Hostage of Dolour

Why do we hallow and attach significance to objects that are inherently worthless? Were I in Berlin, 9th of November, 1989, would I not have claimed a chunk of rock from the Wall; a piece of history, and then encased it in a cabinet when I returned home? Would Michael Jackson have passed on an LA street before my eyes, would I have resisted claiming a note that fell from his pocket or his black hat or scarf as paramedics lifted him into some waiting ambulance? Yet would I pick up a stone from my garden and thus revere it? Would I pilfer the toppled trilby or balaclava of the homeless man and applaud myself for “owning a piece of him”? Why do we attach such significance to inherently worthless items. Such as our holy texts, our holy prophets, our gods, man-confected notions all?

I’d not fault anyone for carting off a chunk of the Berlin Wall; an innocent pastime perhaps. Yet to indulge the whims of religion is plainly a self-limiting, self-belittling concept for anyone.

The reality is that each of us is great in our individual ways. Yet we are bound not only by the incorrect notions of “good” and “bad”, but also by the urge to achieve religious standards which are wholly incompatible with being human, mortal, error-prone, selfish, greedy, jealous, lazy – all these things are inherently animal; human. So why do we measure ourself against other standards that do not become us?

I say, don’t measure yourself against the arbitrary standards of your religion, nor strive to attain those absurd standards, for they fall far outside the nature of humanity – Man is an animal, never forget! And you’ll likewise fall far short of those standards. You’ll “fail” by your religion – a state all religions were designed to achieve in their adherents. And it’s a state that leaves you with only the one choice: to crawl, begging mercy of the nearest holy contrivance, whether that be Jesus, Allah or some more mundane earthly interceder.

I say Man is indeed great, though he wanders lame with the animal in him repressed. Man is god! And though all variant religion reminds you of your shortcomings, you are great nonetheless. You are declared great by the natural standards of the Animal of Man. You need attach no significance to books that are of no more worth than today’s bestseller Dan Brown fiction. You need attach no significance to doctrines that assist you in your life no more than the notion of “how great is this hat, let me worship thee.” There is no need to debase yourself before worthless texts, icons, objects or under religious doctrines that are incompatible with the true Animal of Man that each of us is. You need no other metric for your own greatness except your humanity.