3.0 Who Am I

I am an Australian but like many Aussies I came from somewhere else.. specifically Barnsley, Yorkshire UK 1959 at age 10. I remember browsing through Arthur Mee's Children’s Encyclopaedia, spellbound at the history of humanity and our technology and the question about the existence of God. We left the books in England but the wonder and hunger to know stuck fast. After some creative efforts with model aeroplanes at Liverpool Boy's High School (Sydney) I wanted to be an airline pilot.. but I was out gunned, too many good guys (quick thinking, confident types). In spite of me and my Yugoslav mate blowing ourselves up with the aid of stolen chemistry gear, I still wanted to pursue a career in aviation technology. I ended up doing a degree in Aeronautical Engineering at UNSW and notwithstanding an interlude of 18 months in Her Majesty's Royal Australian Army, I graduated in 1972. I didn't go to Vietnam but I did meet God..


I think there is a price to pay for not pursuing truth. Take the terrible natural disasters of flood, fire, earthquake etc. If the victims had known and understood even one single truth about the coming catastrophe and acted appropriately they would not have died. The time and strength of earthquakes and tsunamis is not knowable but in some other cases it is. Like with the rumblings of Mt Vesuvius, if the inhabitants of Pompeii had known the truth about what a volcanic eruption could do they could have escaped. If we had known the truth about asthma in Oct 1988 our ten year old daughter Ruth would not have died. I was called up in 1969 during the Vietnam conflict and it was at that time that I determined to settle the question about God once and for all. Who is he, what if anything had he to do with my life, my time? Silence would have been a definite nothing..


I asked three questions in strict privacy and arrogantly demanded a written answer on a single sheet of paper with a diagram. The three questions were as follows:

1. Where does evil or my sense of it come from?
   
2. Do I have to wear a cassock?
   
3. Is there anything after death?
   

The second has to do with my brother and myself being drafted into the local Anglican Church choir at about 9 and bears on the question of the meaning of all religious apparel and ritual. All I know is after about two weeks I had that piece of paper in my hand. The man who wrote it out had a bible in his hand and he answered the questions clearly not having the foggiest idea of my private arrangement with God. I had to think long and hard about it all.

Have a really nice day..