| One of the greatest Deists of all time, Thomas Jefferson, a hemp farmer, wrote in his time: “Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a censor morum over each other. Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned, yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth … Reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments. To make way for these, free inquiry must be indulged …” (Thomas Jefferson) Another brilliant and heroic Deist of the same era, Thomas Paine, in The Age of Reason wrote: “Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel.” (Thomas Paine – The Age of Reason) Concluding this chapter we have read how the “Age of Reason,” or the Enlightenment of the Renaissance was inspired by the mushroom use and also influenced the beginning and creation of philosophical alchemy. This led to the creation of secret societies like the Illuminati who were made up of Deists who opposed the imperialist Catholic Church and this same resistance to the Catholic Church led the Deist Founding Fathers to throw a revolution separating America from the control of the British monarchy who was married to the Catholic Church. This led to the separation of church and state in America. I have never been one to take up names or boxes which might limit who I am, but if there ever was a title which I could relate to, and if someone were to try to claim a position for me, I have no problem being labeled a “Deist.” It’s not that I do not believe in a god/dess, but my idea of god/dess is more in alignment with that of the ancients as studied in this book, than in any religion or anti-religion that currently exists, which is why I think the people should take back the churches and use them for psychedelic practice, as they were originally intended. |