“Man simply created G-d in order not to kill himself. That is the summary on universal history to this moment.”- Philosopher, Albert Camus.
An excerpt from ‘A Higher Good’:
“…That’s really the premise of this entire part of the book. All of the archaic documents of the western faiths (the Bible, Talmud and Koran) glorify a G-d that relatively primitive men chose because they mirrored their own twisted psyche and political purposes. There may have been, and probably were, documents around that described a Higher Good, but because those transcended man’s own egotistical ideals of justice, they were ignored or discarded. Because they did not describe a G-d with attributes and physical images similar to his own, they were ignored. Those he thought were inspired by G-d, were those that described manifestations of beings, or a being, that was a supernatural and super-powerful image of himself, similar to the deities the Greeks, Egyptians and Babylonians worshiped before him. To fit his egotistical imaging, and the idea that the world and the universe revolved around him, man chose documents that described a G-d who created him in G-d’s own image, right down to his fingers and toes and irrational woes…”
Long before man had ever erected a single temple or given name to the mysterious forces of the universe, before organized religion, our ancient ancestors had some form of belief in a spirit world of sorts. This is a belief supported by their ritual burial practices. So, long before we had people to tell us to believe in something.. we believed. The Egyptians, Mayans, ancient Vikings, Celts, ancient Chinese, Romans, Greeks… everyone since the time of our ancestors has believed in something greater than themselves.While I know next to nothing about the spiritual beliefs of many of these peoples, I do know a thing or two about Norse, Greek, and Roman mythology and belief. In all three instances, the pantheons of deities of those individual peoples were more human than not. They possessed all the aspects of a deity… limitless knowledge, power that could topple kingdoms, nations, and life itself, power to create life and take it away just as easily.
When it comes to those ancient peoples, one could simply say that their gods or deities were ways of explaining things they had no possible way of otherwise explaining. Nobody knew what caused thunder or lightning, so it was attributed to Thor riding his chariot through the clouds or Zeus angrily hurling a lightning bold here or there. We as a people had no way of knowing what was going on, so we created gods; and as our understanding of the world grew, our need for all powerful, invisible beings who were natured just as we diminished. Or did it? Somehow, despite our understanding of ourselves, our world, and what we think we know about the universe in which we live, we believe. Some of us that is. The ancient pagans believed in several gods… a pantheon if you will of deities. Each god or goddess served a specific function or role. A god for love, a god for war, a god of storms, and a god of …I don’t know.. calm winds. In early and modern Christianity, it’s believed that there is but one supreme deity who embodies every aspect given to each individual deity one could possibly conceive.
Now while some say, as I’ve stated before in this blog that deities such as Thor or Zeus were just ways for people to explain what they didn’t understand, the belief in a higher power of some sort still persists throughout a large portion of the world. If the Olympian deities, Norse deities, Egyptian deities and all other deities were nothing more than man grasping to understand the world and his(or her) place in it, can the same not be said of the current belief in the G-d of Abraham and Isaac who is still worshiped today? At some level does man still so fear the unknown that it must be named, given titles and power over us? Are we the great inventors who have created G-d? Or is it G-d who has truly created us? If in fact it is we who have created him(or her, or .. it even.), why then would we make a deity who while soo benevolent and loving, allows evil to exist in the world? On the other hand, if in fact it is G-d who has created us, then why so in his own image? Why create us at all? I honestly can’t answer any of those questions, but I can only guess and theorize…
G-d is as real as he is unreal. That is to say, as real as any idea conceived, if not more-so. Imagine if you will a time before life and the universe as it is now existed,where there was something…some force out there. Maybe it was completely coherent and knowledgeable of its surrounds and what it was doing or maybe it simply existed/exists no more than an amoeba does, only on a cosmic scale. Now, this thing, this…force had no name, or title or even true purpose in all of its actions, but somehow, possibly through its sheer being, the big bang happened and in the course of time, humankind appeared and evolved into what we are now. Throughout the process of our existence and evolution we somehow became aware of or conceived the notion of this thing… this force and we couldn’t truly it which of course frightened us. Then we sought to name this thing… called it Zeus, Odin, Ra, Yahweh, G-d.. whatever. We gave it titles and made it more like us so that in the end, we wouldn’t fear it so much. We couldn’t control this thing, but we could understand it better and in doing so, we could understand ourselves and our place in life better. I suppose what I’m suggesting is what if G-d existed merely as a force of the universe itself? Not created by anything, but simply existing because it was in fact the embodiment of existence or reality. What if we were created because G-d exists and G-d exists because we were created and perceive him(or her) to be? We give name, shape and form to that thing that is existence/reality. We called it Ra, Odin, Zeus, The Dagda, and now call it Allah, or G-d. We are our creators creations and his creators. If… just if.. that was true, then everyone everywhere is both wrong and right when it comes down to the question of G-d’s existence. That could mess with a ton of peoples heads for a while.
Anyway, that was all just a thought. It popped into my head and I figured I would put it here for folk to read and give their opinion on. And in the event that this in any particular way offends anyone, just know that I myself do believe in a higher power; namely G-d, and this is in no way meant to slight anyone who believes differently than I do or for that matter, doesn’t believe at all.
And a big thank you to the artists of the pieces I’ve used in this post (as I did not do these works of art.). I’m not sure who you all are, but if you should happen to stumble upon this post and see your artwork here, thank you for creating it.
randomgeekings 