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CONCEPTS |
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The concept of God was invented
around 30000 years ago, in a tribal situation, as a form of social
conscience. In order to make the youngsters of the tribe adhere
to the rules expected and laid down by the elders, a watchful
and vengeful being was created to be forever in touch with the
behaviour of the children. The first God was inevitably a Sun
God, which was the most obvious and noticeable power. From then
on, youngsters may have committed 'sins' only at night, when
the Sun God had gone to sleep. So a Moon God had to be invented,
but the moonlight could not penetrate the forest to spy on misbehaviours,
so more and more Gods were made; of trees, plants, animals. From
these humble beginnings a huge variety of Gods sprung up in drawings
and writings over the years, each with their own story to tell,
or with their own moral to share. Every moral has a story, every
story a moral. It has only been in the last 2000 years that the idea of a single deity has arrived. The whole of today's beliefs sprung up around this time, with the writings about Jesus or Mohammed or others that represent belief systems around the world. But lets consider the implication and the truth of these opinions by making analogies to another invention - namely Santa Claus. The legend of St Nicholas is well known, but it is not the story that fuels the myth, but the moral control it can invoke. Santa is used by society as a means of controlling the behaviour of children without having to lessen the effect of God in the child's mind. The child is told that if he conforms to the expected behaviour, lives within the correct realms of society, his behaviour will be rewarded by the allocation of presents. He is also told that if he does not conform and is in fact badly behaved, then he shall not be rewarded with gifts. This is an obvious means of creating certain expected behaviour in children. It is a socially acceptable form of behaviour modification through conditioning. This is the same affect the rumour of God has on the general population; it creates a longing to be good because the consequences of behaving badly are listed as eternal torment in a burning hell. Only through goodness and behaving in a socially acceptable way can the gift of eternal happiness be received. This shows how the whole population of a country can be modified to live in a certain, controlled way. But lets look at what happens when the child ages. When the child reaches seven, or eight, or whatever age, he starts to question the existence of Santa. What if he doesn't exist? There is no rational or logical evidence to suggest he does. Looking at the facts, the child wonders; a big, fat guy in a red fur-lined suit, climbing down chimneys, distributing presents to all the world's children, before returning to his home, with his elf helpers, in the North Pole. The logical and rational demolition of the so-called facts begins. Although the child was told by everyone he trusted; his parents, other adults, television and other children, the myth is finally quashed. It was all a fantasy, but the consequences will continue, because the child's behaviour has been modified for long enough - he will now continue to conform to society's whims. But why do people not apply the same logical mode of thought to the existence of God? The God they still believe in is open to the same demolition. An eternal being who created all the world, living in a heavenly plane, sitting on judgement of every thought, word and deed of every creature in the Universe? An all knowing and all seeing God, who has never been seen or heard, who is incapable of any bad thought, who sent a part of himself to earth to die for our sins? But why does the same child grow out of belief in Santa and not of God? Maybe because he has lost his belief in one, he cannot stand to lose the other, because all the adults he meets still believe and he still wants to conform, or because the fiery hell has invoked more fear than the loss of presents ever did. Whatever the reason, the child will never truly lose his belief because the concept is so ingrained in his psyche, his thoughts, his existence. He may stop to think more than once of his fate, what his life means, where he fits into it all, and the conclusions he finds will be related almost entirely to all his childhood endeavours. |