[lit-ideas] Re: One fewer god
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2006 17:22:56 -0500
JS:
>>"If you examine all the alternative possibilities to gods (including Marx,
>>Mao, Hitler and Washington) you will see why gods are difficult to
>>dismiss."<<
Is that Marx as in Brothers or Karl? And is that Washington the Washington of
George or DC? With Mao and Hitler there's no ambiguity. Their names are
eponymous for crimes against humanity. The very names cry out for a God more
than anything else I know of -- a cry for supernatural retributive justice.
Ah, yes -- but, so what? Justice? What does that mean? It means we're the
good guys, each and everyone of us, we all know that. Arab, Jew and Mexican
too, USA and Germany and (God love 'em) even Norway. We've all got God on our
side (though, due to his mysterious ways, He sure does take his own goddamn
time wreaking vengeance. Praise for a man's ashes is rather late, Lord -- as
Cicero or Cataline or Castro, whoever, once said. So too is vengeance. Do you
hear me, God? De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine. I personally want to see
the bastards who offended me suffer -- and gruesomely). Please don't take my
irritation with God's seeming lack of urgency in coming to my defense as
dismissive of religious belief. I don't believe in God at all, but I do have
enormous religious belief. Culture is religion after all. Culture is the most
horrendous religion of them all because culture defines religion. Defines God!
Yikes! You can be an atheist, if raised in the right culture, but it's not
possible to be an aculturalist. And so, as our culture tell us, Gods are
difficult to dismiss because the alternative is OUR SELVES alone in an
infinitely indifferent universe -- our lives amounting to no more than an
effervescent moment of organismic self-consciousness. We all want our precious
loves and elations and sorrows and sufferings to have everlasting meaning. And
we want vindication. For that we need a God. I have no problem with that.
God will, I trust, right the wrongs done to me -- eventually. And they are
many.
Mike Geary
20 years later
----- Original Message -----
From: Jack Spratt
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, August 26, 2006 3:22 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: One fewer god
"If you examine all the alternative possibilities to gods (including Marx,
Mao, Hitler and Washington) you will see why gods are difficult to dismiss."
J.S.
The one thing we lack is a handy utopia.
Andreas Ramos <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you
understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand
why I dismiss
yours."
yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
Other related posts:
