Sunday 26 November 2017

IS GOD DEAD OR IS HE MERELY PLAYING POSSUM?

My doppleganger Frederich Nietzsche proposed in 1882 in his collection of essays The Gay Science (don't get too excited - in 1882 'gay' had a totally different meaning than it has today) that god was dead.

"Ja, das mythical being that Robert believes in is kaputt - ja?"

Poor old Fred got a bit of stick for that but to be fair, this was almost 2000 years after the christians had any sort of inkling that their god(s) were up to anything, and they hadn't been doing much else so it was reasonable to assume that the old guy(s) had popped their clogs by then.

As for me I tend to play the long game. I was educated by Catholic believers - well meaning ones I'm sure and was force-fed instructed in the catechism and other beliefs of the catholic oriented christians.
Without doubt I owe my sense of conscience, ethics and morality to these teachings but, to be fair to other reputable schooling institutions I could also have acquired these elsewhere. There is however some residual itching - not belief- more like the concept of a 'bob each way'. The canny catholics devised a way that you could go through life being a proper arsehole and screw your way (in every context) without any fear as long as you repent on your deathbed. Then you get all the goodies as it were if in fact god(s), heaven and all those other things exist. It's like a pensioners Gold Card that gets you free entry.

I see myself as an atheist in that I don't believe in any of the religions and all of the nonsense that they expound. Don't get me wrong though I'm not a total denier as I do believe that the people behind all the nonsense actually existed (not all of them obviously as I doubt there was a woman with ten arms and another with an elephant head) but the prophets like Jesus, Mohammed and Buddha and the 'saints' and good people walked this earth. A good many of them were probably suffering from various mental illnesses or had ingested hallucinogenic substances but, to them, their experiences were real. The problem is in other people, particularly acolytes taking it all a bit too literally.

If I have the chance though on my deathbed I'll be pledging allegiance to the whole lot of them ...'just in case'.






1 comment:

  1. Don't forget to spare a positive thought for Baxter. No point taking risks.

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