kangaroo god
the story goes, when european folks were first exploring australia they asked their guide, what is that creature. the guide answered, kangaroo. which meant i don't know. so in one round of telephone tag a word changed meaning from i-dont-know to a particular animal. i think the same thing happened in religion a long time ago. god originally meant i-dont-know. or there is no answer. where did people come from? god. who made the trees and animals? god. who watches over me when i sleep? god. who protects us from lions? god. who makes the rain fall? god. why did uncle bob die? god. who's gonna forgive me for killing my neighbor? god. wow, god is a pretty powerful thing to be able to do all that. run it through a few thousand generations of phone tag and poof! religion is born. sure wish i would have realized this when i was a kid. it would have made church sermons soooo much more tolerable. maybe even entertaining. i'd have written down all the really funny things uttered by the yakking ignoramuses. and written a book. i'd be so rich now.