1 Sep 2010
The Myth
A letter from a Holocaust survivor explaining why he had ceased to believe in God.
“God had allowed SS troops to snatch a baby from his mother and then use it as a football. When it was a torn lump of flesh they tossed it to their dogs. The mother was forced to watch. Then they ripped off her blouse and made her use it to clean the blood off their boots.”
(Source: The Economist)
It's lopsided and insensible to talk of progress and civilisation and take pride when the fumes of Holocaust still pervade the air. Holocaust is the reference point of the so-called civilisation and all things human. The point is we are still only as human.
Beast is a fact. God is a myth.
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By Linus:
10 Sep 2010, 1:02pm [ Reply ]
buddy, caught you there! should you not rather say "i believe god exists" than the assertive "god exists"? it's not same as saying "that tree exists", surely? if something exists, there's no need to believe in it. if it's a belief, it doesn't exist. ergo, if god does exist, everyone else should be able to see/perceive as you do. else, the statement "god exists" is only as good as a whim. i am saying "god does not exist". can you prove me wrong? if you cannot, then maybe god is just a fantasy, and everything about him is just hypothesis. right?
By oblivion:
3 Sep 2010, 9:33am [ Reply ]
@luckychinna: holocaust is, to my mind, not so much about a freak, forgettable incident in history as it is about our indifference for one another. hapless individuals are subject to such humiliation every day, although i'm lucky to have the luxury of living on being totally oblivious of it and even igore it. but isn't it right there - war, exploitation, indifference, apathy, etc. and we are not talking of a minority. they are in millions, and it's all happening in the open, amid all the grandiose talk about progress and civilisation. of course holocaust has definite historical references and in that sense it has ended, but has anything really changed about humans? are they even changing?
that doesn't, however, defy the good side. yes, there is love. absolutely. and love is god. yes, god exists. quite.
By oblivion:
3 Sep 2010, 9:27am [ Reply ]
@TVK: that was rather myopic on my part. yes, the twinkling eyes, the divine smiles are miracles of course. put against the sorry human affairs, and they are only more precious.
@Guddi: the proportion isn't quite 1:1, but, indeed, there are good people too. may their tribe increase!
By luckychinna:
1 Sep 2010, 1:52pm [ Reply ]
ob, i get your thought here, sometimes stuff like this makes one wonder about how human we are and ask if the presence of a God would allow this, yet i think holocaust couldn't be the reference point of all "civilization" at all - it's actually the very opposite of it. Like TVK says in comments that it's a reference about a certain group of people and one can't stereotype the entire species by this very lot...
having said that, i feel "love" is a sign that God exists, in fact God perhaps exists in the form of love.
isn't that right - the fact that we can love (and therefore Godly), just like we could be the very opposite (in your words "beastly") - and that we have a choice - no matter the shade of gray between the black and white - and that yet we don't completely control the end result in our lives no matter what the action or the choice, doesn't it show there's Someone who does?
now do this - you tell me there's nothing called love, that humans are incapable of love, and that love's a myth too, and that you havn't loved at all, I'll buy your angsty angry argument and believe this "Myth" you talk about!
By Guddi:
1 Sep 2010, 1:18pm [ Reply ]
For every Hitler, there's a Mother Teresa among us... that sounds like God's miracle to me!
By TVK:
1 Sep 2010, 12:56pm [ Reply ]
a group of perverted individuals in one part of the world at a point of time in history doesn't make the entire human race "beastly" nor does it prove God's a myth.
Look at the creation itself (not even the whole universe - start at just this small tiny place like the earth) - and try and answer "why" - you'd probably find God...
Granted, holocausts and even events in day-to-day life - makes us question the presence of a "Good God"- but, tiny miralces - even the twinkling eyes and the divine smile of a new-born - also perhaps answer...