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THE GOD BU$INE$$

by Earl F. Lehman

220 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #00-0199; ISBN 1-55212-533-5; US$21.50, C$29.95, EUR19.50, £13.50

Consumer information and evaluation of world religions. Written in the popular style with attention to fact and truth, the book contains humor and is highly readable.

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about the book a personal note from the author excerpts catalogue info

About the Book

We are continually furnished information regarding the
quality of goods and services by entities in both the public
and private sectors.

There are publications, laws, and regulatory bodies to afford
some measure of consumer protection in nearly every area of
enterprise.

These are helpful for they provide methods of comparing the
worth of what is offered.

It is important to recognize what is diluted, fraudulent,
counterfeit, spurious, and/or impractical---
as opposed to that which is genuine, worthy, and therefore
valuable.

Although it is always better to thoroughly evaluate prior to
making a commitment, late is better than never.

Those who would protect our interests may have been remiss.
It is far past time for a penetrating consumer evaluation of

THE
GOD BU$INE$$

by
Earl F. Lehman

A personal note from the author

Born the first of twelve children in a Roman Catholic family, I was reared with special attention to the religion inherited from my parents. Mother was a convert but my father had followed the religion of his parents, and they their parents, etc., etc. At the tender age of 21, I dutifully married a girl who had converted from Baptist to Catholic on my account, but whose relatives resented that fact fiercely and were diligent in their efforts to get her back on the "right track." Differences in our religious beliefs played a large role in the divorce that followed shortly after our first wedding anniversary.
My subsequent consultation with a parish priest revealed that to be assured of God's good graces it would be necessary for me to become celibate for the rest of my life unless my former wife happened to die before I did, in which (fortunate?) instance I would again be free to seek the natural companionship of a woman. An uncle, my godfather, strongly advised my joining a religious order, and I did consider it ------ for several minutes. Up to that time, my belief in everything I had been taught in the Catholic Church and in the Catholic schools was total. I had never questioned that the only way to avoid Hell (the desire to enter Heaven was not quite as important as staying out of Hell) was to be a practicing Catholic. I believed, as I had been taught, that Martin Luther had abandoned the priesthood solely because he had a very strong desire to marry a certain nun. I believed that it was sufficient reason for my God to damn my soul to everlasting fire if I were foolish enough to attend a religious service other than Catholic. In fact, I remember experiencing involuntary shudders whenever I passed a Lutheran church about a block from where I went to school in the eighth grade. I think I feared the unholy things that must be going on inside and that the devil might come charging out at any moment to force me to participate. And how many times had I anticipated the sudden, fatal lightning bolt because I absent-mindedly bit into a hamburger on a Friday? Or forgot to attend Mass on a Holy Day of Obligation? Or lots of other things committed or omitted unintentionally? I questioned nothing Catholic until that personal historic time when reason and religion collided head-on, when my Roman Catholic God appeared to take advantage of a position into which I had been forced and imposed conditions that seemed not only unfair, but also illogical. All I had learned became suspect. Until then, there had been no compelling necessity to establish my very own relationship with my Creator. But now there was.
I began to study. I read books, plenty of books, the Bible, histories, tomes on all manner of religious subjects. I listened to sermons in churches of many denominations, on the radio and on television. I pondered ponderous pious pronouncements and pretty platitudes from miscellaneous highly placed churchmen, all of whom claimed truth even as they differed widely. Surprisingly, the differences seemed to be the most important part. The Baptists proclaimed that if one has not been properly immersed it might be okay with God, but Baptist-wise it is absolutely unacceptable. Seventh Day Adventists advised that to observe the Sabbath on Sunday is wrong, wrong, wrong! Each denomination is founded on some difference and this peculiar characteristic extends throughout the religions, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, all of them. There is little agreement, vast disagreement, about who God is and what He (or They) would demand. Each adherent is positive that his or her way is right and the others emphatically wrong. I spoke with people of various persuasions whose main goal in life seemed to be my swift conversion to whatever faith they happened to espouse, rather than providing believable answers to my earnest questions. Indeed, had it been permitted, for my lack of blind acceptance of their convoluted statements some of them would have cheerfully punched me if they thought they could get away with it. The more I questioned, the more I needed to question. Ideas and facts were written down, and I puzzled and continued to seek an authority I could believe.
