We have heard all of our lives that God is eternal and that God is merciful.  And we have heard that God preserves and protects us.  Most people will go through difficult periods in

their lives when they question whether or not God is being merciful to them.  And they may during these times believe that God is not preserving and protecting them.  They may also during these times doubt that God is

eternal.  They will think that a force as destructive as what God appears to be to them at those times could not survive for very long.  They will believe that God is no longer serving man's needs because God is destructive.  For this

reason they may at that moment decide that man will eventually need to get rid of God.  A lot of the people who question God during the difficult times in their lives eventually come back to a belief in God when things in

their lives turn around and when things start to get better for them their lives turn around and when things start to get better for them.  They once again start to believe that God is merciful and that God is preserving and protecting them.  They once again believe that God is eternal

because a positive force such as God will be in demand for many years to come and man will have no reason to get rid of God.  But there are other people who truly believe that God has turned his back on them.  They feel that God is

not merciful towards them and that God is not preserving and protecting them.  Like other people they go through hard times in their lives when they question whether or not God is merciful and whether or not

God is preserving and protecting them God is preserving and protecting them.  But unlike other people things in their lives do not turn around for them and things do not get better.  Things get worse and they feel that they have to shut themselves off from the

force called God to protect themselves from the damage that they feel that this force is doing to them.  They tend to think that God is not eternal.  They believe not only that God has turned his back on them but that God will also

eventually start turning his back on other people eventually start turning his back on other people.  And when that happens, there will be so many people who want to get rid of God that God will at that point go away.  At that

point God will no longer serve man's needs and God will disappear. For many years now the church has been under attack.  It has been under attack not only for the lack of

compassion it shows for people who express their doubts about religious myths, but also for its lack of compassion for people who have been abused spiritually and psychologically (and its lack of compassion for many

of the people who are going through a difficult time in their lives) of the people who are going through a difficult time in their lives).  Those people who have been damaged spiritually and psychologically are forced to turn away from God because God is made up of the

combined spiritual energy of a group of people who believe that people who are spiritually and psychologically weak should be destroyed.  The people who are spiritually and psychologically vulnerable

are forced to turn away from God because at this point in history the spiritual energy called God is sending very negative and very destructive spiritual energy into people who are spiritually and psychologically

vulnerable.  In order to avoid being crushed by this negative spiritual energy they feel that they are forced to try to shut off that energy and to detach themselves from it.

The world is constantly changing and there have been times in history when everyone was under increased pressure (such as during difficult economic times).  During these times the people who found

themselves in a difficult situation such as, for example, being without a job or any not having hope for getting a job soon sometimes started to feel the need to shut themselves off from the

spiritual entity called God spiritual entity called God.  They noticed that when they were weak and that when they were down on their luck, they could feel that same negative spiritual energy coming into them from the spiritual entity called God

that the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people felt coming into them all of the time.

During these difficult times in history it is not uncommon for one of the people who has a normal spiritual structure and who is temporarily down on their luck to strike up a friendship with a person

who is spiritually and psychologically vulnerable who is spiritually and psychologically vulnerable.  At that point in time both the person with a normal spiritual structure who is temporarily down on their luck and the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable

person are "hiding from God" person are "hiding from God".  The person with a normal spiritual structure hopes that things will improve and that they will get back on their feet and that they will get back on good terms with God, but they are not totally

convinced that will happen convinced that will happen.  In order to be prepared in case things do not turn around for them, they may start to listen to the ideas of a spiritually and psychologically vulnerable person.  They will listen to the vulnerable person

say things like "you've got to stop believing that things are going to change.  Every time you start to trust God you are like a moth that is attracted to the flame so much that it flies into the flame and burns itself.  If you continue to

believe that God is eternal and that God is merciful, you will get burned.  God is nothing and nothing is everything.“

Running From Side To Side God is Eternal and Merciful (A lot of people in the world today go back and forth between believing that God is Eternal and Merciful and believing that Nothing is Everything [that it is better to not believe in God at all]) God is Eternal and Merciful Nothing is Everything

A person with a normal spiritual structure may for many years go back and forth between believing that God is eternal and merciful and believing that perhaps God is nothing and that nothing is everything.  When things are

good and they are back in the good graces of the spiritual entity called God, they are sustained by the positive spiritual energy that is flowing into them from God.  When they are down on their luck and the spiritual entity

called God starts sending negative and destructive spiritual energy into them, they once again turn their back on God and they turn off their feelings as much as they possibly can to avoid being

crushed by the negative spiritual energy that is coming into them. The people who have normal spiritual structures and who occasionally make friends with people who are

spiritually and psychologically vulnerable know deep in their hears that there is an automatic communication process taking place between human beings.  They know that whenever two or more people

are together, subconscious spiritual messages are traveling between their souls, exchanging information, educating the other person, and influencing the other person.  They know that this is a spiritual force that

preserves us and protects us preserves us and protects us.  They know that no person can be strong unless they have the ability to exchange spiritual energy with other people.  When spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people tell them that they

need to learn to further detach themselves from the world they might start to believe that these people are lying to them because those people are giving them an analysis of the world that excludes the existence of

spiritual forces.  But they might not realize that the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people who they are talking to might have died many years ago if they had not taken the path of detaching themselves

from the spiritual force that was constantly sending negative and destructive spiritual energy into them. 

