I’m a Cro-Magnon man
I’m a monkey, I’m a fish
On earth, on any season
I’m going nowhere, I’m going nowhere

I’m one, then millions
I’m a man with a lion’s heart
Waging war, on any season
I’m going nowhere, I’m going nowhere

I’m a man, full of ambitions
Nice car, beautiful house
In my living room
I’m going nowhere, I’m going nowhere

I make love and the revolution
I’ve explored the Question
I progress backward
I’m going nowhere, I’m going nowhere

You see, I’m not a Man
I’m the king of illusion
But you’ll have to excuse me
Cause I’m the king, the king of morons

I’ve made the world in my image
Build on gold and concrete
Body on cage and heart in prison
I’m going nowhere, I’m going nowhere

Sited, watching television
I’m the negation of Man
Pure product of consummation
I’m finished, I’m finished

I’m the Fire master, the Game master,
The ruler of the world, and see what I’ve done with it
A frozen earth, a burned earth
The earth of men, but men have abandoned it !

I’m a man at the point of no return
Like a mistake of nature
On earth, on every season
I’m going nowhere, I’m going nowhere

I’m a man and I’m aware
Of the horror of my nature
For my pain, my punishment :
I’m going nowhere, I’m going nowhere

By the French artist Zazie (translation by me).
Search on youtube for "Je suis un homme zazie" to watch the superb video clip.

This is my take on the Epicurian paradox. For reference, here is the text I’m referring to:

God either wants to eliminate bad things and cannot, or can but does not want to, or neither wishes to nor can, or both wants to and can. If he wants to and cannot, he is weak -- and this does not apply to God. If he can but does not want to, then he is spiteful -- which is equally foreign to God's nature. If he neither wants to nor can, he is both weak and spiteful and so not a god. If he wants to and can, which is
the only thing fitting for a god, where then do bad things come from? Or why does he not eliminate them?

Let’s take things in context… Imagine you are God (I know some of you will find that very easy ). There is nothing and all of a sudden, there you are, the only thing in the vast emptiness. You are there, faced with Nothing… What do you do? You can conjure a Dry Martini into existence and drink it… Cool, the first 1000 of them were fun but let’s face it, Dry Martinis get boring pretty fast.

You think of something else… Why not create something more complex and play a little bit with it… So you create a clock. It’s complex and nice and all and you watch all the tiny mechanisms click together and it’s all good… mmm now that you think of it, you control every bit of the clockwork you just created and it gets boring too…

So you become ambitious, you create a big fat universe that will expend and modify itself in ways that you can not predict, it’ll probably take you some trial and error but, in the end, you get there. So there it is, the universe, nice and shiny, full of stars and atomic reactions. You’re quite proud of yourself, in all your godly glory… Then, after a time, it gets boring too, watching nebulas, stars and galaxies form is all good but you are missing something. You are missing someone else.

You already know that dry martinis and clocks are boring so you try to create something a little bit like you but of course, you can’t… You are infinitely powerful and infinity time two does not compute… So you try to come up with a mini-you, and… it works!!!! You can’t believe it, you created something that can think and create other things… Not at all at your level but nice nonetheless… unbelievable…

Unbelievable… those words are messing around your infinite head in your infinitely boring universe… And then it hits you! If you create several of those and you tell them nothing about yourself (well maybe some hints here and there), watching them struggle with the big “Why” is going to give you entertainment for ages!!!

And here goes the Epicurian paradox... Yes, if god exists, he is definitely a bored guy with infinitely too much time on his infinite hands…

Just another party where the people dance alone
Everybody's trying to have some fun
Neonlights are buzzing around my head
I feel the sense of "me"
The sublime after-glow of inner peace
Just a tiny point lost in the universe
Shaking my knees
Your turn me on, oh my... ! I still have a body

I come to see the world inside
Where I won't feel the breeze
But there's one thing I don't believe in
And it's you...
'Cause I feel like I'm nothing in the world

Maybe...
Chemicals, chemicals
Are losing...
Maybe...
Chemicals, chemicals
Are losing you

Somewhere in my head there is a little crack
The painful track of what I could have done before you came along
A strange regret is what I get
The tables are turned
We're all gonna burn
I breathe no air
And everyone is there for me

If only I could see, please let me see again
When trouble comes I know for sure
The distance in your eye
I should be on your side
And you're cold, cold like death
I opened the door
This time
Let us shine

------------------------------------------------------------------------

You have to listen to this fantsatic song by Belgian band "Mud Flow"

It's never funny... I just got fired, trowed away like a kleenex... I guess I served my purpose in this company...

I might not post for a while, need to get back onmy feets...

First let's lay down the basis of my answer: we are talking abut a tangible, personal god. All the book religions define it the same: infinite, eternal, without beginning nor end, omnipotent, sees all, judge everyone, control everything, is forgiveness and love... and many other atributes like giving eternal life and eternal damnation... how great...

No some reasons why people don't believe or (like myself) have stopped believing

First, the logical problems

1) If god is sentient, self aware and loving then how can he let his creation go so horribly wrong by sending prophets that contradicts one another (Mahomet and Jesus don't exactly say the same thing)

2) If god is all love and forgiveness then how can he tolerate to send one of his beloved creations to eternal damnation in hell? This is THE killing argument that never made sense to me.

2d, The Thomas argument (I believe what I can see)

1) The bible, coran, torah are full of miracles and magic (walk on water, transform water to wine, divide the waters, send plagues on the face of those Egyptians,...) but since we can record events in a more precise manner, none happened? Where is god now?

2) Let's face it, the holly books have been written by men, not by god and men are good for two things: killing people and controlling people... And how great religions have worked in those fields...

3d, The metaphysical and scientific argument

1) A lot of religions where created to explain "things that we could not understand" like the sun for older polytheist religions or the creation of the universe and what happens after death for the most recent (like the religions of the book). BUT, scientific progress is already contradicting a lot of things described in the holly books and that where taken for granted not so long ago.

2) When it comes down to it, could you imagine living forever in paradise? If you are in the kingdom of god, you must only be able to do good no? Then you can't be evil anymore, then you’re not free anymore, then you loose what’s made you human and what got you in paradise in the first place. This is so horrible that I prefer to simply stop to exist when I'm dead.

The sooner we all start to stop following orders based on what will happend to us after death, the better we'll be...