Ok, so once again I've decided to try and get back into a bit of creative writing, and the trusty old blog has been resurrected! Let's see how long I last this time... :) I've decided to make this separate from the "News Updates" section of my website, as what I write here tends to be not so much "news", as just a random mess of rambling, ranting, and witless observations about the world around me. I recommend reading my blog from 10 years ago though, from back when I was younger and funnier... archives on the right...
So, let's just jump straight in and tackle some big issues why not? It's gone midnight, I should be asleep in bed, what better time to tackle the big questions? Ok, so here goes...
Short answer... most probably not. But that's way to easy, and sounds like I haven't thought it through, so let's jump back in time... it's 1982, I'm 5 years old, E.T. has successfully visited the earth and managed to make a crude mobile phone using a Speak & Spell, and some kid at school has just introduced me for the first time to the concept of "God". He was very surprised that I hadn't heard of him, what with him being so mightily important and everything, and I was pretty surprised too, as I considered myself to be a pretty clued up little 5 year old. Despite his best attempts to convince me, I remained a little sceptical about the whole thing, but then he explained that I was going to burn in Hell, which sounded rather unpleasant, so I thought I'd better look into it. That evening, after school, I asked my mum about this God fellow, and whether he was real. To my astonishment she said that she personally didn't think he was real, but that I would have to make up my own mind about it! I mean that just took the biscuit! When it came to completely inconsequential things like whether I could have Sugar Puffs for breakfast instead of muesli, or a wagon wheel in my lunchbox instead of an apple, she was always adamant that I had no choice, but now that something truly big had turned up, something that could, judged wrong, lead to an eternity of hellfire, I was being told that parental advice was no longer an option, and that I had to go it alone! Well, despite her appalling lack of good judgement on what was the best breakfast for a five year old, my mum had generally seemed pretty good at getting things right, so I figured she was probably onto something. Nevertheless I decided I'd better do a bit of research myself to be sure.
As the years went by I became more and more fascinated by the fact that sooo many people did believe in God, so I chose to study theology at college. I thought that this might give me some insight into what had convinced them. 2 years and about 50,000 words of essays later, I had pretty firmly established that The Bible was quite possibly the most bizarre and boring book I had ever read. It had also become fairly clear that all it really proved was that people had believed in God for a long time. So, no closer to an answer, and starting to think that Christians might actually be mad, I decided to spread the net a little wider. I starting reading books about Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism, listening to talks by the fantastic philosopher and theologian Alan Watts, getting thoroughly confused by the Zen ideas of D.T.Suzuki, and gradually I started to form my own idea of what God might be. I began to form a picture of God not as a sentient individual who hears our thoughts and watches over us, but instead as the "Ground of Being" as Alan Watts describes it. As the basic unified source from which all existence comes into being and to which it ultimately returns.
I have had experiences in the past, sometimes with the aid of magic mushrooms, sometimes with meditation, where I have felt as if my body has expanded out to the edges of the horizon, and the constraints of language and labels have fallen away, leaving all objects in my experience merely aspects of one, ultimate object, of which I was a part. We could name that ultimate, unified system of interconnected aspects "God", and many people do. But we could just as equally name it "The Universe", or "The Cosmic Wagon Wheel", and after many years of thinking this one over, I'm starting to believe that it would make more sense to do just that. Using the word "God" in relation to these ideas and experiences has the unfortunate effect of blurring the boundary between what are essentially ideas of philosophy and science, and those of Religions, with their omnipotent, omniscient, and extremely judgemental deities. I think the human race desperately needs to move on from these ideas of a Creator who watches from above, and start to recognise our place as an integrated part, not just of this beautiful planet, but of this vast and mysterious Universe. Evolution has brought us this far, but now we have to make up the rest for ourselves, and I think it's vital that we recognize that we ARE making it up! People ask "what is Human Nature", I would rather ask "What would you like it to be?"
As for God: God is simply a figment of his own imagination...
So, let's just jump straight in and tackle some big issues why not? It's gone midnight, I should be asleep in bed, what better time to tackle the big questions? Ok, so here goes...
Does God exist?
Short answer... most probably not. But that's way to easy, and sounds like I haven't thought it through, so let's jump back in time... it's 1982, I'm 5 years old, E.T. has successfully visited the earth and managed to make a crude mobile phone using a Speak & Spell, and some kid at school has just introduced me for the first time to the concept of "God". He was very surprised that I hadn't heard of him, what with him being so mightily important and everything, and I was pretty surprised too, as I considered myself to be a pretty clued up little 5 year old. Despite his best attempts to convince me, I remained a little sceptical about the whole thing, but then he explained that I was going to burn in Hell, which sounded rather unpleasant, so I thought I'd better look into it. That evening, after school, I asked my mum about this God fellow, and whether he was real. To my astonishment she said that she personally didn't think he was real, but that I would have to make up my own mind about it! I mean that just took the biscuit! When it came to completely inconsequential things like whether I could have Sugar Puffs for breakfast instead of muesli, or a wagon wheel in my lunchbox instead of an apple, she was always adamant that I had no choice, but now that something truly big had turned up, something that could, judged wrong, lead to an eternity of hellfire, I was being told that parental advice was no longer an option, and that I had to go it alone! Well, despite her appalling lack of good judgement on what was the best breakfast for a five year old, my mum had generally seemed pretty good at getting things right, so I figured she was probably onto something. Nevertheless I decided I'd better do a bit of research myself to be sure.
