Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Alpha & Beta

My dog, Alpha
I got a dog the other day, his name’s Alpha. I really went all out accommodating the pooch. I made the entire house a canine playground. I put a different bowl of food in every room. I installed ramps so that every inch of furniture could be his domain. I maxed out my treat budget. Seriously, all I ever heard where squeak toys. I even gave Alpha a friend, a female named Beta. They were good dogs.

“Were” being the operative word. I told Alpha and Beta that the only thing in the house that was off limits, was my lucky tennis ball. I pointed at the ball and said “no!” They saw me do this on more than one occasion, but the little buggers couldn’t help themselves. I don’t think she knew I was watching, but Beta brought my ball over to play with Alpha and they launched it right out the window.

Disobedience is something I do not tolerate! I removed all the food and treats from the house. I threw out the ramps and fenced off their “fun rooms.” Their toys? They went straight into the trash. From then on, I made Alpha work for his food. Beta too. To remind them of their indiscretion, I installed traps randomly around the house--a snare here, a foothold there. Some would hurt the animals and others would just cage them for a while. I even drip a little rat poison in their food occasionally. There’s no rhyme or reason to it really, I’m just keeping them on their toes.

Sure, it’s within my power to buy new tennis balls, actually I already have another, but that won’t teach any lessons. I plan on continuing this punishment for the rest of their lives. Come to think of it, I better keep it up for their offspring and any other pets I may bring into the house. Alpha and Beta’s single disobedience should be felt for all future generations.

Don’t call PETA on me, this is an analogy. I don’t want to overstate the obvious, but on topics of religion I’ve learned that clarity matters, so here I go.
  • The narrator/dog owner = God
  • Alpha and Beta = Adam and Eve
  • The house pre-disobedience = The Garden of Eden
  • The tennis ball = The Tree of Knowledge
  • The house post-disobedience = Earth
  • The traps, poisons and other canine dangers = Natural evil (earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, etc.)
If you don’t think of the narrator as a loving and forgiving master, than you probably shouldn’t be a huge fan of God either. The good news? You don’t need to hate God because this fable of pet ownership is no more imaginary than the fable of Genesis. There is no one to hate.

I could carry this story to it’s illogical, yet Biblical, conclusion. A few generations later the master might sacrifice a dog in order to atone for Alpha and Beta’s original sin, but why bother? It’s not like dogs go to heaven.

11 comments:

  1. Very creative...I like it. It really highlights the cruelty of the original sin story in a way that most people should be able to relate. Then again...bible literalists will most likely have some argument against it that I don't care to hurt my head contemplating at the moment.

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  2. By the way, what widget do you use for your blogroll? I like how it displays the last post on those sites and would love to steal the idea from you.

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    1. You're on Wordpress, correct? I think this is a Blogger only thing. There may be a Wordpress equivalent, but I don't know.

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    2. Ahh...too bad, it is a nice feature.

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  3. Perhaps if you understood that the wages of your sin is death, and what that actually means, then you would have a bit more appreciation for the Master. Maybe you should spend more time being grateful for life than being angry at life's hardships.

    Even a dog can understand that.

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    1. I don't think I'll ever know what that actually means. :-)

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  4. The Christian God may be unreasonable, cruel and arbitrary, but that doesn't mean he doesn't exist.

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    1. True. I didn't mean for this post to argue against his existence. (I have other posts for that.) I wrote this because I am tired of the "loving God" and "forgiving God" stories.

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  5. Was the television in the room therefore the Devil?

    Continuing the theme of the devil entity, if god looking in a mirror would he actually see the devil staring back at him??

    Maybe God has a split personality and is schizophrenic, this god obviously spends a lot of time by himself…………………

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  6. Gamma and Delta really should have known better than to let their parents play with that tennis ball before they were born. You should definitely punish them just as much as Alpha and Beta.

    I love everything about this post.

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  7. The metaphor works all too well. God as depicted in Genesis was not a noble figure, disproportionately punishing Adam and Eve for a minor transgression. To boot, since they didn't understand good and evil yet, they weren't even culpable!

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