Deaths sting...
Had a big chat with Bex last night about Death and religion, those two intertwined things. The one needs the other I suppose. A symbiotic relationship. The conversation got started because I had looked into Joni's eyes and I swear I felt like I was falling into a bottomless pit, and I knew it was Death for me, and moreso Death for Joni, that had grabbed hold of me like an attack of vertigo. Well, I come up with my old favourite invented illustration for why there may be less to life than what (doesn't) meet the eye, assuming God is Love; and with a new one which is silly but illustrates the foolishness of there being a "true" religion that God favours over a persons being "true" to his beliefs.
The old one goes like this: religious people say you must have "Faith" to experience a relationship with God, that it is in effect up to US to find him, hence "Mankinds search for God", and not vice-versa. But I always think of a child lost in, say, a large supermarket. Who's responsibility is it to bring about a re-union, the child's or the parents? Surely a loving parent would find his child, explain to him that he loved him and all of this even if it was the child that ran off? Well, I think Mankind is born into a "lost" position, some say this is because our original parents "ran off" from God. And still others say that God is not far off from each of us, that he has shown his enduring Love for us by sending a Son. But why do I still feel lost? Why do the majority of Mankind still feel lost? My opinion is this is because God hasn't "found" us yet - would a lost child have any doubt that his parent had found him? - or maybe things are meant to be this way, or maybe even more depressingly, there is a reason (or no reason) that is beyond us and may always be, for these questions. A child may pretend, even deceive himself that he has found his parent (notice it is not the other way round) but I think he is just holding onto the legs of a stranger in the supermarket, he hasn't looked up into his face (he can't), and even if he thinks he can, does he really know who he is looking at anyway? Will he not see what he wants to see to feel safe? This brings me on to the next illustration, which is like the above illustration but with all the children in the world in a world-sized supermarket, and groups of children gathered around different figures that each child swears (is willing to die for the belief perhaps) is his parent.
It's silly, but in the TV game-show "Takeshi's castle" there is a game called knock-knock: there's actually an online version of it here *NB: that site was removed, so I've linked to an internet archive of it - the pictures don't load anymore, but you get the general idea from the description that follows - 8/2006*. The rules are something like: there are ten walls ahead of you, one wall after the other, and you have to run through one of Five doors on each wall to get to the other side (behind the last wall), where you claim a white ball (to proceed to the next round). Each wall has only one door that "works", you have to run into the door of your choice on each wall, and if it is real you will go through (it's made out of weak wood), but if not (the door is just painted on the wall), you run into the wall! Now what is this like? Well, I thought this could be likened to choosing the religion one follows, and how one follows it. Imagine the first Five doors were labeled "Christian", "Muslim", "Jew", "Seikh", "Buddhist" (for example), and you take a run at one of the doors. Let's presume God is judging you, and he's decided there's only one true way through to him and the prize, the way through is the true path or religion. You run into "Muslim".....bang!!! Sorry, you got it wrong! No prize for you! (no fatwahs please.)You run into "Christian" (let's say it lets you through for sake of argument) and at the next one you run through "protestant".....bang! Sorry, no everlasting life for you, you got through one door though, but I needed all 5, because you need to worship me in "spirit" and absolute "truth"! And you could get even sillier, and make hundreds of doors you needed to get through (the choices getting narrower all the time), like choosing between a brand of Christianity that believed in the physical return of Christ over a spiritual return (something very hard to deduce from the Bible) ...Bang! Sorry, stupid, couldn't you SEE that Jesus is returning in the flesh?? Who really believes that the lost child, yes that lost child, has to find his way back through a series of (sometimes imperceptible) choices to find his God? Does this seem unjust and unloving? If it does to me, miserable man that I am, wouldn't it to God? And here's the best bit: sometimes the first choice, or the first few, are made by our parents, and if you think they're not, what is the most prominent religion in your country (broadly speaking)? If it's Christianity, do you consider yourself a Christian? Your parents and your country made the first choice, and any change would likely be a "progression" on this same path i.e. another, more defined, "brand" of Christianity. Then imagine, I know it's hard, that the Buddhist way is "The Path"- how unfair would THAT be? You can extrapolate this illustration on and on....for example, if this was real life, you may think you're playing by the above rules, and that if your choices carry you safely through the doors, you assume that you've made the right choices. But if you stop and look around, who actually feels the adverse