Fragment of a thought (on Faith)

How much of current religious belief is merely this: The investing of a proposition with all one's hopes and wishful thinking, a proposition which is only coherent within a certain language game, but which corresponds with nothing in the world, nothing but the proposition itself? Within the circularity of one's proposition there is no 'fact' but the fact of one's proposition. There is, therefore, no truth but the desperate repetition of a worn out phrase: 'God exists.'

Person-al Prayer

1) God is personal

This is perhaps one of the greatest myths the evangelical Church (and others) continues to perpetuate today. To speak of a personal God is to speak of a God that enters into relationship with an individual. God/Jesus is considered my "personal" saviour, hearing my every prayer, comforting me when I need comforted, and for some, even speaking to me when I need to hear a voice. The personal God is one I can speak to like a friend, a God that is nearer to me than I am even to myself. How does this happen? The language varies, but usually any member of the Trinity is spoken of in intimate terms as entering into relationship with us, whether through the agency of the Holy Spirit mediating between God and humans, or as a direct experience of the Father or the Son. The Spirit actualizes the presence of the Divine in the Church/individuals, or the Divine comes to us in what wouldn't usually be referred to as "Holy Spirit," but a direct experience of the Trinity or the Father/Son.

Isn't it funny that while many Christians criticize New Age spiritualists, RPG enthusiasts, or even Harry Potter fans as "living in a fairy tale" or for being out of touch with reality, Christians themselves will sincerely whisper, cry, and shout their hopes and fears to an entity they believe can hear each one of them, who is invisible, and who actually cares about how they perform on that upcoming exam, to rescue them from the consequences of that illegitimate child, for the latest diagnosis of cancer, for improved health and success, etc? This when statistics tell us prayer makes absolutely no difference to the outcome of the situation. In fact, in one study those who prayed actually had a slightly greater negative outcome (I can readily provide the data to anyone who's interested)! For many people this is common sense. Prayer, as most sociologists and psychologists understand, is of the most benefit to the one who prays, whether it be a desperate individual or a collective in need of comfort or hope. Whether the One addressed in prayer exists or not is of no consequence to the outcome. What matters is that the one who prays believes the One they are addressing exists. This is enough. Whether or not the prayers are even answered matter little in this regard. As the late comedian George Carlin sarcastically commented:

"Suppose your prayers aren't answered. What do you say? "Well it's God's will. Thy will be done." Fine, but if it's God's will and he's going to do what he wants to anyway, why the f@#k bother praying in the first place? Seems like a big waste of time to me. Couldn't you just skip the praying part and skip right to his will? It's all very confusing... You know who I pray to: Joe Pesci. For two reasons: 1) First of all I think he's a good actor. 2) He looks like a guy who can get things done. Joe Pesci doesn't f#@k around. In fact, Joe Pesci came through on a couple of things God was having trouble with... So I've been praying to Joe for about a year now, and I noticed something. I noticed that all the prayers I used to offer to God and all the prayers I now offer to Joe Pesci are being answered at about the same 50% rate. Half the time I get what I want, half the time I don't, same as God: 50/50. Same as the four leaf clover, the horseshoe, the wishing well and the rabbits foot. Same as the mojo man, the voodoo lady... it's all the same, 50/50."

That God is "personal" should be understood in it's true light: that God is the person of the believer. In other words, one's relationship with God is little more than one's experience of self-relation. It is this experience of self-relation that is in turn projected outwardly (or yet again inwardly as an experience of Other within the self). The outcome? The believer commits idolatry by attributing divinity to some aspect of the believer's psyche/self. The God-relation is nothing more than another name for the experience of human self-relation, misinterpreted as divine presence etc: a blasphemous idolatry, an exaltation of the human creature to the place of divinity.

Neil Young

It seems that whatever the journey, whatever place I travel, there is always a voice that captures my heart and cuts diagonally across the particularity of my situation. What depth of universality this voice is capable of! What comfort and friendship. Sacred simplicity in the vibration of string and flesh. I salute you Neil Young.. you voice of the prairie wind and northern lights. Thank you for your music. Thank you thank you...

I'm listening...

Robespierre 8 Thermidor II (A translation)

Mais elle existe, je vous en atteste, âmes sensibles et pures; elle existe, cette passion tendre, impérieuse, irrésistible, tourment et délices des cœurs magnanimes, cette horreur profonde de la tyrannie, ce zèle compatissant pour les opprimés, cet amour sacré de la patrie, cet amour plus sublime et plus saint de l'humanité, sans lequel une grande révolution n'est qu'un crime éclatant qui détruit un autre crime. Elle existe, cette ambition généreuse de fonder sur la terre la première République du monde...

But there exists, I will attest, souls that are feeling and pure; it exists, that tender passion, imperious, irresistible, torment and delight of magnanimous hearts, that deep horror of tyranny, that compassionate zeal for the oppressed, that sacred love of country, that love sublime and holiest of mankind, without which a great revolution is just a loud crime that destroys another crime. It does exist, that generous ambition to establish on earth the first Republic in the world...