Thursday, May 25, 2006

Gilead

I've been hearing the voice of my Literature teacher echo through my head for a week or so:

Edmund's philosophy is so appealing... It's so dark.

Watching Lordi performing live, albeit a horrid performance, was extremely intriguing. And that in a way, provoked some thought in me. I have finally come to a conclusion, that Man is naturally attracted to the Dark side simply based on 2 counts:
1)It's innate for Man know what's right or wrong, or what we normally call insinctive moral. (And this is the one thing that the Church enjoys exploiting to their advantage, but thou shall not probe further.)
2)It's the circumstance of Man, that we live in the Light far more than we do in the Dark.


Firstly, let me address the 1st count.

Biologically speaking, when one lies or even conjures the thought of a pre-determined "bad deed", one feels nervous, panicky due to the production of a certain hormone I do not nor care to know. All of this leads an erratic behaviour in blood pressure, heart beats and what not, which can easily be detected by a polygraph, or what people normally call the Lie Detector.

I say 'pre-determined' because for some reason or another, human beings are empowered with the ability to simply know something is wrong or not. Even grey areas have a pre-determined notion, and this can be evidenced by impulse, or the act of it. And this is the power of instinct, so fascinating that in my course of thought, I have not only grown closer to God, but also learnt to believe in His existence.

So if something is pre-determined to be wrong (dark), and we eschew our natural inertia to commit the act or crime. And in this case, we get those symptoms. There is no argument about your heart beating 3 times faster normal in an interrogation room, but hey, think about the prospect of you not being caught. You actually get a fucking kick out of the adrenaline rush. And this is addictive, at least for me. So addictive that I've grew to love going against my moral imperatives, but not at the expense of hurting others. There's a limit to everything, you know.

Okay, now for the second count, which is much more interesting.

If someone is going to tell me at this very second that they sleep in the day and are nocturnal beings and thus lives in the Dark, then it might be too narrow a definition to utilise in judging my claim. We live in the Light, not only physically, but also within.

Gnostic myths tell us of Man being intrinsically evil. But in a way or another, I beg to differ because I pay more attention to the divine spark that's within everyone, that the divine spark propels one to act more than than the darkness surrounding it. In a sense it offsets the darkness within us. I do not disagree that Man is intrinsically evil (as well as our creator), but I do believe that the we deny our foundation, because the light is simply the right thing to do, as our instincts say so (previously established already).

And because this simple denial of darkness is so easily done, it goes to show that it's just as easy to submit to this darkness and let your very evil essence consume you. Perhaps, that is why, Adam fell to the serpent after living in the Light for too long. I do not bloody agree that the serpent is evil, devilish or bad, as advocated by the Church so often.

Firstly, I think the serpent could arguably be labelled as our creator. Without his temptation, Adam would probably still be enjoying Eve's companion now. Knowledge is beauty, you know. Secondly, I personally feel that the serpent is a form respite from the monotony of life. Because now, we have 2 extreme polarities to play around with. And I choose to probe grey areas all the time, because I enjoy questioning and questioning, rather than submitting to the so called pre-established notions advocated by doctrines.

Doctrines are afterall, written by Man, not God. I think Prophets simply have no place in this argument, because they to me, are flukes. But they must have possessed the charisma ten times that of Geroge Bush to be able to wield the iron hand of their religion so swiftly. To the extent that repercussions are still felt today.

I say swiftly because I feel the cuts and bruises of wars fought in the name of religion; Crusades. That's the problem of the human condition you see. I am so horried at the sight of congregations gathering, fervently listening to the Pastor preaching the Bible in his version, specifically extracting details like fragments of a beautifully crafted mosiac and explaining to people.

Since when has a book been written for someone, a man, to read in fragments or isolation without regard for context? Literature has certainly prohibited that, much less a Holy Book, right?

The Republic of Gilead knows no bounds.
Gilead is Within You.

Summon your divine spark now, my friend.

posted@10:21 AM

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