I once wanted to become an atheist,
but gave it up- they have no holidays.
-Henny Youngman
Religious Gruel
Cynical, angry, obnoxious, intolerant and generally a miserable human being are just a few of the labels pinned on God Seeker Guy for his stand on religion. Being a religious pariah, a sort of pseudo Antichrist with religious leprosy is not an easy place to reside, however following the crowd into the darkness that is blind religious faith is abhorrent to GSG.
“the gods are a wonderfully imaginative creation of a fertile but desperate human imagination.”
It is forever decreed that we should think positively, stay away from negative people and shun the poison fruit that is anyone with a strong opposing view. The tenacious religious believer is by far the worst victim of this tepid reasoning.
The intolerance practised by most religious followers is imbedded in the wretched fear they might be clinging to a flawed and irrelevant belief system at odds with a modern informed society. The world is not flat, the sun does not evolve around the earth and the gods are a wonderfully imaginative creation of a fertile but desperate human imagination.
Homo Sapiens are just another ill-fated animal, but one that cannot deal with its ultimate fate and so concoct vast quantities of religious gruel to feed their silly egos.
GSG (God Seeker Guy)
They said it!
Out of 100 men, one will read the Bible, the other 99 will read the Christian.
― D.L. Moody
A banana for God
Men are indeed a downtrodden lot. We toil all day to earn our bread and to provide bread for others. Our life for the most part resembles indentured slavery perpetuated by a system that tells us we never measure up and must consume to be a sound and successful member of our species.
“The male of our species is doomed to be led by the nose ( and other parts) into servitude…”
The religious elite add to our burden by deceiving us with promises for an afterlife they cannot furnish with any certainty. If a man were to ask a monkey to surrender his banana by promising him one hundred when he dies, the monkey will most likely insert his banana into him and walk away in disgust. We of course – desperate to free ourselves from monotony and commercial oppression – embrace any propaganda that will help us live the lie.
The male of our species is doomed to be led by the nose ( and other parts) into servitude simply because we are a one button animal and the ladies know it and because the system needs us to build their corporate pyramids.
God Seeker Guy will free the enslaved and oppressed, he will lead them out of bondage into the land of beer and honeys, follow me. (with apologies to the other half of the species)
GSG God Seeker Guy
They said it!
You talk to God, you’re religious. God talks to you, you’re psychotic.
―Doris Egan
Never enough!
Childs letters to God
The note by a young child reproduced in the illustration above is of course meant to be cute, but it does raise an interesting question in the context of this blog.
How does a small child come to believe that he’s not measuring up to the will of some higher power? One of the greatest objections God Seeker Guy has to most religions is the concept that we’re born sinners, born faulty in some way and only some unseen judgemental entity can free us from our inability to measure up.
One of the immense tragedies of the human spirit is that we live by rules created by others who are for the most part not practising what they preach. The leaders of every religion expound on the behaviour of their flock but rarely look to their own miserable failings. Church leadership worldwide is rampant with moral and ethical failings. Religious leadership has a unique talent for excusing their own less that stellar behaviours, while persistently reminding us of our failings.
“…she came away from the gathering feeling brutalised.”
GSG believes every religious follower is to some extent, living someone else’s lie. A friend recently mentioned how church leadership stated that if she had nothing to repent then she was being arrogant, a vile concept at best. These tirades demonstrates how the church demands that we search for the nasty parts of our nature so that the appointees of the various gods can keep their jobs as moral police.
This same friend who had attended church at the request of her colleague is not a regular church goer but rather is a kind and loyal friend supporting someone in need. After having a very good week herself and feeling happy to support a friend, she came away from the gathering feeling brutalised.
It is not until you become a mother that your judgement slowly turns to compassion and understanding. Erma Bombeck
The mother church might do well to act more like a mom and less like the village thug.
GSG (God Seeker Guy)
They said it!
We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing/ all-powerful God, who creates faulty humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes.
― Gene Roddenberry
Bring bolt cutters
If one more person or magazine article tells God Seeker Guy that he’s lost and needs help to find his way, he’s going to cancel his subscription to ‘God and more Gods’ and at dinner parties he will simply discuss the various methods of buttering toast.
He’s not lost—thank you very much—he’s journeying down a very fruitful and fulfilling path in his search for many things, including faith.
Why is embracing a religion blindly more valid than committing to none but being open to all? GSG has learned an enormous amount of valuable and interesting concepts from all of the worlds religions and from the people willing to share their faiths in an intelligent way. He has also picked up a lot of absolute nonsense, and therein lays the problem.
“Here’s the irony of all of it all, GSG is actually quite passionate about faith and religious conviction.”
Mark Twain is reputed to have said “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” This applies to the vast majority of religious pundits GSG has spoken to. Very few have shown any interest in broad discussions of faith or religion, most simply choose to lecture at great length attempting to beat their visitors into submission.
