“A universal, ethical atheism was in our destiny from the moment our DNA was thrust.”
Hamish Watson,
GlobalNet21

I’m not religious nor am I an athiest since I have had experiences I can only describe as mystical, a label I often use to describe people who are stuck in the middle.

All of my science and skepticism has yet to answer certain basic questions about reality. I have seen what I believe to be residues of intelligence between atoms in quantum physics experiments so in that sense I do believe there is a sentience pervading the universes fabric of space and time.

Faith and Hope in superior beings beyond yourself, for me, are the most dangerous forces on the planet -exactly because they lull people into a false sense of security and often leads them to wait for external forces to come and rescue them, something I feel is the height of irresponsibility. Faith in oneself is equally dangerous. Only humility and compassion are our saving graces.

Taking personal responsibility for as much as we can rather than as little as we can is what has enabled human beings to ascend in their evolution. Anything less indicates a willingness to be complacent at some level and hand things over to some big nanny in the sky.

I have been most successful in life where I didn’t wait for God’s permission and respected the fact, that if he indeed exists, then he put me here to discover the confidence that he sent me on a mission fully equipped to deal with all eventualities. I did find the confidence to believe I was fully equipped -the answers were already ‘inside me’. Unfortunately in many instances I did not know what I had access to. So while he remains a silent observer watching his human experiment unfold, its my job to raise my awareness to enough of a level so as to figure out how to use all my resources to fulfill any purpose I put myself to.

~Jazz Rasool

I cannot object to the three points with which your blog ends: The disestablishment of the Church of England
Separation of state and religion
Abolish religious state schools … but I wonder if you have thought through the material that led to these very sensible three points.

After five thousand years in the Far East from the Vedas onwards that produced the caste system, the most blatant justification for inequality there ever was, waving a flag for spirituality can hardly wipe out the infinite misery of these arrangements which persist into the present.

After three thousand years plus from the book of Genesis that produced colonialism, class divided society and grinding poverty as launching pad of capitalism for most of our parents, grandparents and great grandparents for most of the last 200 years and the export now of that legacy to the Far East so that we in the West can consume as never before.

With the atom bomb in all its dreadful variants; with a global, financial crisis that is almost certainly the death-knell on the capitalist mode of production; with an eco-threat that may kill us all very soon and has been the authorship of more premature deaths than any other institution—religion, the real-politic that underlies politics the world over, has once and for all, failed.
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The evidence is far too strong to be dismissed.

Religion cannot recapture the useful function that once was essential to the development of civilization, because, like everything else in nature, religion has a birth, a life (so to speak) and a death; everything in nature comes into being and inexorably goes out of being when its evolutionary potential is exhausted. Religion is a prime case because it was essentially, the preparation for something better. This much has to be acknowledged in any intelligent evaluation.

But once one accepts the Darwinian theory, starting with our DNA and totem poles, the evolution of self-consciousness was destined to emerge into and through post-theological developments so secure the next stage beyond i.e. globally embraced, ethical atheism, the next stage that incorporates the common, core features, (and only those that are universally common) of the now-existing world religions.

There are precious few features that are universal once one realizes that the ‘constitutional’ Divinity of the Far East (Brahman) is the polar opposite of a ‘creationist’ Judaism, of Chinese Taoism, and of Greek Pythagoreanism, each in their different ways rejecting (or making uneasy peace) with all others. You surely cannot advocate religion of any sort and forget that it is the most divisive force in all of human being.

You will appreciate therefore, I hope, that existing religions have now become a barrier to the next stage of human being; ethical atheism was in our destiny from the moment our DNA appeared.

We should no longer seek to accommodate religion or politics to each other, because both, in their present form have become moribund forms just waiting for the intelligent next step, which is to formally declare their redundancy. The logic of evolution plus the logic of history, plus intelligent evaluation requires that this bold insight be turned into our plans for the future, and the current world crisis therefore, is to be seen as a signal from history to that effect. There is no authentic recovery, rather at best a delay through one or at most two more business cycles; the form itself has hit the evolutionary wall.

You will therefore understand I hope, that my attitude to existing religion is respectful, but it also has to be uncompromising in the terms outlined above and in the books and articles I have published in recent times. The http://www.totaltheory.com website is the fruit of half a lifetime’s research that only in the last year or so is decisive in favour of these remarks above; the case is made out of the evolving forms of history itself and is now beyond any doubt whatever. It can only be challenged from the point of view of faith, (in a thousand and one competing forms and functions that each deny the others) which is effectively no more than a wish split into a host of competing fragments. No single religion can overcome the rest, while every one of them, with a passion, think they deserve to.

It seems, sadly therefore, that faith has become the enemy of human being because it, above all else, is the defence mechanism par excellence of these existing trends that will decimate bio-diversity, tigers, elephants, rhinos etc etc with a ruthless disregard for life, and kill us all quite soon.

There can be no triumphalism in my drawing these iron facts of our evolving history to attention; they had to emerge into consciousness as a matter of historical necessity in the way that once upon a time, Judaism and all that followed from it emerged as the confirmation of the end of an older, dying epoch in the simultaneous birth of a new and higher version than history to date would allow.

