Awareness Vs. Theism and Atheism

Those who witness Truth, the Oneness of All, are those who see with awareness.  Both theists and atheists make all of their arguments from a point of fact, and not Truth.  If you were to ask virtully anyone the question, “What is truth?” their answer would likely be, “Truth is always relative,” “Truth is fact,” or “Truth does not exist. There is no such thing as truth.”  If they were to give any one of these answers, they would be incorrect.  While many atheists’ arguments are backed with a formidable knowledge of science and sometimes scripture, they generally only rely on their rational, intellectual mind, which is incomplete, since intellegence is by definition, fragmented, incapable of seeing the Whole.  In negating traditional theistic religion, they merely create their own religion – namely atheism.  What the egotisitical, intellectual, fragmented mind fails to see is the fact of its own enslavement to duality.  The mind goes to one side, and then the other, but never sees the fact it is beyond this entire dualistic game where Truth lives.

This is why the ego, the intellect alone cannot see the Truth, as the ego can only see within the limits of itself.  The fact anyone can witness to Truth, to the fact of Life’s Oneness is in a sense, a “miracle,” because logically, to the dualistic, rational mind, it should never happen.  The fact that it does happen, even if not very often, demonstrates the fact there is another means of knowing beyond the intellectual, rational, fragmented mind.  There is such a thing as true vision, seeing with the “mind’s eye.”  Some call this God, Truth, Love, the Holy Spirit.  Whatever name we give it matters not.  It IS.  This “vision” has nothing to do with ESP, “seeing souls,” communicating with “spirits” or any other imaginary way of perceiving people mistakenly associate with “the spiritual,” since true Vision involves nothing more than seeing things for what they are – ONE.  The true definition of the spiritual is not the “immaterial,” or a separate “non-physical world” not subject to the laws of the physical universe as is commonly misunderstood, but awareness of the Oneness of All.  It is really nothing more than that – seeing the Truth that All is One, and in this awareness, understanding there can be no two essential “realities” – material and “spiritual,” as the notion of substance dualism would have us believe.  The Ultimate Truth is One, not two.  The Truth of Oneness is the only true “spiritual,” not a separate, self-essential, immaterial “reality” substance dualists like to believe.  Any person who does not witness to Truth, who does not perceive the Oneness of All would deny it is possible to see Life’s Oneness, and call one who says they can “crazy.”  All who have demonstrated awareness, from Jesus, Buddha, Krishnamurti, and the like, have spoken in one way or another of the Reality of One which underlies the dualistic, illusory world of appearances.  What both the “believer” theist and the “non-believer” atheist have in common is that neither one witnesses to Truth because both are only looking at a part, not the Whole.  Both see only within the limits of duality, and therefore miss the truth of the Oneness of All. 

Both the theist and atheist would hate anyone for saying this to them.  It would burn the egos of both the atheist and the theist to be told they are in essence, no different from each other, and be faced with the hard fact that theism and atheism are at the core, the same.  One who is aware of the Oneness of All is understood by almost nobody, since their vision of the true Oneness of All is considered insanity and impossible by those who cannot see beyond the dualistic limits of the ego. From ego’s perspective, such a view is insanity because from the ego’s point of view, there are ever only two options – black or white, good or bad, saved or not-saved.  Truth is the whole.  One who can witness to Truth has an integrity neither the theist nor the atheist has since for those who are aware of the Oneness of All, there is a unity, a cohesion seen behind the multiplicy of creation. Only that which is whole can see the whole.  Only Truth can see itself. Jesus was correct, when he said, from Matthew 7:14, “…small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”  The fact even a few see Truth is testament to the fact God, Love, Truth is the Only Reality.  If Truth was not reality, then nobody would be aware of it.  Nobody would be able to see, and recognize the illusory dualistic world for what it is – an illusion.  The fact the dualistic world is ever-changing proves its illusory, unreal nature. Jesus speaks to this in Thomas 56:1-2, “Whoever has come to know the world has discovered a carcass, and whoever has discovered a carcass, of that person the world is not worthy.”

