God

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)

 

A banana for God

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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

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)

God’s sense of humor

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Consider the poor duck-billed platypus, he looks like he’s made from the parts of several animals, something made from remains found in the Almighty’s work shop. Perhaps God was bored and decided to have a little fun, something to do on his day of rest.

His effort to create humans may have been accomplished in the same manner, although our design defects are less obvious. Most of our parts look like they belong together. On the surface we appear to be well thought out, but there are certainly issues with our functionality.

“Where God went wrong —and God Seeker Guy has brought this to his attention on several occasions…”

Although we have proven our ability to achieve great things, we consistently undo much of the good we accomplish by indulging in religious dogmatism and denying the rights of others to follow any faith they choose.

Where God went wrong —and God Seeker Guy has brought this to his attention on several occasions with little success— is  that he created a creature with poor instincts. Animals are not self-destructive, they have the ability to function as a well-organised group and they usually work together for the betterment of the herd. True, animals will kill each other on occasion, but most don’t destroy members of their own group, although the odd lion will kill the young of a newly acquired female, a policy humans have avoided so far.

God immediately realised his mistake in tinkering with Homo sapiens and booted them out of their designated living quarters. Later he found it necessary to come up with numerous commandments to stop them from slaughtering their neighbours and indulging in all sorts of sordid activities.

Assembling the duck-billed platypus showed the Almighty had a sense of humour, fabricating humans not so much.

GSG (God Seeker Guy)

Sarcastic seeker?

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God Seeker Guy has often been attacked for his negative posture on faith. “Everything you write is either sarcastic or a put down to those of us who have found faith.” observes a reader. Her comments are well taken and duly noted, however she appears to have missed the point of GSG’s writing.

GSG writes for himself, not for others, thus the lack of political correctness and sugar coating in his words. He does not mean to criticize the beliefs of anyone, though it may look that way at times. He is looking at the subject only from his own point of view, however confused that may be.

“Everything you write is either sarcastic or a put down to those of us who have found faith.”

He has great respect and admiration for those who have discovered the tranquillity of faith along with the solace and contentment it presumably brings. In fact knowing when we’re content is probably the secret to life. Recognizing happiness, peace and the genuine love of a good person is very difficult in a world that demands constant change and endless striving.

GSG understands that he is the outcast, he is the one with the “problem”. He respects others for getting on with life rather than squandering heartbeats demanding accountability from the unaccountable and endeavoring to conclude an impossible Sisyphean task.

He doesn’t fear condemnation, attack him, criticize him, challenge him, “dis-like” him, force him to defend his position. Perhaps in this way you will be the one to “save” him, who knows?

Sarcastic Searcher!wishes to join them, but cannot find the key to unlock the riddle others have solved.

GSG (God Seeker Guy)

Rummaging for God

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Another heartless weekend had descended upon him and he had only himself for company. Everyone else was busy or at least they wanted it to look busy. He was not one who often found himself lonely but often found himself alone. Unlike the endless pack of laptop rabble that filled the coffee shops in his neighborhood he had no need to look active or engaged.

“He spends much of his time seeking a god that has eluded him or a god that is afraid to face him.”

He has family and friends of course but he is solitary by nature. He gets little energy from people, he finds them exhausting for the most part. He is not anti-social by any means, he can hold a conversation with almost anyone, but given a choice he prefers his own company. He has never looked to others for solace or advice, even as a child he walked for hours on the mashes with his dog for company. Those walks with a good listener shaped  his way of dealing with the world.

He spends much of his time seeking a god that has eluded him or a god that is afraid to face him. Finding God is not important to him, the search is where the real value is to be found. Rummaging around looking for something will often turn up the unexpected. While looking for one thing we may find another. While looking for God we may find truth, who knows?

Struggling to find his place on the planet, he has sought his own path without influence from others. This of course is virtually impossible since we are impacted by others even without knowing it. The struggle to maintain individuality is so difficult in a world dominated by social media, television and acquaintances who want you to be more like them in order to validate their own existence.

This is a man who is ridiculed for saving the life of a spider but who has little concern for the future of humanity. He will give money to the derelict on the street without judgement but offers no comfort to those who ask for his prayers, they must go elsewhere.

This man —one of many among us—has imagination and courage and so refuses to be lead to the trough of religious mediocrity.

GSG (God Seeker Guy)

Fishing for faith

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One of the few things God Seeker Guy understands about the story of Christ is the fact that he was interested in fishing. Some his followers were of course fisherman, that makes them okay in GSG’s estimation.

Fishing, if done right, gives us time to think, time to slow down and consider our place in the universe. A trip up county to an isolated lake or river, surrounded by giant fir trees, fast flowing rivers and cool clean air offers a place to connect with our surroundings, a place to clear our heads. GSG is often accused of being spiritual despite his agonizing struggle with God. If he ever gets close to adopting a religion or embracing some kind of god , he will achieve it in the open where God can find him.

