Month: March 2018

Never enough!

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lined frank 3
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)

Bring bolt cutters

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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)

God as tow truck operator

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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)