Christians

Religious Gruel

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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)

 

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’s bullies

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As the well-known matriarch of the Kennedy clan, Florynce Kennedy, once pointed out “If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament”

A recent catholic church edict announced that “…Pope Francis has given all priests the power to forgive women who have had an abortion, saying the procedure was a ‘grave sin’ but one that God’s mercy could wipe away for those with a repentant heart…”

Why are so many rules for women made by men and how is it only males are privy to Gods change of heart?

While God Seeker Guy has enormous respect for the present Pope and his efforts to humanize his church, why have so any women had to suffer terrible guilt for generations until the male dominated church once again changes its mind and gives the priesthood permission to forgive them.

“As long as religion constrains women and as long as the church is unable to deal with its abject fear of female competence…”

The issue here is not the hotly debated subject of abortion, but the fact that women have lived for centuries in misery and guilt as result of male instigated religious tyranny.

Author Jack Holland notes “Eve’s curious mind and audacious spirit proved to be unsettling to many. Ever since the famous fall – all the world’s major religions, and most of the world’s renowned philosophers, have regarded women with scorn.” Aristotle saw women as “failed males” and thirteenth century Catholic Philosopher Thomas Aquinas saw women as helpmates and suggested that women were “a necessary object needed to preserve the species and provide food and drink.” Not their finest moments, even considering the times.

To keep the ladies in line, Holland observes: “the ever resourceful church developed the concept of purity for women. The virgin myth has been employed ruthlessly to show women just how shameless they really are”.

This attitude of course is no longer acceptable to half the population of our planet. Surely it’s time for the churches of the world to finally accept that women are an equal creation of their Gods, women should not be held a prisoner of their physiology.

As long as religion constrains women and as long as the church is unable to deal with its abject fear of female competence, women will continue to be at the mercy of religious bullying.

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)

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)

‘Tis the season to be wise!

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New! New! New! Buy! Buy! Buy! If there is such a thing as an antichrist, surely he sits on a board of directors of some consumer oriented conglomerate. God Seeker Guy has come to the conclusion that we’re lost in a wilderness of blatant consumerism and need to find our way to a more frugal lifestyle. Perhaps we simply need to learn the meaning of contentment.

The real evil of consumerism, is the manner in which it keeps us dissatisfied with what we already have. The Christmas season is particularly wrought with danger as we’re often forced into buying indiscriminately or even in panic mode, every corporations idea of heaven.

Even though we are buying for others at this time of year, and of course our hearts are in the right place, we might consider if the expenditures on items willingly provided by well-lit malls is necessary to celebrate Christmas? Far more of us attend the malls than attend church. What does that tell you?

Shopping has become a new religion, it seems to fill the needs of  shoppers that cannot be met anywhere else. Even buyer’s remorse is not a strong enough motivation to stop a process that many need to find quasi contentment.

Genuine contentment is hard to find when we’re constantly reminded that our stuff is out of date. The latest toy is a must have as is the latest gadget, our clothes are out of style and Fred next door makes more money . (There is always a Fred around, but quite often he is on the threshold of bankruptcy and his BMW is on the verge of repossession.) Be careful who you try to measure up to, you may wind up living another person’s lie, a lesson learned by many congregations after their church leaders were arrested for fraud or other nasty crimes.

A lack of contentment appears to have gripped our relationships, companions and mates are replaced with the same regularity as our latest gizmo. The quality of just about everything is determined by short time spans, new is the god of modern times.

Most of us have what we need to be content, but it’s difficult to recognize it through the fog of relentless advertising and peer pressure. What’s the point of owning a high definition TV when your life is so low definition you can’t see clearly?

-GSG (God Seeker Guy)

 

 

 

God and dodo birds

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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.”

Can we in fact do without religious faith as we know it? probably not, but why? If religion is merely an uninformed effort to understand science, why are we still in the clutches of religious dogma seventy thousand years after the beginning of the cognitive revolution.

It looks very much like there is a desperate need deep within the human condition that craves for some kind of religious experience. Perhaps we just need someone to be in charge, someone or something to do our thinking for us, so we can go to the game or hang out in the pub without concern for the truth.

Man’s conceit demands there be more to life than our assigned number of heart beats.If we’re so eager to embrace some kind divine revelation, why do we waste so much time, energy and human life squabbling over who or what is  the correct form. Maybe the Greeks had it right and we’re just playthings to be forsaken when the gods get bored, like the Dodo Bird and Thylacine (look it up!)

-GSG ( God Seeker Guy)