#that’s the point of complexity you don’t have to forcefully redeem them all in some way I am ripping my hair | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ice-cream-nekogirl · 4 years

Photo

Damien Marsh is Amy’s ex-boyfriend who she met in America and fell in love with but later dumped and threw him out of a glass window. He arrives to UA in hopes to reconcile with Amy.

Name: Damien Marsh Hero Name: Hirudo Species: Warlock Special Power: Drain Weapon: “Sentio Wand”

Damien: These A-holes don’t know nothing. They’re too obsessed being perfect little goody goodies that they don’t know that you just gotta do what it takes to win and get what you need. But oh well... makes it easier for me.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8v_4O44sfjM

TRIGGER WARNING: References/allusions to sexual assault.

He’s got a very approachable disposition, is highly intelligent and good at social situations as he can read people, and he’s also quite attractive too which makes him come off as a very nice, savvy and likeable guy. However this is all merely a façade, as Damien is actually extremely manipulative, deceptive and callous as he sees himself above everyone he interacts with and just weasels his way into things just so he can benefit himself.

Damien was inspired by some of the nastier boys I had the misfortune of growing up with, and the idea for him came to me when I listened to Christina Perri’s song ‘Jar of Hearts’ and Damien was born and it gave me an idea for his special ability of draining the power and energy out of people. I also thought about Amy’s history and I thought that she’d be the type to get into a bad relationship, because she has had bad relationships, whether it was familial or romantic.

And the thing about Damien is that he’s a very insecure guy who thinks that everyone is so much better than him at everything, but to the point where he’s not very sympathetic because he lets all of his insecurities get to him and goes to extreme lengths to mask them by boasting about himself, presenting himself as this amazing and perfectly poised young man, and also taking credit for what others have done. He’s become like a leech, he sucks the positivity out of others if it means he’ll feel good about himself, because he does that.

He literally sucked the joy and happiness out of Amy by draining her of her magic and rendering her powerless because it made him feel good, made him feel stronger and like he was above her in every way. Every time Amy couldn’t use her powers and magic, was because Damien made sure that she had no power while he did. So, he ultimately represents a toxic person who drains the life out of people around him like a parasite all for his own benefit and because he wants to feel good about himself, but resorts to hurting other people to do that so he doesn’t have to feel bad about himself.

And he’s as slimy as he looks, seriously he’s one of the worst guys I’ve ever made, at least in terms of personality since he’s a total douche and makes BNHA jerks like Bakugo, Monoma and Shindo look like sweethearts.

Damien is a Jerkass incarnate, he’s emotionally abusive and manipulative to Amy, and also a complete jerk to Shinsou, Izuku and Todoroki when he meets them, and is a tool to boot since he’s such a faker and a shameless ass-kisser when he needs to be. However, people who are close to Amy such as Shinsou, Bakugo and Ashlen can see right through him, commenting that he absolutely stinks of bullshit and even Amy’s other classmates such as Jirou, Tokoyami and Tsuyu aren’t fooled by him and note that he’s a liar and a phony.

Needless to say, many of Amy’s peers are not very fond of him when some of them greet him, Shinsou, Bakugo and Todoroki despise him, and Ashlen grows to quickly despise him since he’s as fake as the people from her old school and is well aware that he makes her best friend uncomfortable.

Their fears and concerns are all proven to be very founded since Damien’s intentions come to light and it urges Class 2-A to act and fight him since he threatened and harmed some of their classmates and even killed one. Sadly though, Damien actually shows that he’s a force to be reckoned with in his own right since he already knows everything about the class both from the news and his step-sister’s Divination power allowing her to know everything about anybody she focuses on. Damien’s also a very powerful warlock and considered a dangerous person to fight and he proves it…

Personality:

At the very beginning, Damien was initially an introverted and shy young man with a lot of insecurities over his powers and feeling weak in comparison to his peers. And he treated Amy very kindly, feeling shy around her, but was also happier when he was around her and had a great time when they first started going out.

Unfortunately, this quickly changed when he started a relationship with her as he grew possessive, jealous and later on almost emotionally abusive and neglectful towards her as he flirted with other women despite being with her and disregarded all of her words and did what he wanted because he felt like it.

Becoming increasingly famous also made him much more entitled and pompous, but Damien showed that he also lacked empathy as he had no problem hurting Amy’s feelings and failed to see why she was so hurt by his actions or when he deliberately lost her favorite toy as he merely told her that she’s too old for toys anyway. Damien seems to enjoy fame and riches more than anything, as he has no real desire to be a hero or help anybody as he merely claims that he wants to help people, but is simply interested in only helping himself.

To other people, he seems like a nice and collected young man, but soon it quickly becomes clear that he only acts polite to others when in reality he’s very judgmental, petty and arrogant. Having no qualms insulting others and mocking them, as he insulted Shinsou many times and mocked Izuku’s process as a student at UA, while also insulting others such as Todoroki and Tokoyami.

Damien is a parasite both figuratively and literally as he latches himself onto others so he can take their power and life-force to make himself stronger until there is nothing left for him to take. Almost everything he does isn’t on his own merit, as he made Amy do all the work for him and perform rituals that would benefit him. Not only that, but even his main weapon the ‘Sentio Wand’ is something he crafted using a strand of Amy’s hair so he can use the power flowing in her DNA for himself.

Because his power allows him to take and absorb other’s powers/energy and steal them for himself, he developed a superiority complex as he loves to brag about how powerful he is even though his power relies on him stealing other people’s powers just so he can have any strength at all. He’s also callous and cruel, as he had no problem putting Amy down just to see her down and make himself feel better about himself and seemed to enjoy doing this since it felt good for him, which also shows that he’s a hedonist who does things that he enjoys simply because it feels good, whether it’s moral or not.

Due to his superiority complex, he’s also a chronic harasser and an entitled ass who believes that he deserves anybody he wants and deserves to get whatever he wants from people, as he not only forced Amy into trying to give him oral sex, but also forces her to kiss him by using Concilium on her and allowing him to forcefully kiss her. He also does this to Shinsou, Izuku and a majority of Class 2-A by forcefully kissing them without their consent so he can absorb their life force and put into himself.

Damien also has something of a misogynistic streak, or at least it’s only towards women he particularly dislikes as he makes misogynistic remarks towards Amy and her female friends, especially Ashlen and Madison as he noted that he needed to get Amy alone and away from them because he knows that ‘bitch friends always stick together’. He also made some pretty sexist remarks towards the other UA girls by calling them weak since neither of them have stood out in comparison to Amy, yet also says that Amy’s too much of a ‘bitch’ to get good attention, like Cordelia and the other Robichaux witches.

Ironically, he thinks highly of his younger stepsister because of her expertise in magic, intelligence and devotion towards him, but this may be because she’s the only human being that Damien has any love for and his only real redeeming quality. But Damien proves to be a bad influence on her as while he loves her very much, his worst qualities rubbed off on her she ultimately has no empathy for other people other than him. Damien is partially aware of this, but it’s why he’s protective of her, to the point of begging Papa Legba to keep her alive, although he got terrified when Papa turned over to murder him instead and it urged him to immediately offer to kill Amy instead of having either him or his step-sister die. Which shows that Amy didn’t mean that much to him because he had no problem trading her life for his own.

