Religion vs Science - An autobiography

Religion is not science. It never was. It never will be. One would think this is self-evident but our minds carry a lot of baggage. Easily we take religion for science.

The scripts are taken to be absolute, as science is. Yet, little attention is given to the roots, background of scriptures, which are all but scientific. Almost daily we are told of a new discovery related to biblical history. Some confirm history; yet other discoveries go against what we thought was Bible.

In the seemingly eternal science vs religion war I’d like to point out that both those on the science and the religion camp need a correct understanding of religion. I believe neither has a firm grip on the way to understand religion.

Of course I’m not saying people of religion don’t know their material; they also spend a lifetime immersed in their studies. But when both camps argue about such topics as the roots of human history, the age of the earth, or how long it took to create the universe, etc, symbolism with cool heads go out the window and heated arguments break out. Why?

In some communities members are taught to not study outside their given textbook of religious education. This keeps their adherents isolated and ignorant. This ignorance further exacerbates these debates as tenacity sets in without logic. Father said he believed in science.

Symbolism Religion is about learning lessons of the heart or mind. Figures of speech such as allegory, parable, simile, metaphor, personification, antithesis, pun, anthropomorphism, riddle, alter ego, etc., come from our early Greek writers, masters of drama, revolving around myths; these were the translators of the Holy Texts we read today.

It could be very stressful to always think in symbolic terms; but this allows for flexibility in the teaching and learning of lessons. Lessons are relearnt in life as we realize new depth of truths. This is true in any and all religions. For example, the lesson of giving before receiving is one we keep learning throughout our lives, especially as our spheres of action grow.

God’s historic suffering It’s because of the human Fall that Heavenly Father has had to suffer the unimaginable and unfathomable pain of seeing violence of heart and action among His children, mankind. In earth

years this could go back hundreds of thousands or many millions of years.

Conflicting or enemy nations True Parents have given us their blessings. This is due to God wanting to retrieve all mankind, bar no one, from the grip of Satan. How best to create permanent peace if not to bring together in marriage men and women of two enemy or conflicting backgrounds, all under one common Heavenly Parents, based on a common understanding of Heavenly laws, studied as the Divine Principle?

My calling Heaven looks for candidates. This much our True Parents have spoken, including of themselves. We heard early in our Principle studies that there were other potential messianic candidates at the time Heaven had to make its choice. Another was African, possibly Ugandan. There may also have been a Japanese.

I have seen that Heaven was looking at me and testing my heart. There were moments of sheer beauty and harmony, moments I could believe in cosmic oneness despite my tender age.

When I went from the US to Italy I took with me an HO rail set. The rails were made of copper and had sharp triangular-like connectors. In Italy I found the same HO system but with different rails. They were of aluminum and the connecting parts were more roundish. A hobby store existed a block down from my home. With no reason to believe I could find a piece of rail which connected my two systems, I asked my mother for some money and went alone to the hobby store and asked the store owner if he had the connecting piece I was looking for. I was 10 at the time. He came out and showed me a piece and asked if it was what I was looking for. At that tender age my heart jumped in disbelief that such a small connecting piece could exist many thousands of miles away from home. Along with the two systems it connected two parts of my life. I remember thinking the world was indeed connected; one.

A next experience, and probably there were others in between I cannot now recall, was when I got my hands on an early PC. This was a machine Microsoft DOS, before Windows. I started experimenting with Lotus 1-2-3. I like numbers. In school I liked math, geometry, algebra, playing with formulas, etc. I was impressed that the input style in the program functioned identically to the way I was taught to write and solve math equations. I saw the future of the computer. It was universal. I again had hope in the continuity from school education to the real world, and oneness of humankind. I instantly fell in love with computers. The logic was all there.

