If a religion leads to efforts to bring us all to the brink of genocide or global self-destruction as a species, then that is sick and goes against the very sense of a God who is truly loving and respectful of human freedom! The Infinity Society Universal & International will guide us to some extent why we all should love the mankind and humanity, once followed and doctrine by our forefathers and philosophers from ages.

Here is the exclusive interview with Mr. Jean-Pierre Ady Fenyo, Founder & Director, The Infinity Society Universal & International

Mohen Naorem. As mentioned in the brief introduction you founded The Society for the Mass Dissemination of The Concept of Infinity in 1988. Why then?
J.P. Fenyo: Well, there is no easy answer…. Suffice it to say that I had just reached some degree of fame as The Original New York City Free Advice Man a year earlier in 1987 and it became apparent to me that many people I met out on the sidewalks of New York were looking for a way to be able to live a relatively moral and ethical life, one could say a spiritual life, without having to live in denial of scientific facts and reality and without becoming religious fanatics or atheists.

I mean, many in our world today want a philosophy of life that does not force them to become inflexibly religious or materialistically atheistic… So, between the time I became famous and I established the early form of the society I spent a lot of late nights putting together my own philosophical ideas into a cohesive philosophical theory that to my way of thinking would be able to help people reconcile their need for a spiritually conscious life with their need for truth, especially Scientifically proven reality!

Mohen Naorem. That sounds dangerous! Scientifically proven reality? What exactly do you mean by that?
J.P. Fenyo: I see your concern… Sure, science is not well understood today by too many people in the world whose lives science has a direct and sometimes negative technological impact on!

Let me give you an example of scientific reality; the age of our planet and the earliest known life-forms that came into existence on it… Earth is estimated at over 3.8 billion years, based on specific proven methods of dating….3.8 billion is not 5767 years, as unfortunately many religious people are led to believe! Life probably came about after the first billion years, and took another billion and a half just to become multi-cellular!

Most people cannot even imagine what such a long period of time that is! Mammals evolved into existence around 70 million years ago… To put it all into perspective; if the history of the first life till now were measured in the length of a pencil then, the rubber end being the beginning of known life…then mammals evolved at the last one-third of the graphite tip-point of the pencil!

And the earliest hominid species, our higher primate-like ancestors, came about 1.5 to 2 million years ago, at a point on the pencil tip almost impossible to measure with your bare eyes!! Those are proven scientific facts and reality!

Mohen Naorem. But some say that science has made huge mistakes in the past and that those methods of measurement are not entirely reliable. How can we be sure?
J.P. Fenyo: Science is based on strict guidelines, methods, rules, norms, etc…. Where science has previously erred, especially in the fields of physics and medicine, there are specific understandable reasons for those errors, but rarely have those errors been regarding specific scientific fact.

Most of what science knows to be fact today is not at any risk of being discovered to be fallacious or false. Evolution is fact, albeit the specific about how and when certain life-forms and species evolved or came into being is open to question… No reasonable scientist who truly adheres to scientific methodology will deny that the evidence for the evolution of life, over periods of hundreds of millions of years, is conclusive beyond any reasonable doubt!

Of course, we now have good reason; in effect evidence, to think that the evolution of life and specifically of our own species may have involved influences beyond the strict embryo of Earth’s biosphere! The story of life, how it actually came into existence and how it has evolved is not set in stone, but we do know that evolution of life on this planet happened both over incredibly long eons of time and sometimes mutations, changes, happened literally overnight!

Again, what is fact is that 5767 years ago advanced human civilization was already going on. So, to be fair, an Orthodox Jew or a conservative Catholic or Protestant should consider the possibility that theirs are symbolic years or that the people who wrote their holy books were just that; people, with no true idea of scientific fact!

