Nature, God

Nature? Crap. What the hell was God (or the gods, the Architect, Mother Nature, evolution, luck, fate or whatever else you happen to believe in), thinking when he/she/it/they invented the concept of nature and of the sentient being? It’s made a complete cock-up of humans, for a start. It is the nature of things for living beings to die, but it makes no sense for us to (be able to) worry about death. We only need to have the drive to avoid it. Worry gives us the added complication of thinking about death even when there's nothing we can do about it and when we are not in danger of dying. So why have we been made to worry about it? Why do we have to worry about anything full stop? Things are, people die, and the best we can do is to avoid it as much as possible. What’s more, we have in our possession the ability not only of irrational thought, but negative irrational thought. Oh well done, God, very useful that.

Another thing is that Nature would have us evolve to the point where we live in huge artificial communities. What’s that all about then? We’re put together with a lot of people that we don’t care about, who distract our time and attention from the people who matter – those emotionally and spiritually closest to us. While this is happening, we’re surrounded by artificial constructs that house, clothe and feed us, and have to pay particular attention to politics, law and making money, which wouldn’t be necessary in a natural environment. So, while we’re biologically configured to being “close to nature,” Nature has given humankind the mistaken ability to “better” itself by “improving” on these things. Yep, it’s some improvement: stress, cancer, pollution. Abstraction from the real realities of living can only be a bad thing. Whether you believe it damages the soul or contradicts what comes naturally, it’s at the very least not what we’re intended for. The happiest communities are quite clearly the smallest and most tribal communities. What more proof do we need? This is where happiness comes from – working for others because it’s in the best interest of the friends around you, and doing jobs that please you to do simply because they help everyone. Less stress, no cancer, minimal pollution and everyone knows his place. It doesn’t really offer much room for argument when you think about it.

Intelligence is crap, too. Intelligence is God’s way of admitting, “I can’t do a good job of guiding you on the right path, so you decide.” It’s an admission of defeat. Some reliable, guiding force for good God is, then. And it’s a non-argument to say that God’s purpose is to give humanity the ability to think for himself, and that at the same time He gives humans guidance. God’s perfect, right? And if that’s the case, everything He creates is perfect. So we should need no guidance, because we’re perfect creations. Seems like He’s shot Himself in the foot on that one. Or perhaps God knows this fact, and the theists have missed the point.

Intelligence is also evidence of God’s hobby of tormenting His little pets. The most intelligent people I know are hardly the happiest. The happiest people always seem to be those who are oblivious to what’s going on and those who bypass intelligence in pursuit of a simpler or more natural life. So what does that mean? That the purpose of intelligence is for it to be ignored? Or that God enjoys causing misery?

Here we are, held in a perpetual web of artificial worry, through modern living and evolution, that captivates us with things that, any way you look at it, shouldn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Perhaps it’s all a big test, for a higher purpose that we’re not aware of. But to me it just sounds like God is having a laugh. And I don’t think much of His sense of humour.