Thursday, January 20, 2005

Manuel Garcia, Jr.: God and Country

This essay really resonated with my current thinking about religion, reminding me of why I broke with institutional Christianity, why I am a pagan, and my desire to rescue religion from theocracy/theology.

Garcia, Manuel, Jr. "God and Country." Swan Commentary (January 17, 2005)

To criticize religion is unkind, like ridiculing a child's thumb sucking and security blanket. Then why discuss it, since for many, discussion is equivalent to critique? Because concepts of God are at the root of attitudes about community, security and power, and these in turn affect our shared external reality -- country. Church and State, God and Country, they are never far apart. The ideal would be to keep our Gods contained within ourselves so they do not destroy what we enjoy together. Reality is otherwise.

2 comments:

Susannity said...

Russell's belief on why people choose to believe in a God is exactly my belief, but the line about fear being the parent of cruelty was a great summary of something I believe but have never been able to state so concisely.

The levers of control, actions vs espoused religion, and some other issues are why I'm anti-theist. I don't think religion is or should be rescuable. I think a person is rescuable from religion. =)

I like the ideas of adult playgrounds lol.

Michael said...

Susanne, I was blown away by how Garcia vocalized my anti-theist position and brought a sense of fun back to belief... I don't think religion can be kept completely personal (just like politics) and that it should be played out in the public sphere of ideas... my problem is when it's insttiutionalized arm attempts to become the sole dictator of what is right/wrong and seeks to "control" people's actions/thoughts.

I am very anti-control and I'm definitely anti-theist.

The adult playground is also a favorite of mine. Have you ever read the psycho-geographers, the Surrealists, or the Situationsists?