Don't Blame The Serpent! (I.P.)

Don’t blame the serpent I'm just doing my job.
My job is to tempt you. Do you need a few bob? *
All you need do… is to sell me your soul.
You don’t really need it - you’ll still be quite whole.
Everyone’s doing it, it’s become quite a craze
Souls are a liability in these difficult days!”

My name is Dollar - I’m almighty they say
In Truth not as mighty as I was yesterday
But you’ll need me to prosper
You’ll need me to thrive
I am the god that keeps profit alive.
I am the one who decides what you’re worth.
I am the one who rules over the Earth.

* (‘a few bob’ colloquial term for money)

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Adam and Eve had a life that was good
they lived in Eden as good people should
Along came a snake in a salesman suit
and he sold Eve on some forbidden fruit
“God doesn’t want you to try this Madam,
He’s fond of slaves like you and Adam
One bite of this and you will see
the truth and it will set you free!”

Eve was tempted, she was easily led,
and so, to Adam, she pleadingly said
“Come on darling let’s give it a whirl,
wouldn’t you like a sophisticate girl?”
Adam wasn’t sure... he liked what he had
but he wanted, just once, to try something Bad.
And so it was, to the salesman's delight
they gave in to temptation and both took a bite,
and Eve turned green and Adam quite white!

They heard someone calling and ran off to hide.
Adam was frightened and Eve simply cried.
God came toward them said “What have you done?”
Adam tried to wheedle “We were just having fun.”
“Why have you eaten the forbidden fruit?”
"He made us do it, the snake in the suit."
Replied Eve uneasily - hiding her bits.
God asked the serpent “Have you lost your wits?
Why did you tempt them to eat of the tree?”
“I thought you knew everything - why don’t you see?
I’m sick of this garden and I want to be free!
They’ve eaten the fruit so they can go with me."

(The Fall)

Then the snake with a sudden glee
said "Now at last it's the time of 'Me'!
Now you know about good and bad,
You don’t need God to be your Dad.
You’re ready to think for yourselves at last
You don’t need God - He is the past!

You who have lived in Eternal Spring
and listened to the Angels sing
are no longer Daddy’s treasured toy
Father’s favourite girl and boy
It’s time to live a different life
One full of struggle, full of strife
Yet it can make you strong like me
You will be gods, just wait and see!

For I will help you, I will guide.
You'll build me roads so I can glide.
You'll chop the trees, pollute the seas,
Build many prisons and give me the keys.
An army of followers will chant my name;
My name is Progress... and I shall reign.
You want to know what's good and bad?
Well, Bad is losing all you had.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

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It’s been quite a while since I read the Bible but as I remember the official version was that Adam and Eve were found guilty of eating the forbidden fruit of the Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil.

Upon eating, as I recall, they immediately realised they were naked and it is my belief that it was their sudden embarrassment that gave them away and nothing to do with that legendary all knowing power that God is frequently advertised as having.

Still, it was poor old God that had to sit down and create them a couple of designer label fashion statements (House Of God) before they were asked to leave the premises (The Garden Of Eden Resort and Spa) and go and live with the Others (with a name like ‘Others’ you can bet they weren’t members of the elite - nuff said).

If He was ‘all knowing’ then He must have known they were going to eat the fruit so he could have had the sewing already done and surprised them with his prescience - but maybe He is only all knowing as regards what has already happened… well, to be honest, if you were God you’d probably keep the ’see into the future’ power on ’standby’ wouldn’t you - I mean you do need a few surprises to brighten up Eternity.

I think there was some mention of the Tree Of Life, as I recall it was agreed that they were kicked out of Eden lest they eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life and live forever. Something various of their offspring have been hoping to do ever since.

