Collegiate Times

As organized religion is carefully stripped apart by pseudo-Leninists and people begin to venture into their own form of self-discovery, I find many people making a common mistake in their quests. I have witnessed many taking natural objects for supernatural beings. While I understand that we are a superstitious species, I find it difficult to comprehend the reasoning behind worshipping a manmade object versus someone who is clearly mortal. When picking a god, one should give serious thought before choosing.

A portion of Americans and many across the world have selected the president as their god. For those who detest capitalism, our president is a gift from heaven.

Just recently the Olympic committee challenged Barack Obama’s godlike status. For a brief period of time he appeared mortal, but then he was resurrected. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I think it was for bringing peace to the Middle East, but didn’t Jimmy Carter do that? Wait, I think it was for giving U.S. citizenship to his aunt or maybe buying a decent house for his half-brother living on the outskirts of Nairobi on less than a dollar a month.

Regardless of what the messiah has done or has not done, it does not matter. People love him and his intentions are good.

Another group of modern day deities are scientists and their findings. I love science by the way. I sit on the edge of my seat three days a week in my 8 a.m. physics lecture as my professor explains ideas and equations that were derived nearly 200 years ago. It is incredibly fascinating material and I am only learning a tiny fraction of a pixel of it. My imagination reels at what is being done today in scientific research.

Science is responsible for our comfortable lives. However, one should not worship this institution or the men who have built it into the mega theory it is today. Science is manmade, and the people who contribute to it are also manmade.

Darwin, Einstein and Newton are three big names that are often held in a high regard — almost godlike. Just recently, someone asked me if I was a “Darwinian.” I was dumbfounded by such a question. I didn’t even realize there were such people. The contributions of Darwin, Einstein, and Newton are immense and inarguably valuable, but the men themselves are nowhere near as great as the ideas they formed.

Darwin believed white European men were the superior species and Einstein allegedly cheated on his wife with numerous women. The only bad thing I can try to place on Newton was his supposed attempt to take all of the credit for inventing calculus. Those who care about the origin of differential and integral calculus know the role Leibniz had in its creation.

From science we have our vast technological empire — information at the tips of our fingers, worldwide communication, pictures of cats with silly captions, just a slice of the technology available for us. These are childish novelties on the grand scale of things. Your BlackBerry isn’t going to save you from the next terrorist attack or natural disaster.

People and material goods are temporary and are only valuable in the natural world, but a supernatural god that has always existed and will never cease — now we’re talking. The Judeo-Christian faiths do a good job of perpetuating this kind of god. God gives incredible strength to those who believe in Him.

Certain people and organizations want the faithful to appear foolish and weak. These individuals tell the faithful that they are prisoners of the church. While a church does ask for your money, do not forget a politician needs your vote, a company needs your business. God does not ask for anything. At least, my God doesn’t ask for anything in return.  A supernatural god is something that science can’t touch, the government can’t tax, and only you can take away.

If you don’t believe in a god, that’s fine. I simply ask that you take note of those in the world who are battling for your heart and mind. Do you have a golden calf? For those who choose not to believe in a god I ask you to remember the words of Mille Petrozza, “You can’t believe in nothing, insane to trust in anything, so I don’t trust in no one but myself.”