On Religion - Final

So, this one is pretty much overdue. The plan for it was that I was supposed to write about religion every day until the Holy Week ended, but I wasn't able to do so because there's no internet in the condo (I now live in Mandaluyong.)

On a side note, I think the ningas kugon is beginning to catch on with my blogging. If you're one of my 3 or so followers, maybe you could help me in writing. Gimme a topic and I'll think about it and maybe I'll write about it too. (Contributors get a free hug.)

The man who lost his morality

I remember this one time in CCF class we were talking about how morality was a God-given, spiritual gift that you can never remove. I remembered this article I read in Newsweek (or was it Time?) about morality. A mild-mannered average Joe was in a train station and was just minding his own business when suddenly something went wrong with a train and a huge, steel part of it just hit him really, really hard on the front of his head—or in other words, his frontal lobe—the part of your brain that’s responsible for morality. After a while he was able to go on even though his frontal lobe was severely fucked up. The thing is that he was able to kill people without ever feeling that it was wrong—in other words, he didn’t feel guilty about it. I did more than just remember it; I told it to the teacher and asked what he thought about it, and he just shoved the same answer to my face over and over and over again: “It’s what you’re fed.”
I’m fed science, and I think he’s implying that it’s wrong.

Lucifer leaves hell

My favourite Sandman arc is “Season of Mists”—the one where Morpheus has to go to hell to get back whatsername. He goes all sentimental and goes all “I might never come back” with all of his buddies because he’s afraid that Lucifer will kick, torture and brutally gut out the stuffing out of him. When he gets there, no—nothing—hell’s empty.
Fortunately, I have a copy of the last issue of Lucifer (for the record, I’m not a Satanist) which is a wonderfully woven Sandman spinoff by Mike Carey. The following conversation is more or less where the spinoff started, but it was written by Neil Gaiman.

---

Lucifer: There. Those were the last of them. We’re the only entities left in hell, Morpheus. I was the first one here, and it looks like I’m going to be the last.

Morpheus (inside of those black, squiggly speech bubbles): Lucifer, what is HAPPENING?

Lucifer: I keep telling you, Dream Lord. It’s over. I am leaving. And I have closed down hell.
Morpheus: How? How can you even--?

Lucifer: Easy. Ten billion years, I’ve spent in this place. That’s a long time. And we’ve all changed since the beginning.... I’m tired, Morpheus. So tired.

Morpheus: You knew me when I was an angel. What was I like?

Lucifer: You were very PROUD, Samael. But you were also very BEAUTIFUL, and wise—and PASSIONATE.

Morpheus: Was I? Yes. Yes, I was. I cared about so many things. I suppose that was why everything began to go wrong.

Lucifer: You know—I still wonder how much of it was planned. How much of it he knew in advance? ... I thought I was rebelling. I thought I was defying his rule. No. I was merely fulfilling another tiny segment of his great and powerful plan.... But I am woolgathering. I apologize. You don’t mind if I work as we talk? There are no more entities left within the bounds infernal, but I need to secure the last gates.

You also rule a world, Morpheus. A world of sleepers, and dreamers, of stories. A simple place compared to hell. I envy you.... Can you imagine what it was like? Ten billion years spent providing a place for dead mortals to torture themselves? And like all masochists, they called the shots. “Burn me.” “Freeze me.” “Eat me.” “Hurt me.” And we did.... Why do they blame me for all their little failings? They use my name as if I spent my entire day sitting on their shoulders, forcing them to commit acts they would otherwise find repulsive.... “The devil made me do it.” I have never made one of them do anything. Never.

And then they die, and they come here, having transgressed against what they believed to be right. And expect us to fulfil their desire for pain and retribution. I don’t make them come here. They talk of me going around and buying souls, like a fishwife come market day, never stopping to ask themselves why. I need no souls. And how can anyone own a soul?

No, they belong to themselves. They just hate to have to face up to it.*

Yes, I rebelled. It was a long time ago. How long was I meant to pay for that one action? So now it’s over. I’ve sent all of them away. All of hell’s inhabitants.

Morpheus: Where—have you sent them?

Lucifer: Away. I don’t care where they’ve gone. Heaven. Earth. Limbo. The far realms. Who knows? But they won’t be coming here anymore.

