Thank you to my contributor robinson0511. Stephen Fry sums it up perfectly.
A god that designs such a terrible world with cancers, eye-eating worms, war, death and suffering for billions of innocent people and trillions of poor innocent creatures is not worthy of respect.
A god so lacking in self-worth that he/she demands worship and sacrifice and threatens eternal torture to those who do not believe is a monster.
The Bible – a 2000-year-old book written by tribes of desert-dwelling Arabs. Contains some terrible morality – homophobia, misogyny, violence and racism. Also contains some contradictory good morality – concerning not killing, stealing or being racist, loving each other and being kind and compassionate.
As a book of guidance, it is extremely flawed as one would expect from something emanating from such a patriarchal, tribal culture as that of the Arabs of that time.
Richard Dawkins does a good job in holding his patience in the face of much stupidity.
New Fictions
Our fictions are crumbling –
God, King and Country
Have lost their meaning.
People have lost their faith.
We need better fictions
To believe in;
Fictions that are better
Than the old ones.
One planet; one people,
One realm of nature;
One home for us all;
To be treated with respect.
Opher 2.12.2018
We created fictions to hold us together and give us strength. But the cohesion is wearing thin. We are becoming divided.
We no longer believe there is a god.
We’ve lost our faith in our politicians.
We do not stand for the Queen.
We know all people are one. That race, nationality and creeds are fictions.
I think it’s time to jettison the old and bring in a new set that we can believe in.
Everyone.
Nature.
The planet.
I’d put my faith into those.
Once upon a time there was a man who asked questions:
Where did the universe come from?
Some people said it was always here.
Some people said it came out of nothing.
The man was puzzled.
Everything has a beginning. How can the universe not have a beginning? How can it always have been here?
But if it came from nothing how is that possible? All the matter cannot just suddenly be created out of nothing, could it?
He went to ask the Holy Man (who lived in a very nice house and was worshipped by many).
‘Holy Man, please tell me where did the universe come from?’
The Holy Man said ‘God made it.’
That made sense.
The Holy Man added – ‘God has given me instructions. You must worship only God, you must wear these clothes, you must eat this food. You must behave this way. You must pray, fast and study the holy book. God has a purpose for you.’
The man went away. Everything was explained. God made everything. God told him how to behave. God had a purpose for him.
But the more he thought the more he came to realise that it wasn’t an answer at all. He went back to the Holy Man with more questions –
‘Who made God?’
‘Where did God come from?’
‘Where was God before the universe was made?’
‘Has God always been here?’
‘What is this mysterious purpose?’
‘Why are the moral codes given to us by God reflecting the values of the people the religion came from? Why are they racist? Why are they misogynistic? Why are they intolerant of homosexuals?’
The Holy Man had no answers to these questions and became angry.
And the man came to realise that the Holy Man’s answers were not answers at all. They just kicked the can down the road and provided the Holy Man with power and control. The Holy Man had invented God as an answers to questions that there was no answer to.
So the man went off and said to himself – ‘I do not know where the universe came from. I do not understand. But I have a life and I intend to enjoy it. I am a good person and I will continue to be as good as I can be not out of fear or out of promise of some future life but because I feel it is the right thing to do. That is enough.’
He knew the Holy Man was a charlatan.
Worship
I’m going to worship the sun.
At least it is real.
I can feel it on my face.
I can see it in the sky.
The sun is not imaginary;
Not an invention.
It gives me light.
It gives me heat.
It gives me life.
I do not need to talk to it in a cave,
Or on any mountain top,
Or in any wilderness.
The sun appears before everyone.
It does not make demands on me,
Or gives me lists of things I must not do,
Or lists of things I must do,
Things I have to wear,
Things I must not eat.
The sun is kind it merely gives expecting nothing in return.
I do not have to pray to it to make it shine.
It just shines.
It does not know that I exist.
It does not care.
It does not threaten me with eternal torture,
Or promise me eternal pleasure.
It came from the same place as me.
It made the atoms of my body.
It will die like me.
I am happy with the sun.
It will do very nicely.
Opher – 17.4.2021
Just imagine for one minute that there is no god.
Doesn’t that make a mockery of all the fantastic effort and sacrifices people all over the world have made?
Yet we can’t see this god. He rarely answers our prayers – if ever.
Why is it that only a certain few people have ever claimed to have spoken to god and received instructions from him? And always alone in caves, up mountains or in wildernesses.
Why is god so shy?
Why does this god give different, and very precise, instructions to different people?
