Tuesday, August 21, 2007

A god by any other name would smell

"There are people all over the world ... who are using the word Allah in order to refer to a supreme being who supposedly invites them or commands them to kill the innocent in his name," said Father Jonathan Morris, a Catholic priest on Fox and Friends yesterday, although the word means God and isn't a proper name as far as I know. But in fact, if we look at old Yahweh and his tirades and demands for slaughter and genocide even unto the fifth generation of innocent children, it's hard to maintain the fiction that God doesn't have a worse temper and less of a conscience than half the people we keep in maximum security prisons.

Of course it all hinges on the word "innocent." The Gods invented by Jewish, Muslim and Christian prophets seem to have little sympathy for the guilty and if they are different from one another, it's only in the definition of guilt and innocence.

It all started Monday when Fox News, ever anxious to turn the inconsequential into some pretext for outrage, quoted a Catholic priest's idea that Christians should start calling God, Allah to "bridge the cultural divide." Apparently Christians already do in Arabic speaking countries, which stands to reason. After all they call him Gott in Germany and Dieu in France and other things depending on the local language. All I can do is laugh. Call him what you like, all he ever has been is an excuse to do what the authorities want us to do, no matter how evil. It wasn't Jesus, Yahweh or Allah who started the Spanish Inquisition or the Crusades or any religious atrocity but only the religious authorities and the animals who believe.

Too bad the human race isn't smart enough or sane enough to toss the whole idea and don't bother me with the "don't toss out the baby with the bathwater" groaner because there is no baby to throw out and no god to stop us.

6 comments:

RR said...

The more I think about it... and re-read the bible... the more I am amazed that ANY rational person buys into this stuff. The old and new testaments are such jumbled piles of crap that it could only be taken seriously -- let alone the edicts of the supreme being -- by someone mentally unstable.

The best thing we can do -- in the west -- to turn people off to religion is to actually convince them to read the bible -- all the way thru.

expatbrian said...

By definition, rational people do not believe the Bible. At least I have never met one. I sincerely hope that I am alive to witness the response of the believing masses when scientists final prove without a shadow of a doubt the age of the earth and produce the spark of life from nature. I am not so naive as to think everyone will suddenly disavow their god but surely the debate will become much more lively and fun.

RR said...

Many believers will come up with a delusional rationalization that "explains away the science".

The age of the earth and evolution are so strongly supported (for evolution, genetics, the fossil record, geology, etc. all confirm its "reality") by science that I can't imagine these types being convinced by anything.

Hence... the definition of faith: belief in the unseen.

d nova said...

blieving w/o seeing is praised more than knowing. recall the doubting thomas story: blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe?

also, jesus in spanish is hey zeus.

Anonymous said...

all he ever has been is an excuse to do what the authorities want us to do

Yeah, man, that Jesus really encouraged us to do what the authorities want us to do. NOT.

Lay off the weed man, it's making you dumber by the second.

Capt. Fogg said...

Organized Christianity has never had much to do with Jesus - that's my point and if you could read English you'd have understood. Christian churches have long supported slavery, torture, aggression, conquest, the destruction of libraries and cultures and genocide.

So lay off the insults you ignorant, small minded, misinformed and self satisfied Sunday School pagan. Jesus never told you to love yourself for your smug piety - quite the opposite.

But of course you can't read, can you. . .