A Weak And Stupid God

    I was thinking about this Quetzalcoatl guy and Montezuma and Cortes. It's really kinda interesting.       This Quetzalcoatl was a feathered serpent god at the foundation of Aztec religion. There was a resurrection or return myth about him. That's interesting because it isn't all that frequent in religious mythology or dogma. Pick your term.
    If you waste enough time thinking about it we're lucky there is no such myth in Islam. Imagine what that could be like. These people are crazy enough. We could have some guy running around claiming to be the son of Allah.
    But we don't. I digress.
    So, this is what happened. Quetzalcoatl was to return some day born on white wings with great power. Cortes shows up in ships with white sails and firearms. We still are trying to deal with gun powder so you can see how it could have been an issue in a society that had never seen it.
    Montezuma is not just the head of the government but he's the head of the religion. Theocracy is a bad idea we're still trying to deal with.
    Cortes meets all the prophecies. He must be the real deal. He must be god returned. Montezuma fatally agrees.
    Montezuma is strangled by Cortes's men. It's a scene the drama of which has never been explored. It's a scene worthy of Sophocles, Euripides or Shakespeare. Imagine being murdered by god. The melancholy Mexican?  Maybe not.
    My thought was: What if Cortes was the reincarnation of Quetzalcoatl; was, in fact, a god and just wasn't very good at it?  What if Montezuma had spent his life worshiping a weak and stupid god and in the end, got what he could have reasonably expected, if not deserved.
    When Jesus fasted in the wilderness, Satan came to him and offered him dominion over the governments of the world. Jesus turned it down because he didn't wish to be under-employed. What kind of god needs something as puny and useless as a government to enforce his will?  What kind of god needs children to be forced to senselessly mumble his praises by rote?  What kind of god seeks dominion of these sad men's minds and wallets?  That god doesn't believe in the power of a willing embrace.
    What kind of omnipotent god is offended by a Mapplethorpe, a Flint or a Falwell or a Robertson? What kind of god is offended by Rushdie or me for that matter?
    Those gods would have to be weak and stupid gods no better than Quetzalcoatl.
    The God who has my faith doesn't need my poor support. He smiles on our lives even in our follies.

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