Will wearing a veil, eating pork or beef, wearing a turban or devoutly praying really make that difference to him?
I always laugh when some who is saved from disaster thanks god. They never ask why god allowed the disaster in the first place or why he didn’t save the equally worthy people who died in the disaster.
If we have to worship something I’ll settle for the sun. The sun’s good enough for me. It’ll do for now. I might eventually transfer my allegiance to the moon though. She’s more mysterious.
I WANNA BELIEVE
I wanna believe
I wanna believe
You have to believe
I wanna believe
I see the mystery
I feel the awe
I wanna believe
Show me what it’s all for
Give me a break
Give me a sign
I just wanna believe
It’ll all work out fine
So the universe is big
Life is so complex
Time lasts forever
And mystery comes next
I wanna believe
I wanna believe
You have to believe
I wanna believe
There must be a reason
There must be a why
Looking up at this wonder
You could fall into the sky
I’ve got this mind
I feel and I breathe
I look through two peepholes
To a reality I perceive
I wanna believe
I wanna believe
You have to believe
I wanna believe
It’s hard to imagine
it could exist without me
Does a tree really fall
With nobody to see?
Still it doesn’t make sense
All this wonder and awe
Believing in afterlives
Does not explain what it’s for
Heaven’s so crowded
Everything nice for eternity
So pleasant and twee
Bored to death by perpetual ecstasy
I’ve trouble with this purpose
Your God’s eternity
It doesn’t make any sense to me
You see
When my brain gets no blood
There won’t be a me
I wanna believe
I wanna believe
You have to believe
I wanna believe
It’d be nice to think
That there would
But wishing it so
Does not mean that it could
Our thoughts are so profound
Our consciousness great
Our galaxy spins
In an infinite state
It’s amazing and impossible
So we can’t comprehend
But with no greater purpose
One day it will end
It can make you feel good
To think of other stars
But the purpose we need
Is to do better with ours
I wanna believe
I wanna believe
You have to believe
I wanna believe
But I’m afraid I cannot
Books written by men
Do not thrill me a lot
Paradise invented for power
To put despots
In their ivory tower
And religions created
By the hour
I do believe
There is no
No heaven or hell
I do believe
There’s no sea
In this shell.
OPHER 20.9.96
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a purpose to life and we all toodle off to paradise for eternity, meet up with the rellies and friends and live happily ever after?
Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a paradise somewhere where everything was wonderful?
Wouldn’t it be nice if all the different religious sacred books were right (at least the nice bits) and there was a God?
Unfortunately it all looks too human and contrived to me.
Religion has been used for power and control and still is.
Too many children have been indoctrinated from birth and too much insane cruelty inflicted.
I look around me and see beauty, awe and wonder. I do not even glimpse creation.
The human imagination and psychological needs have conjured up an elaborate charade to fill in the gaps.
Why should be fear death? What has formed this wondrous universe? What is the purpose of life?
Don’t worry. I have all the answers.
The last track on the second album – an interesting antiwar poem on the end dedicated to Jack Kerouac.
Religion is a hot potato. Trying to look objectively at it is extremely difficult. We are born into cultures steeped in religious dogma. It is a process of brainwashing that is impossible to escape.
Freud said religion was a mass psychosis. I agree with him.
Is there any evidence of a supernatural being? None that I have seen or heard.
We live in an amazing universe. It is mind-boggling. But does that necessary infer an intelligence behind it? I say no.
We have an amazing brain that provides us with consciousness. Does that infer a god? I say no.
Religions came out of the Stone-Age with their costumes, rituals and customs – often racist, intolerant and misogynistic. I believe they are all creations of man.
We love ritual and pageant. We find it fulfilling. We love answers to problems. There are none bigger than life and the universe. We fear death. We are eager to clutch at straws that say this life isn’t all there is. But is there evidence for anything – a future life, a god creator? No, not really. Yet we manufacture ghosts, angels and heaven. We like to think of our loved ones and ourselves living forever, reunited. It is reassuring.
Looking, as a biologist at our bodies, they are not miracles. They are riddled with flaws and ‘design’ faults. We could easily design something far superior.
We believe tales from individuals up mountains, in caves and in the wilderness from people who claim to have spoken to god. But really, if someone made those claims today they would be ridiculed. Why does god choose not to speak to us all? Why only to solitary individuals?
Perhaps, because there is no god? Perhaps many people ‘hear voices’?
Has religion done much good? The history of religion has been the tale of a struggle for power with much persecution, intolerance, hatred, war and violence.
