Author: God Seeker Guy

Danger dude!

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As mentioned in an earlier post, God Seeker Guy is often accused of being ‘poisoned fruit’ and of presenting a danger to the faithful. This accusation was again tossed his way at a recent gathering. It is absolutely beyond understanding why anyone would see him as a menace to anyone except maybe himself. He finds no threat or peril from those who hold strong religious beliefs, in fact he welcomes a good old fashioned evangelistic tirade every now and then.

“How does a contradictory viewpoint translate into something toxic?”

Why are the religious so easily panicked and alarmed when an opposing view is offered? Socrates has said: “The greatest threat to both society and the individual is the suspension of critical thought”, and yet most of the faithful appear to embrace a grim determination to suspend not only critical thinking, but any kind of thinking that does not embrace their own views.

How does a contradictory viewpoint translate into something toxic? Falling back on the pitiful argument that you must have faith is not a good enough argument to convince God Seeker Guy to join anyone’s flock. His search continues.

-GSG (God Seeker Guy)

God and feta cheese

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Can God Seeker Guy develop a kinder, gentler approach to religion in the new year? While he would like to soften his approach in his search and perhaps become more open in his thinking, to date he has found little or no encouragement to do so. But let’s give it a try.

Most of the worlds people adhere to some kind of religion, so there must be something that causes them to believe in the divine. What is it? I have no idea, however here is my best guess.

The human ego demands that there be something more to life than work, play, sleeping and shrimp cooked with tomatoes, onions and covered in Feta cheese. Do you as believers need religion just to get through the day or is your faith an honest effort to understand yourselves as a Homo Sapiens? You tell me!

Most religious adherents appear to believe blindly, which becomes apparent  when trying to engage in religious conversation. In depth religious dialogue is rare, rigid opinions and bizarre explanations are the norm.

“The most obvious answers is that we never have to choose…”

To be sure there are those who genuinely try to explain their faith. For example, the Mormons are very patient and never raise their voice in a conversation about their faith. Many Muslim acquaintances have proven to be very intelligent and are much more tolerant than the media suggests.

While the Jewish community is less inclined to explain itself, and has difficulty separating religion from politics, we should remember that all of the great religions are born of the Jewish faith.

So what to believe? What to embrace as a lifelong guide? The most obvious answers is that we never have to choose, we are born with our religion and for the most part die with it.

If born in a Christian country to Christian parents does that make one a Christian? If so then religion is simply an accident of birth and geography. There is nothing divine in that, nothing supernatural, it is a fluke of nature. If there is only one right faith then the Almighty should have done a much better job of explaining himself, thus we could have avoided a great deal of human misery.

GSG (God Seeker Guy)

Oh hell!

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“There are degrees of punishment in Hell depending on the severity of the offense.” (Lk. 12:47-48).

This quote from Luke is very reassuring to those of us who have taken the odd fall in the sinning dept. It’s good to know that a small lapse in judgment while briefly coveting a neighbors spouse will not elicit the same punishment as the serial killer, or maybe it will, we’re not really clear on that point.

Apparently we are born sinners, guilty before proven innocent, condemned before the crime is even committed. Many live in fear of retribution from some unseen entity, a tool created by humans to put the fear of God into other humans. What was perhaps a simple control mechanism designed by the likes of Moses when he downloaded his commandments from the cloud, has evolved into a universal tool for manipulation of the faithful.

“How can we believe in genetics, the cosmos and the merits of tofu and still adhere to directives concocted at a time when few people could even read or write.”

We can free ourselves from fear and self-loathing by simply recognizing that man created God, not the other way around. That religion was simply an uninformed effort to understand science and is fast losing its relevance.

How can we believe in genetics, the cosmos and the merits of tofu and still adhere to directives concocted at a time when few people could even read or write. If education had not been controlled by the church it’s demise would have come much sooner.

Civil law keeps us in order, the fear of a parking ticket is more powerful than the fear of punishment  in Hell, at least on a day to day basis. It is indeed a tragedy that many of us live in fear of vengeance in an afterlife.

To be sure humans crave something bigger than ourselves for guidance, but do we need an all-powerful somewhat miserable God? Author Stephen Prothero talks about history’s most dangerous idea “that human beings can solve the human problem on our own without recourse to God or divine revelation.”

The bible of course has an answer- ” I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon, let us take our fill of love until the morning.”  (Proverbs  7:17-18 )  – just be careful who you’re coveting.

 GSG (God Seeker Guy)

Fried scientist!

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Catherine Fahringer was an American activist born in 1922 who campaigned for the separation of church and state in the United States. She once observed that: “We would be 1,500 years ahead if it hadn’t been for the church dragging science back by its coattails and burning our best minds at the stake.”

“Good news indeed, it was well worth the wait to have science confirmed by faith.”

