Contents: Gospel & Universe

Annotated Contents Part 2

Currents of Religion

🌎 Many Tribes looks at religion from a wide historical and global perspective. The chapter starts with an Overview of Part 2: Currents of Religion and of this chapter, 🌎 Many Tribes. Six Versions of Infinity, The Creation of Outcasts, & A Specific Version of Infinity introduce the problem that’s created by making clear divisions between religion & doubt and between one religion & another. Nothing in Damascus is a fictional account of how math, theology, and love might intersect. Myth & Religion looks at the shift from polytheistic uncertainty to monotheistic certainty, and East & West, One God, and Anti-Definitions contrast Eastern continuity with Western change. Throughout, I argue against the innate superiority of henotheism and monotheism. All Those Things the Wise Men Say contains poems which emphasize differences and similarities in global religions.

♒️ The Currents of Sumer looks at the Mesopotamian background to religion and the Judaeo-Christian tradition. Introduction & Overview introduces my argument, and Currents of History illustrates my agnostic take on religious history and exegesis. The Whore explores the animosity of Jews & Christians to the Mesopotamians & their religion, and The Flood outlines Mesopotamian influences on the biblical Flood. The Exegete & the Philologist, Zero & Positive Sums, More Zero Sums, and Gaming Out compares Peter Enns’ zero-sum approach to Mesopotamia with Jean Bottéro’s positive-sum approach. The Bounty of Sumer & Akkad, Friendly Gods, and Again, Minus 1 Plus 1 continues the comparison, adding the Mesopotamian figures of Shamash and Ea. Rewind & Fast-Forward, Grace: The Most Positive Sum, Myths of Sin & Divinity, The Archaeology of Mystery, and Post & Other Scripts concludes the comparison, and suggests that Christianity has much to gain by taking a positive-sum approach. The Return of Enlil is a fictional vision of the apocalypse, complete with Russian nukes and a redeeming god of sweet waters.

⏯ Systems looks at agnosticism and religion in more general terms. Mere Religion? urges skepticism about religious dogma as well as respect for religious concepts of hope and justice; Systems of Dread & Hope compares the grim Mesopotamian afterlife with that Egypt & Persia; Currents of Christianity surveys influences, schisms & challenges in Christianity; Abraham’s Vice argues that it’s absurd to claim God for your own group; Agora Phobia laments the narrowing of Christian doctrine; Selective Grace suggests that systems of Grace are hard to apply universally; Exclusive Geographies sees religious exclusivity in terms of personal and geographical background, and Christianity 2.0 argues for a radically open view of Christianity. Systems of Operation observes that it’s very hard to be fully open to a new system of belief; Veils suggests that any unmovable philosophic position is a veil of sorts; and Gods & Souls argues that religion has much to offer whether or not it’s true in an ontological sense. The Scoundrels of Theology observes that radical doubt can be a wild and unpredictable ride. Versions of Deity uses Hindu and global concepts to question atheist notions of religion; and Churches of Thought situates agnosticism in relation to the churches of scholarship and religion. Unlimited Agnosticism uses cosmopolitan Sikhism to compare either/or, neither/nor, and neither/both ways of thinking. “Open Your Heart” 1 notes that belief is often practical and not based on a quest for truth; 2 notes that belief is largely a function of geography and history; and 3 suggests that awareness of one’s finite position can preclude a firm conviction.

✝️ Saint Francis argues that doubt brings out the type of humility and inclusiveness we find in Saint Francis. The first four pages suggest that charity and love ought to trump dogma: Rapt Angel contains poems that contrast charity and selfishness; San Francisco questions whether it’s really that easy to separate dogma from altruism; The Baby & the Bathwater suggests that it’s tricky to throw out the dogmatic & irrational without also throwing out the charity; and Keeping Baby argues that charity and love transcend dogma, and that Christianity is one among many currents. The next six pages argue against forcing belief on others: Believe It or Else argues against coercion and against seeing metaphors as equations; Pascal’s Wager 1: Pensées, 2: It Isn’t Necessary to Wager, 3: God & Infinity, 4: Zhuangzi in Tipasa, and 5: The Cosmic Casino critique Pascal’s notion that it’s necessary to choose between belief & non-belief and argue against coercive threats and against turning liberating metaphors into stultifying equations. The last three pages look at the temptation of belief: Holy Dreamers argues that dreams are a tempting metaphor for death; From Kerry to Crete recounts two nightmares where belief would be very helpful; and Canticle to the Stars contains a sort of agnostic prayer.

