| Virtually everything the human race had ever chosen to believe in was
true…
[And] that it continued to be true long after the human race
particularly needed it to be true any more.”
-Douglas Adams The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul
|
Strange as it may seem, much of what I’ve come to believe can be summed
up by that simple silly quote. Maybe I watched Peter Pan one too many times
when I was a child, and never quite go over the idea that if you believed
in faeries they would be there, but that disbelief would kill them. I still
believe that belief sustains. I never was too convinced of that killing
part though. Maybe if everyone in the world stopped believing then they
might die, but not just one person, unless he or she was the last who still
believed and disbelief still hasn’t gone that far. I do still believe in
faeries, by the way, and dragons and unicorns and dryads and centaurs and
fawns and sirens, but anyway, you get the idea. Any thing that should or
could or would exist in a perfect world, I believe exists somewhere, just
not necessarily here. I believe in “world as myth,” a phrase coined, as
far as I know, by SF writer Robert Heinlein. The basic idea behind it being
that there are infinite numbers of universes. Every story, every belief,
basically everything is true in some universe. There is a universe filled
with the Land of Oz, and one Alice traveled to through the looking glass.
Every story ever written in this universe takes place in another , and
we are but a story in every other universe. Each “world” is a myth in every
other “world.” I believe that, and I believe that, as Douglas Adams said,
“everything the human race had ever chosen to believe in” is true. I believe
in Athena and Aphrodite and the rest of the Gods of Olympus, and I believe
in Odin, Thor and Loki and all others in Asgard. I believe in Tiki the
Polynesian god of love and war. I believe that all gods and goddesses
that man has ever seen fit to worship, do exist. That doesn’t mean that
I worship them though. Some of them, yes. All, definitely not. I believe
in the Christian Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but I do not worship them…him…whatever.
I have to agree with Heinlein that “any man who can worship a trinity and
insist that his religion is monotheistic can rationalize anything, just
give him the time.” That is not a belief system that calls to me. It’s
too hypocritical, contradictory and badly translated for me. I’m
sorry if I offend anyone with that statement, but I’m not sorry for the
statement itself, else I wouldn’t have made it. It’s something I believe.
As far as specific sets of Gods go, I don’t follow one. I follow the Norse
more than most though. If something goes wrong so badly that I know it
can’t just be chance, I tend to blame Loki. I will call on Odin or Frigga
when something falls in the category of wisdom, but I’m just as likely
to call on Aphrodite or Venus as I am to call on Freya when love is where
the problem lies. I believe in an afterlife. I believe that all “good”
people go to a good place. I guess I’m naïve by many people’s
standards, but I think people are generally good, and deserve not to be
tormented for eternity for a few indiscretions over the course of a lifetime.
I also think that people find the “heaven” they seek. A Christian will
find the heavenly city of the bible, and a hero of the Norse religion will
find Valhalla. I don’t believe that one is exiled to the heaven of their
faith either, because how much of a heaven would a place be without those
you love. If loved ones have chosen different paths in life, they should
still be together in death. Kind of like a Greencard for eternity. Well,
I think I've babbled long enough, if you still don't get it, you probably
won't no matter what I say, and don't feel bad if you don't get it. You're
probably in the majority. Gods Bless.
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