27/09/2001 - 10:38 p.m.

Theological contemplations of the less religious type.

Sometimes, I'm sorry John Lennon apologised for that 'Beatles more popular than religion' thing. I wish there was no religion. Think about it, name any war, culteral differences based in religion is probably in the reason someplace. Why can't we grow up?

Basically, I don't believe in the Bible anymore. How could you, it's been cut to shreds and bits are missing and some bits are largely discounted even though people say you're supposed to take it literally. (Not me, I'm s'posed to be a Methodist.) I can agree with the moral stuff, but if you asked me if I truly believed in a week long creation, I'd say no. I think it's largely fairy stories, a really ancient Aesop's Fables.

I believe in evolution, that we're from monkeys and all that. Till last year I was certain that everybody believed that. How odd to find out that some people didn't, it was like hearing about people who thought the sun went round the Earth. (If you do, don't let me know, I don't want to believe it could be true.) But I'm not gonna say that we know what started the whole process before that, we don't know where the sea slime stuff came from (probably electricity, but, whatever). I am willing to say I'm not sure. (What's the word for that then, agnostic?) If there is something, well, that's great, and if there's not, then life is simpler all round by the end.

I mostly think religion was made up by intelligent people to keep the masses in line. (That's one of the fundamentals of Cahtolisism, don't let them know too much, and they'll be OK.) Listen to this little religious metaphor? Why do parents give their kids "Santa Claus" to keep them good at Christmas? If they're busy following the "be good" rule of some unseen force who'll give them lovely things if they obey unquestioningly, they're not causing trouble for their parents. Then, sooner or later, the child begins to question, and they find out the truth. Does this not sound like "God"? We just don't find out the truth till we die. (It's gonna suck if we don't.)

So, right now, that's what I think. I don't know for certain what I do believe in. I like the idea of fate, there's nothing you can do because it's predestined, and you just don't realise. This comes from all the science fiction time travelly stuff I watch. If time travel is possible (and I like to think it is) then I believe that since our coming would have happened in the past, the future already knew it was going to happen and worked it out correctly. Therefore, it's difficult to screw things up.

But, this is kind of funny because I also believe, to some extent, in karma. You did something to deserve the good things and the shitty things that happen to you, but I guess that they were already decided, so obvisously that's Newton's Law, every object has an equal and opposite reaction. Look at palmistry and psychics; how many times do your dreams come true (it happens to me all the time)? We couldn't do that if there wasn't someplace that we were tapping into. Someplace where all this future stuff is just hanging around.

OK, it's getting to late to do too much more of this and still go to bed at a semi-reasonable hour. All this even comes up because I was putting off my homework and watched "Evolutuion" on PBS. Good stuff. Thought rendering. This stuff here actually.