Is God dead?
It's a question that carries a lot of weight with it. Some people would give an emphatic "no," while others would say it's impossible for God to die because he never existed in the first place. There are those in the middle somewhere who don't know what they believe, and yet others who simply don't give a damn one way or the other.
Still, the existence of, and importance of, a "God" figure is far more important than even we today realize. Throughout history man has loved, lived for, sacrificed to, forsaken, and just plain ignored the presence of what most Americans would call God.
I'm not going to give you some history lesson on the Bible or God. It's not my place to inform you on the facts, just to give you a completely uninformed opinion based on gut instinct and a little bit of bitterness.
Let me throw out the "God is dead" ideology for a moment. That movement already exists and does a good enough job of alienating people as it is. I don't think God is dead, nor do I believe he never existed. I'm starting to believe the notion that there is a God, whatever you want to call him, and that he did create existence and he did watch our every movement.
I also believe he could care less about us anymore. That's right, God is not dead. He's just sick of our shit and decided to walk away.
Friedrich Nietzsche writes in "The Gay Science" that -
"God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. Yet his shadow still looms. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?"
To take him at his literal meaning would be to assume that we have murdered God, which I find to be impossible. God is God. It would be like Jubilee murdering Apocalypse - not enough power to wipe out something so eternal. Humanity cannot kill God, but we can give him the middle finger and turn away from him. And, my friends, that is exactly what we've done.
But I want to take things a step further and offer the possibility that we haven't killed the image of God, but instead severed the good will between us. God exists, he created, and now he's abandoned.
What proof do I have? Nothing concrete. Then again, do you have concrete proof that he ever existed in the first place? My argument is in history. For as long as humanity has existed we have stolen, murdered, raped, and ruined everything we've ever had. We've been the most detestable creatures to ever be given free will, because we've taken that free will and decided to exploit it in any way we can as long as it benefits us.
God created us for reasons only he could understand. Maybe we were created to serve, or perhaps he is just a giving deity who decided to give us a shot at existence. Either way, we've pissed away our chances pretty aggressively and thoroughly, haven't we?
We choose not to believe in God. We choose the sins of the flesh over the preservation of the spirit. Your average human being only sees a path that rewards him the most. Even the best of the best, the most hardcore of the faithful, are often hate filled and judgmental. From the most left wing bisexual athiest liberal to the right wing conservative with the Jesus chain and his anti-fag messages of hate wrapped in faux compassion, we each betray the very messages that most religious texts attribute to "God."
So after thousands of years of telling God to shut the fuck up and let us handle things, why would he stick around? He gave us precious life, and all we do is squander it with selfishness, hate, jealousy, greed, and a myriad of other sins that we call a normal Tuesday.
If you look at all the miracles we experienced in the early days, and I'm just speaking of a strictly Christian based history, you start to see a progressive absence of God. While before waters were parted and resurrections were common place, today we find miracles in face shapes in potato chips or when it rains during a drought. Interesting events, but are they miracles? Where is the direct connection to the Lord that they speak of in the Bible?
I've spent countless nights on my knees in prayer, and I've cursed God when I reached my lowest points. In either scenario I got the same reply - none. God never answered, to neither console me or condemn me. I dealt with my own problems, faced my own sorrow, and lift myself out of bed every morning to face another day in a world where I'm not entirely sure he's there anymore.
But I don't think he's dead. He's just not looking at us anymore. He's sick and tired of all of our petty differences, of our self indulgences, and our selfish reasons for believing in him.
Before you say God would never turn his back on his people, let me simply ask -
Who the fuck are you? You are nothing. You mean nothing. Do you feel sympathy when you crush an ant under your foot? Do you regret smashing a fly because it bothered you? How do you figure you're more important than that to the creator of all existence? It is absolutely within God's right to turn his back on us because we are nothing more than a speck in the grand scheme of things, and he owes us nothing.
I'm not saying you should give up your faith. I'm not trying to convince you to throw in the towel because I'm nothing more than a voice carried on the wind along with millions of others. This is just a thought, nothing more, and it should only be viewed as such. In the end, God is the only one who knows and we'll all just have to wait and find out someday.
Hopefully.
No comments:
Post a Comment