May 302010
“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”
- Charles Bukowski
Beer is good. Wonderful beer. Too bad I can’t buy any in the stores today.
Yeah, I’ve come to slowly realise that Christianity is the religion of exculpation and not taking responsibility for your life… and I regret spending so much of my life under those false doctrines. The Bukowski quote seems to suggest something more like Satanism, especially with the “I am my own god” part. I approve.
To me is suggests the freedom of following your own rules and the responsibility inherent in that choice.
That as well. I tend to like Satanism these days, anyways, so it wasn’t a negative thing at all. But yes, you’re absolutely right. :)
The Bukowski quote suggests no-ism. Or perhaps just-be-ism, love-ism, learn-ism, and beer-ism.
“… that death will tremble to take us.” I think I quite like that quote, especially that last line. Seems quite brave, to me. Why cower in fear of undefinable punishment? Better, I think, to live life with head held high.
“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered.”
I believe in God and it still doesn’t answer the big questions for me. Maybe if I adhered to one particular faith that claimed to have all the answers, that would be true, but even the most religious people I know have doubts, questions, and things they simply don’t understand. Pet peeve of mine–the idea that people who are religious have abandoned all critical thought, while atheists are inherently free-thinkers and philosophers (oh, and beer-drinkers. I still drink beer.)
I think there’s more than one kind of atheist, too. Some (e.g. Richard Dawkins) are effectively fundamentalists themselves, in their “certainty” that religion teaches particular things and that God doesn’t exist, regarding all religion as irrational and evil. Others are open-minded, rational people who happen to have reached the conclusion that there is no God but aren’t offended by the fact that some people have reached the conclusion that God exists.
Well, I believe in God but I don’t believe in simple answers because they simply don’t reflect the truth of the world we’re in, or the fact that as beings who exist “in the image of God” we have intelligence and are meant to make sense of things for ourselves . . . And religions should be channels for expressing our spirituality and belief, not organisations for prescribing them.
True faith IMO isn’t about thinking we have answers or even that we have the right beliefs about God–it’s about trusting that it’s OK to be uncertain. Fundamentalism claims certainty, and is therefore to be rejected since certainty cannot exist and conflicts with the reality of the world around us. If God is anywhere he’s in the reality, not in the pretence…
Er, sorry for the rant!