I was watching the O'Reilly Factor today and they were showing a "best of" show and a past interview with LL Cool J. Cool J made a statement to the effect of "God gave us this earth" or something like that. I'm sure he's not the first one to say that and it may be some part of the Bible but I think it's a very interesting statement.
In saying that God gave us, we people, this planet, it suggests a sort of separate-ness between people and the earth. It's as if we suddenly appeared on the planet with everything in place and ready for use at our disposal.
I think that the near opposite is true, we are of this planet and it was not given to us by anyone or anything. I must admit that I'm am an ardent supporter of evolution and I disagree with organized religion. I've often wondered how people can follow a religion and put their faith in something they don't really understand or something that is a construct of someone's imagination.
I'll admit that all religions have tenets that are similar and advocate the same things such as love and peace and all that. But when you start going off into the pomp and circumstance and the hierarchy and rituals, it gets a little weird.
If there were a God who wanted to give us a place to live, don't you think he would have made it a little easier to get along? Maybe a place with unlimited resources or something? And why does this planet, created by God for us, continue to convulse and explode, destroying thousands of lives every year? Do you think that God makes the Pope wear that hat?
Oh sure, the religious folk will tell you, these disasters are just a test of faith. That's not a test of faith. When an entire family or village is wiped away in a Tsunami, who's faith is that testing? When an entire family lineage is gone, what does that mean?
Why can't people just admit that humans evolved over thousands of years starting out as some mutated monkey who happened to be particularly smart and able to take advantage of the resources at hand and thrive, probably better than any other living species. Everything makes much more sense then and maybe the earth looks a little more worth protecting.
If suddenly everyone realized that were true, would people start wondering why we are alive and what is the purpose of life? What is the purpose of any life? To procreate of course. Everything that every living thing does, even bacteria and amoeba, helps in its pursuit of eternal life, or an eternal lineage.
Religion has always been and still is a tool used by the few to control the many. As soon as civilizations started congregating and the few struggled for control of the many, religion was created as a tool, the higher-most authority, to justify the position of the leaders. It wasn't until fairly recently when religion started to be separated from politics.
But even still it isn't really. As the world gets smaller, borders are shrinking and the one thing left to unite people across political systems is religion. That is painfully obvious in the Middle East right now and even in our own backyard of U.S. domestic politics.
So there's something for you to chew on. From Cool J to the Middle East.
Have you believed God is waiting to judge you? The Bible says He longs to forgive you. Over and over throughout the pages of Scripture, we read of His longsuffering nature. From Genesis through Revelation, we see a consistent picture of a God who continues to offer forgiveness, up to the very end of time. He is not willing that any should perish, the Bible says, but that all should be saved. The reason He sent Jesus into the world is so that we could all be saved! (John 3:17). Religions teach us we need to earn God's favor. The Bible tells us God's favor is a gift. All He is waiting for is for us to admit our need. Once we confess our sin, His forgiveness is ours. (1 John 1:9)
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