I won't torture you forever because of your nature.
I won't demand that you forsake your friends and family to curry my favour.
I won't obligate you to worship me.
I won't communicate with you in a way that can at best be described as cryptic, and at worst non-existent.
I won't order you to attack or kill people.
I won't require perfection of you to be around me.
I won't tell you to abandon rational thinking, and do what I say without reason.
I won't label you as unworthy, and then place it upon you to overcome my judgment.
I don't need or want any of that.
What am I?
I'm common human friendship.
And yes, that's right.
I love you more than your god does.
5 comments:
This kind of human friendship isn't as common as you might think....
That's both a red herring and a fallacy of equivocation concerning the word "common," as that's not really the point, is it? The commonality, or lack thereof, doesn't alter the validity of my assertion.
What is friendship that doesn't strive for these things? Whereas the character of God, at least the Judeo-Christian one, would seek the opposite.
Not tryin' to disprove your point at all, my friend. Just tryin' to send along an idea in the sidecar. Knowing human nature, is it so surprising that we've cooked up the kinds of deities we have, over the centuries?
Though if'n'ya wanna get snarky, I surely can play along! And I envy you your friendships if these are the only sorts you've ever had. I myself have experienced that sickening feeling a number of times, when I suddenly realize that a "friend" has an agenda, or is selfish or manipulative, or juvenile, or otherwise goes against one or more of the "won't"s in your list.
Don't perceive snark where none is intended. Your sidecar appeared to be a false sequitur. I'm just drawing attention back to the point of my post, which would be the same with or without the word "common." And doesn't attempt to define friendship in absolute terms.
I'm not saying that friendships are perfect, that these are the only sorts I've had, or that this is what they consist of. But this sort of friendship does exist. It is possible. And I'm intending to contrast that sort of real relationship with the kind that the gods of religion would prescribe for people.
That being said, when you mention human nature and how we cook up these kinds of deities, that speaks to the heart of the matter.
Gods and their demands are manifestations of elements of human nature. They just happen to be the not-so-good elements. Under the tenuous guise of a morals system, they are actually nothing more than tactics for one person or group of people to control others. And I suspect they'd be there with or without religion.
So to recap, I just wanted to address how our ideals for human friendship are positive, in contrast with the prescriptions for a relationship with a god, which are only masquerading as such. And that it's weird how people don't more readily see that.
Great Poem, Wes!
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