Why no one truly trusts God:
If you live in Indiana, then you've probably seen our fantastic new license plates:
Doesn't that just make you want to cream your jeans in religious ecstasy? I, however, do not think that the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles should be in the position to choose my religion. So in silent protest, I covered the phrase "In God we trust" with black electrical tape:
A few people have asked me why I did this; to which I reply as I explained earlier, "The BMV doesn't need to choose my religion for me." However, recently, I've been reading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, which is about a gorilla that tells someone where we've gone wrong in our civilization (in a word: agriculture). Quinn draws parallels from the Bible to support his idea, most notably the story of Cain and Abel being a metaphor of agriculturists killing hunter-gatherers and destroying their lifestyle. As I was reading all this, I was thinking that our whole system of agriculture is to ensure that in case of calamity (such as God punishing us for some reason), we'll still have a supply of food saved up so we can survive. And if we're trying to stave off calamity by stockpiling food, then we're in effect telling God to fuck off.
And I later found out that Quinn reaches the same conclusion, although he says it much more elegantly than I just did.
Then I started thinking about this some more... and I realized that the Bible is full of parables telling us to stop this farming bullshit and to trust fully in God that He/She/It will provide for you daily. The most notable story that came to my mind is from Exodus when Moses is wandering with the Israelites through the desert. God provides manna to the Israelites daily to feed them. But one day some of the Israelites decided that it would be a good to save some of the manna in case there wasn't any tomorrow. Enter God's wrath. God says, "Well, since you didn't trust me, you're gonna walk around in this desert for the next 40 years." Jesus also says in Mathew to not save up food, just trust that God will provide.
So, anyone who lives in our civilization that stores food for the future (which would be everyone except a very small number of hunter-gatherer cultures) doesn't truly trust in God. And here in an agriculture state like Indiana, we have "In God we trust" on our license plates. Hmmm... something isn't right here.
PS: You should read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.
If you live in Indiana, then you've probably seen our fantastic new license plates:
Doesn't that just make you want to cream your jeans in religious ecstasy? I, however, do not think that the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles should be in the position to choose my religion. So in silent protest, I covered the phrase "In God we trust" with black electrical tape:
A few people have asked me why I did this; to which I reply as I explained earlier, "The BMV doesn't need to choose my religion for me." However, recently, I've been reading Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, which is about a gorilla that tells someone where we've gone wrong in our civilization (in a word: agriculture). Quinn draws parallels from the Bible to support his idea, most notably the story of Cain and Abel being a metaphor of agriculturists killing hunter-gatherers and destroying their lifestyle. As I was reading all this, I was thinking that our whole system of agriculture is to ensure that in case of calamity (such as God punishing us for some reason), we'll still have a supply of food saved up so we can survive. And if we're trying to stave off calamity by stockpiling food, then we're in effect telling God to fuck off.
And I later found out that Quinn reaches the same conclusion, although he says it much more elegantly than I just did.
Then I started thinking about this some more... and I realized that the Bible is full of parables telling us to stop this farming bullshit and to trust fully in God that He/She/It will provide for you daily. The most notable story that came to my mind is from Exodus when Moses is wandering with the Israelites through the desert. God provides manna to the Israelites daily to feed them. But one day some of the Israelites decided that it would be a good to save some of the manna in case there wasn't any tomorrow. Enter God's wrath. God says, "Well, since you didn't trust me, you're gonna walk around in this desert for the next 40 years." Jesus also says in Mathew to not save up food, just trust that God will provide.
So, anyone who lives in our civilization that stores food for the future (which would be everyone except a very small number of hunter-gatherer cultures) doesn't truly trust in God. And here in an agriculture state like Indiana, we have "In God we trust" on our license plates. Hmmm... something isn't right here.
PS: You should read Ishmael by Daniel Quinn.