Throughout human history our species has looked to the heavens in the belief that there is something out there -- a creator who made us and everything we behold. As this world can be a beautiful place, people from all sorts of civilizations and societies have created deities that embrace love, kindness and goodness.
When it rains, the gods are thanked for helping the crops to grow. When a baby is born to a barren woman, the gods are thanked for this special gift. When an enemy is defeated in battle, the gods are thanked for delivering them into our hands. When an individual is blessed with career success and/or great wealth and power, the gods are thanked for answering our prayers.
Yes, these gods are wonderful beings who look out for the best interests of their children...except when they also behave like unmitigated assholes!
When the rain doesn't fall, the gods are punishing us for some transgression. When a woman remains barren, the gods are expressing their displeasure with her or her kin. When we are defeated by an enemy in battle, our deliverance into their hands is a form of heavenly chastisement. When an individual is not blessed with career success and/or great wealth and power, the gods have chosen to ignore our prayers.
When the gods are angry and displeased with us, we often blame ourselves. We have fallen short of the divine measure and we believe the only way to get back in the good graces of the gods is to better toe the line. So, we beat ourselves up for being imperfect imbeciles OR we beat others up because, hey, it's their fault, not ours!
As we have seen in the Tao Bible series, the Christian god often becomes displeased over petty slights or for the most trivial of reasons. (This belief equally is true of other religions as well.) So, what is a believer to do when they discover that their god or gods is a real asshole?
The predominant response to this discovery is to say that the gods are far and beyond our reasoning capabilities and so they play be a different set of rules. For Christians, this often is expressed as "God has his reasons."
To my way of thinking, such a response is a dressed up version of saying, Shit happens.
Another way some have chosen to deal with a god who behaves like a petulant two year old is to lobby, shame or scold the heavenly one. As we have seen in the Old Testament, some of the prophets of yore have influenced their deity to turn away from an immature planned course of action.
It is a good thing that they interceded on our behalf, lest the gods would have done something that they may have regretted later!
But the method that more and more people are choosing these days, when they discover that their divine creator is a mean-spirited monster, is to walk away from the myth altogether. People realize they have devoted their lives to a story and so they decide to chuck it and/or create a new story of their own making.
It often is a seminal moment in a person's life when they realize that the emperor has no clothes.
When it rains, the gods are thanked for helping the crops to grow. When a baby is born to a barren woman, the gods are thanked for this special gift. When an enemy is defeated in battle, the gods are thanked for delivering them into our hands. When an individual is blessed with career success and/or great wealth and power, the gods are thanked for answering our prayers.
Yes, these gods are wonderful beings who look out for the best interests of their children...except when they also behave like unmitigated assholes!
When the rain doesn't fall, the gods are punishing us for some transgression. When a woman remains barren, the gods are expressing their displeasure with her or her kin. When we are defeated by an enemy in battle, our deliverance into their hands is a form of heavenly chastisement. When an individual is not blessed with career success and/or great wealth and power, the gods have chosen to ignore our prayers.
When the gods are angry and displeased with us, we often blame ourselves. We have fallen short of the divine measure and we believe the only way to get back in the good graces of the gods is to better toe the line. So, we beat ourselves up for being imperfect imbeciles OR we beat others up because, hey, it's their fault, not ours!
As we have seen in the Tao Bible series, the Christian god often becomes displeased over petty slights or for the most trivial of reasons. (This belief equally is true of other religions as well.) So, what is a believer to do when they discover that their god or gods is a real asshole?
The predominant response to this discovery is to say that the gods are far and beyond our reasoning capabilities and so they play be a different set of rules. For Christians, this often is expressed as "God has his reasons."
To my way of thinking, such a response is a dressed up version of saying, Shit happens.
Another way some have chosen to deal with a god who behaves like a petulant two year old is to lobby, shame or scold the heavenly one. As we have seen in the Old Testament, some of the prophets of yore have influenced their deity to turn away from an immature planned course of action.
It is a good thing that they interceded on our behalf, lest the gods would have done something that they may have regretted later!
But the method that more and more people are choosing these days, when they discover that their divine creator is a mean-spirited monster, is to walk away from the myth altogether. People realize they have devoted their lives to a story and so they decide to chuck it and/or create a new story of their own making.
It often is a seminal moment in a person's life when they realize that the emperor has no clothes.
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