The creation of God, and the destruction thereof

by Snoopy

It's humans who created God. We created the image of God. What is God? If God is our creator, then God is the force of nature. It's nothing, and it's everything. It has no will of its own. It's like a river. Forever moving, without a purpose. An impulse of the universe. We're just a side effect of it. Like every other creature, we're bound to life by birth, death and rebirth. Survival.

People who refuse to believe that and say "we have a higher purpose" are just weak and won't face our task in life. Yes, we have a purpose. Survival. The survival of our kind. You could say that is God's test. Of course, God is not some creature watching over us. It's just a force, the universe, electricity, magnetism, physical laws, etc. It's everywhere around us. And when we die, we return to it. Emerge from Dust & Return to dust. Space dust?

The idea that we live after death, is insane. It's an image weak people create, who are afraid of dying. It's just a state of the human mind. But you never die. That's what you live for. That's what you reproduce for. The individual self awareness we posses, is just a tool to enhance our survival abilities. It's that, which has blessed us with our great technological advancement. Fear of death is our fuel, to keep us moving. Believing that we'll live after death is just a side effect of our self awareness. It's a weakness.

We will live though. In our children, and theirs. While other animals will die and grow extinct by the force of nature, by God, we will, forever advancing, outdo it, and survive there were we weren't intended to survive.

The idea that God, the force of nature will punish us if we were "bad", and thus sending our "soul" to hell after we die is as stupid and insane as the people that construct it, and believe it. Not only that, but it stands in the way of our very own survival. If something bad happens, their excuse is "it was the will of God", and turn a blind eye to the problem at hand. This is inhuman behavior.

Religion had its uses in the darker past of humanity's history. It was a way to teach people morals. There are certain rules that must be followed. Modern society however, has proven that people can very well follow and respect human morals and ethics without religion. Thus rendering religion obsolete.

So, how did people create God? Humanity was ignorant. However, it was also curious, and willing to learn. Intelligent people of the time made observations. They looked at the sea, at the trees, the plains and the sky. They saw many things, but none of them seemed explicable. The lion would kill the antelope and eat it. Next year, antelopes would still survive. Carcasses of dead animals would fertilize the earth. A volcano would destroy, but it would renew the ground, and make once again opportunity for life. Lighting would set fire to a tree. Heating water would make it evaporate. Cooling it would make it condensate. Large quantities of water, and hot weather would mean evaporation. Eventually leading to rain, lighting, storms, etc.

Most of these observation can be found in many religious documents. They're the "logic of nature". And pretty much always, they are written in metaphors. Why? It was a code. People who possessed this trivial knowledge, could lead the ignorant. They could predict natural events, due to their observation and logical reasoning. Having this knowledge, they were able to put down rules on societies, and people would follow them. Fear, ignorance, and other similar factors made the people follow the rules. Thus religion was created, and in the beginning, it was good. It brought certain morals to wild and uncontrollable places.

Religion was the first step towards politics. As with all politics however, power corrupts, and thus religion was abused. It also took on many shapes. Like the everlasting discussion between economical ideals like communism and capitalism, and political ideals such as democracy, theocracy and others, religion split up. Soon, every 2nd hand crook was a "Messiah".

As certain communities grew, and became more powerful, taking more land, their religion was spread faster, and influenced wider areas. Religion was used as a weapon to dominate occupied countries. Instead of getting people to follow your laws by force, it would be much easier to just convert them to your religion. In a time of war, this is done much easier than one would believe. Converting someone to your religion is the golden ticket towards controlling them, and making them obey your rules. Trivial examples of this would be Christianity in Asia and Africa, and the Ottoman invasion of Eastern Europe.

Even though the Ottoman Empire is now gone, the Islamic areas in Easter Europe still get help (mostly financial) from other Islamic countries, in times of mass confusion and/or war. A perfect example of this would be the recent war(s) in Bosnia and Kosovo. Even after the Empire that spread its "laws" to the region has disappeared, the inhabitants of it still follow them.

Religion knew its share of abuse and bloodshed however, and even threatened certain societies and even races with extinction. It grew out of its position as a medium of simple control. It was now a both economical and political organism.

However, over time. The inhabitants of a society, in search of absolute freedom, have broken the stronghold of religion on the state. Between the 17th and 19th century, we took the battle to God. And one could say, that we killed "him" in the 20th century.

Through basic education, better life standard and other elements of a modern (western) society, we have rendered God obsolete. It still has a way to go, but one could easily say that religion in a western society is no more than a simple icon. A refuge. Or maybe, it could be describe as a brick wall people would spew out their problems at to take the weight of life off their shoulders.

Religion will probably never go extinct. It just holds too much power. It will change however. It will change to sooth the needs of the masses. Or it will change, as in always standing one notch above the basic knowledge of the masses in a society. The western lifestyle, of sex, drugs and rock & roll could be seen as a religion. Maybe the first "real" religion that doesn't praise a God or other fictional being. The word "religion" strikes disgust in the minds of most modern open minded people, for its traitorous past. Modernize it a bit, call it "lifestyle" instead of "religion", and the masses will bite once again. They will throw all their money away at it (fashion, social needs, etc), they will obey it by will (fear of loss of freedoms, fear of exclusion from "popularity", etc) and thus you have full control over a society once again.

Man has created God to control other men, and once God lost effect, man killed God and threw it away like a used condom. Maybe it's a natural process, that separates the smart, from the stupid. Like the separation from the strong and the weak. This giving the more enlighten people the ability to lead humanity into a brighter future. "Long is the path which leads to the light". Good thing there's a finger pointing to the white dot at the end of the tunnel. Evolution.

20 July, 2004

--Snoopy