Although we need “The Great Conversation,” talk seems to get in the way.
Today, Cring analyzes the need to mingle God and Science—to find our direction and purpose.
Transcript
Talk is not only cheap, it is often sleazy.
I was wondering today if the person who came up with the idea of the talk show reflects on the results that have transpired over the years and considers suicide.
I’m going to say something profound. I know it is stupid to set it off in that fashion, but I want to make sure I don’t miss it–and you don’t miss it, either.
The human race is willing to do almost anything to relieve ourselves of personal responsibility.
Talking is chief among them. You know it can be boastful:
“We’re Number One!”
“We’re the best!”
“We ain’t no damn Third World country.”
You have seen the hypocrisy of yapping. Almost every promise ever made by human lips has been broken.
It’s why we celebrate loyalty and we call people who follow through on their words “heroes.”
We all know that those who flap their jaws often do not allow for their brain to be involved.
I think there are at least three, maybe four, competing shows on network programming during the day, with a table-full of women doing their best impersonations of men by being overbearing, inconsiderate, loud and opinionated.
Is this what we really need? What a stupid question. What we really need is somewhere to start–where we challenge the weaker parts of us, to catch up with the stronger.
Not only is a chain only as strong as its weakest link, but a chain with weak links is not a chain. It can’t be trusted. You couldn’t hook it up to anything.
So eventually, because it has weak links, the strong ones rust out.
That’s America. What truly makes us strong, intelligent and powerful is being ignored and is rusting out simply because we’re chasing the loudest bird in the swamp.
So where do we start?
Politics? Do we think we’re going to wade into politics and be able to moderate speech and demand common sense and a reasonable spirit? I could barely finish that sentence with a straight face and a trailing giggle.
Maybe business would be a good place to call out a better spirit. But you see, when I opened up my box of corn dogs this week, which I paid exactly the same price for that I did three weeks ago, there were now eight of them in the box instead of nine, and the wiener at the center was a different brand–much more inferior. My corn dog company did not warn me that they were going to subtract one treat, nor that they were going to start purchasing from the “Sawdust Hotdog Farm.” They just did it.
They had a conversation around a board room which I was not privy to, and they concluded that most people wouldn’t even notice the absence of one corn dog and the fact that they were getting shortchanged on their wiener.
So I don’t think business is a place to start–because the bottom line is everything. And when you’re concerned about the bottom, you’re probably an ass.
How about education? Yeah. We could start teaching our children to communicate better with one another. That is, if they were going to the same quality schools as each other.
Even though our public education system is no longer segregated, obviously putting black students in one area and white students in another happens simply by putting black people in one part of the community and white people in another means that the closest school is mostly of the preferred color. There are ways around it.
Where are the good teachers going, who would care about such a thing as civil discourse?
Yes. Civil discourse: discussing things with a yearning to find mutual agreement.
I think we only have two avenues to create a campaign to clean up the cesspool of the human tongue and make it suitable for general hearing again.
Those two categories are science and religion.
And lo and behold, there has been an active campaign to put the two at war–therefore having no conversation of quality, only throwing verbal hand grenades across the great divide.
You remember as a child being taught about the Almighty? The lessons always painted a picture of an all-powerful, demanding Creature who created man, but was later sorry that He did, and then destroyed humans, regretting his massacre while demanding constant attention to his preferences, culminating with repeated threats designed to stimulate repentance.
After this speech about the Divine, your Sunday School teacher would close out the lesson by saying, “And remember, God loves you…”
Could be a missed signal. Maybe you heard wrong. Maybe you read wrong. Maybe all the sermons that are screamed in our ears are just warnings, so we won’t jump off the cliff, but instead, come back to the picnic table and enjoy some “fried chicken and ‘tater salad.”
But when you were sitting in that classroom, or you were listening to someone give their testimony at work (when you didn’t really ask for it) did you believe it?
Did it ring true? Did you have your doubts?
Did anyone else ever think that God might be bi-polar? Depressed one day and frenetic the next? Wanting a hug, only to push away when we decide to give Him one?
So, what has remained of your belief?
It’s very popular to be an agnostic. Atheism is on the rise. Meditation is the new word for prayer. What is still intact?
Something is attached to our tongues.
If it’s just our brain, we speak forth the oracles of our mother and father, and maybe a couple of university professors who impressed us.
If the tongue is attached to our mad-hole–our rage–then we’re just waiting for a chance to unleash it—for it to do its lashing on the helpless victims around us, who don’t comprehend why we’re so goddamn furious.
What is still intact of the simple faith you might have in humanity and your journey?
Is God real? Maybe you’re afraid to think about it. After all, the Book that is supposed to give us comfort warns us of the danger of disbelief. Who in the hell wants to be Doubting Thomas, a denying Peter or a completely fucked-up Judas?
And then one day, you’re driving in your car, listening to people honking at each other, screaming out their windows. You’re trying to listen to the sounds that comfort your ears when you suddenly realize that those who preach about God know the least about Him.
Let’s not be foolish.
If there was no God, we’d have to make something up. Or maybe that’s what you think it is–all of it is just made up. If so, just leave it the hell alone.
Who do you think could be our arbiter–the person to negotiate settlements between Israeli and Palestinian people? North and South Korea? China and NATO?
What is to stop us from destroying one another simply because we’ve just grown tired of trying to hold it together?
No, don’t be an idiot. If there is no God, we still need Him to help us decide what are the foul balls.
It’s just that spirituality, religion, faith–has nothing to do with talking. One of the most controversial verses in the Good Book is, “Faith without works is dead, being alone.”
No shit.
If religion is a dialogue about God, it is a conversation that leads nowhere, ending in an argument that fosters death.
Most of the people who were killed or killed others over the years in all the wars did so, asking their God to bless their weapon.
We can actually help this Great Talk Show, which is supposed to be our life, by deciding, “DON’T TALK SO MUCH ABOUT GOD.”
The greatest evidence of His existence and importance is your joy.
If there is a God, I am positive He would prefer you to have a happy life, searching for truth instead of insisting that you already know it.
Because when you begin to get answers, you realize that somewhere in a swirl of genius, the Divine Creator meshed Himself with the Natural Order of the Universe, to generate an energy we call life.
That’s why you can’t separate natural life from human life. That’s why the Nazarene said, “God’s will must be done on Earth as it is in the heavens.”
Science is here to back up God, and God is here to let you know the importance of understanding your world, your environment, your opportunities and your responsibilities.
You can’t have science without God, you can’t have God without science.
Science IS the discussion that leads us to greater revelation, as long as science doesn’t pompously pound its chest, believing that its latest discovery of fire closes the need for any further pursuit.
Our interpretation of God and science has always been erred. The more we learn about God, the more we learn that He’s merciful and does not kill witches nor excommunicate divorcees.
The more we learn about science, we uncover that the Earth is round, and leeches are not a healing force for the human body.
If both religion and science, faith and the Natural Order would all relax, admit their weaknesses and need for each other, the human race would have someplace to run, to escape the rattle of politics, the failure of education and those goddamn corn-dog cheaters.
What would you ask God?
I know this–God is no different than you. He wants to be loved. Not for His position. Not for His favor. Not for His power. And certainly not because you’re afraid.
I’m happy to announce the marriage of God and science. They are happy to brag about a beautiful world–a home they’ve created for eight billion of their children.
So, the good news is, don’t talk so much.
And the better news is, your silence speaks great wisdom of God being with you.
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