Reader Rose sent me a piece today which, she said, reminds her of another piece from a few days ago:

Cognitive Dissonance Department: Greece, Iran

The piece she sent today seems to penetrate to the heart of what’s going on at the root of our collective psyche: two apparently diametrically opposed versions of “God” that show up in the first two chapters of the Old Testament. Chapter One: Elohim, god of Pure Love; Chapter Two and increasingly, beyond: Yahweh, god of judgment, jealousy, wrath and revenge. And of course, for a fundamentalist of any stripe who literally “believes” in the Bible, that opposition pretty much guarantees cognitive dissonance, and the attendant confusion, apathy, and, yes, guilt, that accompany it.

Greece, Democracy, and Original Sin

Meanwhile, since I’m such a doofus on the Bible (I confess I never actually read the OT, though I do remember falling in love with some of the Psalms), I needed some background before I could even understand what “Genesis 1” and “Genesis 2” meant in the above article!

So I did a bit of research, and discovered an interesting perspective on Elohim and Yahweh, one which is both subtle, and quite possibly, profound — by a Christian Scientist!

Elohim and Jehovah: How They Help us to Understand the Book of Genesis and the Entire Bible

I must admit, I’m still surprised when I stop to contemplate how many millions for how many millennia have been conditioned to view “understanding” as the need to ground themselves in life by standing on a book.

I prefer my life raw, direct, unmediated, connected to Nature, rather than to what privileged humans say that “god” says about life.