Friday, February 17, 2006

feeling FRISKY


Well, minor surgery over with, and I’m back and feeling friskier than ever about the mission: gently replacing god the father with God the Mother by the year 2025.

I predict that over the next 19 years, the world will slowly begin to see the magnitude of the pain produced by the godFather religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism).

Both women and men will finally realize the horror, ugliness and illness these primitive warrior-god religions have spread around the globe. Mothers will wake up to the truth: allowing their children to dabble in these primitive religions will drag them into the perpetual war these so-called “religions” have kept alive for the past 6000 years.

The world will see with fresh eyes the silliness of the idea that life and love stem from divine maleness – and from maleness minus femaleness! “Ta dah! I give you: Jehovah, Yahweh, Vishnu and Allah! The miracle boys, who cook up life from human ribs!”

We’ll become entranced with that era 6000 years ago when female deity was the font of life -- and when war, poverty, social class and human degradation were unknown.

Hey, all you dynamite people: We need truth, love and justice. The warrior gods have had 6000 years to deliver the goods, and they’ve bombed. Please: look with fresh eyes at these primitive god-dudes, and tell me you see anything but silliness.
_____
Thnx to mmagallan for the foto of friskiness

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've long felt that what you propose is the way to go BUT does it not once again come very close to a question of belief?
The old conundrum: how do we get re-linked to those cycles and rhythms that make dogma redundant?
Nice that your post presents the flip side of some thoughts that I've been exploring as to how the patriarchy 'licences' it's killers...
Thanks though, for nudging my eyes up toward the clouds again.

Athana said...

lept, I began my love of Goddess in an intellectual sense only. In the beginning, intellectually, logically, I could see that female deity made so much incredible sense for the human species. As a social scientist and historian who studied the anthropology of religion for several years, I suddenly saw in female deity a new and healthy, life-affirming direction for the human species.

And I don't mean a fluffy, safe-to-the-point-of-boring way of life, but one full of challenges and thrills as well as love and dignity for everyone.

The ancient Minoans worshipped female deity and were some of the most daring, adventurous, and courageous people around.

I'm not sure, in other words, that you have to have "belief" (whatever that means to you) in order to see that the primitive warrior-god religions that sucked us in 6000 years ago are horrific, and that female deity is what we need right now to repair the horrific damage.

Paxton said...

I want to put aside the question of whether God is good or bad (he is good =)) for a second and ask you another question that occured to me.

Do you recommend that we should believe in something because we like it or because it is true?

Example: suppose you knew for a fact that God exists and Godess does not (or vice versa). Would this knowledge influence you at all?

Athana said...

Well, let me say at the outset that "facts" are tricky things, Paxton. And they're especially tricky when it comes to spirituality. I just finished the rough draft of a paper on this very topic, so it's hot on my brain. Even gravity is still considered a theory, not a fact. Of course we all strengthen the theory of gravity every time we drop something and it doesn't fly off into space.

Anyway, I think I know what you're driving at. I don't believe in Goddess because I like Her religion, but just because I do (believe, that is). However, beyond my belief, I see Her as pure Love, the way mothers love their children. I see her as an exquisite role model for us: we need to love each other the way She loves us, the way any healthy mother loves her children. And I saw Her that way even before I began to believe in Her.

But, yes, if I "knew" a god existed the way I know my dog exists, for example, I would have to grant him some credibility. If he bit me a lot -- and I think that's what the god Jehovah/Allah does to people -- I would be very sad, though, and I would try to put him to sleep.

Which is exactly what I'm trying to do on this blog. I do not think Jehovah/Allah exists. There is so much evidence that he is a fiction created from gods that existed before -- with a twist of evil added (like hell) -- that I couldn't begin to describe it all on a blog. You'd have to read books on the subject, such as When God Was a Woman, by Merlin Stone, or The Great Cosmic Mother by Sjoo and Mor.

I know you believe strongly in your god. How did you come to that strong belief?

goddess of the universe said...

i love that it is now a universal thrust a huge movement to acknowledging Goddess once again. But to only concentrate or focus on her as she who brings comfort and peace is to not acknowledge her full spectrum of multi-hued selves. I am not sure that when all do recognize Goddess all-that much will change...
i mean one of the most powerful forces in nature and nature itself is described with feminine strengths (katrina, rita, etc)...i hope that what will open up- once again- is a way to truly understanding the layers of woman power and that in that overstanding- we will come to those memories- forgotten erased abandoned-
in which men and childern can help heal woman as healers
(this is jumbled up- i know...i might hafta repost...i just had to get something out now about this subject)
thanks

Athana said...

dear goddess,

Yes, I agree that there's a "dark" side to the Goddess. I think, however, that it comes out only when Goddess sees her children being hurt in some way. In contrast, with the gods (and especially the warrior gods who now dominate the planet) violence seems to exist just for the sake of violence.

I know this is simplistic, but I think it's a good, short version suitable for a short blog comment.

I love your comment -- the part about men and children helping women become the Goddess again, so we can heal the planet and everything on it. And the part about women possessing forgotten "layers of power."

Paxton said...

on the subject of hurricane names, don't forget there are male names for them too (I don't know why that's important at all =P)

In some book by C.S. Lewis he suggests (from a literary-criticism perspective) that Christianity does include a lot of things similar to previous religions. (I think it is his book "Reflections on the Psalms" where he talks about this). He thinks that is because each of those religions had *some* parts which reflected truth, and Christianity is the fulfillment of all of them. In other words, there are not a thousand religions that are merely wrong, with the thousand-and-first being merely right. The thousand-and-first is what the first thousand have been pointing to.

Of course that is Lewis and not me talking. I don't know enough about old religions to verify this, but it does sound right. It also jives with a number of verses from the Bible that I half-remember. (Lewis also mentions an interesting story of how Plato presupposed a scenario that is a lot like Christ's life and death).

I appreciate your thorough answer to my question. =) Reading it, I still get the impression that you don't strongly believe in the existence of the goddess as a point of fact.

Not that I demanding you prove her existence. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see."

I don't have time right now to tell the story of my faith but if you want me to explain it I will post it on my blog some time (it actually sounds like a great idea, thanks =).