290 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
290 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
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Foreword:
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The Prayer of an Atheist who Loves God
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God, oh God, why have You forsaken us all? Why did You
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create us with so little knowledge of Yourself? Why are we
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so far from understanding You that none of us can say with
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complete certainty whether You even exist? There is not the
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devoutest among beleivers that could show You to me and none
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either that could comfort me with full faith that You are
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not. Show yourself to me, so that I can know You. I doubt,
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and I am told by those with faith in You that what You want
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from me is not the love that comes from knowing You, for the
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love from those that know You comes so easily, as we were
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created by You in Your image and just as we love ourselves,
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if we see You we would love You. No, I am told, instead You
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expect from us to see Your beauty without eyes, to hear Your
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gentle loving voice with deaf ears. We must eat Your food
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without tasting, chewing or swallowing. We must have faith
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that You are with us and love You with all our hearts all the
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time shadowed with the abysmal fear and doubt that there is
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no You. God, You expect too much from us! Miracles come
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easily to You, but You created us lowly beings without the
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means for miracles. How easy it is to despise You with the
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fervor of a lover betrayed!
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And it is even easier to disbeleive those who have faith
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in You, for they are human like me and cannot see You, cannot
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know You. There is no other on earth that I can beleive,
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many for lack of trust I can afford them, most of the rest
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for the haunting knowledge that they are as easily deceived
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as I. Truly, none of us are close to You, and the only
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pathfinders are blind, misguided worms such as myself. Do
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You delight Yourself in the pathetic attempts we make to find
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You? Are You chortling to Yourself over my plight at this
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very minute? Did You create us to observe our endless
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confusion? Or do You even care?
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In the time since I wrote the above I have received no
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answer. My heart has not filled with an unexplained faith
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that any God exists, nor have I formulated a satisfactory
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denial of God's presence. I have no choice but to wonder
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where we came from. The first question that must be answered
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on the path towards determination of God's existence is
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whether or not we can assume human existance.
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I do not intend to spend a lot of time discussing
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existance, as it is a subject that cannot be fully proven.
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The question `how can we assume that reality and perception
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have any link whatsoever?' is only answered `we cannot.' So
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the fact that we percieve ourselves as existing does not
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prove our existance; the fact `I think' does not prove `I am'
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within our normal definitions. If, however, we expand our
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definition of existance to include our perceptions, the
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question becomes a redundancy. It must be remembered that
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this does not mean that our perceptions equal reality, but
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that our perceptions are a part of reality. If one deludes
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him or her self that he or she is a prophet, that does not
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neccesarily indicate that he or she actually is a prophet,
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but the unreality of what this person is deluding about does
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not affect the reality of the delusion. The delusion exists.
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It is not a fake delusion; it is a very real delusion. Given
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the possibility that we are simply following a set of
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illusions that we percieve as life, we cannot fully assume
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that reality is as we percieve it, but the illusion (if
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indeed that's all it is) is exactly as we percieve it. Our
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perception of human existance does not prove human existance,
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but it does prove existance, at the very least, of the
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illusion.
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So if we exist, how did we come to existance? If God is
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our creator, then is it not fair to assume that if we find
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our creator, we can call it God?
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God, according to the faithful, is infinite. Our
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universe is also. There are a great many scientists who
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would contradict me here, and they have studied the universe
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more than I have but sceince, like theology, is merely a
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fallable human quest based in human perception. As such,
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with no intended disrespect to those who know more than I, I
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will disagree. The universe is infinite, undivided, and
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unchangable, although we percieve it as being finite,
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divided, and malleable. The universe appears finite because
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it is expanding (is space expanding? is time contracting? is
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there any difference?) and the more distant an object is, the
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faster it appears to be moving away from us. The light and
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other radiation (the only means we currently have to percieve
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almost anything beyond our atmosphere) from those objects
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that appear to be approaching the speed of light in a
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direction away from us will be completely red-shifted until
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the wavelength is so long that we cannot percieve it as a
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wave. This gives us a percievable boundary of the universe
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of about 15 billion light-years in all directions but does
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not indicate that there is nothing beyond this perceivable
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boundary. For a more complete (and more accurate) account of
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the universe's infinicy, indivisability and unalterability,
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read John Dobson's Advaita Vedanta and Modern Science.
