The Stone of Scone

Most of science today presumes automatically that the religions of the world are myth. We have talked about that many times. The parts of religion that are most suspect are the parts which make unusual claims that appear fantastic or extraordinary.

Because of the miraculous nature of the claims of religion scientists will look you straight in the face and tell you that unusual claims require unusual levels of evidence. However, there isn’t a single mathematical equation which requires extraordinary proof any more than other kinds of claims. This extra condition was made popular by Carl Segan. I like Carl Segan as much as anyone. However, his statement is more a myth than anything suggested by religion. At least the claims of religion have eye-witnesses. Denial isn’t proof of anything except it is a quasi admission of bias. How much of the reality we accept in the world today would not exist if it required extraordinary proof that it would be successful first. Discovery takes a keen eye for the smallest details embedded in the quagmire of a complicated world. Most of the discoveries were composed by dreamers and men who had faith in what they were doing. That sounds a lot like religion to me.

No scientist discards the Big Bang Theory or black holes because the original singularity and the event horizon of black holes violated the laws of physics as we know them. These two places are far more miraculous in nature than heaven is postulated to be. If we were to ask someone from the days of the Roman Empire if man would ever fly through the air, they would immediately have thought of that as a religious issue. The only rumors of people flying through the air were associated with religions. The science fiction of today is the reality of tomorrow. Therefore, to discard religion based on supernatural claims isn’t logical. You would expect the creator of the universe to do things that appear magical to us.

Science has insisted that they are the gate keepers of truth. They are far more willing to wave the extraordinary proof requirement for their own theories than they would for religion.

A false prophet is a person who tells you a lie and expects you to believe it because of his position within society. That is exactly what Carl Segan did. Though he was a wonderful man, he becomes a false prophet of science with his statement. He knew that whether or not we have extraordinary proof has nothing to do with veracity.

We can see the gravitational effects of a black hole, though we can’t directly observe one. We can hear the noise of the Big Bang, though we could never actually see it. The same is true for religion. We can see that there was genetic engineering of crops performed through religious instruction long before the science of genetics became a college class you could take. We are positive the Mayans, and others, knew about the stars and their movements long before telescopes. They learned that from their religions. We know that the ancients understood quantum mechanics long before microscopes. They learned that from their religions. Somewhere the protocol of learning from religions has been lost in a world filled with skepticism and defensiveness.

The temple dreaming process no longer exists in the world, even where there are temples. That was a sacred process and function of temples throughout history. When Jacob fell asleep on the great stone which became known as Jacob’s Pillar it wasn’t by accident or because he was tired. This was a stone from an ancient temple that was taken into Egypt when Joseph invited his eleven brothers to join him. It was used to build the Temple at Armana and then was taken by Gathelus and Scota to the shores of Port of Gathelus (Portugal) and later on through Ireland into Scotland. Many feel that the Stone of Scone is that rock. However, for those who have taken our class on Jacob’s Pillar we know that was a ruse to keep the stone sacred. It was later used by Robert the Bruce for a holy cause and returned to Ireland, where it remains for the public today. www.kimballcollege.com