1785 - God's Gonna Cut You Down


Do you believe in God? I don’t, you may, but in any case we go through kind of a religious renaissance. People seem to lose their faith in science, politics and in general in progress, and instead they flock back to the elder Gods.

Well, you know, for all I know, they could be right. Really!

God might really exist and he might really be a man with a beard. Probably even a rabbi. Or he may be more spiritual and wear a turban. Or have a blue face. He may really hate homosexuals and communists. He may really care about how often we have sex and with whom. He may really be willing to fix every problem that we create on this planet.

But then, maybe not. I mean, if I told you that it’s safe to give me all your money, I would take care of it, double the amount within only five years, you probably wouldn’t trust me. You’d want a proof. You wouldn’t base such a decision on faith, would you?

If I told you I have a backpack that can make you fly, and if I asked you to try it by jumping down an abyss, you wouldn’t believe me, but even if, you wouldn’t do it without a proof.

In both cases you would ask for some kind of scientific proof, but probably you wouldn’t even rely on that, you would want to see with your own eyes, talk to someone who did it, had success, survived.

Not so with religion. Nobody has ever come back from death to tell us how it was. Those who believe simply believe that there is something after death, that they were created by a God and that they’ll meet that God (or a different God) after death, and that things will be somehow better after death.

That’s all fine and they may be right, although they can’t be right all of them, but let’s say some could be right, with all the others probably going to some kind of hell (or not). They could be right and I could be wrong and I would go to hell. I guess I take that risk.

The point is, it’s really OK what they believe. What’s not OK, is that they think their weird belief in an intolerant, cruel, hateful God entitles them to force their believes down other people’s throats. What’s not OK, is that they think they can force their so-called God-given laws on me and you and everyone, yes even if their victims are believers themselves, albeit in another God.

C’mon, believe whatever you want, but please be kind and leave me alone. Thank you 🙂

Still, you know, as much as I am agnostic and sometimes even atheistic, I do recognize how strong religion can be and how much art has its origins in religious feelings. That’s wonderful and I am thankful for all the beauty that religious people have created. Thank you for that as well. Really 🙂

The Song of the Day is “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” from Johnny Cash’s 2009 album “American V - A Hundred Highways”. What an incredibly powerful song! Hear it on YouTube.


There are 7 comments

Ken Bello   (2011-09-09)

By God, I think you're right!

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Rick   (2011-09-11)

Well said Andreas! Your feelings on this matter are remarkably similar to mine. I do enjoy these completely non-photographic posts when they appear.

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Flo (tonebytone)   (2011-09-11)

Well, guys, I do respect your right to believe as you choose. But I do agree with all of you that neither atheists nor religious sorts have the right to force their beliefs down other people's throats. When I was a kid, I got so confused because all the "experts" at church couldn't tell me to my satisfaction and understanding what God is. I finally decided, after a course in comparative religions, that there's a kernel of truth that is common to all the major - and many minor faiths - that we could consider to be the basic fabric. But each religious and belief system has embroidered its own designs using its own colors and threads so tightly onto the fabric that we can no longer discern the basic fabric - which I'll call Life. Let me tell you a story that may restore your faith in the possibility of life after death. My late husband was in the hospital on death's bed when the doctors finally decided to start chemo. They told us to go home and that they'd call the next morning to let us know whether the chemo worked. Well, next morning at 9:30 the doc called and said the chemo didn't work - I hadn't expected it to as they'ed waited so long - and that the decision about what to do was up to me. Did I want to keep his body on life support or did I want them to pull the plug. I had no problem with this decision - pull the plug. An hour and 50 minutes later, while I was emailing friends and relatives, suddenly I was aware that my husband was standing to my left! As soon as he got my attention, he asked - telepathically, whether I appreciated all the ways in which he'd supported me throughout our marriage. I knew what he meant, that he'd made a pre-birth agreement with me that he would support me financially and psychologically in whatever spiritual endeavors I would choose. I told him, "Yes, of course!" And poof - he was gone. This made me very happy, as I knew then that not only had he remembered our pre-birth agreement, but he also knew after he left his physical body, to go into the Light. He wouldn't get stuck near the physical plane. Since he'd never been interested in anything having to do with spirituality or the lack thereof, I'd been concerned that he might hang around as a ghost and hount us! Here's what I believe: We are eternal souls who choose to incarnate as physical beings from time to time ion various physical places, to learn certain lessons. This earth is a great school for all kinds of learning. When we're finished with the tasks, lessons and challenges we've set up for ourselves to experience in this physical lifetime, then we leave our physical bodies - this is called death - and move on to the next level of experiencing and learning. We have free will to do these things. No one is going to tell us what to do, except out cumulative soul which is the sum total of all our/its aggregate experiences both in and beyond the physical. Before we decide to incarnate again, we make agreements and arrangements with others that we'll interact with during our physical incarnations. This is what my husband and I had agreed to do - meet each other and get married and raise kids. He would support me while I explored spirituality - as opposed to being "religious". I'd suspected for several years prior to his death that we'd made this kind of agreement. But I couldn't talk to him about it, as he just plain wasn't interested. Now, who set all this up? Well, I believe that there is a Source or Creator of all that is, has been, and will be. It doesn't matter what we choose to call this Source. And we even have free will not to believe in the existence of this Source! And I also believe that we'll find out much more about this subject when we drop our physical bodies. As long as we're occupying a physical body, we're limited in what we can perceive. Sorry this got so long. But - hey, Andreas, you started it, lol! Hugs, Flo

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Flo (tonebytone)   (2011-09-11)

Sorry about the typos in the above. I didn't take time to proof read. Flo

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andreas   (2011-09-11)

No problem. No need to "restore my faith in the possibility of life after death" though. I fully believe in that possibility, it's only that I don't see any certainty and personally deem the probability extremely low. But then, what do I know?

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Roland   (2011-09-12)

I always enjoy how many more reactions a provocation can bring out, than a simple photograph. Wasn't it "a picture says more than 1000 words"? 🙂 Whenever rites and dogmas cross your way, a alarm bell should ring. Always. Excellent shot, Andreas! cheers ® BTW: I didn't say what action should follow the alarm... 😉

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Paul   (2011-09-14)

Amen, brother. 😉

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