that best suits them. These determinants are addressed in detail in Chapter 1: The Psychological Need for Religion.
Chapter 2: God, addresses the historical belief in the existence of many gods, through to the currently accepted concept of the single anthropomorphic God of Abrahamic belief.
The possibility of the existence of universal intelligence, a multifaceted energy force that has been gathering and storing information since the moment the universe came into being is presented in Chapter 3: The God Alternative.
Chapter 4: What the Ancients Knew, delves into early Sumerian and Sanskrit Indian texts and philosophy, and traces the emergence of pantheistic philosophical beliefs through the millennia until the present day.
Orthodox medicine denies the existence of an internal intelligence that permits the cellular components of the body to communicate and coordinate function (epigenetics), preferring to believe bodily functions are purely mechanical and can be influenced or altered by chemical ingestion. Chapter 5: Innate Intelligence–Myth or Master of Neurophysiological Function? takes an in-depth look at Innate Intelligence as being an extension of the universal energy.
Scientists have learned that only 30% of the energy in an atom is used to drive function, the remaining 70% is dedicated to what can be termed data processing. Each of the trillions of cells in the human body contains trillions of atoms, each of which is programmed to perform a specific function; distribute stored data, and disseminate and commit to programming all relevant incoming data. This also applies to the universe as an entity, a repository of knowledge that controls and promotes all life, both animate and inanimate. This important concept is addressed in Chapter 6: The Universal Quantum Computer.
We all have moments when we experience epiphanies during which a window opens, allowing us a brief glimpse into the future. The Australopithecines and early humans did not have the power of speech and communicated by grunting and gesturing. We now speak around 6,500 different languages, and have developed expansive vocabularies; but it took time, as will our journey to gaining mastery over intuitive cognition and communication. The fact that this skill is currently denied by the greater population does not in any way denigrate its validity. In Chapter 7: The Concept of Intuitive Cognizance, the reader will learn that we all possess the latent and often suppressed ability to communicate non-verbally by way of the universal intelligence, a transition that will open our minds by allowing us to access the infinite knowledge that is stored within the universal quantum computer.
Creationists deny all advances by science that challenge Genesis. Chapter 8: Creation or Evolution? discusses these often opposing concepts, and raises the question, are the two theories necessarily incompatible?
The God Alternative is the first of four stand-alone volumes, the combined product of seven years of dedicated research and writing. Together, these volumes represent what may well be the most well documented and thoroughly researched treatise on religion ever published. For an insight into the depth and breadth of the content of this series, please check out Faith or Fiction?, Faith Without Religion, and Decoding The Mystery of Life on this website.
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