God

God and Nukes

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The two greatest threats to humanity have to be thermonuclear war and monotheism. The dangers of the bomb are obvious, the dangers of monotheism less so.

Prior to the belief in the ‘one true God’ the Pagans offered a healthy variety of attractive almost mortal deities. The goddesses were babes, the gods were hunks. Although much of their time was spent squabbling or coveting each other, pagan gods rarely sought to control their worshipers.

Author Stephen Prothero notes: “Jews, Christians, and Muslims are all ‘people of the book’ who believe in one God who speaks to His people through prophets.” He goes on to say that “the Hebrew Bible, Christian Bible, and the Quran also share the patriarch Abraham, who according to all three traditions is the progenitor of monotheism.”

Why with such a common history are the so called ‘three great religions’ continuously at each others throats?  The God of all three religions is the same god after all. Squabbling over its name and identity has led to immense anguish in the world.

It would seem blind faith in the ‘one true God’ will lead us inevitably to an intellectual and possibly literal holocaust.

GSG (God Seeker Guy)

Heaven Knows

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“… Humans unlike the animals can ponder their mortality. They do so mostly with fear and loathing. This is due in part to the poor job done by the church and some philosophers,” wrote author Phillip Larkin.”If we were fully conscious of our mortality, we wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning” – not exactly a warm and fuzzy approach to eternity.

The church has done little to comfort us. Pope John Paul II has determined that “Heaven is a blessed community, which is neither an abstraction nor a physical place.” Religious leaders, as usual, cause confusion by creating bizarre explanations for those of us who are not blessed with clerical insight.

Peter Stanford in his delightful book Heaven makes an interesting observation. “From the time when the first Neanderthal sat next to the lump of dead protein that had been his or her mate and realized that something had to be done about the smell, we have wondered what, if anything comes next.”

Since Darwin has effectively done God out of a job as Stanford suggests, and since we are not going to get out of life alive, I suppose we need answers. Manipulation runs rampant in the Heaven marketing business. The entrance fee has historically been based on behaving ourselves according to the dictates of the Almighty. However, I suspect the famous Ten Commandments held nothing new for those folks lost in the Sinai. Moses simply came down the mountain with the obvious in writing.

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.”

Rantor William Bond, in 1656 suggested that “we are in Heaven when we are happy and in hell when we are not.” A simple idea but perhaps on the right track.

The love of another human being is conceivably the most cherished feature we will find in life and is possibly the only loss we need mourn during our last days. I imagine even our godless prehistoric relatives had practiced some form of loving and caring so I doubt we require the services of the divine to be fitting humans.

A shroud has no pockets. If we put some value on life rather than focus on possessions, and if we understand that most of us already have what we need to be content, perhaps then Heaven will be within our grasp.

GSG (God Seeker Guy)

Wiggle Room

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Christians find comfort in the knowledge that Jesus Christ saved the world from sin and gave the human race a chance to amend its rotten behavior. Jesus made a heroic effort to save us, but he would surely be disappointed if he could see his flock now.

The Jesus movement of the first century, a Jewish movement led by a man who was born a Jew and died a Jew, was interesting to be sure but hardly unique for the times. The movement probably died out some time during the first century of the modern era.

Jesus the Christ on the other hand flourished. He was transformed into a God by Christianity’s most famous and effective marketing manager, the apostle Paul. Paul’s masterstroke was to appeal to the gentiles by easing up on the membership needs to enter his club. Males were no longer required to alter certain parts of their anatomy to qualify as followers, which in turn allowed more wiggle room for new converts.

Thus, divinity is not the only attribute that separates Jesus Christ from some of his lambs.

GSG (God Seeker Guy)

 

United We Fall

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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, we don’t fear  the Almighty as much as we once did.

Questioning the credibility of your church takes courage indeed and a few theologians are now taking the lead. Clinging tenaciously to any hope of keeping their jobs, most clergy appear to question nothing at all.

Like it or not, we live in a world of Internet and accountability. If you’re going to save souls, you better have a good program to do it. A new religious leadership is desperately needed in the Christian Church. However, those who seek change are not always popular. A lesson learned by Jesus Christ himself.

GSG (God Seeker Guy)

Eve’s Bad Rap

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The challenge within the story of Adam and Eve is to spot the true villain.When the Almighty finds Adam and Eve hiding in the bushes and demands to know who ate from the famous tree, Adam immediately blames Eve; the rest of course is history. It’s not an easy task shouldering the blame for the downfall of the human race, but Eve has born the weight on her broad shoulders with admirable stoicism.

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 St. 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 suggests: “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”.

Surely Eve has been given a bad rap. One small culinary error and she gets dumped on for all eternity.

GSG (God Seeker Guy)