Posted by MickCollins. at ac8e3d9a.ipt.aol.com on May 12, 2000 at 19:21:49:
More repost questions,live from Ohio,the land of drew carey and...not much else.
Hey there Yojimbo,
I thought these may be problems when Dogma first came out and thought little of it,now I'm
seeing these problems keep popping up. Stop me if I'm wrong. The events that transpire in
Dogma are,like Metatron says,a test for Bethany. So, the universe was never in any danger. God
is omnipotent. If Bartleby managed to outfox the good guys, it would just have God stop it and hit
reset,Bethany goes back to sad abortion worker and maybe he gives her pipes a cleaning anyway
and then he tries to enlighten the daughter/son or whatever. Or maybe he tries again with Bethany.
Either way, if God is omnipotent,as a God needs to be, it would be impossible to trap it in the
body of some old man. That was just part of the test,the Old man thing. If the universe was really
in danger,then God was not omnipotent nor omniscient and,therefore,not God.
The second problem comes with the personification of God. It has nothing to do with Alanis. It
has to do with God taking the form of anyone. Jesus was man/God,but he was that for a reason.
Like Bethany,he had a test that he passed and a mission to accomplish. God,to be God,would
have to be like he is presented in the Old Testament, a force/presence that the human mind can't
comprehend,it has to be simplified. But I find simplifying God in a human form just rehashes the
same "Do you really think some Old Man in the sky created life and will judge your actions?"
argument given by even the dumbest of atheists. By making God a person,you play right into their
bullshit and the worst aspects of Evangelical Christendom. I think there is a reason that,when God
appears to Moses, he does so in simple ways like just a disembodied voice or a flaming bush.(the
mere mention of flaming bush has probably peaked the interest of B.Buster) God in the Old
Testament is like the owner of the Apartment who has seen his tenants misbehaving so he has to
lay down the basic laws. To do so, he has to make an appearence and show them he is not just a
Lenny McClean-esque Bouncer from Beyond,he has to show he is Wholly Other. Not of this
Earth or Universe. G lives outside its laws and timeline, it is something that can't be described in
its pure form. So it has to become a pillar of Fire to show the Hebrews that whats on their side
is more powerfull and deep than the Egyptians and their stupid Cat-gods. Jesus comes along and
he is divine/human for a reason. He is there to show the nobility of Man. We no longer need the
Landlord to show up and turn the asshole in 3B who beats his wife into stone, it has been
done,you should see this example and know better. It is now up to you. That is also why I think
the Persians were able to come in and destroy the Israli Empire and do the Disapora thing, the
Israeli had still not learned the lesson and God kept having to send down Prophets to do wacky
shit to show them God is more than any lame ass Baal mountain god. Jesus was the rabble-rouser
who said that the law and the spirit are in you,not on a tablet,so stop being jerkoff morons. By
making God a person, I thought you originally did this to show how God is not limited by human
gender issues of either men or women.(I.E. most people call god HE and stuff,look God can be a
chick,too). But it seems people have grasped on to the Man on the Cloud aspect and that they
missed the point. Just wondering what your thoughts on this are.
Finally, Why would Bartleby even want to fuck with God,knowing that God was omnipotent and would stop him at any time? Azrael would want to Universe to end
because Hell sucked. Loki was kind of slow and thought he could convince God to give him his job back by showing he was sorry and trying to do things he thought God
would like. Bartleby is the wild card. He would know that,this is assuming the events were not just a test, God could stop him at any point. Even if he got in the Church.
So he was pissing in the wind and seemed smart enough to know it. So, was the "We're going home Loki" stuff all bullshit because he was too much of a pussy to walk
into the scythe himself? He dragged Loki into his beef with God that got them tossed,so he has shown through that and, through his arrogance at not being sorry for
anything he did that he was a coward. So was Bartleby,like Azrael, just looking to be erased from existence? And that is why he says "Thank You" to God, he knows he
can't bullshit the ultimate lie detector so when he says "Sorry",its half assed. When he realizes whats going down,he says "Thank You", boom,his head goes and he gets
erased. Make sense?
MickCollins