6-24-08 George Carlin – Religion/There Is No God

Actually, Shanoah, I’m not that broken up about Carlin’s death. He was kind of like Arthur C. Clarke – one of these eternal cultural plinths that I expected to outlive me and the mountains.

As you’ve probably guessed, I try to stay at least one step out of sync with the zeitgeist. That’s why I don’t watch TV, that’s why I didn’t post anything from Bo Diddley when he died (besides the fact that I don’t know anything from Bo Diddley besides Bo Diddley) and that’s why I initially refused to post anything to mark the passing of George Carlin on Sunday.

But then I read an interesting post from Literate Redneck here that got me to thinking: Didn’t Carlin do a routine on worshipping the sun? And wasn’t that routine a large part of why I decided to become a sun worshipper?

And didn’t Carlin die a bare two days after the Summer Solstice, according to the United States Naval Observatory here?

Your neat thing today is a combination of two routines from Carlin’s 1999 show and album You Are All Diseased - “Religion” and “There Is No God” – and, sad to say, they were an important factor in my spiritual growth.

I remember watching this during my atheist phase, when I refused to believe in God primarily because so many assholes did. Problem is, I didn’t like being an atheist. I’m a bit of a mystic, and ditching God completely just didn’t work for me.

I liked the sun god that Carlin described: one that doesn’t ask, give or promise anything. There’s no burqas, no holy wars, no crusades, no Armageddon, no 40 days of Lenten fasting, no silly pointless restrictions against sex with donkeys in Carlin’s Church.

Sean’s Church has a few exciting upgrades from Carlin’s Church, like an afterlife – no hell, only heaven. But other than that, Sean’s Church is basically Carlin’s Church XP. Pray as much as you want. She will listen, She will not judge and, if you’re lucky, She will give you the strength and wisdom to pull yourself up and out by your own bootstraps.

Oh, and before you start whining about the splinter in your brother man’s eye, mind the fucking redwood in your own.

I realize now that this routine was a rant for atheism and against religion. But I guess I was flailing around for any kind of spiritual comfort ’round about that time in my life… which brings up the interesting question: Could things have gone differently had I not seen this at that time in my life, and might I have instead joined the Moral Minority Majority or possibly even the Moonies (which is just another kind of sun worship, as in Sun Myung Moon)? The answer: Hay-ell no.

Courtesy of godlesspatriot, which I think is an excellent handle.