Deep Thoughts That Go Nowheres
I was watching Sheebiejiebee meticulously groom herself awhile ago and it made me think, for some reason, of the phrase “we are all God’s children’, or if some prefer, “We are all God’s creation”. How we view this creation process is all over the place. For me, as I have said many times, “wherever there is a gift, there is a gift giver”. That’s as far as my own reasoning ability can push it. A process for ‘creation’ does exist and I simply assume God created the laws which govern the evolutionary process. There is no process in the world which amazes me more.
If we are all God’s children, then at the present time God has 8.7 million varied species and if we count each individual for all the species, then God’s children must currently exist in numbers beyond my extent of math. And since 99% of all species that ever existed are now extinct—God’s family of life forms that ever existed is beyond counting. Then, I wondered, “Does God have feelings similar to the feelings we have? Does God ever laugh? Organized religions don’t seem to have a lot of humor in their rituals and commandments, etc. Most top religious leaders, like the Ayatollah for example, would fracture their face if they ever smiled. Okay, it’s serious business so smiling and laughter might be out of place.
It seems all major organized religions believe that members can have some sort of individual relationship with God. Some even can identify exactly when they were ‘born again’ Billy Graham style. If this is true then God must be able to communicate with millions of individuals at the same time. I know, God can do anything. I guess. Sometimes, but not much anymore, I have pressed those who claim they communicate directly with God, as to some of the specifics. Is language involved like in normal human communication? Who initiates these conversations? Usually the person would say they are not normal communications but feelings that pass between God and them. Ok, so let’s take abortion or gays or differing sex acts, or oh just anything religious people have strong feelings about. I try to find out who initiates these strong feelings, he/she or God? I mean, let’s say your sexual partner wants to engage in certain sex acts which do not appeal to you. Do you then talk to God and God says it would be sinful and disgusting to engage in such acts. Or, suppose you want to engage in certain sex acts, do you refrain because God came to you and said “Stop that”. I get the impression that almost all the time we use God to support what we feel and ignore God if we feel one way and Church doctrine says something different. It is easiest to use the Catholic Church here since one church official (the Pope) interprets scripture for his flock. Yet, despite clear denunciation of what is right sexually, polls seem to show the same percentage of Catholics do or do not engage in varied sexual practices as any other religious group. Is God someone we listen to just when convenient?
We know sexual drives differ both in intensity and the kind of sexual acts enjoyed. That must be some kind of genetic/environmental mix that gives us such variation here. If God doesn’t want us to sin to the extent we will go to Hell if we do, then why does God allow such genetic and environmental differences to exist? That certainly doesn’t make a level playing field in regards to getting to heaven or hell. Fortunately, all major religions have a forgiveness clause. God will forgive our sins and things will be ok and we can proceed to heaven. In theory then, we could kill ten people, then at some point be ‘born again’ and we will be forgiven and go to Heaven. That’s a good deal. But suppose some of those we killed had done bad things before we killed them. They can never be ‘born again’ so they go to hell and we go to Heaven. Something strange here. Wouldn’t this mean that the best thing we could do for our children is kill them before they have any chance to commit major sins and thereby guarantee they go to Heaven? Deep thinking past our capabilities seems futile.
It seems logical, if God is personally chatting with millions of people on a continued or daily basis, that there would be tons of conversations in which people are telling others about these conversations. How many conversations have we really had where people are telling us what God told them last night.? Ok, maybe Pat Robertson and his ilk love to hold press conversations to give some real authority to their beliefs. When every President ends a speech with “God Bless America” is that an order, a suggestion, a plea, or a meaningless prayer? When a President gives a speech and declares, for example, that we are going to invade Iraq, and ends the speech by saying “God Bless America” isn’t that rather a presumptuous way to speak to God? No doubt there will be millions of Iraqis on their knees praying, “Please God don’t let American bombs rain down on us.” If God, for example, is blessing us in all these invasions (63) the past 50 years, why have almost all of them been failures.? I mean, which invaded country became a better more prosperous country after we invaded? We have to go back as far at least to the Korean War.
