Cogito ergo sum

Filthy weather; filthy cold. With sore breathing apparatus, a head full of cattarh, and thoughts about the three monotheistic religions, I bathed then rushed to Tesco for the omninecessary coffee. Also for food. I have been living on Heinz spaghetti hoops, bacon and red wine for the last three days. Dragging bags up the garden path was not fun with the reduced lung capacity - 170 whatevers I was told Tuesday. Most people would think that taking in 350 whtvrs left them a bit oxygen-deprived but that's my usual intake so 170 is not so dreadful, still it halves the norm and makes me feel - unwell!!

Never mind. My brain is still active. Cogito ergo sum. There doesn't seem to be much room in it for focusing on the shop just now what with one thing and another but here I sit at the desk, an available presence if anyone wants that. Juli called in yesterday. We did the Sophia course at the Steiner school together a few years back so she was a good person to bounce my renewed interest in the religion phenomenon around with. Juli needs a God - well, what she needs is an omnipotent Being who is Good I think; as an affirmation that there is goodness to be worked toward, though here I am putting words into her mouth. A reasonable explanation for this existance and consciousness has been what most humans have sought for since the beginnings of consciousness, and either the reassurance that events can be affected in our favour by propitiating gods and the spirit in nature, or with the belief that there is something better for us as a reward at the end of the day. One or the other. Of course I simplify.

At the outset the three great religions that have endured to this time, Judaism, Christianity and Muslim, were all from the same impulse; a mystical place which had little to do with rational thought but a lot to do with an oceanic experience. The sense of oneness with and understanding of the Ineffable. Beacuse it is ineffable and inexpressible it doesn't translate well from the original receptors - Moses, Jesus and Mohammed, and although they all began to pass this on in as pure a form as possible so that caring for their fellow beings and all of creation was a part of the 'message' this gets distorted. It is hard for me to read anything once I hear that women have been sidelined; in fact seen as the continuation of Original Sin and the cause of the Fall. It's not what was originally taught but what was distilled, and in some cases invented, by men from the mythological stories that arose from the Old Testament. Why would any woman bother to read on?