The God Report

Hello my children, as you’ve probably heard, Barack Obama’s grandma is gravely ill, and many are wondering if I had anything to do with it.  Now, I have stated before that I shy away from politics because it tends to stir troubles down below with you, but this time I had to intervene.  I admit it, I endorse Barack Obama.  I really like the guy, and I will do what it takes to get him elected, including sending a hurricaine to the Republican Convention (you called it Michael Moore), and my best move yet, Sarah Palin (if that’s not Divine intervention I don’t know what is).  It seems that many of you are in a panic by the possibility of a young, handsome (if I do say so, myself), intelligent, progressive President.

It was recently brought to my attention that an “anonymous” author penned a letter aimed at inciting panic in Conservative Christians.  The “letter” gave a detailed description of the consequences to this country “if” Barack Obama were to be elected President.  I have read the letter myself (I suggest you do so as well) and I am honestly quite horrified that anyone calling themselves “Christian” would be responsible for spreading such hateful, vitriolic smut.

I am tempted to come down from the heavens and teach you hate-mongers a lesson.  I know you haven’t forgotten the Flood, and I’m not talking about Katrina.  Fanatical, far-right, Conservative Christians are trying my patience.  I’ve worked very hard to become a compassionate and forgiving God, but with this behavior I am feeling a tinge of the old wrath creeping up.

I just have a message for all of you:  Have some faith in each other, stop being so damned afraid, and vote for Obama for President.

For now, the Lord has spoken.

I’m not trying to be cynical, but as the problems in the world worsen, I feel farther and farther away from God.  This isn’t a matter of questioning my faith in God, it’s about whether that faith even has a place.  As I look around, I see that God’s religions are destroying humanity with killings done in His name.  The entire world is suffering because of this superstitious belief in an anthropomorphic God.  And let’s not even start to look back at history where the pages are written in the blood shed by those who would kill and/ or die for Him.

Lately I’ve been asking myself, and anyone who will listen, are we better off abandoning this belief in God?  Have we stunted our spiritual evolution by being so hung up on the idea that God exists and has a “plan”?  What if God jumped ship before we even came into existance and doesn’t even care what we do one way or another?  What if God really is dead as Nietchze proclaimed long ago?

It doesn’t make any sense to me anymore.  Instead of focusing so much of our energy in defending our beliefs in Him, and in going to war for Him, shouldn’t we be more concerned with fixing the mess we made in our blind devotion?  My intent is not to offend anyone, I just wan to know if anyone else feel sthe same way.  Does anyone else feel that God is an obselete idea?  We used to think the world was flat, it was universally accepted as the truth.  But when we discovered that Earth is round, we adjusted, we learned to accept it, and eventually this knowledge helped us move forward.

Can we do the same with this idea of God?  For all our sakes.

Photo by by Joe Shlabotnik

Well, we trusted you, we worshipped you, and we gave our trust to your priests and prophets, all for nothing.  We put our morals, our good judgement, and our retirement funds in their hands, just to see it gambled away at the temple.  You claimed you would take care of us if we worshipped and devoted ourself to you,  we even tried to spread the word to rest of the world, so they too, could see your magnificent power.  We went to war for you, we’ve sacrificed children for you, sent old people to the poor house for you, and let the sick die, all for you.  For you, and for the promise of high-yield returns, for the promise of a profit to be made.

And now, your temple is in shambles, and our pockets are empty.  We hoarded you, we kept you from the undeserving poor, we protected you from those who weren’t willing to die for you.  And now in our darkest hour, we are all alone.

How will we ever believe in you again?  Could we ever trust in your capitalist system again?  God, why has thou forsaken us?

Check out these articles:

Principles in an Unprincipled Crisis by Jim Wallis

In God We Trust…An Essay on the Idolatry of Security by Ben Witherington

What Do You Want From God by fatherstephen

Italian comedian Sabrina Guzzanti learned this lesson the hard way.  The comedian/ actress narrowly escaped prosecution and a five-year prison sentence because of her off-color remarks made at a leftist rally.  Guzzanti was speaking out against the Vatican’s global campaign against gay marriage when she said:

“Within 20 years the Pope will be where he ought to be — in hell, tormented by great big poofter devils, and very active ones, not passive ones.”

These comments prompted prosecutor Giovanni Ferrara to threaten to prosecute the actress for offending the honor of the sacred and inviolable person of the pope.  In order to move forward with prosecution, Ferrara has to invoke the Lateran Treaty to enforce this law.

But the treaty, signed by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, required government approval before the investigation could go forward. Luckily for Guzzanti, Justice Minister Angelino Alfano decided to block it.

Can God and Science co-exist?  The answer is, maybe.

The problem with monotheistic religions is that they, traditionally, have been fanatical about their belief in creationism.  The concept of evolution is viewed as an affront to the belief that God Almighty created everything.  This belief, or better put, superstition has been a detriment in our understanding of ourselves as a species, our relationship to the universe and nature, and of our true origins.  The book of Genesis (actaully the whole Bible itself) has been an obstacle to our spiritual and intellectual enlightenment, it has pitted the scientific community against the religious, rather than unifying two very crucial aspects of our society in order to reach a true understanding of where we come from and where we’re heading.

The Catholic Church will be sponsoring a five day event in Rome entitled Biological Evolution, Facts and Theories, which will feature scientists, theologians, and philosophers from around the globe to tackle a subject that has divided western civilization since the dawn of creationism.

This surprising move comes after the Church of England issued an apology to Darwin for having “misunderstood” his theories of biological evolution and natural selection.  The Catholic Church claims that they never condemned the theoris or the work of Charles Darwin and therefore will not be issuing any apologies of their own, but they are open to the debate.

