MySpace Viral - GodIsImaginary
This guy has set off a firestorm of clashing words between atheists and Christians from this post on his MySpace blog. While it may not amount to a hill of beans, the guy seems pretty smart so I posted my own comment… out of nearly 7,000 comments so far… it fell somewhere around page 140 of comments.
Anyway, this is what I told him:
GodIsImaginary: You mentioned that you’ve read the Bible, but you’re still not convinced there is a higher power. I envision it somewhat like that of a child looking through a “Where’s Waldo” book, looking for Waldo, but has never been given an accurate description of Waldo. The child gets to the end of the book… and puts it down, disappointed, having been unable to find Waldo.
You’re obviously an intelligent person. Your thoughts and arguments are well-formed. I’m going to state that you have a misconception of what God really is, and therefore are unable to find it.
As an intelligent person, you must understand that the texts of “holy books” of ALL faiths were written hundreds and even several thousands of years ago. To the best of our knowledge, “language” in and of itself has formed within the last four or five thousand years. On this premise, it is nearly impossible to argue that these stories - these metaphors - are factual, literal interpretations of the concepts trying to be expressed.
I believe, if you let go of your anger toward religion, and turn your focus to finding the higher power instead of trying to disprove it - using your own powers for discernment in trying to unravel the true meaning of these metaphors in scripture - you will find that the God you think does not exist is actually in and around everything.
You can argue all day long with a bunch of other second-handers, if you will… and get nowhere. Or, you can stop your crusade to point out how stupid other folks are, realize you (and I, and everyone else) are just as stupid as the next when it comes to understanding the source of life, and put your efforts toward something much more meaningful.
If you continue on this track, you will be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten. If you would be remembered after your shell has failed, write something worth reading, or do something worth the writing.
I hope you hear this.
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2008/04/03 10:22 -0700Z
An extraordinary phenomenon! You say the guy sounds pretty smart. Hm. His very first question is so dumb that it is only from respect for you, Tim, that I read any further. The comment I enjoyed most, as far as I reached by scrolling down superficially,was near the bottom of the first page headed “Fools!” and all the answers were “Because the Lord works in mysterius [sic] ways”. A click to this “Creation Scientist’s” website was entertaining too, in a strange fashion. But I like his answer. Yes, the Lord works in mysterious ways; meaning that in the realm of this Higher Power, we can leave reason at the gates, and stand in awe. (This is from my standpoint of a person completely uncluttered with doctrine or myth from the Bible.) The Lord has ordained that certain four-footed creatures can grow back a leg or tail, but not man.
Why are there so many starving people in the world? Oh, I would like to answer these questions! they are simple and appeal to my childlike mind, especially when I don’t have to defend the Bible. The Lord works in mysterious ways, but allows things to flow with natural laws. If the occupiers of a land put priority on killing one another and not growing food, they starve, the innocent along with the perpetrators. Yes, that is the way it is. Why do you imagine (not you Tim, I am being rhetorical, addressing an imaginary audience) that God is the fair-play referee who intervenes in the affairs of men: blows a whistle and threatens to stop the fight? Ah! It probably gives that impression in the Old Testament, and the New Testament too.
2008/04/03 10:52 -0700Z
Perhaps that’s part of the “magic” in these one-hit-wonder types of things online that people call “viral” - something is just inane enough but provocative enough to get all kinds of half-wits to join in the melee! The guy does sound “smart,” in the sense that he is quite logical… though some of his contemplation doesn’t float far past the shallow end of the commode. I also saw that “misterius” post, and my first reaction was: “What a buffoon!” Though, in thinking about it, I guess that’s really the simplest answer (perhaps not the easiest to spell).
I’ve had a couple of comments on the Ben Stein Expelled post, which prompted me to make another comment like the one I posted to the atheist Myspace thing, which I think is fitting here. I think much of the mental image of what God is, for most people, comes from a literalist interpretation of scripture in combination with cartoons and “moving picture shows.” Hollywood has done a fantastic job of making the higher power out to be a fantastic, fairy-tale-esque entity… you know, the grey-beared, booming-voiced, flowing-robed God of the movies (looks a lot like Charlton Heston in “The Ten Commandments”).
I think this image is a far cry from what the folks who wrote early scripture actually believed and understood as God.