As some of you know by now, playing Mass on Sunday always leaves me with posting fodder. Then I log in for a dose of sanity, and drop some of my rambling ruminations into a thread. Take it or leave it, discuss it or not - - just THANK YOU for being here.
FAIRY TALES
As I drove to work, I heard an NPR interview of Michael Cunningham. This is a brilliant author who has recently focused on re-writing fairy tales. When you condense his statements about fairy tales in modern times, the meta-message was: we have outgrown them. They no longer make sense to us, because they tend to be built on a very black and white dichotomy. (You have the evil character, the hero, and the princess, in some combination, most of the time.) So I went into the choir loft with "we have outgrown our fairy tales, and secular sources understand this".
PUTTING A POSITIVE SPIN ON A WICKED FAIRY TALE
Then I hear a reading from 1 Kings 17. Elijah goes to a widow - she and her household are starving, she only has a handful of flour left to make a cake for herself and her son. Elijah orders her to make HIM a cake first, and trust in the Lord. Because she did so, her jars of flour and oil magically replenished themselves for a long time to come, and her family ate well.
The believers in the pews accept this as a fabulous example of the poor having faith and being rewarded for it. The atheist in the organ loft is saying "wtf???" 1) starving children. But this total stranger usurper jerk had her feed HIM everything they had, taking food away from little ones who don't understand why the adult prophet is eating and they are not. 2) And so the book gives an example of god preventing a widow and her son from starving, because they believed. There are believers starving everywhere - and god could prevent it everywhere, easily - IF the story is true. If this story is true, it only makes god a bigger asshole.
AND A PSALM OF PRAISE, aka LIES, LIES, and more LIES
Psalm 146 (excerpts): "the Lord gives food to the hungry; gives sight to the blind; the Lord loves the just, but the way of the wicked he thwarts"
The believer in the pews sing this with gusto. They revel in the greatness of their god. The atheist in the organ loft is saying that anybody over the age of 10, in any city on this planet, knows that these statements are lies. The believers are not saved from starvation. The blind stay blind. The "just" are often persecuted. And the wicked have the most money and power everywhere on the planet. Nope. I'm not buying it.
As jenny1972 pointed out in vorlon's "Peter walking on water" thread, in John 14 Jesus is said to have made promises that anyone reading them should recognize as lies. And yet, apologists will jump through all sorts of ridiculous hoops to try to explain why they are not lies. I understand why people deliberately put on these logic-blinders and embrace faith: their whole existence is built upon these lies. But oh - from my perspective, it's painful to watch.
Thanks for letting me ramble, AF crew. You guys are the best.
FAIRY TALES
As I drove to work, I heard an NPR interview of Michael Cunningham. This is a brilliant author who has recently focused on re-writing fairy tales. When you condense his statements about fairy tales in modern times, the meta-message was: we have outgrown them. They no longer make sense to us, because they tend to be built on a very black and white dichotomy. (You have the evil character, the hero, and the princess, in some combination, most of the time.) So I went into the choir loft with "we have outgrown our fairy tales, and secular sources understand this".
PUTTING A POSITIVE SPIN ON A WICKED FAIRY TALE
Then I hear a reading from 1 Kings 17. Elijah goes to a widow - she and her household are starving, she only has a handful of flour left to make a cake for herself and her son. Elijah orders her to make HIM a cake first, and trust in the Lord. Because she did so, her jars of flour and oil magically replenished themselves for a long time to come, and her family ate well.
The believers in the pews accept this as a fabulous example of the poor having faith and being rewarded for it. The atheist in the organ loft is saying "wtf???" 1) starving children. But this total stranger usurper jerk had her feed HIM everything they had, taking food away from little ones who don't understand why the adult prophet is eating and they are not. 2) And so the book gives an example of god preventing a widow and her son from starving, because they believed. There are believers starving everywhere - and god could prevent it everywhere, easily - IF the story is true. If this story is true, it only makes god a bigger asshole.
AND A PSALM OF PRAISE, aka LIES, LIES, and more LIES
Psalm 146 (excerpts): "the Lord gives food to the hungry; gives sight to the blind; the Lord loves the just, but the way of the wicked he thwarts"
The believer in the pews sing this with gusto. They revel in the greatness of their god. The atheist in the organ loft is saying that anybody over the age of 10, in any city on this planet, knows that these statements are lies. The believers are not saved from starvation. The blind stay blind. The "just" are often persecuted. And the wicked have the most money and power everywhere on the planet. Nope. I'm not buying it.
As jenny1972 pointed out in vorlon's "Peter walking on water" thread, in John 14 Jesus is said to have made promises that anyone reading them should recognize as lies. And yet, apologists will jump through all sorts of ridiculous hoops to try to explain why they are not lies. I understand why people deliberately put on these logic-blinders and embrace faith: their whole existence is built upon these lies. But oh - from my perspective, it's painful to watch.
Thanks for letting me ramble, AF crew. You guys are the best.
"The family that prays together...is brainwashing their children."- Albert Einstein
