The age of branded gods
... hasn't ended, and it could end us
An Orthodox “leftist Zionist” Israeli—shunned by both secular peaceniks and rightwing Orthodox fanatics—who risks his neck protecting Palestinian shepherds from West Bank settlers and the IDF, told a reporter from Haaretz:
This is the problem, and I don’t mean to single out Islam. All three Abrahamic religions, and their fractal, feuding denominations, have this disease. (I’ve met Evangelicals who despise Catholics in Jesus’s name.) Maybe other religions have it too, or maybe they caught it from us, the West. (Hindu ultranationalism—founded by admirers of Mussolini, according to this—comes to mind.)
We brand our version of god to set our tribal identities in stone by giving them divine sanction and decree. Truth bubbles up anew again and again, looking much alike wherever it arises; we seize it and brand it, bind it, beat it into a sword. Believing our own made-up story that “our” god designated us the only truth bearers fuels run-of-the-mill rivalries and power struggles with a high-octane fanaticism. Religions must have evolved because they conferred an advantage. They supercharged not only survival, but dominance.
Now our technologies have flung us all into close contact, and simultaneously given us the power to destroy each other and, inseparably, ourselves. This calls for some more evolution, quick. We probably won’t be able to do it fast enough. Some will say atheism and science are the answer. Others, that some kind of world religion … ugh. Bland as a bumper sticker
and ultimately just another religion; rival world religions would undoubtedly spring up.
Not an atheist, feeling and trusting that an infinite, intimate power means us well, plants guidance like clues in a treasure hunt, and has “fearfully and wonderfully made” us fit to take care of ourselves and each other, I send up two cheers for agnosticism. “Believing is pretending to know something you don’t.” Could we admit we don’t know but can trust and feel our way? Could we have faith without a story? All the stories of religion and science are only approximations, though it’s blasphemy to say so, if you hold fast to the literal truth of any one of them.
Could we unbrand god? “The great spirit”—the phrase bubbles up from a preposterous source: 1950s Westerns. It’s as corny, oversimplified condescending, and appropriative as this:
But it’s so respectfully generic. All you need to know,
TLDR:
My feeling is that we conceptualize too much. We have to nail it down, so we make stuff up and then worship the stuff we made up, and because different people made up different stuff, we kill each other.
https://open.substack.com/pub/anniegottlieb/p/the-age-of-branded-gods?r=16gkv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
“To set our tribal identities in stone” is a problem that stems from failing to see others as an extension of the self. an arrogant mindset that makes others believe in their supremacy.
“Atheism and science” can be turned into a vicious and poisonous religion, not exempt from creating “tribes.”
“Faith without a story” could lead to blind faith. After all all forms of cultural human expressions are born from religion. Most importantly is that this story concerns how to overcome our suffering and help others do the same.