Arguably the most famous example of the Christian church’s ignorance in regards to science is the story of Galileo. More than 350 years after the Roman Catholic Church condemned Galileo, it has now admitted that it was in error and after a thirteen year investigation, accepted that Galileo was correct in his assertion that the earth revolves around the sun.

Good news indeed, it was well worth the wait to have science confirmed by faith. Of course, it’s a bit late for all those brilliant minds that didn’t have the foresight to keep quiet about their discoveries.

Religions the world over cling to ancient beliefs that are becoming ever more redundant in a world that demands basic proof such as that which can be provided by science. The generations to come will no doubt be ‘dragged back by their coattails’ but technology will surely demand that those doing the dragging be held accountable for their conduct.

Science is now close to proving that the concept of God as we teach it is obsolete. Yet, even now, the churches of the world are denying what will no doubt be confirmed by scientists in the years to come—that God needs a makeover. While burning at the stake is no longer available, the intent is still present in the church in the form of intellectual persecution.

It’s time for future  generations to take the lead, and use the science and technology readily available to bring church leaders to accountability. If churches are half empty as one reader discovered over Christmas, that may well be a good sign. It does not mean God is dead, as she notes, but perhaps we have decided to look elsewhere to fill the god gap.

-GSG (God Seeker Guy)

Eskimo insight

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Eskimo: If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?
Priest: No, not if you did not know.
Eskimo: Then why did you tell me?
 – Annie Dillard

While not politically correct, and with apologies to the Inuit, this quote sums up very well how we become manipulated my religions of all kinds. The power of suggestion is a very potent  tool used indiscriminately by the religious community  to get into the heads of vast populations.

“A majority view does not make it normal, it simply makes it average.”

The real power of religion is the use of vague, unsubstantiated statements presented as fact. For many this culminates in a series of unfortunate beliefs, because it’s judged safer to accept unproven nonsense rather risk decent into the equally unproven lower regions offered by most religions.

We are perfectly capable of being at peace without religion. We only question ourselves because those who have quasi authority over their flocks feel obliged to remind us that we are flawed.

If we live in a cave on the moon and do not know about God, we’re free and clear. However if we somehow learn about God and choose to dismiss the concept, then according to some we’re in deep trouble. It takes a certain amount of strength to dismiss dogma of any kind. A majority view does not make it normal, it simply makes it average.

-GSG (God Seeker Guy)

What to do?

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God Seeker Guy has been asked to attend a church carol celebration over the Christmas period. What to do?

While churches are not his favorite place in which to gather, God Seeker Guy respects the traditions of others and will not be “making a point” at the expense of family and friends who look forward to a traditional Christmas church celebration that really has little to do with religion.

“We can respect the convictions of others without embracing them. We can participate as guests …”

Relationships with real people take priority over relationships with vague , esoteric , unseen entities. We can respect the convictions of others without embracing them. We can participate as guests without signing up.

If there is a contradiction here, no apologies are offered, the inconsistency signifies the struggle in searching for faith.  Attending a church carol service will not corrupt or do serious mental damage, adamant refusal to attend would be childish and immature.

The cost to God Seeker Guy is zero, the pageantry can be fun and the religious nonsense can be dismissed. Participation in religious rights can be politely declined. While being among the congregation may at times be uncomfortable, it’s doubtful it will cause  any real or imagined harm. Any search involves  looking far and wide, not just in comfortable places.

Participating in a colorful Christmas church service will make family members  happy, God Seeker Guy will just have to put aside his issues with the Almighty for one evening.

-GSG (God Seeker Guy)

Godless guy?

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Finding a place in the religious realm is not impossible, however  to resolve the issues inherent in searching for faith, surely we must keep an open mind. God Seeker Guy has been accused many times of being godless, however there are some diehards  who claim he is spiritual under the sarcastic façade. We shall see.

If we have the rare option of choosing our faith rather than having one thrust upon us at birth, we have a daunting task ahead. All of the world religions demand attention and thoughtful inquiry.

“Blind faith is embraced when logic is abandoned…”

It has been said extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. While some of us claim to make a great soufflé – an extraordinary claim indeed-  the proof can be found in the oven, proof of God must be found  elsewhere.  While there are many recipes for the Divine, how we collect and combine the ingredients will determine whether we create a useful product.

Faith is a strange thing, we’re often reminded that we must believe that our children love us, we must have faith. However this is a love that can be confirmed when we see the smile on their faces when we give them money. God also needs huge amounts of money, but it never seems to be enough and smiles from God are difficult to elicit, wrath is more common.

Blind faith is embraced when logic is abandoned so there must be better arguments for belief than those offered by most religions.

As W.C.Fields once put it: “Everybody’s got to believe in something. I believe I’ll have another beer.”

-GSG (God Seeker Guy)