Gott ist tot

Upon recommendation, I am reading the GOD delusion by Mr. Dawkins. It's a little disappointing for me as I felt I was getting there all by myself. All that I have written so far is pre-Dawkinsian evolution, everything from this point should be considered as, 'awakened by'. That is how powerful the argument is presented, and you must read it. I command you!

Unfortunately this means I am going to change tack for this blog to continue, I was just getting my teeth into it.

For the most part, it's the clarity by which the traditional arguments are blown out of the water. Even whilst reading, the principles of my catholic upbringing were squirming to maintain a hold in my consciousness. The final proof came when a Christian, who I otherwise respect completely, agreed with new earth creationist theory. Whatever else I was, I could never believe that. The fact that anyone could hold this belief, particularly someone I respected the faith of, has poignancy to say the least.

Obviously my jocular attitude in claiming a new religion and godhood were for the discovery, fleshing-out perhaps, of my atheism. This is good and it worked for me. If by some chance reading this helps another to arrive at the same point, then it has, quite literally, doubled in value.

The most worrying thing is how to stop it. Now who's to say, that if we allow non-literal interpretation of the' good book (?)', and remember the new earth people justify changing the length of a day to 144 hours (God's 'day'), we can't come up with more freakish 'truths'. My example; if you say that God's creationist day is 144 hours as opposed to 24, and unless you are also of the 'flat earth' leaning (no really, they exist! http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm, I' m still not convinced that the author gives credit to this philosophy, they're 'avin a larf surely!), the earth rotates causing the phenomena known as day and night.

That would make gods year equal six years because the earth is an irregular globe (no really, it is). Now I can only think that in order for this to happen, earth would have to have been significantly larger (taking 144 hours/six days to rotate on it's axis) than it is now, or rotating at a much slower rate. It is beyond me to draw you the model in this case but it would be either six times larger (half the size of Jupiter) or six times slower. The speed thing has implications for the effects of gravity and so does the size, yet my feeble knowledge of such things baulks at the mere implication of such mathematical aptitude. Perhaps god reduced the planet after his work was done like some astronomical shrinky-dink, and put the passage of time on hold whilst the work was in progress. Omnipotence is the 'killer argument' for a pro-creationist, sadly as I have alluded to, however, because omniscience goes hand in hand with it, it also sanctions arbitrary massacre of all life during the flood and makes YHWH evil, from my moral point of view.

Imagine, having awareness that the seed you plant is going to grow big and strong, but also knowing that you will have to up root it and plant it elsewhere because it destroys your most prized Rose bush. The same Rosebush that you expressly gave it instruction to leave well alone (you can speak plant). You also know that, you will have to take a cutting and kill the plant at some point, because it will not grow into the plant you want (but you knew this before you planted the seed!). You know, also, that; at some point the cutting you take from it in order to start again, will kill your child when you ask him to see if he can fix it. For you his, and your, sacrifice (except that somehow you are you and your son at the same time) is worthy (in your 'grand scheme') because, although there are now four main branches of the same plant and each branch is extremely detrimental to the growth of the others they are totally incompatible with each others needs to the point of destruction, you love them all.

You knew this would happen; remember, way back in the beginning because, you are the garden and all that is in it, and all that the garden is growing into, for ever (Amen).
Each branch also now believes after your, self declared, favourite branch subjected your only child so a slow and painful death, that it is your only favoured branch and that it should destroy the other branches for not 'knowing' you properly. Each branch has the potential to know you and would clearly do as you ask, if only you were to come and give it a little love and perhaps stop the other branches and the rest of the garden from destroying its seeds. During the application of your grand scheme; the plant must not have awareness of this scheme nor should it ever develop knowledge of the scheme. Perhaps this is the reason, known only to you, that you must ignore the plant after it has killed your child, in the hope that some of the plants future seeds could become worthy of your intention for them. However, you must make the seeds pay, even though they are tiny seeds, for the destruction of your Rosebush millennia before. You know this because you can see all of the plant grow, and the results of all your interventions at the moment you design your entire garden, which, by the way, you created entirely, for the benefit of this one plant.

I like analogies, they are awakeners.

Even so god would also have to display a good working knowledge of the type of distraction necessary to hoodwink the plant for millennia, perhaps the fossil record is one of his distractions and he is giggling inanely at Darwin and Dawkins, perhaps not. I am reminded of the, sadly missed, Bill Hicks's 'oh my Me, I put pot everywhere' line. The problem for me is that accepting the possibility of intelligent design leads to a cat and mouse scenario with God the ever-elusive mouse, what is he hiding from? I am not scared of my children and would not hide from them or their questions, at all. They should always be answered, just remember that you have a duty as a parent to prevent misconceptions (such as morality comes from the Bible) arising. In this case God's 'Fatherly' obligations are remiss.

Like Dawkins's Burkha analogy, we must continue to widen the gap and fulfil our potentials. We remain alone but it's not necessarily bad, au contraire mon petits filous, begin by not seeking to know God or even the mechanics of the uni(multi)verse but by trying, striving to, simply; gnothi seauton - know thyself (from the oracle at Delphi).

Because it does, naturally, give you the best chance of happiness.

I'm sure the rest will follow.

As will further posts,


Mr. Pat