The trust of the innocent is the liar's most useful tool
--Stephen King
Tell people there is an invisible man in the sky who created the universe,
and the vast majority will believe you.
Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure
--George Carlin
Every word that comes after, "And the Lord told me…" is a pious lie
--Bangambiki Habyarimana
Those that are religious oftentimes will tell me that God loves everyone and the job of the faithful is to love one another. So far, in my examination of the Old Testament, I haven't see those instructions. When I hear people quote passages from the bible, old or new, they often quote passages that make no sense in 2017 and even if I were hearing them in 630 BCE, they would still be a little vague. But people utter passages all the times, as though they where there when they were written and saw God utter the words himself. I know that to anyone reading this series who defines themselves as religious, simply sees a heathen with a computer.
I'm not a heathen. I am probably one of the good guys, so to say. I have spent my life caring for the downtrodden, I share my food with strangers, I do not steal. I do a host of other things that are good and benefit, not mankind, but the people who orbit my life, and whose life I orbit. The very people who impact upon me and vice versa. My philosophy is simple: Do the very best you can in this life. Help if you can, be colour blind to race, but above all be responsible. Responsible to self and responsible to others. If I have to say God lives in me I will say he lives in a very specific part of me. He is my instinct. Instinct, in The Old Testament, is the very part of man, that is being squelched in favour of obedience. Instinct goes beyond intellect. Instinct is that thing that actually makes you feel, physically, the correct path. No one who has ever followed their instincts came to claim later that they wish they hadn't. You do not need passages, quotes or the story of Noah if your instinct is intact. All of us know of someone who seems always to be in some sort of a predicament. If you stop these people and actually ask them what their guts tells them to do they will say one of two things: I don't know or it will have been the exact opposite of what they did, hence the messy life. People don't trust themselves and unless their is a specific psychiatric disorder for that, I will say its because it was taught out of their lives over time.
One of the interesting things about drug and alcohol users is that part of the rehabilitation process is getting users to recognize when they are experiencing their instinct in action. Drugs and alcohol do a very specific and useful thing: They obliterate instinct. It's useful when you need to involve yourself in illegal or illicit activities. Paying attention to your instinct can also be a pain in the ass when you want something and your instinct says something else. That struggle I would define as temptation but not in the sense of bad or good but rather better versus another lesson to be learned. Only four legged animals live on instincts all the time. You and I have lessons to learn in life and we therefore must grow through mistakes. Then there are those who have a keener sense of instinct. These people are predators whom through no fault of their own had to become predatory in order to survive.
In school you will notice the student(s) that are too afraid to ask a question for fear they will seem stupid. At work you will notice the co-worker(s) that never ask questions of what is asked of them even if they don;t know what to do. They will come to you in private after a meeting. In my years as a counsellor with a focus on sex, it never ceased to amaze me how many people didn't know their own bodies and how many people never thought they could get what they wanted from people they were in relationships with for years. Look at those too afraid to go after a job, a man, a woman, their dreams. Where did we learn to be so afraid? When did we learn to think of ourselves as not worthy? If I use the Old Testament as a guide for anything it worth seems to be an instruction manual for obedience. And obedience without question is the dismantling of the human spirit. Believe in God. Go to church. Have a faith but question everything; anything and everything that your instinct tells you to question. Ask yourself why your congregation, masjid, or temple doesn't have people from all walks of life and of all races sitting beside you. Is that how God wanted it or the laws of man who once deemed it necessary for us to be separate? What are you doing about it? Or are you just lazy and doing the least bit possible to get to heaven?
In this final chapter I will continue to examine the Old Testament beginning with the fun bible tale, Jonah following in the footsteps of, Mnemonics For Antiquity Part Four.
JONAH
It is funny how certain stories from the Old Testament are extracted from the whole for the sole purpose of teaching them to children. It is equally curious that the story of Jonah is aimed at children and not, say, Proverbs. Could it be that children instinctively know that it is a fable? That it is too far fetched to be taken seriously? That stories about men being swallowed by a whale and living in its belly for three days and nights is as ridiculous, entertaining and fun as Rumpelstiltskin?
