Practice makes the Perfect Swing, Revelation or Evolution, Hubris, God the All-Excuse, Planet Xylophone and Bill Maher

ACTUALLY, I think practice doesn’t make perfect. I believe that practice increases the chances of achieving moments of perfection. If you are a golfer, don't you wonder sometimes, “Whaoo… look at that ball go! But heck… How did I do that?" To this question I propose a solution, and here it goes…

PERFECTION is granted by God as His reward for all your hard work and dedication. Moving on from the perfect swing metaphor, who do you think suggested the perfect bridge in your musical composition, who do you think dropped the big hint about that algorithm in your perfect mathematical equation, who guided your gaze to the herb needed to make your soup just perfect, and who really made that perfect day you spent on the beach with your lover?

AND THE ANSWER IS ALLAH. Well, Yes and No. It doesn’t matter if you call it/him Jesus, Buddha, Ram, Fate, Happenstances or simply a Lucky Break. The fact is you are already cool in my books because you have recognized that really, perfection that is constant is unattainable, and that by practicing, we are only helping to increase our chance of hitting the jackpot. And that, my friends, is what we call humility (or at least ‘being realistic with your chances’).

REVELATION OR EVOLUTION? TO-MAY-TO OR TO-MAH-TO? The only difference is that people who believe in God believe that the brief moment of your perfect golf swing is just one glorious moment God is sharing with you from his Infinite Ocean of Glorious Moments. And really, He doesn’t have to share it with you, He doesn’t need to recognize your efforts, but He does anyway because simply, He loves you regardless of whether you call him Allah, Yehovah, Shiva, Crom, Fate, Chance or Spacegod from Planet Xylophone. Think about it.

The problem atheists have with God is really not because of God or religion, but how ‘believers’ end up using Him as THE validation for all their greed, bigotry, arrogance, violence, ignorance and apathy. The ‘believers’ have hijacked God to be not God the Almighty, but God the All-Excuse for their own stupidity and degeneracy.

So if you believe in God, then please… just try to be nice. Have some good manners to your neighbours… Follow your conscience, and don’t be goaded by your hubris that somehow, God made you better than the person sitting next to you in the bus. And ultimately, be patient and merciful. And not in that condescending way that ‘believers’ end up being sometimes. Be nice. And mean it.

STOP BEING SO CONDESCENDING. Whether we believe in God or not, whether we call God Christ, Allah, Yehovah, Ram, Ra or Spacegod, please stop being condescending or patronizing to one another. Stop saying ‘No, it’s not that I look down on you, I WAS ONCE LIKE YOU, but now that I have found Darwin / Jesus / Muhammad / Ra, I want to help you’ because really, such statement drips of hubris. Bill Maher, that ridiculous but painfully honest comedian/host atheist made me see this. So Bill, thank you.

And thank you too for dropping by, sunshine.

Pax Taufiqa.