His lack of empathy extends to everyone else, as he looks down on everyone and humanity in general, insulting and belittling all of Amy’s peers. Damien is something of a sadist, as he enjoys going for a person’s weakest and sorest spots to provoke them into a reaction, as he lures Amy in and abuses her catatonic state when he reminds her of the hardships and personal feelings of abandonment she experienced from both Fiona and Hero Society, which allows him to drain her of her magic and kill her by drowning her in the bathtub.

His sadism extends to Amy’s other friends, as he makes fun of them when he’s fighting with all of them and mocks their grief over Amy as they discovered that he killed her. As he insults Todoroki by bringing up his traumatic childhood and friendship with Amy and also mocks Bakugo for his relationship with Amy, and pretends to sympathize with Izuku about his own past complications with the former. Damien also takes joy in making the others weaker than him and exerting his power over them by taking their power away for himself and appears to enjoy putting himself above others and crushing them afterwards simply because it makes him feel better about himself.

But despite his arrogance, Damien is a coward at heart as he pathetically pleaded for his life when Papa Legba was going to kill him and was willing to murder Amy if it meant that he could stay alive a little while longer. However, he also threw away lives of other warlocks who were his friends and who were helping him in his quest to find Amy, sacrificing them and letting them die or get thrown into jail by pro-heroes if it meant he could keep breathing air a little while longer. And finally, when he was killed, he tried to appeal to Amy as he begged and cried for her to call off the burning until the very end.

He’s also a foil for pretty much all of Amy’s closest friends Shinsou, Ashlen, Madison, Bakugo, Izuku, Todoroki and Kaminari.

While Shinsou’s been Amy’s best friend since childhood, she only met Damien about 3 years ago. They both felt like misfits and underestimated by their peers due to their supposedly ‘evil’ powers but Shinsou wants to use his powers for good while Damien has no qualms with using his powers for his own selfish desires. Likewise, Shinsou’s friendship with Amy is genuine as they bonded over their powers and feeling like misfits while Damien feigned bonding with Amy just to get her to do his bidding.

Ashlen and Amy became very fast friends as Damien did, but Amy had no idea about Ashlen’s origins nor did she know about her witch heritage and developed a genuine friendship made up of love between each other but Damien was well aware of Amy’s connection to the Supreme and used her for his own benefit as he faked a bond and had no real love for Amy. They’ve also both turned off her powers, but Ashlen did it as a means to keep Amy from going overboard, and from hurting others and herself, while Damien did this to keep her under him and to feel like the dominant one of their relationship.

Madison’s a bad influence on Amy as was Damien, but for all the way she bullies and pressures Amy, she genuinely loves her and wants her to be happy and make her feel good while Damien is more interested in his own feelings and is more content with putting Amy down if it means he’s happy.

Izuku was Amy’s first love, although she convinced herself that it was Damien, and that he reminded her of Izuku when they first met, however, they’re both extremely different. Damien and Izuku were both bullied by their peers for being different from others with Izuku being quirkless and Damien being one of the ‘weaker’ warlocks, but the difference is Izuku always had the desire to help other people and kept his kind nature even after gaining his powers while Damien ultimately just wanted to help himself and his growing powers gave him a sense of entitlement. And then there’s their relationships with Amy, while they’ve each gone downhill before, Izuku always treated Amy with genuine respect and valued her as a good friend that he can learn from and truly made the effort to apologize to her when he hurt her, while Damien’s fondness for Amy was real in the beginning he started to instead see her as someone he can benefit from and he never felt apologetic for hurting her, and saw no fault in his actions towards her.

Bakugo and Damien have both been in a relationship with her, and unlike Bakugo, he initially treated her kindly and politely while Bakugo and Amy started off as enemies. However, their relationships are starkly different as Amy and Bakugo have a close, somewhat belligerent but passionate relationship and he does respect Amy and genuinely cares about her happiness. But Damien instead faked a good guy persona and used his charm to woo Amy and has no real respect for her nor does he care about her happiness.

Damien and Todoroki bonded with Amy over sharing similar sad pasts, but Todoroki grew to appreciate and love Amy as he could truly understand her trauma and even began looking out for her when her past started to haunt her. And while Damien felt connected to her in the beginning, his selfishness showed as he started to only use Amy for his own comfort and couldn’t truly empathize with her and made no effort to do so.

Kaminari and Damien have dated Amy, but Kaminari and Amy only went on one day and remained very good friends who absolutely love each other’s company and have a lot of genuine fun with each other and make each other smile and laugh, while Damien continued to date Amy but started to mainly do what he wanted to the point where Amy had to pretend she wasn’t miserable with him.

Abilities/Super Moves:

Damien is a very powerful warlock, although physically he’s not very strong at all as he is very lanky and scrawny like most warlocks, with very little muscle and a very thin and skinny frame. But he becomes much physically stronger when he drains someone of enough energy and power to fuel himself. He also passed the Warlock examination by being able to perform Scrying, Transmutation and Stricidium. But Damien also showed to be quite proficient in at least four of the seven wonders such as Telekinesis, Concilium, Pyrokinesis and Vitalum Vitalis.

In fact, much like Amy, Damien has a very unique power that is a stronger form of one of the seven wonders due to having a parent who had a quirk that mutated into a unique, more powerful version of this wonder. He calls this power ‘Drain’ as it’s a much stronger version of Vitalum Vitalis, as Damien can balance the scales between life and death, but Drain allows him to also absorb his victim’s life-force, power, energy and vitality to make himself stronger and render them unable to use their power as Drain completely weakens them both physically and mentally. Drain is a very powerful and effective ability as anyone who falls victim to it is left powerless and unable to fight back to the point where some pass out from the drain in energy, or even die if Damien drains them of all of their life-force. And he can do so with numerous people as he drains one person, and uses his newfound strength to move onto the next on in a feeding frenzy he calls ‘Super Drain’.

But Damien appears to be only able to use this power through oral means by kissing his victims so he can drain and suck out their energy so he can take it in for himself. However, upon fighting Tokoyami, Damien realizes that he can’t kiss him to drain him, but instead uses his fangs that are also available for him to use to bite into someone to steal their life force as he bites Tokoyami on the neck instead to drain him of his energy, akin to a vampire. This move he would call ‘Vampire’s Kiss’ since he likens it to giving a hickey while draining his energy, much to Tokoyami’s great disgust.

Although according to Damien, Drain can also allow him to completely drain out the power of a victim if he drains them entirely of their life-force and takes it in for himself, which explains why he has gotten even stronger over time because he’s taken the life-force and power of other warlocks and witches.

Drain is also strong enough to take even some of the most dangerous powers from others that Damien attacks. In the form of a super move he calls ‘Leech’s Kiss’ as Damien realized that Izuku had some great powers upon kissing him and nearly killed him and stole his power by draining him of his entire life force because he had no idea it was the power of One For All that he was trying to absorb until he was stopped by Ashlen.

When Damien is draining someone of their life-force, his victims turn pale and sickly, but some also turn skeletal and hollow if he’s trying to absorb all of their life-force and energy, complete with hair turning dull, and their muscles going weak and almost atrophied.

While taking this life force makes Damien look healthier, younger and increasingly attractive, but this power comes at a cost to his own health as using Drain way too much has taken a toll on Damien’s body. He is mostly healthy and attractive on the outside but when he uses the power too much, his appearance drastically changes as he reveals himself as a pale, emaciated and sickly young man who looks constantly exhausted and has to rely on other’s life force just so he can replenish himself and regain his strength back.

