LOCAL GODS

I have explained elsewhere why I view all of mankind's religions as unconscious holdovers of the belief that we are the center of the Universe, and accordingly, why I believe that every single one of them is bunkum.

In fairness to billions of my fellow humans, however, I need to point out that the writer Robert Heinlein has given a possible solution to the plethora of deities inhabiting our small part of the Universe.  In his book Job, a Comedy of Justice, all of mankind's deities exist, and all heavens propounded by all religions are true.  Thus if you believe in the Christian heaven, that's where you end up, and if you are a Norse follower of Odin, the Valkyries place you in a frozen sleep until Ragnarok.

Earth's local deities are depicted a being part of a hierarchy, and report to a sort of regional manager who can resolve past-life conflicts arising when two people in a relationship have different gods, which is one of the plots in this book.  The book is largely a criticism of evangelical Christianity, and owes some of its imagery to Mark Twain's story Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven.  I strongly urge everyone to read both books.

I couple this notion with the one in Douglas Adam's The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, that we have created all these gods out of own heads.  They are immortal, because we have invented them so, and they tend to have more or less human characteristics because we haven't got enough imagination so see them any other way.

I must admit that I can understand how these sorts of deities might be of use to humanity.  They give us someone of whom we ask favors, and the law of averages will mean that some will seem to have been granted.   They also give us someone to blame when things go wrong.

That doesn't mean I am personally drinking any of this religious kool-aid, and I would like to recommend another Mark Twain story, The War Prayer, which is the most scathing indictment of religious fervor I have ever read.  I have never read a more complete indictment of the mad mindlessness of our belief systems.

Now, if you know me, you realize that the titles listed above are but a few of those I have read over the years, some of which have informed my belief system.  In fact, I will give you one more.  I have only read one description of an afterlife which makes even the slightest sense to me, and that was in the Arthur Clarke story Childhood's End.  In this story, there is no individual afterlife.  When a species has evolved to a certain point, they change form and become part of the guiding intelligence of the Universe, called the Overmind.  It's not that I really believe this concept, but it is the only point of view that ever seemed conceivable.

Regardless, I think that everyone should read as much as possible, and not only things which propose answers with which you believe.  The people that bother me the most are those who hold beliefs which violate facts.  The ones that insist that evolution didn't happen, or the ones that ignore scientific measurement of world temperatures. 

Read.  Learn.  Question.  Inquire.