God, the Pretentious Ass.

So, apparently the courts don't have jurisdiction over otherworldly beings. This is according to the mysterious legal document from God, that appeared in response to the law suit being filed by Ernie Chambers. And, we have now learned more about God's personality, he's an asshole. He makes a pretty clear threat to have the Senator removed from office, due to his refusal to believe in invisible magical beings.

More realistically, this is a look into the less attractive traits of humans. Vindictive, angry, jealous, spiteful, mean, and so on. Zeus and the ancient Greek gods are perfect examples of this. Their emotions ran wild, the soap opera of their lives was the stuff of legends, and made for good drama. It makes for this good drama because it reflects human feelings on an epic scale. My personal enjoyment of superheroes is barely different, except I don't ever for a second consider that Superman or the Incredible Hulk is real. For all of known history, there have been tales of great human-like beings who were somehow beyond and better. The Christian sky god is the answer to that, as decided over 2000 years ago in the deserts of Mesopotamia.

Robert Alter was recently on NPR explaining his new translation of the Book of Psalms.
Among many things, the idea of the soul was a later veneer applied to the original works, making it more in tune with the ideas of Christians that have evolved over time. He also translated verses that depict God as presiding over a sort of board of other gods, where he berates them for their treatment of humans. Apparently God eventually demotes these other gods, as punishment for their actions. This gave the early followers a feeling of superiority over the other gods of the time. So, did a Christian of the early AD years feel that he was worshiping the best option among many various gods? As opposed to now, where religious followers tend to believe that the other ones don't exist, only their own.

One of the original reasons towards my revelation of atheism was my struggling with other religions. How egotistical of me to think that the religion I happen to be born into is the only "true" religion (oxymoron). What about the millions of Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, and otherwise? So they all go to hell apparently. This is a big joke among even the religious who have any intelligence and realize there is a world outside of their city, state, country, whatever. What about the factions within religion? The problem is endless, unresolvable, and pointless. Who would win in a fight between Superman and Batman? Its really up to the person who is asked, because it's purely hypothetical. At least with superheroes, you can have fun talking about it. I don't think I could have a jolly laugh with my Muslim friends about whether Allah would get his ass kicked by God.

So that's what I think today. Another ranting by a freed mind, having fun picking on religious belief.