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Especially any devout athiests will agree with me that
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we were spawned from the universe. Life is a product of this
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planet which came out of the sun which collected itself out
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of a cloud of gases floating within this galaxy which is just
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one of many in our universe. So our creator, in a sense, is
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the entirety of the universe, something that is infite yet
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undividable and unchangable. Sounds an awful lot like many
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people's description of God, does it not?
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To even the dull witted readers it must be obvious that
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I am getting around to a cross between an overmind theory and
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an expanded scale Earth-Mother sort of religion. I won't
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completely deny this, but emphatically insist on the wider
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scope, as there is a lot more to the universe that spawned us
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than Earth. I also reject the sexism inherent in the title.
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A creator would of neccessity be of a different order of
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being than ourselves, perhaps beyond any human biological
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labelling of gender, or perhaps simply simultaneously
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germinator and geminatee. I am also very wary of the term
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overmind. It brings to mind a conciousness far too
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anthropomorphised to accept as coming from something as grand
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as the universe around us.
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Like those that are trying to prove that our Earth is
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itself a living being, I will present the theory that
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everything is alive. It is perhaps true that we humans have
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defined life in a very narrow scope. New evidence of
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communication between trees and other plants make me and I'm
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sure others, wonder if plants are not only alive (as we
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already knew) but concious. It would be ridiculous to assume
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that plants' conciousness would be similar to our own, but it
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also seems humanocentric to assume that the state plants have
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is inferior. The only way that we can claim superiority is
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to prove that plants have a state of mind that is similar to
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a human state of mind, only stupider. If plants have a
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dissimilar state of being, we have no reference to call one
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better or worse.
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Nobody has yet proven that the earth itself is a living
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being, and I believe that if we are looking for a human
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conciousness or even plant conciousness, we will never find
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one. Could it possibly be said that existance equals, in
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some way, life? Biologists and chemists have for decades
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posed the idea that humans are merely extremely complex
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combinations of certain chemicals and nothing more; that our
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perception of conciousness stems from our complexity and not
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from a `soul.' Some of these theories suggest that the
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computers we have already designed have an extremely far less
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complex version of our own sort of conciousness and that by
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constructing a computer with bits roughly equivelent in
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number to the number of our synapses, we will have created a
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rough equivelant to a `conscious' human brain.
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If there is nothing special about the things that we
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call `alive' that make them so, why is it impossible that a
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simple rock could be considered alive? It depends entirely
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upon your definition of life. If you feel that life is
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comprised of animation, growth and some form of consciousness
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then the rock quite clearly is not alive. If, however, you
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are willing to accept that the only things that make us seem
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alive are the specificity and complexity of certain groups of
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chemicals, then a rock can be looked at as a non-specific,
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uncomplicated version of ourselves.
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Now, a simple rock is not complex in its composition,
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but the universe, comprised of rocks, gases, energy, and
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space is incredibly complex, as scientists are showing to be
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true each day. It seems conceivable that the universe of
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which we are several parts, could be considered a living
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organism. If the universe is indeed expanding, perhaps we
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can look upon this as growth.
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This universe/organism has spawned all of us. As part
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of its natural process, it has created us. And we are a part
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of it. If it is our creator, we can call it God. Each and
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every one of us is a very small part of God.
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Now that we have unveiled God, how can we worship It?
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What could the universe want from us? What can we, puny
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mortals give to show our gratitude for existance? I am sure
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that God is not aware of us, as we are not aware of our
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kidney. I would not want my kindey to worship me. My best
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second-guessing of God is that It would only want us to
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perform our natural functions. It would (if, indeed it had
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any awareness of us) not try to alter the course of our
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behaviour. It is up to us to determine the proper course for
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ourselves. God, in this theory, is as mysterious as any
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other of mankind's gods.
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It is because of this mystery that we all strive to
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discover God. Perhaps an acceptable form of worship is
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study. If we study God, we discover how It works and we are
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at a better advantage to thrive within It. I see no reason
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why God would be offended at science. If it were aware in a
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manner similar to ours, I should think It would approve of
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our inquisitiveness of It.
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X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
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Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm)
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& the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845
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The Salted Slug Strange 408-454-9368
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Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766
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realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662
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Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102
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Tomorrow's 0rder of Magnitude Finger_Man 415-961-9315
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My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne D'Fault 510-658-8078
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New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-566-0126
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