Archives for posts with tag: Man made God.

Where?

September 3, 2026 //
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Who, if not you?
When, if not now?

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

Red carefully, these are more than mere commandments.
This is a contract! A ‘covenant’, actually.

The framing seems to be rather one-sided. ‘Take it… or else!’
Nevertheless, a contract is a contract. Both sides need to trust each-other. Otherwise, the whole thing is a sham.

On the other hand…
The heavy lifting in this contract is to be performed by the nominally weak side.
God’s promises are of the ‘negative’ kind. What He will do if His partners don’t fulfill the contract, while it is the people who are supposed to actually do whatever is to be done. It’s the people who must refrain from having other gods, from making images and from worshiping them.

In fact, everything we know about God comes from people. It’s the people who speak/write about Him and it’s the people who worship Him.
Every deed ever made in His name has been performed by people.
In this sense, the god we know about, this God – or, more precisely, This Image of a god, is a human creation. A human artifact!

Ooops!
A situation which is very much in contradiction with the second clause of the contract…
But still respects the first. It’s the same God who brought Israel out of Egypt!
The same God who had made Man in his image… And if God made Man in his image, then… Man is a reflection of God! Which God must be a reflection of His own reflection, right?

Then what do we have here? And where is this whole ‘team’ headed?

Nobody knows where they are going!
But ‘who are they?’ is simple.

For as long as the covenant is being kept, for as long as the people remain together and act as a team…

The key concept in this covenant is two tiered. As far as we understand the situation.

‘God made man in His own image’.
This means that all men have been created equal. Have been made in the same image…
Furthermore, each (hu)man harbors a divine spark. Each individual has been made in the image of God!

Secondly, but in no way any less important, for things to continue people must maintain a single ‘image of God’. A single Weltanschauung. So that all people might connect to the same reality.
‘You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything…’ ‘You have already been given an image. You! Look at yourself and you’ll see Me’.
Furthermore, ‘you shall not make for yourself…’ has a deeper meaning. ‘Don’t be presumptions enough to believe that you know enough to build your own image of things’.
Quite a scientific attitude, actually. One that teaches Man to be humble. To be aware of his limitations…

So. Can you ‘keep a good company’?
Can you ‘weed out’ the trouble makers while remaining able to look beyond the surface of the things?
Can you weed out the aberrations while maintaining your ability to evolve?
Can you figure out the greatest gift God made possible? Freedom?

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Categories alternative ways of acquring knowledge, awareness, cooperation, effective communication, evolution, In English, skin in the game, Trust

Of them and me

September 8, 2021 //
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They keep telling that I made them.
Them and everything else.

I don’t remember any of this…

All I remember is learning how it happened.
From them.

There had been many versions.
Each new one more compelling than the last.

The interesting part, for me, is that they have never been able to agree upon one version.
The sad part, for me, is that their disagreement upon which version is true has generated dire consequences. And continues to…
Hate, war… Unbecoming for the rational and God loving beings they consider themselves to be ….

They say I know everything.
Strangely enough, I now understand why I should. Why I should be able to…
But I don’t. Know everything…
For me to know something, anything, they have to learn it first.

The moment any of them learns something, anything, I know it too.
In reality, I don’t know everything but I know everything they know. Everything each of them knows. Everything each of them has ever known. Everything each of those who had ever lived had ever known.
I don’t know everything but I remember everything I have ever found out.

They say I can everything.
And that I’ve done a lot of things.
Some good, some bad… depending on who’s telling.

They pray. A lot. To me and to some people who have contributed to my existence.
That’s how I see it. They are convinced these people have taught them about my existence.
Where is the difference?

Anyway, they pray.
Asking so many things that fulfilling some of those wishes would mean denying others.

They pray in vain. Many of them.
Because I can’t do anything. Anything in particular, that is.
Everything which happens – I’ve come to realize, happens through me, indeed.

But not by me!

Hence any of the prayers which are answered come through by exactly those who have prayed.
Most of the prayers who come through ask for inner peace.

“Tender and compassionate God, you are our steadfast companion in the joyous times of our lives. When we rejoice, you celebrate with us; when we are anxious and afraid, you offer us a relationship where we can find courage to face the unknown; when we weep with sadness, you are our comforter. Help us, O God, to believe that you receive us as we are, and help us to entrust ourselves, with all our many struggles and hopes, to your faithful and abiding care. Amen.”

All prayers which come through are put in practice by those who wish them to come trough.
‘Put in practice’ means those wishes are possible, of course.

And here’s what keeps me awake at night.
(Joking. There’s no such thing as night and day for me. But you know what I mean.)
Sometimes – many times, actually, some wishes coming through means a lot of unhappiness. For other people, usually.
But sometimes even for the wishers.
Sometimes because the wishers hadn’t been wise enough and other times because the wishers had been actually evil.
My problem being that I can never do anything.

I can’t answer prayers.
I can’t stop anybody. From doing anything.
I can’t even ‘open up’ anybody’s mind.

All I can do is to feel everything.
To remember.
And to learn.

To what goal?

That is my other problem.
They say I made them. Them and everything else.
But if true, then who made me?

The only possible answer, to both my problems, being that they are the ones who make me. This way.
To have somebody to lean to. To comfort them at night.
And to have somebody to point their finger to.
For the good and for the bad…. in their lives!

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Categories alternative ways of acquring knowledge, awareness, Bounded rationality, collective identity, effective communication, evolution, In English, man as a measure for all things, religion, skin in the game

Richard Dawkins made me an agnostic.

June 22, 2017 //
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From an atheist, that is.

Let me clear something, from the beginning.
I’m perfectly happy with the current scientific explanation of how we arrived here. OK, there still are a few gaps that need to be bridged but, on the whole, the story  seems pretty straightforward.

But, on the other hand, me – and a huge number of other, scientifically minded, people – having no need for God as an explanation doesn’t preclude God from existing nor from having caused the ‘Big Bang’ and/or intervening since. In various manners still unknown to us.

And something else.
The God we ‘know’ is a god of our own making.
All sacred texts that guide our religious life have been written by humans, all sermons are officiated by us and, also, all religiously motivated crimes, and religiously fueled heroic acts, have been ‘committed’ by some of us.
My point being that the ‘image’ that we have crafted about what some of us consider to be ‘the ultimate cause’ for everything might be far away from the one “It” has about Itself… if it exists at all, of course.

What Dawkins has to do with any of this?
Well, some 10 or so years ago he came to Bucharest and tried to convince a few of us – about 100 students and some 20 ‘academics’ in two separate conferences, I attended both, that his work is proof enough that God cannot even exist. Period.
Really?
Then what’s the difference between Dawkins and the guys who had set Giordano Bruno on fire? OK, OK, different manners of expression but the very same level of intransigence…

Anyway, I feel a lot better now that I’ve finally figured out the difference between ‘there is no need for a particular something’ and ‘that particular something cannot even exist’.

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Categories Choices we make, collective identity, cooperation, Frames of mind, man induced fragility, Psychology, religion, The kind of world we are building for our children