God of Convenience

Wow. Yesterday was the first funeral I have gone to since I stopped believing in god. It made me realize that there is no comfort in death when you don't believe in god. I am a humanist. That means, I believe that everything that happens comes from within people. That doesn't mean I'm not spiritual or a good person. It just means that I don't believe in an "outside" or "higher" power. It also means that I have no idea what happens when we die. I have my theories but they tend to change with the alignment of the planets or the colour of my underwear. I don't believe that life necessarily ends with death, just the life that we presently know.

Not believing in god does not mean that I don't see the benefit of believing in god. My mother is dying of cancer. She believes in god. In fact, she makes pilgrimages to Midland to pray and to receive prayer cards. She takes a lot of comfort from those trips. She even gains strength from them when she's not feeling very well.

It would be nice if I could be secure in the knowledge that my mom would be going to a wonderful place filled with angels; where she would meet up with her family that had passed before her.

That made me think of all the gods that have been created in the past. Various gods were used to explain things such as why the crops failed or why someone did or did not become pregnant, etc. A god was a convenient explanation. Then someone decided that it was too hard to keep track of all the various gods, so one omnipotent being was created to explain things and to keep society in line. Oversimplified, but it makes my point.

Oh yes, god is the ultimate "Boogey Man".

"Children, don't do bad things or god won't let you go to heaven."

"Parents, make sure your children are baptized in our church or they won't go to heaven."

"Society, follow the rules or you won't go to heaven."

In fact, not only won't you get to heavan....you will go to {{{{gulp}}}} HELL.

Unfortunately, some of the "rules" of god were used to keep money coming into the church rather than to keep people in line -- but that's another rant.