Father’s rave about how our self-talk can be misconstrued as being the voice of god is contentious. And yes, I deliberately used a lowercase ‘g’. I took that rave out of the book and reinserted it at least a dozen times. But it’s got to the point where it’s important we start talking about the role of religion not in our individual lives, but in the context of power. While I would prefer to live and let live, religion has, in places, become dangerously divisive, with people’s rights being denied due to the religious considerations of others.
I’m happy for people to deny themselves abortions, but not the right to deny others. But it’s deeper than social issues like this. In the US there are senators and evangelists, or even evangelist senators in power spouting such ridiculousness as the ultra-conservative director of AFA, Bryan Fischer, who told his followers refusing to use fossil fuels hurts God’s feelings because those are gifts that He has given to mankind, and ‘God loves to see us find those gifts.’ Like it’s a child’s treasure hunt.
Desmog – https://www.desmog.com/2012/12/01/u-s-evangelist-not-using-fossil-fuels-insult-god/
That was in 2012, but there are plenty of examples of some really twisted thinking revolving around God giving us a license to exploit the planet rather than to protect it. edit: No sooner did I write that than an article appeared in our local news of a man who planned to re-open a coal mine in our state and “doing God’s will, God’s way.” Using technologies yet to be invented to make the process carbon free. There’s a great diversity within religious sects, and I’m not targeted people whose religious beliefs are those of love and tolerance. I’m pointing a finger at the people who worship money and or power and the god talk is largely a mind trick to ensure their bank balance remains healthy.
The Bible says, “God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth” (Gen. 1:26) Which has led to the enduring belief that the place is ours to dispose of as we want. It isn’t. Today the belief is tied to a desire to treat the planet as an economic convenience. And it’s convenient to cry foul on religious grounds, when really it’s about the loot. The ongoing snatch and grab.
I cringe at talking about, even thinking about the potential exclusion of any group, but we have to get over the compunction when the rights of a few are negatively impacting the rights of others, and in the case of the ‘god’ awful concept that god has given us a treasure hunt to find the black stuff and we have an obligation to find them as a justification for wiping out life on earth – we have an obligation. Religion was removed from matters of state a long time ago and for good reason, but its influence is still clear and increasing.
