1. The Pavlovian Paradox.

In the 1930s during the most vehement anti-religious campaign in Russian academician Ivan Pavlov, the famous biologist, a Nobel laureate and a committed agnostic suddenly became religious. He started to attend the Znamenskaya Church in Leningrad ( St. Petersburg) regularly dressed in full parade with all his numerous awards, including the ones he received from the Tzarist regime. Young militiamen who guarded the Church and did not know who he was called him ’an epitome of ignorance’ and a ‘ harmful old man’. Here we are entering the domain of apocryphal. According to some sources Soviet government was irritated too. Pavlov was invited to the official informal banquet where he met Maxim Gorky, the famous Russian proletariat writer. They knew each other for a long time. Gorky addresses Pavlov with a speech in which he expressed a surprise that Pavlov worshipped God while in his, Gorky’s opinion there was another perfect object for admiration and even worship- the Great Man he sees right there. With these words Gorky bowed to Pavlov in admiration for his scientific achievements and personality.

Pavlov got very angry, immediately left and broke all relations with Gorky.

When dying Pavlov invited medical students to record the process. He did not invite a priest and died as an agnostic. Immediately after his death Znamenskaya Church was demolished.

1. The Saint for all Religions.

In 1943 during the ‘liquidation’ of the Warsaw ghetto a strange group was marching through the city to the railway station, destination Auschwitz. A group of children, organized and neatly dressed were marching under the green banner. They were lead by an adult , a famous doctor Henrich Goldshmidt more known as Janush Korchak, the author of the most popular books on childrens education, Korchak developed a methodology of parenting much earlier than Dr. Spok. Those were his children, the ones from the Jewish orphanage he administered and the banner was the one he designed for them.

Dr. Korchak was by no means a good Jew. His writings were devoted to all the children no matter what the origin. His novel ‘King Matias I’ does not have Jews in it. But on the platform, after the children were ‘loaded’ and the Gestapo officer offered him to stay, Korchak answered , ‘Only with my children.’ Off he went to burn in Auschwitz and with that ashes going up to Heaven he became a Saint for all Churches and all religions whoever recognizes a child as the primary miracle of Humanity.

1. The Legend of the Keys.

Lyon Feichtwanger, a prominent Jewish- German writer tells us a powerful legend in his book ‘The Judean War’ According to the legend when Jews were besieged in Jerusalem by the Romans under Titus Flavius the Romans deliberately set fire to the Great Temple. When the building was engulfed in flames the High Priest went up on the roof , took out the keys to the primary gate and addressed the God, ’Take the keys to the Temple!’. And a hand appeared in the sky, took the keys and vanished right before the roof collapsed.

4. The Moslem Story: Moses Gives Advise to Mohammed.

According to this story I heard from the Turks Mohammed went to visit Allah for the guidance on the everyday life of his people. Apparently Allah said that every day they had to prey to him 50 times. That made Mohammed very sad because he was a practical man and understood that such excessive demand would not leave people any time to work for living. On his way back from the Seventh Heaven he met Moses on the Third one and complained to him. Moses was very sympathetic. He said, ’Oh, my friend. Go back to Allah and ask for a smaller number of the daily prayers. He will eventually grant your wishes. My God is a very different story; He never reconsiders. See, when I told the Jews that He sent me and took them out of Egypt He let it slide. I devised the Commandments and told the Jews that He did it. He let it go once again. But when we reached the Holy Land and I was ready to step on it He thundered, ’Moses, it is your time to leave the Earth and let Another one to lead your people.’ No excuses. So, go, my brother and come back happy.’ Grateful Mohammed called Moses ‘The lamp from which the light ignites all the other lamps’ and boldly went back. After a lot of pleading Allah said, ’Oh, my Prophet, stop nagging, Five prayers and let it be final.’ And that is how Moslems got their five daily prayers,

1. The First Truly American Spirit.

In 1692 during the Salem Witches Trials Martha Corey, an elderly pious woman when questioned first in private by t two representatives of the magistrate simply said that ‘ ..she did not think there were any witches.’ [ Charles P. Upham. Salem Witchcraft, Volume 2, 1867]. She then stood firm in front of the accusers at the open interrogations and even accused them back of being deliberately malicious towards her because she was a woman and a person of conviction and clear mind. Feminists, I don’t hear you! I posted a diary question on whom was the God with at that moment and whoever is interested can go to the link below. I was extremely disappointed by the comments; not even one of those praised Martha Corey for her feat and some even bragged about me being engaged in logical circularity. I also put my own comment there. To me Martha Corey was and is the first free American, not an English colonist but a real person of new America- free- spirited, self- reliant and absolutely unequivocally honest in her convictions. Hey, I would trade 20 Hillary Clintons +Condi Rice multiplied by Madeleine Allbright for one Martha Corey in a blink of an eye.

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=3298

1. The Humanity of the Revolution.

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