Angles & Deus

No it's not a typo. Yes, this rant is semi-inspired by the movie- Angels & Demons.

I watched it last night. I'm not a fan of Dan Brown's books and while I am a conspiracy theory buff, his writings are poorly researched and referenced even as works of fiction.

Nevertheless, his portrayal and perspectives on the catholic church are mostly spot on.

My position as a lapsed catholic notwithstanding, I feel that Dan Brown's and subsequently the director Ron Howard's depiction of church and religion are something that have been hallmarks of why so many turn to atheism.

Religion in its man-made forms are so flawed and so prone to justifications that all the rites and traditions for our salvation (and subsequent secular benefits to the needy & hungry) are so heavily shadowed by the evils and divisions it encourages.

What really gets my goat is the religious war-cry: "God's will!" Lapsed though I may be, I do subscribe to the will of the Father. But I'll also extend this disclaimer: "Reliance on God's Will is NOT AN EXCUSE for common sense and logical reasoning to take leave."

I winced inwardly at one point during the encounter between this lady (catholic I assume) and a supporter of stem cell research.

Supporter: "Why do you deny the right to save lives of the sick and dying?"
Catholic lady: "We can't play God!"

That point and counterpoint provides a neat summary of this conundrum. We are interpreting God's Will from a human angle. The entire bible has been interpreted from a human angle. Even if we take at face value the perfection of Logos (The Word), our interpretations of Logos are far from it.

Human Angles & the Will of Deus: a top down philosophical and logical look at things:

• God gives us the ability to reason. (For you fundamentalists and literalists- You really think Adam and Eve could have taken the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge that belonged to an omnipotent and omniscience deity if He really didn't want us to have it?)
• God gives a free will- the power to make choices.
• With sentient and independent thought- Humans begin to conceptualise philosophy and begin scientific inquiry into how the world works. We want to touch the face of God (the divine).
  
• God is everlasting & eternal.
• The Bible/Torah/Quran is one book. Written from perspectives of humans. (Hands up how many took dictation from a tutor or teacher and still got the written work wrong somehow.)
• Just for fun: Sum of present human knowledge is in over 20 volumes of encyclopedias.
  
• Humans presume that whoever Deus/God is, He/She NEEDS our help in "fixing" the world.
• Religion begins to divide humanity because we each interpret holy writings in accordance to our own beliefs as we try to "fix" the world.
• Each sect of religion is the TRUE ONE.
• The premise that if one individual's version is the TRUE, it also holds true that all others are therefore false.
• "God has spoken to me!" or alternatively "It's God's Will!", we must convert/cleanse/save, the unbelievers/infidels/heathens.
• We give birth to the Spanish Inquisition/Salem Witch Hunts/Modern day fundamentalist terrorism/whatever horrors committed in the name of God

My contention is that you don't need religion to act in accordance to morality and good conscience, for example:

Cloning

• Human angle on Morality: Who's responsible for that new life? Who takes priority- the original or the clone?
• Human angle on Good conscience: We should therefore ban complete human replication in good conscience. We however, retain the knowledge to duplicate healthy organs for replacement in the host to save lives.
• What Deus says through Religion: Ban it all. We shouldn't play God.

Then what the Fuck (pardon the french)? Should we nuke ourselves back to the stone ages? Discard all medical advances in health and technology?

Consider for a minute that for all of THE BIBLE'S "perfection", nowhere has the omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent God EVER dictated to us how we should behave when it comes to controversial new technologies like stem cell research and cloning.

Neither has God said, "In time, the atom will lead to terrible destruction in your distant future, thou shalt not conduct atomic research."

If anything, the pursuit of science and discovery is one that God has encouraged and pre-ordained. Adam and Eve satisfied their curiousity by eating of the fruit. As sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, we satisfy our curiousity by continuious pursuit of the fruit of knowledge (science).

What God is looking for is the maturity to exercise that discovery and power responsibily and with the intention to benefit the rest of mankind.

Take this allegory:

• Noah, go build the ark to save lives, a flood is coming.
• Here are detailed blueprints and construction plans for the ark based on principles of physics and how wood is less dense than water (engineering/science for Godsakes- no pun intended).
• God didn't go: Noah, a flood is coming. Come, take 2 of each animal and walk onto my giant God-hands. I will keep you safe while I cleasnse the world of the nephilim.

Ignoring the story of faith against a mocking audience, the fable also tells the story of an inspired farmer (also the first drunk and possible inventor of wine- Go read the Bible again), with no prior knowledge of boat building technology and understanding of physics, built a vessel that was no only capable of long voyages but of sufficient bouyancy to keep thousands of species afloat.

Not to mention, the technology that would prevent the animals from conducting their "circle of life aka food chain" behaviors that would cause them to eat each other.

Anyone that claims God is against science and progress is out of their mind.