Circumcised Dogs

(4)

This brings us to an important lesson: when dealing with Representatives of the Establishment you should always record the proceedings. People are at their very best when they know they are on record.

And this brings us to our theme for tonight, which is the idea - the Judeo-Christian idea - that every human word, and indeed every human thought is forever recorded in the mind of God, and that after our deaths that same God will judge us and dispense justice - Eternal Justice - based on those almighty memories. This is a good idea as far as it goes, but no idea is perfect.

There are many objections to this idea, especially to the idea of God making 'recordings' of our very thoughts, these naughty thoughts to be used against us eventually. The idea impinges on the idea of 'free will,' for one thing. If God is watching our thoughts how can our wills be truly free? Are not those wills at least constrained by fear?

We (most of us) see through this attempt at religious constraint on behavior. We understand intuitively that the idea is nonsense. We live our lives as if God had no idea what we were really thinking. That is, we have a fundamental and intuitive sense of personal privacy. Indeed, most of us live out our lives as if God had only a smattering knowlege of our most egregious sins.

We go through the motions of 'honoring' this God 'who sees all,' mouthing various 'praises' designed to calm the Almighty Ego, but we know, deep down, that it is all hope and fear, and that there is no God and that we will all die like dogs.

Circumcised Dogs.