The Time of Darkness

Wow… we’ve been on the ole’ pickle barrel for two weeks now with all my most annoying and hate-inspiring thoughts right there for everyone to see. Luckily though, today, I think, ends a period of ‘darkness’ in my life. Well, let’s just say it had damn well better mark the end of it.

I’ve been walking around this house all week in a huge funk related to … well, stuff. Today, on the hebdomadal break from the ‘stuff’ I was in an especially big funk until somebody brought me out of it and injected new life into my exhausted existence by disagreeing with me. Have I mentioned before the visceral appeal of being disagreed with, particularly by someone who knows what they’re talking about? Anyway, you can read the whole disagreement in the comments to this post I wrote almost 3 years ago: Hard Truths and Obvious Facts I.

My response to his criticism basically boils down to: “Yeah, I know.”

His pointed commentary to my post is exactly the reason people SHOULD talk about difficult topics. My opinion of religion three years ago was a shallow one based on the merest surface knowledge of what religion is and what it’s about. It’s like judging the taste of a loaf of bread based on a one-sentence description of its construction (Grind some grain into dust, add water and fungus spores and bake it.) After talking to people about their religion and reading a few books on the topic I’d say my stand on the topic has changed considerably.

Frankly, I’m jealous of the purpose and camaraderie that religion seems to bring to the lives of many people. I’m sure it must feel great to belong to something bigger and more purposeful than yourself. It is still my considered opinion that this great feeling is a major motivation for the formation of these groups but the fact remains they do a lot of good that would remain undone without them. Not long ago I described religion as “the magnum opus” of mankind in On Religion and so I still believe it to be. If there’s one thing you cannot say about religion, it’s that it’s poorly thought out. We’ve put a lot of effort in making people belong to something.

After three years of exploring this topic, I can no longer say ANYTHING about what’s really true and frankly, neither can anyone else. Personally, I don’t believe in God; the existence of God as defined by Christian theology makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. That belief though, as logical as it may seem to me, has absolutely no bearing on real truth. What I perceive as ‘good sense’ is another person’s ‘blatant illogic and ignorance of perceived facts.’ The only real fact seems to be that we HAVE no facts. What we do have is a collection of belief systems founded on personal experience as individual as the people believe them. Could there be a single omnipotent God who controls all we see and do like a puppeteer? I certainly can’t prove otherwise; there could be 50 Gods with names like ‘Pickleface’ and ‘Hammerhead’ for all I, you, or anyone else knows. The real point here is that you should do what you have to in order to be fulfilled and happy in life. If that means going to church and sitting with 3,000 other people and singing songs, then do it. If that means going into the woods and dancing around a fir tree, then do that. Just make sure that while you’re doing that you don’t break any of your own rules. Don’t stone the Wicca when you find them in the forest unless you want them to burn down your church. Don’t go ‘convert the heathens’ in the other parts of the world unless you are ready to accept their proselytizing in your hometown when you get back. Regardless of what you believe, we DO all have to get along.