Ben's Blog

January ’25

The Christian religion is based on the past exploits of Jesus way back in the olden days when he had a physical presence in this realm, and he was apparently able to do things that had a dramatic effect on the world, like miracles. But that was a long time ago, Jesus has not been sighted around these parts for many a long year. When scientists figured out how the universe works, they discovered the most basic law of nature, ‘if you have no physical presence and can cause no measurable effect on the universe, it means you do not exist!’

Now you would think Jesus would rise to the challenge presented by the scientists, and give his devotees a sign of his presence. Something that we could see, hear, smell, touch or feel, something we could measure against nothing at all and detect a difference. Something we could use as ammunition against those cynical science types. But he does not. He gave up that sort of thing long ago, around the same time the camera was invented, coincidentally.

So the faithful no longer discuss in incredulous tone, the latest miracle he has performed. Jesus has retreated from the fray, withdrawn from pubic life, to sit in silence, contemplating his past glories. Sad but true.

There was a time long, long ago, somewhere around the dawn of time, it is said, when the Gods ruled the world. Roaming freely, getting up to mischief as was their want. An ‘interesting time’, as our Chinese friends would say. Much drama and conflict and violence, as you can well imagine when a plethora of God’s with super powers start a fracas, as they did on a far too regular basis, it was pandemonium!  The God’s were rivals, competing for devotees, and the competition was fierce. Not between the God’s, they were all good mates and didn’t take the game too seriously, but between the rival religious factions it was on for young and old. Discovering that other tribes had other Gods, unorthodox and eccentric Gods, they were peeved. They got very, very angry and would fight their rivals, often to the death. Hard to believe in this time of peace and harmony, but there you go, sad but true.

Fortunately for the human race folks gradually became less zealous in  defense of their favorite Gods. They grudgingly came to accept the presence of other ‘lesser’ Gods in their midst. They learnt to get along, by and large, just before the human race annihilated itself out of sheer spite.

Then science was discovered, thank God for that! Science soon got to work explaining the inexplicable, a job that had been strictly reserved for the religious  elite, who seemed to have an intimate understanding of Gods moods. This is the crucial inflection point, when the Gods stopped cavorting about down here, playing havoc with our weather, pissing on our crops just for a laugh, assuming the form of exotic animals in order to seduce the womenfolk, impregnating them with weird hybrid species that got teased at school. The God’s threw in the towel. They were no longer prepared to take the blame for all the shit going down all over the God damn place. They did not want to be held up to ridicule by these new wave rationalist types, who had an answer for every enigma. So the Gods  retreated back to where they came from, deep inside our psyches, where they belong, and there they have languished ever since, mostly forgotten, unloved and forsaken by the modern world, sitting in silence for all eternity. Sad but true.

You may remember that the Greek Gods lived on Mount Olympus,

and roamed the earth unfettered, performing spectacular miracles hither and thither, until some spoil-sport climbed up the mountain and found no sign of him. Then they all fled up into the heavens, until some bright sparks ventured to the heavens in his ‘tin can’ and could find no sign of Gods there either, in fact they could find no sign of ‘the heavens.’ The Devil was said to live underground, until the miners drilled there way down there and could find no sign of him….and what about our souls, where do our souls go? To a parallel universe? There is no sign of them in this one, no photos, no audio, no blips on the radar. How do we explain the existence of our souls if they do not fit the natural laws of nature: 1 That you must have some form of physical presence, or 2. That you must have some measurable effect on the universe.

Science has been measuring things for thousands of years now. There has been ample time for the Father, the Son or the Holly Ghost to feed us some data.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do believe in God. He definitely exists, but only inside the hearts and minds of his faithful devotees. I believe God can have an influence over events in our realm, but only to the extent that his followers, acting upon his perceived wishes, can have influence.

I have nothing against religion, quite the contrary. I have worked with followers of liberation theology in Nicaragua. On the news I see the good works being done by the Seeks, handing out food to the hungry.

Religions can have a positive effect on the world, whether that effect out ways the negative effects, is a matter of conjecture.

But I do think it is about time believers accepted the fact that their Gods have not intervened in our affairs for a very long time, like since Biblical times. If you continue to claim that your favorite God can intervene at your behest, it makes you look foolish irrational. We all believe in science whether we like it or not. Science runs the modern world, and does a pretty good job. So if you go  believing in something you know is irrational while you live by the rules of science on a daily basis, you will become bifurcated. Your religious belief and your reliance on rationality must be kept separate, making it impossible to form a holistic cosmology.

But it need not be like that. Theologians do not take the bible literally. As far as I know, they don’t go around claiming Jesus rose from the dead and other such fanciful notions. If they did, no one would take them seriously in the modern world.

So if you do want to mesh your religious beliefs with contemporary thought, you must come to terms with the fact that events in the Bible are no longer seen as facts and are now viewed as metaphors, that the role of God is to guide us in our actions and not to intervene directly in our lives. God has never intervened directly in our lives, but that doesn’t mean he is non existent. He is alive and well in the collective conscience of millions of believers. But claiming that God CAN intervene in our daily lives is a very dangerous and irresponsible claim.

People die when they forsake modern medicine and rely on God alone to save them or their loved ones. (although praying obviously helps, a little bit, for some inexplicable reason)

Ben Boyang        January ‘25