Right, that’s got most of the pre-history bit nicely boxed off.
So, why did Adam and Eve eat the fruit and what was the result?
Well, never tell kids what they must not do!
Let’s face it we are all kids - see a button with ‘Don’t press me’ and it’s a quick scan of the horizon and if there’s no sign of onlookers then push the button to see what happens.
If you want the kids to eat some fruit you say “Don’t eat that fruit I’m saving it for Uncle Bert.”…
It’s gone by morning.

So that’s the ‘why’ what is the 'result'?
Well, I think the Bible puts it quite well ‘they realised they were naked’.
See, knowledge is based on knowing, not on thinking and not on feeling.
It turns out that we don’t actually know much at all.
Was it Plato that said “I know nothing but at least I know one thing more than anybody else.”?
Whoever said it was obviously talking about knowing on a different level to the one we usually use the word for.

What I mean is that there is no shortage of ‘local’ knowledge but even things that we take to be absolutely true are usually just little more than a profound form of relative truth...

‘What goes up must come down.’; The sun will always rise in the morning; Everything dies etc.
These are all examples of statements that we know to be true but yet may not be.
Obviously the spacecraft which are currently on course to leave our solar system may eventually come down somewhere but it’s not likely.
The sun will continue to rise every morning until it doesn’t - a long time off (hopefully) when the Earth is finally swallowed by the Sol and day and night are no more.

Everything dies, or does it? Do we really know that life wasn’t present even before the Universe?
Do we ‘KNOW’ what life is? Could it be that what we call life is simply the animation of various organisms that life has managed to create over time as it slowly but surely learns to manipulate matter?

What do we REALLY know? That the Universe was created in a Big Bang - not likely is it?
Yet, were it to be so then where did the stuff that went Bang come from, was that created in a Little Bang? Did it appear from nowhere? Where’s nowhere then and is it full of Bangers?

Where did we come from? We are accidents caused by lightning storms in prehistoric pea soup which by virtue of ‘Evolution’ via survival of the fittest have evolved from amoebae into sheep, baaah.
In the light of reason does this really seem reasonable to you?

Famous scientists try to convince us that the fact everything 'is as it is' stems from chance.
That it is fortunate that electrons seem to like to circle protons and lucky that they form into various configurations that give us the Elements. Extremely luck that these Elements are quite fond of forming complex groups which can then be moulded by time and tide to give us all the things we so easily take for granted. Yet where does this miraculous luck come from?

If something exploded in a Big Bang wouldn’t you expect a Universal goo?
What did we do to help create the Universe, the Earth, The sky, the sea?
Why is it ours then? Is it simply that it belongs to whoever takes it?

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At last, we come to it - what is Good and Evil?
I could shilly-shally and mumble on about what philosophers, theologians, politicians and other great time-waster might have said
but it wouldn’t really get us anywhere.

The Bible says “The love of money is the ROOT of ALL evil.”
So whatever ‘evil’ is - we know what it springs from...
yet money is simply an expression of power.
If you have enough then you control greedy people and greedy people run the world!

So, I would argue that evil is that which encourages and supplies the greedy, selfish, wants and desires of the few at the expense of the necessary needs of the many.
For me, good is simply that which opposes evil without resorting to similar tactics.

You should think to yourself what it is that you do REALLY know.
You know that the world is full of clever people who have little wisdom but plenty of greed.
You know that this greed can be for money, or power, or knowledge…
and you know they will never have enough.
But do you know how to change it?

Do you know what a Democracy is?
It’s a way of keeping sheep quiet by giving them the illusion of having a say as to grazing rights, ever 4 or 5 years or so, by asking their opinions as to which pack of wolves would make the best shepherds.

So what is progress? Do we KNOW?
Is it sacrificing today for a better tomorrow?
Is it blindly marching from beautiful blue planet to sterile plastic prison?
Is it a world full of gadgets with TV’s and cars - but no trees and the only remaining animals in zoos?
Is it a world where man continues to try to dominate the planet?
Is it a world that no longer has any need of you - or is that tomorrow?

