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dear god... current song: dear god by xtc. dear god hope you got the letter and i pray you can make it better down here i don't mean a big reduction in the price of beer but all the people that you made in your image see them starving on their feet because they don't get enough to eat from god i can't believe in you dear god sorry to disturb you but i feel that i should be heard loud and clear we all need a big reduction in amount of tears and all the people that you made in your image see them fighting in the street because they can't make opinions meet about god i can't believe in you did you make disease and the diamond blue did you make mankind after we made you and the devil too dear god don't know if you noticed but your name is on a lot of quotes in this book and us crazy humans wrote it you should take a look and all the people that you made in your image still believing that junk is true well i know it ain't and so do you dear god i can't believe in i don't believe in i won't believe in heaven and hell no saints no sinners no devil as well no pearly gates no thorny crown you're always letting us humans down the wars you bring the babes you drown those lost at sea and never found and it's the same the whole world round the hurt i see helps to compound that father son and holy ghost is just somebody's unholy hoax and if you're up there you'd perceive that my heart's here upon my sleeve if there's one thing i don't believe in it's you dear god and now, for your enjoyment, a little light reading. this has been swimming in my head for years, but i don't like to talk about it. you see, people become defensive when talking about two subjects: religion and politics. but religions and mythologies facinate me for some reason, and i hardly find people that can a) keep up with me on the topic; and b) actually want to discuss something with out drawing lines between "right" and "wrong". so here, i will ramble. why is it that people aren't willing to accept that they've done great things through themselves? why give praise for achievements, borne through one's own strength, to something else; something intangible and inconclusively exsistant? it often perplexes me when someone says that they've made it so far and then adds in that god made it possible. and i always want to grab them and say "no, you - of your own volition - you made it possible!" why are people terrified of their own strength and intellect and power? i'm not saying that there isn't a god. i can't. i have no evidence to that fact. but, i'll bring up one of my favourite arguments: how can a being be both omnicient and omnipotent? if a being is all knowing, then said being cannot affect anything, because they already know how everything is going to play out. thusly, they are not all powerful, because they are unable to change the course of events. if a being is omnipotent, it works in reverse order; they must not know the course and therefore can alter whatever they choose. so what is he, or she, or it? is god omnicient: knowing the full course of past, present, and future? is it all predetermined? did god set the rules and the course? or is god omnipotent? does god retain ultimate power, crushing his foes and working miracles, but with no set plan or direction? or is god a mad scientist? is the earth an ant colony of sorts - 6 billion or so people scurrying about, oblivious to the plates of glass on either side. are we an experiment? and this, you see, robs god of both omnicience and omnipotence. if this - if we are all an experiment, god cannot know everything that is going to happen; nor can god interfere. god becomes a benign caretaker, merely floating about, checking up on our progress. is this universe a giant lab table, with many such "colonies" set up? then what, i ask, is the control group? what is the standard? it is hard for me, the author of this abomination, to draw the tangents i would like without seeming like an uneducated fool. i would like to throw an idea out here, for the vultures of criticism to feast on. i'm sure i'll be arguing this for quite some time, but here goes. looking at the mythos of many cultures from many eras, consistancies keep surfacing. from my viewpoint, many mythological structures are connected in ways; even those that are monothieistical, to those that are polythiestical. i take, in my head, the archetypes for odin of norse mythology, zeus of the greek mythos, and jupiter of the romans. all three are the 'god of the gods' so to speak; they are all the leader of all other gods and the creator figure. so what i'm saying is that zeus, jupiter, odin, ra, god, allah, yaweh...they all seem like the same guy to me. then looking at the polythiestic religions again, there are many other gods, all assigned to some portfolio: diana, roman goddess of the moon and the hunt. freya, norse goddess of love and beauty. hermes, greek messenger of the gods, and also purveyor of travel, speed, and commerce. compare these with the angels of the christian world: michael, gabriel, raphiel; and the ordered choirs - the seraphim, cherubim, principalities, archangels. again, something in my head clicks - lots of smaller, yet still 'divine' stuff, around one big father figure of sorts. here's where people start to jump up and down while yelling at me. so, buddha, muhammad, and jesus...they all look like the same thing to me as well. come on - they're all prophets, sent here to teach people about the way that they're supposed to live. and as much emphasis as is placed on two of those three in their respective religious systems, it seems that their ideas and teachings are summarily ignored for the most part. muhammad tought things like forgiveness and peace - as did jesus. and look where the muslims and the christians are now. that's right; throwing dirt in each others' faces over nothing. aside from some rather archaic rules and restrictions, islam and christianity aren't that far apart when looking at the belief structure, virtues, and gospel. in fact, they're almost the modern day greek and roman mythologies; they touch so many bases, and run so many parallels. and yet their followers wage sensless violence in the name of their respective deity who may or may not be the same entity. what i am arguing here is that all religion - all mythology is based off one entity that every culture has perverted in their own way. all people view things differently, all cultures have their own rules, and perception is objective. what one man saw as god, another saw as ra, and yet another saw as brahma, and so on and so forth about the world. all the stories are similar. could it be that everyone on this earth knows the same song, but sings it in a different key? is it possible that everyone is reading the same book, but taking meaning from different parts? all cultures are all similar but maintain their differences; why wouldn't our belief stuctures be that way as well? most of our religion has been stolen, melted, and assimilated over the years anyways - look at all the christian holidays, convinently placed at the same times as the old pagan ones. it was to make the transition from paganism to christianity "easier" for those being forced to convert. all and all, no one is right, and yet everyone is right. there's just too much dogma and too many words in the way. i have a feeling that god is somewhere, with a shaking head, looking at what the ant colony has done while muttering under his breath about pearls before swine. we are all swine. the human race, all of us. people in this world have no sence of self worth, no direction, no ambition, and no morals. we rely on our imaginary friend, god to "take care of things" while we do nothing. we ask god to sort out the school yard fights we start. we are upset when god doesn't help us win. the people of earth are vain, lazy, and weak. and god is supposed to fill in the gaps and carry us. and all people have to do is get up. rely on themselves. go out and work, and learn, and do and be. start tolerating themselves, in order to tolerate every one else. i would love to believe in mankind, as a minority of the population has achieved so much; however when it comes down to it people are just animals. animals with speech and knowledge - an edge over everything else, but animals none the less. there is no true altruism, and there will never be true peace. people are borne from, and exist in chaos. and i have no hope for humanity, because humanity has no hope for itself. the race is long, and in the end it's only against yourself - no god, no demons, no angels. no need for competition between other humans. and with that i will close. i suppose that this wasn't a treatise at all, since i didn't argue all the perspectives. i just really like the word treatise. but i have to work in the morning, and since it's 0340, i should try and sleep. so, sleep on this. i know i'm going to. ~*~ immediate yesterday. ~*~ divination. ~*~ get your own guestbook here |
