Saying God Is Dead is a pretty harsh statement. What that really means is that anyone that feels that way is actually saying that religion and the mentalities behind it are dead. God is used in the sentence because God is supposed to be the head dude in the religious heirarchy , so that name is used for emphasis purposes. I truly feel that if God was indeed dead, that society would be a better place. I think that mankind has moved beyond the point where he has to rely on a godhead of some kind to run his life. There was never really any reason to invent religious shit in the first place. When mankind first arrived on Earth, it was a very hostile place. It was far from a certainty that he would even survive on the planet, let alone become the dominant life form on it. To accomplish this, man had to use the one and only thing that he had that separated him from everything else, his mind and intellect. Man had to figure out just what the fuck was going on around him and then learn how to first adapt to it, then how to adapt things to suit his tastes and needs. He did this not by looking up to the sky and saying some ritualistic shit, but by using that mind and intellect to reason out what to do and how to do it. It took a while, but he finally got it right, for man has dominated this planet for a long time now, and shows no signs of giving up that spot. Once he accomplished this, his ego got the better of him and man started to tinker with everything whether it needed it or not, like, his society. Now that he knew how to feed and clothe and shelter himself and was here to stay, man started to invent things that were intended not to conquer the Earth, but to conquer his fellow man. Man started to use that intellect of his to invent things that he said that other men needed to follow to become successful in life. From this, up sprang shit like money as a means of calculating the value of things, politics as a way of choosing "leaders" ,and, most importantly ( at least for the purposes of this column), religion as a way of centering other men's minds around things other than themselves. It certainly worked for that purpose.
So religion after religion sprouted up all over the planet like a fungus. With them came all the various rules and regulations that each one had for its adherents. This served many purposes for mankind. It helped him to divide himself up into various denominations or tribes or races or whatever, and that gave man the chance to trot out the "us vs. them" mentality that he could use to justify any and all of his desires. Whenever man felt that he needed to subjugate someone else or steal from them or flat-out kill them, he could use some kind of religious shit as an excuse to do it, and he did all the way. Putting atrocities in that religious sort of light enabled man to convince his various followers that some sort of Supreme Being was on their side in this cause against those that were not with that same Being. Every major world religion spread through this manner. The religion was used as an excuse for man's various egomaniacal desires Call it The Crusades, a Jihad, whatever you want, they all operated on that same principle. So man found that keeping God alive and well in his societies served his purposes greatly. That's how God or whatever it was called got to be the center of so many fuckin' societies on earth. Doing that helped to ensure that man got to run things his way all the time. God or whatever was merely a vehicle for this end. But that was not the way that it was presented to the people. They were told that whatever religion that they adhered to was something far different than what it really was. They were told that God was some sort of all-powerful, peaceful Being that watched over them and rewarded those that did what He said, and punished those that didn't. The fact that these punishments were meted out for very flimsy reasons so much of the time and that they involved such extreme measures so often was shrouded by the dogmas that man invented to go along with God, so that the adherents would be so fuckin' busy sticking to the dogma lest they fail God, that they wouldn't notice what was really going on here. This worked like a fuckin' charm. People really came to believe that their religion was this great, peaceful thing that could never possibly do these terrible things that they were accused of. This was accomplished by man making the dogma such a strict, unyielding thing that the only way to "properly" deal with it was to make it such a centerpiece of your thinking that it was uppermost in your thoughts and beliefs at all times, even when it contradicted reality and fact. The fear of the punishment for failing the dogma became so great that the common man was very willing to disregard reality and fact when it went against the dogma, just so that he wouldn't fall on the wrong side of it. Society after society was launched on this principle throughout history. Many of these societies flourished, and when they did, religion was given the credit where it wasn't deserved. Lots of people feel that this is a good way to do things, because from their viewpoints, it has worked. The key words there are from their viewpoints.
