God: No God

September 30, 2008

in my last few blog posts I've been running through the list of God arguments and how religions can mistake mythic imagery as literal fact and get twisted beyond all recognition.

I'm a little tired of always having to be a-theist, un-believer, and non-conformist, when actually I'm simply being non-insane, un-rediculous, and a-delusional. I think we are so often defined in contrast to the religious norm, and tend to look at ourselves this way, because many of us grew up with God's divine tit in our mouth and we had to move across that line in our own lives.

Maybe we all have to go through this phase. Maybe parents, Santa, and Jesus are steps to maturity that we must go through and overcome to be able to be fully awake.

But when the dust settles, when you get through the last lingering liturgical let-down, there you are, standing face to face with nothing, the big God Shaped Hole in the universe.

Now what?

The answer is simple, and you can call it the meaning of life, or your sacred journey, or just another idea in the soup. That is, to be the best person you can be.

Steven Covey called it Seven Habits. Dale Carnegie called it winning friends and influencing people. Religions all want to claim it.

I don't remember the actual quote, but this truest wisdom came from Basil Fawlty, John Cleese as the curmudgeonly inn-keeper. He was complaining one day, and his wife, his frigid frau asked rhetorically, "Well then, why go on living?" His answer, "I don't know. We're stuck with it I guess."

And there it is. The destiny of forefathers conspired, for reasons unknown and unknowable, to bring you into existence into a world not of your making. You are not responsible for the unimaginable nastiness of the world, unless you are somehow adding to it. You can't save the world, but you can change yourself.

At any moment, in everything you do, there is always one most perfect, most right, thing for you to do or words that you can say. Each breath you take can be placed in service to the best you can do in your life, or can be wasted in fear, anger, and other little things.

Peace. Joy. Creation. Love. Tenderness. Acceptance. Listening. Smiling. Your life is a marvel, and can spread good, or evil. You can be defensive and petty, or confident and grand.

When you do something that you know is not good for you, or for the others around you, you know it. You don't need anyone else to tell you to stop it, or to do the right thing. Eat well. Exercise. Read. Understand. Turn off the TV.

Life, every second of every day, is a marvel. Breathe. Take in air. Let the air fill your cells and carry energy to your muscles, and know that this is all happening so that in your little corner of the planet, in the space that your life consumes, there will be peace and a gentle glow of the good.

There will still be times when you feel threatened, or afraid, or impatient with the insensitive fuckmook who claims this highway in the name of his big floppy dick, but you can always retreat into the glow, turn up the music, and know that whatever some mindless animal does with his sports car or sloppy mouth could not possibly matter to you.

You are a human. You are the source of magic, and of light.

As long as you choose to be.