A response to LoyarBurokker Aston Paiva’s “Twilight of the Gods.”
I was listening to The Cranberries – Zombie when I saw Aston Paiva’s atheistic piece on Wednesday morning. As I read through his twilight, I felt a rush of blood to my head; I bit my lip reading every word, my soul protested in disbelief. Such arrogance such pride in being human, I took a deep breath and cleared my mind and thought hard about the way I felt when Aston dismissed the faith in God. The republic in me called for an emergency seating, the motion was to discuss Aston’s active approach in atheism. The Lucifer in me stood up, it has been a long time since he has said anything. The whole republic was in awe, mesmerised by the elegance and style of the fallen one.
A short silence filled the atmosphere before the track changed to Linkin Park’s –The Catalyst. Everybody waited in great suspense trying to gauge what the light-bringer has to say. He stood firm, as he peered into every republican in the temple. I sensed his anger as he said “…this is exactly why, I protested. You humans have no gratitude. You pour blood, and cause destruction and you revere yourself, wasn’t I right? I do not understand why HE still has so much faith in your kind. HE condemned me and my kind over yours…; nevertheless HIS love has no boundaries. I have expected this for a very long time, even before the inception of man. I do not care if the republic chooses to refute what has been written. May HE have mercy on your kind.” The Morning Star took his seat with silence.
The other angels lowered their wings. Everybody hung their head in shame, deep down they wanted to agree with the fallen one. They understood the complex love he had for God, and his dislike for Man. Michael stood up; there was great disappointment on his face. “You must refute the writing, you must. His opinion has deeply offended all of us, even the light-bringer” he said.
The theists in the republic mocked me, they hummed to the tune of R.E.M’s Loosing My Religion. The Mullahs suggested that we condemn Aston’s blasphemous writing. The Rabbis said that whatever our decision it makes no difference, we would still burn for eternity in hell. The Bishops quoted Deuteronomy 17:5 Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die. The Mullahs suggested Fatir 35:7 Those who disbelieve will have a severe punishment, and those who believe and do righteous deeds will have forgiveness and great reward. As Lord President I quickly warned them, “I will not tolerate such remarks!“
The Sikhs and Hindus were calm. One priest stood up and said “He is a disbeliever, and so let it be, this is the will of God”. A Sikh reminded “he is not bad, and we are not good.” One Pundit said “Can’t you see even God loves and feeds this disbeliever, who are we to judge him in anyway?“, A Sadhu then said “He just needs to have a joint and listen to some Bob Marley” which was received with much supportive laughter from a group of Rastafarians. Everybody looked at him, and he equipped “What? You guys are making big fuss out of this! Chill man, and let the Atheist say what has been inspired to him.”
As Linkin Parks – In The End started to play, the Agnostics refused to vote on the motion. They said “With all due respect, we choose not to speak on this neither take a stand, we beg leave from the temple.” before they left. As I turned to the Deists, they equipped me with this “We think that the term disbeliever is in accurately used. We should instead use the term Atheist to refer the subject matter.” What is the reason for that? I curiously inquired. “He dismisses the idea of God, but he speaks the truth, how can he then be a disbeliever? Having faith in the truth is not disbelief. It is the very core of belief” they explained. “He is an Atheist because it is God’s will. We believe there is much wisdom in what he says. Just because what he speaks threatens to destroy the very foundation of this temple or faith is no excuse to not admit the truth, why fear when God is ultimately the truth?” they added.
The lyric to Crawling by Linkin Park was in the air almost resonating to their argument as I looked for some insight from the Buddhist monks. One monk said “He is a Bodhisattva of our time, learn from him, and do not fear his words instead embrace the wisdom he speaks.” Another said “Seek not what he destroys seek what he stands for, seek the truth.” Harahel, the angel of knowledge agreed with the monks and said “He who truly disbelieves is a cruel person who causes pain to others, he who oppresses the weak.”
Neo and Morpheus agreed that we shall learn instead of criticising his Atheism. “The architecture of his belief is amazing in a sense that the complexity of his thought is not due to disbelief but it expounds the greater reality of belief.” said Neo. Morpheus on the other hand said this “To know yourself is to know God” at which point the Rastafarians exalted “Hey isn’t that what Jesus said?” The Sufis interrupted “Yes, that is why he is no disbeliever. Even at the hands of an Atheists God is revered, perhaps in a very unconventional way, but as the saying goes God acts in mysterious ways.” The republic has spoken, I shall learn without fear. There is no concern for fear; the truth would only set me free.
Lingswaran Singh has been an active loyar burok since he was 5 years old. He speaks an open and disinterested language, dictated by no passion but that of humanity. Independence is his happiness, and he views things as they are, without regard to place or person; his country is the world, and his religion is to do good with compassion. He is a self proclaimed artist with an imagination beyond imagination. He finds pleasure in deconstructing and challenging social norms, he is paradoxical . He works towards educating Malaysian youths about justice, freedom, equality, human rights, and nation building. He too is an emissary of Lord Bobo Barnabus, tasked to enlighten Malaysians through www.loyarburok.com, the blawg leading the quest for world domination
StayOnTheTopic, ive seen this agree dude disagreeing with all over the place….maybe its his language….
or maybe its more to do with himself….poor guy
Reminds me of Animal Farm by George Orwell.
Mike, if ive to choose, i'll put my bets on point no. 2
@AgreeToDisagree:
Reading your posts made me feel intellectually incompetent, because I had to re-read them at least twice to thinly grasp what you were trying to say.