I think Jonah was an alcoholic in the throes of delirium tremens. Something was wrong with him. He gets on a boat and despite a very bad storm approaching, he insists that God is punishing him and that everyone on the boat should suffer too. He thinks this because he sees himself as special but the crew members as a bunch of schmoes and schmucks. When the crew members hear of his pronouncement they decide to chuck him and his judgments overboard. Once overboard he is swallowed by a whale and remains inside the whale for three days and three nights after which time the whale spits Jonah out and returns to the boat and crew with a new attitude. I think Jonah, after bellowing about his superiority was picked up and taken to the bowels of the ship and thrown in a dungeon for three days and three nights. Three full days and nights in a dungeon with surely hundreds of rats chewing on him and three full days with no booze, he got with the program. That whale was just Jonah's pink elephant. This whole story reads like a tale about a drunk ranting on and on, AND ON until the sober say: Enough! and rid themselves of the pest.
Isn't it great that Jesus turned water into wine? Now we can say: Pass the Jesus Juice. When was the introduction of wine to the Old Testament? To the New Testament? I may be wrong but even during some services within Islam isn't symbolic wine given?
MICAH
Micah is known for predicting the birthplace of the new and improved Messiah. But he seems to also possess the ability to says who this new man is going to like and dislike.Most of his words seem to emanate from him and not God. God's purpose, once again, is to threaten and punish. Why is God so angry all the time? Once again we are faced with probability laws: If I say enough stuff there is likelihood that I will get something right.
NAHUM
I am using BIBLEHUB.COM as my source for the Old Testament. In many of the summaries which tell of cities obliterated through God's will, at the end, it will tell you such and such a city was excavated in the 19th or 20th century. It is thrown in as a type of proof of God's existence. Troy was excavated three times and Achilles or Helen were never found. Excavation of a ruin estimated to be in the correct place as a biblical theory does not prove it was the actual place, and does not prove God's existence. In enough time Las Vegas and Paris will be eventually excavated and both of these places have Eiffel towers. If literature from our time, paper or computers are somewhat intact, archaeologist may have an idea of which one was the original, and they may try to figure out why another was built in the desert. It may also stump them for quite a while what those metal machines were used for and why so many? It may further stump them why in the middle of this place, Las Vegas, there were so many machines, seemingly in the center of town, are not in the center of that other ruin in New York City. Piecing together the past, is just that: Gathering together small fragments of something and trying to make an educated guess what it means.
In time everything will go and if we are truly cyclic in our nature and curiosity, there will always be those that have interest in the past. Places, people and artifacts come and go and in the cycle of the world we are all subject to becoming ephemera.
Did God created us or did man create God to palliate the pain of being alone?
Nahum doesn't have much to do in the Old Testament. He associates for his listeners that that when they feel an earthquake it is an Act of God. This is language we still use today when equating natural disaster - what the earth brings forth - with it being an act of god. If it can't be prevented, predicted, causes lots of damage and kills people, it's God.
HABAKKUK
Habukkuk actually questions God and asks him: Why all this misery under your watch? Why, why, why? And God reports back: Forgettaboutit! I have plans. You wouldn't believe me if I told you!
I think John Gotti said the same thing. Those words, attributed to God, are the same words that people when confronted with a demand for clarity and explanation give when you are smelling bullshit and demand an answer. When we are responsible, straight, and honest and are asked for clarity, we give it because we have nothing to hide. Habakkuk has a feeling, (instinct), that something is wrong, something is not right and he rightfully and nobly approaches even God, and demands to know what is going on. You have to give him credit for that. But you have to ask yourself why did he back down and go away with such a lame answer? And after receiving the answer why did he change his tune and thank God for giving him nothing? We are now in the times of kingdoms… Anyone who has watched any number of BBC programs pertaining to kings and queens knows that the women or man who speaks up against the king or queen, gets sent to the tower. You are not allowed to have an opinion that differs from the king. I surmise that he changed his tune because he thought better of it.
ZEPHANIAH
We are nearing the end of the Old Testament and what began with a bang is now teetering off into small chapters of the same thing over and over again delivered by people who represent themselves more and God less. You can sense the ending is near for this book and that people are doing their own thing and no longer depending upon God for direction. In the beginning you had a sense of a handful of people making a go of it and here at the end you are witnessing the die-hards not willing to give up with God.
