| I know at least two people who have experienced
gods, and
| more than two who survived the Shoah. In both cases, I'm basing
| this on direct personal report.
|
| (One of the two mentioned above is now a serious follower of the
| gods in question; the other had an idle conversation, enjoyed the
| garden as the god invited him to, and hasn't changed his life in
| any way.)
I take issue with the above --for its expression that God as an idea or a
concept is dead. This tends to come from a natural rejection of dogmatism
and puritanical/evangelical/fundamental views (those that contradict reality
and sense) -- and in that sense its an attitude with which I identify with
highly.
But its all too typical in AmSociety to deal see God as a leftover relic of
a primitive humanity. The primitive "hand of God" notion -- playing with
humanity like a bunch of toy soldiers -- is indeed a relic, but a relic of a
misinterpretation. The monotheist idea of "all is of one " is equivalent to
the eastern traditional ideas where "all is one". The meaing of
"God" --
"that which cannot be named" -- regardless of the the time, is quite an idea
to wrap a human mind around. Its the idea of something thats too ... to fit
into an idea.
From the twisting of this rather spiritual concept
into the more idolized,
Zeuslike interpretations of God, is where the original
dislike for "pagan"
religion sprouted from. Of course, these other notions were identical in
spirit to the monotheistic one -- but were judged by as "primitive" by other
primitives.
The point is, that if judged by the misuse -- the Western monotheist
tradition looks like a big pile of crud - such is politics. But if you
understand it correctly - the legacy and importance of this particular
aspect of everyone's culture, theres a lot worth respecting -- and of having
some respect for.
Questions like "is there a god or not" or "was Mary a virgin" etc.
were invented
just to distract people from the real one - "why should one pay money to the church,
and obey church rules". But it seems like it doesn't work any more - at least
in Europe people were able to stop caring about the church without changing
their beliefs much. Power of churches fell much more than number of believers.