In the period between the above two experiences I had my calling. It was during a weeknight outing with high school friends. We were having a few final laughs before we headed to our respective homes. At one point a voice spoke to me, which no one other than I heard, ‘but you are different’. I knew the message was meant for me but without missing a beat I continued to close the evening with my friends. I never heard the voice again. The message was never repeated, nor was it 2

It started a course of search. It opened me up to otherworldly phenomena like ETs, UFOs, spiritual search, etc., culminating in being taken to Barrytown by my spiritual mother. The very first person she pointed out to me was Father as he was speaking to the soon to leave missionaries in April 1975. It was not a formal introduction, of course, but when I asked who he was, all she said was ‘a very important man’, pulling me by the arm to go attend a lecture.

There’s another unique experience I had where mind and heart faught for dominance. A few years after hearing Principle there began to be a struggle in me. At decision making times I began to feel from the heart/chest area a force competing to give answers. Intuitively I chose to follow my heart. It took several month, even a year, to master this new situation. A debate with a friend during this period clarified this point. I said to her that heart and emotions are different, independent. Angrily she protested. I couldn’t explain it more but it confirmed my having to follow my new found power source. This is due to our fallen selves, in which the two function separately. It was around this time I met a brother. He’d been close to Father earlier on in his life, having met True Parents in Korea while he was serving there while in the army. He explained, at no prompting by me, how Father said to think with the heart and feel with the mind. He there confirmed my theory.

Shortly afterwards I even experienced the gift of prophecy. I had many experiences; here’s one. In the later 70s our movement experienced many kidnappings. I was in a van out of Barrytown in Connecticut one morning. I wasn’t a fundraising type and my negativity tended to come out. I sat quietly in the back of the van, with my head leaning on the window, deep in meditation. I suddenly blasted out ‘the bomb is going to explode today’, surely getting on others’ nerves. A while later I said ‘but it’s going to end well’. I don’t remember any of this but later one friend in the van told me I’d said this. That day a young lady on our team was kidnapped by her parents and deprogrammers. The last person she fundraised to was a policeman. A woman saw our member getting shoved into a van and headed north. The next exit on the road was in Massachusetts. This automatically made it an FBI case. She ran to the policeman and told her what she’d seen. He sped behind the van just about ready to enter the next state. Our member was safely brought back.

During the next few months I again joked with other members. While in Barrytown, another sister whose family lived in Brooklyn told me her parents were coming to visit, and that they’d be taking her out to lunch. I jokingly mentioned she had to be careful for a possible kidnapping. With a hand wave downward she laughed saying ‘my parents never would do that’. They did. This time it took a few days for her to escape and return. Later she went abroad as missionary.

Having these gifts takes a total break from emotions. Today I even study remote viewing with similar results. I’ve tried studying and learning what spiritualists do. It’s easy and simple. Probably the most challenging part for many is believing. Belief is not enough; one must ‘know’ it’s true & correct. A person praying cannot just hope for or believe in answers from God; he / she must know and expect them to come.

Returning Resurrection Has any first gen you know ever felt he / she was a 2nd gen? I have for years; and it took me a long while to understand what was going on. Several years ago I began feeling I’m different from other 1st gen. I ‘knew’ I was a 2nd gen for some reason. I’m not crazy or delusional. I understood well my position. Yet, I was being hit with this thought. It has never left me even now.

One day I put together two ideas. Was I a returning resurrection for someone or someones? Principle speaks a lot about returning resurrection, yet we don’t hear people talk about it. In everyday life no one knows of any. I began to piece together my experiences and thought maybe my 2nd gen feelings are connected to the possibility that I could be a returning resurrection of someone; in my particular case i figured it could be Swedenborg, who’s mentioned in the Divine Principle. I’m not telling anything new or anything he or anyone else had not already mentioned in the past; I’m just repeating a message.

A bit pompous? I’m not looking for fame or recognition.

True Parents have said they are not going to repeat what had been said before by others. It’s our job to study and learn. Also, the same people who in the past while on earth received knowledge or background, were led in some way, or had some responsibility in a mission, must now find a body on earth, at the time of True Parents, and finish their job. They have to work through someone. Could I be a chosen person? I’m seeing it.

