55. Ten Memorable Moments Of 2021 | Special Episode: Year End Retrospective

Scott Langdon presents the top ten memorable moments from the dramatic adaptation of the book, God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher, and episodes 1-44 of the podcast.

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Scott Langdon [00:00:17] This is God: An Autobiography, The Podcast. A dramatic adaptation and continuing discussion of the book God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin. He was a lifelong agnostic, but one day he had an occasion to pray. To his vast surprise, God answered- in words. Being a philosopher, he had a lot of questions, and God had a lot to tell him. Episode 55. 

Scott Langdon [00:01:02] Hello and welcome to Episode 55 of God: An Autobiography, The Podcast. I'm your host, Scott Langdon. As the year 2021 draws to a close, we thought it might be the perfect time to take a brief look back to episodes one through 44. This is where you'll find the dramatic adaptation of the book God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin. In the spirit of year-end countdowns, we've put together a list of ten standout moments from the first 44 episodes of this podcast with the intention of sharing with you particular moments that we find worthy of reflection. I hope you enjoy these reflections as much as we've enjoyed putting them together for you. We here at God: An Autobiography, The Podcast, thank you so much for joining us here and we wish you a very happy new year. The making of the first 44 episodes of God: An Autobiography, The Podcast was a labor of love from the very beginning. Bringing Jerry's book to life in a dramatic serial audio format way gave us as a creative team so many wonderful moments to reflect on. Narrowing them down to a set of ten proved to be quite challenging, but I do believe I've put together a list you might find interesting. So as Maria von Trapp would say in the musical The Sound of Music- let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. 

Dramatic Adaptation: God: An Autobiography As Told To a Philosopher

Jerry Martin - voiced by Scott Langdon

The Voice of God - voiced by Jerry L. Martin, who heard the voice

Jerry Martin [00:02:55] The first time God spoke to me I didn't believe he existed. I remember psychologist Thomas Szasz's comment: "If somebody talks to God, that's praying. If God talks to them, that's schizophrenia."

Scott Langdon That was from episode one of our podcast, where we launched the audio adaptation of God: An Autobiography, As Told to a Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin. And we began our adaptation at the very beginning on page one of the book. Our first stand out clip on our list of ten comes from that same episode- episode one when God first speaks to Jerry. It's not out of nowhere. Very early on in the sequence of things, Jerry has realized he's in love with his now wife, Abigail. And when he realizes this love and what it's done to him, he feels grateful and drawn to respond. 

Jerry Martin Toward the end of a long summer day, Abigail and I were sitting on a park bench along the Potomac, across from the Lincoln Memorial. She was writing in her journal, and I was pondering the challenge of making a future together. Without thinking much about it, much less expecting an answer, I prayed again, this time asking for guidance. Immediately a visual image appeared, like a hologram, a few feet in front of me--a rising, sparkling, multi-colored fountain. It radiated vitality and promise, an answer to my prayer. But there was more. A voice spoke...

The Voice Of God  [00:04:47] Listen. 

Scott Langdon [00:04:49] That first clip was from episode one titled Where I Pray to a God I Don't Believe In. This is the episode where God first speaks to Jerry. Number two on our list of memorable moments from our podcast comes from episode four titled Where I Learned to Tell if a Message Really Is from God. In this early episode, Jerry confronts God and asks why faith can sometimes seem so elusive and tenuous. 

Jerry Martin [00:05:24] Lord, why is faith like that? Why is your interaction with us so tenuous and subject to doubt? 

The Voice Of God [00:05:34] First, it is not. During most times, people have not had trouble believing. Believing in me or in some gods was--is--the most natural thing in the world. Second, my "invisibility" has to do with the kind of Being I am. It's like asking why we can't see neutrinos. Nobody can see your "mind." You believe in "other minds" with no greater "evidence."

Jerry Martin [00:06:07] God was alluding to the topic of my doctoral dissertation. One of the great philosophical puzzles concerns skepticism with regard to knowledge of other minds. The problem arises from the fact that we do not have direct access to other people's thoughts and feelings. We only observe their outer behavior. In fact, we do not have any proof that others really have inner thoughts or feelings at all. Yet it is reasonable to believe they do. Is God any more elusive than minds? Well, he certainly seems so.

Scott Langdon [00:07:00] In Episode ten, Jerry is told how God reveals God's Self to human beings. This is a standout moment because of what Jerry is agreeing to be a part of by telling God's story. He's not asked to start a new religion or some kind of radical cult. On the contrary, this new revelation is ripe for this moment because of everything that has been evolving, including God. Listen to this clip now from episode ten. 

