2/27/11

Who's your God?


OK, God doesn't exist, right? Well, Arabs say God is Allah, and he doesn't exist; Christians say God is Jesus, and he doesn't exist; North Koreans say God is Kim Jong Il, and … uhhh ...

In the DPRK, the state religion is Juche, and according to it

Kim Il Sung is God the Father, Kim Jong Il is God the Son, and Juche is God the Holy Spirit.

You can hardly say that Kim doesn't exist, unfortunately, you can only argue that he's not a god. But: Asian cultures have their own notions of what a god is, not informed by our Judeo-christian culture, and to impose our definition on their term would be equivocation. Just saying he's different from the common Western idea of God isn't even disagreeing with them. So, how are they wrong? 

Kim Jong Il, a living deity

Skeptifem answered
It wouldn't be so hard- the onus is on the person who asserts that kim jong il is somehow better than everyone else. Assuming he's just some dude is the null hypothesis.

That's probably the best approach. Seems safe to say that a god has to be better than humans, or at least different. You can't say KJI isn't different—an ordinary dude doesn't have the power of life or death over millions of people who worship him and pray to him. The argument would have to be that any ordinary dude, put in his position, would be just like him, that there is nothing special about him except the circumstance he found himself in.

But is this true? It's easy to think of some other personality in his position. What about you? If you were in his shoes, would you make North Korea into a model democracy, or a benevolent dictatorship, or would you be just as big a dick as KJI? I'd probly abdicate the throne and go buy a little private island.

So there is something special about him. Whether that makes him a god is a matter of opinion. 


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