We are about to enter a new century, a new millennium. Some people would go as far to say that this is the dawning of "The New AGE" while some would say that it is just a lot of crap! but before you dismiss the idea of a "New Age" of sorts as nothing more than bunkum, remember that history is filled with many examples of mankind going from one new age to another.
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, when man first discovered fire, that started a new age when we no longer had to huddle together in the dark, and someone always had to be awake, else they would
be torn apart by wild animals!
Along with the discovery of fire, man also learned to make rather crude tools from sticks and stones and eventually discovered how to use fire to forge metals. That started another new age when they
went from being only hunters and gatherers to an agrarian society with the domestication of all kinds of animals.
While some small groups of people continued in their nomadic ways as hunters and gatherers, the early development of agrarian societies made it possible for people to establish more permanent communities, and as a result, villages sprang up which in time lead to the building of cities.
Historians often classify the different periods of history as "the Stone Age", the"Bronze Age", etc. etc. Then there was the "Iron Age" and so on! About 2000 years ago the Greek and Roman civilizations
were at the zenith, the very peak of their development. But eventually these great civilizations fell. The Roman Empire could not hold on to all the countries it had conquered.
Our history has not always been one of continued growth and development. Sometimes there were setbacks, and civilizations would fall and knowledge would be lost! It was about the 5th century when the Roman Empire went into decline and northern Europe was plunged into The Dark Ages! It was the age of ignorance! The age of superstition, and fear!
It was during the 12th century,back in the 1100's when THE INQUISITION started and did not end officially until the 1830's with the last person being burned as a witch in Mexico! That was over 700 years of Hell on Earth!
It was a time when The Roman Catholic Church was in power and controlled much of the politics in the European countries. The Church had absolute power and even Kings were afraid to stand up against it! The Church also held many rigid ideas and dogma concerning cosmology, the nature of the cosmos and how it was created, and the structure and design of the universe. This would eventually lead to many conflicts between science and religion.
It was during this period of time when one of the official doctrines of the Church was that the Earth was the center of all of creation. The Earth was believed to be the center of the cosmos with the sun, moon, and all the known planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn and all the stars revolving around it. The entire universe was then believed to have been revolving around the Earth.
But there were some people who had doubts about the official Cosmology of The Church. There were some astronomers who had reason to believe that the Earth was just another planet, and the Earth and all the planets revolved around the sun, that only the moon revolved around the Earth,and the Earth also turned on its axes every twenty-four hours while taking a year to orbit the sun. This new idea pretty much went against the official teaching of The Roman Catholic Church.
During the 1500's, a Polish astronomer by the name Nicholas Copernicus had good reasons to have doubts about the official Cosmology of The Church, especially since his new theory could far
better explain the apparent motions of the planets seen in the sky. Some of his colleagues tried their very best to encourage him to publish a book on his theories and calculations, but he would
hesitate for a number of years. He knew that it would cause quite a stir in the academic community and that he might be going up against the teachings of The Church.
It was not until Copernicus was a very old man and didn't have much longer to live, when he had finally had his book published. Sometime afterwards, Copernicus was found dead laying on his bed with the very first copy in his hands! He died peacefully, and as he knew it would, it did cause quite a ruckus in both the academic community, and among The Church officials. His book was placed on the index of forbidden literature!
Another fine gentleman by the name of Girodano Bruno,an ex-monk, philosopher, mathematician, and a play writer also embraced the Copernican model of the cosmos! He had started out as a monk but, he eventually got tired of life in the monastery and set out on his own. He had become a play writer and one of the most popular plays on the stage was "The Torch Bearer" the best comedy ever written back then. He had also written some books or articles supporting the Copernican theory of the cosmos. That was when his troubles began! He was eventually brought before The Holy Office and stood trial for treason and heresy, and then in the year 1600 he was burned at the stake! His final words were, "Greater is your fear in passing this sentence than mine in receiving it"!
It was during the 1600's sometime after Girodano Bruno was burned at the stake when the Italian astronomer, Galileo was doing all kinds of experiments which proved so many of the old beliefs and dogma to be wrong. He actually did experiments to test so many of the old ideas, and was the first to use the newly invented telescope to observe the stars. Wherever the naked eye saw only a few stars, the telescope revealed hundreds of stars! When he looked at the moon, he saw
that it was another world, just like the Earth is a world. It had mountains and hills and plains and valleys and canyons, and deep craters. When he looked at the bright planet Venus, he saw it that it went through phases, from thin crescent to full, just like the moon! This proved that the planet Venus revolved around the sun! Sometimes when Venus was about to pass behind the sun, or shortly after emerging from behind,it was full, and just before or after passing in front of the sun it was a thin crescent. When he observed the planet Jupiter, he could see four little moons revolving around it! So many of his observations confirmed that Copernicus was right and the officials in The Holy Office were wrong! The Earth was just another planet revolving around the sun!