Jerry Martin [00:07:28] Lord, it sounds as if you want to announce a new revelation. In this day and age?

The Voice Of God [00:07:35] There is nothing surprising or shocking in further revelations. I reveal things to people all the time in many different ways--in prayer, inspiration, intuition, ethical insight, even aesthetic response. My revelations evolve. I reveal different things now than millions of years ago.

Jerry Martin [00:07:58] Millions of years ago?

The Voice Of God [00:08:00] Yes, I revealed things to prehistoric people, though they had a limited ability to understand. My revelations to Abraham and Moses were unusual, because they marked the first of the clear messages that got through and were really understood. But the current situation is different. I have been revealing things always to individuals who asked, but this was piecemeal, fragmentary, usually added by the recipients as interpretations of previous texts and old revelations. Now we need a new systematic revelation, from bottom to top, almost to start over again--with a new Genesis, one might say, with a new Gospel of John. And a new philosophical understanding of God. The old one was only partly inspired and contains too much of the arrogance of human reason. Mankind does not live in a period for a Great Prophet. There can be no new Moses or other Deliverer. There can be at best Elijahs--prophets and seers--people who explain my story in a form that can be understood by this age. A time of mending is needed, but the nature of the world today prevents the presentation of a single, unitary vision. The best I can do is to share visions with particular individuals and let them articulate these visions in their own voices.

Scott Langdon [00:09:48] That was a clip from Episode ten of God: An Autobiography, The Podcast titled Where I am Told How God Reveals God's Self to Human Beings. After Jerry decided to take on God's assignment, he finds there is preparation involved. In order for Jerry to adequately hear and understand God's revelation to Him, he must first learn what it means to dwell with God. Here now is clip number four from episode 13 of God: An Autobiography, The Podcast. 

Jerry Martin [00:10:25] I had now accepted the assignment, but God wanted more.  

The Voice Of God [00:10:30] You need purification. Transformation is a good word. It is obedience, which at its fullest is transformation.  

Jerry Martin [00:10:41] What does that involve, Lord?

The Voice Of God [00:10:43] Putting me first rather than last. Living every moment, making every decision, in response to my call. 

Jerry Martin [00:10:52] How do I go about doing that?

The Voice Of God [00:10:54] You know this--start every day with prayer and let prayer guide you through the day. And always listen to your body--it is also my voice.

Jerry Martin [00:11:08] I have not found it easy to live my life fully in tandem with God. Every day there are items on my personal radar, and I usually attend to them first and fit God in when I have a chance. “Lord, I know I should try to live each day in response to your purposes.”

The Voice Of God [00:11:27] That is right. Not just do it mechanically, like a soldier following orders, but to do it as an organic flow, wishing to be in touch with me and to live in accord with my will, my love. 

Jerry Martin [00:11:42] Yes, I always think of you *pushing* me, rather than my being *drawn* to you. I respond to orders rather than seeking union. 

The Voice Of God [00:11:52] That is good. The shallow seeking of union with me is a delusion. The goal is to be *in tune* with me. The work will flow from that. This is not just a matter of doing your duty. It is coming into alignment with me--like two singers doing a harmony. 

Scott Langdon [00:12:43] Clip number five from our podcast is a favorite moment from episode 19. As God begins to tell God's story, Jerry is bothered by the question, as many people are- why are there so many religions? At first, by way of an explanation, God offers an analogy, but Jerry pushes back slightly and God expounds. Here is clip number five from episode 19. 

Jerry Martin [00:13:19] If there is one God, why are there so many religions? Philosophers call this the Problem of the Diversity of Revelations. But I was told...

The Voice Of God [00:13:37] There is no reason to think the diversity of revelations is a problem, any more than for a therapist to say different things to different clients whose needs and situations differ.

Jerry Martin [00:13:50] That analogy didn't take me very far. The therapist, like a doctor, is giving advice depending on the needs of the client. But God is giving different people contradictory stories about Himself, and also about how they should live. “Lord, why not just give everyone the whole truth?”

The Voice Of God [00:14:11] Your question has presuppositions--that I have given different, incompatible stories to different cultures. This is only apparently true. If you think them through, they are different pieces of the same puzzle. Names shift but that is superficial.

Jerry Martin [00:14:28] Perhaps each religion is like a single eye-witness report of some strange event such as an alien landing. The reports might be wildly different from one another. The challenge would be to sort them out and put them into a single coherent account.

