2025.12.09
[Discussing "The Church of the God Who Makes No Difference"]:Can't believe I never blogged about it before, because the church name and concept (sometimes I misremember it as "The God That Doesn't Matter") has really resonated for me, right up there with Vonnegut and Bokononism.
She said, "'God makes no difference ... because God is the reason why everything is exactly what it is'? That's supposed to make us all feel at peace with the cosmos, is it?"
Francesca shook her head. "At peace? No. It's just a matter of clearing away, once and for all, old ideas like divine intervention – and the need for some kind of proof, or even faith, in order to believe."
Maria said, "What *do* you need, then? *I* don't believe, so what am I missing?"
"Belief?"
"And a love of tautology."
"Don't knock tautology. Better to base a religion on tautology than fantasy."
"But it's worse than tautology. It's ... redefining words arbitrarily, it's like something out of Lewis Carroll. Or George Orwell. 'God is the reason for everything ... whatever that reason is.' So what any sane person would simply call *the laws of physics*, you've decided to rename G-O-D ... solely because the word carries all kinds of historical resonances – all kinds of misleading connotations. You claim to have nothing to do with the old religions – so why keep using their terminology?"
Francesca said, "We don't deny the history of the word. We make a break from the past in a lot of ways – but we also acknowledge our origins. God is a concept people have been using for millennia. The fact that we've refined the idea beyond primitive superstitions and wish-fulfillment doesn't mean we're not part of the same tradition."
"But you haven't *refined* the idea, you've made it meaningless! And rightly so – but you don't seem to realize it. You've stripped away all the obvious stupidities – all the anthropomorphism, the miracles, the answered prayers – but you don't seem to have noticed that once you've done that, there's absolutely nothing left that needs to be called *religion*. Physics is not theology. Ethics is *not* theology. Why pretend that they are?"
Francesca said, "But don't you see? We talk about God for the simple reason that *we still want to*. There's a deeply ingrained human compulsion to keep using that word, that concept – to keep honing it, rather than discarding it – despite the fact that it no longer means what it did five thousand years ago."
"And you know perfectly well where that compulsion comes from! It has nothing to do with any real divine being; it's just a product of culture and neurobiology – a few accidents of evolution and history."
"Of course it is. What human trait isn't?"
"So why give in to it?"
Francesca laughed. "Why give in to anything? The religious impulse isn't some kind of ... alien mind virus. It's not – in its purest form, stripped of all content – the product of brainwashing. It's a part of who I am."
Maria put her face in her hands. "Is it? When you talk like this, it doesn't sound like you."
Francesca said, "Don't you ever want to give thanks to God, when things are going well for you? Don't you ever want to ask God for strength, when you need it?"
"No."
"Well, I do. Even though I know God makes no difference. And if God is the reason for everything, then God includes the urge to use the word God. So whenever I gain some strength, or comfort, or meaning, from that urge, then God is the source of that strength, that comfort, that meaning.
"And if God – while making no difference – helps me to accept what's going to happen to me, why should that make you sad?"
It's either made-up trans bullshit, or made-up immigration bullshit.
Either way, none of it affects my life. It's the economy stupid.
The party of "fuck your feelings" has so many fucking feelings.
Ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaha
