h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

i worte this for English... the next day i won the sixth form award for RE...
i think somehow the school dosent take me seriously...


God, Fact or Fiction


In the beginning there was a void… but because nothing can come from nothing there was God… or was there?
For hundreds of years the question has hung in the air suspended by the perpetual chain of belief, hanging precariously above religion. Maybe one day the chain will brake crushing the falsities of misplaced faith, but until then the pendulum swings.
It’s the philosophical question of the eons God, Fact or Fiction? Well there are many answers but is there one correct one… there must be… mustn't there after all if there are so many Questions and so many searchers someone somewhere must have found an answer by now surely mustn't they?
In the beginning there was nothing and god created the heavens and the earth the birds the best and man or so the catholic faith and a few others Judaism to name but one. But are they correct well so many people cant be wrong can they but then again there are other religions who believe other things and they also cant be wrong…
Or can they… after all if I created a religion that stated that the world was made when a god sneezed and we are but bacterium on that sneeze hurtling through the universe till some blessed handkerchief stopped our progress permanently killing us all in an instant then how could I be wrong after all there is no proof to disprove my hypothesis, after all the other planets the stars and the universe as a whole could be mere pigments of our imagination or something else blasted out in the same earth creating sneeze. What ever you believe the pendulum swings.
Belief is a thing often associated and confused with religion and that is where the problems start. Your religion should not influence your belief… at lest not in a serious way after all if by some fluke of maths, physics, astronomy, or some other science someone managed to disprove that religion, that god that idol, then will you stand by and let everything you once stood for fall apart. I hope not. If your belief relies exclusively on the existence of a god, idol, or other church based figure then I think you should review what you truly believe in and fast. The founding stones so to speak of most religions is the virtues of truth, honesty, integrity, love and respect for your fellow man these beliefs are what I believe we should respect not some idol without whom all belief would fall apart. The pendulum swings.
The churches sit full to the doors on Sundays, empty for the rest of the week religion for the majority is a one a week thing and yet it dominates the life of so many but the scriptures are beheld as a truth in the harts of a few. I cannot condone this tradition grown from fear of the church that dates back to before the middle ages.
Never changing, never meeting the demands of those that follow it, the elders of the church viewing themselves to be above those that they preach to enforcing the enslavement of the followers with shackles made from holy words… and at the same time condemning the slavery of those in far of places enforced with shackles of iron. Is there no hope left in Pandora’s box? The pendulum swings.
The fact that seemingly archaic tales can relate directly to the way society is organised in the present does not, of course, imply that myths cannot contain a variety of other meanings, perhaps equally or more important aiming to resolve perceived contradictions in human experience. In many traditions, creation is brought about by sacrificial death. In the Chinese account it is the cosmic giant Pan Gu who gives up his life to bring the world into being. In the catholic religion Jesus is sacrificed to bring salvation to the world. The wind blows and the pendulum swings again.
Surprisingly many mythologies around the world have comparatively little to say about the creation of human beings. The Hebraic tradition represented in the biblical book of genesis says merely that god “created man in his own image”. According to one Greek myth, the first man was created from clay and the first woman from earth. The introduction of evils through Pandora is echoed in many other mythological traditions. Polynesian myth for example, connects the origin of death with the creation of the first woman. As the world takes shape through divine activities. This along with extracts from many holy books may also show that religion is sexist and is created to put the female into a worse light… discriminated against in many religions who preach equality. The pendulum swings again.
One religion believes that before the gods came into existence there was only dark, watery abyss called the nun, whose chaotic energies contained the potential forms of all living things. The truth is that many religions all have a different view of how the world and its inhabitants were created and came into existence, some religions say the sun and the moon as there gods others say that there gods take the form of animals that inhabit the earth while others said that their kings and queens were gods. So who or what is god… the pendulum swings
Well there are no full or correct answers to different people god represents different things… the creator, the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent being that looks down on all and dispenses the ultimate judgement at the end of our natural earthly lives… the forgiving father of all who created mankind in his image and gave us free will… the vengeful god of the old testament who punished those who angered him by turning them to salt if he indeed were the god of all men then he was god of the Egyptians even if they did not believe in him the so then why did he release plagues on them? And if he knew how susceptible man was then why put all the 7 deadly sins into Pandora’s box… the pendulum swings
Maybe the only reason for god is fear and man fears uncertainty and the unknown so man created god to answer all the unanswerable questions and as a scape-goat for all those inexplicable things that happen… earthquakes, floods, famine, the four horseman of the apocalypse are there as governing forces… to help explain that which goes unexplained like the ending of the world… the pendulum swings and still no answer…

I'm gonna read this at home, if you don't mind. I haven't got any aspirins handy!

Its good I would consider starting some long philosophical discussion about whether or not God exists, but I am suffering from lack of sleep (again!).

~Skenvoy

it is a bit longer than my normal journal enterys....

Why don't you put it into a guide entry? You could make it easier to read then.

*nods*
i will do

A1164188

Hmm. Interesting. Since the age of about five, I've been atheist/agnostic (I don't think that there is a God, but I can't prove it one way or the other, so why worry?).

If it turns out that I'm wrong, I hope that He has a good sense of humour!

Nigeepoo (currently with light brown hair - and staying that way!)

I think if god made us, he'll have to take us as we are. He gave us the choice, he'd better learn to live with it.

well good for the both of you...

(the pink hair may be even pinker by the alton towers meet )

I like the school of thought once put forward by Terry Pratchett (although I don't practise it myself):


'You may as well believe in God, because if he doesn't exist you've lost nothing, and if he does you've gained a lot'

yeah thats a good one

can I just ask (slightly OT i know) Nigeepoo if you are an atheist/agnostic then how to you believe the universe was created? Luck, chance, science or what?? I'm just curious, I'm not trying to make you question your beliefes or lack thereof, honest!!!!

~Skenvoy

I think the universe just happened. Things do. When good things happen, that's serendipity. When bad things happen, that's tough. We are where we are today as a result of several mass extinctions (tough for those that became extinct, including the neanderthals) and countless other events.

If things had been a teensy bit different, we wouldn't be here today to argue the toss. Just like on billions of other planets out there where things didn't turn out just right.

Hey-ho. It doesn't worry me that there is probably no meaning to life, the universe and everything.

i personaly would like to think tahat there is...
at lest something at the end of our earthly toil

I don't think so. What is the human mind? Electronic signals in protein circuitry. How can the signals maintain coherence without the circuit?

yes... but i would like to beleve that i have a spirit that may live on after i phisicly continue to do so...
even if it is only in the memorys of others

You should read 1984. There's a pretty deep thought about that in there; if there is no record of something, not even in the momory of people, it never happened.

*shruder*
well i have my belefe and you have yours..
lets agree to disagree

I agree.