The atheist’s dilemma:
The atheist, having dispensed with God, now has to take on the burden of re-writing all origins, not only the social agendas he so chooses (as in “I prefer multiple women and I much prefer raising my children only part-time”).
But why stop there? Doesn’t he have to re-write the laws of physics and chemistry, to say nothing of explaining his own existence, too? He now must somehow explain his lack of power to engineer the details of which womb his body will proceed from, and in which century.
Another problem with choosing to be your own god [note the little “g”] is that it puts you in the company of everyone else who has chosen likewise. Thus, you are into battle with not just other people, but other people who, just like you, have chosen to be god—but on different terms than yours. So, if you want to be god, have at it.
New agers’ dilemmas:
Eastern gods are gods only of philosophical thought or of mystical conjecture. The devotees of such have to pit THEIR god of metaphysics against the credentials of THE God of historical fact.
THEIR god never:
- rose from the dead (witnessed by 500 over 40 days)
- performed miracles (witnessed by thousands; not a private apparition)
- ascended into heaven (witnessed by a group of disciples; again, not a private apparition)
- was foretold by scores of scriptures that predated his birth
- showed consummate immediate recuperative power over a man’s soul, to transpose him from skid row into a drug-free church go-er in an hour.
As they sit in the lotus position, they also must answer the questions of…
- how meditation helps one cope with a burglar in one’s home, or how to stop an ex-con from raping your daughter
- how much meditation would they need to do to secure Nirvana
- have to wrestle with the impossibility of assertions like “if you can believe it, you can become it.” Really? A foot-dwarf can become a pole-vaulter?
- via reincarnation, just what would an ant have to do to be worthy enough to come back as a cow?