Despite these flaws, Damien is still a very powerful and dangerous opponent in battle as he took down almost all of the 2-A students by himself using his magic and Drain alone, and absorbed their power and energy to make himself stronger and harder to beat. In fact he was even able to take down and drain the energy of strongholds such as Todoroki, Bakugo and Tokoyami once he caught them in his traps, and would have successfully killed Midoriya by sucking all of his life-force had Ashlen not saved him.

So while he’s a leech and a horrible person, he’s really not someone you want to fight in battle because he KNOWS how to lure people in, trick them and go for the kill since he’s an expert with Concilium, Telekinesis and Vitalum Vitalis.

It’s implied though that while he was burnt to the stake, that he’s not exactly dead-dead and could possibly make a return.

4 notes · View notes

itsclydebitches · 5 years

Note

I love your metas, but I feel like you make too many excuses for Oz. The kids needed to know that Salem was immortal. And him keeping secrets hurts more than it helps. I mean from the gang’s perspective, you can’t sympathize with someone who hid so much from you when he promised not to and outright lied to you. From the finale, Oz isn’t mad at them and will most likely be redeemed and make up with the team. His arc seems to be to realize that his methods are wrong and change for the better.

I’m glad you like them, anon! 💚

I don’t consider them excuses though, but rather acknowledging that the situation is a lot more complex than the characters (or a lot of the fandom) is willing to admit. I can absolutely sympathize with someone who keeps information to themselves for practical and personal reasons. I’ve already laid it all out in detail elsewhere, but Yang’s demand for that promise, the group’s status in Ozpin’s life (former students he doesn’t know well), their inability to handle sensitive situations in a mature manner yet, the danger attached to this information, a desire to spare them this burden, my personal view that they actually didn’t need to know about Salem at this point in time, and the fact that all of it is wrapped up in incredibly traumatic history are all, imo, excellent justifications for Ozpin’s decisions. I fully expected at least some of the group to be angry about the lie while likewise extending understanding for why it occurred. Instead Ozpin received further confirmation that it’s a lose-lose situation no matter what he does. People have betrayed him, given up, reacted violently, and dismissed him whether he kept this information to himself or was upfront about it.

Ultimately I don’t think the lesson should be “Symbolic generals leading complex, multi-generational wars should give up all their precautions–made to keep humanity safe–in the name of trusting a group of teens they’ve known only a year, who have proven in the last few weeks to be impulsive and very easily swayed”… but I was willing to go along with it because that’s the expected moral. Lies are bad and secrets are bad. That’s usually what stories want to teach us, even though every lie and secret has its context. What rankles more than common story setups though is that Ozpin is presumably now on his “change for the better” arc while the rest of the cast continues to lie, keep secrets, and forcefully take what they want without acknowledgement that, by that logic, they too should be working to change. Though I realize most of the fandom doesn’t agree with me, to my mind there is a very strong element of pot calling the kettle black at work here.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #mymetas #Anonymous

32 notes · View notes

rykhafirehand · 6 years

Text

The End of Everything

“End it all!”

The Seat of the Pantheon disappeared around Paathi as she was forcefully lifted off her hooves. An emptiness, a stillness, a black, uncaring void… no, not quite. A spark appeared. And another. And another. Myriad harsh, pale lights, each outlining the tip of a wicked spear crafted from the coldness between the stars.

She closed her eyes. After millennia of endless strife, she understood this to be her end. The Light that had brought her from the brink countless times could not aid her in this place. Part of her embraced what was coming, though it meant their struggles, their seemingly endless resistance had been in vain.

It happened suddenly, without warning. She felt a quick stab of pain and a chill that shook her to her core. Her blade dropped from nerveless fingers, and with a weary sigh, she gave herself to the Light.

***

She floated, calm, content. Vague images surrounded her, memories of a life long lost, of someone who may have been herself. They seared their way across her vision, leaving behind them trails of crimson and purple and green that burned bright against the darkness, each dissolving first into shards, then smaller particles yet, new images unfolding from each grain of memory in turn. They seemed to form a winding pathway, with no beginning or end, twisting upon itself as the scenes merged into each other. It delighted her, knowing she would have an eternity to pore through them all, organise them as she saw fit, give form to the amorphous mass.

There was no real attachment to what she was seeing, only boundless curiosity. Some scenes she felt a familiarity with, with others it was as though she had only now seen them for the first time. There was no rhyme or reason to the order they would appear in. She was running through the grass, wheezing with laughter. She felt a demon’s claw rip through her gorget, leaving a searing gash in the flesh beneath. Her family were celebrating her graduation while she sat there, tongue-tied, basking in their love. A sharp pain in her side as the doomguard pulled its blade free. A flash of blinding rage. The day she was forged in the Light. The first time she had-

Something made her pause. It had only been there for an instant, but she had experienced a memory unlike the others. It had felt urgent, important. She decided to revisit a few of the more pressing scenes, seeking for clues. Her blood gushed from the open wound in her throat, but the Light was there, knitting her tissue, leaving nothing but a faintly glowing scar. Xe’ra’s words echoed in her mind, telling her of the new life she would have as one of the chosen. The Light that was mending the gaping gash in her side surged through her as her hammer crushed her assailant’s skull. A flash of blinding rage. Xe’ra’s words once more-

There. Twice now she had felt a strangely visceral sense of fury. It was over in a flash, not accompanied by any image whatsoever. She scanned the surrounding memories, found they all had to do with the nigh-eternal conflict between the Army of the Light and the Burning Legion. Curious.

As she zoned in on the missing memories, she felt an increasing sense of foreboding, of lingering dread. The sensation was unlike anything she had felt since she had abandoned her flesh and melded into this place. It was as though the Light itself were asking her to abandon her search, to let go of whatever anger and pain lay locked behind the elusive scene.

This is mine. Her challenge echoed through the space-not-space. It is mine. How dare you deny me access to what is mine? Was she think-screaming at the Light, or her own mind? She could not rightly say, but whatever it was that had veiled the memories from her now recoiled, slithering off and leaving her prize open for her to access.

“Rise, Argus. Rise, my broken world.” The words thrummed with power, and Argus obeyed. This was the world Paathi had given her everything to save, only to see it delivered into the hands of the enemy. A shattered, disfigured giant leaking arcane energies. She knew then, there was nothing left to salvage. Their only hope lay in destroying the very soul of her homeworld.

The battle seemed endless. Many fell to the Unmaker’s scythe or disappeared into the hungering emptiness that fragmenting orbs of pure magic left in the fabric of space. And yet she fought on, with hammer and Light and the unbending spirit of her people. As Argus weakened, she heard Aman’Thul utter an incantation that would forge bonds of time itself and chain the shattered world-soul. As Argus faded, several beacons shot to the skies, calling down the constellar who had once been tasked with protecting the titan’s slumbering soul. They could not be allowed to interfere.

They fell one by one, celestial essence lost to the cosmic winds. One of the last standing aimed a beam of magic at Paathi, and she attempted to block it with the head of her crystalline hammer. She heard a loud, piercing whine. The hammerhead shattered into shards as though it had been made from glass. The hammer… her legacy… the last remnant of her life before the war, before the exile.

