Freesinger Roy

LIFE IS GOOD FREESINGER C 2006

I SAW A BUMPER STICKER / DRIVING THRU LA ONE DAY

LIFE IS GOOD & THEN WE DIE / BUT THE FIRST CLAUSE IS THE BEST ONE

FULL OF HAPPINESS, LOVE, FRIENDSHIP / ACCOMPLISHMENT, EXCITEMENT, EXALTATION /

DEFEAT, RECOVERY, SICKNESS, HEALING / THE GOOD, BAD, BEAUTIFUL, UGLY /

IF WE WEREN’T BORN INTO A FAMILY / CULTURE, NATION, NATURE /

WE WOULDN’T KNOW LIFE / WE’D BE NOTHING / WE HAVE TO ACCEPT

THE GOOD, BAD, BEAUTIFUL, UGLY / TO BE ALIVE / TO ENJOY LIFE

LIFE IS GOOD, LIFE IS GOOD ! / LIFE IS GOOD & THEN WHAT?

WIFE & I VISITED THE ANCIENT HOME / OF JEANNE LA PUCELLE [JOAN OF ARC] /

IN DOMREMY, FRANCE / WE FOUND A BRONZE PLACARD MOUNTED ON BRICKS/

IT ASSERTED THIS IS THE EXACT SPOT / WHERE JEANNE TALKED WITH HER 3 SAINTS /

WHO TOLD HER TO LEAD THE ARMIES OF FRANCE / TO DRIVE THE ENGLISH OUT OF FRANCE /

SHE DID IT!

I ASKED MY WIFE TO TAKE A PICTURE OF ME / STANDING NEXT TO THAT PLACARD /

TWO MONTHS LATER WHEN I HAD THE FILM DEVELOPED THERE WAS A LARGE WHITE BLOB /

WHERE I WAS STANDING! / WAS SHE OR A LOCAL SPIRIT/ SENDING ME A MESSAGE?

[Photo can be seen on my blog article

‘My Rendez-vous With Joan of Arc’

Freesingerroy.com/blog ]

by freesinger C2006

WHY have we believed in gods /Spirits, ancestors, life after death? /

Since the beginning of our homosape race /circa 140,000 years ago /

Our ancestors have believed /in spirits, ancestors, animism /Nature worship, pantheism /

Propitiation, supplication, prayer, sacrifice /Horrific sacrifices /especially Aztecs, Romans, Nazis /

good Christians, Muslims, all reliigons /

Wait, don’t click off /there’s an uncut gemstone coming near the end //

WHY do we believe in gods?/Is it because of fear of Death? /

& Fear of life, of pain, disappointment, frustration /disapproval, punishment, poverty, diseases, war /

fear of fear & anger /we hate the thought of loss of everything we love /

of everything we’ve worked so hard to be /of self, loved ones / Fear of life, especially Death

Buddha said, “Death is the end of craving /end of suffering, there are no gods.”

Epicurus said, “There is nothing to fear after Death /Nothing can ever hurt us again /

There are no gods, no afterlife.” /Words to that effect, by both //

I fought in WW2, South Pacific /Saw friends pray before flights /many pray-ers didn’t come back /

I stopped praying /stopped believing promises of prophets /Seers, sons of godot /

preachers, holy men, Popes, Billys, ayatollahs /all die, like everyone else /

never speak to us from Heaven or Paradise / At 84, I don’t believe in gods, prophets, sons of godot /

But just for the pleasure of it /I think I might have had /

A visit from a spirit in Domremy, Lorraine, France /Ancient home of Jeanne la Pucelle /

she called herself that name /(in English, Joan of Arc ) /during her sadistic trial, 1431 /

by Catholic bishops & Norman-English usurpers /Burned at the stake, by Christians, not Aztecs /

We drove to, Domremy, 1999 /visited her old home, rebuilt by Socialist Party /

Read a plaque mounted on bricks /This is where Jeanne received her orders /

From Saints Michael, Catherine, & Margaret / “Defeat the English & Burgundian allies “/

have Charles VII crowned at cathedral of Rheims /as she did!

my beloved wife photographed me /Standing beside the plaque /We drove away /

flew back home to San Francisco /Film processed, 47 photos good /

except one, where I stood beside the plaque /a white & color fringed blob /

Appeared exactly where I stood / blobbed me out /Many photo experts can’t explain it /

You can see the photo on google / Rendez-vous with Joan of Arc /

Or on http://freesingerroy.com/blog / same title / ‘tis the promised gem /

I like to think it’s a visit from a Domremy spirit /though I’m an atheist/

To do a bit of wishful thinking /Makes me feel cheerful, unafraid of death /

I wish to hold my mind together /watching over loved ones /over all I’ve loved during Life /

Not forever, yegads! Trillions of years? /Wishful thinking! / that’s what all religions are /

Is that permitted if it makes us feel happy during life? / Methinks, YES!

When I was fighting in WW2 in the South Pacific; 1944 & 45, I saw guys praying during our pre-mission briefings, saw the chaplain lead us in prayer, we prayed before we boarded our B-24s, & some prayed while we were under fire; but nothing good came of it. I was one of the prayers, I believed even though some of the ‘prayers’ were killed during the missions. Gradually I stopped praying, & I didn’t get killed or even wounded; the cerebral cortex is not one but several minds, starting with our earliest use of our mind in childhood, the remains of all our younger minds remain alive, but our adult mind integrates our adult thinking; the various younger minds do not always think the same thoughts, or come to the same conclusions; sometimes the parts argue with each other, or discuss a problem & reach a mutual conclusion.

One of the parts of my mind decided not to pray to see what would happen; well, other good guys some with wives & children prayed & got killed or maimed; nothing bad happened to me. But it took a long time for my adult mind to become convinced that prayer is ineffective, god does not answer our prayers; prayer makes the ‘prayer’ feel good, makes her/him feel that one is doing something beneficial, praying to god for advice, life, healing; also all the people who love us & pray for us as we make war feel they are doing something beneficial for us; it relieves their terrible worry that we will get killed or maimed. Yet three of the praying Baptists on our crew were killed, an observant Jew had a nervous breakdown; most of the crew members in our squadron who prayed were not killed or wounded; but many were. I especially remember a very nice guy, a Catholic who joined our crew to replace our maimed tail-gunner; he had a lovely wife, 2 children, a loving family who prayed every day for his safe return; he was killed substituting for a gunner on another crew while bombing the fuel tanks on Borneo.

I read today that about a ‘million’ fetuses a year are aborted in the US despite the millions of people who pray to God that they be saved. Does that say anything about the effectiveness of prayer? Does it say anything about the interest or existence of God? Is there a God; if so, is He opposed to abortion? or does He approve of it? Just wondering.

Prithee, wait, I see no evidence that there has ever been a god or gods, but I had an experience in France validated by a photo, that ‘might’ mean we can live on for a while after death. Much more later in this blog. The photo & article can be viewed on this blog & on Google at: “My Rendez-vous with Joan of Arc.”

Yet I remained a Catholic, though a part of my mind did not believe in God anymore. I stopped going to church, stopped confessing, drank too much, committed fornication & adultery, used illegal mild drugs like hashish, tobacco…I went to college after the war, first to U. of Colorado, then to U. de Grenoble in France…the war had awakened my wanderlust, which was already there in my genes, the war took me to far-away places; wanderlust has had me in its grip ever since I left Chicago to go to war in ‘42; & it has remained there all my 83 years. Fortunately my good wife has the same wanderlust, & we have traveled on all the continents except Antarctica.

Now that I cannot travel because of old age a part of my mind that is 28 wants my body & its organs to wanderlust; but my old body answers, NO! We can still write, talk, walk, think, sing our songs before audiences, but no more flights to Europe, no long drives to San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, L.A., San Diego to sing for the ephemeral pleasures of applause. I fell down twice on concrete last year; tore some skin off my knees & hands; decided I have to slow down & walk very carefully lest I break a hip or knee.When you get to 83, you may feel the same way. If I do all the wanderlusting my young mind yearns for, that will take too much internal strength from my organs, especially heart; & I will die young in a few years.

Now, I awaken, have b’fast, sit in front of my computer-word processor & I write for 2 or 3 hours. Then I go for a walk; we live atop a hill in our own little paid-for house. I can’t play tennis, jog long distances, have sex, but my mind is still peppy in the morning, so my adult mind thinks & writes. My younger minds from elementary school thru hi-school, thru the war, all the years ’til now also participate in my thinking & writing; recently I decided to write an auto-biography; I thought the many adventures of my 83 years would make an interesting story; I wrote several paragraphs, but a younger part of my mind broke in & shouted soundlessly, ‘No, that’s too boring! I want to write our auto-bio as I wish we had lived our life!’

So my whole mind worked together & wrote a very interesting novel part auto-bio, & part fiction; part history & philosophy, much better than if my adult mind had written it.

Mind is what we are! Mind differentiates us from all other animals; yes, many of them, like sheep dogs can learn to think some complicated thoughts & behaviors; but none can think [learn, talk, cogitate, imagine, remember, invent, create] as we do. Mind is what we are! We can live without legs, or arms, vision, hearing, but we cannot be human beings without our human mind. There are many internal organs that are essential to life, but all animals have those kinds of organs; often better than ours [monkeys, wolves, dolphins, etc] Our mind, the many parts of it, is the director of our organs [internal & external]. Often our legs want to go for a walk, or run, swim, play a sport; our legs let our minds know, they report to neurons that know leg needs, & mind directs us to go for a walk. So also for sex, hand activities, and so forth.

Well, I started writing about the non-existence of gods; & of an experience that ‘might’ attest or affirm that our minds can live after death, for a significant time; but not forever. In 1948, after WW2, I got a powerful wanderlust, I was going to Colorado U., but I started yearning to go to university somewhere in Europe. Why Europe? Because I am a Euro-American; though I am a ‘Freethinker’ my language, ideas, philosophy, religion, way-of-life originated in Europe. I had taken a course in French, from a woman professor who loved France, & transmitted that fascination to me. There were four countries that used francais, part of Switzerland, part of Belgium, part of Luxembourg, & France. I got information about french-language universities, several in Switzerland were interesting, but why not go for the original home of francais. I had two years left on my G.I. Bill-of-Rights so I decided to go to the University of Grenoble. Being somewhat south, I thought it would be warmer than Paris; I was mistaken; it was at the foot of the western Alps; France was in a post-war depression, & the Communist coal miners were on strike. Grenoble is a prosperous city now, with lots of hot water, warm hotel rooms, warm houses; but then it was cold. I lived in La Villa Therese, a good old room with sink, toilette, douche, good bed, 3 good French meals a day, except Sunday; all for about $40 a month. The dollar was ruler of the monies of the world; I had$75 - $85 a month from the G.I. Bill, & about $5000 in a Chicago bank; money I couldn’t spend during the war; as a 1st Lt. lead navigator I was paid $350 per month; all expenses paid, including operations, death, & burial! Normal pay for a high-school grad was $75/mo.

