Nietzsche wrote there was only one Christian, a man who, so the story goes, perished while spiked upon a cross many years ago.
His philosophical counterpart Kierkegaard believed that, in a society so nailed to Christian thought and deed, it is impossible to truly be one. This thought sits in my mind today, during this time when so many people are puzzled why everyone else can't be as "good" as they are. That you have to act a certain way to be "saved."
Saved? For what? What is everyone waiting for?
On this sunny Saturday I sit, blissfully un-salvageable, and write. Ham and salmon loiter in the refrigerator, already sacrificed, awaiting resurrection as holiday clan meal tomorrow.
There is a Black Lab at my feet, snoring in the pollened air. One friend has already emailed this morning about survival after an unexpected tire-blowout at high speed yesterday; another with news concerning a bipolar-minded manager making everybody's life hell at the office. And additional scoop from a pal who is finally feeling better after a three-week exhausting bout with the flu.
The Zen dudes have named these life experiences that have no permanent substance or boundaries as "empty." They claim there is a subtle undertone to life that no one really understands or controls. They call this unnamed something "The Tao." The gateless gate. It occurs when we put thoughts on paper, take a photo, paint lines on canvas, hammer a nail soundly into wood to form something new.
Some call it "flow." Understanding the genius of life is to know that everything is as it should be. Ordinary things become marvels.
Methinks Christ was a Zen dude. If he were alive today and knocked on my front door, I would say, "C'mon man, let's go for a walk down by the water." I would hand him the handle of Walt's leash, then armed with Margaret's, take the fellah along the river bank and show him where the heron perch in the big oak, and how the bumble bees have started lumbering about in their slow aerial buzz. And we would sit on the bank and watch the water swim by, empty in its flow. We could talk about life, and perhaps even make each other laugh.
I have no reverence for god, religion or any other mythical philosophy. On this fine Easter morning, I merely listen to classical music, and read the usual news of the world. When my mind drifts to thoughts of Christ, I see how more efficient the crucifixion could have been with a power nailer. I image how grateful the Roman legionaries would have been as I stepped out of my star gate to hand them a Remington Nailer. “Let me demonstrate, gentlemen.” Pow, Pow, Pow. Three nails see how easy, “Next!”
It is indeed, this mechanization of process, which has brought humankind to the dreadful threshold some of us find ourselves in today. The brilliant minds that developed our modern world seldom appreciated the primitive mind. They failed to see how we would misuse, intentionally and unintentionally, each progressive invention and process.
For example, the airplane’s first massive use was warfare. Transporting mail and people had little to compare with the efficiency of control from the aerial bombing milieu. Tractor treads, how much more useful on the new “tank” than on farm equipment. The first “commercial” use of element 92 was nuclear weapons, damn inexpensive power for the people. The Internet, indeed, started as a DOD communications project for security. Now it has become the premiere tool for data mining (spying on) of American citizen’s communications.
Some of the frightening aspects of our modern world are how irrational our species is considering and comparing “god” and scientific evidence. Below is but a sample from the International Social Survey Program. My fear comes from a slight and frail appreciation that there is not one piece of objective evidence, which suggests there is a god. Indeed, there is a matrix of definitions on god. Humankind yet has to agree on this basic understanding of god. My alarm bells ring as I read the below survey summary.
Questions:
Afterlife: I definitely believe in "life after death"
Bible: "The Bible is the actual word of God and it is to be taken literally, word for word." A yes answer implies that the subject believes in the inerrancy of the Bible.
Devil: I definitely believe in "the Devil."
Hell: I definitely believe in "Hell."
Heaven: I definitely believe in "Heaven."
Miracle: I definitely believe in "religious miracles."
Country God Afterlife Bible Devil Hell Heaven Miracles Evolution
United States 62.8 55.0 33.5 45.4 49.6 63.1 45.6 <35.4
(http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_comp.htm)
Directing our lives we act within the milieu of our beliefs, just below the surface of rational thought lays our subconscious mind. And it holds the above truths, each one potential for misbehavior, murder, and destruction as switches for our actions. I see these “truths” as our destroyer. They default to destruction.
If there was a gentleman known as Jesus Christ of the future Christian religion, he was most probably a very rational and compassionate human. Indeed, I would bet Jesus did not believe in god, but saw that bringing compassion to humankind required a belief in an omnipotent, ubiquitous, every lasting “father” figure. He saw that it would have been useless to use logical thought on such a poor minded species.
So to all my good Christian friends of the Christian branch of the Ape Children of Abraham, I wish you a merry and pleasant Easter.
Posted by: Douglas C. Hoyt | April 16, 2006 at 10:18 AM