God Is Dead?

By: George Wallace

God is dead. The whole idea is and was dumb. The real question is not whether God is dead. The question is, is He alive? Is God alive in any sense in which we humans could quantify? Is God alive in any sense in which we humans could measure? Is God alive in any sense in which we humans could detect?

This is likely doubtful. And, in fact, God may be so disinterested in us as individuals of our species that He could make very sure that we could not detect Him. How? Disjoint time. Position Himself in a parallel Universe from which He could observe, but we could not. God is God. I think that He could find a way. Why? Simple. Six or seven billion whining ninnies wanting God to do everything for them. That would be the worst case of a Socialist Paradise imaginable.

Beyond all this speculation, how do you (we) define life and death? Especially as it pertains to a Deity? What do you do when your very best God Physicians arrive at a diagnosis of, “He’s Dead!”? What if it is a mistake? What if it is correct? Every one of these questions is at least as important as the number of angels that can dance on the point of a pin. God is God. God Is. He Exists. He Abides. He Persists.

What were the, “God Is Dead”, sloganeers really trying to say? They had to be speaking metaphorically. Likely they spoke with a certain amount of emphasis in order to gain attention. I do not think that they were really talking about God at all. I think that they were talking about many other things. What things? Things like the appurtenances of organized religion. Everything from miters to cathedrals. Everything from saints to pilgrimages.

Maybe they were talking about millions of people who were escaping from the iron chains and bonds of organized religion in a new and unexpected way. People were escaping from the intense daily religious controls over their lives. How? In exactly the same ways that medieval peasants and serfs escaped from bonded servitude to land and Lords: move to the big cities. Become anonymous. Don’t stand out. Stick to your own knitting. Keep your nose clean.

Example: In 1967, my parents took an analytical look at their future where they were situated. They also looked at the future for my sister and me. The economics just did not auger well for both of those futures. They upped stakes, left the “Bible Belt”, and moved to Southern California. That was the last day our family attended church. I was 16 at the time. I noticed the difference. After a few months, I asked about it. My answer was a set of questions, “What is the name of any of our neighbors? Any direction? On the whole block?”

I didn’t know anything about them. I did not know their names, employment, or anything about their religion. They were anonymous. We were anonymous. We didn’t intrude in their lives. They didn’t intrude in our lives. We didn’t know their business. They didn’t know our business. Any opinions anyone might have had could have only been based on relatively current observations. No one was shackled by the actions, jobs history, or other misbehaviors of a grandparent, parent, child, aunt, uncle, or nephew. We were free to succeed, or fail, on our own, in the now. We carried no baggage from the past.

God was not dead. God was not even sick. God was not even ignored. Religion, and religious leaders were ignored. What died was religion. What died was the parts of religion that did not improve people’s lives. What died was church collection plate income. My family stopped contributing to the upkeep of a church building. My family stopped contributing to the upkeep of a church leader. My family stopped contributing to the upkeep of church missions and programs. We had escaped. We had slipped the bonds of servitude to the opinions of others, and flew free.

How did the everyday activities of our lives changer? Very little. We found new groups where we chose to invest our time. The biggest change I remember was that my mother, with two kids in high school, could go outside the home and find a good paying job. A job that paid a good wage commensurate with her skills. That was a real help to our family. Expenses are higher in a big city. My parents were looking ahead at college expenses. Shortly, our family was enjoying a certain degree of financial security that it had not ever had before. My parents bought the first home of their married life. It was a modest two bedroom bungalow in South Bay.

Did our ethics change? No. Did our morals change? No. We did have more time for study and hobbies. I became active in Scouting at that time, and remained in the program for several years. I became a Life Scout. I am proud of that. Later as an adult, I served my community of the time as a Scoutmaster. My sister had her own friends and interests. My parents made new friends that became a part of our lives. We reconnected with relatives that had moved to California years before. I started college.

In 1960, I trained to be a Federal Census Taker. My first assignment was in Watts, California. I continued that work in other parts of East and South Central L. A. I learned a lot about people that Spring and Summer. The most important thing I learned was that American Blacks (We hadn’t call them that in the “Bible Belt”!) were people just like me. In the “Bible Belt”, in sixteen years of life, I had met exactly one black person. Their only real difference was skin color. I learned that that "black" skin color varied from deepest blue black, through variations in chocolate, to “passing for white”. Interestingly enough, there (in L. A.), where they could, they didn’t try. Family and community was much more important.

Article Source: http://www.religionarticlelibrary.com

(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, and the priesthood. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will interest everyone. This article may be freely reprinted so long as all copyright attributions, and the full content of this resource box are included. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com

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