In Grenoble I met many young university students, all were survivors of the war, many Jews, communists, socialists, atheists, deists, no believers. We went to the Cafe Anglais many evenings, talked about life, war, survival, religion, rebuilding Europe, rebuilding families, I was still a New Deal Democrat, part-time Catholic, very different from them, they had suffered through WW2 in Europe, lost many members of their families, some lost all; I didn’t suffer much in the South Pacific…flew 45 bombing missions, almost killed 3 times, but our American families weren’t killed, like millions of Jewish & European families; after bombing missions we returned to a comfortable tent camp, ate dehydrated vegetables-fruits-milk-eggs, Spam, corned beef, coffee, sometimes beer & whiskey; no vitamin-mineral pills, yet we were energetic & healthy; we never went hungry; guys were killed, but we believed they were going to Heaven; the Europeans abovementioned were ‘freethinkers’ the most intelligent & kindest young people I had ever met; slowly their arguments against religion affected my thinking.

Christmas eve, midnight, 1948; we were sitting in ‘our’ cafe ; about 15 of us. One of the atheists suddenly shouted, ‘Let’s all go to midnight mass at the Cathedral!’ ‘Yeah!’ a chorus of approval. They got up, put on coats & hats, rushed out into the cold, snowy night. I demurred, ‘You can’t go to mass, none of you are Christians!

‘That doesn’t matter, we just want to be with our friends, the workers, come on Roy.’ I followed them glumly, we got to the huge wooden doors, forced our way in to the packed Cathedral, redolent with the smells of wet wool, tobacco, wine, body-odor, spices, garlic, good smells. I turned away, said to myself, ‘I don’t believe in religion anymore.’ 59 years I have not deviated from that; though I understand why billions of people believe in religions; ’tis the promise that religions make that if we believe in them we will have life-after-death! Life everlasting! How long is everlasting or forever? Trillions times trillions of years. Is that possible?

What would we do during all that time, forever? I had a wonderful woman friend, a professional, modern dancer who took me & my money into her very pleasant apartment; there she taught me how to do good sex, not kinky, just natural satisfying sex. I had enough money foor us to take short trips by train to Cannes & Nice on the Med Sea. Could Heaven be better than that?

I remembered when I was a 4th grader I asked our loving nun-teacher what we would do in Heaven forever, “Oh, Roy, don’t worry your little mind about that, God has that all figured out, Heaven will be much better than life on Earth.’ ‘Ooooooh! sighed the whole class in relief.’

Just recentl, our 6/yr/young granddaughter asked my wife, a wonderful atheist, ‘Gramma. what happens to us after we die?’ Gramma answered, “Why we go to Heaven where we’ll be very happy with our relatives & friends.” ‘Oooooh!’ she sighed in happy relief.

  Wargasm? What is it, a dirty joke, or a genetic actuality? Is it in any way related to war & orgasm? Is it built into our genes like orgasm? Wargasm  is a genetic war-lust very similar to orgasm for a powerful minority of men & some women. Since the beginnings of our human nature, orgasm & wargasm have been irresistible, irrational impulses in our nature; they cause compulsive tension which we must discharge, or we become somewhat crazed; a minority of men resort to violence in order to discharge the tension in orgasm or wargasm. Orgasm compels us do sexual intercourse which assures the continuation of our human race.
   But what about war-lust? Are we compelled to do wargasm by our genes? Methinks yes, but we don’t all have the same strength of compulsion to wargasm, as to orgasm. Wargasm kills; orgasm thrills.
  John Keegan, who wrote History of Warfare, said “warriors are always a minority in every culture”; agreed, but warlords & war-lusters have the cultural power & weapons to force their people to obey them when they find a people they believe they can defeat. Why do we still have those war-lust genes & brain faculties within us? Because all cultures before about 8000 BCE were warrior-hunter-herder (fisher-gatherer) cultures. Those warrior genes & mental faculties are still alive & yearning for war within a powerful minority of us.
   I was proud to fight in WW2, a very young 1st Lt, full of war lust, but when that war ended my warrior genes were burnt out; so were nearly all of my  friends. We went back to civilian life eagerly; we wanted no more war. The military, corporate, & political warlords found an enemy, the USSR, but they were too strong, not like Grenada, Vietnam, Guatemala, Iran, Iraq, little countries seemingly easy to defeat.
   Why do some young men in every advanced culture go to officer schools, like West Point to build a career, to become high-ranking officers, hopefully Generals [admirals are generals on ships]. Is it because they love their countries more than the rest of us civilians; methinks history proves not.  Generals Eisenhower, Patton, MacArthur wanted to be officers from earliest childhood. Ike did not come from a military family, from a devout farming family; he just had the warrior desire engorged in his system, MacArthur came from a zealous military family, his father was a Civil War general, & his mother was an ardent militarist who plagued the War Dept for promotions for her adored son, she lived her war-lust through her husband & son.
   Gen Patton came from a wealthy California family; a military family, though none had become famous. He married a wealthy heiress, thus he never had any financial shortages; he could pursue his war-lust without thinking of supporting his wife & daughters, or of spending family time with them. He was very irascible when he wasn’t at war; euphoric when he was commanding men to fight, kill, & die. I remember a scene in a documentary of Patton, looking down lovingly at a dying young officer he said, “Goddam me, but I do love it,” meaning war. War gives war-lovers the lawful right to kill other human beings, as they cannot in civilian life.
   Now I am an ex-warrior, 82, just trying to understand the wars we have lived thru. I can’t write a long book; my body is old & sickly with PC, but my mind is still very spry, I have a 7 book reference library on my computer, plus online search, & I have a good memory & empirical intellect.
   Does the war-lust of 3 famous generals prove that a powerful minority of people in every culture have warglust genes alive & yearning within them? No, but if we look far back into our human history there is ample evidence to prove my empirical argumentum.
   Before 8000 BCE all the men in the world were raised to be warriors; the tribe had to have ample supplies of warriors in order to combat other tribes that coveted the same water, land, animals, fruit & veggies that thrived at water sites. Animals, vegetables, & humans have always grown along water sites. Conflict broke out between tribes, [& animals] over these natural resources. 140,000 years ago, the mutations that created Homo sapiens happened in the watered lands of east Africa, all of our forebears lived in the area of the Omo River valley, & along Kenya & Tanganyika where there was warm climate & plenty of water running down from the great lakes atop the Great Rift Valley; many were the rivers & lakes; look at the Victoria, Turkana area on a map, you will see how our forbears traveled from water to water after the Ice Age receded about 15,000 BCE; ‘til they filled all the livable areas of the earth.
   Many were forced by conflict into nearly unlivable areas, like Mongolia, into the high, cold, lands north of the Gobi Desert & east of the Altai Mountains. A very hard land where warrior-hunter-herder tribes developed into very belligerent warriors.  The Mongols & their Tatar allies are an excellent example of genetic-cultural warrior tribes. They fought among themselves, until Genghis Kahn, [1167-r.1206-1222] eldest son of a powerful tribal ruler united all the tribes into a fighting force which terrorized & conquered nearly all of China, & later under his sons & grandsons nearly all of what is today, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, all of the lands from the China Sea to Turkey & from the Arabian Gulf to the northern tundra of Siberia. Until 1480, the Tatars ruled southern Russia, ‘til Ivan III, Grand Duke of Moscow refused to pay them homage. At Ain Jalut, 1260, in modern Syria, the Mongols were finally defeated by the Mamelukes of Egypt, also horse warriors with the composite bow; the Mongols were forced back to China & Mongolia; partly because their  thousands of horses ate out the grasslands of the western Steppes. After the death of their great general Attila in 453-4, their power was broken by Byzantine forces & lack of grass for their horses. They joined other warrior bands & were lost in history.
   Why & how did a small group of warrior tribes become such a powerful force? Genghis Kahn was a military & political genius, but he could not have made all the contentious tribes of Mongolia obey  his command. They had to have been eager genetic & cultural warriors already. They had already developed small, rugged, shaggy horses, & the “weapon of mass destruction”, for a thousand years the composite [Cupid’s] bow; until the gunpowder revolution in the 13th century destroyed its power.  Would they have done so, if they were just peaceful hunter-herders? No, definitely not! Would they have united suddenly into a powerful military force if they had not had warrior genes? They were warriors by nature, genes, heredity; take your pick of concepts. Not every Mongol & Tatar was an active warrior; experts had to specialize in the construction of the composite bow, which was a composite of bone, wood, animal ligament glues, etc, it took about 2 years for the whole bow to dry to its final form & power; it could shoot arrows 200 yards with accuracy & penetrating power. Other non-warriors had to be expert herders & butchers, women had to be fur weavers, perhaps they cooperated in the making of the very sharp bone tipped, ½ ounce arrows. And they were collectors of arrows after the battle or massacre.   [Lepanto, 1571]
    All throughout recorded & archaeological history there have been very cruel tribal warlords & warriors, Attila & the Huns, the Ottoman Turks, the Aztecs of Mexico, the Spanish Conquistadores, the Maoris before the European invasion, Christian warriors during WW1, & WW2, the list is almost endless; now we see American genetic warriors fighting Muslim genetic warriors, Israelis fighting Muslims, Muslims fighting Muslims in Afghanistan & Iraq; Oh, I just remembered the sadistic Gaiseric & his Vandals, and the Roman Legions, the Nazis of that time to their opponents, they loved to use crucifixion, feeding to lions, killing by gladiators,  flagellation; Oh, I almost forgot Alaric & the Visigoths; perhaps Cyrus the Great was one of the least cruel warlord-kings; how did the Spartans become a total warrior society; like  Shaka’s [1787-1828] Zulu warriors, part of the peaceful Unguni tribes until he organized & unleashed his fury on the other tribes & whites; a very cruel warlord to his own people & the peaceful Unguni tribes. For every warlord & war-lustful tribe we can name hundreds more, & humans are still that way in Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan. Are our ‘brave’ soldiers in Islamland fighting to save our country from invasion? Or are all the homosapes  fighting for natural resources & the joy of killing? What think ye?