Morpheus: And what YOU do now?

Lucifer: I don’t know. To be honest, Dream Lord, I haven’t given it much thought. I couldn’t return to the Silver City---even if I wished to. I could never again be an angel. Innocence, once lost, can never be regained. What will I do now? I could lie on a beach somewhere, perhaps? Build a house? Learn how to dance or play the piano? It matters not. I have had my fill of the old life, and that is all I care about. Perhaps this is the ultimate freedom, eh, Dream Lord? The freedom to leave.

---

And I know what you good lot of Catholics are thinking, "Oh, those are lies. That's what the devil wants you to think."

Well, here’s what Christianity first thought about the devil.


The origin of Satan

I heard most of this from my English blockmate. I suppose he got it from Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion or some show from the Discovery channel. ^

Hell started off as Hel—she was the goddess of the underworld. Sure, the underworld was a hot place back then too, but a hot place isn’t bad considering that the Nordic lands were really, really cold. Hel’s pad wasn’t always a place of burning forevermore; it used to be a warm place to rest in peace.

So how did it end up the most unpleasant place in all of human imagination? Christianity faced a lot of persecution in its early days. There was nothing in Christ’s teachings to stop the Roman guards from beating the crap out of them, so one day, they had an idea: “I know, let’s make a horrible, horrible place where these douchebags will go after they die!” Hence, hell.

In other words, hell was an invention made by humans (as if religion isn’t already one) to keep people in line. In a way, it’s an equivalent of spanking a kid. Instead of “If you don’t behave, I’m going to spank you!” you have “If you don’t behave for the rest of your life, you’re going to burn in hell!”

A world without religion

(It'd be awesome if you read this part while listening to John Lennon's "Imagine")

If we don’t have religion, then how else is society going to function properly? Where would mankind be without questions such as “WWJD” (What would Jesus do?) or “What do I do and don’t do so I won’t go to hell?”

It just so happens that mankind has something called empathy. It’s much more believable and it’s much more natural, and it just so happens that we’ve lost touch of it. How? We lost it to laughing at mindless violence: Saw or Final Destination or Ogrish or whatever shit that involves uncannily gruesome and bloody acts. We’re desensitized. We’re high on sedatives like consumerism and hedonism (which again, ironically, is against Christian doctrine). We’re high on the idea that everything is alright, and that everything will be alright.

Religion-wise, people are drunk on the idea that if they just pray every damn day of their lives, they’ll go to heaven. Well, it doesn’t work that way. Didn’t Francis of Assisi (Am I right with this one?) say that “Faith without action is dead”? Nah, you’re doing something. Yes, you good Christians are. I’m sure Jesus appreciates the change you donate every Sunday. ** Yes, yes he does. I know that change will do oh so plenty to help all the people in the world who live on less than a dollar. How many you ask? Oh, I thought you knew!^^ Silly me! NEARLY HALF THE WORLD’S POPULATION LIVES ON A DOLLAR OR LESS. Oh, they’re too far you say? They’re from Africa or some other part of the third world? Well, we live in a fucking third world country. Damn it, you could at least sign up for Gawad Kalinga or some Youth For Christ stuff!
Now, if Jesus doesn’t tell you to help that half of the world (and I bet you do, oh so good Catholic), how else are we going to do it?

That’s the challenge.

As for the rest of you: happy Easter, you hypocrites. Jesus rose from the dead to weep till the next Black Saturday comes.


Endnotes

* My bold and italics
^ I have to check the sources. Augh.
** The money actually ends up in poor parishes. I’d like to assume that people in slums and street kids don’t go to church. On another note, I’d like to repeat the case of the tax collector who was willing to give up 10% of his income. There are a lot of organizations around the Philippines in which you can donate a minimum of P500 a month (or was it a week?). One of them is Children’s Hour, wherein you donate just an hour’s worth of your salary in a week (or a month?) to help poor kids. I’d like hundreds of Catholic donators to shove into my face that they actually help orgs like these. Till then, I’ll laugh at their faces.
^^ (Too many endnotes. Augh.) I’d like at least ten or at least five or LESS Catholics to tell me that they actually know this prior to reading the post, and I’d like them to tell me what they’re actually doing.