All Comments on 'Gifts of the Future Ch. 20'

I've just spent the better part of my afternoon reading this entire series, and I have to say that I've read book by the so called literary geniuses of our day that I haven't enjoyed as much as your story. You should get an agent and try to publish this because it is absolutely beautifully written.

Quote from Above:

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All OPEC wants is power... to rule over this world and use everyone else as their slaves. That is why they've been convincing millions of devout Muslims that Islam is the only true religion... the only one God intended to exist.

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But the truth of the matter is... God never intended for there to be "organized" religious entities.

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Uh... This quote begins a very confusing explanation concerning the "dark forces" and, as you even point out, the force that is behind this push is not OPEC. For thousands of years before oil was a even considered a valuable commodity, the Homo sapiens species had a "spiritual thirst", and a fear of the unknown, that drove their search for gods.

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The earliest history of our species indicates that our ancestors saw many gods controlling the various forces of nature beyond our direct control. Even the early Hebrew faith appears to have begun as a polytheistic religion. The specific monotheistic form of this religion, centered on the god with the unpronounceable name (YHWH), was a later outgrowth of that polytheistic religion.

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Today, there are three major religions that claim to worship the basic deity envisioned by the followers of (YHWH) and each of them claims to worship the "One True God*. It is not OPEC or any other secular organization that attempts to enforce this, it is the religious organizations, that attempt to force adherence to their specific faith. Unfortunately, religious leaders often encourage their followers to become involved in government in order to enforce the beliefs of their "One True God" on society.

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In Western societies there has been a tradition in democratic secular governments to allow all forms of religious belief to coexist together. The concept of a "wall" between religion and a secular state was devised to allow various religions and belief systems to coexist peacefully. Unfortunately, this type of arrangement tends toward instability. Today in the United States, there are political forces that look to enshrined Christian doctrine as the law of the land thus making the U.S. a "Christian" nation. This has been justified by a fear, real or imaged, that other political forces may be working to enshrine Islamic doctrine as the law of the land thus making the U.S. an Islamic nation. In this election year 2024, our secular political institutions may be tested as they have never been tested before in the history of our Republic.

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The "dark forces" that form an alliance in situations such as the one we currently face, are drawn from two groups. There are "true believers" who truly believe that they are doing the work on the "One True God" here on Earth. The other group consists of those with a "desire for power". They see a path to absolute power that is not available in the limited governmental institutions of a Democratic Republic and wish to sweep those restrictions away

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There may be darker forces at work as well, but the dark and predatory nature of the Homo sapiens species offers a strong base for the more destructive aspects of organized religion as well as for those who desire power. As to whether this is what an "Almighty God" intends, it is my personal opinion that the question as to whether we are made in the image of the gods we, as a species, worship or whether we, as a species, have created those gods in our own image, is an open question at best.