God is not going to re-teach what has already been taught. It’s more likely that the original person with a given mission, no matter how long ago, come down and guide the chosen returning resurrection person (2nd gen) to pick up the pieces where the original person left off, plus pay the due indemnity. In my case I had to find the answers, follow my intuition, links & supporting evidence. Thus, whatever I say is a repeat of what others before me have claimed. I take no credit. Heavenly Parent worked hard with the original holy people, opened doors, gave gifts of insight, opened them spiritually, etc. They generally left behind enough evidence for the returning resurrection individual to piece together Heavenly Father’s message, with updates related to our times; merit of the age.

Questioning angel existence It was after the blessing that I began analyzing more deeply all I had learnt and received from True Parents. For some reason I now cannot remember, I began asking about angels and their role in our life. Perhaps it was pure curiosity or the constant talk of angels, something few people questioned or understood.

I was raised in the Catholic culture, with a little bit of religion, enough to remember two lessons. Catholics say angels were intermediaries between God and fallen mankind; and that angels sing unending hymns of praise to God. I could not imagine God being inspired by being sung to 24/7 for

However, the first question was more serious. If now we have the freedom to connect with our Heavenly Father directly, and without intermediary, what about the angels? Send them to pasture? It’s not God-like, I thought. Open questions about angels remained.

Deeper questions arose. In the Principle we read of ancestors. Who are more willing to help us angels or ancestors? More and deeper questions came out. For an angel it would be but a mission. For our ancestors it was a way to gain needed merit in True Parents providence as we attend Heavenly Parents in our missions. Ancestors couldn’t attend True Parents when they were alive. Returning resurrection also fits well into this theory.

Serendipity In searching for any kind of information supporting or going against the angel nonexistence theory, supporting evidence came to me. In my years studying the Principle I never heard anyone even casually denying angels; quite the opposite, since bringing up the idea to friends, I’ve been criticized with quite harsh rejection; and this is among the people I thought I could rationally hold a good discussion with.

A first source I quote is Ms. Young Oon Kim, the first missionary to the US, in 1959. In an essay she wrote on angelology, she gives the roots of angel worship among Zoroastrians in Babylon at the time when the Israelites were being held captive for 70-200 years. Not allowed to take their worshipping materials, one can only imagine what several generations of Israelites without their books would do to descendants who were surrounded by a totally different culture, one which included angel (and gods) worship. Later, upon their return to Israel they would incorporate this idolatry into a new systematized religion in the Torah, a blasphemy to Heavenly Father who blessed Abraham for worshipping a single God and nothing else. Yet, God keeps His covenants, and He works with results.

A quick study of Zoroastrian religion shows that Zoroaster himself struggled keeping his followers from idol worshipping, such as the attributes of God. This lack of heart soiled the vertical God-only relationship He was trying to develop in early religions.

In searching to uncover more information on angels, I found Swedenborg. He was given by God the gift of having his spiritual eyes opened and traveling around spirit world for the purpose of discovering its truths. Very clearly he says, repeats and explains that angels are none other than humans. I.E., God never created an angel. Swedenborg is mentioned twice in the Divine Principle. Angels are titles. Swedenborg was a brilliant scientist. Father said he himself believed in science. True Parents held the ICUS, Unification Thought Symposiums, etc. I believe there’s a message right there, that our minds need to be more scientific and logical than spiritual. The spirit world machine True Parents commissioned was also given to scientifically oriented minds, not spiritualists or religious people.

Another Principle in angel study that needs serious consideration is that character, personality and growth can only take place in a physical body. Angels in traditional religious doctrine never had a physical body. If indeed they had ever existed in the traditional sense, they would have done so against the Principle.

Unification Thought Thus, a hint to understanding religion through understanding spirit world was proposed by Swedenborg. True Parents don’t just lightly include names or events in the Divine Principle. We’ve been told many times the importance of understanding spirit world. At Belvedere I remember Father saying that spirit world is very different from what we imagine.

In studying the Unification Thought book one learns mankind is fallen, but the word angel never appears.

I strongly urge the reader of this essay to take time to read Swedenborg to understand how different life in spirit world is from what we imagine, especially when compared to this material, physical world. Here is a link to one such book. https://swedenborg.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/SF-LivesofAngels.pdf.

There’s a wealth of information in it.