Here’s the irony of all of it all, GSG is actually quite passionate about faith and religious conviction. Not just as a critic, any fool can be a decrier, but as a seeker, as a man who wants to know if there is a single truth, many truths or no truths.
Assuming GSG makes it to the pearly gates one day, he assumes those in charge will appreciate his efforts to understand who and what they are, but as a precaution he plans to carry bolt cutters.
GSG (God Seeker Guy)
They said it!
People who want to share their religious views with you, almost never want you to share yours with them.
―Dave Barry
God as tow truck operator
God Seeker Guy hasn’t written anything for several months because he hasn’t had anything useful to say. By useful he means he’s had no need to clarify anything in his mind by writing, remember he writes for himself, not for the benefit of others, that would be presumptuous. Writing just to keep a blog up to date breeds mediocrity and threatens to dull the writers mind and bore the reader to death.
“Remember Isaac barley made it out alive from the most famous religious test in history…”
Here is the question GSG is attempting to answer for himself today and thus the reason for this blog post. If there is a god and he loves us, why did he allow GSG’s car to be towed away last night? A friend suggested God was testing or punishing GSG. This answer even though offered in jest, provoked a line of thought about religion, punishment and the incessant testing of the flock.
Remember Isaac barely made it out alive from the most famous religious test in history and the punishment of Jesus Christ, of course, was fatal. Hardly comparable to a temporary loss of one’s transportation, but the friends response demonstrates that most faiths mete out various trials and retributions of some nature, often for no apparent reason. Isaac was wholly innocent of any wrong doing as far as we know.
It’s the extreme nature of religions that is at the core of GSG struggle to come to grips with religious faith. The various religious doctrines offer little in the way of compromise, and even less in the way of understanding of alternate forms of worship. GSG likes – and at the same time dislikes – all of the world’s religions. The answer of course is for him to form his own faith and teachings. His religion would be based on all the faiths combined, a sort of – Chritsto-Muslimish-Jewdeo-Hindy-Pheudo Bogomillian-Druidish combo- , although that designation may not fit on the stationary.
A Christian friend says salvation can be found only through Jesus Christ, a Muslim friend says Allah is the one true God, a Jewish friend says both of these religions are pinched from the teachings of their faith. If you park in any of their lots, better obey the rules or you’ll be removed in brutal way and at your own expense.
GSG (God Seeker Guy)
They said it!
The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church.
— Ferdinand Magellan
Crucifixion and Elephants
Recently a friend proudly showed God Seeker Guy a crucifix she had been given as gift, it was made of ivory. While he said nothing at the time, the image made GSG wonder if the human race has gone completely mad.
“…insipid politically correct dialogue which serves to dilute critical thinking…”
The ability of the religious to rationalise the most bizarre behaviours is both astounding and at the same time appalling. Do we really think anything through anymore? It seems to GSG that we have sunk into a shallow pit of mindlessness. The focus of the western world in particular, appears to be on money, possessions and how to get thousands of more “likes” and subscribers to pointless and mind numbing blogs and YouTube videos.
There are two forms of communication emerging around us, insipid politically correct dialogue which serves to dilute critical thinking and social media posts that offer insights into the pathetic daily routines of lost and lonely souls.
The display of an ivory crucifix is a symbol of how we have become totally unable to utilize critical thought. It’s hard to believe anyone, even a religious lunatic, would intentionally display around her neck part of a magnificent animal hacked to death to produce an image of a butchered emaciated man at his moment of execution.
GSG (God Seeker Guy)
They said it!
To know a person’s religion we need not listen to his profession of faith, but must find his brand of intolerance.
–Eric Hoffer
Bikinis, speedos and creation
God Seeker Guy has decided to worship the creator of life, the source of creation on earth, the one true architect of mankind, the sun.
Think about it, no sun, no life. The earth was just a large ball of molten muck until it settled down and became inhabitable due to the perfect conditions provided mostly by the sun.
“GSG likes the sun, it’s dependable, never fails to show up in the morning…”
The sun provides day and night, so we can do stuff during the day without bumping into each other and at night we can get up to all kinds of mischief without being seen.
Without the sun there would be no bikinis or speedos —let’s not go there— and we would lose those rare peaceful moments as we watch the sunset on a warm summer evening.
GSG likes the sun, it’s dependable, never fails to show up in the morning and it keeps us warm when we forget our long underwear.
The point of course is why do we need to worship anything? Man seems to have a desperate almost frantic need to have a relationship with something other than human beings. Are we so disappointed in our own kind that we require a super natural being to validate who and what we are?
Believe in yourself, hold yourself in high regard and do not allow the unseen and evasive dictate to you through corrupt pseudo God representatives.
Life certainly may be unique in the universe but it may not be particularly important.
GSG (God Seeker Guy)
They said it!
God has no religion.
― Mahatma Gandhi
God Seeker Guy 