So now here we are in the 21st century. Is it still proper to keep God alive in today's society, or is it really better if God is indeed dead? In the last couple of columns, I wrote about some of man's undertakings, like his ability to read the planet accurately, and his adventures in flight, both in and out of outer space. These things were made possible by the same things that got man out of the swamps and caves and into his cities and societies, intellect. Many of those that were involved in these things will say that God played a part in it by being an inspiration to them and shit, but when you really listen to that, it is just an echo of some dogma or another. The real results came because of intellect, not some Higher power. That is the sort of thinking behind Nietzsche's philosophy and his famous statement. But is it true that God is really dead in today's societies? Not at all, I fear. The God and religion shit is alive and well and thriving in every society in the world today. Especially in America, even more after the events of last month, is this true. All you are seeing now is this religious shit going on and on about how things are now and what needs to be done about it. Many people feel that they have to turn to this religion shit in order to seek solace and comfort in these troubled times that we have entered into. That alone proves that God is not dead these days. That does not mean that this is a good thing, however. That would be looked on as a terrible statement by a great number of people because they would say look at what man has accomplished up until now, and he has had his religions and shit. Isn't that good enough? Yes, man has made enormous progress during his time on Earth. But he could have made so much more progress if he had set things up differently. Without wasting so much time and effort coming up with doctrines and dictums and punishments for those that failed them, man could have gone even farther down the roads that he has so far in life. The stem cell research thing is the current issue for that. That has always been hindered by people for purely religious reasons. When man looks at this from a scientific knowledge viewpoint, he can accomplish great things. When religion comes into it, then he holds everything back due to some dogma. This has happened with scientific breakthroughs throughout history. Many were delayed for centuries solely because they offended some dogma or another. If God was truly dead in a society, these things would never happen. There would be no dogma to interfere with the natural progress of man's knowledge. This does not mean that man will descend into the depths of madness with his knowledge, because the definitions of those depths are spelled out by some religious doctrine or another. When people say that something shouldn't be done in the scientific community, they usually use the term "playing God" somewhere. The fact that if man had never invented God and gave Him life in the first place, let alone such prominent places in society, these ideas would not occur to the "mad scientist", for he would not have a blueprint to follow to play that right there in whatever religion he knows about.
People don't like this humanistic theory much because they feel that it is cold. It doesn't have "concrete" answers about so many things. Like where did everything come from? Humanistic theory tells you that man doesn't know that yet, but he's working on it. Most people find that answer unacceptable, so they turn to religions that all have some story or another about how everything all came together. Same with the question about what happens after we die, and why do we have to die anyway? Humanistic theory says that we die because we are organic beings, just like any other life form, so the species could not evolve if people didn't die eventually and were replaced by new generations. As far as what happens afterwards goes, man doesn't know that yet. People don't like to hear this, either. So they again turn to religions that purport to "answer" these questions. The thing is that the answers that they give are as cold as anything that humanistic philosophy comes up with. All this shit about a Supreme Being that is all-powerful and cannot be crossed and has this intractable way of thinking and doing thing sand shit is as cold as it gets, man. All the talk of places like Heaven ( or Paradise) and Hell ( or Damnation) and what that shit's all about and what you have to do in order to get one and avoid the other and all that fuckin' nonsense is every bit as cold and cruel as any reasonable thing that humanistic philosophy comes up with. So there is no real difference. The only thing is that religion can be and has been used to subjugate and control other man in many ways for a long time now, and humanistic approach shit cannot be used for those purposes. Why? Because it relies on common sense and rationality, and those things cannot be warped and shaped to fit a particular situation. They are rather rigid things that cannot be used except for their intended purpose. The only thing that is rigid in religion is the dogma, and that is so the people are not able to see how the reasoning and mentality behind it all are bent and twisted to suit any and all purposes that man sees fit. That appeals to man's ego a lot more, for it puts him in control rather than having to adapt to something else. After he got out of the caves, man seems to have had enough of adaptation and wants to be in control at all times. This is what you get by keeping God alive in society. If this worked out well more often than not, then it wouldn't be so bad. However, as anyone can plainly see, it does not. This is why Nietzsche and others said what they did, and why I agree with them. If God was truly dead in society, then man would truly be free once again and then he could accomplish whatever he wanted to. This is what the God Is Dead people are really after. They have not gotten much in terms of headway on that front up until now in human society, so now that we are into a new century, one of the great questions will be whether that changes much or not. That fact will be one of the determining factors in what transpires in terms of man' s development in this new century.