The Voice Of God [00:14:45] Not exactly. It's not to blend the religions into a single synthesis or theology. It's to put them into one story.

Scott Langdon [00:14:57] That was clip number five on our list of ten memorable moments from God: An Autobiography, The Podcast. It was taken from episode 19 called Where God Explains Why There Are So Many Religions. Episode 22 begins with Jerry not yet understanding how the different pieces of God's story go together to make the one story, and that is where we get our next clip. Here is memorable moment number six from episode 22 titled Where I Learn The Many Ways God Communicates. 

Jerry Martin [00:15:40] Lord, I have prayed about various cultures, and I don't see how they fit together.

The Voice Of God [00:15:45] Look at the broad sweep for a moment. What do you see?

Jerry Martin [00:15:56] From prehistoric times, You are dealing with people through nature and their own intuitions, aesthetic appreciation, emerging moral sense...

The Voice Of God [00:16:05] Yes. 

Jerry Martin [00:16:07] ...and perhaps through each person's own development, and self-awareness and awareness of the other.

The Voice Of God [00:16:12] Yes. 

Jerry Martin [00:16:14] That starts getting articulated as the Way by the Chinese and as the cosmic order in Mesopotamia and perhaps in India in the idea of Rta - the primeval Indian term for right order.

The Voice Of God [00:16:28] Yes. 

Jerry Martin [00:16:30] And You are seen in natural phenomena--in particular plants and animals, in geographical structures such as rivers and mountains, and in larger forces such as life and death and fate and famine. I gather these are all ways in which You are manifesting Yourself. 

The Voice Of God [00:16:51] Not just manifesting Myself, but communicating through them.

Jerry Martin [00:17:03] Communicating what, Lord?

The Voice Of God [00:17:06] Go back to the Way. I communicated to the Chinese, who have an affinity for this, the sense of harmony. The "cosmic order" can mean many things, including a Newtonian rational system, or a moral order enforced by the gods or by Divine Justice. Because of the Chinese affinity, I communicated the fine sense of balance and harmony and right proportions, not as weighing things on a scale, which is how the Greeks heard Me, but in something like a moral aesthetic sense--aesthetic in a larger sense that then encompasses the moral and spiritual--that right balance and sense of center and working with the natural flow and understanding oneself rightly in order to contribute correctly to the larger social and natural harmony, and understanding each thing by its right name and nature and place in the scheme of things. Since, in a sense, an ontologically rich sense, all nature is Me, this communication to the Chinese was crucial, and is something people in other cultures can learn from. It is an essential part of My total story.

Scott Langdon [00:18:34] From our list of ten memorable moments, that was clip number six from episode 22. In Episode 27, Jerry and God talk about how human effort is needed to complete creation and what it means to be real in this world. This memorable moment is a place where God begins to make it more clear to Jerry that the arena of this world, the stage on which we are all playing, is where the soul does its work and has its growth. This world is where God is actualized. Here is a clip from episode 27 of our podcast titled Where God Teaches Me How Human Effort Completes Creation. 

Jerry Martin [00:19:22] Is this right, Lord? In the ideal world, things are safe. Once they become real, they are vulnerable. 

The Voice Of God [00:19:29] You might say that the idea or potential for all things resides in the God beyond God "beforehand" or in another dimension. It is true that, in that mode or dimension, evil cannot strike. There is no evil in the "world" of the God beyond God. But there is no fight with evil, no goodness, no beauty, no virtues either. 

Jerry Martin [00:19:49] I see. Before creation, there is no fight with evil. But afterwards there is. Is that right, Lord? 

The Voice Of God [00:19:56] The main point of the contrast is not to focus on how things existed before material creation but how they exist in this world and for what purpose. As you sense, there is a big story here--the sheer need for "friction," for grit, for traction, for obstacles for spirit to grow and develop, but also to fulfill goods that cannot be fulfilled only in the mind's eye. Why does the artist, who may have already envisioned the final result, have to make it in material? Why does the composer have to have an imperfect orchestra actually play the perfect symphony he hears in his head? Why does the mathematician want to write down his equations? There is a deep truth here about the nature of reality. Reality wants to be embodied. In this respect, philosophical traditions that derive from Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus get it wrong. The material object does not "fall beneath" the "perfect" form; it actualizes it. The form may be "perfect," but like Kant's (imaginary) one hundred thalers (dollars), it doesn't exist! Or, if you want to say it exists in some sense, it doesn't exist in the sense that counts. It is not in the world; it is not instantiated; it has no instances. So it should not be hard to understand that.