Mohen Naorem. Does that mean that you are anti-religious?
J.P. Fenyo: Not at all! Religion in general has some very positive aspects and points, but I am sure that the Great Combined Soul or Spirit called God by us humans is not religious and would not chose one religion over another! God is without the need for abstract knowledge and the ability to discriminate, which on a spiritual level…discriminating is actually a significant drawback if not irreconcilable obstacle!

God does not discriminate, although we do, and those of us who live spiritual lives of love and wisdom must discriminate, but not against anyone, but against ideas, statements and behavior that takes us away from the loving ways of God and spiritual living!

Mohen Naorem. But you haven’t really answered the question. Are you for or against organised religion?
J.P. Fenyo: Yes and no. I am against the abuse of religious sentiment and the idea that there is only one religion that is the right one. For example, someone who says that they are a Christian or follower of Yoshua and take the New Testament to be full of wisdom and love, but do not wish to impose or even expect the world to convert to his or her way of religion…that’s someone I can live with as even a friend, that is religion in a form that does not pose a threat to the rights of other religions and even does not threaten those who are either atheists or spiritual scientists, such as myself.

But the one who says that there is no room for tolerance of other faiths or other ideas about life, God, etcetera, the one who will tell you that you will burn in hell if you do not accept their ways, the one who is willing to let you suffer and die in poverty or even will be willing to murder you for their religious goals….that kind of inflexible, intolerant religiosity is inherently wrong and even contradictory in the extreme, that fanatic religious point of view is unacceptable for me!

If a religion or religious stance leads to spirituality that is not in denial of science then fine. If a religion leads to efforts to bring us all to the brink of genocide or global self-destruction as a species, then that is sick and goes against the very sense of a God who is truly loving and respectful of human freedom!

Mohen Naorem. Are you not worried that you will be perceived as seeking to destroy classical religions?
J.P. Fenyo: Worried? Well, I know that throughout human history people have been tortured, burned on crosses and what not, murdered, for appearing to seek to destroy established religious institutions or entities. But I am not interested in bringing about the end of traditional or classic religion. In fact, there is plenty of evidence that religions themselves evolve and change into ways of living in faith that are more and more compatible with the self-evident and scientifically proven facts of reality!

Look…I do not think there is any serious risk that if, say, my ideas on the impact of the meditating on the idea of the infinite, my spiritual and scientific worldview or philosophical approach were to become popular then Catholicism, Protestantism, Anglicanism, Judaism, Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Christianity, Buddhism, Islam would suddenly be at risk of vanishing.

There is, unfortunately, a much greater chance that all of humanity will vanish before religion does, and that would probably happen because religion did not evolve and become more of what it would seem a truly loving and freedom-respecting God would want! Just for the sake of constructive dialogue and fair argument, suppose that one of the existing religions in the world today was the only right one that God wants for us to accept and live by….suppose….then why doesn’t that kind of God, who till now has allowed hundreds of millions to be murdered in wars partly fueled by religious differences…why doesn’t God give every single person on Earth absolutely conclusive proof of his form of existence and his only choice of religion??

I mean, he could…and that’s supposing that God has a gender identity at all…if he really is omni-powerful on a physical level……he could produce a specific holy book out of thin air right in front of me right now and then with a loud voice say: “Look here son, you’ve gone astray, but I would be wrong and unloving if I did not do this and prove to you that this is the right religion and way of life to follow!” Does he do this in such an obvious way? No! God does not.

Of course, the ability to produce in front of my person a holy book for me to keep, read and follow would suffice as evidence, but some may need more convincing evidence like making excess weight disappear in a flash or restoring one’s sight and so forth.

Mohen Naorem. But some say that God does provide clear and undeniable evidence, just not in a way that would be convincing to someone who does not already accept Him.
J.P.Fenyo: Sure! That kind of nonsense pseudo-reasoning goes back ages. Look, Baruch Spinoza made it perfectly clear that a truly loving God would not, if able to do anything about it, allow us to go astray and would provide undeniable evidence, no matter how we might initially think about things. God does not deceive us and the scientific evidence found in nature shows us the powers and limitations of God! Yes, God too must have limitations, or else God could turn into an opposite of a Spiritual Absolute Being of Love and torture us like crazy!

