The difference between Course and Christianity
This chapter will point out the main differences between A Course in Miracles and traditional Christianity.
Let’s start with two common teachings regarding the creation of the earth and the universe. We will analyze the Genesis account of creation, evolution, the creation-evolution controversy, and A Course in Miracles statement about the world. For those who are interested in pursuing further research much of my information comes from the Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia, which has saved me untold hours at the library.
The First Book of Moses, Called GENESIS
Chapter 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night, And the evening and the morning were the first day.
6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, and herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the morning were the forth day.
20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
CHAPTER 2
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
That’s all of the essential account of the creation according to Genesis. Next we will look at the introduction to evolution.
Evolution is the process of change in all forms of life over generations, and evolutionary biology is the study of how and why evolution occurs. An organism inherits features (called traits) from its parents through genes. Changes (called mutations) in these genes can produce a new trait in the offspring of an organism. If a new trait makes these offspring better suited to their environment, they will be more successful at surviving and reproducing. This process is called natural selection, and it causes useful traits to become more common. Over many generations, a population can acquire so many new traits that it becomes a new species.
The understanding of evolutionary biology began with the 1859 publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. In addition, Gregor Mendel’s work with plants helped to explain the hereditary patterns of genetics. This led to an understanding of the mechanisms of inheritance. Further discoveries of how genes mutate, as well as advances in population genetics explained more details of how evolution occurs. Scientists now have a good understanding of the origin of new species (speciation). They have observed the speciation process happening both in the laboratory and in the wild. This modern view of evolution is the principal theory that scientists use to understand life.
There exists more controversy between religion and the scientific community regarding creation vs. evolution than I could possibly cover. This is just the briefest of overviews from Wikipedia.
The creation-evolution controversy (also termed the creation vs. evolution debate or the origins debate) is a recurring political dispute about the origins of the Earth, humanity, life, and the universe, between those who espouse the validity and superiority of a particular religiously-based creation myth and the scientific consensus, particularly in the field of evolutionary biology, but also in the fields of geology, paleontology, thermodynamics, nuclear physics and cosmology.
This debate is most prevalent in generally conservative regions of the United States. It is often portrayed as part of the culture wars. While the controversy has a long history, today it is mainly over what constitutes good science, with the politics of creationism primarily focusing on the teaching of creation and evolution in public education.
The debate also focuses on issues such as the definition of science (and of what constitutes scientific research and evidence), science education (and whether the teaching of the scientific consensus view should be balanced by also teaching fringe theories), free speech, separation of Church and State, and theology, (particularly how different Christian denominations interpret the Book of Genesis).
Within the scientific community and academia the level of support for evolution is essentially universal, while support for biblically-literal accounts or other creationist alternatives is very small among scientists, and virtually nonexistent among those in the relevant fields.
The debate is sometimes portrayed as being between science and religion. However, as the National Academy of Sciences states: Today, many religious denominations accept that biological evolution has produced the diversity of living things over billions of years of Earth’s history. Many have issued statements observing that evolution and the tenets of their faiths are compatible. Scientists and theologians have written eloquently about their awe and wonder at the history of the universe and of life on this planet, explaining that they see no conflict between their faith in God and the evidence for evolution. Religious denominations that do not accept the occurrence of evolution tend to be those that believe in strictly literal interpretations of religious texts.
A Course in Miracles overview
I find nothing A Course in Miracles has in common with either of these teachings. It deals with our perception of the world and is to be utilized as a tool for personal change.
A Course in Miracles hits on the same theme over and over, which is this, is not the real world. I will deal much more extensively with this subject in chapter seven, an overview of the world we live in. I will close this subject for now with paragraphs one and two from lesson 240 of the workbook for students.
What is the World?
“The world is false perception. It is born of error, and it has not left its source. It will remain no longer than the thought that gave it birth is cherished. When the thought of separation has been changed to one of true forgiveness, will the world be seen in quite another light; and one which leads to truth, where all the world must disappear and all its errors vanish. Now its source has gone, and its effects are gone as well.
The world was made as an attack on God. It symbolizes fear. And what is fear except love’s absence? Thus the world was meant to be a place where God could enter not and where His Son could be apart from Him. Here was perception born, for knowledge could not cause such insane thoughts. But eyes deceive, and ears hear falsely. Now mistakes become quite possible, for certainty has gone.”
