the Dao of Atheism :jeffers' petroglyph, pre-dakota, minnesota : the Shaman Atheist 73/81

73

People who are brave and who like dares
kill and destroy.
People who are brave and have no taste for daring
live and create.
Either may be appropriate,
both may be good and bad
still,
the universe has no taste for blood,
neither does the follower of the way.

The universe never tries to win
still,
it always does;
never tries to speak
still,
there is always an answer;
never tries to command
still,
everything is ordered.

The net of the universe is wide ,
its mesh is wide
still,
nothing escapes.

Atheists need to be concerned with all popular gods, not only those that have been inherited over the centuries and are simply called 'God' by tradition. There are some gods that many theists and atheists, too, don't want recognized as gods. Why?
Contradictions. Should a theist serve two gods -- one according to tradition and one according to personal desires? In the monotheist tradition, the worship of two gods is blasphemous and idolatry.
Can an atheist serve a god and remain atheist?
Even if it is a material or worldly god?

Money (also known as Material Wealth and Property) has always been a private demi-god among those few who afford it in the past, but now it achieves full deification.
Fame-and-Power, a minor deity inherited by monarchies and fascists, is now popular as well among democracies.
Security, be it financial, health care insurance, marriage, or a locked car door, is a god of the middle class far more popular than Jesus.
Nationalism is a favorite god among weak people; Free Market a favorite among the strong afraid of becoming weak.
All of these promote over-indulgence in or an unhealthy prolongation of sensual pleasure ...

These are the new gods as surely as they once were decried by Jewish and Christian teachers, but no longer. Today Yahweh and Jesus, for the most part, are mere puppets dangled on the strings of society. The problem is not organized religion, for it is only the caretaker of the traditional crypt that should have been left long ago. The problem is that there is no real atheism to contradict and counteract the new gods because all the current atheists are pre-occupied with fighting the old dying gods.




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