Copyright 2008 by Alfred Sturrup. All Rights Reserved.
Preface
There are many who question the intelligence of one who places a higher credence in science than in theology. They ask “how is it possible for one to come to a conclusion that rejects god?” The answer to these and other well meaning questions is fairly simple yet complex. The nature of the human intellect is similar to the nature of water in that as water follows the path of least resistance and therefore we are predisposed to conform to the dictum of established tradition and culture without exploration of the issues. This is not a negative. The quantitative property (most) leaves a balance of intellects with an iconoclastic property. The iconoclastic property is comparable to astronauts, explorers and the likes. Those who dare go where none or few have gone before.
These intellectual explorers are not confined to the gravitational forces of culture and tradition. The configuration of their brain perceives a more expansive paradigm that is their reality as manifested in their comprehension of horizons beyond the horizon. These intrepid intellectuals often are called upon and do answer the call to action and they venture out to find the promise of their vision. This vision was once expressed by Robert Kennedy in the words “Some men see things as they are and ask why? I see things as they never were and ask why not”. The inertia of the cultural traditionalists to go beyond the horizon makes progress slow but it also is prudent because it prevents cultural and traditional suicide.
There however comes a time in history when the dangerous adventurism of times past becomes the sole pathway to a destiny that lies beyond the horizon; a destiny that is not simply a promise but an inescapable and indeed transcendent reality. This is such a moment. It is at this historic moment defined by Victor Hugo in his book History of a Crime “Greater than the force of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come”. I, being of iconoclastic proclivities offer no apology for my intellectual position. What I do offer is the sharing of the process which satiated the iconoclast vacuum abhorred by the bio-algorithmic processes that make me human.
My journey is what makes me an American because I find within the Constitution of the United States a solace that satiates my reality in which science is superior to theology. It is my conviction that the time has come for our country to pursue the destiny inherent in our Constitution. After two hundred years of wondering in the desert of socio-religious struggles, science offers us a clear picture of the mission launched by our Founding Fathers and the unique contribution that this grand experiment has to offer to the survival of our specie. Our destiny is not an accident or a matter of post happenstance. There are some who perceive the end of the American Empire, but America was not formed to be an empire.
That is why even with our mighty armies and economy of scale we are the most inept empire builders in history. We send our mighty armies into nations to conqueror and we end up as little more than policemen and adviser's subordinate to the governments we went to conquer. Empires extract wealth from their conquered territories, we end up going into debt to rebuild the territory putting in electricity, roads, establishing health care systems and schools.
Our Imperial Title is "America the Inept Empire Builders". That is because we are builders of a more perfect union, a union of humanity. What keeps us from our true mission is the aggressive attempts of theocrats and theoticians to make us "Old Testament" God Empire Builders. We came to a new world from all over the world. It is our destiny to create a new world order, not by the sword but by example. We are that city on the hill and we shall never find contentment at home until we accept our inherent destiny - to create not just a nation but a world with liberty and justice for all.
Our destiny is not now nor has it ever been an exclusive destiny for it is the destiny of humanity. What is that destiny? We are destined to release humanity from the savage barbarianism of Divine Rights into a manifest destiny of “a more perfect union”. A union that transcends the limited horizons of the Mexican-United States, Canadian-United States and the oceanic borders. Our call to destiny beacons us to four specific goals:
§ Unification of the Specie
§ Eradication of disease and poverty
§ Maximization of longevity
§ Exploration of the stellar Diaspora
Our goals are inconsistent with religious culture and tradition. Religious culture and tradition calls for war, expropriation, slavery, and genocide. Our culture and tradition calls for the building of "a more perfect union". This mission calls on us to take responsibility for our group survival and group welfare. This is a new and unique idea in human history. The Founding Fathers recognized the incompatibility of these goals with the founding principles of Euro-religious culture. That founding idea is perpetual war for the building and control of an empire. This difference is the principle reason why our constitution was designed to liberate us from the theological encumbrances imposed by reliance on the unsubstantiated supernatural deity.
When I accepted this truth I became aware of the potential of scientific knowledge, scientific understanding, and scientific wisdom. The book is a look into my journey from the darkness of theological opacity to my present intellectual reality, scientific elucidation.
My Journey - the Process
Like every other, my journey began where I stood. I was born with a congenital non-contagious disease that wreck my body with what seemed like perpetual pain and torture. To me this was consistent with the character of god that my nurturing tried to teach me. This coupled with the fact that the examples of older family members, community, church, men of the cloth, and teachers at a Christian school shaped, my iconoclastic proclivities. The nurturing environment of my earliest memories alienated me from the concept of god and Christianity. I was too young to believe but not to young to hear, see, and feel my reality. A reality in which I was portrayed in the most negative light of being demon possessed. There seem to be no rest for this weary and painful entity.
And so it was that this preteen came into contact with the work of Charles Darwin. Darwin's theory of evolution opened the windows elucidating my reality with an alternate view and so it was, I developed an insatiable hunger to understand this strange thing called science. I remember being in pain, when my mother would call the elders of the church to perform their magical incantations in an attempt to alleviate the torture. Their prayers and anointing only worked to leave me more tortured than before their superstitious gyrations and supplications. When their request to the god of their faith failed I, my mother, and father were blamed for the perpetual pains. “We did not have sufficient faith” they claimed. Finally these men of god and the community of faith decided that I was demon possessed. I resented the explicit demeaning conclusion and all those who concurred.
Because of my condition I was perpetually depression and many times wished that death would come. This all changed one day when I went to the hospital and a new doctor, Dr. Hart was his name, came to my bedside. As I now recall, he was probably in his late thirties or early forties. For the first time I heard the voice of a person who spoke with knowledgeable compassion rather than frustrated or pity compassion. He was a man of scientific knowledge, scientific understanding, and scientific wisdom who separated my illness from my self-identity. This experience changed my life and the way I saw the world. What I learned from that experience was that men of science were superior in knowledge, understanding, and wisdom than men of god. It was at this formative stage in my intellectual maturation that I chose to find my answers in science rather than theology.
The issues that I address herein are a representation of the processes of my intellectual journey that began as a child. This journey is one in quest of me - it is a journey how I came out of the mire of intellectual despair and cultural malaise to a place where I am comfortable and even grateful for everything that I experienced including the pain and torture of my youth. I share this experience so that it is available for my posterity and progeny. I owe an explanation to those who are my genes. Because of my experience, it my desire to see come into being a world where my children and others may pursue a pragmatic rather than a mystical or mythical reality. My journey began with health care and grew into a worldview that I call Scientific Liberalism.
The Message of Fear began with God
Theology teaches us to stand in awe of a vengeful creator. Science teaches us about the mechanics of a profound and marvelous creation. The creator lord health care plan consists of prayer clothes, anointing with olive oil, holy water and casting out of demons. Even today, in the reality of modern health care systems based on scientific knowledge and technology, somehow we have manage to delude ourselves into believing that the god who for thousands of years never once offered a meaningful cure for a single disease is suddenly responsible for the technological advancements brought about by people declared heretics by his hand pick clergy. If their god did not tell them that the churches inquisition, slavery, genocide, and war are immoral acts – then how or why should we believe that those who speak of immorality are legitimate guardians of the moral law? This phenomenon demonstrates humanity’s congenital cultural osmosis into the realm of mythical hypothesis and explains why many of us fail to question or challenge the status quo. Instead we make excuses for unfounded beliefs. In this book I will share my journey that led me to an understanding of how the creation became the creator and the creator became god.
Alfred Sturrup
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