Chris Port Blog #271. "I name my demon..." - the Atheist's Epiphany

© Chris Port, June 2011

"I name my demon..."

“Every man is his own universe. He expands into himself. His mind erupts into existence, a star nursery of thoughts. Nebulous possibilities coalesce in the clouds. There are no speed limits here. The mind is faster than light. The imagination leaps galaxies in microseconds. There is nowhere a man cannot go in his mind. Each man is his own God. But he is not alone. What sly adversary fashions bricks out of his thoughts? What shadowy face walls him up in a prison of his own meaning? Every man is possessed by a demon. To exorcise it, he must name it. I name my demon: Religion”. ~ Marty Gull

The Atheist's Epiphany

“We were not expelled from paradise. We climbed our way out of hell. Now, you want to push me back? I crawled through shit to see the stars. I dug through stone to find the truth. And what did I find? Monstrous bones. No meaning. Just... nothingness...  So, what was it all for? Time blinks, and the dinosaurs are gone. Monkeys tap out Shakespeare, then end with a whimper. Look at those stars. They don’t care. But I do. I remember, one cloudy night, I was sitting in a beer garden. People were laughing, hysterically, like kookaburras. I felt cold. Then suddenly, the black clouds cracked their skin, and the moon, like a bright wound, shone through. I know. I know it’s just dead airless rock reflecting ghost light. But I saw God. Not as an old man in the sky, but as the cold light of reason. It was like falling in love with a beautiful woman. Life could never look at me, never care that I existed. But I adored her. And when I die, it was all worth it. I saw her. I worshipped her. I dropped my pint in awe, and the beer garden laughed and cheered. Now that’s what I call an epiphany.” ~ Marty Gull 

"Evolution is life experimenting with art. Maths makes pretty patterns, but essentially it’s painting by numbers. As for God, perhaps He’s the ultimate evolution of Jackson Pollock? Pollock’s art didn’t represent anything. It directly presented itself. So he abandoned titles and numbered his paintings instead. As his wife said, “Numbers are neutral. They make people look at a picture for what it is - pure painting.” Einstein was a damned fine dessinateur though..." ~ Marty Gull 

"Meaning is in art and aesthetics, not in unquestioning dogma." ~ Marty Gull