Galileo was very outspoken when it concerned his theories and it would eventually get him into a lot of trouble! When The Church officials started to get on his case, he offered to invite them to
look through his telescope. Many refused to come, and those who did, refused to look through the telescope, but came only to warn him to "beware of the visions revealed to him in the heavens
the Devil's glass"!
Galileo was eventually arrested,and brought before The Holy Office, and although he was never tortured, he was threatened with torture, interrogated for long hours,and forced to sign a false confession, recanting everything he had ever said! He was an old man, beaten and broken, and unable to fight back! He was then placed under house arrest for the remaining years of his life!
During the 1700's The Holy Office began to ease up on the heavy persecution when it came to going after those in academic positions. But the heat was still on when it came to people being charged with other crimes such as witchcraft! An astronomer and mathematician by the name of Johannes Kepler had no trouble with The Holy Office or the inquisition, but his own mother was often jailed on charges of witchcraft and he was always having to come to her rescue!
Also during the 1700's Sir Isaac Newton never had a run in with The Church. He was not a member of The Catholic Church, he was a Lutheran who once stated that The Roman Catholic Church was none other than "The Great Whore" as depicted in the Book of Revelations in The Bible! It's quite amazing what he must have gotten away with!
It was not until the early 1800's, sometime during the 1830's that The Inquisition was officially ended with the last person to be burned to the stake in Mexico! it was also at that time when the works of Galileo were removed from the index of forbidden literature, and people were allowed to read them. And finally it was not until this century,in the year 1979 when Galileo was officially pardoned! Too little too late!
Going back to the 1600's while all the persecutions were going on in the European countries, the United States which was supposed to be a safe haven from that sort of thing had it's own kind of inquisition. Many people came here seeking religious freedom and to escape from persecution, but one particular group of religious people, the puritans were involved in some really heavy acts of persecution against the gentle Quakers. Then in the 1700's we had The Salem Witch trials! And so The United States was not untouched by an inquisition of sorts!
Part 2 The New Inquisition
Now enter the 20th century!
La Dee Da Dee Da And The Beat Goes On! La Dee Da Dee Da And The Beat Goes On!
Even in the 20th century,here in The United States of America we have also had some kind of an inquisition! Now, in these modern times instead of the charges being heresy, or witchcraft, it is things like subversion, or being a communist, being called a pinko, or a commie or commsymp! This all started back in the 1940's after the Second World War. Then back in the 1950's,instead of The Holy Office, we had the House Un-American Activities Committees,or the dreaded H.U.A.A.C!
It was some sleazy slimy little milk sop of a senator from The Dairy State of Wisconsin, none other than Joseph Mc Carthy, Good Ol' Tail Gunner Joe, the inventor of The Quickie Divorce, who started accusing people for little and sometimes no good reason, of subversion!
As a result of his maniacal ranting and raving, many people lost their jobs, their careers, and their homes, and in some cases, even their lives through suicide!
But eventually Joseph Mc Carthy would go down! It happened during a televised hearing, and as usual he went on ranting and raving, accusing someone who was obviously innocent, and finally the accused broke down and cried out "Have you no sense of decency, at long last, have you left no sense of decency?!?" It was after that incident that Tail Gunner Joe's career went into a proverbial tailspin! But before he went down, a lot of people suffered because of that sleazy little slime ball! Some of the best and brightest people had their lives and their careers and their reputations ruined! It actually made no difference if you were guilty or innocent of being a communist or a communist sympathizer! You only had to know someone or merely know someone who knew someone who was a communist! For example, If you were acquainted with a neighbor,and your neighbor had an uncle, who's son went to college and had a friend there who knew someone, who knew someone who was a communist, you were in trouble, even if you didn't know the friend of a friend of the son of the uncle of your neighbor!
Once you were brought up before the H.U.A.A.C. to face charges,you could very well kiss your life good by! Anyone who was unfortunate enough to face the committee would be "black listed" and once that happened, you could not hold a decent job anywhere in the country! Even if you were found to be innocent of all charges, just the mere fact that you had to face the committee was sufficient grounds to have you black listed!
The H.U.A.A.C. that was founded back in the 1950's was just a modern Latterday inquisition and the tactics used by Joseph Mc Carthy was often referred to as a "witch hunt" and these rather extreme tactics would eventually br referred to as Mc Carthyism! It seem that even in
these modern times,we still haven't learned from history!
Now! Enter the 1980's The Reagan Era!
La Dee Da Dee Da And The Beat Goes On! La Dee Da Dee Da And The Beat Goes On!
The 1980's saw the rise of a new group of right-wing political extremists founded by the Reverend Jerry Falwell! This group called itself "The Moral Majority" which was a political action group who
supported Ronald Reagan when he ran for president. The Moral Majority was also anti-abortion and they wanted to bring organized prayer back into the public school system, but among other things they also advocated the censorship of books from the school libraries that they did not approve of.
The 1980's also saw the rise of many other extremists all advocating book censorship. One could see on the evening news on television, scenes of book burnings reminiscent of some of the old film clippings of similar scenes of such occurrences in Nazi Germany!
