"Son of Protagoras is a large, looming figure painted by the famous French Graffiti artist MTO and can be found in Belfast, N. Ireland. The figure is located across the road from St Anne’s Cathedral. The angry gaze of the son of Protagoras is directed at cathedral, which can be seen through a gap in some buildings.
The figure cradles a dead dove that has been pierced by two arrows bearing the cross of the Knights of Malta and the Latin cross. The artist made this work as a comment on the conflict that once raged between Irish Catholic nationalists and the Protestant unionists. A conflict that was bound up in religious identity.
The piece is rich with powerful symbolism. A dove - representing peace - has been killed by two arrows - representing the Protestant and Catholic sides of the divide. The son of Protagoras looks with anger at the Cathedral, which represents institutional religion.
Peter Rollins
In the TV series "Touched by an Angel" a white dove is the visible representation of the presence of the Divine Connection or Spirit.
This mural not only symbolizes an attack on peace, but it seems ironic that "God" is being wounded by the arrows from the people who claim to follow "God". It is eerie. What other manifestations of the Divine are we shooting down because of anger, fear, confusion and gross misunderstanding. Maybe it is as simple as a bird.
"Concerning the gods, I cannot know either that they exist or that they do not exist; for there is much to prevent one's knowing: the obscurity of the subject and the shortness of man's life."
Protagoras 480 - 411 BC
I have no picture of the Divine, and maybe all I will be able to surmise for the rest of my journey is that the Divine is what connects the energies of the birds and the wind and the earth and humans together. Maybe it doesn't need much labeling after that. But whatever that is... can we in good conscience still shoot our arrows into it. Maybe that is the best reason to step out of our ignorance and see that dove for what it is... our connection to everything else that matters.
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then He is not omnipotent. Is He able, but not willing? Then He is malevolent. Is He both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is He neither able nor willing? Then why call Him God?
Epicurus 341 - 270 BC
One of the reasons I don't like the term God is that it is so vague. I also don't want to label the Creator of the Cosmos with a word that has been reduced to a common cuss world. (God, Jesus, Jesus Christ)... If we are going to discuss the possibility of something or someone that started this whole Universe... then it has to carry more weight than a swearword.
"Undisturbed by fears and unspoiled by pleasures, we shall be afraid neither of death nor of the gods."
