The Ape of God

There is no God. At least these days. So I should say there is no God but there used to be. Back in the day, back in the olden days, God existed. People went out each day knowing good and well, there is a God, or rather, was a God. Then—Well, then people woke up to all this nonsense and absurdity. They became scientific and technological, and God, well; He just became downright silly and in a nutshell; Unnecessary. However, a problem developed. What problem? It seems actually two problems developed. One: people needed something to worship. That’s a problem. Two: people, for the most part and with few exceptions, having a natural endowment toward immorality and evil, are not to be trusted, at least with themselves. This lead smart people to question their predicament. They knew they couldn’t bring back God. He’s dead. And we, with all our infinite wisdom, still cannot resurrect a God from the dead. For Death has total dominion.
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So let’s look at the immorality (evil) problem first. The smart people knew that most people, that is, most people not being all that smart to begin with, were going to start acting in a depraved and wicked manner, after the death of God. After all, even they, the smart people that is, read the bible—well, maybe!? And Fact or Fiction, Genesis informs them Moses had quite a motley crew on his hands. And what was he to do? He had no real technology at the time. Remember, this is the really, really, olden days. So, he constructed a piece of wisdom. He went up on a mountain, alone, and came down with 613 commandments, both positive and negative. What they are doesn’t really matter. After all, they’re silly, right!? What does matter is how Moses handled the entire affair. And how was that? He destroyed the image. God, he says more or less, in all His glory is invisible, ineffable and unapproachable. What a stroke of genius, at least for a man who had no technology. God, he tells this diverse crew, is all knowing, all seeing, and all present, and above all—invisible. This kept the people on their toes. A God, judging night and day, and subjecting them to the possibility of eternal damnation. That’s harsh and quite effective.

Fast forward to today. God, remember, is dead and unlikely a candidate for resuscitation or presidential office. And there’s a bigger problem. More people. Seven to eight billion and counting. That’s a huge problem. And guess what. They’re still just as stupid if not more so. But these smart people, remember, they’re a smart bunch, and with egotism and arrogance to match. So, I can assure you they will not use the Moses’ method, if anything, to prove their superiority in the matter and how much better they are than the; “ancients.” So, what to do? Flip the problem on its head. After all, smart people for the most part worship technology and science, right!? And they have all the answers all the time. And what’s the answer? The image. Bring back the image in all its glory. Only this time, as God is dead, and technology alive; do it with a camera. Yes, a camera. Make that the all Seeing Eye, the Panopticon so to speak. And do it with flair. Mount them on streets, on people’s houses; make them believe they each need to keep a watchful eye on the other. But above all, put it right into their hands. Attach it even, to that requisite and needful device—the Smartphone. And call it that, “Smart! Really, really, smart.” Of course, as economics goes, Moses was a lot, lot smarter and not at all, voyeuristic. He did all that with a few tablets and without peeking into anyone’s bedroom. And not the kind of tablets you use to today. No, stone tablets. And he even broke a few in the attempt. These people really pissed him off. Keep in mind also, that while he was away on the mountain, the people started constructing an idol made of gold. Now, that’s expensive. But so is today’s solution. Cameras everywhere and people needed to watch, monitor and maintain all this surveillance. And oddly, more crime, more depraved behavior; although some scientists and statisticians would like us to believe otherwise. Mostly those that want to see more cameras and surveillance. And more voyeuristic behavior. More desire to peek into people’s bedrooms. Enough of these voyeurisms. Let’s turn our eye to the problem of worship.

What problem? We have the solution. Think about it. The camera, silly. People not only keep a watchful eye on each other. Too, they keep a watchful eye on themselves. They take Selfies. After all, what better way to turn the camera than on one’s self? So, these smart people manage in one stroke to;

1. Kill God,
2. Create a voyeuristic, panoptic surveillance system,
3. And allow Narcissism to run wild...

all in one swoop!

Perfect!—what an ideal world and society in which to live. A dead God, peeping toms, and indulgent worship of self above all. I can’t think of a more ideal society. Can you? Remember, the smart people have informed us; “There is no God.” That’s very important. For all this to work, He must be dead. If He lives, even if in our hearts or heads, this cannot work. That would put something above the self, something over and above our petty egos and arrogance. And we can’t have that, can we? To be fair, there are some of these science and technology types that worship something bigger. For scientists, especially cosmologists, it’s the universe. The universe began (randomly of course), some 13.8 billion years ago. And we, well we; are just another random accident of that beginning. Of course, what’s behind all of it, what’s behind the creation, is all still a mystery. Not to worry. We, with our well–endowed simian brains will crack the code some day, maybe even soon. And when we do, we’ll have something else to worship. A singular beginning without form and function. Without purpose. Sounds great! Sign me up. Meanwhile, as God is dead and I hate cameras, I’ll worship—nothing. After all, nothing can be quite enjoyable even nihilistic. Nothing gives our lives hope, drives us to new heights, and makes us look at the universe and say, “Thank God for nothing!” 

When I think of nothing, something comes to mind. Namely, nothing. And that’s about it. I can’t write a book about it. By the way, someone did, and it was awful—God awful! A book, literally about nothing. Still, I’ve boredom. And boredom is often, underrated. But boredom can be downright, exciting. I’m sidetracking. Probably because once a society takes away things to talk about...Well, I’ve got nothing. Nothing but a nonexistent God, somebody peeking into my business or taking pictures of myself—that’s my choices. And that’s boring. Really, really, boring.

© 2020 Kenneth Myers

About the author, Kenneth (K.) Myers. Occasionally K. writes, mostly junk, but K. tries. K.’s profession, before he retired had absolutely nothing to do with writing, especially satirical and or otherwise. Too, his work history and education are completely superfluous. But, if you must know, K. was a computational scientist working for some unnamed but highly regarded companies and has degrees, BA (magna cum laude) and MS in mathematical physics from many moons ago.