A red rage descended on her mind. She charged the constellar, disarmed as she was, pummelling the creature with fists and magic, somehow managing to narrowly avoid her opponent’s whirling blade. She found herself perched on the being’s back, grabbed its inexplicably material shoulder, and twisted. The cry of pain nearly echoed the sound her hammer had made as it shattered, yet she refused to give any quarter. The Light surged through her veins, granting her strength beyond anything she had known before. The strange creature’s flesh parted, its now useless limb torn out of its socket. Paathi leapt off her opponent, took hold of the blade he had dropped from lifeless fingers, and turned it upon its erstwhile owner.

At that moment, the Highfather’s spell failed, and Argus was unleashed once more. Her own world slew her, pinned her to the ground with a spear of crystallised darkness.

Her very essence thrummed with anger. After all that she had given in its name, all that she had abandoned to serve the Light’s cause in the hopes of seeing Argus reborn, the world’s very soul had turned against her. This was not how it was supposed to be. This was not the Light’s plan. Then, at the very edge of hearing, she thought she heard a voice.

“… The spark of life still flickers within these mortals…”

***

She felt the air as it entered her lungs once more, she felt her heart begin to pump blood. There was pain, as there always was, but it was dulled by the fires of her vengeance. Her fingers curled around the star-forged blade she had claimed from its slain former wielder. Light leapt from her fingers, igniting the sword’s core, making it blaze with the radiance of a sun.

Around her, other slain champions stirred to life, picking up their armaments of legend. She saw the determination in their eyes, the unyielding willpower that would stand against anything, even Sargeras himself, all to save the soul of their planet from suffering the same fate as Argus. And together, they would prevail. Together, they would avenge the fallen, the tortured, the twisted.

Together, they would slay a world.

***

Paathi felt an emptiness inside her. They had achieved the greatest victory they might have hoped for. Sargeras had been imprisoned, Argus released from his torment. And yet…

She had dedicated her life to the glimmer of a hope that her world might yet be redeemed. That hope had been extinguished on the point of a spear. Her purpose had turned out to have been a lie, the foolish dream of a foolish child.

She paced through the Vindicaar’s corridors, not joining in the revelry. She understood now that she had been shaped by Xe’ra, by the Light, to be nothing but a weapon aimed at the heart of the Legion. With Antorus in ruins and the Dark Titan in shackles, her duty was at an end… and so was any worth her life may have had.

She found herself at the ship’s helm. Beneath them, Azeroth turned slowly. Paathi took a step closer to the crystalline glass. She observed the oceans and the forests, the mountains and the deserts. This was the final titan, wounded and bleeding. The last bastion of hope in an uncaring universe.

She heard a polite cough and turned to see a tall, gaunt figure. She narrowed her eyes. This… felcaster… had aided in the battle against Argus. Though she found his chosen source of power distasteful, she bowed her head in respect. The blood elf returned the gesture and spoke. “You see now, don't you? Why we fight. It isn't for a nation or a faith, or even for the sake of a cause. It is because this world in all its elegance and complexity is worth fighting for. As are those who live upon it.” He swept his hand across his view, as though trying to encompass the immeasurable girth of the planet before him.

Paathi turned to the glass, touching it gently with her fingers. She felt as though something were expected from her, some eloquent retort to complement the elf’s grandiose statement. Instead, she simply tilted her head and breathed, “She is beautiful.”

#World of Warcraft #Ryk being artsy #Ryk being writesy #Ryk's OCs #Lightforged draenei #Paathi

11 notes · View notes

comealongvael · 6 years

Text

My thoughts on Amnesia; Memories… so far? (½)

“What’s that in the title, Kaz? ‘So far’?”

Well, I haven’t exactly FINISHED the game. I’m stuck on one of the routes, because the guy is pretty much the embodiment of ‘yikes’. So I’ll probably redo this to some degree when I’ve finished the game, his route and a ‘secret route’, because who knows maybe my thoughts will change?

This is also one of the games where I didn’t do the bad or normal ends, so I’ll have to do them too. But but but! My thoughts so far are under the ‘read more’. Let’s get started!

A quick summary, for those that haven’t played the games:

Some little precious cinnamon bun named Orion fucked up and enters your head, or something, and gives you amnesia. And you’ve got to uncover your memories of your life, in multiple timelines, so you can free him and live happily ever after. With whatever boy you’ve chosen. It’s adorable.

It’s interesting and I love the idea, and it’s got that whole mysterious feel to it; no two routes are exactly the same, blah, blah. Just play the game, it’s great.

So now let’s move on to my favourite and least favourite routes:

Favourites: Shin, Ikki, and Kent. In that order.

Least Favourites: Toma. Oh dear god, Toma. But I won’t get into why just yet. Just know that… holy shite, YIKES.

Favourite and least favourite characters time:

Favourites: Orion, Shin, Ikki, Kent, Sawa, Waka… and Ukyo? I can explain that last bit, and will in a bit.

Least Favourites: Most of the female cast and Toma. Nobody should be surprised. Let’s be honest.

Now we’re going to get into the long winded part. Where I just ramble about these characters and routes. So buckle up and get ready.

The first route and character we’re going to talk about is Shin/Heart World.

Shin’s the Heroine’s childhood friend, he’s a bit younger and rough around the edges, but he’s completely worth it. And so is his route.

First let’s talk about the route, Heroine fell off a cliff more or less, which is the perfect reason for her to have amnesia. He’s his route is falling for this adorable but rough lad, all the while uncovering the mystery of what happened the night of the main character’s accident/incident. And everyone is a suspect, I even suspected Orion at point and he wasn’t there at the time. But overall, it was fun and Shin is adorable during it.

However, the good ending… is difficult to explain; I liked it to a point, where [spoilers]Toma is given no real punishment for what happened[/spoilers].

Now let’s discuss Shin. In his own route, he is brilliant. He, as I said, is rough around the edges and can be a bit pushy at times, but he’s also vulnerable–especially towards the end of his route. And he’s not just one note but a complex character, who is absolutely smitten with the Heroine. And shows sides of himself to her that other people just don’t get to see.

In other routes, he… kind of suffers though. Mostly because Heroine is not close enough to see that vulnerability that is shown in his route. However, he does have some interesting moments in each route, my favourites being his bouts of jealousy in Kent’s and Ikki’s routes and his concerns and actions in Toma’s.

Overall, I love him. He’s probably my favourite. Of all the time. He’s a bit tragic and complex, and his route is fun–I believe he should be everyone’s first route. Because he’s good and pure. And well-written, which can be a bit surprising for an otome game?

Next route and character is going to be Kent/Clover World.

Kent is Kent. There’s no other way to describe him. He’s very unique and a bit of a nerd, and he’s route is quite funny to be honest. He was my first, and there were some problem in the beginning but I went back and fixed that.

Anyway, his route. There’s so much maths. Oh lord, I’ll have nightmares until the end of my days over the quizzes. I am horrible with maths. But other than that, I really did enjoy his route. It was adorable and pure, and he tries so hard in it that you have to give him credit. However, it’s also quite tragic because–by being nice to him, it shows some sides to their previous relationship that wasn’t so pretty. And some of the things he says in response to the main character being nice to him, makes me want to strange her.

But the good ending is well worth even all the maths quizzes. Because he’s finally happy and so is the heroine. It’s just so good and pure, and talking too much about it will be spoilers galore.

