Let's talk about... God.

Most of the current sects of monotheistic religions, hell any kind of religions, drive me nuts because they are based on the idea that the best way to be holy and closer to god is to be pious and humble in the face of a higher power. But the people that believe that tend to overlook the fact that usually the most pious among them are chosen as their leader. Doesn't that seem like bullshit? If a person is humble enough to be a leader than why does he want to lead the faithful to begin with? It's like Willy Wonka saying the kid who liked chocolate the least would be given the golden tickets and inherit his chocolate factory. It's a direct contradiction that I only noticed when a pair of Muslim ministers spelled it out directly to me.

More troubling to me though, is they feel it necessary to bow down to a higher power now that human's have achieved so much in spite of the ideas that are preached in ancient texts? It was fine when these books and philosophies were written to succomb to the powers of nature but we as a species have overcome the will of nature, we've bent it over our knee and manipulated it to the point that we can build anything, anywhere and do things with technology that would make ordinary citizens look like gods in the days Jesus walked the earth. Walking on water doesn't seem so fucking grandiose when there are men that walked on the moon.But there are billions of people that read bibles and think that the shit in those books still apply and that seems to me like reading textbooks from the 1920s.

I just think the concept of submitting to a higher power is absolutely absurd when you take a step back and see what we are becoming and we have become as a people. There are people that want holy wars and the world to end in the name of religion and it seems to me like that should be the opposite of the direction you want. I hate the fatilistic attitude that the faithful endorse, that there is an end times and that when that day comes we'll be hopeless when god decides to take everything away. It's sort of like this whole time we have been building an awesome city in legos and god is the jerk that has told us eventually he's going to walk around stomping it all down because he feels like it. That we have to be scared of the fact that any minute now he is going to crush our lego sky scrapers but he won't say when, that we live in fear. Damn, now that I think about it, it sounds a lot like god is a terrorist.

But no, these books were product of "divine inspiration". I don't agree with that, they were books like any other books, they've just been around a little longer. But to indulge a few branches of Christianity for a minute, let's say that god is everywhere, in everything, and in everyone's hearts if they let him then EVERYTHING is inspired by god.

Just for argument's sake.

Jesus please be in my heart. There yet? Good.

Okay, I'm getting something... straight from Jesus... I think this is going to be divinely inspired so you better get ready for this...

The peel of an apple is probably better to feed octopusses than styrofoam sculptures of Samantha from Who's the Boss.

Wow, Jesus. That sure felt inspired. And you were in my heart the whole time you say? An omnipotent god has proved to be the most dangerous one because it has allowed man to force the philosophies of a man who claims to be inspired by god on the weaker (though not less pious) without much afterthought by the listeners at all. The fact that the Holy Bible has a horde of texts excluded from the bible that were selected by a group of MEN inspired by god and that the included texts have been many times over translated by another group of MEN means that even assuming the book was told from god to his prophets, that message has been so mangled by men that may not have been.

It seems like most religious people don't have problems using computers, driving cars, eating food and living in houses which are all things that are products of man made technological advancements. It's hypocritical to say that these inventions and this technology is okay because god would approve yet for some reason, new ideas like stem cell research offend them because it is "playing god". Or at least treading a dangerous road that leads to playing god. Well good. Great, even. God has had enough alone time in the sand box.

Nietzche said that god is dead and that we killed him. He was right. I think men created god to serve a purpose but we have grown beyond that and god is outdated technology that just hasn't gotten a new model yet. It's like people are still using 8 tracks instead of Mp3 players. There was a point in the course of human evolution that we should have decided to take our faith and put it in one another and worship mankind instead of a hollow abstract concept that used to be a placeholder for the answers to our questions because we have found the answers. The concept of religion used to inspire hope but now it feels like the purpose of many world religions is to instill fear. To constrain people. To make people hate things that are new and different because the that hope has become more of a security blanket that people are afraid to let go of. But people being afraid to rock the boat does not lead to innovation and that's the most frustrating thing about religion. I understand when people don't agree with abortion and homosexuality (which seem to currently be the two popular big no-nos) but I cannot understand the sentiment that its entirely wrong because the bible says so. The bible says a lot of things. The bible says that if you have had a vasectomy you don't get into heaven and if you betray your father he is allowed to kick you out of town and/or stone you to death. It's unheard of to try to use another perspective because the one that you are told is so handy that anything else is wrong.

One thing I want to make clear though is that I do not hate religion. Pretty much all religions have pretty swell ideas of how to live your life. There are good basic morals like don't kill people and don't steal shit that doesn't belong to you. These are the sorts of things I can get behind because I know people who are good Christians and good Mormons and good Catholics and good Jews and good Jehovah's witnesses; by and large they are not religious fanatics, they are the nicest people you can meet. It's refreshing because while I disagree with a lot of these people's basic philosophies, they are not usually as cynical as the proud atheists among us.

So I dunno, maybe there is something to this "god" thing?

Then again, maybe it's just the people.

Who cares?