Killing God - Part 1

Killing God: Bill... O’ Really?

Gott ist tot - God is dead! Wrote Frederick Nietzke in 1882. ¹ Since then, the world has treated God as if He is dead. God is alive but the world is trying to kill Him off. Let’s look at a dead God. 

A beautiful five-year old child dies in the springtime of life. Her smile remains intact as if forever there. Memories are created as we look at her. This is the last time she shall be seen. She lays there so peaceful in her pretty pink flowered skirt, and matching sweater. She is dressed for any important event. Her mother shed many tears upon the garment as she slowly fastened the buttons. Mama put in her little matching pink earrings, and even added a bow to her head. It seemed sort of a tiara. For Daddy it was. She was his little princess.

Her little brother, Matt, peeked over the casket to see his little sister. “She’s just a playin’” he told Mama. She wailed. Tears discreetly ran down Daddy’s cheeks.

“No, son. She’s not with us any longer.” Dad gulped hard. The tears began to flow. Mama squeezed his hand hard. She gulped harder as she choked back more tears. They had flowed plentiful that last few days. No mother should ever see her child die! She agonized. She turned away. The tears were like a fountain, and she couldn’t stop the flow. Little Matt cried too… just because Mommy was. 

The crowd slowly began to enter. They knew not what to say. Nobody ever does. What could be said? One by one, friends and family paced past the casket. Other mommies cried with fervor. The dads tried not to. They merely squeezed their wives and sniffed. Everybody had a cold that day. I heard to more than once as burley men could hardly contain their emotions. 

Most of the other children stayed in the break room. There they played with toys. There they were lied to: “She’s just sleeping,” they were told. “Don’t play loudly. You make awake her!” Many wished that. Most of the children played with bobble heads and baby dolls. The older ones tapped out directions to ugly beings on their iPads. These were modern babysitters. Mom could do what she wants and the children as they wanted. It was a convenience for everyone.

Georgie loved one specific video game: Bastard Kill. He loved to shoot at those children who had no father’s – video fathers fortunately. Georgie had broken all records for his age group. He killed more than anyone else in his district! His mama was proud of him. Plus, she could read her People magazine without being bothered with conversation.

Betsy tapped Georgie’s mother on the shoulder. Betsy had remained firm. She just would not change for society’s sake. They could be enlightened all they want but she preferred better than that. Betsy queried, “Aren’t you afraid he’s learning to kill?”

“Mind your own business!” Georgie’s mama retorted as she admired Tom Cruise and his new wife – the fourth now. Tom knows what life is about, she thought. I admire him so. Betsy did just that. She minded her own business. Logic is superfluous now. Heart are hardened. She said a short prayer to God as she often does. Please touch this poor woman’s heart, she pleaded silently to God.

Georgie’s mother turned another page. Betsy could see her admiration as she looked at a full-page photo of “the smartest man in the world” -  Stephen Hawking. He knew more than any man on earth about the origin of the universe. His toys were the laws of physics and quantum mechanics. Hawking dismissed hope as mythology. People depend on him and other scientists. Perhaps he or another smarter man on earth will find a way to extend life, perhaps for up to two-hundred years!

In the viewing area, one by one the stream came. Some tried to comfort Katie’s parents but could not find the words. Perhaps there is no comfort, Mama thought. Perhaps death is an escape from the trials of life. What a reward – to escape all this hatred, division, despair, and cancer.  Susie had died of cancer. Perhaps another smart man in the world would find its cure! Mama consoled herself with that revelation but it won’t do Susie any good. 

Mama looked down at her gold childhood cancer awareness ribbon. It made her feel a little better – she was doing a good thing! People needed to be aware that cancer kills children. Perhaps, then, they would take death seriously, she thought. 

Somehow Mama and Daddy made it through the day. The hardest part was having Susie cremated after the service. They weren’t there, but cremation made death even more final! There was never to be another chance to see Susie, not even in her pretty casket. They had taken hours to select the casket, only to use it for one hour. How depressing. Someone needs to come up with a more hospitable method, Mama said to nobody in particular. It had been inconvenient just selecting the method of internment. Life seems to be just a compilation of inconveniences from which many just wished to escape.