Let’s press on here on another front. We grow fond, very fond, of many pets in our lives. If we had the power they would never die. But they do, even though they are God’s children too. Don’t forget 99% of species that have existed in the evolutionary process became extinct. Of course the religious purists will say that the faithful followers of the right religion will go to Heaven, and not die at all. Why, I wonder would God allow certain humans in but not any of the other extinct species? This all seems clearly self serving on our part. And why does God value our pets less than we? I certainly would let my pets into Heaven. And after all, they too are God’s creation or children.
All this pondering over questions for which we have too little brain power to answer is fruitless. This may be a wrong impression, but I get the sense that those who wail the loudest at funerals are the religious purists. That seems strange, they are the ones who are certain Heaven awaits the faithful. Were all this true which is pushed by the religious purists, then we would be smart, after doing some good things with our lives, to shoot ourselves lest be do some bad things in the future. It would be like on a TV contest, when the contestant has won all the money possible, and asked if they wish to continue, knowing that if they answer wrong the amount of money will go down, why would they ever continue? If God did communicate with me and told me “you know Reid, you are barely eligible right now for Heaven”, I would shoot myself on the spot.
One person’s observation is hardly conclusive, but it just seems to me that the most contented and happiest people are rarely religious purists. And beneath the rigidity seems some real hostility, mostly directed to all the ‘heathens’ out there. We all know how vicious religious wars are. Killing in these wars is seldom enough, there seems a need for gruesome killing, the more gruesome the better. Then also, most religions seem to have an angry God. Throughout all of human history humans have sought ways to alleviate the anger of God toward humans. Absurdly enough these offerings were often live animals or humans. Why would we think killing any of God’s children/creations would make God happy? Why do we even bother to acquire illusions about the nature of God? Our pets don’t seem to spend much time comprehending our ‘real’ nature. If we are nice to them, they are nice to us, no matter how much of an ass we are in the rest of our lives.
It always seems to come back to this: the best we can do is try to bring some contentment into our lives. We do not exist to please God. Why would we even think God’s contentment is something that we have to give him? If I had created the laws which govern the amazing and perpetual evolutionary process, that would provide contentment enough—like good theatre for eternity. We always seek to make everything revolve around us. It took me decades to give up on that. No compulsive behaviors of any sort can bring us contentment. Addictions are dead ended. Ask Donald Trump. How contented is he? It is hard to find anyone more angry about so many things so much of the time. I mean really angry. Perhaps we all need be a little nervous here. Not many good things happen when the atmosphere is permeated with anger.
Only the golden rule can bring us various measures of contentment. It is really so simple. Those who give and those who receive both benefit in terms of more contentment. Not in some far off Heaven but immediately. Just give help wherever we can, if we can, to the extent we can or should, and the return will be additional contentment to our lives. To do this successfully we need always remember the importance of knowing when enough is enough of any pleasurable aspect of our lives. We need avoid compulsive behaviors and addictions to short term pleasures. For example, studies have shown that people do need money, in this country, up to about $70,000/yr, to maximize contentment here. Past that contentment levels do not rise but decline. We all need to eat, and eating is pleasurable, but if we eat too much too often our contentment level goes down. Sex is pleasurable, but once the need for sex becomes compulsive, the contentment level in our lives goes down. Having a car to get around brings contentment, but once we become addicted to the value of our car, contentment level doesn’t go up, but down. Addictions to most any aspect of life, including money, titles, power, sex, food, property, things of most any sort, do not generate maximum contentment. Only the Golden Rule does that.
If the Golden Rule was the dominant ethical principle practiced by all humans everywhere, then “we could all have our freedom, we could all have our happiness, we could all feel the sun and smell the grass and smell the flowers and look upon each other with appreciation.” (Unknown)
Clearly the Golden Rule is not the dominant ethical principle anywhere on the planet, and we are now paying dearly for this. Fortunately, individuals can maximize their own contentment via the Golden Rule so all is not lost. That, however, is not to say tragedies cannot happen to individuals, entire families, entire communities, entire nations, or the whole planet. Chance, opportunities, luck, and help from others come inherently with the gift of life. In the last analysis (no such thing for my quixotic mind) only Mother Nature sorts it all out and evolution proceeds. It is what it is.
