Isiah in Normal entries

I picked up a bible kind of book thing a few weeks back, Isiah 53. Not to denigrate, but to summarize, it’s an argument to Jews about Christ being predicted and meeting all the criteria and occasionally says things much like; Maybe not the Messiah, but pretty dang amazing, golly gee whiz. I paraphrase, sort of. The line that struck me as hitting a flat note in an acapella solo was this; Can you imagine a world without God, a world where everything was exactly as we see it?

That’s the very reason I’m an agnostic and not an atheist. My answer is, of course, no. But it’s no with or without the existence of god; My experience with “the world” is there’s a lot of shit going on that I don’t see, both literally and figuratively. That some of it can be explained isn’t good enough for starters, I can explain anything using reason and a gift of gab, I’m not even sure when I’m making shit up. Next, it just takes one unsatisfactory answer on one small item to topple the deck of cards.

Kids ask things like why is the grass green or the sky blue, and adults give answers that are either scientific, if they know, or patronizing. Kids don’t mean the depth of the atmosphere or reflection/refraction, and they sure as hell don’t mean chlorophyll, though those are fine answers. They mean why aren’t they different colors. It’s sort of how many children of educated and effective parents can still maintain a sense of wonder; it seems contrary but the wide eyed wonder is partly born of skepticism. “He’s telling me about chlorophyll, even adults don’t know why the grass is green. I’m going to be in school twenty years and never know the answer.”

I know, those are silly examples, but they have an answer if you patronize the questioner. Things like what is our purpose or why do bad things happen to give people don’t have an objective answer, well, they do, the latter does, but the answer to the latter isn’t something I believe in either; coincidence or statistical probability (which is lovely and optimistic but not really an answer. The presumption is that the vast majority of people are good, for all practical purposes, and so statistically they will have a proportionate amount of bad shit happen to them.). Those aren’t the sort of thing I need answers too badly enough to join a church or temple though.

Ultimately the question of whether or not Jews should worship Christ or not means very little to me. If I had to guess someone or ones wanted the religion more accessible. You have never had Jews knock on your door, ask if you’ve accepted Elijah into your heart, give you a torah and expect a donation. Jews don’t recruit and accessibility isn’t high on the temples list. You get one day a year for atonement, you don’t get a means to absolve yourself in a booth with a pedophile every Sunday or need extreme unction (hmmm, forgot where I got that phrase, but it’s the last rites.). On the face of it, it makes Catholicism very attractive; all kinds of cool pageantry, extra rules, and constant redemption verbally. I don’t know what the drop out rate of most churchs are, but I’ve never met a lapsed catholic who didn’t say they were lapsed, in remission, in recovery. A lot of Jews wander from the faith or from orthodox into something more workable or secular humanism, but the former still consider themselves jews and the latter actually have a strong philosophical background. I’ve never heard of a lapsed Rastafarian. Every decade or so when some cult drinks kool aid or lays their sneakers down, I’m always impressed with the number of folks who didn’t decide to be a lapsed Jonestowner or Captain Jesus and the tomorrow legion.

Social evolution demonstrates time and time again that religions that damage the flock don’t survive. Shit, lost my train of thought, but not my desire to post even the most half baked of entries.