I no longer claim the religious beliefs my parents taught me, but at times I still ponder them. In those younger years, my friends and I were full of questions like:

“If the Bible tells stories about King David and his many wives–and his son Solomon who had seven hundred wives, and the Bible also says, ‘Go, and do thou likewise,’ then is it OK for me to have several wives?”

We were curious, but mostly just having a little fun with our teachers. They usually gave us a resounding “Pshaw” and continued with their lecture, flipping from one Bible text to another, building “proof” of some particular doctrine or tenet.

Now that I’m older, my new question is: If one Bible text can be used to support another in establishing a system of beliefs, then the “many wives” argument should hold as much weight as any other, shouldn’t it? How would you decide which Bible text supports or “proves” another?

Here’s an example. My teachers thought they had resolved the meaning of Biblical prophecies in Daniel and Revelation, one of which speaks of “2,300 days.” They told us that the 2,300 days in that prophecy are symbolic of 2,300 literal years, and that the “day equals a year” concept is based on two unrelated texts in Ezekiel 4:6 and Numbers 14:34. I think the “day equals a year” concept is taken out of context. But don’t take my word for it. Decide for yourself.

My inquisitive mind wonders why we should limit the “day equals a year” concept to only prophetic passages? Why not use it to explain other time-related stories, such as the story of creation? If read literally, the Biblical story of Creation teaches that the sun, moon and stars, our planet with all of its vegetation, the animals and humans were literally created in 6 days. However, if we apply the “day equals a year” model to the creation story, then maybe God took 6 years to create the Universe, the Earth and its inhabitants. While we’re at it, why not expand our thinking another notch and say “a day equals a billion years” and allow creation to take a literal 6 billion years?

Creation meets evolution!

Why can’t both theories be explained within the same, broad spectrum? I am neither a creationist nor an evolutionist. I embrace both theories…AND the other 6 theories we haven’t even discovered yet.

Actually, I think the missing link is based on a much larger concept.

From God’s perspective, “time” does not exist. It doesn’t matter if God created the world in 6 days or 6 billion years. From His perspective it would have been the same moment either way.

Well, that’s one perspective. Here’s another —

God is capable of anything. He’s able to create an entire Universe, including our Earth, with ‘age’ already existing in its structure. Maybe God did create our earth in 6 days and, while He was at it, had a little fun and made it with 4.6 billion years of “age” already built in.

After all, He is God….

What’s your theory? Maybe it’s one of the other 6.

Inquisitively,
David Wine

When I recently wondered about How Big Is The Universe, I mentioned The Ant’s perspective. I wondered if there are beings who perceive humans in the same way we perceive the ant.

What if an ant could expand its awareness so it could see AND understand humans? I wonder if it would try to communicate with us. Or if it would try to become more human-like by taking on our behaviors or values so as to fit into our culture or understand us better.

From our current human perspective, we have speculated that angels exist; some even say they have seen angels. We speculate that they have wings. We talk of having guardian angels, “assigned” to each of us to protect and guide us. Some of the books I’ve read recently discuss certain tasks angels perform like Healing, Teaching, Guiding, Delivering messages from/to God

In my human finite-ness I don’t personally know much about angels yet, but I wonder if the human-angel connection is similar to the ant-human relationship. If it were possible, would I choose to expand my awareness so that I could perceive and understand angels on an everyday basis?

Inquisitively,
David Wine

I am a big fan of the concept of “Do The Right Thing.”

One area I see this promoted is envrionmentalism. Those folks ask me to change my behaviors in order to save our planet. Their various pleas include:

• Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.
• Develop alternative energy.
• Turn the lights off when you’re not in the room.

On this blog site, I do not advocate, nor do I ridicule these ideas. This may sound preachy, but I think these themes are really a subset of a greater philosophy like: Live Wisely, or Use Your Common Sense, or Do the Right Thing.

I recently read a compelling rendition of this core value from a company that teaches its employees to:

Always Do the Right Thing. But please don’t restrict “Do the Right Thing” to only you, or to only the company. As an employee, when you do the Right Thing, include yourself, your coworkers, the company, the customer, the vendor… When you act under this set of ideas, the results of your actions to “Do the Right Thing” will respect, honor and bring abundance to both you and the company.

The business leaders of that company believe if all employees follow this code the company will achieve its greatest success.

Is this nirvana or just a load of hooey?

Consider what would happen if every day you did just one Good Thing. Just one. No pressure to live a perfect life, just simply do one Good Thing…

…and then what if you followed that up with a repeat performance the next day?

This concept was popularized recently in the movie Pay It Forward (based on a book by Catharine Hyde). Under the Pay It Forward concept, when each of us performs three good deeds in repayment of a good deed done to us, our society becomes a better place to live.

An older name for this concept is Generalized Reciprocity. Ben Franklin described it in a letter where he said: “I do not pretend to give such a sum; I only lend it to you. When you meet with another honest man in similar distress, you must pay me by lending this sum to him; enjoining him to do the same….”

So when I hear, “Turn off the light, reduce-reuse-recycle, and develop alternative energy,” I say, sure, go ahead. That’s a great start. But don’t stop there. These mantras are smaller pieces of grander ideologies like Generalized Reciprocity, the more colloquial Do The Right Thing, or as I prefer – Simply Live Wisely.

With Warm Regards,
David Wine

Last night I walked through the house, turning off lights as I was heading for bed. In my mind, I prayed a quick prayer asking for blessings and peace to continue filling our home. A moment after the prayer, I happened to glance at the digital clock in the kitchen.

It read 11:11.

At first, I didn’t think much about it, but a few seconds later it hit me. This same thing has already happened to me — three times!

Déjà vu.