One could also obtain a rather lengthy list of books that these right-wing yahoos wanted to see banned and the reasons for banning them. Among the list was a science fiction novel written by Ray Bradbury, titled Fahrenheit 451 which ironically was about a futuristic society in which all books were banned!
Now! Enter the 1990's and Pat Robertson!
La Dee Da Dee Da And The Beat Goes On! La Dee Da Dee Da And The Beat Goes On!
Now! We come to why I believe there might be a new dark age, or perhaps a new inquisition! It was Pat Robertson along with his colleague Ralph Reed who founded The Christian Coalition! They have a political agenda to establish a theocracy in The United States!
Here is a quote from Ralph Reed himself, one of the founders of The Christian Coalition!
"I want to be invisible,I do guerilla warfare.I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag."
- - Ralph Reed,Norfolk Virginian Pilot, 11/9/91
Sounds pretty dangerous,doesn't it?
One might wonder if there isn't more to Pat Robertson and his so called Christian Coalition than meets the eye! Than last summer on his program The 700 Club he made some comments about people who believe in UFOs and space aliens, or at least consider the possibility that we are not alone in the universe, or that their is other intelligent life out there! He said that such persons should be stoned to death! He quoted from the Bible something about the "hosts of heaven" that we are not to worship them because God had commanded that "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" and that those who believe that there is other intelligent life out there are in danger of loosing their salvation!
For those who have any doubts about how dangerous this Pat Robertson really is, you may want to check out a sample of some of the e-mail that I have received from C.S.E.T.I. the Center for the Study of Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence.
Pat Robertson then goes on ranting and raving that if there is other intelligent life out there then they are either angels or perhaps they are some kind of demonic beings trying to deceive us by pretending to be space aliens.
It is apparent that Pat Robertson thinks that those who entertain the possibility of any kind of life or extra-Terrestrial intelligence are being deceived or worshiping the "Hosts of Heaven"! it appears that Pat Robertson lacks the common sense to realize that believing in space aliens or UFOs is not the same as worshiping them as gods!
I have always been interested in astronomy and fascinated by the universe, and I have always considered the possibility that we are not alone.
I love the night, and I love and cherish the stars and the distant galaxies, but I do not worship all those things as some kind of gods! And if there are any other life forms out there, they are probably
no better or no worse then we are. No matter how far advanced they might be, they certainly are not worthy of being worshiped as gods!
Of course everyone is entitled to their opinions and if they want to believe that the Earth is flat, or that the universe is only 7000 years old and all of in created in literally six days, they have every right according to our constitution. But freedom of speech dose not give one the right to step into a crowded theatre and yell "FIRE" nor dose it give one the right to advocate violence against anyone!
The constitution of The United States gives us freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion, but it is apparent that Pat Robertson and his Christian coalition want freedom of religion only for themselves but do not wish to extend those rights to others.
One can only wonder who the Hell died and made Pat Robertson God! He is an arrogant fool who is hungry for absolute power over our lives! He thinks of himself as lord and master of all he surveys, but he is only a worm, an insect, a dung beetle batting away at his little ball of muck and fooling himself that he trundles the sun! Perhaps he has ambitions of becoming The New Inquisitor General!
Do you still think that all this "New Age" stuff is a lot of bunk? If so than you haven't learned from history! We have always gone from one age to another. Why should these times be the exception to the rule? The Question is not rather or not we are entering a new age, but will it be a new age of enlightenment, or a new age of darkness, ignorance and superstition!
Perhaps all this is mere speculation, or just "millennial madness" and that sometime after the year 2000 life will continue going on as usual and everything will be back to normal. That's even more frightening because in this century "normal" has meant, always being at war with some other nation, or some third or fourth world country being held in the iron grip of some sleazy dictator! If this is suppose to be normal then I for one want absolutely no part of it!
What is most ironic is that all these religious funny-mentalists are the ones who are really down on all this "New Age" stuff! They condemn it as being anti-Christian, or of some other false religion, yet they quote from the book of Revelations in the Bible about the world coming to an end and the second coming of Christ and his reign for a thousand years on the Earth! If that's not a "new Age" sort of thing than I don't know what is! Like someone out there please give me a clue, or like, give me a break!!!
Then of course, ART BELL, one of my favorite radio talk show hosts always talks about "The Quickening" and has written a book by that title. I'm inclined to agree with him! Things are moving along at a "quickening" pace and the world is changing faster than ever!
But only we can determine what the next millennium will be like. Only we can determine if we will be entering a new dark age or a new age of enlightenment. Only we the people can prevent the right-wing yahoos like Pat Robertson from trying to run this country! They can not acquire any more power than we allow them to by not getting out there to vote.
If you wish to express your opinion concerning my NEW INQUISITION page,then
be sure to title your entry in CAPITAL letters NEW INQUISITION,then you must
continue the rest of your message in lower-case letters.
