The gospel according to John Burroughs:
“Man is, and always has been, a maker of gods.”
Admittedly, there IS this peculiar disposition in humans. Man is inclined to make gods. Is this true of all of humanity? That this always has been the case might be difficult to defend, thought it seems to me that this is not his point.
Mr. Burroughs preaches, “Man is a maker of gods.”
Others preach, “God is the maker of men.”
Can both of these statements be true? Can they both reflect reality without contradiction themselves? Would affirming the one negate the other? Could these statements be shouted from the pulpit and evoke “Amen” from the pew?
The Pantheist says, “Amen.“
Believing that there are a bunch of gods who reveal themselves in a whole host of strange and fickle ways, then quite naturally the slew of strange and fickle religious is understandable. Their making of gods is tied into their specific experiences with whichever god happened to show up along the way.
The Theist says, “Amen.“
Believing that there is One God who created mankind with longings to know him, then a variety of strange and fickle religions would surface in the various pursuits of this longing. It would be necessary for God to reveal himself so that we might come to know him as he truly is and as we were meant to know him.
The Atheist says, “Ah humbug.“
Believing that there is no God and no gods, then the very fact that it can be proved that some gods are constructions of the human invention makes it a quite logical assertion that all gods and God are the product of man’s ingenuity. Therefore all religions are strange and fickle.
Let us think about this in artistic terms rather than religious ideas.
An artist is, and always has been, a painter of portraits.
How true is this? One could argue whether or not the artist always has been a painter (or has to be a painter rather than a sculptor), but that is not the point.
Some paintings will be collected with others and become bordered with expensive frames while some are magnetically adhered to kitchen appliances. The framed-ones last longer than the fridged-ones. This is closer to the point.
Framed or fridged—the Pantheist and the Theist recognize that paintings reflect something of a reality that exists apart from the painting, though their responses to the quality of work are quite different.
Fridged not framed—the Atheist looks at the artwork held up by magnets and assumes that all artwork is of this quality and reflects only what is inside the mind of the artist.
In other words, Mr. Burroughs can speak all he wants about artwork that belongs on the Fridge and what he says might be true in the kitchen, but his thought will not fly in an art studio or a museum.
Perhaps Mr. Burroughs’ sketch of atheism ought to be fridged.