Now let’s talk about Kent, in his own route. Kent… is very blunt in what he says, and sometimes he doesn’t see how insincere he seems. However, as the route continues and he begins to grow under Heroine’s kindness, he softens a bit and becomes one of the sweetest characters in the game. And it’s amazing to watch that growth, and he did pull a lot at my heartstrings a lot. Particularly when you are nice to him and his responses vary between adorable and tragic, as he comments that it’s not like the Heroine or he thinks she hates him. The latter is so sad, and probably comes from a guilt in him, but it’s still hard to hear him talk about someone he obviously is in love with like that.

In other routes, Kent suffers the most. He doesn’t have a huge role in Shin’s route and I don’t think he even appears in Toma’s. Uhm, he does excel in Ikki’s, as the hilarious best friend. And in his own awkward way he does seem to support Ikki and the Heroine, and has some of the best ‘best friend’ dialogue I have ever seen. I just really love their relationship.

Overall, I do really like him. And I love his character growth in his route. I love his complexities and his awkwardness, and I will say that his route needs to be done and the player needs to have patience for him because his good end is well worth it. This nerd is the best nerd, sorry.

Now Ikki/Spade World, who kind of surprised me.

Ikki is actually one of the most intriguing character in the game for me. He seems like just a regular old womaniser, who is way too patient with his weird arse fan club. And he has magical eyes or something. It’s bizarre.

His route starts off a little weird. He’s introduced as the Heroine’s boyfriend and they’ve got this date, but he’s late to it and when she goes to find out if maybe she was supposed to meet him outside, she finds him way too close to this weird fan club he has. So the first impression of him isn’t the greatest but–as time goes on, you start to see cracks in Ikki’s surface personality. But we’ll talk more about that when I’m discussing his character.

The good end is brilliant. Finding out that Ikki is kind of a victim in his route but him finally getting his happily ever after was so heartwarming. I approve.

So his character. As stated above, he comes off as a womaniser, who loves to flirt and is known for dating girls for a certain amount of time, then they break up. He kind of comes off as a narcissistic jerk, but as time goes on, as you progress in his route, you find out that’s not the case. During some beautifully written moments of vulnerability on Ikki’s part you learn that he’s not as happy as he appears, and he’s quite lonely in the way women react to him. He calls his Magic Eyes of Instant Love a curse and he falls head over heels for the heroine because she didn’t Instant Love him. He’s amazing, tragic, and I really do adore him.

However, once again, Ikki suffers when you don’t do his route. Even in Kent’s route. He kind of fell flat in the other routes, and his only redeeming quality in Kent’s is his friendship with Kent. Which is kind of sad still, considering the attentive and kind person we get in his route. But that seems to a reoccurring theme in the game.

Overall, he’s probably my second favourite character. Especially with the way his route plays out. But I could have lived without the magical eyes? Though, hey, Heroine has an adorable spirit living in her head so… eh? Magical eyes aren’t that bad.

And now, Toma/Diamond World.

Oh boy. Where to even begin with Toma. I haven’t finished his route. It’s a really difficult route to work through and I really don’t feel like it’s going to pay off. And it’s been really disappointing so far, considering how interesting the other route were and the other characters were, and it’s so… I’m just going to get into it. Spoilers galore, so if you don’t want ‘em, just stop and read the little memo thing at the bottom.

First off, let’s talk about his route. It starts off kind of weird, Heroine faints or something when she and Orion show up. Toma’s there and flips, rushing her off to the hospital where she has to stay and do nothing. Seriously, the first few days of the route… there’s nothing. At all. Going on. Just hospital.

There’s signs very early on that there’s something wrong with Toma. There’s a scene with a laptop, where the battery and charger go missing–and she mentions that she lost battery, and Toma makes the comment about her being unable to use the laptop now. Which he shouldn’t have been able to know, since he only knew about the missing battery and not the charger. However, I called it the moment he was in the apartment, and then those things went missing, that he took them. Some shady shite starts happening and the main character moves into his house, and Toma goes nuts.

He goes off the fucking rails; starts drugging the heroine so she’ll sleep the day away, only waking long enough to be drugged again. Then after threatening Shin, and the main character (by using Shin to do so), he forcefully drugs her again through (s e x u a l) (a s s a u l t )! Just so he can dehumanise her by putting her in a fucking dog cage. wow.

And that’s as far as I’ve gotten, more or less.

So now let’s talk about Toma. Toma is poorly written, which is sad because he had potential. He flip-flops a lot between “I’m your boyfriend!!” to “you’re like my little sister!!” and it’s stupid. They gave him no redeeming qualities aside from “he sorta is in love with you, maybe” and he’s loyal-ish.

And about halfway through, they tried to be like “oh ahahaha, he has multiple personalities and doesn’t realise it!” but… no. “Good Toma” makes comments about things that “Dark Toma” does, so he knows–he even, at one point, right before the drugging starts, makes a comment about what he’s going to do and how bad it is.

I don’t understand it. What’s worse is that, he barely shows up in the other routes, aside from Shin’s. And Shin’s route has probably the best writing for Toma. Which is just sad. It’s confusing and sad, and I’m just going to end it here. I’m probably going to make a more coherent post someday about Toma. So yeah. Moving on.

MEMO TIME!

Ok, so the original plan was to just put it all in one post but it got long. Mostly Toma’s fault. And I didn’t even give my full options on the characters and routes, but that’s neither here nor there. So what I’m going to do is put in two different posts, this one obviously and the one that’s going to be posted after this, once I finish writing it.

It’s basically going to include the characters that weren’t included here, along with my thoughts and feelings on the game in general thus far. And there’s going to be a little questionnaire at the bottom that you can fill out and send me to via submission, so I know if this is something you guys like reading.

And a friendly reminder: this is just my opinion on a game. If your opinion differs, cool–let’s be friends. Let’s discuss and debate, and have fun talking about this awesome fucking game. Like hell yeah, my askbox is open, IM is too, you can @ me on a post, whatever. I’m here for headcanons, for dorky gushing over anime boys. Let’s do it. Don’t be shy.

But until the next post, stay safe, be awesome.

ps: haha, no proofreading. Sorrynotsorry.

3 notes · View notes

thedragonroarson · 5 years

Text

The Delusion and Arrogance of Atheism

Even In the Face of Science Itself Increasingly Revealing That Our Existence is More & More Inexplicable, Thus Leading to a Divine Creator as Being A Far More Plausible Explanation Than Not, Atheist Apologists Continue In Their Delusion and Arrogance.

Skipping whether a person is well-intended when doing so, why, when scientific research itself reveals an increasing inability to explain and comprehend life’s greater unknowns, would a person/scientist continue to outright dismiss any other explanation, such as divinity, which by its very nature is, admittedly, inexplicable and unknowable? I’ve recently watched some of the top atheist defenders and they come across as no less than stubbornly arrogant. Their arguments loop around to nowhere, prove nothing conclusive and then loop around again without reaching any credible conclusion beyond the childish “If I can’t see it or measure it, it doesn’t exist” approach. Its kinda disheartening and I feel more than bad for them. What is more bothersome to me is my inability to comprehend what argument exactly they are trying to win, but its surely not what they are stating, their God of rational thinking and science falls shorter than ever in explaining the nature of our existence.