I mean, it’s simple: God must be all good and loving…fine…but innocent people get harmed and God does not pull a direct miracle each time to prevent actual harm from happening. Why? Is it because God was displeased with the decisions of our common first ancestors…say Adam and Eve…of Enki and Enlil…and so has no qualms about letting us suffer for their sins?!? Come on now, that flies right in the face of the supposition that God grants us absolutely freedom and free will in this life to chose God’s way or go against God, which also makes no sense!

Look, seriously now: would you, I or anyone in their right mind do anything against the actual will of a Supreme Being that not only made it perfectly clear that He can actually make anything vanish or appear instantly, by an actual example of this Almighty power for each one to witness, but who provides for all the basic needs for a healthy, pleasant and safe life? Of course not. You, I and anyone else in their right mind would have to lose their mental health to do so, which would then take away all culpability.

No, as I see it God is real, but limited to being all-powerful on a purely Spiritual plane, level or dimension, and on the level of Spirit experiencing Life through Physics, on this level we are now in, God has limited powers! God may have the power to connect good Spiritual people, so that they may help one another in hard times, God may re-direct the Life-Force of Mother Nature towards a person who is ill or injured and heal that person by such a process and God may influence the state of mind of someone who otherwise seeks to harm us….all of these things being things which I have actually experienced…but God never prevents the risk of harm and the hurt and injury that have happened to me, not because I have been a bad, anti-social anti-environmental person….for I have been a fairly good person and helped protect nature and society….but because God does not have that much power on the physical aspects of Life! Look, you are either willing to take it for granted that life was not meant to be pleasurable most of the time, that suffering is the norm, because for some unknown reason God thinks suffering is acceptable, or you realize that God would prevent all suffering and harm if God could do so, but God has logical limitations!

Mohen Naorem. But that is not what most people would call a God.
J.P. Fenyo: Yes, most people’s idea of God is based on this very unhealthy and unrealistic desire to have a definite and absolute source cause of things. People do not, at first, like the idea of an infinite universe where God is an indestructible eternal combined Spiritual Being, made up of all the souls of all living beings and all previous living beings, and a universe that has an infinite number of the same God Beings, that can conjoin and be split into separate blobs of God, where there is no ultimate beginning of it all.

I mean, try reading to a child a story that goes like this: Once upon a time, somewhere in an infinite universe, sometime after an eternity of time and before an eternity, there was a boy who liked to fish for flounder on a crystal clear blue sea! Even till this day I find this disturbing to think about. I mean infinity is not easy to accept, but if we would all love one another and treat one another with respect and would care only as much as requested or, in the case of the very young and dependent ones, as much as needed, then infinity would not be such an uncomfortable idea!

The strange thing however, is this: in order to make the world such a relatively safe, loving, pleasant and yet respectful and decent place we must get everyone to think about infinity and begin to think about all the deep philosophical questions that infinity raises! In effect it seems hopeless! The one idea that can save the world is the one idea people tend to fear thinking about the most, but people wouldn’t fear thinking about it if they knew that they were not alone in thinking about it and if the world was a warm and friendly place in which to think about it!

Mohen Naorem. Wow. You’ve said a bundle there, and I’m not too sure I really understand it. Could you repeat it in a different way?
J.P. Fenyo: Sure. The world prefers to think that God is in charge and everything is in God’s hands, so that there is no real need to worry, because God will take care of everything no matter what may happen! God is like a father that comes home from work each day and brings to the dinner table the food and drink that makes everyone happy! And God is the best father because God never stops bringing the source of life itself.

People would rather rush back into the cave of ignorance and denial, no matter the suffering such ignorance and denial causes or leads to, than exit the cave once and for all and open their eyes to the truth: that nothing is what it seemed to be, everything is so strange, so weird, so chaotic yet sometimes orderly, and we humans are so vulnerable, and yet so dependent on one another!

