So one hears, “What have I to do with him, if he cannot help me?” and again, “What have I to do with him, if he wills that I should be as I am now?”
It follows that I begin to hate him.
Why then do we build temples and make images to Zeus as if he were an evil genius, as if he were Fever?
How can we give him any more the name Savior, Rain-giver, and Fruit-giver?
If we seek our happiness in accumulating more “stuff”, we can immediately kiss justice goodbye, for the man who orders himself by what he can take will gladly surrender fairness for the sake of convenience. He will only be interested in giving an appearance of justice when it provides him with an advantage over his adversaries.
Likewise, if we measure our blessings by what we manage to receive, we can immediately kiss piety goodbye, for the man who makes demands of God is simply playing the little god himself. He will put on reverent airs when it helps him get ahead, and he will curse Providence when the world doesn’t go his way.
I once had the extreme displeasure of working with a man of immense privilege, who nevertheless complained constantly about how people only became poor because they were greedy and godless. I always bit my tongue when I was around him, until he once accused me of being a “communist pervert”, at which point I calmly asked him what he would do if God took away all his money.
The deeply confused look on his face showed me that the prospect had never even crossed his mind; he could not conceive of a life where he didn’t always come out on top.
My question was not merely intended to be flippant, because as much as such a man frustrates me, I still cannot bring myself to wish such a terrible injury upon him. There will have to come a time when he recognizes the poverty within his soul, and he will be left despising his Maker; by then it may well be too late for him to do much about it.
A reverence for the Divine becomes possible when we understand ourselves as being parts of the whole, subject to a shared purpose and Intelligence, but it will remain impossible when we continue to insist upon our own dominance and self-importance. God remains alien to me as long as I expect to be granted outside gratification.
Having mixed up the true source of happiness, I become inclined to tell Providence what I want, when I should really be listening to Providence about what I need. Since I have failed to rightly apply the primary conception of the good, I am putting the cart before the horse.
I do know some agnostics or atheists who are struggling to make sense of the principles of causality and design, and so they are hesitant to commit to the presence of Universal Mind. Their doubts are sincere, and they are still working out an estimation of justice.
Others, however, have chosen to hate a God they believe has wronged them, and so their resentments have sadly blinded their judgments. They are in a much more difficult place, as restoring peace of mind will require a major rebuilding of mental habits about the nature of the human good.
Brilliant!
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