🍎 The Apple-Merchant of Babylon is a comic account of Moses and the development of monotheism. In the first four pages we’re introduced to Moe, who is an apple merchant struggling to get his family to believe in God and to oppose market competition from Persia & India: in The Genealogy of Mortals Moe ruminates on his origins and decides on a God; in Moses & the Apple-Merchants of Babylon Moe attempts an ecumenical solution to unfair competition from the East; in Eastern Gods Moe is enraged by the theological tactics of the Hindu merchant next door; and in Golden Calves Moe spies a worm in the apple and a snake in the garden. The next six pages recount Moe’s struggle to define his new religion: in The Holy Bin Moe has a literary vision; in Final Judgments Moe grudgingly admires the afterlife of the Egyptians; in Aziz & the Crimson Goblet Moe finally arrives at a beginning, yet finds it impossible to say what he means; in The Confused Astronomers of Babylon 1 Moe does battle with slippery plates & diabolical sixes; in The Confused Astronomers of Babylon 2 Moe attempts to straighten out the chaos of Creation; and in In the Beginning Moe refines his notion about the One True God. The final two pages document Moe’s relation with his family: in Adam & the Snake Moe tries to cope with Adam, his senile grandfather; and in The Journey West Moe completes his epic and shows it to his uncle Abe.

🇫🇷 The Priest’s Dilemma is the story of a Parisian priest who wonders how Infinity got boiled down to dogma — or, metaphorically, how the ocean of faith got shrunk down to particular rivers. Jean-Luc fears that Christianity’s emphasis on the Jordan and the Bible sidelines other rivers of faith (Rivers of God). Determined to look realistically at Christian idealism and exclusivism (Pinpoints of Light), he weighs his belief against the findings of evolution and philology (The Golden Triangle), he fears that the “Good News” of Babylon's defeat was announced prematurely (Nineveh), and he struggles with the Mesopotamian roots of the Abrahamic tradition (Que Sais-je?). Driven to the edge of agnosticism and despair, Jean-Luc is tempted by fantasies of the Protestant persuasion (Priest & Pastor).

💫 🔸 Believing in the Mystery looks at two theistic philosophies (Chinese Daoism and American Transcendentalism) that differ culturally yet share three views that make them almost compatible with agnosticism: 1. God’s ineffability, 2. the expansion and eclipse of the self, and 3. the lack of normative values and behaviours. Introduction: Daoism & Whitman’s Transcendentalism∙I: The God That Has No Name∙A Global Picture∙II: The Experience That Has No Self∙III: The Path That Has No Path

🇮🇳 🔸Rushdie: The Fiction of Doubt. The first half of this chapter supplies different ways of looking at realism, doubt, and mystical ideals in Salman Rushdie’s first five novels: The Rise of the Simurg overviews Rushdie’s fiction in light of Attar’s mystical ideal of the Simurg, which is a mythic bird of unity and a symbol for God; All the Letters Mixed Up looks at this ideal in Rushdie’s first novel, Grimus; When Religions Collide looks at what happens when religions clash; When Religions Come Together looks at the fusion of religious paradigms in Midnight’s Children; Eruptions of the Sacred looks at the relation of the natural to the supernatural; and The Return of the Simurg returns to Rushdie’s use of Attar’s Simurg. The second half of this chapter looks at the attack on dogma in Rushdie’s first four novels: Iconoclasts: Flapping Eagle explores the escape from dogma and the quest for infinity in Grimus; The Two Adams looks at the mix of secular politics & unifying mysticism in old Aziz sahib and Aadam Aziz in Midnight’s Children; The Rock: Amina analyzes a secular battle with the demons of communalism (meaning Hindu-Muslim conflict); The Poet & the Three Weird Sisters peers into Omar’s rejection of mysticism and examines the roots of his metaphysical nightmare in Shame; and The Flight of Angels: Gabriel & Allelujah looks at the psychology of possession and mysticism in The Satanic Verses. In all these novels Rushdie highlights doubt and attacks coercive religious fundamentalism.

Coda

☠️ Ars Moriendi looks at death from the point of view of a person who knows absolutely nothing about it — that is, from the point of view of an agnostic. The chapter starts autobiographically with memories of my dad, who made life worth living — and death so difficult to accept: Teeing Off recalls golfing with my dad, and reflects on a symbolic 19th hole; Batter Up! recalls my dad’s love of baseball; Sky Train recalls dad on the Skytrain & at my office in New Westminster; Dying by the Law recalls my dad in hospital with dementia; Post Scriptum, Post Mortem, Agnosticum takes place after my dad passed away. The next five pages mostly contain poetry about the relation between agnosticism & death: On Time contains Crystal Ball - On the Death of My Brother, Stella d’Artois - Spinning - Further Than Haut-Médoc - Karma & Bug - 75 Years; Like Flies to Wanton Boys contains “With Flu,” “Death, Be Not Proud,” &“116 Fathoms Deep”;The Deadly Force of Chance contains “Chance,” “Seems,” “Lear,” & “Khayyam”; Living by the Numbers contains “12,” “10+14,” “77,” “Tops,” “Night Flight,” & “Star Trek”; Dying by the Numbers contains “93,” “Funeral,” “Diapers,” “Dust,” “Gone,” & “Victory Gin.” The last three pages contain prose, autobiography, and poetry: The Readiness is All uses Shakespeare, Aurelius, Sartre, Hinduism, and Christianity to cast doubt on all versions of the afterlife; Beyond Whose Bourn explores a bittersweet dream of my sister; On the Pageant Faded contains “9:40 A.M.,” “Beyond,” and “Circle, Period, Dot.”

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Next: Preface: Situating Agnosticism

Table of Contents - Annotated Contents - Layout - Core Beliefs