Later that evening Mama laid in bed. She was still crying as she imagined the 1800 degree temperature in which Susie was cremated. They never told her that, but she had goggled it. As she lay there, Mama remembered some scripture from years ago, back when she believed. Nebuchadnezzar told them to heat the fiery furnace seven times hotter than fire! ² 

I used to believe that, she thought. Now she had come to realize that the ground is cool and comfortable. At least now, she thought, Susie will be in no more pain. She was content with that. 

Daddy laid beside her with similar thoughts. There should be more to life than life but there is not!

It had taken some time, but most people had come to believe in mortality only. It was so silly to think of life after death with a Heaven and Hell. Only a cruel person would ever reward only a few, let alone punish the most! People at one time thought that everyone would go to Heaven because God is a loving God. Now, God is dead. Most people have little memory of a god. It comforted Susie’s daddy to know that his lil’ girl is nor in Hell. How foolish! He once had faith in Heaven and a fear of Hell. Nietzke had refuted that. Long may his memory live. What once was laughable is now truth. 

                This scenario seems futuristic and sordid but people have killed God. No He’s not really dead but we will examine how His death seems eminent, at least from the standpoint of humanism. Nietzke shot at God, but enlightened people are gradually Killing God!

                People need God! Why would those who need God even have a desire to kill Him off? The puzzle is solved – so that anyone can do anything which pleases them. Satanists who have killed off God in their estate have the motto "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Love is the law, love under will." This is “Thelema”, a religion developed by Aleister Crowley circa 1900. ³

                However, to do what one pleases, God needs to be dead! Without God, there is no accountability. Unfortunately, without God there is no reward. Eternal life would be non-existent. What we have is all there is! Some like the idea that after death, there is no Hell. That makes killing God worthwhile in their viewpoint. One can do as one pleases and receive no punishment if there is no God. On the other hand, for righteous people, there is no hereafter. Those who endeavor to kill God place their priorities on doing what they will at the expense of no afterlife. They trade immortality off for temporal pleasure. ⁴

                Let’s look at nothingness after death. First off, eternity is forever. Why live is existences ceases with mortal life. My political science professor said on the first day of class in 1968, “man is no different than a tree or a frog”. Prof. Scharchburg, I believe, is dead now. In his viewpoint, he is non-existent. That is bleak. If he is wrong about the dominion of mankind, he is in torment. Torment is worth him killing off God at least in his view! However, our thoughts cannot kill God. We delude ourselves because His thoughts are greater than ours. ⁵

                Space is devoid of anything save matter. Take the matter away, and there is nothing. It would be nice to think that without God, the dead would just float around in the void. Without God, that’s not even possible. We have a conscience. We know of our existence. If we don’t exist, there is no awareness!  Right now, if you are reading this, you have some degree of awareness of yourself and your surroundings. With nothingness there are no surrounding and no you! That lack of non-existence is fatalism – resignation that there is no life after death, and that is the destiny of everyone. ⁶

                What scared the hell out of most people who have an alive God. Is that God must be kept alive to avoid Hell and even nothingness! Eternity is a long time, and infinity is its time. If God is dead, there is no awareness of the passage of eternal moments. What are we to do for eternity with God dead? Nothing because with God dead there is no existence!

                One example which is frightening: if every ten-thousand years, a sparrow brushes its wing against a brass ball the size of earth, when the ball is entirely eroded, eternity is just beginning. With God dead, no one will exist to experience that! Why then do people want God dead? “To do what thou wilt!” attributed to Anton LeVey, a Satanist.

¹ Ie fröhliche Wissenschaft; 1882; Frederick Nietzke.
² Holy Bible; Dan 3:19.
³ Wikipedia; “Thelema“.
⁴ Holy Bible, Heb 11:25.
⁵ Holy Bible; Isa 55:8.
⁶ Friedrich Nietzsche, The Wanderer and His Shadow, 1880, Türkenfatalismus.