To quote you; ““The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.”: having faith is indistinguishable from doing nothing. Could anything be more evil than the war on life that has emerged as a formally entailed result of Judaic dogma? The God of war, Jehovah, was destined to be the author of war for as long as Judaism persists.

We all have painful choices to make, and we can only bear it if we help one another in the way Jesus is said to have urged–love thy neighbour. Jesus was simply a very good man. His advice is good for all religions and none, but it can only be embraced with a universal will beyond the end of all religions because no one would celebrate the message of Jesus in the required way otherwise; their own religious preferences would not allow it while all authentic atheists would celebrate it. For all these reasons and a hundred and one more, I suggested the proper title our meeting on 17th May should better have been—“Politics and the failure of religion.”

A universal, ethical atheism was in our destiny from the moment our DNA was thrust, without merit or choice onto the breathtaking stage of nature, and we must now respond to its call or perish of ignorance with genius in our laps. Will you help me to make all this as plain as day; will you help me save the naked ape?

Love and best wishes to all, Hamish.

I cannot object to the three points with which your blog ends but wonder if you have thought through the material that led to these very sensible three points. I am the one who suggested that the topic addressed in the Macmillan Room on 17th May was posed the wrong way round; I suggested the title should be ‘Politics and the failure of religion’.

After five thousand years in the Far East from the Vedas onwards that produced the caste system, the most blatant justification for inequality there ever was. After three thousand years plus from the book of Genesis (although the actual encryption of Genesis was probably very much later) that produced colonialism, class divided society, with grinding poverty as launching pad of capitalism for most of our parents, grand parents and great grandparents (for most of the last 200 years and the export now of that legacy to the Far East so that we can consume as never before), with the atom bomb in all its dreadful variants, with a global, financial crisis that is almost certainly the death knell on the capitalist mode of production, with an eco-threat that may kill us all very soon and has been the authorship of more premature deaths than any other institution, religion, the real-politic that underlies politics the world over, has once and for all, failed. the evidence is far too strong to be dismissed.

Religion cannot recapture the useful function that once was essential to the development of civilization, because, like everything else in nature, religion has a birth, a life (so to speak) and a death; everything in nature comes into being and inexorably goes out of being when its evolutionary potential is exhausted. Religion is a prime case because it was essentially, the preparation for something better. This much has to be acknowledged in any intelligent evaluation … that once one accepts the Darwinian theory, starting with our DNA and totem poles, the evolution of self-consciousness was destined to emerge into and through post-theological developments into the next stage beyond i.e. globally recognized, ethical atheism, the next stage that incorporates the common, core features, (and only those that are universally common) of the now-existing world religions. there are precious few features that are universal once one realizes that the constitutional Divinity of the Far East (Brahman) is the polar opposite of Judaism, of Chinese Taoism, of Greek Pythagoreanism, each in their different ways rejecting of making uneasy peace with all others.

You will appreciate therefore, I hope, that existing religions have now become a barrier to the next stage of human being; ethical atheism was in our destiny from the moment our DNA appeared. We should no longer seek to accommodate religion or politics to each other, because both, in their present form have become moribund forms just waiting for the intelligent next step, which is to formally declare their redundancy. The logic of evolution plus the logic of history, plus intelligent evaluation requires that this bold insight be turned into our plans for the future, and the current world crisis therefore, is to be seen as a signal from history to that effect. There is no authentic recovery, rather at best a delay through one or at most two more business cycles the form has hit the evolutionary wall.

You will understand I hope therefore, that my attitude to existing religion is respectful, but it also has to be uncompromising in the terms outlined above and in the books and articles I have published in recent times. The Total Theory website is the fruit of half a lifetime’s research that only in the last year or so is decisive in favor of these remarks above; the case made out of the evolving forms of history itself, is now beyond any doubt whatever. It can only be challenged from the point of view of faith, (in a thousand an one competing forms and functions that each deny the others) which is effectively no more than a wish split into a host of competing fragments. No single religion can overcome the rest, while every one of them, with a passion, think they deserve to.)

It seems, sadly therefore, that faith has become the enemy of human being because it, above all else, is the defense mechanism par excellence of these existing trends that will decimate bio-diversity, tigers, elephants, rhinos etc etc with a ruthless disregard for life, and kill us all quite soon.

There can be no triumphalism in my drawing these iron facts of our evolving history to attention; they had to emerge as a matter of historical necessity in the way that once upon a time, Judaism and all that followed from it emerged as the confirmation of the end of an older, dying epoch in the simultaneous birth of a new and higher version than history to date would allow. To quote you; ““The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.”: having faith is indistinguishable from doing nothing. Could anything be more evil than the war on life that has emerged as formally entailed result of Judaic dogma?

We all have painful choices to make, and we can only bear it if we help one another in the way Jesus is said to have urged–love thy neighbor. Jesus was simply a very good man. His advice is good for all religions and none, but it can only be embraced with a universal will beyond the end of all religions because no one would celebrate the message of Jesus in the required way otherwise; their own religious preferences would not allow it while all authentic atheists would celebrate it.

A universal, ethical atheism was in our destiny from the moment our DNA was thrust, without merit or choice onto the breathtaking stage of nature, and we must now respond to its call or perish of ignorance with genius in our laps. Will you help me to make all this as plain as day; will you help me save the naked ape?

Love and best wishes,
Hamish.