I just watch the 11th episode of Cosmos tonight. One of the themes to tonight's show was how writing gave humans immortality. I think it's funny how people have been inventing ways to have eternal life through stories of gods and saviors for thousands of years. I guess people just can't accept that one day their lives will just end. That the only thing that can remain of their lives are those that they leave behind. It's not surprising that evolution has guided us to have sex and ensure that we pass on our genes above all other aspirations. I suppose the other way we can live on is through what we write. That's part of the reason I'm doing this. I wonder who will read this years after I'm gone. Maybe it will be my son or even one of his kids. Maybe, if Google decides that a person's descendants should be entitled to what their ancestors wrote.
I'm also writing to tell whomever reads this that I don't believe in god. That's been my big kick here for the last couple of years. I've been talking to so many people about god and why they believe but the last people I want to know, at least for now, are my own family. Terri knows, it's those who are related to me by blood. They are so convinced that a god saved them from Cambodia. They will refused to believe that of the hundreds of thousands of people who died in the Killing Fields that some were bound to escape. Our family survived because my mother and father did not hope that a god would save them. They saved themselves and their children. They've been made so humbled that they cannot take credit for their own actions. But maybe I'm being too harsh. My dad was a pretty proud guy though; he really needed to be knocked down a peg or two to make him realize how ignorant he was of so many things. Will I suffer the same fate? I don't think I'm much like my father in that respect. I know what I know and I know what I don't know. I can't disprove the existence of a god but from everything that I've seen, if there is a god, he or she is a real douche. Seriously, what kind of god with any powers at all would stand for all the crap that's going on in this world. But, oh, I found a penny, "Praise the Lord!" That's what people sound like to me. They ignore all the bad crap and give him credit for the few good things that happen. I'd love that job.
The other thing that's got me convinced that god doesn't exist is the relentless accumulation of human knowledge. The god of the gaps. We plugged holes in our understanding of the universe with god. When we found out how things really work, we leave god out of the equation. Seriously, who makes a call on their cell phone and thinks it's god who makes the connection on the other side? I bet you if you showed that to someone from 100 years ago, they'd think that was magic or god. And don't even get me started on creationists and anti-evolutionists. It's so painfully clear that we are related to every living thing on this planet. "But we're special! God created us in his image!" I'm pretty sure that it was the other way around.
People can have their religion. As for me though, I've made up my mind and I'm not buying it and I'm not going to force anyone in my family to buy it either. Good night.
