Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Yodevaveh...Yoda to His friends

I've been thinking about how to continue and I put a large chunk of effort into my second post. When I tried to publish, however, I got a message about a bad url.....and couldn't retrieve the body of text. I was gutted. I am kind of thinking that although I was happy to publish the last entry, now, thanks to a, perhaps serendipitous, quirk of electronic miscommunication, I am forced to rethink the content...was it meant to be? I couldn't recite the entry word for word but perhaps it was ill-conceived, yes it's all irrelevant anyway. It was about how we think and the concept of original thought...all that Descartes malarkey thrown in for good measure, cognito ergo sum and that kind of thing.

Then I meandered to a point that I feel I should go over again for my piece of mind. It was all along the lines of the Essence of God and nirvana, or heaven or the happy hunting ground or the time between times, call it what you will...but the fact that there are so many names is indicative of the saturation of the idea across continents and cultures.

Clearly the fear of death is a powerful feeling and the gift of abstraction is a complex variable, add to this the incomprehension of the natural world and you would come up with a way to explain it, probably. And the explanation would be singular, at first, but as you struggled to attribute all of the unknown to one entity (lets call it God, for want of a better word) God would have to be expanded to encompass your greater understanding, perhaps even becoming gods. Yes I am well aware that this hardly constitutes original thought, but that is actually what I'm having difficulty with. To the chase then... anthropomorphic personification I think its called, Thor is the God of Thunder because I don't understand how thunder happens, therefore, I might as well accept a personality is responsible and a god is born, and a lot is owed to Terry Pratchett for helping me understand this. Godhood is diluted and in theory anything is now possible. So we have gods for everything including the god of soggybreadcruststhatislippedoncausingmetospilltodaysmilkonthefloor.

People need stuff 'boxed off' and it is difficult for an inquisitive mind to rest at the point "I don't know". We formulate theories that can neither be proved or disproved to explain experience. And we still do this, people claim to understand how money works but conceptually it is actually quite difficult to comprehend, and so for the vast majority of us, myself included, money is a god. We pray for it to come into our lives, no? do you do the lottery, have a flutter, invest in futures...it's one and the same thing actually, isn't it?

The one thing I cannot bring myself to say is that God does not exist, I have no rational argument for it's existence but I was raised a catholic and that is a difficult doctrine to rid myself of...but I am working on it. I think the confirmed Christians would probably argue that I cannot shake this belief because God is real. And fair play to them, if you want to live out the sensations remaining to you in the service of Jesus, good for you...not much fun though is it? Christianity has a very preventative philosophy, avoid the places where you think you may find 'evil' (as defined by us) and try to allow Jesus to work through you.

God, according to your scripture, created evil though...so what is it for if not to enjoy as one of His creations, or at least accept it as a part of existence. See, if you look at this from a non-reverential point of view, the christian God is more than a little mischievous. First of all YHWH (yodevaveh) creates a being that is in discord with his own wishes, gives Him something to have anxiety around I suppose, His motivational factor, perhaps. Then He banishes it to a realm that has free access to the people he has created in the garden of Eden. Who, incidentally, he also created but decided to not have them subservient. Maybe a lesson was learned with Lucifer, after a supposedly subservient seraph led a rebellion with fully one third of the heavenly host. But then, all-knowing isn't capable of learning is it?

Now i have no reverence for the devil, because i don't believe in that either. However, it illustrates the fallibility of the infallible God and begs questions of a rational mind. I called Him the Christian God but He isn't is He? He is the God of the Jews and if you look into it He is actually the God of the Jews only. The world is divided into Jews and Gentiles isn't it, OK so most Jews accept that Christians are not Gentiles but God never said so did he. I'm sure Jesus quotes could be thrown at me but that makes the assumption that Jesus was indeed the son of God and therefore capable of rescinding His word.

Then again how can a God that instructs the Jews to take possession of land from an established people, then claim to be a God of love (More changing of the Deific mind eh....would that be proof of Gods femininity.)

Sadly if you don't accept the triple God Christian model, and there are some who would urge you not too, you are left with the bearded, scary, Egyptian murdering, Homophobic, generally genocidal Old Testament chap. Care to spend eternity in His company?

Mr. Pat

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

in the beginnnning......

Yeah so, after rubbishing blogging as a pointless exercise, here I am typing my first entry. I think I should have some type of diary and this is what all the 'hip' people do,(listen to me, sounding like my dad).

I have had conversations about how one should blog, what is important, what is normal, making it significant and all that, but really, who gives a damn. Its not going to be written for people to read. I have a lot of pointless crap in my head and there is nowhere else for it to go. Given the nature of my mental condition, (I am me, what more can I say) I am expecting a succession of meandering, half baked, conceptual mumbo that starts with a good premise and descends into the hum-drum blog we all know and love (I wouldn't have rubbished blogging if I hadn't read a few first.)

I don't hope to offer advice for life, listen to "wear sunscreen" (Advice, like youth, is probably wasted on the young. Mary Schmich.), or Desiderata if you are after such. But should I talk about life, or more specifically MY life, I may find some solace within the writing of the blog, and that is my goal. I'm not going to get into anything meaty right now but feel I must in future, as this, should be monumental, to me, at the very least.

I could set privacy things and all that but again this random succession of electronic 1's and 0's could be all that is left of me when I die...how long before they delete the blog if I don't write? and its probably fitting that we all etch our mark on this world in anyway we can! It is for this reason that graffiti has merit (not 'graffiti bridge' Prince, clearly). Public beautifiers beware, you could be removing part of humankind's continuing essence. Dissatisfaction and unrest are documented in this way...yes even the "Chris is gay" on the back of the toilet door is to be respected for this reason. Perhaps Chris is indeed gay but what compelled the author to inform us. hate, humour, spite and bile...where else can they have expression, and what should we learn whilst defecating other than this.

I am glad I've taken this step, as small as it is...i just don't know if there will be another, or even if there should be another. I would also like to wish everyone who has started a blog today the very best of luck with it. you don't need encouraging because its all handsome enough. Live like Zorro...leave your mark where you go (but don't necessarily shag Catherine Zeta Jones, unless you are Mr Douglas and then you may feel free, hi Mike, thanks for reading).

PS the Rigveda from whence the blog gets its nomenclature is a sacred Vedic (early basis for the Hindu faith) text that deals with such things as the proforma of sacrifice to the gods. that means something when related to my bilge, but i am not sure what, just yet...
Mr Pat.