In all honesty, I heard that it might be possible to obtain a dispensation or something from Rome that would excuse the previous ill-starred nuptials and allow me to do it again with church blessings. I also heard that it would be quite expensive and time consuming. Perhaps the seeds of some kind of discontent already existed in me for it had often crossed my mind that God's alleged affinity for money was curious, to say the least. At any rate, in due course I married again, this time to a Lutheran girl in a Lutheran church after a course of instruction from a Lutheran minister. That marriage lasted 25 years. Lutheran devotions were not as nefarious as I had been led to believe. They were not nefarious at all. However, it was interesting to observe that some Lutherans were most suspicious about activities of other religions, Catholics in particular. Unlike the Catholic, Lutheran leadership did not prohibit the flock from attendance at other brands of services. Rather, there was an air of optimism that we wouldn't like it anyway.
Experience and reason notwithstanding, those mind conditionings one receives as a child are not easy to dismiss. It continued to periodically worry me that I had abandoned the faith that God had caused me to be born into. One dark night in 1979 on Interstate 75 between Dayton and Cincinnati, I drove along mentally reviewing this belief and that, wondering about the fate of my immortal soul. I felt very alone. There did not even seem to be any other cars on the road. Suddenly, the sense of "aloneness" vanished. There was, apparently, no actual sound, but a forceful yet kindly voice seemed to saturate my whole self while the words appeared in my head as though displayed on a neon sign. "GOD IS YOUR FRIEND." It was not a blinding or earth-shattering experience, nor an occasion of unseemly ecstasy. It was merely impressive. The more I thought about it the more my concerns abated. Anxieties were replaced by appreciation. My belief in God took a whole new slant. The exploration of what man believes was encouraged by the reason and logic with which these were now interpreted in my mind, often with a humor quite at odds with the austerity and solemnity commonly exhibited by those who would tell me what God wants me to do.
At one time, I would have feared that daring to question, having the courage to make up my own mind, were machinations of Satan. No more! I am now satisfied about my relationship with God. It could be said that I have found my "religion." Although, over the centuries, millions may have believed as I do now, I am and will always be the only member of my "church."
Reader, I must mention to you in advance that I do firmly believe in the Creator of the Universe and I believe also that one can have a personal relationship with that entity. Further, I am convinced that Almighty God has arranged a life after this one. A personal experience has a lot to do with that conviction. In 1969, I was hospitalized for surgery. I had been ailing for more than two years and had become quite emaciated. My physician had been treating me for the wrong malady. When I changed doctors, it was quickly discovered that cancer was the problem. After the operation, there was doubt that I would make it through the night. Even before I became ill, I was quite fearful of death and the possibility of total extinction, or of having to face a sternly judgmental God to be punished for all sorts of infractions. When I returned to consciousness the following day in intensive care, all that fear was gone, replaced by a sense of anticipation that the next life is something to look forward to. I have since read articles about near-death experiences of others and have found that this feeling is typical. I cannot remember seeing light at the end of a tunnel or any other phenomena. All I know is that I was given a peaceful knowledge that there is a life that follows this one and that it is nothing to fear. I greatly appreciate it.
The origin of the "God is your friend" advice remains unidentified. Perhaps, in fact, it might have been just a product of my own mind and thoughts. But on the other hand, Isaiah, St. Paul, Muhammad, Oral Roberts, and a whole gang of others claim to have received "the word" that way, so what the heck!
For starters, here is a thought one should retain when reading anything that has to do with religion. Many such publications, including the Bible, will claim or infer that the Almighty had a hand in writing them. This provides a decided advantage for the verification of the statements as they are read by anybody who is willing to think that God writes books. For the record, my words are not claimed to be divinely inspired. If I said they were, it would not make it so. If I said they weren't, that wouldn't necessarily make it not so. Some, none, or all of them might be. It would seem, though, that if God chooses to speak to us, he would not make us guess what he said, nor would there be any question that it was he. Nor, it seems to me, would he select a person here and there with whom to converse, thereby condemning the rest of us to depend on second-hand information.
If you would prefer to believe that this book was written for profit, you may. However, you cannot condemn it for that unless you are prepared to also condemn the Pope, Billy Graham, Jim Bakker, Robert Schuller, Jerry Falwell, imams, ayatollahs, lamas, monks, priests, ministers, pastors, rabbis, and all others who use man's belief in God as a means of livelihood.
Do not fear that this is an atheistic book. It definitely is not, although I'm sure it will be labeled in an uncomplimentary fashion by those who cannot tolerate a point of view which differs from their own. I seek only to share information, to encourage thought, and to afford a perspective not provided by the organized religions. Every effort has been made to record facts and to present them in truth and accuracy. Certainly, you should check them out for yourself. Any conclusions you draw should be your own ---- not mine, not those of somebody in the God Business ---- your very own.
-Earl F. Lehman