TANAKH Stories of Goliath & David by R. Freesinger C 2006

The above Wikipedia stories of Goliath & David are very interesting, but there are three stories about David & Goliath in the holy scriptures that the Jews call the TANAKH & that Christians call The Old Testament. As text & references I have used the English language TANAKH of 1985, published by the Jewish Publication Society, as translated from traditional Hebrew texts. I believe the stories should be told in their TANAKH texts because they are Jewish-Philistine stories, not Christian; there is no Philistine historical-scripture. I have skipped some verse numbers, but not any verses.

Two of the stories, 2 Samuel (c.960 BCE) & 1 Chronicles (c. 400 BCE) are similar & assert that Goliath was ‘not’ a giant, but a normal size warrior, & that he was killed by Elhanan in 2 Samuel; & that Jonathan killed Goliath’s brother in 1 Chronicles; there is no mention of the famous story of David killing Goliath by slingshot, in either of these books.

It is in 1 Samuel [c.538 BCE] that the long exciting story of David & Goliath appears. I hope you will read the three interesting stories & decide for yourself if David actually killed Goliath, & if Goliath was a giant.

2 Samuel, 21:15 (c. 960 BCE). ‘Again war broke out between the Philistines & Israel, & David & the men with him went down & fought the Philistines; David grew weary & Ishbi-Benob tried to kill David - He was a descendant of the Raphah; his bronze spearhead weighed 300 shekels, and he wore new armor.

17: But Abishai, son of Zeruiah came to his aid; he attacked the Philistine & killed him. It was then that David’s men declared to him on oath, “You shall not go into battle with us any more, lest you extinguish the lamp of Israel!”

18. After this, fighting broke out again with the Philistines, at Gob; that was when Sibbecai the Hushatite killed Saph, a descendant of the Raphah.

19. Again there was fighting with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite, killed Goliath the Gittite, whose spear had a shaft like a weaver’s bar.

20. Once again there was fighting at Gath. There was a giant of a man who had 6 fingers on each hand, & 6 toes on each foot - 24 in all. He too was descended from Raphah. 21. When he taunted Israel, Jonathan, son of Shimei, David’s brother, killed him. 22. These four were descendants of the Raphah in Gath, & they fell by the hands of David & his men.” (Please note that Elhanan, not David, killed Goliath who was not a giant; & Jonathan killed a giant, not Goliath)

On to 1 Chronicles (c. 400 BCE) 20: 5. Again there was fighting with the Philistines, and Elhanan, son of Jair killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath the Gittite, his spear had a shaft like a weaver’s rod.

6. Once again there was fighting at Gath, there was a giant of a man with 6 fingers on each hand & 6 toes on each foot- 24 in all. He also was descended from the Raphah.

7. When he taunted Israel, Jonathan son of Shimea, David’s brother, killed him. 8: these were descended from the Rapha in Gath, & they fell by the hands of David & his men. (Please note: Elhanan killed the brother of Goliath, & that Johanan killed a giant not named Goliath; David didn’t kill Goliath, & Goliath was not a giant.)

On to 1 Samuel 16:14-58

I Samuel (written after 538 BCE) relates the famous story of Masiah [King] David (r. 1000-961 BCE) his slingshot, & Goliath the Giant; the Goliath part was written during the Babylonian Exile (c.538 BCE) about 400 years after Masiah David’s death in 961 BCE; this 1 Samuel version uses the Hebrew vocabulary & syntax of 500 BCE, & then it was slipped into 1 Samuel ahead of the two earlier works, ie. 2 Samuel, & 1 Chronicles by devout rabbis in order to glorify Masiah David, the most powerful of the Kings during the time of their greatest empire.

Hebrew scholars, assembled the written & oral parts of the Tanak into an authentic written Tanak, during & after the Babylonian Exile, & it was presented to the Jews of Jerusalem by the prophet Ezra (called “the 2^nd Moses”) on his return to Jerusalem in c. 458 BCE after Cyrus the Great granted them the right to return in 538. Ezra & Nehemiah started the rebuilding of Solomon’s Temple which had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonians circa 586. Cyrus conquered the Babylonian kingdom in 538 & was considered a wise, just, & merciful King. He permitted Jewish scribes & rabbis to return with their newly written Tanakh, & to start rebuilding the Temple of Solomon; a very joyous return. Ezra was so horrified to see that Jews had married non-Jews & converted Jews that he had all their marriages dissolved, thus leaving wives & children, fatherless.

Getting confused, please bear with me; ancient histories & myths are very confused & confusing in historicity & chronology, & in vocabulary & syntax.

In I Samuel 16; 14-23, ‘placed immediately before’ the aforementioned Goliath stories, David appears as a shepherd & lyre player, not as a warrior chief. He is called to King Saul’s palace to play soothing music to Saul who has fallen into clinical depression with fits of extreme violence & persecution mania. David’s music did sooth Saul frequently, & Saul liked him so much, that he asked David’s father Jesse of Bethlehem to permit him to remain in his service.

1 Samuel 16: 14-23. Now the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul, & an evil spirit from the Lord began to terrify him. Saul’s courtiers said to him, “An evil spirit of God is terrifying you. Let our lord give the order [and] the courtiers in attendance on you will look for someone who is skilled at playing the lyre; whenever the evil spirit of God comes over you, he will play it and you will feel better.”

17. So Saul said to his courtiers, “Find me someone who can play well & bring him to me.” 18: One of the servants spoke up, “I have observed a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is skilled in music; he is a stalwart fellow and a warrior, sensible in speech, and handsome in appearance, and the Lord is with him.”

19. Whereupon Saul sent messengers to Jesse to say, “Send me your son David who is with the flock.” Jesse took an ass [laden with bread], a skin of wine, and a kid, and sent them to Saul by his son David. Saul took a strong liking to him and made him one of his arms-bearers. Saul sent word to Jesse, “Let David remain in my service, for I am pleased with him.” 23. Whenever the [evil] spirit of God came upon Saul, David would take the lyre & play it; Saul would find relief & feel better, and the evil spirit would leave him. (ed. Later, after David became a popular warrior-leader, Saul’s persecution mania would turn him against David, & Saul would try to kill him.)

Next follows the famous story of David & Goliath (after 538 BC); Please read it below; it’s an exciting, well written story, & probably many Jews & Christians have never read the original TANAKH story.

1 Samuel, chapter 17: verses 1-58. The Philistines assembled their forces for battle; they massed at Socoh of Judah, and encamped at Ephes-Dammim, between Socoh and Azekah. Saul and the men of Israel massed & encamped in the valley of Elah. They drew up their line of battle against the Philistines, with the Philistines stationed on one hill and Israel stationed on the other hill; the ravine was between them. 4. A champion of the Philistine forces stepped forward; his name was Goliath of Gath, and he was 6 cubits and a span tall [ed. 9 ft]. He had a bronze helmet on his head, and wore a breastplate of scale armor, a bronze breastplate weighing five thousand shekels. He had bronze greaves on his legs, and a bronze javelin [slung] from his shoulders.

7. The shaft of his spear was like a weavers bar, and the iron head of his spear weighed 600 shekels; and the shield bearer marched in front of him.

8: He stopped and called out to the ranks of Israel and he said to them, “Why should you come out to engage in battle? I am a Philistine [champion], and you are Saul’s servants. Choose one of your men & let him come down against me. If he bests me in combat and kills me, we will become your slaves; but if I best him and kill him, you shall be our slaves & serve us.” 10. And the Philistine ended, “I herewith defy the ranks of Israel. Get me a man and let’s fight it out!”

11. When Saul and all Israel heard these words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and terror-stricken.

12. David was the son of a certain Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah whose name was Jesse. He had eight sons, & in the days of Saul he was already old, advanced in years. 13. The three oldest sons of Jesse had left & gone with Saul to the war. The names of his three sons who had gone to war were Eliab the first born, the next Abinadab, and the third Shammah; and David was the youngest. The three oldest had followed Saul, and David would go back & forth from attending on Saul to shepherd his father’s flock at Bethlehem.

16. The Philistine stepped forward morning & evening and took his stand for forty days.

17: Jesse said to his son David, “Take an ephah of this parched corn & these ten loaves of bread for your brothers &, carry them quickly to your brothers in camp. Take along these ten cheeses to the captain of their thousand. Find out how your brothers are and bring some token from them.” 19. Saul and the brothers and all the men of Israel were in the valley of Elah, in the war against the Philistines.

20: Early next morning, David left someone in charge of the flock, took [the provisions], and set out as his father Jesse had instructed him. He reached the barricade as the army was going out to the battle lines shouting the war cry. Israel and the Philistines drew up their battle lines opposite each other. David left his baggage with the man in charge of the baggage and ran toward the battle line and went to greet his brothers. While he was talking to them, the champion, whose name was Goliath, the Philistine of Gath, stepped forward from the Philistine ranks and spoke the same words as before; and David heard him. When the men of Israel saw the man, they fled in terror.

25. And the men of Israel were saying [among themselves], “Do you see that man coming out? He comes out to defy Israel! The man who kills him will be rewarded by the king with great riches; he will give him his daughter in marriage and grant exemption [ed. from taxes] to his father’s house in Israel.”

26. David asked the men standing near him, “What will be done for the man who kills that Philistine & removes the disgrace from Israel? Who is that uncircumcised Philistine that he dares defy the ranks of the living God?” The troops told him in the same words what would be done for the man who killed him. 28. When Eliab, David’s eldest brother heard him speaking to the men, Eliab became angry with David and said, “”Why did you come here, and with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your impudence and impertinence: you came down to watch the fighting.”

29: But David replied, “What have I done now? I was only asking!” And he turned away from him toward someone else; he asked the same question, and the troops gave him the same answer as before. The things David said were heard and were reported to Saul, who had him brought over.

32: David said to Saul, “Let no-one’s courage fail him. Your servant will go and fight that Philistine.”

33. But Saul said to David, “You cannot go to that Philistine & fight him; you are only a boy, & he has been a warrior from his youth.”

