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I do own and did read the BIBLE from cover to cover, both Catholic and King James versions. Returned to the perusal of those two Books many times wondering, pondering and still questioning..

My Grandfather, a farmer, questioned certain principles and dogmas of the Holy Writ and instilled in me the desire and relentless quest to study, ask questions, to think and evaluate. So I am asking.

In Courts as well known, we have to take an oath and report what we saw, i.e. to give an account of the factual occurrence. In Courts the phrase: "I believe" is not valid.

In Churches, however, as well known, we are supposed to believe anything and everything the dogmas teach, even if it is fantastic, improbable, preposterous, or just plainly stupid. If we do not accept certain doctrines, principles, teachings and beliefs as true, we are doomed and condemned for eternity.

The following incident happened about 67 years ago in a small European country where I was born.

The school vacations were spent on farm, away from the town where we lived. What a joy it was for us children to be with grandparents we loved and all the farm animals to be with and to help to take care of them. How well I recall the Sunday morning when threatening clouds started to appear on the horizon. So instead of going to the Sunday Mass, the whole family took off to gather the ripe dry wheat and put it on the wagons. There were two teams of horses. We all worked feverishly, as I recall, often glancing at the sky and running and helping as fast as my 8 year old legs could carry me. The hailstorm did come, and we were grateful because nearly all of the wheat was under the roof.

On Monday morning, a priest, gloomy, solemn, resolute and disapproving came to give us a piece of his wisdom and the infinite knowledge about the unspeakable sin we committed by missing the Sunday Mass. I remember him holding a Bible in one hand and a golden crucifix in the other.

He looked us over, then looking at my Grandfather told him, that we all deserve punishment and surely we shall get it, because we disobeyed the Lord by working on His Holy Day. He also expounded on the suffering in hell and the everlasting wrath of the Lord.

My beloved Grandfather looked at the messenger of the Lord and at all of us, as the whole family was assembled in the kitchen. Then he said: "Children listen and remember this well. I am a farmer and make a living by plowing and planting the ground. I depend on the earth and nature to give us bread for which we labor. I believe in Providence and the everlasting wisdom of the Creator……….. But, I also know that work that has to be done is far better than any lip service. We all took care to bring the wheat in, otherwise we would be without food. And the God I believe in knows that. I have a prayer of thanks in my heart and He also knows that."

Slowly he turned to face the emissary of the Lord and continued: " Now you, the so called Father, you listen and listen well. To me you are mealy mouthed unproductive idler. I tilled the ground and planted the seeds. It took months before the wheat could be cut and harvested. If it remained in the field it would have been destroyed by the hailstorm.

Your Church wants and asks for handouts, donations, tithes and payments for indulgences. Let me tell you this priest, you and your Church live off us. If it were not for us the working people, the farmers, the help, the laborers and the animals who all help us the growers, you would not have your nice parish house to live in. You would not have soft hands clutching the crucifix and the Bible. The only damage you have from the hailstorm are few broken geraniums on your windowsill."

The face of the man of the Cloth was pale and flushed in rapid succession. Grandfather told the self-righteous, narrow minded, intolerant, preaching bumbler to get out of the house real fast. And he did, his long priest's garb flying.

Grandfather always taught us to ask questions about the Creator, the true GOD. Not the mean, vicious, vengeful, self-conceited wrathful God of the Bible. After coming to England and learning the English language, I discovered works of Thomas Paine, Robert Ingersoll, Emerson, Elbert Hubbard, Franklin, Joseph McCabe , Thoreau and other shining lights of wisdom and inspiration. Grandfather was right. He never heard of these writers, lecturers, those immortal teachers and penmen. But he was using common sense and the burning desire to know the TRUTH about the beginning of it all.

I often think about him and only wish that he could see now, that what he believed and taught us, was correct. The toiling farmer with callused hands never knew about the "Age of Reason" by Thomas Paine. Never heard of Bertrand Russell on "God and Religion." Yet my Grandfather thought and believed in the goodness and mercy of the Providence by being good to all men and animals.

And that truly is all to life and living. Is there anything else? I doubt it.

Thank you for reading about my Grandfather.

To be continued. Respectfully

PROVE ME WRONG 75 years old Truth seeker.

Thanks for your participation.

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