Volume 6, Issue 8, page 2


cItte
DECENBER, 1959 * * Vol. VI, ho. 8
MAN USES FEAR Fear is one
AS HIS EXCUSE of the most inFOR IGNORANCE sidious bits of
trickery we
play on ourselves. Apparently,
we figure that "what we don't
know, won't hurt us", so we
carefully and firmly close our
senses to any idea that seems
to clash with what we have accepted as a "safe" highway into eternity.

How many are Catholics by
choice after a thora investigation of Judaism, Protestant
creeds, and the non-sectarian
mystical beliefs? What does a
Baptist (to name only one of a
myriad equally nameable) know
of religions he condemns as
too liberal?
Some of the strongest antiCatholics we know have never
been inside a Catholic church,
read a Catechism, or talked to
a priest -- and would feel insulted if such a test of their
hate were suggested. Hell bath
no fury, as the saying goes,
to equal the ire aroused by
suggesting to an immersionist
that he might be just as
"saved" with a few drops of
water; or the rabid "Sabbathkeeper" that no brimstone pits
await him should he change to
resting on Sunday, or even observe no special day at all .

And how many of the stripes
in our national flag were dyed
red with the blood of innocent
persons who were hanged,
burned, and tortured as' witches" by the religious forebears
we revere so specifically at
Thanksgiving? Were these socal l ed "witches" condemned because the Puritans investigated, and tried, witchcraft and
found it evil -- or were the
"trials" based solely on fear,
rumors, and ignorant hatred of
something they did not understand, or dare try to understand?
The churches' fear that mah
might discover his ova greatness -- that he was not a mistake that God regretted -- w as
behind the bigotry of the oast
which inflicted such torturous
chains on thinkers who dared
question their dictum that
"The world is flat". It was
fear of losing control that
gave the "witch" treatment to
the pioneering scientists who
dared look into their telescopes and microscopes -- and
come up with discoveries that
even the churches have had to
accept when their denials and
persecutions could not stand
up against the irrefutable
proof of man's mounting knowledge . And, we might add, it is
possible fear that an atheistic
nation may do, without God,
what an "in God we trust" nation has been unable to accomplish, is partly behind the
intense and continual propaganda that keeps the world on
the verge of war -- hating that
which we know nothing about,
and cannot, or dare not, understand.

Maybe, finally, we're reaching a point inhere we can say ,
'In man we trust", and reach a
pinnacle of Godliness that has
not been attainable as Iong as
we revolve in fear. But first
we will have to look sharply
at the all-too-many cults , ics ,
isms , and ologies using bigotry as a "tool" to get and
keep converts -- not for the
help they can give followers,
but for the financial security
needed for the organization's
survival . They , - 1 i k e the
churches they ape (and some,
to attain legal immunity, even
CALL themselves churches), are
facing strong competition of
growing skepticism.

But there is one way to
settle the matter. Their worth
and dependence can be judged
by the amount of faith they
have in themselves. Do they
encourage study and comparison
with other systems, or do they
seek undivided fealty? Have
they built a"house of cards"
that they fear will topple if
anyone dares tromple the toes
of their supporting" Ace"?
A really "good" system
would not be vulnerable to attack -- no more than you can extinguish the light of the sun
with a million pea-shooters.
Or stop man in his progress
with a whole chain of litanies
and thou-shalt-nots. For man --
like the sun -- isn't stopped by
anything , either. Except fear .
And then, only until he discovers who implanted those
fears -- and why.
00
THE "I AM I" IS Half of
A MANIFESTATION the troubles
OF SELFISHNESS that beset
man come when
he is convinced that it is
necessary for him to BE something. From the moment he's
born , and even before, he goes
thru stages of BEing: a baby,
'Mother's little darlin", a
squawling brat, a child, a
stupid or bright pupil, an adolescent -- the list is almost
infinite. H e is constantly
conditioned on the importance
of becoming something important : a good student, a good
workman , and some settle for
telling him only that he must
be good, admitting at the same
moment that there is no reward
for being good, since he is an
offspring of a sinful Adam and
Eve, whose sin he must expiate
by believing and confessing
his belief in a super Son of
God who also had to manifest
(and suffer for it ) BEINGNESS.

And the more each man believes HE is, the more he separates himself from co-beingness with the balance of creation . If I am a man, whose
duty it is to hoe and plant
and write and be this or a
myriad other things, then naturally I cannot be the weeds I
dig up , nor the plants I protect, nor the paper on which I
scribble, nor the man at the
next desk who also must express individual beingness.

If half my life, or more,
is spent trying to shape what
I shall be after I leave this
body, then I'm not spending
much of my time and energy in
getting the most out of my existence in this body. Because
I'm an American, I can have
little sympathy for those who
must be Germans , or Mexicans ;
because I'm a Caucasian, and
am quite conscious of it, I've
necessarily divorced myself
from any co-beingness with any
other race.

How small we make ourselves
in striving to be big!
H B