I’ve seen a pair of elevens three times in the past couple weeks.

I prayed; I saw 11:11 for the third time; and I’ve read that eleven is a power number.

I wonder what the angels are telling me.

The human perspective of our universe is small, and until I was given the dream experiences in my book A Forever Place, I didn’t think too much about the possibility of other Universes.

Ponder these ideas…

• A few thousand years ago, conventional wisdom said the world was flat.
• A few hundred years ago, it was commonly believed that Earth was the center of the universe.
• A couple hundred years ago, air travel was considered impossible.
• About a century ago heroin was available over the counter at the corner drugstore, and was touted as a wonder drug that clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, calms the stomach, and is a perfect guardian of health.

Back when these concepts were “the truth,” a person would likely face despair, misfortune or death if they happened to be the first to suggest “the truth” might actually be false. For instance, when Galileo began promoting Copernicus’ notion that perhaps the earth DID revolve around the sun, he was convicted of heresy and ordered to house arrest.

I’ll take the risk of being tossed in the slammer and make some wild suggestions:

• The world is round,
• The earth is not the center of the universe,
• I can hop on an airplane and fly from New York to L.A. in less than 6 hours, and
• Heroin may give buoyancy to the mind but is probably not a perfect guardian of health.

(There may be an occasional exception to such definitive announcements. My old boss thinks he’s the Center of the Universe. By extrapolating I could conclude that Earth is an approximation for the center of the universe if I use the boss-is-the-center-of-the-universe theory!)

For now, my challenge is to consider this: What are the things I currently believe to be THE TRUTH, but given more time, will discover to be false? The more I ponder this question, the more I discover about our Universe and things beyond the four dimensions I commonly take for granted: length, width, height, and time.

Recently I read a story about an ant’s perspective: An ant’s knowledge includes the surface of the ground to and from its nest. It also knows about finding food and defending its home. But the ant knows nothing about human love, or…the international space station, or…the color blue. What if the ant was able to move out of its dimension into ours? Think what the ant would learn! And what if we were able to move out of our current dimension into the next? We know of the ant’s existence and can study and describe it to other humans. Who (or what) knows of our existence and can study it and describe it to others of its kind? [paraphrased from a story told by Osho]

What are the things I believe to be true, but really are not?

Oh, the things I don’t know…yet.

Inquisitively,
David Wine

“Who is God” has been done before, but I want to take my turn.

The question and its cousin “Is there a God?” are actually small-minded questions. A slightly larger, and perhaps more meaningful question might be, “How is God” or maybe “Why is God?”

I wrote about Him when he showed up in two of my dreams in my short story A Forever Place. In the book I call Him “The Presence:”

I sense Someone slightly behind me and to the right—Something I know I will not “see” with my eyes, yet is vastly familiar and very different from the “God in a Box” I learned as a child.

Later in the dreams The Presence reveals that He is far beyond my intellectual grasp. He shows that He has a sense of humor, is insatiably curious and takes care to reveal knowledge at a pace I can keep up with (almost).

I spent some time researching “Who Is God” and found a wide assortment of opinions and sentiments ranging from non-emotional denial all the way to angry, pulpit-pounding of the “Fire & Brimstoners.” I found attempts to “prove” God exists using scientific analysis, as well as the not-so-compelling, emotional argument that God exists “because I know He does; I just know it!”

This question is usually discussed along a defined set of religious beliefs. When answering the question, religious enthusiasts quote biblical scripture and atheists use “logic” (supported or not). In my research, I found definitions for monotheism (belief in the existence of one deity or oneness of A God) and pantheism (the concept that the universe and God are equivalent). But at the end of my research I was still faced with the most important question: What do I believe?

My answer to that question is truly the one that matters most for me, just as your answer matters most to you.

I won’t be so arrogant as to tell you what you should believe. Also, I’m not going to be a fanatic on your computer monitor or try to coerce you to believe my way. However, I do challenge you to be willing to change your mind when new information comes along. Insist on adjusting your God-concept as you evolve and learn.

Returning to the original question: Who is God? I think this is a small-minded question so I propose a bigger one: God Is?

My conclusion: Yes, God Is.

How else would I describe God?

Inquisitively,

David Wine

My name is David Wine. I am 48. At my other job I am an accountant. I enjoy learning new things and my mind is in constant motion. Read more about me in ABOUT.

I wrote a book called A Forever Place and it is almost finished. It’s about two very profound dream experiences I had a couple years ago. Please consider buying a copy of the book for you and another for a friend.

One of the people helping me with this project suggested I start blogging about those dream experiences, maybe some spiritual transformation stuff and other related topics. At first I thought blogging would be difficult. I’m an accountant, not a writer! But now I’m discovering I actually have a lot to say. I think if I focus only on Spiritual Transformation, I’ll probably get bored, so I plan to discuss other related topics like meditation, the concept of God, my thoughts about learning new things, how big is the Universe, and other similar things.

The dream experiences I wrote about in A Forever Place actually happened to me. They were overwhelming (like when I delivered my youngest son when he was born). When I woke up from each of the dream experiences, my heart was pounding, my skin was prickling from goose bumps and I was breathing heavily. In each of the dreams “…I stared at Infinity and Infinity stared back at me.” –Very intense!– Also, “…I was not alone. Someone was there behind me and to my right, but I knew that if I turned to look I would see nothing with these finite human eyes.”

I wanted to write about these experiences in a way that was so descriptive you could be there with me in A Forever Place. I hired professionals to help me write in an appealing and descriptive manner and I very much want for you to experience the intensity of those experiences as much as I did.

I will try to stay on appropriate topics from week to week, but I may wander a bit now and then.

Join me in my life’s journey.

David Wine