Jerry Martin [00:21:47] Well, I think I get it. What counts is what happened in the real material world?

The Voice Of God [00:21:53] But there is a deeper meaning here that also relates to why there is suffering. To be fully real, a thing has to exist in material form. We are not talking about materialism versus spiritual reality in this context, but simply existence in this world. That material existence does subject it to limitations--hence the sense of a "fall from grace"--which includes erosion, destruction, and in more complex forms, disease, dysfunction, and in human beings, death, suffering, and evil. This may or may not be the best of all possible worlds, as Leibniz thought, but any possible world--that is, any world that can be actual--must have death, suffering, and evil. Those are conditions of its being real. 

Scott Langdon [00:23:05] That was clip number seven on our list of ten standout moments from the first 44 episodes of God: An Autobiography, The Podcast. These first 44 episodes of our podcast are where you will find our dramatic adaptation of the book God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin. Episode 38 of our podcast finds Jerry wrestling with how to square the New Testament message of love with the Old Testament message of a God who demanded obedience to the law. But God gently reveals to Jerry what the theme of his interactions with human beings has always been, and Jerry begins to see God's intentions unfold before him. Here is clip number eight from our 2021 year end list of standout moments from God: An Autobiography, The Podcast. 

Jerry Martin [00:24:22] I did not note the context, but I was apparently contrasting the New Testament message of love with the Old Testament message of obedience, law, and judgment.

The Voice Of God [00:24:38] Can't you see already the trend?

Jerry Martin [00:24:42] I had been reading Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel.

The Voice Of God [00:24:49] The theme is love, not just from a distant God but from one who is arriving.

Jerry Martin [00:24:57] Is this about God's sovereignty?

The Voice Of God [00:25:00] And, yes, the sovereignty of God, which is another way of saying the necessity of yielding to God, and that is the same as happiness. 

Jerry Martin [00:25:14] But the judgment and chastisement?

The Voice Of God [00:25:17] It is love, passionate concern for the state of people's souls. Obedience to My law is one side of that coin. My loving grace and salvation is the other. Commanded obedience is one step, but no one - no leader such as Moses - ever thought that was all. The crucial thing about obedience is circumcision of the body as symbolic yielding, yes, especially of one's erotic and creative power and assertive force; and of the mind or heart, in yielding to God His own. Hence sacrifice--not making oneself miserable but yielding to God a small portion of what is His own--requires overcoming one's desire and ego – one’s desire for self-assertion and dominion - in order to yield up to God one's material resources and, ultimately, oneself.

Scott Langdon [00:26:27] We just heard clip number eight from episode 38 called Where God Gives Me A Deeper Understanding Of The Divine Story And The Role Of Human Beings In It. Coming in at number nine on our list of ten stand out moments is a clip from the penultimate episode of our dramatic adaptation, episode 43. Here we find God explaining to Jerry the role of love in a world with evil in it. Jerry learns that to be in tune with the God inside you and to express that divine love to others is the ultimate triumph over evil and incompleteness. Here is clip number nine from episode 43. 

Jerry Martin [00:27:12] We experience our lives in the horizontal dimension, but you see our lives in the simultaneity of it's all happening at once like a great chorus and somehow are being fulfilled. 

The Voice Of God [00:27:24] The fulfillment is the drawing upward. There is not some perfect moment hidden there that makes it all okay. The symphony of everything reaching up toward my glowing presence is the fulfillment. The triumph over evil, over negativity, over the void. Can you relate to that? What makes a symphony great, or a great novel, or drama? It is not one perfect moment. Even less is it the ending. It is the totality making a masterful whole. 

Jerry Martin [00:28:01] I'm afraid that all of this leads to the idea that evil is an essential part of the whole. The way dissonance is in music, and Lady Macbeth is in the play. For me, that is a world turned upside down. 

The Voice Of God [00:28:14] Yes, I know. And I sympathize with why you are uncomfortable. But it is not that God is beyond good and evil. We have already discussed that I have to cope with my own dark or incomplete side. The fight for good over evil in the world and in the heart of each individual is crucial. That is the plane of action. It is the pivot on which turns the saving or healing or fulfillment of the world and of me. And for this, as I have said, I need human partners. 

Jerry Martin [00:28:52] Why does the world have to be healed? Why didn't you make it perfect? 

