Posted: Aug 15, 2013 7:28 pm
The Christians' god is irrationality personified.
He -- and he it is, in no uncertain terms -- is one person, yet simultaneously, three. His/their substance is indescribable and unknowable. He has the power to intervene in the world as and when he pleases, unbound by trifles like the observed norms of the universe. He saves and condemns without rhyme or reason, subordinates women to male power, casts gay men into a lake of fire for expressing their love physically, and does not tolerate rivals. If orthodox Christianity is right, the universe is the plaything of a capricious paterfamilias.
Kid, we ain't seen nothing yet. We come now to what passes for his plan for his creation. His playpen. He, omnipotent and terrible in his power, condemns humanity to burn in eternal fire, and then, in his mercy, rescues them with a cosmic blood sacrifice. Of his own son no less, and to multiply the mindfuck, the son is a part of him, and also the whole of him. Blessed Trinity, total headscrew. To save us from a mess he made himself, God sacrifices himself to himself to allow him to undo a curse he brought on himself.
Is there logic to this bloodsoaked scheme? To riff on Joss Whedon, God's logic does not resemble our earth logic.
Orthodox Christians have built an edifice of systematic theology to try to make sense of the insanity at the core of their faith. So much effort wasted! Christians have no shortage of the reason lacked by the god they inherited, misapplied into defending what it ought to tear down. Throughout centuries of Christendom, men of reason (and in this patriarchal religion it was men) wasted their talents on the chaos they inherited. Then again, given the fiery alternative that awaited the heretic, who can blame them?
God in Christ wasn't born of reason and logic. He was born in heat of the desert, born of desperate, disenfranchised people, people desperate enough to yearn for a miracle to end their woes and bring justice to the world. The Christian god was accidentally birthed in the apocalyptic fury of Jesus of Nazareth, a folk-preacher who announced Yahweh's eschatological judgment across the highways and byways of Galilee and Judea. Jesus got it wrong and got himself executed by an indifferent Roman bossman. His followers, unable to let go of the dream, carried on, and over the centuries, this tiny band of messianic Jews morphed into Christianity. Helped in no small part by the charismatic brilliance of a man who first persecuted and then joined them, Paul of Tarsus, more a founder of Christianity than Jesus of Nazareth ever was.
The Christian image of god is blood and fire, rage and fury, love and ecstasy. He is not reason, and he can never be reason, however much his followers try to straightjacket him with the false rationality of theological systems. He is the descendant of the longings of a 1st century doomsday cult. Many of his followers attempt to tether him, but inevitably, he breaks free, and returns to the fire of his birth.
The god of the Christians is the god of the apocalypse, the god of judgment and of rapture, the god of heaven and of hell. Know yourselves, you worshipers of God in Christ! Rationalism is not and never will be your king. As it was in the beginning, it is now, and ever shall be.
wordcount: 571
He -- and he it is, in no uncertain terms -- is one person, yet simultaneously, three. His/their substance is indescribable and unknowable. He has the power to intervene in the world as and when he pleases, unbound by trifles like the observed norms of the universe. He saves and condemns without rhyme or reason, subordinates women to male power, casts gay men into a lake of fire for expressing their love physically, and does not tolerate rivals. If orthodox Christianity is right, the universe is the plaything of a capricious paterfamilias.
Kid, we ain't seen nothing yet. We come now to what passes for his plan for his creation. His playpen. He, omnipotent and terrible in his power, condemns humanity to burn in eternal fire, and then, in his mercy, rescues them with a cosmic blood sacrifice. Of his own son no less, and to multiply the mindfuck, the son is a part of him, and also the whole of him. Blessed Trinity, total headscrew. To save us from a mess he made himself, God sacrifices himself to himself to allow him to undo a curse he brought on himself.
Is there logic to this bloodsoaked scheme? To riff on Joss Whedon, God's logic does not resemble our earth logic.
Orthodox Christians have built an edifice of systematic theology to try to make sense of the insanity at the core of their faith. So much effort wasted! Christians have no shortage of the reason lacked by the god they inherited, misapplied into defending what it ought to tear down. Throughout centuries of Christendom, men of reason (and in this patriarchal religion it was men) wasted their talents on the chaos they inherited. Then again, given the fiery alternative that awaited the heretic, who can blame them?
God in Christ wasn't born of reason and logic. He was born in heat of the desert, born of desperate, disenfranchised people, people desperate enough to yearn for a miracle to end their woes and bring justice to the world. The Christian god was accidentally birthed in the apocalyptic fury of Jesus of Nazareth, a folk-preacher who announced Yahweh's eschatological judgment across the highways and byways of Galilee and Judea. Jesus got it wrong and got himself executed by an indifferent Roman bossman. His followers, unable to let go of the dream, carried on, and over the centuries, this tiny band of messianic Jews morphed into Christianity. Helped in no small part by the charismatic brilliance of a man who first persecuted and then joined them, Paul of Tarsus, more a founder of Christianity than Jesus of Nazareth ever was.
The Christian image of god is blood and fire, rage and fury, love and ecstasy. He is not reason, and he can never be reason, however much his followers try to straightjacket him with the false rationality of theological systems. He is the descendant of the longings of a 1st century doomsday cult. Many of his followers attempt to tether him, but inevitably, he breaks free, and returns to the fire of his birth.
The god of the Christians is the god of the apocalypse, the god of judgment and of rapture, the god of heaven and of hell. Know yourselves, you worshipers of God in Christ! Rationalism is not and never will be your king. As it was in the beginning, it is now, and ever shall be.
wordcount: 571