But then I realized that many other people on this site have the same problem with you – and I also recalled that I've read the works of some of the greatest literary and scientific geniuses ever born with much greater ease and interest. So I can't possibly be THAT stupid.
This revelation can only mean one of two things:
1) You have in fact achieved a previously undiscovered level of intellect and literary ability, not just rivaling but surpassing the world's greatest – and the rest of us simply cannot function at your level.
2) You are a peculiar person with an uncanny ability to string together gibberish and make it look like intellectual thought. Nobody ever knows what you're trying to say, but you consistently leave them dumbfounded.
@Lingswaran Singh
Don't bother mate…he just seems to have a fetish with his own language thingy…
Just treat like he doesnt exist…
If at all i understood you, im not judging any work. Im just expressing my thoughts.
Flax? Three pounds? … You sound like Eric Cantona man.
@AgreeToDisagree… dude… can you rephrase that in simple layman English?
StayOnTheTopic : Having a conversation with yourself? Glad 'everyone' thinks alike in there.
Lingswaran : Judge not works in progress . . . This flax weighs three pounds?
We would never know, if that light was a massive explosion. I see no inconsistency captain. To where no man has gone? :)
"In the beginning God said, "Let there be Light! and there was Light."
The scientists today state that it all began with a Big Bang!!
So where do we go from here?
@AgreeToDisagree
I disagree on what you said….
though i agree that you should go fly a kite elsewhere…
@ladymissazira thank you!
@Slebet thats two words
@Good bye Wayne dude, we should be saying hello. Yes you understand my piece well.
@Agree to Disagree … you make me feel incredibly stupid.
@Munirah, thanks!
@to all those who privately e-mailed me, and those who said kind words on facebook chat… thank you.
To all, this piece is a response to Aston's piece, it need not be a counter argument, it is just a response. This is what his writings inspired me with. There is a lot of deep thought put into this piece, it is designed to make you think of your own belief, its something meant to explore the Greatness of God, it was designed to depict harmony, plurality, the Oneness of God. It was mean to be thought provoking. I am sorry to those who feel that this is superfluous literature, i beg pardon as i am of no match for your level of intelligence. I guess to some people like me, things smart people consider superfluous is often something very important and close to their heart. God is something very important and close to my heart, that idea of God has been my inspiration, my strength, my source of creativity, and the values that i stand for.
StayOnTheTopic :
Ethics of communication require non-use of manipulative Neuro-Linguistic-Programming, imposition of memes via Allegory and Analogy – aka Thought Violence. Just a sentence out of consideration for disenfranchisement of either and all.
for you Lings, thank you for sharing your thoughts :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtFPdBUl7XQ
I still don't get what you're trying to say! Why you talk about the love some religions have for this "disbeliever" and the scorn others have in store for him, you still do not repudiate his Aston's arguments, or is that your intention? To offer us a superfluous literary piece?
Seriously @AgreeToDisagree…
What the F has this to do with this topic…
DUDE… Go start your own thread and impose your FairyTaleFanstasyUtopia elsewhere…
What the hell has language(Hindi and Mandarin)/calture/race(Indians and Chinese) to do with this…
Is between a believe and non-believer… DUDE DO YOU ACTUALLY READ before you comment???!!!
GET A LIFE… SERIOUSLY!!!
God or no god, men of either belief system must get along by at least not attempting to impose any language or culture or apartheid policy on any other person.
I do advocate learning of local languages if the person cannot afford a translator or use of personally hired translators or translation devices if they can afford them.
Conversely in the event that no mutually intelligible language is known by communicating parties, in the spirit of convenience either side can make general effort to communicate and be friendly and at least not resentful of the other party for not knowing their language. Oftimes friendly bystanders would also help translate and this is a show of the spirit of friendship among human beings.
Finally, the wealth and lands of the world belong to everyone. Self determinism is a Human Right that no government policy can or should attempt to take away. The inconveniences of course are apparent though intentional refusal to communicate at one's best ability in any language is prejudicial to race relations at any time.
Sincerity and the nature and bearing of the communicating parties will of course be a personal factor. In all cases though it must be wholly every individual's choice and not imposed on anyone via any policy as some chauvinists insist or by the majority based zero sum paradigm, Indians and Chinese would by default be rulers of the world with a right to impose Hindi and Mandarin at this very moment, which they are not, so do reciprocate this 'free world' self determinism we have going on here and not attempt any linguistic or cultural hegemony.
I believe, the argument (if any) that you are trying to posture is that at the end of the day, one must agree to disagree.
Also, the subjectivity of the matter (religion/ God) is never conclusive, be it you're an atheist or otherwise. What you're saying is, lets not jump the gun/come to a conlusion as yet, instead, lets continue the search/pursuit for the truth (or refine/gain better understanding of it, if you think that you've found the 'truth')
All in all, I don't think this is really a 'response' to Aston's article, but an attempt to offer him an olive branch and also for him to reconsider his stand due to the subjectivity of the matter (or probably 'supposed subjectivity' to Aston).
However, be as it may, due to Aston's strong stand on the matter, i don't think he will budge. Maybe you can offer us another article to state your belief as to WHY there is a GOD?
One word… mind blowing.
A beautifully written piece with a completely ineffective argument.
You make the whole thing sound like some fairytale.
An excellent piece, Lings!
I must say, tho, whether or not a person believes or disbelieves it is his or her prerogative. Aston is entitled to his own opinion, as do you. He is no prophet trying to convert the masses to the church of atheism, he is merely voicing out his beliefs, as you are defending the belief in the existence of a God.
I believe in accepting everyone as they are.