Warming Up

Very much enjoying Francesca Stavrakopoulou’s audiobook God - An Anatomy. Francesca was a guest on RHLSTP in Exeter and was a lot of fun (I love having academics who are up for a laugh on) and I got a copy of her book sent to me last year, but I rarely get any time to actually read. But I downloaded the audiobook this week and have been tucking in on runs and drives and even though I have read quite a lot of stuff about the Bible (mostly New Testament stuff to be fair) there have already been many revelations that have blown my mind. 

The most surprising for me is that God had a dad. Which at last answers the question as to where God came from, though sadly just kicks the ball one generation further down the road. Perhaps it shouldn’t be a shock to learn that there were all kinds of competing gods in the millennia before Jesus turned up to confuse things further, and different peoples and tribes worshipped different ones, or acknowledged that the Heavens were full of supernatural beings. But to begin with Yahweh (the most enduringly successful of the gang) was just one seventy siblings and the kingpin god was his dad El. The Old Testament even had to fudge things a bit because some of the early Holy dudes would have worshipped El, not Yahweh and so there’s bits where Yahweh has to say that he hadn’t revealed himself properly, but that El was him in disguise (essentially).

It’s a mad old jumble of nonsense and it’s very interesting to see all the historical research that goes in to discovering the evolution of the religions that sprung out of these competing ideas. For an atheist it’s very interesting, though if you’re religious I suppose you just have to ignore the evidence, or just not look into it, which feels like a strange choice for something you’re basing your life on. 

The religious often claim that their views are held up by the fact that their beliefs span back many centuries, but then they should really take it back right to the earliest possible sources. Surely the earliest the resource, the more true it has to be?

But yeah, that’s not how religions work. Even if history shows that your God was initially just the ruling deity of a small bit of desert and his dad was the main God, you have been told he’s the only God and you probably can’t be bothered to even read the whole Bible to find all the bits that suggest there are many supernatural beings (many have been reassigned as angels) or to notice how much the name El crops up. It’s even in Israel - must be a bummer for El that people have forgotten what a big deal he was, but he’s taking it well and hardly complains at all. Actually maybe that explains why everything is so fucked up. El is just being passive aggressive and punishing us for forgetting him, in spite of all the evidence.

But the Bible is a lot of fun and although most religious people now believe that God does not have a physical body, Francesca makes a very strong case for showing that that was not how he was initially viewed - he did after all make us in his own image and walks around gardens and even wrestles people in the Old Testament. 

It’s all fascinating and Francesca makes it all very accessible, whilst still keeping it academic and I am glad that she is reading her own book. Hard recommend for anyone who is interested in all this crazy madness that shaped our world and will probably ultimately destroy it.

Plus there’s a chapter about God’s cock. Which surely has to be worth the price tag on its own.

Ultimately though the book makes you consider all the deities that were once worshipped sincerely and that people who gave their lives for who are now entirely forgotten. If you’re religious I suppose there’s a chance you’ve picked the right one (even if you don’t really know where they came from or what they used to be), but how likely is it really? Likely enough for a little bit of doubt? Likely enough for a bit of tolerance of other viewpoints?

Nah, you carry on believing what your mum and dad told you to believe and don’t question it. You’ll probably be OK. Unless El is up there waiting to punish us all for our lack of faith.

Poor old BJ. Maybe they're all leaving because they've locked the wine fridge.