34. David replied to Saul, “Your servant has been tending his father’s sheep, and if a lion or a bear came and carried off an animal from the flock, I would go after it and rescue it from its mouth. And if it attacked me, I would seize it by the beard, and strike it down and kill it. Your servant has killed both lion & bear; And that uncircumcised Philistine shall end up like one of them, for he has defied the ranks of the living God. The Lord, “David went on, “who saved me from lion & bear will also save me from that Philistine.” “Then go,” Saul said to David, “and may the Lord be with you.”

38. Saul dressed David in his own garment; he placed a bronze helmet on his head, and fastened a breastplate on him. 39. David girded his sword over his garment. Then he tried to walk, but he was not used to it. And David said to Saul, “I cannot walk in these, for I am not used to them.” So David took them off. He took his stick, picked a few smooth stones from the wadi, put them in the pocket of his shepherd’s bag and, sling in hand, he went toward the Philistine.

41. Meanwhile the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. He looked David over & saw that David was only a boy, ruddy & handsome, & he despised him. He said to David, “Am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed at David by his gods. “Come here,” he said, “& I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the air & the beasts of the field!”

45: David replied to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword & spear, & javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the ranks of Israel, whom you have defied. This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hands. I will kill you & cut off your head; and I will give the carcasses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky & the beasts of the earth. All the world shall know that there is a God in Israel. And this whole assembly shall know that the Lord can give victory without sword or spear. For the battle is the Lord’s, & He will deliver all of you into our hands.”

48: When the Philistine began to advance toward him again, David quickly ran up to the battle line to face the Philistine. 49. David put his hand into the bag; he took out a stone and slung it. It struck the Philistine on the forehead; the stone sank into his forehead, & he fell facedown on the ground.

50. Thus David bested the Philistine with sling and stone; he struck him down & killed him. David had no sword. 51. So David ran up & stood over the Philistine, grasped his sword & pulled it from its sheath; and with it he dispatched him and cut off his head. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they ran.

52. The men of Israel & Judah rose up with a war cry and they pursued the Philistines all the way to Gai [ed. Gath] & up to the gates of Ekron; the Philistines fell mortally wounded along the road to Shaarim up to Gath and Ekron. Then the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, and looted their camp.

54. David took the head of the Philistine & brought it to Jerusalem, & he put his weapons in his own tent.

55. As Saul watched David going out to meet the Philistine, he asked his army commander, Abner, “Whose son is that boy, Abner?” And Abner replied, “By your life, Your Majesty, I do not know.”

56. “Then find out whose son that young fellow is.”

57. So when David returned after killing the Philistine, Abner took him & brought him to Saul, with the head of the Philistine still in his hand.

58. Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, my boy?” And David answered, “The son of your servant Jesse of Bethlehem.”

’Tis an exciting, well written story, it makes me want to believe it. If it weren’t for the two earlier stories I might; but there are so many internal contradictions & non-possibilities in the adventure that I can‘t, at 82, I don’t have enough energy or desire to argue them, I leave that up to you. Think as ye wilt! Just a few, the 2 earliest stories say that Goliath was not a giant, & that David did not kill him; that Elhanan killed Goliath, & Jonathan killed the brother of Goliath.

Stanza 55: says that Saul did not know David, nor his father Jesse, although in 1 Samuel 16: 14-23 David was Saul’s lyre player who brought him out of manic-depression, & that Saul asked Jesse to leave David with him; also that Saul made David one of his armor bearers. It is slipped in just before the David & Goliath stories, in order to glorify David. Isaac Azimov asks would courageous, proud, feisty Jewish warriors risk being enslaved thru personal combat between a shepherd boy against a well armored giant. Oi vey! And Goliath is depicted as an armored warrior with a bronze helmet which at that time covered the forehead.

Most important, scholars of Germanic Historical Criticism (believers in the Tanakh & Bible) have pointed out that the David & Goliath language of 1Samuel is later than 538 BC; the same Hebrew that Ezra used to write his Tanakh, [c.458 BCE]; & the supposed battle of David & Goliath was during Saul’s reign (1020-1000) about 500 years before. We know how much our English language has changed during 500 years. We cannot read Shakespeare, the King James Bible of 611, Beowulf, the Canterbury Tales, etc. without explanatory notes.

David became the most dynamic, fascinating, & perplexing person of the Tanakh or Old Testament. He was Masiah David, from which we get the word Messiah Yeshu (or Jesus). Masiah meant ‘the anointed one’, one who is anointed with holy oils to signify his rule. When Paul took Yeshu’s religion to the Greeks he transliterated Aramaic Yeshu into Greek Iesous, no h sound in ancient Greek; & added a final s as nearly all Greek names did; the Romans wrote the name Jesus, same pronunciation. Christos was a way of cleansing ones skin with oil, as women do today, thus Yeshu became Jesus Christ.

My references are the Tanak stories themselves, as translated into English from Hebrew in 1985. Also, I have used the New International Version of the Christian Bible, 1968, The Encyclopedia Britannica, The Cambridge Companion to the Bible, Isaac Azimov’s Guide to the Bible, Hastings Encyclopedia of Religion & Ethics, & several tattered, encyclopedias of religion saved by the San Francisco State University library.

Walnuts, as ye know are rich in Omega 3, very good for brain
functioning, I didn’t want to eat them for some years for fear of getting fat, but during the past 2 weeks i have been eating them, about 4x a day, instead of other snacks, & they have had an energizing, creative effect on my
brain, at 82 I need that energy very much, for example during the last 4 days I have composed a new song (Cheerfulness, it’s so good we need it Baaaad!), recorded a very good reggae beat, & am recording the reggae-rap lyrics, also I am rerecording my song (Born Horny in the Human Race) with better lyrics…my mind & body both feel more energetic…So, there are
other good sources of Omega 3, fish, flaxseed, but they are not as easy to eat, need some preparation, etc…walnuts are
easy to carry & eat whenever you need a pickup…try them, let me know…why is ‘nuts to you’ used as an insult, nuts are wonderful, a person receiving that phrase should
respond, “Why thank you, what a nice thing to say”…while I’m at it, why is ‘fuck you’ an insult, we enjoy it if it is good & could not have survived without it…Oh, & ‘asshole’ why is that an insult? That wonderful little organ expels all the poisons of
digestion…actually, “fuck you, asshole” should be a compliment, agreed? Try it on your mate, boss, teacher,
friends tomorrow, let me know the response…but seriously, WALNUTS are wonderful…Luv, Roy

RENDEZ-VOUS WITH JOAN OF ARC
by Roy Freesinger, Copyright 1997

I had a friendly rendez-vous with Joan of Arc this summer, 1997, while DJ and I were hiking in the Vosges Mountains of northeastern France. Maybe you’d like to read about it, maybe not. Perhaps you can figure it out. I’ve been a Deist for about 50 years, like many of the most important founders of our country; George Washington, Tom Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Tom Paine, Ethan Allen, Madison and Monroe, and later on Abe Lincoln; but that unexpected photographic meeting in Domremy has me bemused and wondering.

The Vosges are low, rounded green hills with lots of dense forests, dairy-meadows, hundreds of tiny farming villages, cows grinding out milk-butter-cheese, creeks and ponds, hiking and ski trails, and friendly farmers ready to smile and chuckle politely at my fracturedfrancais. Whenever I speak, French people smile and chuckle, and that is better than speaking correctly. One sunny day we stopped to chat with a jolly, octogenarian farmer, exchanged some pleasantries, he asked where is chez vous? “Californie”, thinking that everyone in France knows California. He shook his head no, so I tried San Francisco. “Ah, oui, Les Rues de San Francisco au television. Quelle jolie ville!” making up and down the hills motions. Well, after a week of happy hiking in clean air, embraced by sunny, loving Nature, I was studying the Michelin map for more good hiking trails when, Sacre Bleu! I saw it, DOMREMY, LA-PUCELLE!

“Dumb Ramie, the what?” DJ doesn’t speak fracturedfrancais. She speaks fractureddeutsch.

Domremy, La-Pucelle! The ancient home of Joan of Arc’s family. The place where Joan heard her saints telling her in 1429 to lead the armies of France against their bitter enemies, the English and their Burgundian allies, during the last phase of The Hundred Years War (1337-1453)”. That by itself is a very interesting story much too long for me to tell in this short essay. Joan wasn’t her French name; it is ironical that we know her by an English name when it was her aristocratic English enemies who gleefully burned her at the stake for heresy and witchcraft in 1431. She was a witch and whore in English lore for hundreds of years. Even Shakespeare (1564-1616) derided her. There are two superb modern bios of Joan: Frances Gies, Joan of Arc; The Legend and the Reality. And, Marina Warner, Joan of Arc; The Image of Female Heroism.

As she explained at her trial, her name was Jehanne, or La-Pucelle. In modern French she is Jeanne, which is pronounced like zhun (un as in run). La-Pucelle is what she and her military comrades called her. It meant “the Maiden” with the connotation of “the virgin-maiden”. She did not use her father’s family name, d’Arc. As she explained at her trial, it was not the custom in her village. Her mother also used her own family name, Romee (accent aigue on first e). Clearly there has never been a person named Joan of Arc; just as there was never a person named Jesus Christ. His mother and father gave him the good Aramaic name Yeshu, and later his disciples added Meshiha. Jesus Christ was a Roman name (derived from Greek), then transliterated into English. The Aramaic speaking Jews of that time hated the Romans, who were the Nazis of that time to them and many other peoples. Can you imagine a Jewish peasant family in a Galilean village giving their baby son a Roman name? Oi vay!

“Joan of Arc! Let me see. Yes, there it is, Domremy, and it’s only about 45 kilometers from here. Let’s go tomorrow morning”. So we did, in our sturdy little Renault Clio, along two lane roads, through the countryside and bucolic villages. Suddenly, we were there, tiny Domremy, perhaps 200 people, no priests and nuns, no tourist industry like Lourdes, no souvenir sellers, only two small shops and one bar-restaurant-hotel; none obtruding on her ancient home. We parked in an unpaved parking area, tall old shade trees, clean old toilettes, an info kiosk, a few other cars and tourists. Before us was the refurbished, stone home, steep roofed, 4 ground floor rooms, a loft above, fireplaces, no furniture, anything stealable was long gone. A pleasant, quiet, cool, contemplative place. We went outside, chatted with the two pretty lycee age attendants; then I noticed a very small brick monument with a bronze plaque in French attached.

“Jeeeez! Look at that”

“What? What does it say?”