Excerpts

Chapter V - The First God

There may be no need to search for arcane knowledge of the original God. It is possible that all insight into his personality which he desires us to know can be revealed to each of us, individually, without instruction from others, if we but think about it rationally.
-from The First Book of Earl
Logically, the First God must be the one who caused everything else to be. He is the beginning of all and creator of the universe and all its contents. He existed prior to the existence of humans. (The use of the pronoun "He" is not intended to indicate that God is masculine rather than feminine. Indeed, unless God has a need to reproduce there would be no need for gender, and if God is a "He" it would follow that a "She" should accompany "Him" and "They" would beget other gods ----- and there goes monotheism. But we'll use the pronoun "He." Somehow that sounds more respectful than "It.")
The First God would be fantastically intelligent and immensely powerful and creative. Our Earth is 8,000 miles in diameter. The First God made it, or made whatever did, which is just as good. Earth is impressive but its diameter is only 1% that of the sun. The sun is the center of our solar system, which is a tiny part of the Milky Way galaxy. Traveling at 186,282 miles per second, light arrives from the sun to the earth in slightly over 8 minutes. It takes light 100,000 years to cross from one edge of our galaxy to the other. This is not the only galaxy in the universe. As unimaginably huge as a galaxy is, there are unbelievable numbers of them. Within the small space framed in the sky by the bowl of the Big Dipper are more than a million others, each with millions or billions of stars and other celestial bodies. If there are that many in such a little section of sky, just reflect for a moment the immensity of Creation. Nobody knows how many galaxies there are nor how big the universe is, but it would all be the work of the First God.
The First God then cannot not be a primitive, old-fashioned creature as represented in so many of the "holy books," pictures, graven images, and such. From the very beginning, he had at his command all the laws of physics, for they are his laws. Likewise, he knew geometry, mathematics, electronics, chemistry, anatomy, nuclear energy, medicine, and every other science. He was familiar with hydrogen bombs, radio, television, transistors, X-ray, DNA, airplanes, spacecraft, firearms, and everything in the modern world including things we haven't even dreamed of yet. It is according to the laws of the First God that all of these are possible. The First God was quite thorough and practical. He invented gravity, nuclear fusion and fission, computer logic, black holes, quasars, comets. He did it all long before man appeared on the scene to try to solve and exploit those magnificent, harmonious laws with which the Universe was built.
Yet those who say they know God and would instruct us in pleasing him have usually regarded man's scientific discoveries as man-made and have relegated the First God and other of their gods to positions of primitive, narrow-minded pettiness. They have painted the Almighty guilty of greed and pride and jealousy and every shortcoming of the most vainglorious and despotic earthly monarch, even including egomania, indecisiveness and stupidity. They have decreed that sacrificial destruction of God's own creations finds favor in his eyes and that various degrees of denial of the life in which he has placed us brings him satisfaction. Religion organizers have equated God's personality with that of human rulers who demanded to be adored, worshipped, and praised by their subjects to magnify their self-esteem.
Although it is likely that those steeped from birth in the tenets of various faiths may explore other ideas with great difficulty, it may nonetheless be beneficial that they balance the concepts of the organized religions against the nature of the First God as defined by logic. We have been given powers with which to think and reason. It is common for some religions to class as sinful such things as television, medicine, telephones, electricity, etc., which exist only because the laws of the First God allow them to function. Most "faiths" would likewise deny the use of God-given reason if it in any way interferes with their urgently desired worldly goals. But the ability to reason is given, in varying degrees, to each of us. Might it be sinful NOT to use it?
Here is a thought for those who believe that God would prefer that they not use electricity, telephones, automobiles, medical services, airplanes, etc. Consider that the people inventing such items were not departing from God's plan when they did it. They were seeking to design them in accordance with God's laws of physics, chemistry, etc. because they knew that these inventions would be useless otherwise. Those laws have been there since Creation. Just because we have lately learned new and different ways to use (obey) God's natural laws does not make evil those items that result. Doesn't that make sense?
There are countless organized religions, each claiming to dispense messages, rules, and regulations from on high, but in astounding wide variety. Through the ages, organized religions have come and gone. Their founders and practitioners have had conversations with divinity, so they said anyway. Every one of them has used this "relationship" to achieve wealth, power, and/or influence. All of them have claimed that their particular program was what the Creator desired more than anything else in all Creation. Each of them has relentlessly promised that the Creator of Everything will be vastly dissatisfied unless accorded rituals, glorification, praise, and worship. These religionists are adamant that we employ them and their subordinates to lead us in the performance of these "sacred and required duties."
In light of the probable character and intelligence of the First God according to our own logic, we must ask ourselves, "Is this a likely situation?" Well, is it? If, in your own mind, you experience difficulty accepting the evident limitless power, majesty, and supreme mentality of the Maker of the Universe in terms of the First God as outlined here, it might be enlightening for you to explore those things you have been taught in order to discover in what way God Almighty could be different, lesser than described. Otherwise, you will have big problems reading the rest of this book.

