Debunking The Metaphors of Permanence (satire)

Theists got it wrong about God being a metaphysical divine being that exists in reality.

God is a Germanic adjective that translates as "good". Therefore "god" means "all that is good," and does not represent a real divine being.

Instead, the divine being is a anthropomorphic metaphor made in the image of man. Thus the phrase "man is made in the image of God" is actually a declaration of humility designed to control the ego lest a person think himself a god due to a perverted egocentricity known as egomania.

Instead the line in Genesis which declare mankind to have been made into the image of God actually means that all human beings are born basically good. It does not refer to an actual divine being, contrary to the dogma of the monotheists.

Rather God is a metaphor for all that is good in humankind.

As for the soul, there is no soul that is permanent and immortal, for the only living soul is that of the body-mind.

Likewise, just as speculation about gods is moot, so too is speculation about the afterlife.

However, the cult of Amida Buddha is based on a metaphor about wisdom and compassion (endless life of compassion and endless light of wisdom).

In the context of Buddhism, "endless" actually implies a long moment in time that begins in the distant past and ends in the distant future.

Likewise for the terms "forever", "immortal", and "never": "Never" represents an ideal reality; "Immortal" represents an ideal state; and "forever" represents an "infinitely" long time. For these terms are but metaphors of permanence which represent abstract reality as opposed to physical reality.

In the abstract world, everything lasts forever and God exists. This world is a metaphysical one, and thus is not tangible in the physical world.

Even the adjective term "infinitely" is an abstract term that implies an ideal reality in which an object lasts forever. In reality, the term "infinite" is inaccurate because nothing in reality lasts forever. Indeed, "infinite" actually means an indeterminately long time which eventually ends.

Therefore, "life eternal" does not represent "immortal soul", for "pneuma" as the soul is not the same as "life".

Nor does "eternal" equivalent in meaning to "immortal". "Eternal" refers to a state of eternity, which still represents a very long time that eventually ends, and is vastly longer than human life itself.

"Life eternal" then does not mean human life is eternal when you place your trust in Jesus. Rather it subtly says "the Christian way of life values family;" and your progeny bring you "life eternal" e.g. you and your descendants as Christians bring you life eternal.

It's not about immortality; it's about human propagation. Immortality thus is a metaphor for such propagation.

For the metaphors of permanence which the monotheists use, be it "immortal soul" and "life eternal", actually are euphemisms for human propagation and thus guarantees "life eternal."

Only in the abstract world does God and the terms which represent an infinitely long time exist. They are actually reified (made to exist as a material thing) by the mind alone. Even when monotheists say "God exists", what they really mean is that their belief in God reifies the abstract thing called "God".

Monotheists deny this interpretation, and claim that in the beginning, God existed. Thus the abstract world is assumed to have pre-existed before the creation of the physical world. Only if the mind is made real by reified beliefs can it become a permanent object which is a separate object from God. In the physical sense, they do not exist as physical objects. Rather, the mind and God are both abstractions of what we call "the mind".

To a materialist, such abstractions do not exist outside of the mind. To a Buddhist, speculation about such abstractions are moot. The mind still exists even when my concept of it refers to an abstract term called "the mind" that is reified until the mind has a purported physical existence, even though it does not.

When a person is asleep or dead, the physical world does not exist. Yet there are some people who believe Dreamtime is the true reality. Yet the world of dreams is akin to the abstract world, because once awake, they both do not exist.

Thus it is possible that the beliefs of the monotheists puts their minds to sleep, and they awaken to the abstract world within where their God exists along with His heaven and hell that He created.

At the same time, what the previous sentence means is, the monotheists are asleep to the physical world and the worldliness that arises from living in this reality. They only know of God as depicted in the Bible. Yet monotheists live in their own Dreamtime and know not of the physical world.

No one can awaken a Christian to the reality of the physical world, because his beliefs isolate him from true reality. He only sees the reality of his own making, which is but a benign delusion that allows him to function in the real world without being tainted by worldliness.

Through his prayers and rituals, the Christian purifies his soul. I only object to the non-Christian concept of the immortal soul that a few foolish Christians accept as true though it is not Biblical. Instead, the conception of an immortal soul is blasphemous within context of the Bible.

On this point, both the primitive Christian and I do see eye to eye regarding the reification of an immortal soul as blasphemy. In Buddhist thought, such a soul violates the principle of no-soul, that all is impermanent in the physical world and nothing lasts forever. Christians who cling to such a concept will then argue that "life eternal" implies an immortal soul. This is a fallacy because a soul is only alive for a limited time, from birth to death.

As well, the adjective term "eternal" is not a synonym of "immortal". As I stated before, both terms refer to the cycle of human life and human propagation. Thus "eternal life" refers to the propagation of human life and "immortal soul" refers to human generations of one's ancestors and descendants.

Thus have I debunks the metaphors of permanence that delude the monotheists. For the truth is, nothing exists forever. Yet to a Buddhist, this frees him from permanence. The resulting freedom is the liberation of the consciousness from the detritus of the material world.

Throughout his liberation from such delusional metaphors of permanence, the Buddhist will come to realize that anything is possible, even a world of impermanence. For impermanence makes the material world possible. Indeed, the physical world is always in flux.