As the years went by I became more and more fascinated by the fact that sooo many people did believe in God, so I chose to study theology at college. I thought that this might give me some insight into what had convinced them. 2 years and about 50,000 words of essays later, I had pretty firmly established that The Bible was quite possibly the most bizarre and boring book I had ever read. It had also become fairly clear that all it really proved was that people had believed in God for a long time. So, no closer to an answer, and starting to think that Christians might actually be mad, I decided to spread the net a little wider. I starting reading books about Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism, listening to talks by the fantastic philosopher and theologian Alan Watts, getting thoroughly confused by the Zen ideas of D.T.Suzuki, and gradually I started to form my own idea of what God might be. I began to form a picture of God not as a sentient individual who hears our thoughts and watches over us, but instead as the "Ground of Being" as Alan Watts describes it. As the basic unified source from which all existence comes into being and to which it ultimately returns.
I have had experiences in the past, sometimes with the aid of magic mushrooms, sometimes with meditation, where I have felt as if my body has expanded out to the edges of the horizon, and the constraints of language and labels have fallen away, leaving all objects in my experience merely aspects of one, ultimate object, of which I was a part. We could name that ultimate, unified system of interconnected aspects "God", and many people do. But we could just as equally name it "The Universe", or "The Cosmic Wagon Wheel", and after many years of thinking this one over, I'm starting to believe that it would make more sense to do just that. Using the word "God" in relation to these ideas and experiences has the unfortunate effect of blurring the boundary between what are essentially ideas of philosophy and science, and those of Religions, with their omnipotent, omniscient, and extremely judgemental deities. I think the human race desperately needs to move on from these ideas of a Creator who watches from above, and start to recognise our place as an integrated part, not just of this beautiful planet, but of this vast and mysterious Universe. Evolution has brought us this far, but now we have to make up the rest for ourselves, and I think it's vital that we recognize that we ARE making it up! People ask "what is Human Nature", I would rather ask "What would you like it to be?"
As for God: God is simply a figment of his own imagination...
6 comments:
Hi Billy,
A good topic to start with! I like your Mum's style; the very best we can hope to do as parents is provide children with the ability to develop their own critical faculties. Interesting that the religious only ever seem to want to deprive children of this with, in cases such as that of your school friend, the threat that they will go to hell if they don't 'believe'. This is, in my view, and I hesitate not a moment to say this, a form of psychological abuse! As for those transcendental moments of which you speak, well, we've all had those, whether induced through toxins, by looking into a lovers eyes (I swear I've seen my partners soul from time to time) or gazing at the majesty of the night sky; it doesn't matter a jot to me where that feeling comes from but why should I attribute it to God? It seems to me that takes something from its beauty and doesn't prove anything by the way of the existence of God - less still that he/she cares whether or not I eat fish on Fridays...anyway, looking forward to toes!
Cheers dude!
A friend (and fan of your music by the way!)
Well, I never thought of it that way before, but I like it :) obviously everyone is going to have their own opinions and details on this subject as to some it is a very touchy subject, but personally I think religions are doing more wrong than right in modern day society, not the people following the religion but the religions themselves, it causes wars and conflict more than it solves them and in almost every religion the rules of "loving thy neighbour" and treating everyone with the same respect is put in place but blind ignorance now has people battling over who's religion is better. much like playground fights that broke out over pokemon so there you have my comparison for the day, religion is like pokemon. Cheers for this delightful read Billy, made my commute to college a lot better :)
Glad to see someone enjoyed my ramblings... was a bit apprehensive as to how that would be received. I could really feel that reluctance in me to question anything to do with people's religious "beliefs"... which is weird when you think about it, as I would have no hesitation about criticizing peoples views on any other subject if I believed they were flawed, whilst of course being acknowledging their right to disagree with me!! Anyway, will keep writing my thoughts as and when they bubble up... :)
The universe, the earth, trees, moss, animals, humans, we're all 'god', we're all connected. This planet has 1 inhabitant with a billion billion different faces. Our energies are personal but also universal. Energy is the key. Im high as fuck right now but i totally trust that we are all one and everything is pure energy and wow its all amazing. As for toes, i personally rather appreciate mine, I dont know where id be without them.
Hey Mr Wolf, thanks for that. Brought a smile to my face! And as for toes, yes, I'm starting to think that may be a fairly short debate...
Its Ms Wolfe, not Mr Wolfe. Im all about bringing stuff to faces
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