On the positive side, it has produced much succour and comfort for the bereaved and reduced anxiety over death. It has provided help and comfort for those in need. Many religious people have done a lot of good. But is it a false hope, based on a false premise?
Does the bad outweigh the good? I think it does.
As religions developed in the age of science, they have changed. For example, the Catholic Church believed that Heaven was above and hell below. That the earth was the centre of the universe and that the stars were pinpricks through which the light of heaven showed through. They tortured and burnt people who disagreed.
As science demonstrated that the earth was not the centre, that stars were suns, that there was no heaven in the sky or hell below, they changed their dogma. It clearly demonstrates to me that they do not know what they are talking about.
Is this blasphemous? Or is it possible to have an intelligent discussion about religion?
Now spirituality – that’s something else altogether!!
According to Descartes, and I go along with him, ‘I think therefore I am’.
The only thing we can be certain of is our own existence. The rest of the universe, including our own bodies, is up for grabs.
We will wake up soon.
All this world is but a stage.
I should imagine all people find it hard to imagine the whole of this universe coming from nothing.
Yet some people do not find it hard to imagine a God coming from nothing and then creating a universe out of nothing. Why is that? Surely that is at least twice as much implausibility?
I think we are back to the nature of mind and consciousness. I am conscious. That is all there is. I’m not even sure about you.
So I get on with it and make the best of it. I could be discorporate in the midst of nothing. Anything is a bonus. Perhaps this is all a figment? Yet what a glorious construction. I should at least relish it.
Is it easier to imagine a mind coming out of nothing?
Imagination is my greatest tool. It can create universes.
Buddha and god
As an antitheist I do not believe there is a god, certainly not one who has created man in his own image or who is concerned with the lives of men. I see no evidence of the universe having been created by some super being; neither do I see evidence of intelligent design around me. If man is made by divine hands then they are clumsy hands indeed. I myself can think of many great improvements to the human form – perfection it isn’t. No. The more I learn the less I am convinced. What I see is religion of all types constructed by man.
Yet I do perceive the possibility of some mystical force at work, some force present in sunsets, rocks, trees and majestic views that I would call ‘wonder and awe’. I do also sense a force at work within the psychology of people creating synchronicity. I, much to Andrew’s disgust, refer to this as the prevailing zeitgeist. I tend to think that this mental emanation will at some point be recognised by science. But maybe I am wrong. Science is in its infancy. It has much to discover. The field of consciousness and psychology is too new to have yielded all its secrets. The future will likely reveal a lot more.
Even as a young man, when I was a spiritual zealot, eager to follow in Kerouac and Ginsberg’s wake, to gain satori and see the universe through the eyes of Zen, I was sceptical of god and derisory of the god of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. His many faces seemed absurd.
I was greatly moved by a tale told to me by a Thai monk called Vorosak Candimitto. As a young man, besotted with Kerouac and Ginsberg, I was on a personal exploration into spirituality, the mind, mysticism and the void. I tried meditation and tried to still my mind to discover that truth within. I enjoyed it but soon moved on. Eastern meditation seemed inappropriate to the life I was leading. I wanted instant nirvana or nothing. That’s Western mentality for you. As for religion and god – this is what Vorosak told me: –
‘One day the Buddha was sitting with a number of learned men. One asked of him:
‘Is there a god?’
The Buddha thought hard before replying.
‘If you were shot with an arrow which had pierced your side, before having the arrow removed by a physician and the wound treated, would you first enquire who had fired the arrow? To what family did he belong? To what caste? Where did they come from? How many members did the family have? From what trees were the bow and arrow fashioned? From what animal were the guts for the bowstring created? Where the metal for the tip had been mined? Who had shaped the tip? From what bird had the feathers for the flights been plucked and who had manufactured them? Likewise the glue to hold them secure?’
The Buddha looked at the wise man intently.
‘Before you have the answers to your questions you would be dead.’
I liked that parable.
At the end of the days it is not about what you believe, how you’ve prayed, whether there is a god or not – it is about how you’ve lived your life, whether you’ve lived it to the maximum and whether you’ve been a force for good or evil.
No sane person would believe that any god would build a wondrous universe and then expect his creations to bore themselves to death in prayer and ritual, hate others and kill in his name. That is straight out of men’s warped minds (men – generic). If there is a god (which I do not believe for one minute) he would want you to live, love, build and enjoy.
So ISIS and all religious nutcases, indoctrinated fools and evangelical idiots can go hang – I’m for life.