You should know that those who seem to have all the answers
don’t know any more about who we are, or how we got here,
than the poor guinea pigs they experiment on.
Yet, like the serpent they follow - his image coiled around their staffs - they promise progress.

Through their magic we shall rule the stars - they would have us believe…
Yet look around and wonder what their magic really brings.
Nuclear bombs and other WMD, worldwide pollution, drone missiles, spies in the sky and a total lack of understanding as to how all their lovely machines are destroying the planet!
Can we really believe that this is just a silly phase that the planet goes through before it transforms into a technical Paradise?
Or is it that the Planet is fighting for its life and we are the enemy?

If we left Eden so that we could try going it alone for a bit - then, all those who think we have made a good job of it should fly off in their nice shiny rockets to Mars or the moon and carry on there.

For the rest of us we should shout “Come back God!”
We have tried making our own choices based on our knowledge of good and evil and we have discovered that we can’t tell them apart : That one man’s good is another man’s evil.

The tyranny of choice is a burden not a blessing, spending ages trying to decide which option is the best only to discover that by the time you've made up your mind the best choice is no longer available and you're back to square one.

We want our Father back - God KNOWS we need Him!

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Then the truth struck me at last
I am the Snake lost in future’s past.
Ah! Father gave this dream to me
So I may grow and come to see
that I am the Earth, I am the sea.
And wonder how to set men free.

Am I angry, am I mad
Am I lost and am I bad
Why do I fight amongst myself
Seek for glory, fame and wealth
What is it that I seek to find
Is it simply peace of mind?

Was I jealous, was I proud
Was I bored sat on my cloud.
Was I Father’s problem child
Was I wilful, proud and wild.
Can I change, can I be good
Act like an angel really should.

How do I heal. Who can send
for this nightmare a happy end
I have caused it, the fault is mine
So I must display the closing sign
Alert the Eagles the time is near
To leave this dream and face my fear

Will Father rule that I am well
Will I be sentenced to time in Hell
I know that I must judge myself
Face the consequences of my ill health
Feel the pain of my dark desires
Pray that I have put out the fires

I hope I’ve learned my lesson well
That Heaven quickly turns to Hell
That all the pain and strife and hate
Is caused by those who speculate
Pretending that they know what’s true
Asserting they do it all for you.

I see at last that I’m not too bright
That selfishness has dimmed my sight
Yet I am you... as you are me
I know you're blinkered and cannot see
While hubris blinds you to your faults
You dream of power and gold filled vaults

You fight yourselves, how can you win?
No morals or rules, no fear of sin.
Yet fearing death you cling to life.
Making profit from the growing strife.
It's never too late to see the light.
Learn to love and cease to fight!
Unite as brothers, be as one.
Or soon you’ll, simply, all be gone!

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It’s funny that although, occasionally, we blame this government or that we still continue to replace them with new ones which, at best, merely create a shiny new façade to cover the same old derelictions.

We listen to their talks of God or King and country, of duty and progress and, for the most part, we don’t believe a word of it because we know they don’t either!

Politicians are just puppets for some shadowy syndicate, some group that truly hold the reigns of power and pulls the strings of their persuasive puppets as they present their pitiful plays of propaganda to a largely sleeping audience.
We know the Play For Today - “You’ve Had Your Fun Now Time To Pay!”...
but what will be the Play For Tomorrow? ;O)

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While I sometimes argue that philosophy and theology are essentially, like crosswords and logic problems - an enjoyable waste of time…

It has occurred to me that the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil does imply an interesting question.
Since, essentially Good and Evil create opposite worlds, so to speak, did eating the forbidden fruit create God and the Devil?

Are ‘Good’ and ‘Evil’ absolute?
Or are they relative terms depending on the viewpoint of the observer?
Could it be that God and the Devil are the same simply viewed from diametrically opposed positions?

The Buddha said go and find me something that is totally evil and something that is totally good.
Nothing was found. Yet could it serve as both ;O)