“This is the exact spot where Jeanne said she first saw and heard her saints, Marguerite, Catherine, and Michael in 1425, when she was about 13. And it isn’t even fenced off. I can walk right up and stand where she did, and touch the earth”. Formidable! Mon Dieu! I was excited, but I didn’t know what to do or think. No-one else approached the historical spot, perhaps they were more religious than I, which wouldn’t be difficult. I thought of the loving, lovable sisters who taught me for 10 years in Chicago Catholic schools before World War II. Joan was their favorite saint, an uneducated, feisty, very intelligent peasant maiden who had more courage, devotion, and wisdom than all of the aristocratic rulers, knights and religious leaders of France and Britain - all men. Jeanne was possibly the first non-aristocrat, peasant heroine in history. We know of her because of her powerful will-power.

I felt like I should do something, but what? Fercrysake, I was standing right where Jeanne did almost 600 years ago! Should I say a prayer for friends and relatives; prayers I don’t believe in? Do you ever wonder about the efficacy of prayer? Why did a family of Baptist fundos driving to a prayer meeting suffer a fatal blowout, the whole happy family killed? Why was a village of Catholic peasants in Colombia buried by a mudslide, nearly all killed? Why do so many horrible tragedies afflict the devout worshippers of Allah, though tens of millions of them pray five times a day? I haven’t prayed in 50 years, I’m 74, fought in a World War, and did many, dumb life threatening activities, and I’m still okay. Bernard Shaw didn’t pray and lived to 94, still feisty and creative. There are hundreds of millions of times every day that good people pray for rescue from unhappiness or tragedy, without efficacy. Do we hear about that on TV or in the papers; but if a child, or a downed US airman in Bosnia is rescued and people assert it is because so many people prayed for them; it is reported as proof of the efficacy of prayer. “Whatever ye ask of The Father, ye shall receive”. What think ye?

Well, I said a prayer to Jeanne anyway just for the helluvit, for my young Rock friends in San Francisco, Holland, and Denmark, Robin and Symon, Jake, Adam, Kevin, and Sven, and my brother Chuck. That’s all I could think of on the spur of the moment, but I didn’t believe it would do any good. Standing there I tried to speak with Jeanne, in English, then French, but no answer, as I expected. I asked DJ to take a picture of me standing there on the same geological spot where Jeanne had stood. She did so, and then something happened that did not become apparent for several weeks, until I had the film developed back in California.

We drove back to the mountains, hiked for a few more days, then up to eastern Belgium for hiking in the Ardennes hills; very pretty, but more touristic and congested, then up to lovable, lively Amsterdam where I bought a Space Cooky, then down to interesting Antwerpen, Brugge, and Gent; finally to Normandy, and Compeigne (where Joan was captured when she was “about 19″, and sold to the English), from there to de Gaulle Airport, and happily exhausted after 34 days, back home to California. Just remember, I ate the cooky after Domremy, not before. Now as I reminisce I wish we had stayed in the Vosges much longer.

About two weeks later I had the two rolls of film, 48 photos, developed. Very mediocre photography, I decided to throw most of the photos away, until I noticed a mysterious defect on one. All the photos printed correctly except the one that DJ took of me standing next to Joan’s plaque, where she had listened to her saints. DJ has taken many dozens of pictures on our European trips, and they have all printed okay. She’s not a pro, nor am I. We just drop the film in, look through the viewfinder, and click. The photos always print right, and occasionally a picture is very good.

So, on that picture, as you can see, there is a white, half-moon, blank space, edged with color where I was standing! Jeez! I am blanked out of the picture! The rest of the picture, the bronze plaque, the tree and leaves, the bricks, are there in normal color and shape. But I am missing. I don’t feel rejected or hurt, I just wonder what the hell happened!

I showed the picture to a few friends who are normally secular in expression, and, was surprised at their hidden religiosity. One said, “Joan zapped you with her aura for being bad”. Another said, “That happens sometimes on the last picture on a roll”. But it isn’t the last picture on the roll, there were six or seven taken after as we walked up the country road to the hillside where Jeanne and her brothers tended the family sheep; and to see the huge, grandiose basilica built in her honor long after her death. My 10-years younger brother said, “Joan is calling you back to Catholicism!” Sheesh!, and he’s a history professor. A friend who knows how to develop film said, “Once in a while something touches the film during developing”. Sure, it could be a defect in the film, or a defect in developing, but why exactly there on 48 photos, right where I was standing, and nowhere else? And why has it not happened on hundreds of other photos? Is it a miracle? I don’t believe in miracles.

There is a strong possibility that a defect in camera, or film, or developing is the cause of my absence from the picture; I don’t deny that. But just for the pleasure of using our minds freely and creatively, let’s think about some other possibilities. I won’t expect anyone to agree with the conclusion I have in my mind; I may not do so myself. I offer it for the pleasure of freethinking, which isn’t a pleasure for everyone, as we know. Why should anyone care what I think? No reason at all.

I was “born Catholic” as everyone in our big loving family in Chicago expresses it proudly. I was Catholic in the minds and desires of my mother and father long before they met; just as they were, before sperm met egg in the first dance of life. “Hi, wanna make a baby?” “Sure, let’s go for it!” Let’s think about it for a few minutes; why, until recently, were nearly all babies in Europe and the Americas “born Christians”, plus a very small minority of “born Jews”; and why are nearly all babies of Islamic countries “born Muslims”? Is it because as we grow into our societies we are taught about all of the religions of the world, and then our indoctrinators tell us we are free to choose the religion we believe to be true? Hallelujah, sisters and brothers! Are your minds free?

The two most important functions of all religions are the soothing of the many fears of everyday life, and especially fear of death. All religions promise their adherents personal life after death in various ways, if they believe and obey the belief system of the religion. Original Buddhism seems to be an exception, except that it was, and is usually combined with ancestor worship. If one’s ancestors are still alive after death, then so can the living worshipper be a spirit-ancestor after death. There are many other social, economic, and political functions and powers of religions, but soothing the many fears of life and death are the most essential.

Christianity was the first religion to offer personal life-after-death to all believers, including the vast majority of inhabitants of the Roman Empire, poor peasants and workers - women, men, and children. Several mystery religions offered life-after-death, for a hefty price, to initiates, but only initiates - who could also belong to other religions. Please remember that I am not a Christian, nor a member of any other religion. I am completely secular. The aristocratic Sadducee rulers of the Temple in Jerusalem and of orthodox Judaism specifically denied life-after-death, because it was not promised in the Torah, the first five books of the Tanach, the Jewish Holy Book. But another sect of Judaism, the Pharisees, challenged the Sadduccee rule at the time of the Maccabean Wars (167-142 BC) against the Greek Seleucid rulers of Syria and Judea. The fundamentalist Pharisees, precursors of today’s ultra-orthodox Hasidim, became a powerful religious force in Judaism, and it was they who expounded the doctrine of life-after-death within Judaism; but only for the orthodox. Many other sects contended with the Saduccees and Pharisees for control of Judaism, and Yeshu (Jesus) was one of many popular, itinerant prophets like John-the-Baptist. Yeshu was creative and independent, but like all creative thinkers he derived most of his beliefs from his societal predecessors; the Pharisee doctrine of life-after-death was blowing in the religious winds of that time because people yearned for it so longingly, as we do today. Yeshu, a poor, homeless prophet, promised it to all who believed in The Father and himself; and therein lives a long story that you have heard a few times already.

Back to Jeanne, La Pucelle (Joan of Arc). Jeanne was a very dynamic, feisty, forceful, energetic, persuasive, highly intelligent peasant woman of 18 or 19 when she left her tiny village to go to the court of cowardly young King Charles VII to persuade him that her saints had commanded her to lead the armies of truncated France against England, and their allies the Burgundians; to defeat them and drive them out of France. She did so with great courage and military genius, as the many officers and soldiers who fought alongside her testified with friendship and love. It was the cowardly French King Charles VII, his aristocratic court and church who jealously refused to ransom or rescue her from the English. During 1429-30 she led and inspired French forces to drive the English out of the 1/3rd of France that they occupied; until they were driven back to the port city of Calais. Her life is very well documented by the court recorders who documented in French & Latin her intense inquisition during her 14 month imprisonment, trial, and conviction in 1431 (she was burned at a stake on May 30, 1431); and by hundreds of admirers and good friends who testified for her in 1456 during her Rehabilitation Trial. Of her many admirable qualities, the one that stands out most prominently to me is her amazingly powerful will!

Is it possible that her powerfully integrated will held together after death and has asserted itself at that special place in order to tell us that there is the possibility that similar powerful, integrated wills can live on? I have been having a very hard time trying to finish this study because I do not believe in the supernatural miracles and claims of the various religions and cults of the world. But I prefer to believe in the possibility of a spirit afterlife, though no-one has ever produced any evidence of such a state. Shortly after I returned from combat in WW II, I decided that I could not believe in any of the religions of the world; but I developed a strong lifelong interest in the histories, dogmas, and belief systems of the various religions. I have investigated them profoundly and I do not believe in their claims to super-natural powers and knowledge; they have never demonstrated any proof of their beliefs. During the last weeks of January I chatted with an interesting friend, Keith, a psychotherapist. Keith was very interested in my little experience and especially the photo. Without the photo no-one, including myself would be interested in this study.

KEITH - I don’t believe in all that Christian dogma about life-after-death, but I do believe in a spiritual life after death. I hate the idea that at death all I have worked so hard to become will be extinguished; that I will never again see my friends and all the people and places I’ve loved. I love life and refuse to believe that death is the end of all I have worked so hard to be. I realize that may just be “wishful thinking”, but I’ve been to several places in the world where I have felt very powerful spiritual forces working on and within me. One was the Temple of the Oracles of Delphi high above the Ionian Sea. It is easy to understand why the ancient Greeks were attracted to that special place.

RF - The oracles were wrong as often as they were right. For example, they told the Athenians that they should surrender to the Persians or they would all be massacred and enslaved.

KEITH - Oh, okay, nonetheless, I felt powerful spiritual forces working on me there; another place like that is Sedona, Arizona. But, getting back to the picture I believe the white space is caused by an emanation of your spiritual energy, or force.

RJF - Spiritual means religious to me, and I am entirely secular.

KEITH - Okay, but looking at the photo again I can see how it could be interpreted as a mistake in developing or something like that; but I also have to ask myself why did it happen right there, on that very spiritual place, at that time, right where you were standing? I still think that is your spirit force.