judgment of God upon them for their particular choice of religion? Nobody, of course. In real life ALL of the doors let you through, and so every religious person feels he or she has Gods approval! What's going on, because all of these people (or most) would feel that there's only one true way through the doors? There are three possible reasons I suppose: God favours everybody, despite their choice of religion; God favours nobody; the walls will only appear at the doors on judgment day, or the day of your death. It doesn't take a genius to realize that the latter of the three options (tell me if there's more or if this is oversimplification) is the most unjust and unloving. You could actually live a God-fearing, wonderful life devoted to the Deity as you imagine him, and in the way you think (you feel! surely you would feel Gods disfavour, a "wall" between you and him, otherwise?) is right, and then on the day of reckoning be cast into hell, or into nonexistence, whichever is the case. The only answer that makes sense to me is that everybody's right, or nobody's right, because otherwise we end up (in effect) judging ourselves, our own choices excuse or condemn us, and the Bible (for one) does not support this: God is our judge, and not an "imperfect" human, such as ourselves. And if you follow this thought to its conclusion, you realize that (to God) there IS no game, no walls, no doors. All these things are inventions by man, man who needs walls, who needs doors, who needs to feel he is "somewhere", that he has progressed in his life to a definite place through a definite route, that he has worked out and worked for his salvation (even if the Bible tells him it's a free gift and no specified works, or works of law, are needed: no jumping through hoops or doors required). That may be so, but if you take away the walls and the doors, you might as well be in one place as another, or put another way, you might as well be where you started. This makes sense to me, because at this moment in time I think that organizations that have built "walls" and "doors" do not offer an approach to God, how could they, because it is like saying "you have to come through this door I have made in this wall I have built to worship your Creator!" That the walls and doors are very old makes no difference. It is also like the scripture in the Bible that condemns the uselessness of idols in worshipping God: they are Objects built by man, and they offer a supposed channel to God, who did not create their idol. Of course this is not the case. Even as Jesus said "I am the way", there is no organization that can claim, idolatrously, to be some sort of mediator between man and God, when if you are a Christian you know that only Jesus can be this. In fact, ESPECIALLY if you are a Christian, as Jesus broke down those walls that seperated off Jews from "gentiles". And (as is well known) he stated that the weeeds (bad people) would be seperated from the wheat (good people) in the judgment, which shows that the weeds and wheat are MIXED, the wheat is not all in one place (as it would be if they were all in one "true" religion) but are mixed in with all of mankind (which man can say "I've done the seperating for you Jesus, look we're all here in one place!"?). This all makes sense and fits in with the idea that we are judged individually, as the Bible says, and not organizationally. I do not wish to comment here (I am undecided) as to whether Jesus is a door to God that is of Gods own making.
I apologize here and now for my presumption, because a part of me still cries out and tells me that it's wrong to talk like this, as Paul said, "should the clay say to the potter, why have you made me this way?" I think though that it is in the nature of man to ask this question, and I am but a man.
The old one goes like this: religious people say you must have "Faith" to experience a relationship with God, that it is in effect up to US to find him, hence "Mankinds search for God", and not vice-versa. But I always think of a child lost in, say, a large supermarket. Who's responsibility is it to bring about a re-union, the child's or the parents? Surely a loving parent would find his child, explain to him that he loved him and all of this even if it was the child that ran off? Well, I think Mankind is born into a "lost" position, some say this is because our original parents "ran off" from God. And still others say that God is not far off from each of us, that he has shown his enduring Love for us by sending a Son. But why do I still feel lost? Why do the majority of Mankind still feel lost? My opinion is this is because God hasn't "found" us yet - would a lost child have any doubt that his parent had found him? - or maybe things are meant to be this way, or maybe even more depressingly, there is a reason (or no reason) that is beyond us and may always be, for these questions. A child may pretend, even deceive himself that he has found his parent (notice it is not the other way round) but I think he is just holding onto the legs of a stranger in the supermarket, he hasn't looked up into his face (he can't), and even if he thinks he can, does he really know who he is looking at anyway? Will he not see what he wants to see to feel safe? This brings me on to the next illustration, which is like the above illustration but with all the children in the world in a world-sized supermarket, and groups of children gathered around different figures that each child swears (is willing to die for the belief perhaps) is his parent.
