The Bible: Commentary and Controversy

Of all the forces in human nature, hope is by far the most important.  Without hope, no miracles occur, no inventions happen, there is no  striving, no ambition, no vital force. Because hope is a positive  emotion, always concerning some kind of improvement in our current  condition, without hope we become merely zombies, trudging through a  sunless world of apathy and despair.

Of course hope swings on faith. Without faith there can be no hope. So  which comes first? Well, by definition in that last sentence, faith must  come first; we need something on which to pin our hope.

Someone described faith as “belief in things not seen.”   Which raises  the question: What the hell does that mean??? I mean, it sounds  wonderful and simple and elegant, but think about it. Where does the  belief come from, for instance?

Thousands of years ago, cave people, then others — Egyptians, Greeks —  had faith in their “gods” — the sun, the moon, trees, whatever.  Obviously those were things they could see and anthropomorphize. Then  all of a sudden comes this monotheistic belief in a god that’s not tied  to any worldly item. He’s not a talking tree (ok, he was a talking bush a  couple of times, but he became the bush instead of the bush becoming  him) or the sun or a bear or a star; he’s this unattached god who  creates the sun and the moon and the earth and the animals and man, and  woman. Wow! Where did that come from?

Of course some special people can see this god and talk to him, but  everyone else has to take it on FAITH. The belief in things unseen, with  the only evidence being the spoken or written word.

Or is that true? Is it possible we feel there is something, someone else  out there, know it’s true in the depths of our souls? Or not? As some  smart guy said “if god did not exist man would have to invent him.” So  here’s the question. Did we invent him, and thereby engender our belief?  Or do we believe in him because he’s really out there?

Actually I don’t think that’s the question at all; it’s just tangential  to the original question “what the hell does that mean?” The belief in  things unseen thing. Of course that covers a ton of territory. Including  ghosts, vampires, werewolves, heaven/hell, honest politicians, and a  myriad of other “unseen” things.

Come to think of it, that’s probably why God is taking more and more of a  back seat to aliens, and superheroes and all those other things  previously alluded to. Let’s face it; He’s not nearly as glamorous or  scary or powerful or REAL as those other things. Funny, but crosses  don’t seem to bother the modern vampire, and holy water rolls right off  of them, when it used to make them smoke and scream.

Also come to think of it, you know who believes in god a whole lot more  than most of us apparently do? Those guys in the robes and funny hats  who are hell bent on killing us. OK, maybe that’s not true. God knows  (oops) his name has been used as an excuse for the most egregious crimes  against humanity. I read somewhere that Hitler was a religious man,  that he believed he was walking in the footsteps of some Aryan god or  other. So there you go.

But I digress. Or maybe not. Today’s movies, and TV, and computer games  give us a much, much clearer picture of deviants than of god. What young  mind would not choose to believe in seductively handsome vampires  rather than some old man in a white robe? We get incredibly vividly realistic representations of monsters, vampires, dragons, aliens,  witches and other nonexistent creatures. And what picture do we get of  god? George Burns and Morgan Freeman.

Yeah, yeah, I know. We have Jesus, who did stuff like walk on water and  bring people back from the dead. But shoot, those are just parlor tricks  compared to what Superman and his ilk can do.

Speaking of Jesus, I think he’s probably the fulcrum of “Christianity”  because he really existed, or at least we believe he did. And that gives  us an anchor for our faith — gives us the possibility of believing in  “things unseen” because after all Jesus was real, wasn’t he? So we can  believe in things unseen because of someone real who says we can.

It’s all very complicated, isn’t it?

I guess there are really two major forces at work: those that appeal to  our “good” side (love thy neighbor, be charitable, try to be ascendant,  don’t steal, kill, covet, and all that other stuff) and those that  appeal to our “bad” side (if it feels good, do it; do whatever, just  don’t get caught; take advantage of people whenever you can; think only  of yourself.) The god side and the devil side.

One thing this little exercise has done is clear up a mystery for me —  about the rise of belief in unseen things; aliens, vampires, etc. I now  recognize why we have more “faith” in them than in god. God obviously  lost support because he wouldn’t let us have any fun. The other  creatures have replaced him because they basically follow no rules, and  because they’re ever so much more glamorous.

I think god needs a new PR man.