Die-hard Stage Two fundamentalists will quote scripture to back their viewpoints, telling us every word in the Bible is the “inerrant Word of God” while atheists may also quote scripture to their ends – namely – to disprove the validity of religion and demonstrate the absurdity of scripture.  Both have an agenda to defend, which clearly demonstrates neither are about Truth.  The tell-tale sign of a fundamentalist, whether they believe God exists or they do not believe God exists, is an ignorant intolerance for others who think and believe differently than they do.  Both theists and atheists have valid points, but neither has the whole picture.  A fundamentalist will believe the world was literally created in six 24-hour days and Jesus rose bodily from the grave to pay for the sins of the world, while an athetist will write off all scriptural stories as utter nonsense, and fail to grasp the value, the Truth behind so many of these stories, even though other stories within the Bible are not truthful, and are in fact, nonsensical, and sometimes grotesque. 

The fact of the matter is, much of the Bible reflects Truth, and much of it, the lie.  To say is it all one thing or all the other – all Truth or all a lie, is a simplistic, untrue statement.   This is the most glaring miss I found from the author of the “God Is Imaginary” website.  He fails to see how the Bible could contain both.  He calls it an “all or nothing book,” stating if part of the Bible is false, it is all false.  That is absolutely not true in any way, shape or form. Such statements are made by those who need the security of the “black and white” so they no longer have to think, whether they believe God exists or does not exist, illustrating once again the fact that athetists and theists are at the core, the same.  Many theists believe the entire Bible is true, while many atheists believe the entire Bible is false.  The Bible is both, as it unquestionably does contain words reflective of Truth, as well as the lie.  There are words containing timeless wisdom and Truth, as well as ignorant and ugly passages advocating slavery, senseless murder, and sexism.  Why does the author miss this point?  Because, once again, he is operating only from his intellectual, fragmented mind, which is incapable of seeing Truth.  Only Truth sees Truth.  From the author’s words, he clearly sees no distinction between fact and truth, just like fundamentalist “believers.”  The problem with both the atheist and the theist is they go to opposite extremes, never considering the middle path of Truth, as the Buddha realized. Why do they not consider this path? Because they do not see Truth IS, and in that, they see nothing.  The path is never considered because it is not perceived. 

Both the theist and the athetist cannot appreciate religious stories for what they are because the theist sees them as literal fact, missing the truthful symbolism of the stories, and the atheist sees them as worthless superstition, and in doing so also misses the truthful symbolism of the stories.  One who is aware, one who can See, will see the truth behind the Genesis creation story, admiring the beauty of the poetry which symbolically expresses how humanity evolved from a being who could not measure change, nor create time, into a being who could eventually measure change, create time, and therefore create sorrow, being “banished” from the “Garden of Eden,” the bliss of timelessness in which there is no illusion, no fear, only now, the present moment.  Those who are aware will also appreciate the incredibly rich symbolism of the crucifixion and resurrection story of Jesus, the hard road to Truth, the “way of the cross” symbolizing our lives, our “path.”  They also see the symbolism in  bearing one’s own “cross,” one’s beliefs and prejudices, which must be “crucified” and “killed,” or no longer identified with so one can know True Freedom from the limiting, ignorant vision of the ego.  The resurrection of Jesus symbolizes the way Truth can never be “murdered,” and even if suppressed and appearing “dead,” will always “rise again” and “appear” to those who wish to see it.  All of this rich meaning is missed by both the theist and the atheist since both are too busy arguing over fact, failing to grasp the Truth behind the perceived dualistic world. 

While one cannot “prove” Truth since only fact can be proven, Truth’s reality is indisputable by those who see the Truth of the Oneness of All. Truth is the only which cannot and need not be defended because there is nothing to defend.  Truth is no thing, as it is beyond the limits of being a separate entity.  The ALL can never be a separate thing.  The All is ALL.  The theist as well as the atheist believe in the illusions of separation, duality, all of the lies and limits created within the illusion of time and its author – the ego.  Neither one sees the unity of All, and so both are in the same boat.  Both are playing on different sides of the same game, while only Truth within can witness to Truth… the Oneness of All…