Consider the following information, which is an excerpt from Not Demons, Not Gods, soon to be released, by John T. Hourihan, Jr.

“What is God?” the woman asked. “I know that some old books said God is a masculine being that created order from chaos in a week. It seems a bit simplified, but I guess God is whatever caused the creation of the universes.”

“Well, I suppose that is what we are here to find out. We are trying our best to understand where we came from, who we are, and where we are headed, so understanding this entity that was given the name ‘God’ may be important. Most of the old texts say this god ‘always was and always will be’. That is how it was explained to the followers who had, at the time, been only relatively recently crawling out of caves and beginning to build housing for themselves. They knew how to create fire, cook food, use a few tools, but they did not know even a small bit of what we know now.”

“Are you going to tell us that we should believe in science instead of religion and history, because that’s just what the Republic says in its Rule One?” the woman asked.

“No, I’m going to tell you that there is truth in all three. I’m going to tell you that religion was the personification of science so it would be understood by those who weren’t capable of understanding the science behind creation, but that the religions were important too. As were the history books that the Republic burned. We are going to tell you that religion is the personification of science and that history is written by the victors in wars. But that we need to hear all of them if we are ever to know the truth.”

Evelyn stepped from the center of the room and edged closer to the wall. She was trying to get a clear glimpse of the two people standing almost in the hallway in the shadows. She continued.

“Always was and always will be. We understand now that there is only one thing that cannot be created nor destroyed. In other words, always was always will be. We know from the first law of thermo-dynamics that that is an explanation of energy. Is everyone following?”

There were nods and mumbled assent from the ten or so students.

“Then let’s go a little further,” Evelyn said and moved again this time closer to the hallway.

“Are you thinking now?” Evelyn asked the group.

“I don’t understand,” one of the students said.

“Are you thinking now? It is not a trick question. I just want to know if you are thinking right now.”

“Yes,” several said out loud.

“Okay, what was your first thought? As a baby, what was your very first thought?”

“I’m hungry,” a young man said and everyone laughed.

Evelyn and her partner David laughed too. “No, I mean your very first thought as a child.”

The woman in the darkness at the edge of the hallway said, “I exist. I am.”

“Yes,” Evelyn answered. “Could you come out of the darkness and talk to us?” she asked the woman.

Sophie stepped forward.

“Seshua, oh my God!” Evelyn said.

“No, not at all,” Sophie answered, “I am in no way god, but what goes on in god goes on in all of us all the time. Energy is part of everything, us included. As Sophie taught us, the kingdom of god is within us. You are right. God, in the old ways and in a new explanation of god as energy, is why we exist. And since there is currently thought going on in this room there must have been a first thought, and, as in babies, the first thought energy had was ‘I Am. I exist.’ That is why Jesus tried to tell us that in order to understand God we must look to ‘a baby only seven days old,’ and then we would see that energy, the first thing in the universe, had a first thought. It became aware of itself. Then it said, what? What did it say Evelyn?”

Sophie/Seshua looked at her follower/teacher for an answer.

“It said, ‘Let there be light,’” Evelyn said, and she went on, stepping confidently to the center of the room. “What that most likely meant, to those who first accepted that the entity that created light was an omniscient being called God, was that he created light with a wave of his omnipotent hand. To those of us who have studied the fundamentals of thermo-dynamics in high school, it means vibration in the newly sentient energy effected charged particles and emitted electro-magnetic radiation which was perceived as light. Light is how energy travels as photons. Or the other explanation is this. The omnipotent being in the sky, named Yahweh or in Hebrew ish milchamah, did it. By the way, ish milchamah is the Hebrew translation of Yahweh. It means ‘man of war.’

“Energy created light in the infancy of the All, the infancy of order in the cosmos,” Evelyn finished and looked at Sophie for anything she might want to say.

“Go on,” Sophie prodded with a smile.

“This is where the personification I talked about happens, and Energy became the almighty God. A human-like being with powers of omnipotence. Later, when energy realized it was sentient, it became Sophia the personhood of wisdom, and even later for the Christians it became the Christ, the personification of love. There’s your three people in God.”

“Are you trying to tell us that energy actually became aware of itself and had a thought? Are you saying that energy could think?” the woman asked.

“Yes. That is why I asked if you were thinking now. Because if we can think now, there must have been a time when there was the very first thought, the very first awareness.”

“Do unto others,” Sophie said in a soft and meaningful way.

“As you would have them do unto you,” they all answered.

“Are you staying?” David asked Sophie and William.

“No,” Sophie said. “Not this time.” She turned to Evelyn. “Well done,” she said. “I’ll see you again.” …

Not Demons, Not Gods, soon to be published, is the fifth book in the MUSTARD SEED series. Other books in this MUSTARD SEED series, written by John T. Hourihan, Jr. are: