News Story: Vatican – It’s OK to Believe in Aliens

“‘Believing that the universe may contain alien life does not contradict a faith in God,’ the Vatican’s chief astronomer said in an interview published Tuesday.

The Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit director of the Vatican Observatory, was quoted as saying the vastness of the universe means it is possible there could be other forms of life outside Earth, even intelligent ones … Funes said that such a notion ‘doesn’t contradict our faith’ because aliens would still be God’s creatures.

Funes urged the church and the scientific community to leave behind divisions caused by Galileo’s persecution four hundred years ago, saying the incident has ’caused wounds.’

In 1633 the astronomer was tried as a heretic and forced to recant his theory that the Earth revolved around the sun. Church teaching at the time placed Earth at the center of the universe.

‘The church has somehow recognized its mistakes,’ he said. ‘Maybe it could have done it better, but now it’s time to heal those wounds and this can be done through calm dialogue and collaboration.'”

My Response: Kabbalah says that relative us and this program of actions, we are the only ones in the universe. This is because humanity constitutes one created soul, and by attaining ourselves and the Upper World within this soul, we discover that we are united into one whole with the Creator. We cannot discover any more than this (see the related material below on the attainment of reality). It explains that everything we attain, everything we perceive as existing, is what we reveal inside us, and anything we don’t feel remains outside us, as if it is nonexistent. Everything exists relative the observer. The religions will experience such setbacks again and again, because they are based on suppositions rather than attainment.

Related Material:
TV Program: Perception of Reality – Lesson 1 of 2 (25 min)
TV Program: Perception of Reality – Lesson 2 of 2 (25 min)
Article: Baal HaSulam on Our Perception of Reality
Article: “I Saw a Reversed World” – What Is Reality? How Do We Perceive It?
eBook: Kabbalah, Science and the Meaning of Life

 Kabbalah, Science and the Perception of Reality [09:56m]: Play Now | Download
 

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News Story: Inmate Count in the U.S. Dwarfs Other Nations

Information released in this recent article on U.S. inmate count in comparison with other countries’:

* The U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, but almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners

* The U.S. has 2.3 million criminals behind bars, more than any other nation

* China, which is four times more populous than the United States, is a distant second, with 1.6 million people in prison

* The only other major industrialized nation that even comes close is Russia, with 627 prisoners for every 100,000 people

* Americans are locked up for crimes that would rarely produce prison sentences in other countries. In 1980, there were about 40,000 people in American jails and prisons for drug crimes. These days, there are almost 500,000.

‘The simple truth is that imprisonment works,’ wrote Kent Scheidegger and Michael Rushford of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation in The Stanford Law and Policy Review. ‘Locking up criminals for longer periods reduces the level of crime. The benefits of doing so far offset the costs’

* The reason for the crime? “It could be related to economies that are more capitalistic and political cultures that are less social democratic than those of most European countries,” Mr. Tonry wrote. “Or it could have something to do with the Protestant religions with strong Calvinist overtones that were long influential.”

The American character – self-reliant, independent, judgmental – also plays a role.

“America is a comparatively tough place, which puts a strong emphasis on individual responsibility,” Mr. Whitman of Yale wrote. “That attitude has shown up in the American criminal justice of the last thirty years.”

My Comment: All the world’s pains are in one country.

Related Material:
What Follows American Dominion?
America – Optimistic, and Why?
Who’s the Judge?

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A question I received: I had an acute, spontaneous, mysterious experience. Can you help me understand why this happened to me? What was the purpose of it? I was in this light and love for almost fifteen minutes, completely unaware of my body. I simply lived it all.

My Answer: Such an illumination comes to many people. It’s like an invitation to attain the Upper Light constantly and clearly. You felt just a micro-glow of this Light. With Kabbalah, you have the chance to attain a sensation that is billions of times greater, and feel it constantly!

 What Is "Light" in Kabbalah? [04:42m]: Play Now | Download
 

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