The Creation Syndicate

The gods of man have many faces and names, but upon closer inspection they are more alike than different. The sage sees beyond the gods to the formless unseen creator of them all.
~ Today's daily quote from Lao Fzu ~

When many people read the second line of the Tao Te Ching -- the one that states the "the name that can be named is not the eternal name" -- they look at it in strictly Taoist terms. But I think Lao Tzu was making a far more profound point! It's not simply that Tao is a made-up word, but so too are Yahweh, Allah, Brahman, Jehovah, Odin and the Great Spaghetti Monster.

Humans are the sole owners of a grand creation syndicate. We've created all of the gods and forces that we bow down to or philosophize about. We are the sole authors of all of our "holy" books. Everything religious or philosophical is derived from the creative impulses in our minds.

Since we are incapable of understanding the Grand Mystery of life and existence, we create mammoth bedtime stories to calm the nervous questions that boil up in the nights of our lives. In most of these stories, the knight in shining armor arrives at some point to rescue those in distress -- all or some of us -- and the story winds down to a more or less happy ending.

There is nothing wrong with a good story AS LONG AS we don't confuse the story for reality. Of course, since these stories do permeate certain societies, far too many people come to see the myths and fables that we created as truth itself. We tell these stories to each other so often that we forget the fiction aspect inherent.