My God

by Ian Anderson (from Jethro Tull), 1971

v/r 1:
People, what have you done?
Locked Him in His golden cage!
Made Him bend to your religion
And resurrected from the grave...
He is the God of nothing
If that's all that you can see.
You are the God of everything,
He's inside you and me.

[Here, Ian Anderson is the clearest in his Deistic position. He states, "God exists, but you reduce him to only what you can see -- being just as yourself." Check out the song, "Wind Up" from the same release.]

v/r 2:
So lean upon Him gently
And don't call on him to save
you from your social graces,
and the sins you used to waive.
The bloody Church of England,
in chains of history,
requests your earthly presence
at the vicarage for tea.

[Here, Anderson paints two forms of human pettiness -- the overly-religious leaning upon God for saving them from their petty concerns, and the church itself being riddled within by their own petty customs.]

v/r 3:
And the graven image you-know-who,
with his plastic crucifix, (He's got him fixed!)
Confuses me as to who and where and why,
as to how he gets his kicks.
Confessing to the endless sin,
the endless whining sounds.
You'll be praying 'til next Thursday,
to all the Gods that you can count.

[Now, he furthers his claims on the corruption of the clergy, displayed by a "plastic crucifix" (lack of strength or true mettle?) and the suspicion for how sexually they can get off, foced to be celibate. He lastly criticizes the followers once again (or maybe the clergy?) by mocking their whining confessions, never ending... how can we really take them seriously? and claiming that they are really meaningless in God's eyes.]

---

While Anderson has critiqued his own work on the Aqualung album as generally sophomoric and "with a single brush stroke", many still agree on it's legendary status. I am one. Some things are more readily apparent using the vitality of youth to see clearly. This is one. Yes, his lyrics in this case are more than a little bit wandering in subject matter... but it is easily forgiven when one hears with such weary distain that he delivers them.

"He's not the kind (of god) that you have to wind up on Sundays..." Indeed.

+A

Lies in the Sand

There's a man who says there is a light in the sky
All my friends say he's telling a lie
But he speaks with such passion that I have to think about.

And his hands, well they tremble as he points it out
But I can't see what it's all about
And the voices of many are singing along it seems.

Is it all something new? And will I see it too?
Or is this just continuing man?
Throughout all history claiming they all can see
But the evidence falters just short of my hand...
And there are lies in the sand.

There's a man, who says he was a Satanic Beast
And the many were there at his feet
And he scared all the people, cause he just what we want.

There are things that will surely seem as they are not
And I might not know all that I've got
But the bluffing is easy, and I haven't seen your hand.

-- "Lies in the Sand (The Ballad of...)", King's X

+A

Gnosis (γνῶσις)

One of the biggest problems with revealed religion, and fundamentalist interpretations of it, is that it assumes at the onset that anything that humanity can come up with on its own (without god) is at once suspect and flawed, and needs to be proven right by the will of god (usually in the form of some scriptural passages).

This is a dangerous principle to have hanging around your neck, first, since it presumes an inability of mankind to sucessfully navigate the waters of survival and it may become a detriment to our survival (or cause of our extinction). The truth is, mankind has been around for far longer than any of these myths (christianity being one), and there will be a time when the christian myth will be let go, en masse. In fact, we may already be in the starting phase of this process.

Second, this need for revelation (or hearsay of revelation as is in the bible) focuses the worst of mankind's thoughts on every other belief system, in fact, creating a sort of "spiritual warfare" and casting all other spritual system as "of the devil" or other such garbage. Christianity is by far a large offender on this front, islam also, of course (how many christians believe buddhists unintentionally worship satan?)... but other religions aren't quite immune to this sort of "us and them" mentality either.

Dogma, religious or not, will always enslave mankind if left unquestioned, and we all have a personal responsibility to take the first step away from literal and unwaivering interpretations of humanity's sacred texts.

In christianity alone, one MUST openly inquire into the Gnostic texts found at Nag Hammadi, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Apocrypha. Moreso, one needs to read these books, and the bible (old and new testament) completely and critically before ever thinking of accepting the christian myth as real. Trust in the knowledge and evidence around you. It was all written by men, imperfect as we are. To openly acknowledge this is your first step on a path rich with wonder, understanding, and the wisdom of insecurity.

Once we think we know everything (or a single set of books and a direct prayer-line to god), we have allowed ourselves to stop thinking. The scripture can do it all for us, right?

+A