Is there a Dog?

I like the old joke about the dyslexic insomniac who lay awake all night wondering if there really was a dog. To me, it makes more sense than wondering if there really is a God. I came from religious household but war service and education that demanded rational answers set me on a different path. I’m reminded of the joke and my turning from religion by a piece in todays Age by Tony Wilson that ends with his thoughts on the Iranian earthquake.

In Iran, of course, a great many more laws need to be rewritten to remove a fear of God that is actively cultivated by the Government. People will say that God provides hope. Atheists like myself say that knowledge and a rational liberal democratic system of government provide more hope. If God controls the universe, he has just saved a 97-year-old and killed 30,000 others. Yet for the believers, it all just adds to His mystique.

The ‘Opiate of the Masses’ has come along way since Jesus, a charismatic politician and heir to the throne of David started a movement in the first century that promised a lot based on little. Faith is all you need and here the faith is translated as live a good life, believe in miracles and a devine being and a place in heaven will be yours. I can imagine ‘Heaven’ being a good drawcard considering the terrible conditions these early converts endured but the whole deal was sold on no evidence. The early church leaders decided that the best way to convert non-believers was to let them keep some of the old beliefs and festivals but to repackage them under the new order. To cut it as a religious leader and be marketable one had to have done the virgin birth bit, performed miracles and undergone death and resurrection all at prescibe times in the year that fitted with ancient beliefs. The packaging worked for thousands of years and survives all over the world but is strongest where education isn’t. The first century answer to today’s Saatchi & Saatchi would be beside themselves with pride at the way it turned out. Jesus, a man, is now Jesus, Son of God. They didn’t even have to produce God. Believe me folks, he just is. I believe this is the way it is but I have no problem with those who believe otherwise. It’s a free world and if you get solace or meaning from your beliefs then good on you. But, and it’s a big but, don’t try and force your beliefs down my throat and more importantly don’t look to disadvantage me as a result of your beliefs. A case in point; a lot of fundamental Moslems would kill me if they could because I don’t follow their God. Not that the Christian track record is unblemished. Early graveyards in the Old world and New offer millions of dead as testament to the Christian campaigns. More men have died under the banner of ‘my God is better than yours’ than for any other cause. Check out Tony Wilson’s article.