This blog could be called Coulda Shoulda Woulda and i could post one such moment every week, and what i would have done, and never run out. Stretching as far back as i can remember and with a wide range of topics, reasons for keeping quiet, and reactions i should have had.
One surprisingly rich source of such moments is a Philosophy of Religion course that i took in the winter of 2007 (i think).
On the very first day the professor (yes, the dude was actually faculty) was only trying to explain why we were only going to be studying judeo-christian philosophy in the class. I had no problem with that. There's rich philosophies there and well worth a quarter of study. Though i was disappointed, i had been expecting it so i didnt mind. All the professor had to do was state the mission of the class and be done with it.
Instead, the professor starts talking about Aztec and Mayan sun gods and blood sacrifices. Of couse, having been several years since that class, i've forgotten the specific words he used, but he said something like "well that isnt logical, so we're not studying it" and made the practice of worshipping the sun, as well as blood sacrifices, sound downright silly.
Now, though i would have pointed out how racist that was, that wasnt even what i would have argued against.
The logic of worshipping the sun versus worshipping the judeo-christian god would have been my specific concern.
How isnt it logical to worship the sun? The sun actually gives life. Scientifically proven to feed plants and provide humans and animals with food and a warm enough planet for survival, the sun is The Source. In fact, Aton got it right. Dude, all things, all creation, all life (and thus all ideas, all thought, and thereby all gods) on Earth exist because of the Sun. So, exactly how isnt that a logical candidate for worship?
Alternately, you want to worship a god you cant see or feel or scientifically prove the effects of? Why? What exactly is the logic in that? There's nothing there. Its a mere figment. An idea. A concept. Worshipping the concept of god is like worshipping the concept of zero. Actually very much so. Just as philosophers play with the concept of god, see it move and transform observational realities, mathmaticians and scientists play with zero, and see it transform observational realities. Try dividing by zero and the universe explodes. Try rationalizing god and you'll end up in some kind of horrifying death circle of madness forever looping logic around your pinky finger until your intestines explode. I know this. I took the class. Got an A- i think.
So either trap yourself in infinite madness, or worship a physical entity that you can feel and see its effects all around you and inside you. Im eating a clementine right now that wouldnt exist were it not for the sun. So i figure worshipping the sun is pretty damn logical.
Then we come to the logic of providing a blood sacrifice to the sun in order to ensure that the sun does not stop providing us with pretty much everything. Just doesnt seem that far fetched to me. Think about if you saw the earth die every year without the sun in the winter, only to be reborn in the spring when it comes back. The rebirth can only happen after the death. So i figure it makes sense that someone's got to give their life, to die, in order for the sun to return. And it would be an honor. Give yourself for the greater good of the crops and the town and the civilization. And to return the Sun's favor, which it has bestowed so generously. It was a hard time to live in then (being any pre-industrial agricultural society) and so much depended on the sun, that anyone would probably do anything they could to ensure healthy crops. Now, i dont know those religions well enough to say whether that was the actual reason they made blood sacrifices or not, but thats just what the professor was arguing wasnt logical.
It just seems more logical to me to give something back to a god, in whatever form it takes, than to continually request from them. It makes sense to me that gods often take human attributes, so what happens when you constantly beg and request from a human and give nothing in return? They get pissed off and probably yell at you. When the sun gets pissed off, i'd imagine you'd get pretty hungry, as would your friends and your animals and all the plants around you.
It just shocked me how blatantly ridiculous these accusations were. And they were throwaway comments, as if it was widely accepted truth and we should move on to more important (read western and white) ideas. The professor went on to say more ridiculous things in effort to illustrate simple points (including one about the Jabberwocky which made it very clear he'd never bothered to actually read the poem. I should have spoken up about that one too) throughout the quarter. I gave up complaining because it was so obvious no one else in the class cared at all. So now i have a blog topic. Lucky you.
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