I can fully accept you might have the opinion that a certain dogmatic or ethical rule in the name of a certain religion seems silly or even wrong, but let’s be clear, any of those dogmatic criticisms have nothing to do with whether or not divinity actually exists. Neither does the question of suffering. Whether suffering exists or not is an entirely separate question from whether divinity is the reason we as Creation exists at all. And the very fact that there are in the most absolute terms, absolutely no one else from any other planet in any galaxy anywhere to visit with over a Starbuck’s latte and chat with on the subject is your very first clue as to how divinely rooted we all are far beyond the explanations of science. What bothers me is that there is neither a dilemna nor question, yet the atheists talk as if there is. We are required to then have respectful discourse with them, but that is an approach I entirely disagree with because it is pointless, it feeds into their ongoing delusion and deception, malice or not intended. That doesn’t help anyone.

This state of affairs leads me to difficult yet fair questions: Why would a person even bother at all to take the position against divinity? What exactly is gained by taking such a position? The answer is nothing. There is simply nothing good to come from choosing to live a life rooted in rational thinking and science because of the very obvious fact that neither of those even comes close to explaining the unique unknowables of our existence. Personal pride or a type of arrogance? Why would a person even hold in their heart and mind the need to declare that they don’t believe in divinity of some sort? What would be so consequentially bad or wrong if they did? When offering explanations of how and why we are here, which is clearly and evidently for example, scientifically impossible and inexplicable miracle, then why ignore the only other answer possible?

It is a very odd thing for a person to hang their hat on, an unknown negative, that there “isn’t” any form of divinity or spirituality at the root of our existence. What do you care if “divinity” is the explanation for how and why we exist or not? Your own science has still not provided an explanation, not even close. The further down the line our scientific discoveries progress, the more complex and inexplicable and therefore, miraculous they become. Such as statement is no less than the evident fact stated by the atheist themself. So what is the compelling reason to be forcefully against divinity as the reality of our existence? I can’t come up with an answer that is beneficial to any single human being. Again, I am speaking of the presence of divinity, of spirituality, not a particular religion’s dogmatic rules which surely do raise questions as to how much they are needed because in fact, in God’s eyes, they are surely not needed. God, for example, in the Judeo-Christian ethic, absolutely does not care if your male child is circumcised or whether the priests wear flowing green robes at Sunday mass in a stained glass church with a choir and organ. These are nice culturally-rooted experiences, but they are just man-made constructs. Jesus was a street preacher saving and healing the poor. The Christian claim is that his blood paid for his Resurrection and we can only join him by also dying to ourselves and joining him in the Resurrection. That means carrying our crosses and loving one another, putting God first, allowing, wishing, urging surrender of our own flawed ego and will to the living spirit of divinity to be expressed through us, which will then properly align all of our worldly priorities, values and needs. Period.

Atheists need not offer their argument about the flashy religion stuff and dogmatic rules. In this respect, the atheists are right, the existence of man-made dogma does nothing to tell us whether or not divinity exists. Yet, I am beyond humbled at the reality of God’s divine grace and mercy. I am best to be at the whim of these as a vessel of God’s Will. That’s where we find the rubber hits the road, not whether I properly “sit,stand, kneel” every Sunday at a church service.

The revelations of scientific research itself clearly tell us that the more we know, the more we don’t know. Science has, by your own admission dear atheist, utterly failed to explain itself. And on that note, let me point out I will repeatedly follow the track of thoughts on the existence of the Universe found in Bill Bryson’s book, A Short History of Nearly Everything, which is as close to being a terrific “can’t put it down” book as I could imagine.

So why the joykill thing; why take away from yourself and everyone the joy and amazement and fascination of obviously knowing our existence is no less than wonderfully miraculous as it is inexplicable and incomprehensible? What is gained by rejecting the known, perfect answer to Dawkin’s asinine question, “What kind of a God, if there is one, would come up with an answer that includes sacrificing his own son as a way to redeem us all from our imperfections?”

The answer to that question is so obvious I can’t believe Dawkins would actually ask it without then stopping to realize his stupidity. The answer to that question clearly points to the existential meaning of life itself, the only possible purpose and explanation for why we human kind would be here at all on this one single planet - which revolves around the compassionate, nurturing, sacrificial creation of ourselves through our union with one another as a man and woman. The root of any meaningful life is sacrificial love and suffering you nitwit, so why do you even ask that question, let alone ask it whilst brimming with arrogance? There is no other explanation nor root purpose which is responsible by design for our existence and everything we see in nature fully supports that central theme of our existence on planet earth since the known history of man. Yes, dear friend, the core of life is men and women making and nurturing babies who become men and women together making and nurturing babies ad infinitum including the natural balance and blend of joy & suffering in all their forms. All else in this world, as valuable and meaningful and fascinating as we may deem it to be, still falls a distant second in importance and value, or at least it should, to that central prime directive.

What happens next is that the deeply flawed world we live in, including our own flaws and weaknesses, come together to distract us from the singular, unique priority of this central prime directive. For example, ask a man and woman with a boy and girl child, happily married to one another what their priorities of devotion and attention are and they will naturally respond with something like,

“Our family is root of our lives, taking care of each other, caring for each other’s well being, caring for and preparing our children for the future to do the same in the world.”

This is obviously the only proper, healthy ideal. It is the emotionally proper and obvious answer to the question and it would be a reverberating, lasting regret in some way every single time in which that ideal was not achieved. No person celebrates or encourages for this ideal core family unit to not exist. Any failure is accompanied by regret, pain and loss across all dimensions of space, time and even generations. If the father or mother in this family unexpectedly died younger, it would be make life more difficult. If one of them behaved badly and ruined the good state of the marriage and family unit, or even left, or made the other one feel they must leave, breaking up the family, that result would lead to many additional regrets and hurt and loss. What happens next is that those emotionally wounded people begin to lose their minds as to that original central prime directive. They all fall into a variety of complex worldly matters which further confuses, distracts and misguides them. The husband, instead of following the only proper order, sacrificing himself and being devoted to the well-being of his wife and children, with his wife appreciating and reciprocating toward him in return as she recognizes it. Instead he is not attentive to them as he should be. He is merely self-absorbed, selfish, not attentive, regardless of why. This can manifest in a variety of seemingly innocuous ways. Or worse, he may be abusive, he cheats with other women, he drinks too much, maybe all three.

Then the boy in the family, thinking that this is normal behavior in a family, mostly likely grows up and into that same pattern with his future woman. The young girl who spent her childhood emotionally tiptoeing around her volatile father figure might grow up learning to hide her feelings in fear and lie to protect herself from the threat of men, while unconsciously attracting them in relationships as a means to filling what feels comfortable to her unconsciously. In essence, the young boy and girl grow up modeling what their own parents did in their own flawed nature. In addition, they may do drugs, engage in felonious crime and/or violence, creating even more trauma and devastation in their wake. The woman may then become a radical feminist trying to upend the rules of society against her perception of evil men. They young boy treats women abusively and avoids the feminist ones especially. Neither of them is capable of the paradigm of the ideal, natural father/mother/children nurturing and caring for each other and their children. Life’s imperfect nature hurt their psyche, and well, here we are, round and round we go. We have a hopeless human mess.