Churches over the past years have not been successful at gathering together those in need of focus for their life. A former post noted that “A four-day conference convened to examine the viability of the United Church in Canada didn’t have much to consider. If the Church has 3,400 congregations and a membership of 558,000, as reported, that works out to 164 God-fearing souls rushing to each congregation” obviously something is amiss.

“GSG is often accused of being spiritual despite his agonizing struggle with God. If he ever gets close to adopting a religion…”

It seems God if having difficulty being heard through the commotion and distractions of the city. It is said that God is everywhere but many are finding it a struggle to locate him, if he does indeed exist he needs to find a good social media consultant.

We are at a stage in human evolution when we’re absolutely obliged to question the absurd demand of attending a gathering in a half empty building. We are asked to listen to an out of touch ecclesiastical diehard attempting to protect a job no longer in demand by a new enlightened generation of YouTubers and bloggers. In fact many of GSG’s readers use their blogs as a platform to talk through their issues and feelings with numerous online parties. While such communication may be suspect, blogs—immediate and instantly available—may well become the church of the young, who knows?

It has been said that Christ had no church, he was the church. Many of us are now in the process of seeking out our own individual sanctuary. The future is going to be very different from the past in terms of how we connect with God, GSG will be on the river, listening and waiting, where will you be?

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)

God and toasters

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Does the growth of artificial intelligence bother anyone out there in cyber world?

Elon Musk has suggested that if we don’t merge with Artificial Intelligence, humans will become obsolete. God Seeker Guy’s effort to understand God and faith may come to an abrupt end with the advances in AI looming in the not too distant future.

If we do indeed absorb many of the attributes of AI into the human condition, and if the next step in the evolutionary chain is to become more machine than human as we know it, is there still a place for the numerous gods served my man?

“… In the future that may reverse, we may find ourselves accommodating machines.”

Musk notes that “computers can communicate at a trillion bits per second, while humans, whose main communication method is typing with their fingers via a mobile device, can do about 10 bits per second.” This suggests that machines will be able to figure out the god problem somewhat faster than God Seeker Guy, who is still trying to figure out how to turn water into wine.

Musk observed that “Over time, I think, we will probably see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence.” He also speaks of Deep AI, Artificial Intelligence that is “smarter than the smartest human on earth.”

At present, we’re accommodated by machines, our cars take us to the mall, cell phones keep us organised and technology in general serves us. In the future that may reverse, we may find ourselves accommodating machines.

Karsten Schmidt, head of technology at the Innovation Center Silicon Valley for SAP labs has observed that “In 2017, we will see AI gain greater acceptance and momentum as humans come to increasingly rely, trust and depend more on AI-driven decisions and question them less…” Which basically means we’re going to find it increasingly difficult to govern our toasters.

Religion with its blind faith has for centuries retarded the ability of its followers to question and challenge it’s beliefs. Artificial intelligence will not tolerate such foolishness. Machines do not like vague input or corrupt data, they will not respond well to religion with its confused and inconsistent programming.  If we do become half human and half machine, the human half will of course be deleted on relatively short notice and the gods will be consigned to a foot note in the operating manual of the new pseudo humans.

GSG (God Seeker Guy)

No cross dressing please

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“Yes I am, I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

Words spoken by a wise practitioner of religion, however, words wrought with difficulties for us lesser mortals. The problem of course is the myriad of rules and laws required by each religion in Gandhi’s range of faiths.

As an observant Hindu he would be required to follow the concept of dharma which appears to come in four flavors with the first being universal law and includes social law, human law and self-dharma, that’s a lot of laws when broken down into their separate components.

Next as a Muslim Gandhi would be obliged to commit to the five pillars of Islam which include the profession of faith, daily prayer, alms giving, fasting and a trip to Mecca at least once in his lifetime. Relatively simple but time consuming and possibly expensive as Islam expects real results.

“He cannot sell his wife into slavery and he may not wear women’s clothing…”

Buddhism on the other hand can be practiced without physically doing anything very much but requires enormous amounts of cerebral exertion.  The tenets which remain common to all Buddhism, include the “four noble truths” which includes the “eight fold path” of right views.

Mr. Gandhi would be required to follow the Right Understanding, Right Intent, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. That’s a lot of stuff to get right. At this point Mr Gandhi would be pretty busy just keeping up with his daily chores, but there is more weight to be heaped on those skinny shoulders.

The combo religion of  Christianity and Judaism is demanding beyond belief. By some estimates there are 612 commandments in the Hebrew Torah, of which ten (the Decalogue) are the best known and fundamental to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Under Judaeo- Christian law Gandhi would have to be careful. He cannot sell his wife into slavery (Deut. 21:14) and he may not wear women’s clothing (Deut. 22:5). The list is very long and would no doubt have caused him to take up heavy drinking by now, although that’s forbidden.( Num. 6:3)

Gandhi  was of course speaking metaphorically, he meant well and had the right idea when he eluded to a universal faith. However, on our religiously divided planet such a concept is not likely to emerge.

-GSG (God Seeker Guy)