Wat Chalong Temple – all glittering gold, elephants and orchids.
The locals were out, offering incense, prayers and flowers.
The images of Buddha presided.
The artwork and the colours were amazing.
An incredible place.
I wondered what these beehive structures were. Then I found out and nearly jumped out of my life. They throw big firecrackers in there and it exaggerates the noise so that it sounds like explosions.
We walked all around the temple site and then went inside. It was all very bright, gaudy (by our standards) and amazing.
Inside were hundreds of gold statues.
At the top, we had views over the jungle.
In the distance we could see the giant Buddha.
Back inside there was much in the way of artwork. All showing the Buddha and his disciples.
Mirrors made it seem as if there were even more gold statues!
Egypt is at war with itself. It is in the midst of civil war. Many of its people want to move into the 21st century with its consumerism and affluence. The religious fanatics want it to stay in the 7th century with conservative values and strict religious laws.
It feels as if it is stuck in the past.
There is much about the modern life and its greed and consumerism that I despise. It is a valueless culture. But there is much about the strict religious fundamentalism with its intolerance that I despise even more.
Egypt has so much poverty and hardship.
Everywhere we went there were armed militia, machine-gun posts and the promise of violence.
Surely there is a middle way?
Moving further into the temple complex I was really taken with the massive columns all covered in hieroglyphics. They were enormous and supported great stone lintels.
I could just imagine how impressive this must have been in ancient times – with the ceiling, decorations, embellishments and many more statues. Religion, ceremony and power. Above all – power.
This whole temple was one huge statement (as are our present-day cathedrals and mosques) – it reinforced the importance of the belief system that unites the people.
It also reinforced the power of those who presently ruled. It was as much about them as the gods.
The temple complex has been sacked, pillaged and burnt (one power replacing another). Statues and artefacts were stolen. These are the remains. What must it have been like?
The belief system has gone. The gods are no longer worshipped or considered real. Is there a message here for our present belief systems? We make them and they are replaced. Christianity? Islam? Judaism?
I found all these amazing columns different and interesting – aesthetically as architecture, as works of art.
And we were nowhere near done yet!
I don’t believe in doing good, in the hope of heavenly rewards in some what I consider fictitious after-life.
18.9.01
My Dad was certainly not a church-goer. I don’t think he believed in religion, but I think he may have had some vague spiritual beliefs but he certainly would not talk about them. I know he had been quite shocked by my Mum’s belief in spiritualism.
When he first met her family they had invited him to a séance. He’d treated it as a joke. He’d had a close friend who was a submariner who had been reported missing in action during the war and took along a cap-band of his friends. During the séance he offered the cap-band and was given a set of numbers. He followed it up and discovered that they were coordinates. The MOD enquired where he had got them from. The coordinates were fifty miles from the last known position of the submarine.
Dad never went to another séance and did not want to know about it. Anything to do with religion, death or spirituality was off the table; he did not want to give it headroom.
I don’t know how true any of that was.
11.8.2020
I taught a section on evolution. California State law stated that equal time had to be given to Creation. I had parents sitting in with stopwatches, and one with an egg-timer, to check that I kept to the law. That was a new experience for me. It is quite difficult to generate enthusiasm and involvement with a group of sullen adults staring at you as if you were Satan.
So, what, as a non-believer, do you tell anybody about creation theory that can possibly take as long as explaining the intricacies of Darwinian evolution through natural selection?
Easy. I sent the whole thing up. To start with I put on my best, over the top, Monty Python voice. I made expansive arm movements. I got them to close their eyes and imagine nothing. We spent ten minutes trying to hold that concept. I then got them to picture God. I asked them what they thought he looked like. It is astounding to me how many eighteen-year-old students and forty-something -year-old parents actually believed that God was this old geezer with long robes, long hair and a great straggly white beard.
I find that absurd. If someone proved to me that there was a god and asked me to picture what god was like, I would automatically think more in line with the forces released in the centre of a hydrogen bomb, or the energy that holds atoms together.
But they all did as they were asked and took it very seriously. They closed their eyes and tried to make everything black and empty. Then this old geezer comes in stage right and does some hocus pocus, mumbo jumbo complete with hand movements and there is a great flash of light. Then he makes this plasticine stuff and spends six days rolling zillions of stars and planets and spinning them around and painting oceans and mountains. Then he made living stuff and breathed into them to give them life and last of all, the crown of creation, he made man – little models in his own image. Then he took a bit out of one of his models and made woman. I have always thought that this story was a bit demeaning towards women. It was straight out of the Abrahamic tradition of pandering to some mediaeval theory of women being lesser beings, subservient and not really made in God’s image. But there you go. You give the folks what they want to hear. That’s entertainment!
What it isn’t is education.