RF - Okay, that’s alright if you think so, but if there is such a state of spirit life after death, I believe it is Joan’s spirit, not mine.

KEITH - Fair enough. We can agree to disagree with friendship, just for the pleasure of using our minds freely.

We spoke several times, at greater length than this; I hope I have summarized our talks accurately. We agreed that all over the world since the beginnings of recorded and archaeological time people (not all) have believed in a spirit or ancestral life after death. They do so today in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Shinto, Mazdaism, Buddhism (though Buddha denied the existence of Gods; he was an atheist), and in the hundreds of tribal religions. The saints of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches are essentially spirit and ancestor worship, as are the gods of the ancient Greek and Roman pantheons. It is easy to understand how ancestor worship started and continues. Strong willed persons closely related to us in our families, friendships, tribes, and our national cultures live on in our memories; live on strongly; and billions of people when they are in serious difficulties seek help from spirits and ancestors of the family, tribe, and larger cultures. That is how prayer developed.

Billions of people all over the earth, in all religions believe in various kinds of spirit and ancestor worship; as well as nature and king-emperor worship, and magic. If ones ancestors are conceived to be still alive after death, then the believer can believe that he or she can also live after death. Does belief by 90% of humanity in spirits, saints, and ancestors prove that there are gods and goddesses who guarantee us life-after-death? Is there any empirical, factual, or scientific proof of the existence of god, and life-after death? A Catholic friend said recently, “Well, when we die we’ll know whether or not there is life-after-death”. He is a very caring gay guy who has seen many good friends killed by AIDS, so I didn’t say, “Only if there is”.

I, too, yearn to believe in a spirit life after death. Now, as I have successfully survived into my middle-70s, I think more often about the end of my life, but as infrequently as I can manage. When I was 44 I decided that I would do my best to live until 88, and spend as little time worrying about the end until then. That worked very well, until recently. I bicycle, swim, and exercise often, eat a healthy (not perfect) diet, use very few drugs (legal or illegal), try to be cheerful and friendly (life is too serious to be serious), we have a pleasant little home and modest life style, and I get a lot of help from my good wife, son, brother, friends, and country (which is too conservative). But I ain’t the man I was when I was young, 65, not complaining, life is still good, I can still write and compose, and sing. But it makes me feel sad when I think of leaving my wife and son, friends, San Francisco, home, reading and learning, traveling, Nightbreak, Paradise Lounge, Denmark, Holland, USA, Europe, myself. Life is often hard and distressing, but with few exceptions the life force is so powerful that we refuse to give it up. I don’t know what the photo means. I hope it means that Joan’s spirit lives on, and that she wants us to know of that possibility; but the photo could be meaningless. Do religions bestow life-after-death upon their believers? Is there any evidence to support that dogma? Has anyone ever communicated with us from an after-life? What think ye?

Since I completed this essai I spoke with my friend Rabbi Abraham from Canada; he studied the photo and said, “Roy, I don’t understand this on a rational level. There has to be something spiritual that happened there”. And I showed the photo to Lotte from DK and Yuri from SF, two pro photographers who have developed and printed many thousands of photos. They discussed it and concluded that they could not find any reason for the white space. Lotte said, “If something had gotten in front of the lens, the space would not be blank. There would be some kind of grainy grayish blur”. I will conclude this with a verse from one of my songs.

Some people think that walking on water or in the air is a miracle// No, a real miracle is that we walk on earth, Today, step by step!// A real miracle is that we are alive at this moment in history// When there is only one chance in hundreds of millions// For our conception and birth!// (Rhythm break)// Nature has given us the right and ability to be happy// Often that is very, very difficult// We all know that and need to remind each other// That happiness is very possible// If we exert our strong powers of wisdom, work, courage, love, and laughter// Today…step by step…on Earth!
Au’voir, Jehanne…a bientot, Jeanne…merci pour l’aventure, Joan…je vous aime….

The exact place in Joan’s 1420s garden where her saints spoke to her.

Cheerfulness is powerful/ activates health-happiness/ like sunshine activates green leaves/
Never underestimate the power of cheerfulness…it’s so good, we need it baaaad!  freesinger

ABCs…always be cheerful, calm, courageous…cheerfulness helps self & others to be happy…makes our cells feel good, do happy-healthy work…

Charles Darwin wrote, “happiness decidedly prevails (in human nature) since pleasurable sensations …stimulate the whole system to increase action. Hence it has come to pass that most or all sentient beings have been developed in such a manner through natural selection that pleasurable sensations serve as their habitual guides”. Shall we be happy?

Do we have the right to be happy while horrendous tragedies are happening…as in Rwanda, the Holocaust, Iraq, the Tsunami, WW1 & WW2, Global warming, Israel-Palestine, AIDs, sleeping sickness, malaria, wars & starvation…Yes, sadness & depression, do not help the suffering…good actions empowered by happiness help them.

A little at a time is a lot at the end of a day, week, month, year, lifetime…it accumulates…what is good?…
being cheerful…strong…thoughtful…loving-kind…free…doing good works…

Your heart is strong & loyal, take good care of it & it will take good care of you. Dr Rao

“You will soon receive good news of a personal nature…if you look for it”. (Fortune cookie + freesinger)
“Look & you will find it, what is unsought will go undetected”, Sophocles
“Chance is very powerful. Let your hook be always cast in life’s waters, in the pool where you least expect it, there will be a fish.” Ovid (was not a vegetarian)

“When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us. So it is how we live our lives that determines the kind of person we are“…Cesar Chavez
“Freedom depends upon freethinkers“…Ruth Hurmence Green…& free-doers
“The world is my country…to do good is my religion“…Tom Paine
Democratia, even the word is beautiful…In peace sons bury fathers, but war violates the order of nature, & fathers bury sons…Heroditus
M.L.King wrote, “America’s problem in restructuring economic & political power…is that it is too conservative.”
Harriet Tubman, led more than 300 slaves to freedom on 19 perilous trips on the Underground Railway…her cheerful, courageous nature inspired them to continue when some became depressed, fearful, & weary.

“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven…Yeshu (Jesus in Latin) That was a common way of expressing impossibility in Yeshu’s time.

Epicurus wrote that feelings of happiness or pain that accompany sense experiences are the ultimate good or evil…most to be prized are the pleasures of the mind, friendship & ataraxia (peace of mind & emotions)

Chorus of a song: Cheerfulness is powerful/ activates health-happiness/ like sunshine activates green leaves/ Cheerfulness makes our cells feel happy/ inspires them to be healthy// freesinger

