Thursday, October 20, 2005
Theory on Dog...err GOD
In this month of Ramadhan, the month of introspection & devotion one’s mind ought to be tuned to spirituality but in the age of easy gratification and materialism it’s a very hard thing to do… but I always am very interested in religions and religious writings not least because most of these belief and writings are truly macabre and out of this world in more ways than one…
I have a respectable collection of Islamic books in my personal library and a growing number of books on other religions too…. with occasional additions of bibles and Buddhist texts nicked from hotels …I’m convinced that Gideon is more than glad anybody at least steal their untouched bibles in hotel rooms… so I don’t really feel guilty doing this…the most recent one I ‘borrowed’ ( as Huck Finn would call it ) was “al-kitab” from a hotel in Jakarta a couple of weeks ago..…interesting to note that the translation uses mostly Islamic terminology for important words such as god (translated as Allah) etc….so Christian god is Allah too afterall….at least in this part of the world….
I'm always fascinated by how human view god or gods....primitive people and animists sees gods and ghosts in everything that looks forbidding...big trees, megaliths, stones, rocks, owls, other animals....Hindus see gods in all kind of menifestations...vishnu, shiva, brahma,krishna ....and the female counterparts ganesha, kali, saraswathi, kalki, etc...and can even be manifested in animals...and sometimes even movie stars.... not an uncommon idea actually… Christians see Jesus as god…Chinese believe great ancestors were transformed into gods…the most famous being the ‘nine gods’ whose festival is still celebrated every year…If I were to worship a human being the most likely candidate I think anybody should bow their heads to would be Bill Gates…he’s done so much…we ought to worship him….wouldn’t it be interesting if we all worship Bill Gates as a god of wealth & knowledge, George Bush as god of war and destruction, Paris Hilton as god of love etc….
When it comes to the argument one god or many?...looks like one is winning…even in Hinduism…the most interesting pantheistic religion in existence today… ultimately philosophically all the various and highly imaginative versions of gods and goddesses are nothing more than manifestations from one single godhead...Balinese call this single godhead 'Sang Yang Widi'...Indian hindus call it brahma...
Christian sees god like an old man ... if religious paintings are any indication christian god looks very much like Charles Darwin and Jesus has a rather confused role as partime god, sometimes son and sometime a failed jewish lad...Buddhists do not view god(s) very highly...mere beings ..at least lower than Buddha...that begs the question who created the original Gautama?...
Islam admits that it does not know what on earth god is like (as described in surah al Ikhlas) but in a different verse stated that god sits on an “arash” (the throne)...so does this means that 'physically and mathematically' the throne has bigger dimension than god?...Islam says do not question those things that are 'ghaib'....so we leave it at that....Everytime I think about this verse I have a mental picture of Christian triumvarate of bearded Jesus looking like a rock star sitting beside Charles Darwin with a white dove fluttering above …
Agnostics feels that human intellectual capacity are not good enough to fanthom this thing called god...there may be a creator (s) but certainly not as imagined by the formal religions which are all human centric....…and atheists believe that this is all bosh...nonsense...what we need is just basic physical laws...laws of physics explains everything…..is it?....try putting plane parts in a barrel and ask a monkey to shake it till it assembles into a functional aeroplane…
An ex-nun Karen Armstrong wrote a fascinating book called 'history of god'...and she was very well versed in Islamic cosmology and ephistemology and wrote with good understanding how christian, jews and muslims view god over the ages...fascinating read...the way she wrote about Islamic mysticism makes me think that she must have studied under some great sufi sages in some remote morroccan madrasa or somewhere but on reading her autobiography “spiral staircase” looks like her knowledge is basically from reading books…
I have a respectable collection of Islamic books in my personal library and a growing number of books on other religions too…. with occasional additions of bibles and Buddhist texts nicked from hotels …I’m convinced that Gideon is more than glad anybody at least steal their untouched bibles in hotel rooms… so I don’t really feel guilty doing this…the most recent one I ‘borrowed’ ( as Huck Finn would call it ) was “al-kitab” from a hotel in Jakarta a couple of weeks ago..…interesting to note that the translation uses mostly Islamic terminology for important words such as god (translated as Allah) etc….so Christian god is Allah too afterall….at least in this part of the world….
I'm always fascinated by how human view god or gods....primitive people and animists sees gods and ghosts in everything that looks forbidding...big trees, megaliths, stones, rocks, owls, other animals....Hindus see gods in all kind of menifestations...vishnu, shiva, brahma,krishna ....and the female counterparts ganesha, kali, saraswathi, kalki, etc...and can even be manifested in animals...and sometimes even movie stars.... not an uncommon idea actually… Christians see Jesus as god…Chinese believe great ancestors were transformed into gods…the most famous being the ‘nine gods’ whose festival is still celebrated every year…If I were to worship a human being the most likely candidate I think anybody should bow their heads to would be Bill Gates…he’s done so much…we ought to worship him….wouldn’t it be interesting if we all worship Bill Gates as a god of wealth & knowledge, George Bush as god of war and destruction, Paris Hilton as god of love etc….
When it comes to the argument one god or many?...looks like one is winning…even in Hinduism…the most interesting pantheistic religion in existence today… ultimately philosophically all the various and highly imaginative versions of gods and goddesses are nothing more than manifestations from one single godhead...Balinese call this single godhead 'Sang Yang Widi'...Indian hindus call it brahma...
Christian sees god like an old man ... if religious paintings are any indication christian god looks very much like Charles Darwin and Jesus has a rather confused role as partime god, sometimes son and sometime a failed jewish lad...Buddhists do not view god(s) very highly...mere beings ..at least lower than Buddha...that begs the question who created the original Gautama?...
Islam admits that it does not know what on earth god is like (as described in surah al Ikhlas) but in a different verse stated that god sits on an “arash” (the throne)...so does this means that 'physically and mathematically' the throne has bigger dimension than god?...Islam says do not question those things that are 'ghaib'....so we leave it at that....Everytime I think about this verse I have a mental picture of Christian triumvarate of bearded Jesus looking like a rock star sitting beside Charles Darwin with a white dove fluttering above …
Agnostics feels that human intellectual capacity are not good enough to fanthom this thing called god...there may be a creator (s) but certainly not as imagined by the formal religions which are all human centric....…and atheists believe that this is all bosh...nonsense...what we need is just basic physical laws...laws of physics explains everything…..is it?....try putting plane parts in a barrel and ask a monkey to shake it till it assembles into a functional aeroplane…
An ex-nun Karen Armstrong wrote a fascinating book called 'history of god'...and she was very well versed in Islamic cosmology and ephistemology and wrote with good understanding how christian, jews and muslims view god over the ages...fascinating read...the way she wrote about Islamic mysticism makes me think that she must have studied under some great sufi sages in some remote morroccan madrasa or somewhere but on reading her autobiography “spiral staircase” looks like her knowledge is basically from reading books…
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Hey - this is beautifully written piece. It's great that you have such an open and questioning mind. We will never know the answers but the questions are so important and the freedom to ask them should be a given. It makes me mad as hell that Armstrong's book should be banned here. So also are many of the more mystical islamic texts and Indonesian books of Christianity because they are written in bahasa. Keep nicking the holy books!
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