Tuesday morning is clear and chilled. At last fall envelops us. Hot coffee tastes especially delicious.

Having discovered a collection of quotations relative to Religion and Unbelief, again I ponder my own journey. I do not think I’ve exercised choice at any point in the matter of religion. Prior to my birth infinite circumstances intersected, opposed and colluded, entangled to occasion the individual that now reads, considers, and types words in English grammar upon this glowing screen. An individual of Faith, a practicing Christian, – it was never up to me!

Among the quotes I discovered was one from Celsus, a Roman Platonist of 150 AD. The True Discourse is an extended criticism of the nascent movement which was spreading among the “working class” in Rome. Education always produces a thorough going skepticism. We humans fabricate a models of reality, then conceal from ourselves, that none other than ourselves are the workmen/women. We pretend everything is “really” this way. Is the misdirection deceit? Is this fiction necessary to survival?

The excerpt from Celsus impresses. In the 21st century the vulgarity, the anti-intellectual slant of Christianity makes the notion of a Son-of-God, who agrees to become the bloody victim, to satisfy his father, – appealing, salable to the masses. The default for us humans is psychological and existential rootlessness, despair. Thus any lifeline, any at all, is worth grabbing onto… No matter how absurd.

The second quote comes from Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch artist, a self-confessed troubled soul. For reasons unclear to me, for which I can take no credit, I happen to stand with Van Gogh, on the matter of Belief. During his lifetime only one of his paintings, The Red Vineyard, was sold. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot at age 37.

First, however, I must deal with the matter of Jesus, the so-called savior, who not long ago taught new doctrines and was thought to be a son of God. This savior, 1 shall attempt to show, deceived many and caused them to accept a form of belief harmful to the well being of mankind. Taking its root in the lower classes, the religion continues to spread among the vulgar: nay, one can even say it spreads because of its vulgarity and the illiteracy of its adherents. And while there are a few moderate, reasonable, and intelligent people who are inclined to interpret its beliefs allegorically, yet it thrives in its purer form among the ignorant.

Celsus, on the True Doctrine: A Discourse Against the Christians trans. by R. J. Hoffman

I can very well do without God both in my life and in my painting, but I cannot, suffering as I am, do without something which is greater than I, which is my life, the power to create.

Vincent Van Gogh, letter to his brother; from The Great Thoughts, George Seldes, ed.

---

*Two photos of late fall, – the beauty of expiration. Japanese spindle native to Japan and Korea. Purple coneflower, native to central North America.