Could this all mean that we are finally ready to start making some progress?  What effect could these talks have on the way Americans view this issue, which is so in the U.S.?  Will we find a middle ground between religion and science?

Since my last post I still haven’t cracked open the book God Is Not Great, but the question of God’s greatness has been on my mind. As I’ve mentioned before I am a non-practicing, non-believing Catholic, and am in no way interested in the worship of God in any way, shape or form. I am however interested in the many ways that this idea of God plays into our lives. And I am interested in the impact God has in people’s lives, and humanity as whole. What does our belief in God really say about us? And does God have a place?

While I was doing research on the matter, I came across a website that is dedicated to the debunking of the God-myth. I was drawn to the site for the 50 simple proofs God doesn’t exist. This website is full of facts and references pertaining to theistic religions, of the mono- and poly- variety. It is in-depth to say the least.

I was especially drawn to the chapters on the Bible. As a Catholic of the Latin persuasion, the Bible is pretty much off-limits. It’s confusing and weird, besides, it’s been my experience that Catholics are more interested in getting mass over and done with to assuage their sinful lives, than to learn about Scripture.

I get the sense that there is an underlying feeling in society today that God is a tool we use when we need to fix something in ourselves, and a weapon when we want to destroy each other and justify selfish acts. As in holy wars and a little something known as the Inquisition. Am I sounding jaded?

Someone recently brought this book to my attention, it is called God Is Not Great, How Religion Poisons Everything. A little harsh don’t you think Christopher Hitchens? A good friend of mine gave it to me because he knew I would be blogging about God and he thought this would give me some ideas. He’s right it should provide lots of topics of conversation, but having been raised a good Catholic girl I can’t bring myself to even open it’s pages. The truth is that I am afraid of reading this book.

I’m not a practicing Catholic anymore and I don’t go to church unless my mom makes me. And I long ago stopped believing in God, almost around the same time I stopped believing in the tooth fairy. But for some unknown reason I don’t want to hear what Mr. Hitchens has to say about God. It’s not that I would disagree or feel offended since I haven’t actually read his book. It’s that I don’t really want to read about why he doesn’t believe in God or religion.

So Christopher Hitchens hates God, does he have to tell the whole world about it? Has anyone actually read this book? Am I going to burn in hell for eternity if I read it?

A billboard reading Imagine No Religion, sponsored by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, went up in the city of Seattle. The billboard is in a space at the base of the Capitol Hill neighborhood, near downtown. Not exactly the church-going center of the city, but Mike Christensen the man who paid for the ad, doesn’t care.

His idea behind the controversial billboard is not to judge religion or people with religious beliefs, but to provoke people to question religion’s role in government. A similar billboard went up near the Democratic Convention that read Keep Religion Out of Politics. The Wisconsin-based foundation has been actively promoting the separation of church and state since 1978.

In Seattle the billboard has had an overall positive effect, with FFRF gaining new and prospective new members. But in some cities where the billboard has also appeared, the group has received hate mail.

I’ve seen the billboard myself, and I found it intriguing enough to find out who and why it was put up. Has anyone else seen this billboard? Is this just more anti-God propaganda?

Someone wanted me to post this message:

To whom it may concern,

I used to be called Yaweh, some of you know me as Jehovah, and to some of you I am Allah. Whatever you want to call me, I am God Almighty, Creator of Everything (well, almost everything), blah, blah, blah… You know who I am, though I wonder if you really know me, but that’s a different story.

I’m addressing all of you today because I’m a bit concerned about y’all. Let me begin by saying, it’s been 200,000 years since I created you and I see you’re still playing your war games and throwing my name around like its going out of style (hello, it is out of style). I know, it’s my fault about the wars, but those were different times and I was experimenting. When I saw the error of my ways I sent you Buddha, but he never quite caught on in the west, until recently (and don’t even get me started on hippies). Some of you aren’t comfortable with the idea of me not being in the picture.

So, I tried again and I sent you my son Jesus Christ. And what did you do? You crucified him! He was supposed to spread the Word of love and peace and forgiveness, not die on a cross! Since then I’ve tried to let keep my godly hands out of your bloody messes.

I’m very concerned by what’s going on in the presidential elections. It seems that recently presidential candidates McCain and Obama created a spectacle on -of all networks- CNN, when they addressed questions about their faith and religious viewpoints, and how they affect their political ideas.

Didn’t they get the memo? Religion and politics don’t mix(see First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution). It’s passe…

Things got really ridiculous when the question of evil was brought in to the conversation. The candidates were asked what each would do in the face of “evil”(I really can’t believe CNN went there):

Obama said he’d “confront it”.

McCain said he’d “defeat it”.

I say, who cares what either of these two clowns thinks about evil. Has anyone heard of separation of church and state? It’s an inappropriate question to ask a presidential candidate in a constitutional democracy. Besides, all of you know what to do about “evil”, you cease the evil-doing (see Iraq occupation, off-shore drilling, etc), and seek redemption. It’s not to be debated on cable television by power-hungry men in suits; it cheapens the Word of my son J.C. and it’s an insult to the democratic process.

Enough with the pandering, CNN and all other sensationalist news media. This is politics not the church pulpit, so stop wasting people’s time with pointless debates about morality.

Nobody is 100 per cent moral, and all of you are evil to some degree (some more than others, I’m talking to you President Mugabe). I gave you all a moral compass (have you forgotten the Ten Commandments?) and free will, I suggest you use it at this upcoming election.

That’s all for now. Keep your prayers coming…

God