The Story of Religion
Once upon a time there was god. He came from nowhere or was always there. He existed, all powerful, in the midst of nothing for all time. He was powerful beyond all human understanding. He was also inherently kind and loving.
He decided that he would make the whole universe of more galaxies than the human mind could comprehend and so he did.
He thought it and it came into being out of nothing, just like he had done before.
He made the whole universe, with its zillions of galaxies, each made of trillions of stars, just so that he could place some humans on a small planet in an average galaxy that was in itself completely insignificant.
These humans were the focus of everything. They were the purpose for the existence of the whole universe and gave god a purpose too.
He gave them free will but warned them that if they did not obey his instructions and commands to the letter, despite the fact that he was loving and kind, he would cast them into everlasting agony. But then he told them that if they did obey his every demand they would have everlasting joy in heaven – for god had a purpose and a plan for them that was beyond their understanding.
Then god proceeded to allow different versions of his often confusing and contradictory instructions to be distributed to different people in different parts of the world all purporting to be the only truth – the holy word of god.
It created fear and confusion but god did not interfere.
Some people believed that god was manifest in rocks, trees, sun and moon, while others believed that he was a series of gods and goddesses living in the sky, while others thought he was three and some that he was one.
The only thing they all agreed on was that all the other versions were wrong, heretical and evil and had to be eradicated.
The different tribes fought and killed in the name of their god. They fiercely brought up their children to believe in their version and fight fiercely in his name. They were determined to enforce the version of the rules they had been given.
God watched as they butchered, slaughtered, sacrificed and tortured.
He had an unknowable plan.
Perhaps the suffering and death was all part of it?
It would all work out in the end. All the tribes had faith – different faith – but faith none the less.
God did nothing to intervene – not a word.
He had given humanity the universe, a place of wonder and awe, created out of nothing, but he was nowhere to be seen, doing nothing.
This is the story of religion.
It all makes perfect sense to me.
Its not like you to be so cynical, and religion is such an easy target these days.
Are these extracts from a book?
Now if you could explain how God was but wasnt there, and how to do one-hand clapping, I reckon you’d be on to something.
I blame it on Schroedinger, personally 🙂
Cynicism and sarcasm are my greatest weapons. Or is it humour and wit? Or maybe decisiveness and incisiveness? Or deliberation and thought? Or could it be conciseness and brevity?
That cat has a lot to answer for. Personally I wish it was dead.
No and yes to your question. It isn’t in a book but I’m contemplating making a book out of anecdotes and ramblings. That could be in it.
I often do one hand clapping and it is a quantum god – that is my string theory on how long is a piece of.
Now you’re talking: binary pairs – one of my favourite topics for stoned discussion.
One of these daze I WILL make sense of it all and declare eeyorns general theory of relative quantum thermodynamics and absolutely everything. By then of course, I’ll have turned into a Higgs-Boson particle, and may be found playing hide-and-seek in the Swiss mountains
I tried binary pairs – it was fun but we split up in the end. It had charm with the up and down but it turned strange.
Of course it was binary singles on the one hand.
So I thought it was you who was holding everything together you god particle you.
By the laws of thermodynamics the faster I type the quicker the universe grinds to a halt. I’d better stop.
Far too many posts Opher! But I couldn’t resist commenting on this one. (I like the comments above – very ha ha!)
View of religion a bit disingenuous. Those may have been/be the view of millions but it is not the practice of the majority of Catholics/Christians or Muslims today (ie. the majority of religious people in the world).
However, it does suggest we could do worse than follow the opposite of Pascal’s wager and act as if there is no God, regardless of whether there is or not. (I have an open mind as to whether there is but if there is I’m sure it’s nothing like the caricature. If there is, it must be present throughout all those universes, even in the birds, rocks and trees.)
Trevor (one of those Quaker heretics).
I like heretics. Thanks for commenting. Good to hear from you. I know there’s too many. But my hard-drives have packed it. I cannot work on my books. This is diverting me.
If there’s a god I am sure it’s not the god of any caricature I’ve read. It would flow through the fabric of the universe in a glowing flow. It would not care what I thought or said about it. It would be a bonus.
Are you going to put up a review about my book? I loved what you said – cheers Opher