My lesson on creation worked a treat! They were well pleased. All the Monty Python, over the top Magnus Pyke presentation, was British eccentricity and passionate theatre. After all, they were used to it with all those evangelist preachers. I was in good company. They loved the ranting, visualisations and role-play. They could visualise the old man rolling up balls of plasticine. That made sense to them. Two of the parents actually commended me on my lesson.
Liz castigated me for making a mockery of peoples’ beliefs. I protested. That wasn’t really the case. I’m a tolerant person. I just do not believe that religion has a place in education. For me to teach it as if it was factual made a mockery of education.
Liz said that I should not have ridiculed their faith in such a manner.
Perhaps she was right.
See. Liz says I’m arrogant. I acknowledge that at times I can certainly come across that way. I sometimes think that I have good reason to be. Many people are simple and stupid. They don’t delve below the surface. How long does it take to roll up a few zillion balls even if one takes point zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero one of a second? Can you do it in six days?
Why does God, who is infinite, get knackered and have to have a rest on the seventh day?
How big was this dude?
No. They were more than happy with the old bloke rolling up balls, breathing life into stuff, modelling mountains and spitting out oceans. Especially as I took longer over the creation theory than I did with the evolution bit plus I was far less animated and theatrical with evolution. I did that in my normal voice.
It seemed to me that half my class were born again Christians and half the class were stoners. The strange thing was that half of the born againers were stoners. I found this bemusing and asked one of them.
“Where’s it say in the bible that you can’t smoke dope, man?”
Well he had a point.
19.9.01
I do believe in infinity, mystery, wonder and awesome beauty.
18.9.01
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!!
The crux of the matter, the root of the problem, if I can be allowed to mix clichés, is that we have a problem with death.
Death is something we don’t like talking about. We don’t even like thinking about. The fact that we are going to die, that our loved ones are going to die, is an anathema to everything we think and feel. It destroys the egocentric way we view the universe and makes it all pointless. How could the universe exist without us? Surely all this is here for a reason?
We see order in the universe and mistake it for a planned design. Death upsets that plan.
Death is disturbing. It seems contrary to order and negates purpose.
Our own death indicates that the universe really doesn’t care about us or need us. It carries on regardless. That seems illogical to us so we have invented an afterlife. Our deceased loved-ones are now with the angels or are now stars in the heavens.
That seems absurd and stupid to me. I prefer death. But many people find these ideas of an afterlife comforting.
We don’t even want to acknowledge death! It is too frightening a concept. Our whole lives are based around routine. Each day is much the same as the last. Life goes on. Nothing drastic is going to happen. We don’t doubt that we will wake up tomorrow.
Then – BAAAANG!! We are knocked out of kilter by some religious madmen flying planes into skyscrapers. We watch in horror as the buildings collapse. This cannot be happening! Those buildings are permanent! Like mountains! It is not possible that anything that permanent can disappear so quickly and unexpectedly! That shows how impermanent we are! That shows us that death is real. We are going to die.
Buddhists meditate in graveyards to think about impermanence. They don’t avoid death. They try to accept it and come to terms with it. That seems healthy to me. They also don’t believe in gods.
If I had to choose a religion I’d be a Buddhist.
The answer is to pretend that there is no death, When we die we go to a better place. Problem solved. Death is a rebirth. Life is an interlude. No need to worry. We can go on thinking about all those everyday important matters. Life and death will take care of itself.
The next step is to get there quicker. If it is such a good place to go, after you are dead, let’s get there quicker!
‘Hey, injun, meet yer maker!’ Bang. Just like in the Westerns.
We are doing them all a favour by bumping them off.
Put your faith in Jesus!
But inexplicably, in the real world, these guys are flying planes into buildings because they are buying in to eternal paradise. That’s real commitment!
People actually believe these things.
Maybe I should start a new cult – ‘Nutters for death – the gateway to eternal life!’
I could have a series of decals made up with catchy mottos:
‘Put an end to all worries – kill yourself!’
‘In debt? Can’t solve your problems? Put a bullet through your head and wake up in heaven!’
‘Unhappy? Lost a loved one? Be reunited forever in paradise!’
‘Don’t like other religions? Think yours is the best brand? Show God you really care by blowing a whole bunch of them to fuck and fly an airbus into them!’ ‘God’ll love you for it!’
It’ll catch on!
We could sell the merchandise and turn a nifty profit.
Green plastic luminous exploding heads with ‘death for life’ on them.
Car stickers – ‘Make someone happy – kill a friend today!’
‘One God – kill anyone who says different. Save them from hell!’
‘Jesus loves you to death!’
There’s a big commercial franchise to be established. Surely we can’t allow the religions to corner the market?
But in reality, death is real. Death is the end of everything. All we have is the time between birth and death. We really have to make the most of it.
31.10.01
