God: A Question of Credibility and Demonstrability
[essay by Sha’Tara]
God is a big guy. Probably the most well-known super-hero of all of them and of all time. God is believed to exist, in one form or another, by billions of Earthians. God is also, and let’s never forget it, big business and high leverage political power. As a super hero, on the upside God can save you, but on the downside he can have you imprisoned, tortured to death, or killed outright after which he sees to it that you go straight to hell. According to the faithful, that translates as unconditional love… go figure.
Speaking of hell, according to the last book of the Bible, that’s a pretty scary, nasty and eternally painful place. No one in his right mind would want to end up there and therefore without any prompting whatsoever, everybody swiftly and gladly embraces the “faith” (by whatever ritual or swearing-in ceremony required) and plunges wholeheartedly into the doing of the will of God (whatever that is, your chosen brand of religion will define it for you, keeping in mind that much of it will entail giving money to some church or religious organization). After all, what’s a few years of “denial of fleshly pleasures” compared to eternity in absolute bliss? You’d have to be certifiably stupid to refuse such an offer, wouldn’t you?
Funny thing is, there is obviously a lot of certifiably stupid people on this world because more and more of them are opting for not believing in God and eschewing eternal salvation. The question, and question there is, must be simply: why?
Well I’m sure that thousands of believers from all sorts of divine faiths would immediately spring up with their hands raised and say, “Oh, please let me answer that!” And predictably total chaos would descend upon the previously silent multitudes as proponents of divine answers to divine dilemma come to blows, verbal if not physical.
But why do people increasingly question the God thing? Seriously, it’s all a matter of an infinitely huge and growing credibility gap. God doesn’t bother showing up except in the minds of those who believe they hear him talk and when they make this claim, what is that but hearsay? Why should I believe someone who tells me God told him this or that when all the whatever “information” they have to impart I already know, or I can find in some book or other… or even read on some corny church billboard? Furthermore, how can I lend credibility to God when his spokespersons contradict one another… and conveniently take the written “word of God” out of context to suit their own ends; their own political, social and financial agendas? And furthermore, when none of said followers live by that same word of God, or can agree on God’s will, for them, for me, for you, for the world in general? Modern religion should be renamed Pandemonium.
Apart from total lack of credibility comes the very real problem of demonstration. Can anyone demonstrate that God is real? Can anyone furnish proof of such an entity in action? The best that has been given to me is a two-fold approach: look at nature; look at the stars in the night sky – doesn’t that speak of God’s existence? And, if that doesn’t do it, then surely reading the Bible will. What more proof could anyone want? God inspired the Bible and men “moved by the Holy Spirit” wrote down God’s thoughts. Impressive or what? How can anyone still not believe after carefully contemplating these two “facts” of God’s existence; of God having created all that is from absolutely nothing and moved certain men to write his memoirs for posterity?
Yes, impressive, if it were true . But there’s the rub: only those who are proselytizing for their cause claim this truth. The rest look at the same nature and being creatures of some developed intellect, choose to look at other possibilities. For example, modern science, and particularly the whole quantum thing, points in other directions. At least from the scientific view we can find elements of truth; of possibility; not just whimsical hocus-pocus from some improbable, silent, hidden, capricious sky wizard. How many remember reading that Galileo (who barely escaped with his life for his heresy) demonstrated that the earth was not the center of the universe, a belief that the Church claimed to be scriptural, God’s own truth? Well, if God inspired the Church “fathers” to so misunderstand his own creation, what else can we conclude but that among God’s many failings, he suffers from Alzheimer’s? “What? I created a ball instead of a flat disc and the universe doesn’t revolve around it? Dang! Well, that cat’s out of the bag now – get me my spin doctors."
Oh, and then there’s that alien “creators” thing, for whose once upon a time presence on this world, unlike the case for God, there is actually plenty of evidence in impossible artifacts and in actual written records – the deciphered clay tablets found in archeological digs in and around ancient Sumer. So there’s another avenue to explore, one that more and more people are taking seriously. Who knows where that will lead? Perhaps it will at the very least answer the on-going vexing question of how “we” came about and arrived to this point in time, with all our unnatural baggage always in a state of unpacking in unexplainable and questionable "civilizations."
Problem: there is absolutely no empirical evidence for the existence of God, yet ostensibly that same God created us with an intellect designed to search for and ferret out whatever truth exists out there and that must contain the search for evidence of God’s existence! Only those intellectually ossified by their faith have no such desire or hunger. By special revelation of their God they claim to know what cannot be known and broach no argument to the contrary. They don’t enter honest debate; certainly never engage meaningful dialogue. Despite the complete lack of empirical evidence based on one’s direct observation and experiences, the faith people claim to have the truth about God and about all of man’s future.
Which reminds me of Matt Dillahunty and Sye Ten Bruggencate in “The Refining Reason Debate” I watched on Youtube. While listening to Bruggencate (Christian apologist) explaining his “truth” I was reminded of the ape chant from Rudyard Kipling: “We're all right because we say we are, and if we say we are it must be true .” There you have it. Who needs further proof? I say it’s true , therefore it is. And it remains true even if proven not to be. Those proving me wrong are in error, not my claim because my claim can never be wrong.
I remember being there and how comfortable it all was. I didn’t have to think too deeply about whatever was going on because, well, God was in his heaven and therefore all was well with the world. As utterly ridiculous as this seems now, it made complete sense at the time. The ultimate placebo: when all hell’s breaking loose, look up into the nether ether and contemplate God smiling within the mushroom cloud or Jesus’ face glowing in the oil slick washing up on the beach. Everything was good; all accounted for. God was in command and no one could dare question his ability to rule a cosmos, let alone a small planet. Sure there were problems, but they were all part of the greater design; of God’s master plan to save the planet. Since God is accountable to no one, if his ways made no sense it was because I lacked understanding.
When one is willing to be dishonest about reality, mounting evidence and personal doubt, one can call true whatever one wants. That seems to be the case for a great many people. Some of us however come to that place; that critical crossroads; that asks if we shouldn’t take a few moments to consider a change of direction. Having dared to ask “the” question, no doubt we will consider carefully, then take the path less traveled by – the path that makes all the difference.
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
(from “The Road not Taken” by Robert Frost)
(God) Does Not Talk To You Or To Anybody
Again You Have To Die Come Back Into This
Evil World To Get Message You'd Still Believe
He Doesn't Exist...
Illiterate Humans Cannot Rationalize
Until Theres Fire Burning Under Your Ass...
Until Then You Survive It (Come Back)Tell
Me Your Story...
TRASK...
hug
Kathy
Love ya!
Jane
I feel sorry for them wasting so much time of their lives on these fruitless pursuits.
Ron