All the king's horses, and all the king's men

Where to start? I found the last class kinda awesome. Perhaps I got too hung up on the idea of a "jealous" God. Perhaps it's really just a cover-up for His angry, juvenile acts of genocide, plagues, foreskin mutilation, and general debauchery. God really does seam like an out of control toddler throwing his toys around the living room, screaming orders at his little army men to wage war on another. BOOM! BAM! Plastic soldiers falling left and right, heroes dying heroically, others rising through the ranks to take their place. He gets angry at one group for not obeying his orders and whispers under his breath, "This means death". God wants entertainment! Come on, if you were a this huge all-powerful force, how would you get YOUR fun? You have to rely on things you create... but better than books, movies, television, instead actual living specimens.

I like this idea. Love it, actually. God is some kid playing with blocks. He stacks them carefully, deliberately, making sure nothing is out of place. He breaths softly, terrified that a simple breeze could knock it all down. Finally he is finished. Finally his grand work stands before him. Every brick in place. Everything where it needs to be. He calls in his parents to admire his work. Awesome. Perfect. Beautiful. They leave. He is alone. He smashes it to pieces. It collapses, chaos. The bricks scatter across the room falling under his bed, behind dressers, into corners, everywhere. This is what he built it for, to watch it fall to pieces, the love of watching it all burn, the world falling to pieces, something beautiful ending. I did this as a kid all the time. I would often stack plastic army men around the brick tower, plus action figures of bigger stance. Then I would slam my hot wheel cars into the structure until all the "men" were dead and the tower was in pieces. Other times I would construct huge stories in my head and would smash action figures into eachother. People would die, other people would live. Is this, essentially, what God wanted? Did he construct the universe, the earth, people, so he could watch it all collapse into chaos?

Considering the story of Abraham sacrificing his own child, I got to admit I liked the idea of it being a story of supreme faith. However, if you asked me now, I'd have to say it was probably of no consequence. I'm not referring to the hobbled together stories that are in the Bible, I refer instead to God himself. He seems to value human life very little. He'll kill for improper incense, questioning Moses, complaining, just about anything and do it a whole list of ways: plague, snakes, fire, and earth opening up. Was God just yanking around His favorite servant? Did He really care whether Isaac lived or not? Maybe the question I should ask myself when considering God's actions should be this: what would I do if I was 9 years-old? If I was 9 years-old would it be about faith? No, it would be about testing my wrath, should I kill or not today? My eyes would flicker, lives are on the line, must decide, live or die? live or die? live or die? I can see, no feel, the story playing out in my mind. Live or die? live or die? Abraham bends down, knife in his hand, getting ever closer to Isaac's throat. I stop it. Today, I say, "Today your son may live, Abraham."

To add another layer on top of this mess: did God not just basically speak the universe into existence? Did He not create us out of clay? Maybe this is all just going on in His mind, and He's bashing clay figures into each other, sitting in some mud hut somewhere in ancient Egypt?

A few more things swirling around in my head for awhile: Fugitive stories. I have have had a lot of fun trying to come up with some. My favorite so far is the movie District 9. The story revolves around a man marked by the military-industrial complex because he is turning into an alien "Prawn". It goes a lot more depth, but they basically want him because he holds the secret to using the alien's weaponry. Their weaponry is DNA-based, so only the Prawn can use it, but since the main-character is turning into a Prawn, the military believe they can use him. The movie is basically an extended chase-sequence, but the fugitive story line is there. Who are we kidding, the fugitive story line is everywhere, in every movie, every book, everything. Why? because the archetype is so intertwined with the image of an anti-hero, and this is the age of anti-heroes.