It is interesting that I watched this show today, when I find myself reading in the newspaper about how many christian churches are up in arms against homosexuality again, how we are facing a growing threat of religious violence between fundamentalist faiths, and how the world is generally dividing up into those who believe and those who don't.
The Second Coming focuses on how an ordinary bloke from Northern England suddenly realises that he's the Son of God. After proving his claim with a pretty impressive miracle, he declares that humanity has five days to deliver a third testament. That this time, humanity must write the testament themselves or else Judgement day will come.
The show focuses on the personal struggles that are faced by the Son of God and his friends in a very ballsy and at times unrelenting show.
Yet the ending betrays a certain failing. I realise that it engenders some debate about what we believe - but it also makes some rather interesting assumptions.
Which brings me to why this isn't a usual "review time" post.
Religion.
Such a sticky subject that carries so much baggage and politics. As organisations, religions tend to be unreasonable juggernauts often making claims that a majority of the individuals within any given religion may not agree with.
A further problem lies in tolerance. We must show tolerance and respect for those who are different from us - and that we must accept and respect religious difference. But at the same time while different faiths are willing to pull the tolerance card when they feel they are being hard done by, they have no qualms ignoring tolerance when it suits.
But is it fair to blame religions?
Is it the people, the belief, the dogma?
I'm going to talk about being gay for a moment here. I sometimes get the impression a lot of people get politely squicksome about the topic. It is something that they feel if they don't talk about it, then it is as good as not saying anything bad about it.
Many religious groups openly villify it, claiming tracts of the bible to support their claims.
Many gay men become atheists because of the way they have been treated by the church or other faiths.
Being gay isn't a disease. It's not a mental condition. It is something innate that we choose to accept. Yes there is a point where a choice is made. I can't fully remember the day, but I do remember that I eventually chose to accept how I felt.
That is the gift of being human - we can choose.
I could choose to not be gay, but I would never be happy with that choice. It would feel somehow... wrong. I have been down that road, so I know what I'm saying here.
Supposing, then, that homosexuality isn't unnatural - why does it exist?
Why am I considered a sinner? For not spreading my genetic code? For not bringing more souls into the world? Where is the sin?
Or is it the sin of arrogance? To think that I can just choose who I want to love. Because this isn't about sex. I haven't had sex in a very long time. I'll admit that. Because I want to be with someone I love. So it can't be the sin of Lust then.
What pisses me off about religion, and I do get very angry, is that there has not been a message from on high. If God is in the details, if God is part of nature - then God has told me that it is alright to be gay. Why? Because that is what my heart and intuition has told me. If faith is to be believed - then that intuition is God speaking to my heart.
If it were the devil or a dark corruption of some kind - then I suspect that it would have been a lot more seductive. Trust me - the revelation was far from a seduction.
It infuriates me how people try to argue that holy books like the Bible are the uncorrupted word of God. They are not God's words - they are the words of men with political agendas.
Read the bible and you will find contradiction, confusion and ambiguity. Many christians fail to remember that the New Testament was about Jesus coming down and saying that the Old Testament was to be abandoned. To be replaced by a new way of living.
Yet no religion is built on that understanding.
Further - what of Allah? Zeus? Mab? Krishna? or the thousands of other gods and deities? What is the story with them?
Why is God so right?
Because he has moved things to ensure his belief has spread because of truth? Bollocks. Christianity's success is closely related to the spread of Western thinking. Invasion. War. Conquest - these have been the vehicles of Christianity's spread across the globe. Not God.
So where does that leave things? Where does that leave Christians?
I am no atheist. Atheists want the universe to be measurable. The belief that we just end is faulty because it is a poor waste of energy - something that science is learning doesn't happen in this universe. Our universe is surprisingly efficient in the way it operates its highly complex parts.
So am I declaring war on Christians? On religion?
No.
But I do think that these people need to stop and think with clear minds. They have allowed their belief to swallow their reasoning. Belief founded not on any evidence but on the words of people long dead. People who sought to control a world they felt victimised by.
God does not seek division. God/Allah/Zeus/The Way/The Universe/Ma'at seeks harmony. It seeks for us to join together in all our diversity. There is nothing wrong in choosing to see the Universe as God and Angels. Nor is it wrong to choose to see it as Allah.
It is not wrong to choose to live by the commandments or the Pillars. Except when it comes to dividing the world.
You are not meant to see the world in that way. Not everyone is Gay. Not everyone is Christian. Not everyone is Muslim. Not everyone is Irish. Not everyone is Maori.
We were never meant to be completely homogenous. We are meant to be different facets of Humanity together - in harmony. We are meant to look at each other and revel in the diffence, to appreciate the complexity of being both all the same and all different.
Sometimes I wish I could just show people what I see. How I feel about these things. But it always comes out too hateful, or too odd. I worry about such groups as Destiny Church - full of so many good people whose only sin is to follow such blatantly false prophets. Groups like the Exclusive Brethren, who so many people just dismiss as polite and nice people who keep to themselves.
That is the very thing that makes them corrupt and dangerous. Humanity isn't meant to divide up into little compounds of people. We are meant to embrace each other and share our differences. That is how the universe works. If we were to work together - we would be growing up. We don't have to all be the same, but we do need to accept that we are all part of one great thing - the Universe. There's only one. We are all part of it, and our differences give us strength.
It's waiting for us to grow up and realise this. To become part of the greater thing - to travel its length and breadth and learn all its secrets.
Yet we keep talking ourselves out of it. We have become so wrapped up in the minutiae of conflicts we didn't even start- but that some people thousands of years ago with a grudge against a neighbour started.
We are all a part of God - or whatever you wish to call it. Religion is based on truth, but should never be mistaken for truth in its own right. It is a way to look at the universe and relate to it. But it is not the universe in itself.
Love and Huggles
Conan
Currently Reading: Over the Edge second edition
Currently Playing: Exalted: The Seventh Legion
Mood: Ready for debate!
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