In God We by David Biedny
It must be 2012, because anywhere you turn in my country, you’re confronted with wild-eyed, uptight folks crying out about the end of the world, the coming of demons and monsters, claiming that their main goal in life is to conduct themselves in the way dictated by God, the all-knowing Creator of the Universe. They have heard His voice, they have felt His love in their hearts, and they will only tolerate those who see the world through the exact same lens. We are told that we must welcome and respect this, that anyone seeking the highest office in the land can only do so after demonstrating a belief in, and unwavering loyalty to the Almighty Lord of all things. The self-defined chaste offer themselves as role models for the species, claiming an inherent superiority to those of us who have not seen the truth, those who remain somehow “lost”, drifting in a sea of sin, unhappiness and darkness. I have had enough of this madness. I can no longer remain calm about the idea that there are fellow humans who are so deeply disturbed, so totally in love with themselves, so wrapped up in their own egos and bubbles, that they would dare to claim that they are somehow imbued with the ability to detect, comprehend and implement the reasoning and motivation that drives some singular force that has somehow created all that exists. These proclamations come from creatures barely capable of comprehending the existence of the vastness of the known Universe, much less the
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scales of distance that make up the cosmos, or the yawning, gaping stretches of emptiness that stretch between the proton/neutron nuclei of an atom and the electrons whizzing around it in a blur of intense speed, tiny planets orbiting binary stars. Most of everything we think of as solid – this page, the monitor you might be reading this on, the fingers that are attached to your hands – is actually primarily emptiness surrounding a collision of buzzing molecules that attract and repel, a constant dance, even when appearing to be at rest. What might startle you is that scientists had figured these basic facts out well over a century ago, and in the intervening decades, we’ve learned so much more about the how and what of reality, yet we remain totally in the dark as to the why. This last item has long been the domain of philosophy on the hobbyist, shallow end of the pool, and religious thought over in the deep, murkier waters. And that’s where religion seems to fall into the framework of how we live – it gives many the reason to exist, something to fall back on, or in the eyes of this writer, a parental proxy that allows us to behave in any way we wish, ultimately saving us from the ravages of harsh reality, soothing the pain doled out by life’s lessons, and listening to our pleas for a range of material and physical needs and desires. Even though there are different religions, with distinctive rituals and structures, it all basically boils down to the same thing: an invisible power to which we owe fealty. And that power needs representatives on Earth, in order to guide the less capable, those who are in dire need of salvation and dominance, and these leaders are and have been, in many cases, given absolute power of life, property and liberty. Their reign remained for hundreds and hundreds of years, and how much blood was spilled in the name of God? More than you would ever want see in your life. Anyone who would defend religion, and cite the supposed good it has accomplished for our species, must first factor the human cost and suffering into the balance sheet. The red ink is quite literal – and abundant.