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Submitted by: EArthWormGAz
Email address: earthwormgaz.666@btinternet.com
Subject: The Church

OK, before I start I want to make a few things clear. This isn't some re-hash of what Marilyn Manson has to say. This is my own work. My own ideas which I've had drifting around my brain since well before I purchased the fabulous "Anti-Christ Svperstar". I haven't read Manson's book; I haven't done anymore than glance at Anton LaVey's picture. As far as I'm concerned I have enough ideas of my own (for now) without taking on theirs. The other thing is this isn't just some "I hate god and I'm great because of it" essay. I am going to explain what I have to say and try to give reasons for it. So, after that pre-essay moaning spree what do I have to say? Well, as a beginning point, I feel that the Church is rather the reverse of what it 'should' be. It should be a haven for Christians, right? I can't help but think that those in church are people looking for an easy way out. They all seem to be people that have done something wrong. "I sinned, oh, I'll go to church, then it'll all be OK". Rather than being a place for those who have done good, it seems to be some hand washing basin for those with sin stained fingers and a guilty conscience. Rather a shity state to be in and I'm pretty sure that's not the way it was meant to be. At this point, i'd like to include some quotes: THe fall of Jericho, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and several other catastrophes described in the Bible seem to have been caused by earthquakes. That is the conclusion of two researchers, one from Stanford University in California, and the other from the Weizmann Institute in Israel.
All these cities mentioned in the Bible are located in a zone where earthquakes recur about every 200 years and provoke landslides. The researchers examined historical, archaeological and biblical documents and have obtained proof that such seismic activity has occurred for 2,000 years in that area.
It was probably an earthquake that allowed Joshua and his troops to cross the River Jordan on foot. During ten of the 30 earthquakes recorded in the documents, the Jordan stopped flowing for a day or two because of the mud slides they caused.
-Sciences et avenir. France If God were to create Adam from scratch, he would need to marshal all the energy of a zooo-megaton explosion. Indeed, he would require twice as much, in order to create anti-Adam at the same time.
-Albert Einstien. These quotes, and any others i might add at a later date go to show that what once seemed mystical and powerful and therefore godlike, now seems powerful, but perfectly natural. Catastrophies happen, but for the most part we can explain them now without attributing them to a higher power. Is it any wonder that such things as a god became commo belife when diasters such as those mentioned above went unexplained. People have a strong desire to understand things, only now we have the capability to begin to do this without making things up to fill in the gaps. I'm not saying we have all the answers, far from it, just that we havea clue as to which direction to begin looking. This, i think, is where the bible comes from. A pre-science attempt to understand and explain, also perhaps to escape from some cold truths. It is sometimes hard, even frightening, to except death as the end of you but this is the way it is. We would all love to belive there is a magic place in the clouds where it's all gonna be ok, but most are at the level where we simply cannot lie to our selves like that. In biblical times, when death was even more mysterious and perhaps more frightening, people could hang on to such things and value them as truths. Today i would question any persons belife in a paradise in the clouds, no matter how much they swore by it. Too perfect, too, just what you need to be real. The fact that every culture has it's own version only adds weight too this argument. All over the world this mask for lifes coldest truth and opposite (death) occurs, and as a country develops, relgion dies away and people turn to science. They learn to see that we are not all powerfu,l that nature is, and we are a part of it. There are of course the usual arguments of why is there suffering if there is a god to add to this, although i won't go there as it's been done before. Jak recently pointed out to me (whilst reading the bible) that god seems to have a somewhat sexist view and that he split up the people of Earth and gave them different languages in order to stunt human achievemnt. Two unexpected observations. If god were real, he would not be a sexist, because as a modern society we know that men and women have advantages and are therefore equal (indeed, made of the same stuff according to the bible). If god were worth having, he would not try to stop us as a people being our best. If god, 'our farther' were real, would he be a male? Unlikely i think, especially to those who belive in E.T.'s. Why should god who created all this life, happen to look like a man, who is no better than the other life created anyway? You could of course say i was taking the bible too literally, that the meaning is metaphorical. OK, lets asume it is metaphorical, there is no god in this interpretation, no heaven, just a underlying set of morals and lessons. Why do we need that either? That's what the law is for. The basic principals of the ten comandments are found in modern law, they are enforced by courts and police services. The church doesn't even provide a community spirit or meeting place, poeple are more likely to meet in the co-op as fewer and fewer people visit the loccal church. For me, the local church is a place for people who want to appear to be 'good', and upper calss. I say, god with and extra 'o' (that's good, not godo!) is what is important. What do we need the church for?