Even I have trouble letting go of past assumptions, losing the clothes of false ideas that provided me with the illusion of security or at least of certainty, being exposed naked to the universes often cold hard reality yet being naked together intimately with other warm human bodies and receiving either platonic affection and love or, with whom appropriate, sexual affection and love, and having to live in a state of not knowing what is certain beyond a few absolutes, such as that infinity must exist and be the boundless totality of all whose number cannot ever be named and whose totality is eternally unlimited in number!

And another absolute that I can be sure of, that life is a relatively rare experience, at least in this region of the galaxy, that the Spirit I am is part of the Great Spirit of All Life on this planet and that life was meant be loving, sensual, affectionate, sexual and for the most part pleasant! And yet, I can also be sure of the fact that in this currently confused and relatively ignorant world, a mass of humanity presently in need of true enlightenment, suffering arises ultimately from this mass insecurity and hysteria born of the fear of the unknown, that is now causing the masses to rush back down into the false security of the dark cave of ignorance!

Mohen Naorem. Aha, I think I see your point quite clearly. And now I seem to have trouble deciding what I should ask next. Have you any suggestions?
J.P. Fenyo: Suggestions about what you should ask next?

Mohen Naorem. Yes.
J.P. Fenyo: Well now, that’s where my respect for your freedom comes into the picture. Sure I do, but are you sure that you want me to suggest a question?

Mohen Naorem. Hah! Do you think that your general world-view and philosophical ideas on the power of the concept of infinity to change the way people think and behave will ever become popular enough to bring about that Everlasting Era of Enlightenment, of relative tolerance, unity-through-diversity, love, wisdom, peace and subsequent prosperity and joy?
J.P. Fenyo: I sure do hope so! I mean, one could argue that if I would give up my philosophical way of life and simply became a full-time hedonist semi-businessperson and spend the rest of my days enjoying the remainder of my life that I would be happier, and that, as things are right now, I am risking finding out that I may be wasting my life pursuing an impossible dream!

But as Kennedy said, “If not I then who?” I mean, what if I can succeed even within a few years from now? Would I not be able to reap unimaginable social rewards and benefits? Don’t get me wrong, I am doing all this for a combination of reasons, including the aforementioned ones. Ultimately I must always remind myself this: what kind of a philosopher or philosophical person would I be if I knew that I had the answer the world is actually seeking, the answer for true everlasting peace, prosperity and joyful fulfilled living, and I abandoned my efforts??

Would I not regret that more than risking wasting my life in pursuit of a dream? One must dream the impossible dream, reach out for the unreachable star, as Cervantes said in Don Quixote de la Mancha! And I will, because in the final analysis I am sincere in my convictions and purpose, in my desire for a world free from the horrors of war, personalized hate and irrational fear, free from excessive poverty, disease and unhappiness, free from extremists and ignorant masses, a world where we all become life-loving moderates and progressive realists! For am I not supposed to be Homo-Sapiensis?

Mohen Naorem. Thank you. This has truly been the most interesting interview I have conducted in years, if not in my whole life. Just one last question, in closing. What would you have become in the kind of almost ideal world that you seek to make real?
J.P. Fenyo: I would probably have been a little bit of everything nice. A little bit of a scientist exploring the vast oceans, the lands, skies and outer space, a little bit of a serious movie star playing out past tragic stories of a time that would, thank God, have long gone by, a little bit of an erotic sensualist enjoying the pleasures of a healthy and rich life, a little bit of a litter disposal person cleaning up our bio-diverse domed eco-village pathways, a little bit of a musician playing notes and songs of such unimaginable beauty!

And so forth, but I certainly think that even in the best of worlds there will always be some accidents, tragedies, and daily, mostly natural, sufferings and pains! Just that the degree and amount of such suffering will be tolerable; unlike the situation we have in our world today.