Let me be crystal clear about the two general family descriptions above; both exist. Half of the world’s families are happily and healthy together, both father and mother, husband and wife, properly devoted to one another as their core priority in life, while the other half of family/marriage structures are not doing as well with approximately half of those ending as broken, dysfunctional families manifest as abandonment, divorce and separation. Rare is the happy, amicable divorce with kids where the adults and the kids are not emotionally traumatized by the experience.

In these cases, the man is not a proper, admirable man. He is a failure. Or maybe it is the woman and often, both. Let me further be clear; a bad outcome is never ok even while it is never intended. It is never desired. It is never wished for. Nobody, not one single person on planet earth ever wants that outcome of avoidable miseries or wishes it on others. It is regarded by society as indisputably, unfortunately bad when a family/marriage unit is unstable or ruined.

I must say it again, many family/marriage units, around 50% of them, are happy, healthy and emotionally ideal. They are the penultimate, natural role model for us to look up to, to admire, and to aspire to. No person did not hope to have been part of an ideal stable family/marriage structure. The only population in society for whom this model is truly problematic is the population of gays, a relatively small percentage. That exception to the natural male/female/family order is well worth exploring with compassion, but not our focus in this writing which is ultimately about aspects of atheism in comparison to aspects of divinity / spirituality which is imbued in and inseparable from our very human nature, regardless of whether you might deny it exists or not.

I might say, as a fish swimming in the ocean, you are in no position whether to question what or where is the ocean, are you?

If you say to me that what I say to you is impossible, isn’t that exactly the point? You can’t say to me, “there is no God, science only proves science and my brain cells produce my reality, while at the same time acknowledging something is impossible. If lots of things are inexplicable and impossible, then science falls short, all certainly does not come from your brain cells and indeed, science falls far short. Where do quarks come from? Don’t know. Neutrinos? Don’t know. How can the expectations of the testers affect the results in the particle accelerator? That’s impossible. Yes, it is. Still we don’t know. Never will know. Yet an atheist declares there is no divinity.

Wrong. We do know. The eternal unanswerable is perfect, it is divinity itself staring you in the face and I guarantee the next largest interstellar telescope is only going to reveal more of what is even more impossible and inexplicable. You will never know God as anything except unknowable, except known inseparably in and through the living world and spirit of one another. That is the design and the miracle of it. There is no more and there is no less. The singularity Bryson describes on page 28 is unexplainable and impossible to comprehend; it is divinity. In fact, not only is divinity simply just there, it is only manifestly known to exist by us here on planet Earth and nowhere else. So the entire scientific body of explanations which atheists follow are built upon a divine impossibility in the first place. That’s not a particularly strong argument, though again, many atheist arguments are wonderfully intelligent, admirable and compelling at first glance.

Let’s consider space for a moment. As Bryson beautifully describes, space is enormously enormous.

“Nobody knows how many stars there are even in just the Milky Way - (estimates are one to four hundred billion) And the Milky Way is just one of a one hundred and forty billion or so other galaxies.”

I extrapolate from a Carl Sagan quote on the odds of us even being here at all, “if we were randomly inserted into the universe, the chances you would be on or near a planet are less than one in a billion trillion trillion.”

Yet, even as he writes about the very impossibility of it all, Bryson somehow arrogantly offers this, “For a long time the Big Bang Theory had one big hole that troubled a lot of people - name that it couldn’t explain how we got here.”

What? It has “one” gaping hole? You just devoted pages to telling us about a host of unexplainable things. There are a billion trillion inexplicable gaping holes! It is infinitely unsustainable and inexplicable that we are here. He says so himself and so do all the other atheists in the course of offering up their ideas on our existence, which they somehow then claim all of which comes from our thoughts from inside the neuro-chemical juice in our brain cells, but without knowing how or from where, but yes yes, oh yes, it is ridiculous to consider that there is divinity; its an absurd religious notion they say! Wow.

Bryson then next explains that early on, the heavy gases necessary for “life” didn’t exist and were formed later by the ensuing supernovaes. Well, isn’t that delightful! Ahh, now we understand how we got here, the supernovaes made the needed soup ingredients! No, no, no we don’t know a damn thing according to science about how we got here. He brilliantly and correctly keeps telling us about things which are both impossible and ungraspable followed by the theory he just finished telling us has infinite inexplicable holes in it. I agree Mr. Bryson. They are, so top talking brilliantly and wonderfully and wittily as you admirably do out of both sides of your mouth. Better we shall postulate that we are a mathematically impossible cosmic accident and on top of that, profoundly alone, yet dismiss that there are “miracles”? Oh, heaven forbid that, eh? Does Bryson not understand that his wonderful science book is itself a treatise of entertaining explanation on endless trillions of miracles inexplicable by science?

And how are miracles explained? They’re not. They’re divine. They’re miracles for Heaven’s sake! Is this arrogance? I really don’t know.

The average distance between stars is 30 million million kilometres with the nearest stars, the Alpha Centauri cluster of five, only 4.3 light years away. We need 88 THOUSAND YEARS traveling at 52,000 MPH, or something like that, to get from here to there, the closest set of stars with the vast majority of the rest of the countless billions of stars millions of times further away on average. Yet we’re discussing this and sipping espressos from our perch on earth only because of the physical chemical soup in the cells of our neurons which no other species on this singularly lonely earth comes close to possessing? Ok. Ok, enough of this angle.

Tolerating the Denials of Atheism

It is incredibly difficult as a person of faith to tolerate the delusions, denials and, more than anything else, the misplaced arrogance of someone who proclaims their version of “I am an atheist” or “I don’t believe in a Creator”, as if they actually do know anything at all about such matters, or as if what they profess to believe has anything to do with what reality is. In terms of what an atheist guru actually knows, it can easily be said they know plenty intellectually while they don’t know anything at all to any degree of certainty; their entire premise is rooted by its very nature, eg., as impressive as a brain’s workings are, in the flawed roots of their own limited intellect and emotion and no more, which is supposedly found only within the various water and chemical based cells of their brain and body, from which all of our perceptions of life, existence and humanity somehow came from and emanates outward (may I gently remind you of the miraculous impossibility yet evident reality of it) here and only here, on planet Earth.

I can’t express more enthusiastically how much I appreciate and enjoy the perceptive mind found in the writings of Bill Bryston, in particular his book, A Short History of Nearly Everything. Never did a man’s prose so wonderfully elucidate the nature of the universe, the vast, complex base of knowledge we possess, while simultaneously by his very writings, tell us that it is all inexplicable and incomprehensible. For a zillion zany reasons, his book is any sane person’s must read book.

However to imagine, to consider, let alone to arrogantly insist, that there is not found in human kind, here and only here in our human existence on Earth, an integral guiding, all-encompassing divinity, the term Creator, along with and integral to our physical science-based existence is a far more absurd idea than that there is a Creator. Its an easy argument and of course, that very argument is the singular purpose of this writing.

One can and should respect the character of a man, while at the same time we should be free to clearly communicate to him that we don’t respect, but may tolerate by virtue of having no choice, his foolishness and mistakes. We human beings are a messy, inconsistent lot, manifest each day in highly complex, disturbing and frustrating ways. Put more bluntly, even really admirable, intelligent, sincere people say and do the stupidest shit sometimes. A perfect and dangerous example of this are some of the thought-streams that pour forth from atheist guru Richard Dawkins. I can’t and dont’ watch his interviews often and when i do it is always within the very first minute that he is spewing forth some purely theoretical intelligence of which he absolutely and completely does not know to be the case. I recently watched him ask an audience something like “What kind of a God could not come up with a better idea on how to love and save man kind than to sacrifice his own supposed son?” I have no choice but to admire the man for his brilliance in asking the question, immediately followed by scratching my head as to how he somehow asks a great question yet doesn’t also find the perfection which exists in the answer to the question. I must also of course ignore that he is himself a human being who is actually judging God. Now that’s funny and ironic. I can’t even fathom what it is that is going on inside the poor man’s head that makes him incapable to answer the question correctly himself.

