Seems we are hardheaded
Do the gods of different nations talk to each other? Do the gods of Chinese cities talk to the ancestors of the Japanese? With the lords of Xibalba? With Allah? Yahweh? Vishnu? Is there perhaps an annual meeting where they compare their followers? Mine would bow their heads to the ground and follow the lines in the wood for me, says one. Mine will sacrifice animals, says another. Mine will kill anyone who insults me, says a third. Here is the question I ask myself most often: Is there anyone who can honestly say, My followers follow my good laws, and treat each other kindly, and live simple and generous lives?” from the whispers of God of Han Qinq-Jao
- Orson Scott Card
Here is another wonderful quote from Orson Scott Card, he writes science fiction, but this quote has made me think more about religion than any religious book I have ever read in my life.
It makes me think about how difficult we are, how complicated our minds are that we have not been able to apply simple rules like “treating others kindly and living simple and generous lives”.
There are hundreds (maybe thousands) of religions, each with its set of “rules” or “precepts” (usually a lot of them, and my apologies, but sometimes some of these rules make no sense).
But in the end, with rules and all, if there were a meeting between the gods, there would be none that could say the last part of the quote.
It seems we are tough huh??? So many gods, all of them very powerful and all those rules and we still are tremendously selfish, we insist on killing each other, willing to sacrifice many of our own race for some metal, or for “power” (an idea that we ourselves invented), we are still jealous of our neighbors… etc I don’t have to mention all the sins we are guilty of… the idea is already clear.
Such a great effort by those huge beings that are the gods against beings as “insignificant” as we humans are and no god has succeeded against these monkeys…
We will not be tamed until we want to be tamed, we will not enjoy those simple lives until we want them, until we fight every day to have them, the help of the gods is useless if we do not want it.