Sheep in the Road

Sheep in the road
In July 2003, at the time of my father’s death, I wrote,
Death, a concept of sweet taboo, not to be talked
about too openly, but can be written about surely
– Anne [my sister], who claims to be a born again
christian, will believe dad is in heaven, with
mom and Brian, and all his brothers and sisters,
and so on, and thats fine... whereas I find it very
difficult, with all the inconsistencies thrown up by
humans trying to explain the unexplainable, to
believe in a higher being so cruel and merciless
and consequently believe you live and then you
die, in between you procreate like all species,
giving encouragement to your offspring and
making a mark in the history of some – and in
that way you live on... I think dad thought the
same way, but we never discussed it. I also think
in life, because we humans have an ability–
however feeble and narrow – to imagine and
also reason methodically and intellectually, we
will use whatever we need to get through this
life, and if you need a crutch because you cannot
face the fact that we are just a minute, and
probably insignificant, part of the 4,600 million
year evolution of the gaseous third planet of a
minor sun in an infinite universe... then go for it!
Reel me in, I’m done.
from ‘Wee Timerous Beastie’ in Writing Some Wrongs,
2007
It is still my explanation for life, for how I reason that
although my father is dead … he lives on in mine and
others’ memories, and it is still my explanation for the series
of similar mystical and unproven belief systems which
exist and pervade human societies the world over. It is
this series of similar belief systems that have their set texts
repeatedly quoted and mis-quoted to give comfort to those
with ‘faith’, or to silence disbelievers. So-called holy texts
are interpreted to suit and used to authorise superstition,
slavery, racial segregation, racial subjugation, oppression
of women, homophobia, ethnic cleansing, terrorism, selfsacrifice
and suicide, war, rape, slaughter, genocide and
holocaust, pogroms … and man’s dominion over all else
on this planet … when, in a parody of blinkered ignorance,
most religious people would argue their religion promotes
caring and tolerance, love thy neighbour and a moral
code. Almost without question, core elements of a country’s
adopted religion are accepted as part of that country’s
culture and employed as a form of social control. On the
one hand, a religious dogma, pomp and ceremony is used
to shore up a corrupt system of ‘don’t do as I do – do as I
say’, sometimes to be exercised by a ruling elite as the final
and ultimate boot at the throat of a questioning population,
but more often wheeled out occasionally to give a moral
authority to some ruling class dictate in the guise of binding
a nation. But then on the other hand, also, in a bizarre
twist, it is often openly ridiculed and were anyone to follow
the plot and ever dare to say out loud ‘God has told me to
do this’ - they could be declared insane if it does not fit with
the dominant ideology. Yet, this is what a lot of organised
religion is based on – long gone ‘mad’ people pronouncing
on this or that after hearing ‘voices’ or seeing ‘visions’.
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