02 April 2014
Please Mr. God Don't Drown Us
The truth is that one reason I'm glad NOAH came out is that the Flood story ranks with Job in the "if you say so" category of Bible story. As in, this is what is being worshiped, in stark relief: this concept of a murderous psychopath god. You begin to think of things like the Frankenstein monster and suddenly it's good his creator made him more powerful than himself.
Why is this concept of a god at all associated with the idea of "good?" This is just a generic, boiled-down-to-the-essentials version of a Bronze Age god: Zeus without anything but rage. Gods then being things you placated and bargained with. "Love" was not at all part of the idea. Gods were basically personifications of the things in nature that could destroy you, primitive human.
Jesus is a retcon. Jesus also stood against everything THAT god stood for. Is this ever noticed? Who did the customs he was rebelling against come from? Supposedly, Yahweh. Daddy. And I wonder why it's surprising that god would then crucify him before he could say or do too much. If you believe in the redemption, you could, I suppose, take the resurrection as Jesus' triumph OVER that god. As myth it makes more sense. (I think the gnostics believed something like this)
But I mean, why would someone worship this except out of fear?
"Oh please Mr God please we love you just don't drown us again please"
"I might have drowned you all, but look! A jolly rainbow! I know how you all like rain now. Oh, see you weep from happiness at the sight!
"The rainbow is an absolutely real and eternal sign of my promise. Here, hold it."
Something doesn't have to be worshipped even if it does exist, incidentally. Even if gods were real, that doesn't obligate anyone to "worship" any of them, except in the way you might "respect" a mobster.
But certainly not ones that act like indecisive writers, tearing up draft after draft, but in this case generating planet-wide body counts. Far from being perfect, the god of the Old Testament is an easily surprised(God in the Old Testament is surprised many, many times), rage-filled improviser who has no idea what he's doing.
I'm not saying whether there's a God or not. I do not know. I am not inclined to think so. It's not a question I choose to wrestle with or argue about--to me it's like being asked what my favorite sports team is. I hate sports, so none of them. I don't care. For this reason I find the Dawkies as tiresome as any fundamentalist Christian. And make no mistake, I find both very loathsome.
But I am interested in the manifestation of that in the world, which does exist: religion. What people believe, and why. I make characters. I like to know these things. And I believe an acceptance of this flavor of god, and a belief this kind of god represents "love," is certainly illustrative of a serious level of cognitive dissonance. It is reflective of a disturbing mindset.
If that is God, it is unworthy of worship. If that God exists we should be terrified. If that God existed he would be no better than Cthulhu. He would be Cthulhu, really.
Then consider this is usually considered the most child-friendly story in the Bible.
I certainly recommend reading the Bible. It undoes the case for religion very well by itself. Check out the story of Jacob sometime, especially as Robert Crumb depicts it. Nice guy.
___________________
¶ Wednesday, April 02, 2014 
The truth is that one reason I'm glad NOAH came out is that the Flood story ranks with Job in the "if you say so" category of Bible story. As in, this is what is being worshiped, in stark relief: this concept of a murderous psychopath god. You begin to think of things like the Frankenstein monster and suddenly it's good his creator made him more powerful than himself.
Why is this concept of a god at all associated with the idea of "good?" This is just a generic, boiled-down-to-the-essentials version of a Bronze Age god: Zeus without anything but rage. Gods then being things you placated and bargained with. "Love" was not at all part of the idea. Gods were basically personifications of the things in nature that could destroy you, primitive human.
Jesus is a retcon. Jesus also stood against everything THAT god stood for. Is this ever noticed? Who did the customs he was rebelling against come from? Supposedly, Yahweh. Daddy. And I wonder why it's surprising that god would then crucify him before he could say or do too much. If you believe in the redemption, you could, I suppose, take the resurrection as Jesus' triumph OVER that god. As myth it makes more sense. (I think the gnostics believed something like this)
But I mean, why would someone worship this except out of fear?
"Oh please Mr God please we love you just don't drown us again please"
"I might have drowned you all, but look! A jolly rainbow! I know how you all like rain now. Oh, see you weep from happiness at the sight!
"The rainbow is an absolutely real and eternal sign of my promise. Here, hold it."
Something doesn't have to be worshipped even if it does exist, incidentally. Even if gods were real, that doesn't obligate anyone to "worship" any of them, except in the way you might "respect" a mobster.
But certainly not ones that act like indecisive writers, tearing up draft after draft, but in this case generating planet-wide body counts. Far from being perfect, the god of the Old Testament is an easily surprised(God in the Old Testament is surprised many, many times), rage-filled improviser who has no idea what he's doing.
I'm not saying whether there's a God or not. I do not know. I am not inclined to think so. It's not a question I choose to wrestle with or argue about--to me it's like being asked what my favorite sports team is. I hate sports, so none of them. I don't care. For this reason I find the Dawkies as tiresome as any fundamentalist Christian. And make no mistake, I find both very loathsome.
But I am interested in the manifestation of that in the world, which does exist: religion. What people believe, and why. I make characters. I like to know these things. And I believe an acceptance of this flavor of god, and a belief this kind of god represents "love," is certainly illustrative of a serious level of cognitive dissonance. It is reflective of a disturbing mindset.
If that is God, it is unworthy of worship. If that God exists we should be terrified. If that God existed he would be no better than Cthulhu. He would be Cthulhu, really.
Then consider this is usually considered the most child-friendly story in the Bible.
I certainly recommend reading the Bible. It undoes the case for religion very well by itself. Check out the story of Jacob sometime, especially as Robert Crumb depicts it. Nice guy.
___________________
Post a Comment