AbezAbez Is... 50% White, 50 % Pakistani, Muslim Hijab-wearing type female, Daughter of Momma, Sister of Owlie Wife of HF, Momma of Khalid, a special little boy with Autism, and Iman, a special little girl with especially big hair, Writer, Graphic Designer, Editor, Freelancer, Blogger, Inhaler of Chocolate
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Sunday, October 10, 2004

'Ods Bodkin!

I was watching Ma Shakti today. In case you don’t know, Ma Shakti is an Indian tv show based on two famous Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. I didn’t know this either until Ma Shakti came on TV today. 0_o

The show deals with religious and mythological themes, and today’s episode seemed to be dealing with four or five gods who were very sorely at odds. The first god (who smiled a lot and sat surrounded by snakes) disguised himself to seduce the wife of the second god, who was busy fighting a battle against a third god who wore a cobra around his neck and animal skins around his body. A fourth god sat smirking and watching the battle until the fifth god, a goddess actually- Ma Shakti, intervenes. According to a Hindu holy book, the Reg Veda, Ma Shakti is defined thus; In the beginning there was neither existence nor non-existence; no horizons, no air, no birth, no death, neither the day nor the night. It was a universe engulfed in its own void, a nought without form. Only a formless Maha Shakti (The Great Power) existed which was the substance in totality and the supreme soul of the universe, not to be apprehended by any force and exempt from birth, vicissitude, death or decay, eternal, unborn and imperishable.

And apparently, she’s not quite as formless as they thought. In fact, on tv she looks like this.




I think this is all the effect of having low standards. We think we’re the ultimate, and so why should our gods (who are ultimates as well) be any different, with perhaps the exception of a few extra arms or a pair of wings here or there. Humans are petty, bickering and amorous creatures, and consequently, humans project their imperfect traits onto the gods they create as well.

Little does humankind realize that not only are they not the stuff, they’re also not made according to divine schematics. A human with a perfect body, complete with a flawless, absolutely perfect respiratory system, would still not be able to exist without oxygen, would completely disintegrate in outer space and wouldn’t even be able to breathe under water. Yet our Creator is supposed to have a body of this type, regardless of whether it would survive in space, underwater, or even a gunshot wound, regardless of whether it could exist anywhere but earth.

It seems ridiculous doesn’t it, the idea that you could kill God with a gunshot wound. I know that someone could interject and go, “But God’s bulletproof!” and you know what? They’d just be revising things as they went along. If your holy book, whether it’s the Reg Veda, or the Bible or the Book of Mormon, says that God has a human body, then leave it at that. A human body is a human body, and its limitations exist because they are part of the design. Can a human see in 360 degrees? No? Then how can God if he has two eyes that face forward? Can a human breathe without oxygen? Then how can God exist outside of this atmosphere if He relies on lungs? (Taubah!)

I could probably go through the entire list of human body parts (only two hands, but manages the entire universe?) but I don’t think it’s necessary. So now someone (probably my mother) sez: alright then smarty-pants, what does God look like then?

My answer? A happy shrug and a I dunno. You know why? It is sufficient to say that no one has seen God, and since nothing we see on the earth happens to be God, then God looks like nothing on this earth.

It’s interesting to note that whenever anyone asked the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of God be upon him) about God, or when the polytheists asked what the Muslim God’s lineage was, the Prophet’s reply was always the same:

Say: He is God, the One and Only.
God, the Eternal, the Absolute.
He begets not, nor is he begotten.
And there is none comparable to Him.
-Surah-Ikhlas, the Holy Qur’an

There, a four-line powerhouse of faith. There is one God, and he’s the Only One. He’s always been around. He is no one’s child, nor is anyone His. No one comes anywhere near to him in any respect.

What more do you need to know about God other than that He’s there, He listens, He rewards those who do good and serves justice against those who do evil? But what about the rest of God’s attributes? The Qur’an holds 99 attributes of God, The Merciful, The Creator, The Nurturer, The Judge, The Lord of Majesty and Bounty, and since in this day and age we all agree that a person’s looks are worthless as an indicator of who they are, then what’s the point of asking whether or not God has hands or two feet?

Would it make any difference whether or not God had, say… blue skin? What if He didn’t? What if you believed in God but then suddenly you found out He had blue skin. Would you stop believing solely on that basis? No? Then don’t start believing solely on that basis either. Whether or not we know what God looks like has absolutely no bearing on faith whatsoever.


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