Zephaniah is one of these men. He gives one last ditch attempt at trying to sway people towards his ideology. In some ways these men remind me of the men you see on the street nowadays with a sign which reads: The End Is Near. The sign should read: The End Is Nearer. I can't help but feel that all these threats are indeed a psychological build up to The New Testament. When we examine Greek mythology we were without concepts of sin or guilt. Sin is a concept and a man made one at that. But is a canonical concept. We went from being people with no concept of sin, to a people who feared the wrath of God (an outside threat producing fear of retribution) and we are headed to The New Testament where we take over the mechanism of outside threat to becoming people who have internalized the mechanism resulting in a self perceived threat which will come after death.
I know how difficult it is to imagine that what you believe and think may not be your own thoughts. But that is how mechanisms work. There was a time before taxes, before guilt, before all of this, but it is so common place that we can not imagine what the time looked or felt like. It is in our DNA now. You and I hold the beginning of time in our bodies. All those people BCE are not sinners or going to hell. They didn't know of these concepts we hold today so how can they be sinners? You have to believe in a system- a mechanism,-for it to work; why else would you go along with it otherwise?
HAGGAI
Haggai is a site manager, a foreman for the construction of a temple. Everyone is comfortable in their own homes eating falafel, and couldn't be bothered. He can't get anyone to begin working. So get this: God says: The people are right, it's not the right time to build me a temple. He said what? He said, we're right and he's wrong? So after 24 days they all begin building. I don't know about you but this sounds like an editorial mistake. All along God is right and now he's not?
I may not have noticed in previous chapters but in this chapter, Haggai, it is the first time I see the term, The Jews used rather than Israelite or other follower. This really has no meaning to me personally but I think it interesting that suddenly there is a specific name for a group of people that in previous chapters have laid down laws specific to who can be a part of the group based upon marriage, offspring and language. This separation may be a seed as to why Jewish people follow the Old Testament, Christians the New Testament and Muslims, the Qur'an. Land accumulation and war to get it, is a huge part of all these sacred texts. These three religions have spent masses of time and energy warring over land.
ZECHARIAH
Zechariah almost singlehandedly paves the way for Christianity. He doesn't talk about God's wrath much and instead focuses on bringing back the priesthood. And he tells us futuristic stories about how Christ will be on a donkey, his betrayal, his crucifixion, and his coming back from the dead. He does this as a means of cheering people up and giving them new hope as they are flagging with their enthusiasm for God.
This transition is forever fascinating to me. Why invent a new God? Why, if it is a prophetic document, did Jewish people stop with the Old Testament? I understand Christians, (Old), and Muslims (Old and New), incorporating previous sacred texts, (the sacred texts are canonical), but why stop with The Old Testament? Is it because it's no longer about the story of Jewish people? I don't claim to know. And the other thing that gets me is that these three groups of religious people really do nothing but war against each other. Not one of these religions can stand up straight as worthier, nobler, or provide better answers to where we are, than the other.
MALACHI
Malachi is a tax collector and invents the concept of tithing. Now God needs pocket money? How do you get money to a guy you can't see? For the unfamiliar, tithing is 10% of your income handed over to your church or pastor, tax free. It's a racket now and you can bet it was an even bigger racket back then. This is what the small time mobsters does. Give me a percentage of your earnings and I won't take a bat to your knees. I know some sort of tithing is in use today within these three religions. Collection baskets work because no one wants to be seen as a cheap bastard as the basket goes around. But some churches tell you out right that you should be forking money over. What began as extortion, (external threat), people now voluntarily hand over to their churches willingly. I don't need to threaten you anymore.You've taken over and do what I want because you feel guilt. Another mechanism. You can even now go to the ATM machine and donate that way (sometimes by accident). It's always by accident for me…
God's words have failed to keep order and the masses in line so something new must be implemented and adhered to. It must be something that continues with the old but sounds new. It must accommodate a growing world. It must have stronger consequences if it is to work and, because saints and prophets can't be everywhere, it must be internalized so that you do all the work without question and believe without question.
Since we can no longer control the lineages of families we will make it a religion of recruitment and we will focus the gathering of believers on the poor and brown, the illiterate, just like the first believers in The Old Testament. The innocent and vulnerable, the poor and illiterate are so much easier to sway with tall tales, and we shall go to lands far and wide and soon we shall see all the land left unused that we have better use for than these poor and brown and we will buy it up, left and right, and get those poor and brown to pay us to live on what was once their own.
Comments