Category: philosophy/religion topics
Hi all. Posting this in the hopes of getting some perspectives different from mine and of course an educated, civilized conversation going.
As for the title for this thread, it was inspired by a character from Graciela Limon's book Song of the Hummingbird, a book that I had to read for a Chicano Studies class I took this last semester. This class, including this book, greatly shaped my views of religion. Though at this point I don't consider myself as part of a specific religion, I do believe in a higher power. I'd like to get some input from others on a conversation that I had with a Christian friend of mine. The character in the book, a Mexica woman who is telling her story to a Spanish Catholic priest, makes a point throughout the book to point out Spain's conquest of the Americas and their forcing Catholic beliefs on to the natives. To paraphrase Tuomas Holopainen (keyboardist/songwriter from the Finnish metal band Nightwish), it's not religion that's bad but humans' perception of it. With that said, I totally respect others beliefs though they may differ from mine. This particular friend explained that he believed that everyone should be Christian because to him Christianity is happiness. He explained the joy he got from worshipping God and said he believed he should share that with others. Like I've said, I respect that but my joy in life comes from music. Okay, not exactly "religious," but nothing in my life has ever brought me more joy than my music. This led to his analogy of the joy of Christianity to the happiness of being healthy. If one could make everyone healthy and therefore happy, why have someone be sick for the sake of diversity? If one could spread Christianity to make everyone happy, why have someone not be Christian or not believe in God and therefore be less than happy for the purpose of diversity? Well, the question I'd like to pose here is what is wrong with, for the purpose of diversity, having people be equally happy but through different means? Who are we as individuals to say what will make others complete? Thanks in advance for any posts and any perspectives are welcome!
Music, movies, good food and drink make me happy. I believe the point of life is entertainment. If you're not being entertained, there's no point in being here.
Life makes people unhappy, so we should kill everyone so that in death they will all be equally happy.
The Christians, and Alvis Huxley's A Brave New World.
But the title to your post: So what happens if the person next to you "channels" their inner cat? And by channel I take you mean some fluff thingy about staring off into space, not digging a trench.
It's like two people praying for opposing teams to win. An impossibility.
But since you wish to channel a hummingbird, I'll take the romance out of it and tell you what their life is like:
With an extremely high metabolism, the hummingbird must eat every 11 seconds. To do this, it must keep track of which flowers in the immediate area have opened, are going to open, and are already used up. Each flower is good for one feeding, so the hummer has to track this also. It's like you eating a chocolate sundae every 11 seconds, and between eating you have to visit the next shop you can. But each shop only serves one single sundae, so you have to keep track of which shops are planning to be open and not waste energy frivolously.
When you aren't feeding or moving between feedings, or mating or fighting for your territory (all between feedings) it's slep time where your body temperature drops dangerously and your heartbeat nearly stops. In fact, if it's particularly cold out, you will enter a state called torpor, where some humans who don't know better might think you're dead. You're not dead because dead birds don't cling to branches.
Sounds like a busy schedule, doesn't it? Doesn't leave room for enlightened deity activities like, say, energy moon dances or whatever, ordering rape victims who couldn't scream to be stoned, ordering bombings, ordering your petitioners to tie up some prisoners of war in a wicker basket and burn them to death, officiating aggregious illegal unethical acts in the name of love.
But as a hummingbird, I suppose you could be happy, not worrying too much about predators, if only all the flowers you feed from are poppies.
Hopefully you're adult enough to take a lighter-hearted, if somewhat sarcastic, response. I wonder how many who wish to channel life forms know anything about those life forms? Not that they have to: it's merely a romanticized notion in their mind, and I guess harmless all things considered. Except when a fool and much of his money are parted at the expensive seminars for channeling types in the state of Californica.