The problem in writing about Judeo-Christian “God”

December 6, 2007 9:57 am



Problem:
TJ told me that he wants to write a story about God(s) --- a redefinition of the idea of “God”--- but he is constrained by a lifetime of belief in the Judeo-Christian God. He cannot seem to write the story because the moment he tries to change the construct of “God”, he finds himself subscribing to the same construct.


Problem:
He presented the problem to me.


Problem:
Part of the solution is to touch on atheism.


Problem:
I don’t talk about atheism because I don’t want to educate someone about not believing in God. I don’t set out to destroy faith in God. I’m happy when someone believes in God.


Problem:
And I don’t talk about atheism because the moment you make it public, your beliefs become open to attacks and misinterpretation. This I learned from Professor Gerry Lanuza [whose favorite terms are “fist-fucking” and “gaga”, whom we tease as a poseur: an atheist-who-would-instantly-pray-to-God-when-one-of-his-children-is-sick].


Problem:
I don’t talk about atheism. There are only two documented interviews I have agreed on about this topic: theses for two groups of students in two universities in the University Belt.

It took months: I made sure that their faith in God is as complete as the faith of children, old women and my mother’s.


Problem:
Hell, I just don’t talk about atheism.

I live it… The way I lived it when I told Sir Lito Zulueta that his perspectives on the moral obligations of a writer [when they tore apart Primy and her very young essay last May 21] would be absurd if he were talking to a Nietzchean Moralist.

He began looking at me differently. Then I brazenly told him, “If you had better soft- skills though, you can make anyone believe and do anything. Soft skills, Sir, soft skills.”

I was drunk, of course.


Problem:
I have thought about how TJ could begin unlearning all these inculcated beliefs so that he can write his story.


Problem:
I have a tendency to provide solutions to any sort of problem.


Problem:
Do I give him a possible solution?


Problem:
Finding all these [randomly listed, sorry I’m busy fixing the Universe]:

The reading list of Professor Abstract Layug for Philosophy 114: Existentialism
The reading list of Professor Jojo Bañares for Philosophy 172: Philosophy of Religion
The reading list of Professor Deus Pasamonte for Philosophy 198: Special Topics
The personal reading list of the three including those of Professor Aoux Santos and Professor Gerry Lanuza.


Problem:
I believe that only Jojo and Gerry are still in UP Diliman. You can always google them and do what people do nowadays i.e. send an email for your requests. Of course, these people are very busy and prickly. They’re in my world after all.


Problem:
Simply put: you have to read everything written in philosophy from Socrates to present.


Problem:
David Hume and his goddamn Phenomenology


Problem:
After reading David Hume and his goddamn Phenomenology--- you say, “What’s the problem?”


Problem:
That means that you’re an idiot.


Problem:
Let’s make it more literature inclined, shall we? Read these [again, randomly listed]:

“Esthetics” edited by Raider

“Aesthetics Theory” by Theodor W. Adorno

“Literary Theory Since Plato” by Hazard Adams

“Literary Theory and Criticism: An Anthology” edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan.

“The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism” edited by Vincent Leitch et al.

“Literary Criticism: A Short History” Edited by William Wimsatt Jr. and Cleanth Brooks.


Problem:
There are more but these would be enough in theory. Reading these would make you stop writing for a year (at least). Then of course you have to find these to read them.


Problem:
Just read these and enjoy:

“The Celestial Road and Other Stories” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
“Faith, Love, Time and Dr. Lazaro” by Gregorio Brilliantes
“Man in the Park” by Gemino H. Abad
“55 Poems” by Jose Garcia Villa
“Apocalypse in Ward 19” by Frederico Licsi Espino
“The Book of Folly” and “The Awful Rowing” by Anne Sexton
“The Sparrow” by Mary Doria Russel
“The Children of God” by Mary Doria Russel
“Dark Materials Series” by Phillip Pullman
“Towing Jehova” by James Morrow
“Blameless in Abaddon” by James Morrow
“The Eternal Footman” by James Morrow
“To Reign In Hell” by Steven Brust
“Murder Mysteries” by Neil Gaiman
“The Foundation Series” by Isaac Asimov
“Memnoch the Devil” by Anne Rice
“Paradise Lost Books 1-12” by John Milton
“Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostovesky
“A dialogue Between a Dying Man and a Priest” by Marquis De Sade
“Thus Spake Zarathustra” by Friedrich Nietzche
“The Crucible Series” by Sara Douglas
“The Club Dumas” by Arturo Perez-Reverte
“Mortal Questions” by Thomas Nagel


Problem:
There are more but my conscience is killing me. Of course, again there’s the problem in finding all of these and reading them for free.


Problem:
This is reminding me of a story in my inventory entitled “Dear Uncle Peter” about the loss of faith in God and “killing” God in the aftermath of a super typhoon. Oh, and the protagonist is the first female Catholic Priest in the Philippines.


Problem:
“Uncle Peter” is my uncle. Someday, he will be the Archbishop of Nueva Caceres.


Problem:
I haven’t completed writing it. Every time I write down a word, I would think that my mother will go to hell.


Problem:
Writing a story about God is always a problem.


Solution:
Write other things in the meantime.