Of Battlestars and Presumptious Deities, with an Eczema Prelude

Yikes. Kinda stopped posting. Let me explain: I have a lot of things I want to write. But I’m also recovering from a nasty skin outbreak on my hands that has made doing things like typing rather painful.   But it’s starting to get a lot better, and I should have less whiny “don’t wanna type” moments.

It sucks, though, let me tell you.

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Warning: some vague spoilery Battlestar Galactica stuff here

“God has a plan for you.”

That phrase has been twirling around in my mind since yesterday, which was when I finally sat down and watched the Battlestar Galactica finale. I mostly enjoyed it, but there’s certain aspects that trouble me, and one of them is found in that phrase, which is one I’ve heard repeated by many Christians over the years. The Battlestar Galactica finale takes that notion rather seriously, with events having been orchestrated, or at least heavily influenced and prodded, by Some Force (that, apparently, doesn’t like to be called “God”).

It’s an idea that I find  repulsive, and am certainly totally unable to understand the desire for it, the joy in it, that so many religious people have. “God has a plan for you.” My invariable reaction is something along the lines of “oh, really?” It seems a bit cheeky for a god, if such a thing existed, to presume to have the right to order my life as he/she/it sees fit. It is, after all, my life, not theirs, and the fact that they created it doesn’t enter into the equation, ethically speaking. Battlestar Galactica is  relevant here — the humans did not have a right to do whatever they wanted with the Cylons just because they  created them. The humans treated the Cylons as slaves:  the Cylons rightly rose up against them. And in Season 4, we see the Centurions being used and abused by the “skinjob” Cylons in much the same way (one of the bigger failures on Moore’s part, in fact, has to be in how that was never really explored and used for its storytelling potential. He had a chance to make the Centurions more than just metal killing machines, and instead looked away, except for a pat little wrap-up in the final episode).

The idea that a creator gets to have determination rights over its creation, when said creation is a thinking, feeling being in its own right, is absurd to me. And yet the idea persists when it comes to the idea of God, and it’s one of those things that is just so alien to my mind. I can’t wrap my head around it, can’t see how it appeals to other people. “God has a plan for you!” “Well, fuck him!” That’s my feeling, really. For too much of my life I have been a rather crappy navigator for the Good Ship Gregory, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to turn the helm over to a mythical character. I’d rather run the ship up on a sandbar. Of course, the much better plan is to become a better navigator, which is what I am slowly, painfully doing.