It's silly, but in the TV game-show "Takeshi's castle" there is a game called knock-knock: there's actually an online version of it here *NB: that site was removed, so I've linked to an internet archive of it - the pictures don't load anymore, but you get the general idea from the description that follows - 8/2006*. The rules are something like: there are ten walls ahead of you, one wall after the other, and you have to run through one of Five doors on each wall to get to the other side (behind the last wall), where you claim a white ball (to proceed to the next round). Each wall has only one door that "works", you have to run into the door of your choice on each wall, and if it is real you will go through (it's made out of weak wood), but if not (the door is just painted on the wall), you run into the wall! Now what is this like? Well, I thought this could be likened to choosing the religion one follows, and how one follows it. Imagine the first Five doors were labeled "Christian", "Muslim", "Jew", "Seikh", "Buddhist" (for example), and you take a run at one of the doors. Let's presume God is judging you, and he's decided there's only one true way through to him and the prize, the way through is the true path or religion. You run into "Muslim".....bang!!! Sorry, you got it wrong! No prize for you! (no fatwahs please.)You run into "Christian" (let's say it lets you through for sake of argument) and at the next one you run through "protestant".....bang! Sorry, no everlasting life for you, you got through one door though, but I needed all 5, because you need to worship me in "spirit" and absolute "truth"! And you could get even sillier, and make hundreds of doors you needed to get through (the choices getting narrower all the time), like choosing between a brand of Christianity that believed in the physical return of Christ over a spiritual return (something very hard to deduce from the Bible) ...Bang! Sorry, stupid, couldn't you SEE that Jesus is returning in the flesh?? Who really believes that the lost child, yes that lost child, has to find his way back through a series of (sometimes imperceptible) choices to find his God? Does this seem unjust and unloving? If it does to me, miserable man that I am, wouldn't it to God? And here's the best bit: sometimes the first choice, or the first few, are made by our parents, and if you think they're not, what is the most prominent religion in your country (broadly speaking)? If it's Christianity, do you consider yourself a Christian? Your parents and your country made the first choice, and any change would likely be a "progression" on this same path i.e. another, more defined, "brand" of Christianity. Then imagine, I know it's hard, that the Buddhist way is "The Path"- how unfair would THAT be? You can extrapolate this illustration on and on....for example, if this was real life, you may think you're playing by the above rules, and that if your choices carry you safely through the doors, you assume that you've made the right choices. But if you stop and look around, who actually feels the adverse judgment of God upon them for their particular choice of religion? Nobody, of course. In real life ALL of the doors let you through, and so every religious person feels he or she has Gods approval! What's going on, because all of these people (or most) would feel that there's only one true way through the doors? There are three possible reasons I suppose: God favours everybody, despite their choice of religion; God favours nobody; the walls will only appear at the doors on judgment day, or the day of your death. It doesn't take a genius to realize that the latter of the three options (tell me if there's more or if this is oversimplification) is the most unjust and unloving. You could actually live a God-fearing, wonderful life devoted to the Deity as you imagine him, and in the way you think (you feel! surely you would feel Gods disfavour, a "wall" between you and him, otherwise?) is right, and then on the day of reckoning be cast into hell, or into nonexistence, whichever is the case. The only answer that makes sense to me is that everybody's right, or nobody's right, because otherwise we end up (in effect) judging ourselves, our own choices excuse or condemn us, and the Bible (for one) does not support this: God is our judge, and not an "imperfect" human, such as ourselves. And if you follow this thought to its conclusion, you realize that (to God) there IS no game, no walls, no doors. All these things are inventions by man, man who needs walls, who needs doors, who needs to feel he is "somewhere", that he has progressed in his life to a definite place through a definite route, that he has worked out and worked for his salvation (even if the Bible tells him it's a free gift and no specified works, or works of law, are needed: no jumping through hoops or doors required). That may be so, but if you take away the walls and the doors, you might as well be in one place as another, or put another way, you might as well be where you started. This makes sense to me, because at this moment in time I think that organizations that have built "walls" and "doors" do not offer an approach to God, how could they, because it is like saying "you have to come through this door I have made in this wall I have built to worship your Creator!" That the walls and doors are very old makes no difference. It is also like the scripture in the Bible that condemns the uselessness of idols in worshipping God: they are Objects built by man, and they offer a supposed channel to God, who did not create their idol. Of course this is not the case. Even as Jesus said "I am the way", there is no organization that can claim, idolatrously, to be some sort of mediator between man and God, when if you are a Christian you know that only Jesus can be this. In fact, ESPECIALLY if you are a Christian, as Jesus broke down those walls that seperated off Jews from "gentiles". And (as is well known) he stated that the weeeds (bad people) would be seperated from the wheat (good people) in the judgment, which shows that the weeds and wheat are MIXED, the wheat is not all in one place (as it would be if they were all in one "true" religion) but are mixed in with all of mankind (which man can say "I've done the seperating for you Jesus, look we're all here in one place!"?). This all makes sense and fits in with the idea that we are judged individually, as the Bible says, and not organizationally. I do not wish to comment here (I am undecided) as to whether Jesus is a door to God that is of Gods own making.
I apologize here and now for my presumption, because a part of me still cries out and tells me that it's wrong to talk like this, as Paul said, "should the clay say to the potter, why have you made me this way?" I think though that it is in the nature of man to ask this question, and I am but a man.
posted by John Doran-Armstrong at 7:19 PM
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