The Marikana tragedy and the ongoing strikes in the mining industry has highlighted a recurring issue in South Africa.
If you read the history of Southern Africa, there has always been wars and arguments over land and resources, the Mfecane lasted 25 years and resulted in an almost complete depopulation of large areas of land.
Then the missionaries came and further fomented and ingrained the tribal identity/hate in the region to the point that we now have smaller tribes of a much bigger variety.
Whether along the traditional ethnic, linguistic, racial or the newer political or trade union lines; we still have the same tribal mentality which was fucked up beyond repair by the silver-tongued missionaries.
I blame them for their misguided attempts at stamping out the traditional beliefs and the results that we are still experiencing.
I cannot be bothered to look up the verse, but you know the one: 'If you are not with us, you are against us.'
This ridiculous black and white mentality has been taught so that it is no longer a sin to take up arms and kill those that oppose you in any way. That is why we have fights and arguments, violent strikes and killings.
Coupled with the traditional tribal beliefs, is it any wonder that people get murdered?
In Marikana the police were opposed to the strikers, they instantly became enemies due to this stupid and idiotic 'us versus them' mentality. The strikes that turn violent do so for exactly this same reason. Once opposed, even if you are in the wrong, you have to retaliate.
Without a huge, concerted effort to recognise and accept differences, I doubt that we will make any headway and the killings will continue.
In a perfect world we would not need to have this debate at all, but seeing that the US Presidential Election are coming round and half the people voting do so based on their religious beliefs, allow me to piss them off.
When faced with the two most incompatible super powers of their god, I ask myself whether the omnipotence can override the omniscience?
If he knows already what he will do (omniscience), did he choose to do it (omnipotence), or did he know that he was going to make the choice? If he knew that he was going to make the choice, did he make it at all? If not, then he did not have the free will and is not omnipotent anymore. If he didn't know that he was going to make the choice, then he is not omniscient either. This can go in circles all day long, and the question I want answered: Can he change his mind?
If you are a Watchmen fan you will know about the difficulty Doctor Manhattan has in relating to human beings as he can see the past, present and future all at the same time. (Just like Death in the Terry Pratchett novels.)
Towards the end of the movie he decides to leave humanity behind and spend a bit of time alone on Mars. This illustrates the foreign and strange personality and intelligence of a god quite clearly. He has no way to relate to humans as he can see their fleeting and insignificant lives against the backdrop of a whole universe that is there to explore and control.
With the power to accomplish anything, would you still even try?
I remember an argument with my sister a good couple of years back regarding the sex of god, she insisted he was a man because the mysoginistic bible writers said so. End of case. It was bad enough looking at a blue glowing penis for 3 hours, would you want to do that for the next few millenia in heaven?
We tend to anthropomorphize god and ascribe feelings and viewpoints to him based on our own belief systems and mores/values, which are pretty flexible and change over time. If you really believe in the existence of a god with the powers that you want him to have, you would have to admit that he is beyond comprehension and take the agnostic viewpoint.
That being said, it makes whatever he/she/it may be much closer to a complete and utter alien lifeform that we will never be able to understand and turns god into a a Lovecraftian intelligence that will devour us just as easily as save us. It would only use us for its own pleasure and amusement.
This god would be beyond any comprehension as it is literally able to move through time. It would be the most strangest and weirdest thing that we have ever encountered.
The religious can counter that their god is personal and cares and looks after them every day, but lacking any proof to the contrary, I can only think that this makes him the ultimate voyeur in charge of his own Truman Show.
This strange and incomprehensible being/intelligence will have no human morals or values as we understand them. And we still haven't answered the conundrum I posited earlier.
With no human morals or limits, would you really want to depend for your future on such a being? Would you really want this kind of stange alien life to have control over you?
We may just as well start praying to Cthulhu.
