Saturday, May 20, 2006

DNA and the God of Thunder

It seems that throughout human history, cultures have a tendency of creating a multitude of Gods to represent the different things around them. The most popular have lasted until our day, with heroes such as Thor and Hercules still popping up in media today. While people often laugh at this concept, it's actually a very understandable and still very common human practice.
The truth is that everyone wants to understand the world around them. So, in a world where science consisted of magic and religious believe, different Gods were assigned to each natural event. Soon a whole pantheon was established; with each God requiring different forms of worship (in that way man believed they could control the world around them). Once again, very common behavior.
Today most people look back at the ancient cultures and shake their heads, wondering how the Greeks or the Norse could believe in such inventive stories. The more dominant religions today focus on one God, and most of those tolerate science, with some embracing it and other rejecting it outright. The funny thing is, we STILL do this today. Instead of assigning Gods to different natural, unnatural or unsettling events, we assign scientific explanations. In many ways, Science has become the new pagan religion of our day.
Instead of a God of thunder such as Thor or Zeus, we have weather systems- equally mysterious and unpredictable. This weather system even has a following of priest, or Oracles, who tell us what we can expect from the almighty weather system from day to day.
Instead of a God of love, we have the Hormone, a powerful creature that attacks us in groups and forces us to fall in love with random strangers. Only when we've satisfied the mad lust that we were made to feel against our will does the hormone leave us alone... at least for awhile.
Instead of a God of war we have politics, with politicians its priests.
Instead of a God of evil, hate, or trouble, we have DNA... DNA is the scariest of all, for like Zeus of old we never know when or who DNA might strike, or how it will change or affect the poor victim.
The Gods of old did more than just put a name or face on the things that were feared, they took responsibility for those things that people refused to. If a man was a rapist and a murder in the old days, it would be said that the god of war, or the God of love, or a trickster god had influenced the man and made him commit those crimes. Today, we blame it on bad parenting, mental illness and behavior that may have been passed on genetically.
We embrace these new scientific discoveries and theories just as much, if not more, than the ancient Greeks embraced their pantheon of Gods. In the end, people just need somebody to blame.

Afterward-
Now, I want to explain something before anyone takes offense. I do believe that there are something beyond our control, I do believe that mental disorders, handicaps, and behaviors can affect people and that these thing could be inherited. but I also believe that there are some who, instead of being a responsible adult and working on their issues, use that trial as an excuse to do nothing but complain about how unfair the world is.