Nothing makes sense to a closed mind
except those things that are already inside it.
It learns nothing. It cannot.
-from The First Book of Earl

Gravity is not just a good idea. It's the law!
-Author Unknown

from Chapter IX - The Bible, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther
The Philistines should have known better than to fool around with the ark. They stored it in the temple of their god Dagon, but the next morning they found Dagon flat on his face. They set him up again and when they came to look the following morning, there he was again, on his face, but this time his head and hands had been cut off as well. "Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon's house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day. But the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof." (I Sam. 5:5,6) This encouraged the Philistines to move the ark someplace else. "And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts." (I Sam. 5:9) The ark was taken to Ekron (no, not Akron, Ekron) and its citizenry protested its presence and wanted it returned to its rightful owners. Their just intentions received no appreciation. There was deadly destruction, "And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods and the cry of the city went up to heaven." (I Sam. 5:12)
Emerods! The word has a certain familiarity. It sounds like emeralds or something equally exotic, but possibly more fearsome than the dreaded Egyptian Botch (Deut. 28:27). Among the numerous plagues sent by the Lord, this is a novelty. Upon research, we find that emerods is an archaic English word for hemorrhoids. The King James Version of the Bible is a translation from other languages into English of an archaic form, which also accounts for word forms such as "thee," "thy," "thou," "hath," "wouldst," etc., etc. We have but little knowledge of the diagnostic accuracy of Biblical times but the hemorrhoid malady does indeed occur in "secret parts." Anyway, the Philistines found this really to be a pain, and they wanted to make amends and get relief. It didn't sit well with them. It seems, simultaneously with the emerods, there was a mouse plague that also needed to be eliminated. It was recommended that the ark be returned to the Hebrews with a trespass offering and that offering had to be five golden emerods and five golden mice. "Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land..." (I Sam. 6:5) It must have been jewelry to take one's breath away.
In order to achieve a sense of reality, it is often of value to try to realize the attendant actions which must surround a reported event. In this case, a goldsmith is needed. Then the artisan must be apprised of the requirements.
"Sir, we understand that you are a specialist in wrought gold."
"I am. What can I do for you?"
"We have an immediate need for mouse images made of gold, five of them."
"I can have them ready next week but I require a deposit."
"Fine. How about emerods?"
"Oh yes, everybody I've talked to has them and I have a bad case myself, but I'll be able to work standing up."
"You don't understand. We need five gold images of our emerods."
"You're putting me on. Where's the hidden camera? This is a joke, isn't it? Will I be on TV?"
"Mister, it is no joke. It's deadly serious. We need those gold emerods and we need them NOW."
"If it's that important, I'll try, but I've never fashioned any emerod images before. I know what emerods feel like but not what they look like."
"No excuses. Do it."
"All right, but I want cash --- in advance. And --- well, er --- uh -- I can't do it without a model. Who will pose?"

Or something like that. The gold emerods didn't manufacture themselves.

Catalogue Information