Heresy

10/06/2011
7:07 pm

Good evening, everybody. I'm back after quite a long break. I was never planning on writing again any time soon, but earlier this afternoon, motivation and a brilliant topic hit me, and it came in the form of a girl. A nice girl, she was, and I hope she's reading this right now, because she was the apple that fell on Newton' head. (figuratively, obviously)

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My country, the Philippines, has some very religious people, mostly Catholic and Christian. Surprisingly, a few months back, there was this very controversial event concerning art and blasphemy. What happened was there was this art exhibit that featured a painting, or a picture maybe, of Jesus Christ, and glued to his face was a wooden penis. Shocking, right? When I first saw it, I was blown away with mixed emotions. First, I was filled with disgust, because it was vulgar and disrespectful, but the negativity didn't last long. I felt a great respect for the artist, because knowing how religious Filipino people are, that piece of art alone proved that the guy had balls. He has his opinions, his own beliefs, and he wasn't afraid to show them.

So if you're already thinking, "Oh boy, he's going to attack religion and god again," then you're partly right. You see, I don't attack religion or god. I don't intend to cause any insult or disrespect, my only wish is to share my opinion. When people pray to God, the Christian God, I don't take any insult, and I don't say that they're attacking my belief. If a Muslim were to pray right beside a Catholic, would the Muslim be intending to diss the other? Surely not. Would the Catholic take offense? Maybe.
My point in all this is that how come believers preach their opinions (which they see as facts) so loudly and obnoxiously, but the moment a contradicting opinion goes their way, they take insult? They label you as a blasphemer and they condemn you.

Back to the original topic though, which is blasphemy. I'll split my explanation into two parts, a religious point-of-view and an atheistic point-of-view.

Atheistic
This is going to be brief. If you're a religious person, I think that you'd want to skip this part, but don't worry, I'm not going to be saying stuff like, "Eh, I think the penis is a nice touch".
Sure it was disrespectful and kind of an asshole thing to do, really, but if I were to paint a picture of Santa Claus with a g-string on his head, would it be such an immoral thing to do too? If I were to paint a picture of the Easter Bunny giving birth to a dragon, then would that be blasphemy too? This is pretty much saying that since I don't believe in a god, then blasphemy is just really pointless and means nothing at all.

Religious
Now, this is for the theists. You see, I'd been a Roman Catholic and a Born Again Christian, so I know what it feels like to believe in a god. It's self-centered, hypocritical, arrogant and most of all, self-righteous. You might think, "No! It's not having a god that you just described." Well then, let me explain myself from my own understanding of my experiences.

I've never seen God. I've never heard His voice. I've never felt God, and I've never tasted God. I also have never smelled God, unless He smells like a certain kind of perfume, then maybe I have. (No, that's a joke) So none of my senses have ever sensed God, or His presence, so why did I ever believe that there was one? I was raised Christian and went to a Catholic school for 8 years, so my mind was molded unconsciously by the idea of the existence of a god, -- until I grew the balls to question myself. And yes, I questioned myself, my own beliefs. I never questioned God because He was just always in my mind. God was my conscience, my morals, and my beliefs. God's word was my interpretation of the bible, and God's will was whatever I thought needed to happen. Why do you think different people have different preachings on the Word of God? Why do you think Christianity branches out into so many religions, if we're all just really worshiping the same God?
The bible means what people think it means, and each one understands it differently, unless of course if you base your faith on the things you hear, and not the things you read, which is mostly the case with most of the believers I know. Why do you think that there are still conflicts amongst religious people of the same religions? Who will you be to say who's right and who's wrong, if their basis is the will of an invisible being who nobody can ever really have a proper conversation with?
Self-righteous because you think you humbly worship a great divine being when you're really just worshiping yourself. If you don't believe me, then tell me, why do you praise God for so many things, and why do you acknowledge His will, when His reasons are supposedly not understandable by the human mind? How can you say that whatever is happening right now is God's will, when his divine plan is supposed to be too great for you to understand? Well, it's simply because it what you think His plan is. In other words, it's just what you think. If you still don't believe me, then I'm surprised you're still reading this.

So where am I getting with this? Well, it's just my explanation for my opinion that all your gods are your own minds, your own personal gods. So how does this relate with blasphemy, with the blasphemous work of art?
If there was a god, I think he'd much more appreciate the use of our logic, our intellect and rationality, our talents in arts and the blooming of the creativity of our minds, than the mindless worship and keeping sacred of his name. I don't think that a divine being would care so much about his name that he would hinder the use of the complete potential of our minds and talents just so he would have a clean reputation. That's the attitude of a conscious teenage girl, and I don't think that a divine god would be a conscious teenage girl, unless of course if you're a conscious teenage girl yourself.

So about the shutting down of the art gallery and the supposed vandalism attacks on the artworks, let me ask you something: Why are you speaking for what you think displeases your god? If he really hated it, wouldn't he, being all-powerful, just tell the artists himself? He could, couldn't he? If everything that happens on earth is his will, then why did these paintings come to existence? And if you say that not everything that happens is according to his will, then what kind of all-powerful being couldn't control everything that happens in his little planet? If you say that he just wouldn't, then what kind of a good god would just let his children die and suffer and kill each other off and get raped and molested? If you hate this post, then there's nothing I can do for you.

And besides, who knows if Mideo Cruz really did have any intention of offending Christianity? Who knows what kind of significant meaning that wooden organ could've been symbolizing. You see, here's the thing with believing in a god: (from what I know) it makes you think that you have the answers to the questions, when you really have no clue. It makes the most arrogant people believe that they're being humble, as long as they give credit to god, which is just giving glory to themselves and their unquestionable opinions. You don't know what he really intended to show.

That's the beauty of art. Only the artist will surely knows what it truly means.

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Good night, everybody.
If you got offended by this post, then you
probably shouldn't have read it.
And don't ever forget that my statements here
are my own honest opinions.
I don't claim them as facts,
unlike what other people do.
I don't say that I know the laws of the universe;
I say that I know what I believe in.

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Edit as of 10/08/11:
After reading much more about the topic, I found out that Mideo Cruz created the work, "Poleteismo" which is not just a single painting, but three walls entirely covered with images and papers, and much more. There were pictures of Jesus Christ and Mary alongside condoms; he put up some designs commonly found in some churches; and he hung crucifixes and rosaries to wooden phalluses, and trust me, there were so much more.
I know it's even more shocking to know that there are more, but before all of you go start judging and condemning the artist, let me post to you here his explanation:

"I wanted to provoke people into thinking. I titled my work ‘Poleteismo’ which loosely translates into ‘many beliefs’ or ‘many deities.’ Throughout history, humanity has grown to create new gods and these are not always religious figures but concepts and objects. Some have taken to worshiping money; some see politicians as godsend. People create idols and these idols whether or not they’re deserving of idolatry or worship affect our lives and how we function and see the world."

Now, if you ask me, this man is a genius. That explains the pictures of politicians, the phalluses, the condoms and the piggy banks. So right now, try to think if he's really such a bad guy, when he was never trying to offend Christianity (as he says). He has a point, an idea, a thought, a brilliant observation, and through art is how he shows it.