It would be nice if the people who keep running between ideas such as "God is eternal and merciful" and "nothing is everything" could learn to become more stable and if people who are spiritually and psychologically

vulnerable could also learn to become more stable vulnerable could also learn to become more stable.  A lot of us might be skeptical about the people in the church but those people do understand a lot about the nature of spiritual forces.  One of those people could probably

explain to spiritually troubled people how they could become spiritually stronger.  These church people might not always share what they know with other people but they definitely understand this

side of the world very well side of the world very well.  Imagine a situation where one of the leaders in the church decides to talk openly with one of the people described above who has a normal spiritual structure but who occasionally strays away

from the church (who we call for the sake of this example "the Seeker") and one of the spiritually and psychologically vulnerable people described above (who for the sake of this example

we will call "doubting Thomas" [the one who questions everything]) we will call "doubting Thomas" [the one who questions everything]).  The church leader might say something like the following as he begins to address the

Seeker and the doubting Thomas:  "Seeker, I know that you think that people such as Thomas are lying to you when they give you an analysis of the world that does not take into account the existence of

spiritual forces.  Thomas appears on the surface to be a very truthful sort of person.  He wants hard evidence for everything.  But you, me, and almost everyone else who Thomas meets do not really trust him.  We know

that spiritual forces existed before we were born (spiritual forces have always been a part of our history).  We know that spiritual forces exist today (spiritual forces are an important part of our lives today).  And we also know for

sure that spiritual forces will exist in the future long after we have passed on into the afterlife (spiritual forces will be an important part of mankind's history after we have gone).  We know that we are sustained by our

exchanges of spiritual energy with other people in the same way that we are sustained by food.  While Thomas may understand that future generations of people after he has departed this earth will still need to eat food,

he does not understand that future generations of people will also need to exchange spiritual energy with each other.  Because of his negative experiences where he only receives negative and destructive spiritual energy

from other people, he believes that eventually everybody will receive negative and destructive spiritual energy from other people and mankind will then decide that spiritual forces

should no longer be used (that mankind has outgrown the need for spiritual forces)." "I'm a cynic, I'll admit that to you (but of course if you tell anybody I just said that I will deny it).  Those of us in the

church know deep in our hearts that the religious myths are not true church know deep in our hearts that the religious myths are not true.  That is probably why we get so defensive when we hear people express their doubts about the religious myths.  I know that those of us in the

church are too harsh towards any sort of weakness and that we do not really want people who are weak to become stronger.  But eventually the world will change.  Those of us in the church will eventually be forced to

acknowledge that a lot of our present ideas are just a rephrasing of the imperialistic ideas of the 1800s.  The spiritual force that we call God (the combined spiritual energy of the people who say that they believe in God) is a

bit too old-fashioned and a bit too conservative at the present time but when things start to change mankind is not going to abolish spiritual forces.  When things change spiritual energy will still get exchanged between people

but the nature of the spiritual energy being exchanged will probably change.  For example, instead of the cold-hearted ruthless people getting all of the positive spiritual energy coming into

them from God (the combined spiritual energy of the people who say they believe in God) and all of the weak and gentle people getting negative and destructive spiritual energy coming into them, we might have a situation where

everyone gets a more moderate and neutral type of spiritual energy coming into them". "Seeker, I know that in some ways you are similar to me and that in some ways you  

are similar to Thomas.  You have some of the same problems that Thomas has because during the times that God has turned his back on you (when you were down on your luck) you started to believe that eventually

mankind would be forced to abolish spiritual forces mankind would be forced to abolish spiritual forces.  When you meet other people they will sense that you basically understand that spiritual forces always were, that spiritual forces always are, and that spiritual forces

always will be.  But they can see that you have a part of you that shuts yourself off from them because a part of you is like our doubting Thomas here.  A part of you thinks that spiritual forces will eventually be

abolished. That is ridiculous abolished.  That is ridiculous.  Seeker, both you and Thomas need to constantly be reminding yourselves that spiritual forces always were, that spiritual forces always are, and that spiritual forces

always will be.  If you understand that basic fact of life, then other people will see that you are on the same page that they are on (that you know the score, so to speak) and they will probably

trust you a lot more than they do at the present time."  "What do think about that Seeker?  Do you agree with me?  How about you Thomas, do you agree?".  "There is something I still don't

understand", replied the doubting Thomas understand", replied the doubting Thomas.  "There is quite a bit of documentation about supernatural types of things, such as people speaking in tongues (going into a type of a trance and speaking languages that they

never learned).  I know that I'm a skeptic but in the back of my mind I know there are some things that go on that we can't explain and that seem to imply that there might be a higher power above us?”

"That an interesting point," replied the church leader "That an interesting point," replied the church leader.  "My church is a bit too conservative for speaking in tongues but I've read enough reports to know that sort of thing has in fact happened.  Often people who

are sick or close to death will become delirious and will say things that they would not have said normally and that seems to be coming into them from the outside (almost as if they are communicating with

someone who is not in the room) someone who is not in the room).  I think we have to consider that perhaps we ourselves are the mechanism for these apparently supernatural phenomenon.  For example, someone in a meeting at their

office in Chicago might be communicating subconsciously with a person who is dying in another city (and the person in the meeting in Chicago might not be aware of the

subconscious activity that is taking place) subconscious activity that is taking place).  There might be some sort of comfort mechanism that mankind has developed through the years to help us in times of distress (and this same sort of communication through other

people utilizing the collective subconscious of mankind to give comfort during times of distress may also explain the speaking in tongues).  We draw upon the collective subconscious and we get comfort from some sort of

deep communication from other people that is beyond our comprehension deep communication from other people that is beyond our comprehension.  What about you, Seeker?  What do you think about what we've been discussing?“

"You know, church leader, I think that you might be on the right track here", answered the Seeker.  "And I think I understand why you would deny what you just said here if we repeated any of this to anyone else.  It would be bad

for your karma as a church leader if people thought that you had ideas such as these.  I feel that Thomas and I have been fed here spiritually today.  And I will always remember (and I hope

that Thomas always remembers) that spiritual forces always were, spiritual forces always are, and spiritual forces always will be.” Copyright 2009 Don Bergquist