And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads

I bear a mark. The dreaded mark of the beast. Is it on my head? Is it on my hand? My mark isn't visable to the eye, it isn't on the surface of the skin. However it is there, and I bear it with pride.

The book of revelation talks of the mark. The one people will need to buy and sell. My mark is something else. I beleive it to be a true mark.

The mark on the forehead. it is the head where thoughts originate. It is where our hopes, our dreams, our pain, our sadness comes from. It is where our problems are solved. Jesus stated in his misguided sermon on the mount that to have lust or anger is to break a commandment and thus makes one deserving of damnation. The mark on the head is thought. Our secret desires, our hatred, our sexual fantasies. Our desire to challenge the "wisdom" of god and to seek more about the world around us. The origins of the species and of life itself. To think beyond the confines of religion is to bear the mark on the forehead. The head mark, is thought.

The right hand is the one used often for actions. For the most part it carries objects. It weilds weapons. It builds. It destroys. For most people it is the universal tool for human action. It is used in sexual encounters with our chosen mate. It takes from others. It builds the idols of wood and of metal. It builds the shuttles that reached higher into the heavens than the fabled Tower of Babel. It writes the books that contain the undefiled wisdom that casts biblical fiction aside. The mark on the hand is deed, the deed of rebelion against man's most dangerious creation, his god.

I bear the mark. I am aware of its presence. This mark wasn't given to me by some monster with lamb horns with a draconic voice. It was given to me in the womb. I am neither able nor willing to remove it.

The Parable of the Two Brothers.

There once was a man who had two sons. As they grew up one of the sons went away to live on his own without his father. The other son learnt all his father taught him. He taught his son he would punish him very badly if he dared to ignore his teachings such as not to kill another man. The son who lives on his own decided he did not wish to be killed and deiced that it was wrong to kill others because he did not think they either would want to die. The two brothers were reunited when the father died. The son who stayed no longer feared his father's punishment and so killed many people. He was later arrested and put in prison. The son who decided that killing is wrong because he himself did not wish it and did not fear his father's punishment did not kill and lived a good life.

Of the two brothers, who is the moral one?