The Voice Of God [00:28:57] Because to be a world is to be material. And to be material is to be flawed and resistant. And to be a person is to be an actual personality, an individual with a history, with particular characteristics, and to have strengths and weaknesses. That is precisely the drama of life, the basic ontological process of the world. That is what it is all about. 

Scott Langdon [00:29:36] That was clip number nine. And we took it from episode 43 of God: An Autobiography, The Podcast. Our second to last standout clip in our list of ten came from our second to last episode of the dramatic adaptation portion of God: An Autobiography, The Podcast. So we will have it followed that our 10th and final clip in our 2021 year end review of memorable moments will come from episode 44, the final episode in the audio adaptation of Jerry Martin's book. In our final clip, we bring you perhaps the most memorable moment of them all. Here in clip number ten, God reveals to Jerry that we are on the brink of a new era, a new axial age. Listen now to our final clip from God, An Autobiography, The Podcast. Here is clip number ten from episode 44. 

The Voice Of God [00:30:40] You stand on the threshold of a new spiritual era, a new axial age, in which, for the first time, spiritually attuned individuals will draw their understanding of spiritual reality, not just from the scriptures of their own religious tradition, but from the plentitude of My communications to men and women. The upshot will not be a bland acceptance of all so-called scriptures and theological traditions, as if they all said the same thing. As you can see, they do not. But the more accurate of them can be fitted together in a meaningful way. This is not just a conceptual puzzle-solving, as if the challenge were purely intellectual: how to fit the largest number of pieces into a single coherent story. It is, most fundamentally, spiritual: how to sense which writings and experiences are truly sensitive to the divine reality and how to put them together in a way that is spiritually meaningful, whether or not it seems *logical.* "

Jerry Martin [00:31:52] Lord, are the world's religions converging on the cutting edge of spiritual development? 

The Voice Of God [00:31:58] Yes, that's right. It's time for them to come together, not merely putting the pieces together, but in a dynamic way, a way that lends itself to forward development. 

Jerry Martin [00:32:10] What do you mean? 

The Voice Of God [00:32:12] As people from different traditions take in elements from other traditions, they will make something of that. It won't just be a passive reception. It will be a creative, very dynamic process. For example, as a Christian takes in the “truth” of the Atman, truth and scare quotes, because the Hindu truth of the argument is not the final truth. It leaves the Christian perspective out, for example. Understanding the Atman will be shaped and expanded and connected to other elements not present or not so fully present in the Hindu tradition. As the Hindus or Chinese fully take in the personal God of the Old Testament, as they take in the reality of Jesus, they will be transformed. 

Jerry Martin [00:33:03] Resulting in a single world religion?

The Voice Of God [00:33:07] There is no way human beings will all subscribe to a single religion any more than all philosophers agree. But they will no longer be hermetically sealed looking at one another over tall, thick walls, sending bullets or when you're lucky, flowers back and forth. It will be a creative ferment in which religions borrow freely from each other and individuals borrow from all religions and create their own creeds and rituals. 

Jerry Martin [00:33:38] Will this mean the end of the old religions? 

The Voice Of God [00:33:41] Of course not. The early Christians absorbed Greek philosophy and still remained Christians. There are many other examples of religious syncretism. Some resulted in new traditions. Others were fully absorbed by an existing tradition. 

Jerry Martin [00:33:56] Once religions and individuals take in truths and revelations from each other, will that be the end of the process? 

The Voice Of God [00:34:04] Of course it won't be the end. There will be new developments and new communications from my side and new developments and events and consciousness from the world’s side. The cutting edge of spiritual development will continue. 

Scott Langdon [00:34:35] That was clip number ten from our list of ten memorable moments from episodes one through 44 of God: An Autobiography, The Podcast. It is in those first 44 episodes where you'll find the complete adaptation of Jerry Martin's book, God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher. This is our final episode for the year 2021, but we invite you back next year for 2022 and brand new episodes of God: An Autobiography, The Podcast. If you like what you've heard so far, we invite you to tell your friends. The more the merrier, of course. Thanks for being there. We wish you and yours the happiest of New Years. This is Scott Langdon. I'll see you next time. 

Scott Langdon [00:35:56] Thank you for listening. To God: An Autobiography, The Podcast. Subscribe for free today wherever you listen to your podcasts and hear a new episode every week. You can hear the complete dramatic adaptation of God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin, by beginning with episode one of our podcast and listening through its conclusion with Episode 44. You can read the original true story in the book from which this podcast is adapted. God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher, available now at Amazon.com, and always at godanautobiography.com. Pick up your own copy today.