All one has to do is ponder the palpable unavoidable reality of struggle, suffering and sacrifice which defines in large part the nature of our existence. Yet, he still asks this question? To be fair, and as to make sure you the reader don’t think I too am suffering from any form of arrogance, let me offer that the body of atheist argument is impressive as intellectual and emotional fodder. It does serve well to keep people’s wondering minds busy and it offers some impressive arguments which should make any decently aware man think harder about his existence. Having said that, the body of atheistic argument at the end of the road simply and obviously falls short. And that’s the part that the typical atheist is incapable of discussing with you because it gets down to the brass tacks of the arguments on both sides.

Let me make it further clear as to the argument in favor of God,; there is no argument. Divinity simply does exist; it offers and needs no argument and it is not at all interested in whether any of us might happen to believe it; that just puts us full circle right back around to the individual manifestations of our own degree of denial, delusion and arrogance.

Whether any one of us is capable or stubborn in not seeing and accepting divinity, does not make it not so. In fact, if you happen to be inclined to declare from your pulpit, “I am an atheist” I am in a way not even advocating that you “stop” thinking that and repent as though you were judged to be a bad person. That would indicate my judgment of your wrongness, of which I am not entitled. Rather, if you just let yourself “be” as you are on this single planet in all the universe and at the same time, also just let the universe “be” as it is, you’ll then be finally doing nothing more than being and existing in this miraculous place, allowing yourself to see and be in what is, indeed, simply here and there. And what is simply there, or rather here, surely includes divinity, whether you much like it or recognize it or not.

Mind you, here’s another point; many of the body of atheistic arguments are impressive, rather like the body of works over the centuries known as philosophy. So by all means, I would never suggest to you that the body of philosophy writings starting with perhaps Socrates and Aristotle, and then running all the way up to today’s Bertrand Russell, is a body of senseless garbage because all that matters is what we find in the Bible or some such nonsense. That would be classic Christian arrogance and needs to be admirably avoided. I mean to say, there is great value in taking some time to become familiar with such bodies of intellectual work as a matter of interest, knowledge, growth, curiosity and growth as a person. Go for it. You just have to read every word with a grain of salt and knowing that even some of its depth was written by the author while drunk or high on some other drug.

Each of us is required in this dangerous world to be vigilant in protecting and guarding our minds and hearts and those of our loved ones, from the endless variety of false proclamations rooted in false ideas. Many a good man in history has been ruinously led astray by not more than stupid idiots, or perhaps by clever, calculating criminals and worst of all, by those who seem on the surface to be well-meaning relationship or business gurus who have been divorced twice and have had multiple business and career failures. None of what false prophets and charlatans have to teach you has anything to do with whether or not divinity exists, which is an entirely separate matter as to any rules, universal principles or formulas for a hopefully meaningful life which they offer. By all means, read every Dale Carnegie book, go to a few guru seminars and walk on fire, hire a coach, put yourself on a wholistic yoga / vegan lifestyle journey if you wish and start eating meat again next year if you wish; all terrific ideas from which you as a person may gain benefits and growth on your journey.. But the moment anyone starts trying to tell you why God doesn’t exist, ya gotta head for the door away from these idiots who talk like they think they actually know; run the other way and do not look back. Like Lot’s wife, you’re in danger of turning into a pillar of salt if you don’t.

Hundreds of thousands if not millions of people hang their hats on what this Hawkin’s fellow has to say. Sam Harris and a few others too, so then its just one big happy, arrogant secular delusion not beyond much more than the God of mindfulness and presence. The musings are wonderfully intellectually admirable on the surface, but only as long as one joins them in ignoring what they are ignoring, the growing body of inconveniently inexplicable stuff. Sam Harris can easily be regarded as far more palatable and interesting to listen to in comparison to Dawkin’s trademark rudeness and arrogance. But please, none of what they have to say changes the nature nor divinity of our existence. Please do respectfully listen to their philosophy and models to gain some insights while never forgetting that they have absolutely no idea what they are talking about in their pointless struggle to disbelieve. While, they should rather feel privileged and wise to embrace rather than deny our miraculous and tiny existential bubble, they don’t and likely won’t. Again, humans are just plain nuts. And the spiritual extremists and charlatans on the other side are just as bad, if not worse for being so misguided and emotional.

The machinations of intellectualism go round and round while the living spirit of charity and self-sacrifice is settled, needing no explanation nor proof as to their proper and right fundamental nature found in the depths of humanity. When our fallen man’s mind and emotions are led astray from the universal truth rooted in the living spirit of charity found in an infinitely vast universe which was created solely for the purpose of our human existence, then do we witness in despair the gross abominations, selfishness and stupidity of which we are seen to be capable of throughout history. Surrender and devotion to your “higher self”, or more specifically in the case of a Christian’s core belief, Christ’s shed blood addresses the plight of fallen man, with or without his acknowledgement. Though on the point of our own faith adequately sanctifying one who is innocently faithless, some may also disagree.

The very divine existence and nature of man is one of suffering, struggle, redemption, charity, humility, self-sacrifice accordingly in alignment with the living spirit of our universe’s divinity. The more we are less and become less, the more rich we become. There it is in all its simplicity and absolute power. The first line of the Buddhist writings? Life is suffering. That unquestionably being the case, charity and sacrifice easily fall next in line. I’ll stop the list of virtuous sounding words right there so as to let you add your own few additional virtues as you perceive them to be in this world. These root virtues are the direct, existential manifestations of divinity, the Creator’s unknowable mystery of grace and will, expressed through the lives of each of us as human beings.

Along the way, many of us go astray and lose touch with our true divine nature. We get caught up instead, for a variety of reasons, in our physical, worldly nature and in that place, we are capable of despicable evil, aren’t we? When considering the words describing the root meaning of our presence here, you might think to add the word “love” to the list, but this is not wise. It is far too general a word which expresses far too much. Its layers of meaning need to be sliced and chunked down ever so nimbly. You might also be thinking “happiness” but I will immediately ask you please avoid that word as well, for I can think of no more pathetically overused, misused and abused word than “happy” to describe what humans supposedly need and want. “Happy” in the sense most of us consider its daily meaning is quite temporary, quite fleeting and actually occupies a quite low overall percentage of our daily lives. When the principle is pointed out to them, most people can quickly recognize they naturally desire not a happy life as much as a meaningful life, even if such meaning includes struggle and suffering, which are inevitable and unavoidable, and which are integrally linked to our experience of joy and love. There is simply no other place to unite this mysterious experience to than the redemptive plan, wisdom, mercy and Grace of our divine Creator.

Mario Cavolo

Shenyang, China Spring 2019

END

#atheism #samharris #richarddawkins #religion #spirituality #dogma #philosophy #christianity #marriage #family #emotional trauma #divorce #suffering #redemption #catholicism

0 notes