IS THE BIBLE PRO-ABORTION? by R. Freesinger Copyright 1995 freesingerr@yahoo.com

It is clear that anti-abortionists base their fundamental rationale in the various versions of the Christian Bible and Jewish Tanach. We see, read, and hear Christian religious and political leaders, plus millions of followers expressing a fundamentalist Biblical opposition to abortion. Many millions of Christians, perhaps 2/3 in Europe and the USA, approve of abortion as an emergency rescue from a serious sexual mistake. Out of a population of approximately 180 million adults in the US, a small minority can be a large number; 1/3 = 60 million; and they can easily raise thousands of vociferous or violent protestors. Often, as we have seen, Biblical fundamentalists burn abortion clinics, and attack or murder doctors and clinic workers. During February 1994 the Catholic church sent 21 million postcards to its parishes and schools “to keep abortion out of needed health care reform”. The Christian Coalition has distributed 32 million postcards to its adherents for the same reason. The nation’s largest Protestant church, The Southern Baptist, is bringing its great power to bear on federal and state legislators, governors, supreme court justices, and presidential candidates to recriminalize abortion. Overall, as a wealthy, united minority they are a powerful coalition of religio-political force.
J.P. GETS MAD!
Pope John Paul, world leader of anti-abortion forces received an infuriating rebuke from young Italian Catholics in 1988. An opinion poll in December asked young Catholics to rate several sexual sins from 0-10; 0 being the least grave. The voting revealed; adultery 1, regular adultery 3, homosexuality 4, missing mass 1, abortion 2, sex before marriage 0, and birth control 0. “Is Italy still a Christian country?” the Pope thundered. He upgraded birth control from a sin against chastity to a sin against faith, “perilously close to the revolt of the angels who denied God!” A few days later he declared that anyone in any way involved in abortion is guilty of murder, and is excommunicated! J.P. sincerely believes that he is leading a cosmic war against Satan! It is like the Vatican Saints versus the Satanic Satyrs in the Cosmic Cup Super Bowl, with J.P. as goalie. An exciting game with lots of scoring! Can J.P. outwit Satan and save us from our sinful sexual nature? Is Satan winning?
THE 11TH COMMANDMENT
What does the Bible say about abortion? Often we see and hear on TV, fundamentalist preachers and priests exhorting their followers to “pray to our merciful Lord to save those poor, innocent babies who are about to be murdered in that abortion abbatoir!” And so they pray together ardently, zealously, but God does not answer their prayers. The abortions continue on schedule, by the hundreds of thousands every year. What does that say about the efficacy of their prayers? Does God approve of abortion? Why didn’t He declare an 11th Commandment, “Thou shalt not commit abortion!” Are the fundos missing something in the Bible? A careful study of the various versions of the Bible & Tanach reveals that it has often expressed approval or indifference about the termination of the lives of fetuses - for example, the stoning to death of pregnant adultresses, with the express approval of God.
THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF THE BIBLE
Before beginning a detailed investigation of the internal evidence of the Bible, a few preliminary considerations should be expressed. Biblical fundos, Catholic, Protestant, and Jews believe that their Holy Books contain “the perfect, inerrant thoughts and commands of God Yahveh”, whose knowledge of the past, present, and future is perfect and omniscient; not a word of the Bible or Tanach is wrong! If God has expressed His thoughts and commands about abortion, should fundos believe and practice them. My purpose is to find out what the various Bibles and Tanachs teach about abortion from their own internal evidence. The Bible and Tanach has had and continues to have a powerful influence on the social, economic, political, and military affairs of the Christian and non-Christian world; especially as partisans of religio-conservatism. You can peruse the evidence and make up your own minds.
ABORTION IN ANCIENT LAW CODES
Abortion was well known in all of the societies co-existing with Judaism from circa 2000BC onward. It was forbidden by the Sumerian Code (ca.2000, Abraham was from Sumeria); by the Code of Hammurabi (ca.2000); by the Assyrian Code, the Hittite Code; by Zoroaster (ca.590BC); by Buddha (ca.550BC), and by some schools of Hinduism. Islam which started about 610AD does not forbid abortion. It has been practiced widely without penalty since the time of Muhammid. Allah did not forbid abortion in the Koran, or it would have been forbidden.
MARY AND ABORTION
One of the rare times that a fetus was mentioned in the Bible was when pregnant young Mary (Maryam) traveled from Nazareth to visit her pregnant older cousin Elizabeth in or near Bethlehem; Elizabeth (Elisheba) was pregnant with John (Yohannon) the Baptist. It was a caravan journey of about 100 miles, lasting 9 or 10 days; a hard and costly journey for a poor, young, pregnant woman traveling alone in a very horny time. It is hard to believe her loving family would permit it.
Luke 1:39-45 wrote, “At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a hill town in Judea, where she entered Zecheriah’s home and greeted her (E. was the wife of Z., a Temple rabbi, ed.). When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped with joy! Blessed is she that believes what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!’”
Two observations can be made here; as every mother knows fetuses do move vigorously during the last few months of pregnancy, especially responding to loud noises, strong maternal emotions, and to the natural need to exercise, or to adjust a cramped position. The other is that this would have been an ideal time for Mary, or God, or Jesus to condemn abortion; but not a word of disapproval was uttered. Instead, Mary responded with a poem of praise to God (Luke 1:52-53) in which she expressed her love of the poor, and her strong dislike of the greedy rich. Nearly all of the conservative translators of the poem have tried to minimize her denunciation, but it is still there. Jesus (Aramaic, Yeshu) and his genetic brother James also expressed their preferential love of the poor, and their intense dislike of the rich many times.
CATHOLIC APPROVAL OF ABORTION FOR 1800 YEARS
Catholic theologians have argued that this story proves that the fetus is cognitive, a person who can understand knowledge. Skeptics may wonder if ivory-cathedral, asexual thinkers have ever observed real babies for more than a few baptismal moments. Babies emerge from their mothers with no language, no numbers, no ideas, and no knowledge of Mom and Dad, or family and friends, no religion or societal know-how; but with the inborn, genetic ability to learn all those human skills over a very long educative process.
A short, overall summary of Catholic abortion dogma reveals that the Catholic Church approved of abortions of “unformed, unanimated fetuses” for more than 1800 years; until the period of 1869-1966 during which a series of papal and Vatican II decisions condemned all abortions. It took more that 1800 years for the Church to make up God’s omniscient mind for Him. This is a good example of the influence of contradictory versions of the Bible on dogma; the Hebrew Tanach states that if a woman miscarries because she is hit by men fighting, it is not a serious injury. But the Catholic Church took its original abortion dogma from the Greek Septuagint, and reasoned that if the miscarriage is of a fetus “unformed” the offender must pay a fine; but if the fetus is “formed” the offender must give life for life, etc. A very confused doctrine that lasted for 1800 years.
SEX IN THE TANACH
The Tanach contains numerous laws against socially destructive sexual relationships. Leviticus & Deuteronomy contain about 30 sexual Commandments, but not one against abortion. Did it slip God’s omniscient mind? Two of the three sets of Ten Commandments assert, #6, “You shall not commit adultery!”, and #10, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife!” A much longer set of sexual commandments is contained in Leviticus 18:1-29, a few of which I will quote in abridged form. “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them…you must obey my laws…No-one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations…Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother (yikes!)…Do not make love with your sister…your son’s daughter…or your daughter’s daughter…the daughter of your father’s wife…your father’s sister…your mother’s sister…your father’s brother’s wife, she is your aunt…your son’s wife…your brother’s wife…with a woman and her daughter…or her son’s daughter, or her daughter’s daughter…with your wife’s sister…Do not make love during a woman’s menstrual period…Do not have sexual relations with an animal…A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations’”….Lev.20:13, “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman…they must be put to death….”
It seems that the ancient Jews were very horny people; they make us seem rather prudish by comparison. Yahveh recognized that the sexual imperative caused many serious social problems; as in our time, too. That is why He made a list of very comprehensive commands (I don’t see Grandma listed, or lesbians); but He did not say, “Thou shall not commit abortion!” Did God the Omniscient not foresee the serious moral and political conflicts that would accompany abortion?

Exodus 21:22-25, declares, “If two men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman so that she miscarries, but there is no serious injury, the offender shall be fined by the woman’s husband, if the judges consent. But, if there is serious injury to the woman, you are to take eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, and bruise for bruise!”. This law states that the miscarriage (death) of a fetus, caused by men fighting, is a minor injury; and that the offender must pay a fine, if the judges consent. Serious injuries throughout the Tanach/Old Testament were punished by death, stoning, lashes, dismemberment, banishment from Jewish societies, and so forth. A fine was punishment for a minor offense. Christian fundos try to use the above law as supportive of their anti-abortion dogma, it is clearly the opposite. According to this law, God considers an injury to an eye, tooth, skin, and muscle more serious than the death of a fetus caused by men fighting!

Lev.27:1-7, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Speak to the Israelites and tell them…set the value of a male between the ages of 20 and 60 at 50 shekels of silver, and if it is a female set it at 30 shekels…if it is a person between 1 month and five years set the value of a male at 5 shekels, and that of a female at 3 shekels…if it is a person 60 years or more, etc….’” In this passage as in others, males and females of all ages are assessed for purposes of religious taxation, but infants under 1 month and fetuses are not considered as persons worthy of assessment.

This conclusion is supported by the Talmud (ca.200-1400AD) the encyclopedic compilation and explanation of all the Laws of Judaism (2.5 million words!). The Talmud is considered by ultra-orthodox Jews to be as authoritative as the Tanach! The accepted Talmudic teaching is that abortion is not murder, nor forbidden; and that the unborn is not a person, but a part of its mother as long as it is in the womb!

BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY
Genesis 1:28 states, “God blessed them (Eve and Adam) and said to them ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it’”. Christian fundos use this passage as proof of God’s opposition to abortion, but again God passed up an ideal time to assert, “Thou shalt not commit abortion!” Why hasn’t He said something about abortion during the present severe conflict? Why doesn’t He answer the beseeching prayers of anti-abortion zealots? Fundos often infer moral laws from Biblical evidence for problems not specifically enunciated by God Yahveh, as in the Talmud. Abortion advocates have that same right; and all the evidence leads to the conclusion that God never spoke a word against abortion.

THOU SHALT NOT KILL!
Do the various Bibles and Tanachs teach a pervasive love for all women, children, and the unborn? Ay carramba! You may decide for yourselves by the following Biblical stories. “Thou shalt not kill1” was the Biblical commandment for at least 2500 years; but some modern Bibles have euphemized kill into murder. Murder is the illegal killing of a person, that is forbidden by ones society. For example, killing the enemies of ones country in warfare is not murder in any society; but killing homosexuals and pregnant adultresses is not murder in the Bible and Tanach; though they are murder in nearly all modern societies. Kill is the word used in the Hebrew Masorah, not murder.

MOSES ORDERS KILLING OF FETUSES
When Moses was a young unmarried man he killed an Egyptian overseer of Jewish slaves who was beating a Jewish worker. Moses had to flee for his life to Midian nearby, east of Goshen. There he endeared himself to a very kind Midian priest, Jethro, who accepted Mosheh into his family, and gave Mosheh one of his daughters, Zipporah, in marriage. Zipporah bore him two sons. Later when God commanded Moses to lead the Israelites out of captivity, Moses deserted Zipporah and his sons; he sent them back to Jethro who received them sadly, but without reproach; and even gave Moses wise advice about leading his people. See Exodus 1:11-25, and Ex.18:1-27.
When Moses was directing the Israelites against the many tribes that blocked their route into Caanan (ca.1250BC) they confronted the Midianites! Numbers 31:1-18, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites’…”So Moses said to the people, ‘Arm some of your men and go to war against the Midianites to carry out the Lord’s vengeance on them. Send into battle a thousand men from each tribe (12,ed.)…They fought against Midian as the Lord commanded Moses, and killed every man…The Israelites captured the Midianite women and children, and took all the Midianite herds, flocks, and goods as plunder…They burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as their camps (ethnic cleansing?, ed.)…and brought the captives, spoils, and plunder to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the Israelite assembly at their camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho…Moses was angry with the officers of the Army who returned from battle…’Have you allowed all the women to live!?, he asked them…’They were the ones who followed Baalam’s advice (sexual subversion, ed.) and were the means of turning the Israelites away from the Lord in what happened at Peor, so that a plague (clap?) struck the Lord’s people!…Now kill all the Boys! And kill every woman who has had sexual intercourse with a man! But save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man!’” Do the Midian-Moses stories suggest that the Bible or Tanach teaches “the sanctity of all life”, and “Thou shalt not kill”?

JOSHUA DESTROYS FETUSES
Military might made right throughout the Fertile Crescent; and Joshua fought the battle of Jericho; Joshua 6:21, they “destroyed with the sword every living thing in it, men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, and donkeys”. At Ai, Joshua 8:24-25, “Twelve thousand men and women fell that day, all the people of Ai”. During the great battle of Gibeon, “The sun stood still…in the middle of the sky, and delayed going down for about a full day”. Evidently the authors of the Tanach and the Bible did not hear God when He told them that the earth is round, and the sun does not circle the earth. The same slaughter continued at Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, Debri, and Hazor. “He left no survivors…not sparing anyone that breathed…exterminating them without mercy, as the Lord had commanded Moses”. Were thousands of “the innocent unborn” exterminated in their pregnant mothers? There is no mention anywhere in the Tanach/Old Testament of the Lord sparing fetuses.
The last “sanctity of life” story I will relate is in II Kings 15:16-18, “At that time King Manahem (of Israel, 745-738BC) …attacked Tiphsah and everyone in the city and its vicinity because they refused to open their gates. He sacked Tiphsah, and ripped open all the pregnant women…He did evil in the eyes of the Lord. During his entire reign he did not turn away from the sins of King Jeroboam (922-901), son of Nebat, which he (Jeroboam, ed.) had caused Israel to commit”. But, the evil Menahem did in the eyes of the Lord was not ripping open the pregnant women! Making idols for the people to worship, and worshipping other Gods was his evil! Again, this would have been an ideal time for the Lord to condemn abortion, or to save the innocent unborn; but God did nothing to save them!
YESHU-JESUS AND ABORTION
Yeshu was his actual Aramaic name; his followers called him Meshiha Yeshu. He never heard the name Jesus Christ. Jesus was a Roman name; and the Jews despised the Romans. No Jew would have given a child a Roman name. Oi vay! The Romans were the Nazis of that time to the Jews. Yeshu expressed a genuine love for children, but he said nothing about the unborn, and he never mentioned abortion!
The Tanach and Old Testament rarely refer to children with love and care; but often express hatred of those who disobey their parents, elders, and religious leaders. II Kings 2:23-25, “From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along a road, some youths came out of the woods and jeered at him, ‘Go on up, baldy!”…He turned and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then came two bears out of the woods and ripped up 42 of the youths. Then he went on to Mt. Carmel, and from there returned to Samaria”. Is this evidence enough for you to make up your mind? God the omniscient, and Yeshu-Jesus knew about abortion, but neither said a word against it. God actually commanded the slaughter of pregnant women; and He does not answer the prayers of anti-abortion supplicants. Why not?

