Any Last Annoyances?
Here’s another of my long, spiritual musings that has nothing to do with my cartoon for the week, above. Or does it?!
I DON’T MUCH LIKE GOD
I don’t like “God” as a moniker because it has far too much baggage. In fact, I don’t believe in any kind of god that this particular word has been used to represent. I’m not inviting you to join me in this, I’m just telling you where I’ve come to at the present moment.
The reason that “God” is so hard to believe in for educated, science-based types like me is that the god they’re usually peddling is a metaphor for a reality, not the thing itself. It seems far-fetched because it is.
And by that, I mean that the big, popular religions—the ones you’re likely to be enculturated into growing up in the West—are promoting a god who is a person living outside of this world. One who is male, who judges our actions, who alone can save us from damnation, whatever that is. The whole thing reads like a Greek myth because that’s what it is. A reasonable person is justified in asking, If I don’t believe in Zeus, why should I believe in any other mythological characters? Exactly. Does that mean there is no God? Well, yes and no. It’s complicated.
Joseph Campbell brilliantly pointed out how this works but if you don’t have time to read all of his books, here’s my probably pretty lousy version of what I got from it:
Since ancient times people have had a strong sense there was something more to life than chasing food and shelter until you die. In pursuing this “higher thing” many of them experienced things they could not (and still can’t) explain and built stories around them to try to convey to others what they were experiencing, thinking, feeling, understanding. These stories had characters with traits that represented good and evil and adventures that represented challenges and accomplishments that people actually experience in their lives, etc.
But why build myths around this stuff? Why not just say what you experienced?
Because it’s complicated. These understandings and awarenesses come to you in ways that cannot be described directly. Metaphors are sort of the next best thing. If that sounds like a copout, consider trying to explain to someone who has been stone-deaf since birth what Beethoven’s 9th symphony is and how listening to a live performance of it makes you feel. Take a moment to consider how impossible that would be.
Probably the best you can do is relate it to something pleasurable that the other person had experienced, like a warm hot tub on a chilly night. But is a warm Jacuzzi remotely as moving as B’s 9th? Not to most people.
So let’s turn that around now: you’re the deaf person in this story and someone comes along and says a dip in a hot tub is God—you’re probably not going to be convinced. But if you (the deaf-since-birth person) suddenly have an experience during which you somehow experience Beethoven’s 9th, it will likely change your life forever in ways you cannot explain to other deaf people.
This is the difference between spirituality and religion. Religion is a collection of myths pointing at a reality that most people cannot conceive of—spirituality is experiencing the unexplainable and feeling it change your life in ways you can’t explain.
Once I really “got” this, I was able to leave the mythological concept of God behind and open my mind to what else might be. Again, I’m not inviting you to join me in this, only reporting what has made sense to me.
In a previous post, I wrote about “the finger pointing at the Moon,” which is a Buddhist metaphor for how we sometimes fall in love with the pointing finger (religion) instead of the Moon it is pointing at (God). That rings a bell for me. Another concept I very much like is that we are not independent individuals but small, interdependent parts of an enormous being of creative force.
It is rather scientifically undeniable that nothing in this world lives independent of everything else, and in that sense, nothing is independent; it’s all one thing. We cannot live without air, water, microorganisms, and on and on, and those things cannot exist without millions of other things. Ergo, there are no independent individuals, only pieces of worlds and systems much larger and much smaller.
I’ve come to think of that enormous engine that continuously generates and sustains life as the symbolic Moon that so many fingers are pointing at. Does this giant, living thing have intention, intelligence, purpose? We can’t know for sure but once you start to dial into it, it certainly seems to.
And if this enormous force of life and creativity is what you want to call “GOD” (or “Skippy” or “Barbara” or “Zardoz”) that’s fine, but it is not a person living somewhere outside of here, we are something living inside of it. In fact, we are parts of it the way microbes are parts of us.
And while I have not returned to the religious beliefs of my youth, I now call myself “spiritually awakened.” But I’m also every bit as science-based as I ever was. Nothing I’ve said disputes science, even though much of it goes well beyond its current boundaries.
If you take a moment to ignore the made-for-TV drama we build our lives around—politics, money, entertainment, status symbols, distractions of every kind—and really look at the nature all around you, you’ll be astounded by the complexity of the universe and how it all just plods along without ceasing, never seeming to think of what it’s doing but getting it right billions of times per seconds, for eternity, as far as we know.
The ancient Chinese called this the “Tao.” (Still a practiced religion but I’m talking about the ancient origins here.) As best I can figure, the Tao sort of means “the way things are,” and also implies, “the way things should be.” This concept was at the top of their belief system; they didn’t need mythological gods with superpowers who exacted vengeance upon the unrighteous, they just honored “the way life is”. I like that a lot.
To summarize: I didn’t use to believe in a higher power but now I do, but I don’t think it’s a person and I don’t call it “god”. Your results may vary.
Finally, here’s a link to an article that describes a fascinating intersection of science and spirituality.
The End.
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Geez! I didn’t think I was ever going to shut up. If you read that whole thing, congratulations. And if you know anyone who enjoys a hefty dose of amateur philosophy inexplicably mixed in with their funnies, please recommend our little weekly get-together.
Now that our homework is finished, let’s go outside and play with Wayno’s Bizarro cartoons for the week! Yay!…
I know dog sincerity is only a trick of evolution but I fall for it every damn time.
You may think that boat-pointing isn’t a necessary skill in a marriage until you’re stranded on a desert island together.
I startled my grandmother once and she left a big puddle of ink on the floor. Did I mention she was a calligrapher?
By the way, Wayno included the sketch version of this one on his blog post this week, as well as a pipe pic that has me salivating!
34 days on an island that small? I guess Wayno is dropping food off for this guy or something.
Maybe he’s just a ball person.
Few cartoonists are bold enough to take on the garment care instruction label industry. Well done, Wayno!
Well, Jazz Pickles, you’ve made it to the end of our cartoon slide show. Thanks for sticking around to help put the projector screen away. If you’re enjoying whatever this is that we do here and you want to help us keep doing it without ads or paywalls, please consider investigating some of our helpful links below.
Until next time, keep pointing at those boats and moons!
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