dear god

Dear God,
hope you got the letter, and...I pray you can make it better down here. I don't mean a big reduction in the price of beer but all the people that you made in your image, see them starving on their feet 'cause they don't get enough to eat from God, I can't believe in you.

Dear God,
sorry to disturb you, but... I feel that I should be heard loud and clear. We all need a big reduction in amount of tears and all the people that you made in your image, see them fighting in the street 'cause they can't make opinions meet about God, I can't believe in you.

Did you make disease, and the diamond blue? Did you make mankind after we made you? And the devil too!

don't know if you noticed, but... your name is on a lot of quotes in this book, and us crazy humans wrote it, you should take a look, and all the people that you made in your image still believing that junk is true. Well I know it ain't, and so do you.

Dear God,
I can't believe in
I don't believe in
I won't believe in heaven and hell. No saints, no sinners, no devil as well. No pearly gates, no thorny crown. You're always letting us humans down. The wars you bring, the babes you drown. Those lost at sea and never found, and it's the same the whole world 'round. The hurt I see helps to compound that Father, Son and Holy Ghost is just somebody's unholy hoax, and if you're up there you'd perceive that my heart's here up on my sleeve. If there's one thing I don't believe in it's you....

That's a song by the band XTC. I'm not a fan of theirs, except for this song.

It doesn't sum up my beliefs exactly, but some of the things mentioned I feel are true. For instance, the Bible is a great piece of literature if you take it for just that. I actually had 2 classes in college where I studied the Old Testament as a literary work. If you assume it is work compiled by men, and not the voice of God, it makes for a very interesting read. (Incidentally, if you come to my house and see at least 2 versions of the Bible on my shelves, this is why.)

There is often the question of "If there is a God, why does he let all these bad things happen?" The answer? Old Testament God is a bitch. Bad things happen all the time in that book. Besides, people have to die. The world is overcrowded as it is.

*WARNING*
Callous bitch statements ahead!

I think things like natural disasters have to happen. I'm sorry that so many people died in the 2004 tsunami, and in Hurricane Katrina, but they had to. It was their time, decreed by God. All throughout history, God has taken steps to reduce the population: The Black Plague, The Spanish Flu, volcanoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, and to a lesser extent, war.

I don't claim any religion for myself, but I do think that theology as a whole makes for an interesting study. When asked what I believe, I reply "fate." I think things happen for a reason, whether or not they are decreed by a god, or the Greek personifications of The Fates and The Furies, or some other driving force. But I think that when your string is cut, you die. You could be sleeping, bungee jumping, or anything else. When it's cut, you're out. This is why sometimes people are taken away from us at a young age while others live for 100 years. This is why sometimes people are in horrible accidents and seem to live only through a miracle.

To deviate from this point a bit, I love the movie Big Fish (I haven't read the book yet). Yes it is a Tim Burton movie, but that's not the only reason I love it. In it, a boy is allowed to glimpse his own death, so he knows when and how it will happen. Thus, he lives his life without fear of dying because he knows it's not his time yet.

The movie helps to illustrate my beliefs a little bit. Fate (or God) doesn't control every move you make, every decision you come across. All that's decided is the destination. How you get there is up to you entirely.

Take the example of 2 people, both slated to die on a certain day at a certain time. One of them makes his living as a daredevil. The other is a mild-mannered banker, never doing anything more risky than driving 5 miles over the speed limit. It just so happens that the daredevil dies from choking on a ham sandwich and the banker dies in a robbery. No matter where these people would be at the appointed time, they would still end up dead. The daredevil could be climbing the Empire State Building with plungers on his hands, as he had so many successful times before. The banker could try skydiving for his first (and last) time. Both could be asleep. When each string is cut, each person is out. The probability of the daredevil dying in a stunt is higher because he spends most of his time that way. But sometimes things don't happen the way we expect them to.

I mentioned war as an act of God earlier. Let me elaborate:
God doesn't cause war. He does not reach down and speak to a select few and tell them to kill everyone in His name. However, he does not stop the troops from clashing. He allows the boats and planes to arrive safely at their destination. But maybe if the war is going on too long, He will put a stop to it. Yellow fever, severe blizzards, and many other forces have come into play when The Fates decide to stop cutting so many strings at once. When it is decided that the world's population has had a significant enough decrease, the killing ends.

Now I know I may offend people with this post, but that is not my intention. I am not saying that you are wrong, nor am I trying to force my beliefs onto you. I am simply explaining my own belief system, which may or may not coincide with yours. I heard the song, really listened to the words, and it got me to thinking. So that's it.



p.s. while I was writing this, another good God song came on... "God" by Tori Amos.