The Abuse of Humans

I have this thought from time to time that god is mostly like a really abusive parent. And in this situation there's nothing we can do but to honor him and praise him for fear of destruction.

I get this thought mainly from watching how children react to their abusive parents. I've done a little work with abused kids and the surveys done of them ferret out some very interesting data. The most interesting is that when kids who had been severely and habitually abused by their parents (and subsequently taken away) were asked what they wanted more than anything, they answered that they wanted to spend time with their parents. I personally find that not only amazing, but also a bit telling, right? Here are these kids who have been abused their whole lives and the one thing they wanted most was to spend more time with their abusers. That's just amazing to me.

Now, if we bring that same conclusion to god it's no wonder that we can't break free of his hold. Because on his best day, god is an extremely abusive parent. And as a society, we want nothing more than to spend more time with him. Not only that, but we feel the need to defend him at every turn for fear of some kind punishment. I recently saw this materialize in my own father. To make a long story short and to not burden you with too many details, I haven't seen my father since I was 13 and he's extremely abusive to say the least. Well, I've recently been in contact with that side of the family again including the kids he raised from his new marriage. And all of them claim that he's a great guy and that he would never hurt anyone and he's certainly never hurt any of them. Now, I personally know this to be complete bullshit because I've seen it and I know how he was with me and my sister. And there's NO WAY someone like that can change overnight. It's just not possible. And what's going on here is very clear. The fear of any kind of blowback is keeping them from talking... even to each other. Even though all of those kids are out of the house and they've all got families of their own now, they're still afraid to speak out against the old man.

This is very typical and it shows directly one of the ways that religion has gone unquestioned by the masses for so long. Well, that and the church killed anyone who voiced an opinion against them, but that's another story now isn't it? Anyway... it was this new contact with the other side of my family that sparked all this again.

If god were an actual parent he would've had his kids taken away from him a long time ago. Even by the worst standards on the planet, there's not an agency or government in history that would let someone like him keep their kids. So the analogy of god as a parent here is valid in the abstract because all of us who came up in church; all of us who looked to god for help and guidance; all of us who prayed for good things; all of us who just needed god to give us a break and let us know that someone was actually out there to ease our lonliness; to let us know there's someone out there to give us a reason to not commit suicide when the rest of the world is after us, or to give us a true companion, or to stop the molestor from raping our children; all of us who have wanted, no, NEEDED these things have been met with nothing but neglect and abuse to the point where we have nothing left to lose. So we emancipate ourselves and speak out against the tyrant who raised us. We are no longer afraid of his wrath because we've hit rock bottom with him and he can't hurt us any more than he already has.

It must be a terrible feeling to feel like the entire world is against you and to have no way out but to turn to god and hear nothing. No matter how hard you beg, how hard you plead, no matter how much you need it for your very survival, you get nothing from god... nothing real anyway. All you get is vague signs that have to be interpreted through your most extreme desires. It's kinda like finding shapes in the clouds. The clouds form whatever shapes you're able to associate them with, but that doesn't make it any kind of consciously significant effort on the clouds' part. Nor does it mean that by wishing it you made the shape appear.