REED SEA, NOT RED SEA
Is there such a thing as “The One True Bible” that all Christians accept as authentic for all? No, definitely not. There are several basic Bibles that come in hundreds of languages and versions. These versions and translations vary in significant ways which affect their meanings and applications to religious and social life. For example, Moses did not lead the Israelites across a divinely parted Red Sea, about 100 feet high and 10 miles long at its narrowest northern extension. Visualize tens of thousands of God-fearing, Pharoah-fearing, superstitious, family-loving pastoral people looking at those enormous walls of shimmering water, sharks peering at them, “Alright Mosheh! Let’s do it!” No, the Hebrew Masorah text reads yam suph, which means reed sea.
At that time there were many extensive, shallow papyrus marshes (reed seas) east of the Nile Delta where the Israelites had been living as forced laborers for Pharoah Ramses II (ca.1260BC) in the Biblical land of Goshen. Very often strong winds blew from the cool, high-pressure Mediterranean Sea southward into the hot, low-pressure desert. These strong winds blew the Egyptian sailing craft up the Nile River after they had drifted downstream with the current. During the Exodus time these strong winds often blew the shallow waters of the reed seas southward, thus leaving a wet but passable surface for people and herds to traverse; but the chariots of the Pharoah were much too heavy, so they sank in the mud. That bit of history has been known for at least 150 years; but the fundos still tell the phony version.

VARIETIES OF BIBLES
There are 4 major kinds of Bibles or Judeo-Christian Holy Books; the Hebrew Tanach, Roman Catholic Bibles, Protestant Bibles, and Eastern Orthodox Bibles. The Hebrew Masorah text of the Tanach evolved during about 2600 years from the time of Abraham (ca.1650BC) to the time of Moses and Aaron ben Asher (ca.915-1000AD). The Ashers were a family of Tanach scholars who produced the now authentic Masorah text in Tiberias from a varied collection of old leather scrolls and papyrus manuscripts. Other scholars in Tiberias produced competing texts which were also used as authentic.

THE AUTHENTIC MASORAH
The Jewish philosopher Moses Maimonides declared the Asher text the true Masorah in Cairo (ca.1200AD), but Jews did not discard their other texts. The Asher text was lost for many centuries until it was found in a Cairo synagogue in the 1880s. The most popular of many authentic texts for about 400 years was one by Jakob ben Hayyim printed in Venice in 1525 AD. The Asher Masorah was not printed in its final form until 1935; thus we can see that there have been many varieties of the Tanach for about 2500 years; and even today not all Jews accept the Asher text as the authentic Tanach.

THE SEPTUAGINT/OLD TESTAMENT
The oldest complete version of the Tanach is the Greek language Septuagint (ca.250-100BC); it became the Christian Old Testament. The Septuagint was prepared for Greek speaking Jews in Alexandria and other Hellenic cities; for Jews who had fled Israel-Judah to escape many centuries of warfare, persecution, and poverty. The Tanach contains 39 books, but the Septuagint has 46; a significant difference, as will be explained later. The Septuagint was rejected by later Masorah scholars because Yahveh spoke Hebrew to the ancient Israelites, not Greek.
JEROME CREATES THE FIRST BIBLE
What about Christian Bibles? Is there a uniformity of provenance among them? No, even less so. Pope Damasus asked the scholar Jerome in 382AD to produce an accurate, literate Bible to replace the many crude, inaccurate, and contradictory versions then in use. St. Jerome did that prodigious work by assembling, collating, evaluating, and then translating old Latin and Greek New Testament texts into the popular, refined Latin of his time; for the Old Testament he used the Greek Septuagint (there was no Hebrew Masorah). By 404 he had produced the literate, more nearly accurate Latin Vulgate Bible. He completed the New Testament in Rome, but was driven into exile by doctrinal enemies after the death of Damasus. He journeyed to Bethlehem where the wealthy Roman widow Paula established a monastery for him. Were they lovers? No, it would make a great movie, but Jerome was a zealous, asexual advocate of celibacy for priests; and celibacy doesn’t sell.
With the help of three rabbi scholars who came secretly at night, “for fear of the Jews!” Jerome emended parts of his own Latin translation of the Septuagint with some Hebrew texts and produced the final Latin Old Testament (46 books). “Let anyone who would challenge anything in this translation, ask the Jews!” he thundered. Jerome did his prodigious job in 22 years, and with out a computer program! Without the knowledge (sic) explosion, and the information superhighway! Ay carramba! He made some mistakes that had to be corrected during the following centuries; but compare his work with the hundreds of computer-enhanced scholars who have been studying The Dead Sea Scrolls for nearly 50 years; and who have produced…jealousy, paranoia, and hatred of one another. Jerome’s Old Testament contained the 46 books of the Septuagint, 7 more than the Tanach; and 27 New Testament books translated from a variety, not unity of extant texts.

PROVENANCE OF OTHER CHRISTIAN BIBLES
Jerome’s Vulgate was the only Christian Bible for 11 centuries in the western Roman Catholic Church; until Luther produced his German language Bible in the 1520s from a Hebrew text (not the Asher Masorah), and from Erasmus’ Greek New Testament (1516). Erasmus was an excellent Humanist scholar, but many of the Greek texts available to him were inaccurate. After Luther a multitude of vernacular Bibles in national languages folowed, until even the Vulgate was translated into popular languages. Protestant Bibles are translated from 39 Hebrew texts (not the Asher Masorah); and from Greek New Testament texts (27 books).
The Greek Orthodox Church developed in the eastern Greek speaking half of Constantine’s empire. It was inevitable that there should be a gradual doctrinal, linguistic, and nationalistic schism between the two churches after the death of Constantine, in 337. Orthodox Bibles developed on their own during many centuries of antagonism against Rome; into many eastern languages and doctrinal versions. Orthodox Bibles are translated from the Greek Septuagint (46 books), and from Greek New Testament texts (27 books). Thus, you may wonder at the dogmatic assertion that there is one true Tanach, and one true Bible.

KING JAMES VERSIONS
The most authoritative of English and American fundamentalist Bibles has been the King James Bible of 1611. It still contains the “perfect, inerrant Word of God” for hundreds of millions of fundos. Many English and American Bible scholars were so embarrassed by the hundreds of errors it contained that they produced the emended Revised Version (1881-1885); and emended that revision with the Revised Standard Version in 1952; plus many Christian sects find these versions not to their liking, so they make and print their own versions. Versions, versions, versions of the perfect, inerrant word of God for 2600 years; Is there one true Tanach and one true Bible?
DAVID DIDN’T KILL GOLIATH
Many hundreds of King James errors were corrected, but many errors of commission and confusion remain. For example David did not kill Goliath, and Goliath was not a giant, or a huge man 9 feet tall. There are three Goliath stories in the Tanach/Old Testament. The stories are too lengthy to quote in full, you can read them yourself. The two oldest, original stories; 1Chron.20:1-8, Goliath is mentioned as the brother of another warrior who was killed by Elhanan. There is no mention of Goliath being a giant, nor of him as a warrior who taunted Israel; … “In still another battle…there was a huge man (a giant in KJV, but not Goliath) …When he taunted Israel, Jonathan, son of Shimeah, David’s brother, killed him”. In the other, oldest story, 2 Samuel 21:15-22, “…In another battle, Elhanan…killed Goliath the Gittite…In still another battle…at Gath…there was a huge man (giant in KJV) …When he taunted Israel, Jonathan, son of Shimeah, David’s brother, killed him”.
About 500 years after David’s death in 961BC, while the Tanach was being compiled and written during the Babylonian Exile (ca.597-537BC), pious, patriotic eulogists in Babylonia inserted (1 Sam:17) the false David killed Goliath myth, in order to glorify the powerful king who ruled during the highest stage of Jewish independence. The vocabulary and syntax was of the Babylonian Jews, not the Jews of 1000BC. The real proof that it is a false myth is that it is impossible that the valiant, war-hardened Jews would risk enslavement, and their beloved “Promised Land” based upon single-combat between a heavily-armed, huge warrior, and an unknown shepherd lad with a slingshot! Oi vay! It is as believable that the US, Britain, and France would have risked their national freedom based upon single-combat between Churchill with a slingshot and Hitler with a machine-gun.

YESHU-JESUS AND ABORTION
Yeshu was his actual Aramaic name; his followers called him Meshiha Yeshu. He never heard the name Jesus Christ; there has never been a person called Jesus Christ. Jesus was a Roman name; and the Jews despised the Romans. No Jew would have given a child a Roman name. Oi vay! The Romans were the Nazis of that time to the Jews. Yeshu expressed a genuine love for children, but he said nothing about the unborn, and he never mentioned abortion!
The Tanach and Old Testament rarely refer to children with love and care; but often express hatred of those who disobey their parents, elders, and religious leaders. II Kings 2:23-25, “From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along a road, some youths came out of the woods and jeered at him, ‘Go on up, baldy!”…He turned and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then came two bears out of the woods and ripped up 42 of the youths. Then he went on to Mt. Carmel, and from there returned to Samaria”.
There is lots more evidence, but that’s enough for you to make up your own mind. God the omniscient, and Yeshu knew all about abortion, but neither said a word against it. God actually commanded the slaughter of pregnant women; and He does not answer the prayers of anti-abortion supplicants and demonstrators. Why not? Can it be inferred and deduced that God is not opposed to abortion? Fundos may oppose abortion for other moral reasons, but the Bible cannot be their justification!