It is long overdue.
All the major world religions are ancient. They are thoroughly fossilized and hidebound and have drifted so far from the reasons they were founded as to become the polar opposite of their founder’s vision without even knowing it.
They rely on things like fear, tradition, and superstition to propagate themselves instead of, ya know, actually having answers for people.
In my mind, a religion dies the moment it stops answering people’s questions and start punishing people for asking them instead.
To me, that means they have admitted they have failed the people and have no idea what they are talking about and need to be replaced.
What is needed, then, is a brand new religion that has the best parts of the old religions, the parts that actually helped people, without all the worthless and/or toxic bullshit the old religions drag along with them out of ignorance and force of habit.
Oh, and corruption. There’s always those in the priest class who directly benefit in terms of power and status from keeping things exactly as they are despite all the human suffering it causes.
Don’t get me started.
This new religion would have to immediately jettison all the mindless taboos around sex, diet, and the rest.
None of them can justify their existence any more, and frankly do vastly more harm than good by creating pointless fear, guilt, and superstition in people and often trapping them in opposition to their own natural instincts instead of letting them live free to express those deep drives however they see fit as long as basic hygiene is observed.
So this new religion would have no opinion on what kind of sex you have, what foods you eat with other foods, what position your body is in when you pray, or what the building where you get together once a week is called.
None of those are matters of concern to religion. Do as thou wilt.
This religion would also lack a cosmology. Or rather, its only cosmology is science. Matters of the origin of the universe, healthy living, and so on are also not matters of concern to religion. Believe the science.
Instead, the new religion would concentrate on the true and very important needs that only religion can fulfill.
Needs for things like comfort in times of trial, giving one a sense of one’s place in the larger world, a sense of cosmic justice, moral guidance, a source of hope and forgiveness and mercy, and so forth and so on.
It would make people feel safe, not scared. Comforted, not afflicted. Included, not exclusive. United in love, not divided by hate. Calm, not confused. And in harmony with nature and themselves instead of divided against them.
Above all, it would be centrally and irrevocably based on true humanism. No shortcuts, lazy justifications, or other betrayals. We care for one another, period.
Nobody is disposable, everybody counts, and there is no “them”.
We are all us.
And we are united in our humanity. We are all frail and fragile souls trying to make it through this crude and startling spectacle called life, and our best bet for survival is always to huddle together for warmth so we can face the night together.
We’re all we’ve got, people. Might as well get along.
More after the break.
You got the touch!
The Midas Touch, that is, and I ain’t talking muffler repair.
I recently installed a mod called Midas Magic Spells of Aurum to my Oblivion.
I was about to play a mage for the second time and the mod promised to add like 300 new spells to the game so it seemed like just the thing to spice things up this time.
But once more I was a victim of my attempts to bypass my chronic indecision by just grabbing the first thing I see that seems like it would fit the bill without looking at the fine print, let alone other options.
Did you know there are people who can consume all the available information about all the alternatives and then actually come to a decision?
Boggles the mind. I want their kung-fu.
Because you see, the mod doesn’t just add the spells to the ones available from various vendors throughout the game, like the ones I had in Skyrim did, oh no.
This one gets all cute with it.
To get the spells, you have to combine various things (like plants, weapons, household objects, and other bric-a-brac) in this magic device, add a Gold Nugget (hence the Midas and Aurum part), then cast any spell on the device.
Then the device coverts the stuff into “magic residue”, which confers the spell upon you when you… eat it.
That does not bear thinking on.
Now compared to just buying the fucking thing, doing all that to get a spell is a serious hassle. And when I first tried the thing out, I was very pissed off.
But I have gotten used to it now and I am starting to really get into it. It’s a lot of fun to find various bits and pieces and realize you now have what it takes to get something new and shiny.
Admittedly, remembering the recipes can be tricky. But all you really need is to remember what ingredient you are missing.
And just grab one of everything in the meantime. Or everything that seems familiar from the recipe books, anyhow.
Right now, my main beef is with the need for Gold Nuggets.
Those fuckers are neither common nor easy to come by. There’s nowhere you can go to buy them, only places that MIGHT have one for sale and places where you MIGHT find one amongst the random loot.
That seems like too much to ask. So I have installed this.
Yeah, it’s a blatant cheat. And I haven’t quite decided to actually use it yet. I am going to explore my options for getting my Nugs on au naturel first.
But I will go get the spell anyway. Might as well.
Just in case.
I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.