Drugs: Catalyst or Toilet Flush

Posted by admin on August 30th, 2009 | No Comments »

I wrote a post a couple months ago about Phish begging the question of why they, as well as so many other artists turn to drugs to the point of ruining their careers.

I happened to be lucky enough to see Phish two weeks ago on their last leg of their summer 09 reunion tour.  After listening and watching them play themselves into a downward spiral of mediocrity in 2003-2004, I have to admit that I was utterly blown away by their performance in Hartford CT two fridays ago.  They were a whole new band it seemed…almost as tight as they were in their hey-day of the early to mid 90’s, I was inspired by the depth to which they took the music..something that I had seriously missed from their performances before their “break up” and even in the first couple of shows of this most recent tour.

I wasn’t the only person who was feeling as if Phish had truly “returned” for good this time.  Surrounded by fans who all had very similar things to say, I was overcome with happiness that the band I had loved more than any band in my life, who I thought had lost it forever, was seemingly being reborn again into a new, polished and joyfully connected world of musical togetherness and brilliance.

So I beg the question again…If drugs were some of the reason for their brilliance at their onset (Phish is known for smoking copious amounts of weed in some of their earlier rehearsal days in what they called their “Oh Kee Pah Ceremonies”) and drugs were the main reason for flushing themselves down the toilet…and now, sobriety and gratitude seem to be the reason for their polished and seemingly annointed comeback…then drugs: catalyst for creative realization or fast track to lethargy, inconsistancy, and flushing your gifts down the toilet?

There is No Such Thing As Atheism

Posted by admin on August 7th, 2009 | No Comments »

There is no such thing as atheism.

During my senior year of college, a group formed on campus called something like “Atheists Unite.”  In my recollection, in order to draw a following they started posting ads for their group around campus with anti-god jokes and quips…almost putting down or making fun of people who chose to believe in some kind of God or supreme being.  I was annoyed by these posters because I didn’t understand why a lack of belief in God had to warrant such derogatory energy towards active believers.  Holding myself as an agnostic, not identifying with any religion or dogma but non the less somebody who firmly believes in God: the “higher self” within me as well as a greater, unknowable “thing” or “being” outside of me, I was upset by this groups seemingly sarcastic nature.  At the time I dismissed them as lame, but in retrospect I wish I had gone to a meeting to see what they were all about.  A “god” lover like myself, immersed in a group of possible God-haters.

These are the questions I would ask them:

1) What is the benefit of choosing such active disbelief?  What is the pay-off in thinking that something greater doesn’t exist?  What do you gain from it?

2) How can you actively NOT believe in something that is always and forever unknowable?  Aren’t you, by actively saying “there is no God” giving God credence and existence by NOT believing in it?

Take the idea of racism as an example.  Racism can only exist when somebody becomes aware of somebody else’s race.  For young children, the concept of black or white is usually, depending on the parents, not even a realm in the child’s consciousness.  An example from my own life, I had a black baby sitter when I was a toddler.  I didn’t even know she was black until I got old enough to differentiate.  The awareness of race is the first seed of racism.  Now, once that seed is planted, we can actively choose to not believe in discriminating groups of people based on race or ethnicity…but as long as the awareness of race exists in our consciousness…we have racism within us.  Everybody does…and except for the young child, there are no exceptions to this.

It is no different for atheism…or unicorns or fairies for that matter! If you were a true atheist, the concept of God, the idea of something greater than yourself wouldn’t even be on your radar…would not even enter your consciousness.  If you are saying there is no such thing as “such and such” then “such and such” exists for you in the realm of things not to believe in…so therefore, you are acknowledging “such and such’s” existence…even in the realm of your mind or your imagination.  Even in the realm of disbelief.

The entirety of God…whether you are a Christian who believes every word of the Bible, or an agnostic like myself, or a Buddhist who believes that God is within…is forever unknowable.  Faith is the practice of believing in the unknowable, of believing in that which can’t be known or seen.  In church, people experience their idea of God permeating their being; they cry, they weep, they sing, they are filled with the Holy Spirit.  In my life I have felt such things…such immense joy and love from what I call “God” but could easily call “Spirit,” “Universe,” “The One” and a million other names.  A Buddhist might say he knows God after he is enlightened.  None of the above truly knows the entirety of God.

Like Death, we can only speculate.  We may have strong beliefs about what happens after death, or about what God is…and our faith in our beliefs may indeed be so strong that we feel in our whole being sure of the answer.  Yet we can never truly know for sure.  And this is what is so awesome about God.  For every amazing thing that I personally believe God to be, I also believe that the acceptance of the possibility of something greater than this life, this self, this humanity, is the death of narcissism.  And atheism is the most powerful practice in narcissism…

Visions of beauty and splendor,
Forms of a long-lost race,
Sounds and faces and voices
From the fourth dimension of space;
And on through the universe boundless,
Our thoughts go, lightning-shod;
Some call it Imagination,
And others call it God!