Idols, Heroes, and the slaying of them

“It is a rather strange notion, but an ancient truth, that you must kill the gods if you ever hope to become one.”
~Seti I Shadim

How do you feel about idols?
Or the notion of “god-killing”?
What value, if any, do they have?

“This will all, perhaps, seem quite melodramatic and, of course, it is meant to be. It may seem to be detached from your daily life. But analyze your life as you go through your day. Collect your idols, your quiet gods, and determine their worth. Find those areas where the image you hold in your mind is not your own, but an image you have inherited from someone else. An image that has outlived it’s usefulness. (This part is crucial. Make sure you have learned the lessons.) Honor what it has taught you. Appreciate it as a teacher, as a reflection. Then gently place it upon the altar of forgotten idols, and smash it with the hammer of your will. Crush this idol until it is dust.”
~Seti I Shadim

What gods have you killed lately?
And what, if anything, did you learn from them?

– Draconis

Idols, heroes, and such they serve a reason behind them. We want to model ourselves after them because there is something in them that we see that we like and if we didn’t they would not be a model for us to begin with. Maybe it is why I really do not have heroes or idols or gods for myself. There is nothing in them that I really admire for what I do not have for myself.

As for God himself, I think people want to hold onto their abstractions about him. They can blame him, lean on him, feel comforted instead of relying on themselves. It is easy to say “God willed it…” then “I messed up.” It is easier to believe someone controls the crap that you go through then saying you are the captain of your ship. God is a “reason” instead of your own personal reason. Yet when you doubt, when you become to be a skeptic, it changes your perception, your world-view. So when you slay this belief in God, you slay yourself and become more than your former self.

We can all be like the phoenix at times. We should be more willing to slay and let go of that which no longer serves us in our pursuits. An extreme example of this if your leg is infected and it cannot be saved, do you keep it and let it kill you or do you get it removed? Why should you hold onto an ideal that has tired out? Why should you hold onto someone who is to far gone in Alzheimer’s? They are not the person who they were and they never will be again.

The hardest part for us to get rid of, is getting rid of as Axael said, the false gods, or false images. I can give just a personal example, pretending to not be angry, pretending I am not aggressive. I had this image of myself that I am very peaceful and in a sense, I can appear to be. On the surface is still water, but the currents run very deep and fast. I worked very hard for the self-control I do have now, but the image of who I thought I was, was something difficult in breaking through.

We acquire the strength of what we overcome. Once we overcome the false images of ourselves, we really grow into our own skin. False images are limitations. It is like instead of playing a role, you assimilate yourself into the role. There is a danger in that. Just like there is a danger in assimilating yourself in the role of your God, your hero, your idol. You are not them. They are not you. You have to take for yourself the qualities you want to build in you. Their journey to get those qualities will be not be the same as yours. To think so, means you just want a cookie cutter format which does not exist in real life. The way of (bushido, jedi, buddha, sith, any religion) are tools to create yourself and tools to deal with the way. Yet within those spheres you are still you, similar but you.

Belief in God(s)

I once wrote on it on my tumblr page, but I’ll discourse my views again.  If you want to, you can read the old post here.

I do not believe in God(s), at least not in the sense they are represented by the mythos of all the cultures.  Their mythos was their way of trying to explain the casual world.  I cannot accept God(s) almost like us, should they not as God(s) be different if not, better versions of I guess, human beings, or another race?  From the Bible to every tale I have found of God(s), they may be pretty much immortal, but they are childish, immature, and fickle in every way.  Maybe it is because when I think of God(s) I think of perfection when it comes to God(s).  If they could live for so long, cannot they not overcome such petty jealousies? It is why I have struggled with any idea the God(s) are real.

The closest I can to believing God(s) exist that we ourselves are “demi-Gods.”  To a point we can control our lives and choose our “destiny.”  Destiny/fate does not exist except that as the manifestation of of our actions as consequences. We may not see these manifestations or understand the pattern it has formed to create it.  I can choose to step in front of the car driving down the street and I can choose not to, thus through choice we create our destiny. However, Nature is beyond our control.  There are forces out there that can impact our lives and thus changing it, like a sudden tornado appearing and ripping apart a home.  Life is full of random circumstances but I believe that when we focus our Will into the Universe we can make changes.

Maybe I am wrong.  I am always open for changing how I feel about this issue.  I know I struggle with “faith” because I try and see everything so logically.  If God is all power why does he/she/it not do….?  I cannot believe that God is my protector in any form.  There are billions of people upon the planet, why should he care for one person? No matter how extremely intelligent and all-powerful some God he may be. I cannot reason with the existence of the Christian God.  I appreciate the religion in what it tries to teach but to few follow the teaching as they should.  For those who do, I honor at least, the truth you have found in your spirit.