Beach Chair
I had quite a productive day and before I go to bed, I felt like getting a little philosophical with you. I hope no one reads this as me being disrespectful, because it is truly not intended that way. It is just my own opinion and my own perspective.
From the album "Kingdom Come" by legendary rapper and hip-hop artist Jay-Z comes a song not about big pimpin' or spendin' cheese, but rather about life. "Beach Chair," featuring Coldplay's Chris Martin, makes for an interesting listen, especially if the lyrics are carefully paid attention to. One of the most meaningful parts of the song, to me at least, is when Jay-Z says "Sure books can guide you/But your heart defines you." I find this so significant because I don't believe enough people listen to their hearts and what they truly want. And as the Agnostic I claim to be, I believe that people listen too much to the book of all books, the one and only Holy Bible.
It's just a book. There's plenty of them out there. Yet billions of people across the globe, all shapes, sizes, and colors, guide their life according to this book. What's so special about this book? According to many religions, it is the word of God (I usually don't capitalize this word since I find no meaning in it, but I'll do this out of respect for others). Well, who is God? Good question, 'cause I've been asking that for a long time now. Does he exist? I have no idea. Is there proof he exists? No. You might say, "Have a little faith." I get that lecture from my mom all the time I bring up the existence of God. Well I've got plenty of faith in things I know exist, but God isn't one of them.
Hundreds of years ago, maybe the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the church was all-ruling. Everyone obeyed the church's laws, and whoever did not was severely punished. With the church in place, there was a sense of order. There was the Pope and other clergymen at top, next came royalty, then servants, then peasants (1). That isn't as detailed as it could be, but it gets my point across. Translate that to today's society: the Pope would be able to overrule the likes of President Bush and British PM Gordon Brown, and I would be considered a lowly peasant. Well I am certainly not a peasant, and there is no way George Bush would allow any one to rule above him. Nonetheless, the church was in place because it encouraged uniformity as well as it scared servants and peasants into listening to God's word, which was and/or is supposedly contained within this book.
Let's go back to Jay-Z's lyric Books can guide you. Well, it's true. I get guidance from books everyday: how to draw isomers in organic chemistry, what a tubal pregnancy is in anatomy, et cetera, et cetera. But guess what - when it comes to what I want to do, how I feel, what my opinions are, there should be no book telling me those things. Yet such a book exists, and it exists within the bible. I should be honest and say that I have never read the entire bible. I tried, but it wasn't working out. I do know that I shouldn't necessarily say that the bible tells us how to live our lives, but I think it suggests many things that many people believe to be true just because this book says so.
I'm going to quote a few things from the New International Version of this book, then comment on how ridiculous I think it is.
" 'If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads."
Do I really have to comment on this one?
5 They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them."
6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof."
Oh, that's nice. Let the men practically rape your daughters but spare the other men. Also, these men want to have sex with other men, yet the passage above this says that if two men have sex, they both shall be killed. Somebody didn't proof read.
2 Now the earth was [a] formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
Well if formless and empty, where did the water come from? And who created God?
Does God explain physics? No, science does.
Sources:
(1) http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/feudalism-pyramid.htm
http://www.biblegateway.com