All I can say in closing is the program seems to be working exactly as it is supposed to.
The next big difference between traditional Christianity and A Course in Miracles teachings is the concept of original sin. Christianity teaches that original sin started with the fall from grace of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and that we are sinners worthy only of eternal damnation and that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. We must accept Jesus as our Savior or suffer eternal damnation. On page 412 of the text sentences 8 and 9 A Course in Miracles states, “No one can die for anyone, and death does not atone for sin. But you can live to show it is not real.”
A Course in Miracles is radically different. In an introduction to A Course in Miracles on page 6 it states, “The Course, however, is clearly intended not as a restatement, but as a purification, of traditional Christianity. It implies that by labeling sin and evil, and time and space ultimately real, Christianity has subtly added to our burden of guilt, reinforced our limitations and made God a punisher, instead of a lover. Of these ideas, the Course says, “This is not the Gospel I intended to offer you.” In its system the key to our release is the fact that both our condition and its cornerstone, sin, are somehow dreams. Only what God wills is real and God wills only limitless love.”
I thought the concept of original sin worthy of a whole chapter and I cover it in much more detail in chapter 4.
The Bible encourages killing and violence. There is no violence or killing anywhere in A Course in Miracles. I logged into The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible on the Internet and it made an educated guess that the Christian God of mercy has killed at least 2,391,421 men, women, and children, besides encouraging animal sacrifice. And that was when the world was relatively under-populated and we didn’t have all these modern weapons. If God and His true believers were to get serious about killing people now there’s no telling how many would die.
We can only hope Course thinking prevails before then. That’s our only chance.
Christianity and the Christian Church have many meaningless rituals and unnecessary displays of wealth. Many Christians believe material wealth to be one of Gods blessings. A Course in Miracles has no rituals, no buildings, no denominations, and the material wealth the world has to offer is not sought after. Christianity offers us only guilt. A Course in Miracles offers us its workbook, which is a tool to make our lives better. As Course followers there’s nothing we need to be, nothing we need to believe, nothing we need to do, and nothing we need to be saved from. We need only make a little effort. Christianity teaches us we need to be saved in this world to get into heaven when we die. A Course in Miracles teaches us we do not die, that death is only an illusion, and heaven is here for us right now if we only claim it.
Christianity encourages child abuse. Everyone knows the Bible says spare the rod spoil the child. It does say that, doesn’t it? Well, actually it doesn’t. That quaint old saying is actually a corruption of Proverbs 13:24 which reads, “He that spareth his rod hateth his son; but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.” Notice that it doesn’t say anything about girls. I guess God decided they weren’t worth beating.
On a more serious note if anyone doubts that there’s any shortage of child abuse all you have to do is read the headlines of any major newspaper for a month.
I’ll end this chapter with a note about war and an Internet joke I read about an Atheist college professor. The Bible and the Christian Church encourage war of course, and in the history of mankind all of the people killed in war have been killed in the name of God.
But in the end I decided we couldn’t really hold God responsible for that because war is just what we do. I have much more to say on this subject in chapter 16, The Culture of Death.
The joke I read goes like this. A philosophy professor was giving a lecture to his class. The first thing he said was, “If God really exists let Him strike me dead.” Of course nothing happened so the professor sarcastically remarked, “ I guess Gods out to lunch, I’ll try again later.” He finished class and then said, “I guess I’ll try one more time. Hey God, if you’re up there strike me dead.” It so happened there was an ex Marine in the class, going to school on the G.I. bill. He got out of his seat and walked up to the professor and punched him out. A few minutes later when the professor came to he asked, “What the hell did you do that for?” The ex Marine replied, “God was busy so he sent me to do it.”
This joke has two morals. The first one is its very popular in this country to criticize the intellectual class. The politicians are especially good at it. In fact the typical politician often seems to take pride in his ignorance. The second one is people are killed and injured in war because as the ex Marine stated, God needed his help to do his will. Thus people are killed in the name of God.
Here’s the bottom line regarding that type of thinking. If God really existed as an omnipotent external power, the creator of the heavens and the earth, why would he need your help to do anything?
RR-ESM