Humphrys in Search of God
Well, Humphrys seems a very good, well-meaning, man.
And Jonathan Sacks speaks well on the radio, at least.
So: discuss...
Jonathan Sacks: ....I think God is a human universal, and history shows that when people don't believe in God they believe in other things. I'm thinking about fascism, about communism, about idolatry, whether you worship the folk, the race, the economic or political system. One way or another, if you worship anything less than God, anything less than the totality of all, then you get to idolatry, which begins innocently enough but ends in bloodshed on an enormous scale.
transcript here
more information here
2 comments:
Labi Siffre: ....I think God is a human universal deceit, a human universal self-deceit, and history shows that when people believe in God they believe in killing (from near or far) those who don't believe in God or the God they believe in.
I'm thinking about Christianity, about Islam, about (by commission or omission) killing Jews because they're Jews, killing Christians because they're Christians, killing Hindus because they're Hindus, killing Muslims because they're Muslims, killing non-believers because they're non-believers.
Whether you worship God, Allah, Mohammed, Jaweh, or any other deity (or human elevated as deity) - one way or another, if you worship any God, anything less than having at least the courage to admit "nobody knows" then you clutch the craven cowardice of killing to defend your lies and absurdities, the lies and absurdities you lack the courage to confront; which begins innocently enough but ends in bloodshed on an enormous scale.
Hi L,
I started writing a little reply and then lost it. No serious loss, just generally in line with the first two paragraphs of your comment.
By the time I came to the third paragraph and another pot of tea, I came up with this model:
A sort of parallelogram.
One side is “Man”, ranging from “Man at his best” at one end to “Man at his worst” at the other.
Parallel to this line, another side ranges from God [or Gods?] over to the other corner which may be called “nobody knows” or “universal truth” or whatever.
Oddly, this sort of shifting shape but with four ‘points’ made me think of “the father, the son, the ‘holy ghost’, and man”.
Just listening to how Jonathan Sacks was talking – the tone as much or more than the literal content – I felt he was ranging along the top line quite a lot. Which is where politics come into it i.e. keeping an eye not just on the top line, but how listeners/man/followers are or may be reacting as the argument moves to and fro. This puts me in mind of yet another image: the religious or political figure as a “fisherman of souls” – often looking to see what the fish will bite at and changing the bait accordingly so as to land the biggest catch – or sometimes the most powerful catch.
Which leads me to another pot of tea on a very wet morning….
Oliver
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