The God-forsakin' Blog

  HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD FOR GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3!!! Really, do NOT read this unless you have already seen the movie. Okay, you can't say you weren't warned... "There is no god, that's why I stepped in!" This line is spit-screamed in a scenery-chewing moment by the High Evolutionary, the villain of the movie. And the thing is, he's both right and wrong when he says that. The first reason he's wrong is mostly a pedantic one, but if you didn't want pedantic you wouldn't be reading a nerd's hot take on a Marvel movie. He's objectively wrong because the Marvel universe has HUNDREDS of gods. Peter Quill is the literal son of a god. Two of his teammates were raised by a Titan. They've fought alongside Thor Odinson. The High Evolutionary could go challenge Zeus to a fistfight if he likes, and he might even win. A character in a Marvel movie saying there is no god would be like a character in a Western saying there is no sheriff. But th...

  Religion makes a lot more sense when you realize one basic fact: Humans are not made in the image of a god.  Our gods are made in our own image. Our gods are what we wish we could be, what we WOULD be given infinite power. The ancients invented gods of love when they wanted to be better lovers, gods of war when they wanted to be better warriors, gods of craft when they wanted to be better craftsmen, gods of hunting when they wanted to be better hunters. All-powerful gods when they wanted to be stronger. All-knowing gods when they wanted to be wiser. All-benevolent gods when they wanted to be more benevolent. Our gods are just us, if we had the power to be and do what we most deeply long to be and do. So when the god worshipped by American Evangelicals is disgusted by people who aren't straight, and will torture them eternally for not being straight... you can guess why.

Today, someone in a comment section asked about a meme from an Evangelical, "TF is 'dying to self' supposed to mean?" And that question deserves a blog's worth of answer, because: It's one of those Christian ideas that could make Christians actually do good in the world if they bothered to understand their own holy book.  According to the story, Jesus willingly accepted deprivation and even death in order to benefit others - was able to overcome the body's physical survival instincts to such an extent that he could override them for the sake of a higher cause. And therefore Christians are likewise supposed to overcome selfishness to such an extent that they would be willing and able to sacrifice anything, even their own lives, for the sake of others.  So what it SHOULD mean in practice would look something like "Yeah, I don't like shots or masks, but there's a deadly pandemic so I'll set aside my own desires for the sake of saving others.....