Journal of June 14, 2005

Tuesday, June 14, 2005 6:35 PM

I feel moved to conceive of the instructions which must be given to all children, including therefore also all prophets, concerning the possible appearance of God and demons.

Look children, this is all we know for sure: there are other humans, people like us to think and act, etc. Now we are able to conceive of two other beings, one is God, who is greatness itself, and the other is a demon, which is simply much greater than any human. We have heard tell of such, but we cannot be sure. Nevertheless, since they are possible, we have thought it proper to instruct you on how you can tell whether you are talking with God or with a demon or with another human.

Presently we will skip the other human part and focus on the recognition of God and the recognition of a demon. Both will be superior in power to the human and will always be finite in his sight, i.e., if the infinite could be sighted, the human could always extend it by one.

That’s make sure that is clear. It is not possible for humans to recognize the infinite, and it is impossible from the demonstration of superb penmanship not to imagine something better, i.e., that verey good plus something more. Hence it is impossible for the human to be able to look, or touch, or smell, etc., and obtain the impression of the infinite. Indeed the infinite is merely a human way of looking at things, but which cannot be an object of human imagination.

The same holds of scientific insights and numerology* (presently highly prized by Islam, for example), these can never demonstrate the infinite but merely always something beyond the human capacity, but not necessarily, at least not in sight, is it beyond the capacity of a demon, e.g., a demon might have constructed the sky ceiling that Mohammed pointed to in describing what this being had done.

[* There is evidence that the numerology is based upon an alteration of the Koran and thus is phony. See here.]

And so it will be forever impossible for the human to grasp the infinite, and hardly even later in heaven, which will be an eternal unfolding of glory upon glory, to use a figure.

And so there is no way for the human to distinguish God from a demon, but only God from a human or a demon from a human.

Now there is another matter of importance. Humans have two roles to play in this, for each can act like a God or like a demon, merely of a lesser degree to either, but of a degree among one another. And so two things. It is possible that a man can hallucinate and imagine a being out in space like you spy the circle you can trace out there and point out to others, and respond to that hallucination of his own makings, or a man can make up a story and act and speak as though it were true.

We need to consider the God/demon differentiation first in order to have then equal insight into the human/human differentiation. By process of considerable thinking we are able to come to the conclusion that there is good reason to think there is indeed a God, and that is because it is required by the moral law. I will have to explain this at some length.

And so we can distinguish the God/demon in terms of good and various degrees of evil and then finally the antithesis of good, i.e., the demonic. An explanation from Kant: the human is merely evil for the simple reason that he does not relish a violation of his understanding of the moral requirement, but does it reluctantly as to an innocent bystander. The demon is called demonic precisely because regardless of his power his delight is in the violation of the moral law itself, that is what is gratifying about his existence. This distinguishes him from both God and man,

And so we do have one good piece of advise, our dear children, if ever anyone professes to be God, don’t go by the tricks that are presented to you eyes, but look to see if the result is what would happen if we followed the rule of universal agreement, i.e., all people are to be treated rightly. This is what we mean with God, a being which is both all powerful and at the same time a perfectly moral being able to judge all of his creation.

So watch out and make sure the being purporting to be God is calling upon you to treat all people with unbounded respect, i.e., is calling for compliance with the moral law before all else absolutely. This is what we are telling you, our children. One thing you can know up front is this is that the demon will never give you the moral law as supreme, but only his own commands. Don’t trust a being who will not admit that the moral law is the mark of God. It may be God, and it may be test and trial of some sort for God to withhold information of a practical importance but merely theoretical information, and then it is impossible to tell, for a demon might do the same thing. The only thing we know for sure is that no demon will admit that the moral law is the supreme guide for the human being.

Now regarding hallucination, well, this is difficult to tell with yourself and so of course then also with others, and you might be able to imagine an hallucination of the same intensity say of the sighting of a distinct form in a cloud, and even with more detail and intensity than can be given in the exemplar of the cloud face. Then you are in the same boat as anyone is in when he is trying to discern what is before him. The only thing that you can be sure of is that if the revelation calls for the practical supremacy of the moral law then it is not a demon, but it might still be a human being in his own thinking, for this is a product also of human reason. If your hallucination calls for the supremacy of the moral law, then it looks just like the impression that God himself might conceivably make, and so all you know is that the hallucination is not the work of a demon. Now if it does not call for the supremacy of the law, it will only be as a disregard for it, and not a call for violations per se, for no human is demonic (we have this on Kant’ word).

As far as a man making up a revelation and then announcing it as a revelation from God, here again we cannot tell if the man preaches the supremacy of the moral law, for that is what we would expect from a man who is privy to the thoughts of God, and so we can at least know that he is not a demon, although he might have hallucinated the whole thing. And so we can never tell from the talk itself that a man is not lying, unless somehow he trips himself up, and many liars do not.

And so if a man comes to us, as say in the case of Mohammed coming to his wife, she should have inquired about what this being had to say. And only after having learned that the supreme command is a love of the moral law would she have enough evidence to conclude that it definitely were not a demon. She spoke before she knew. I wonder what the old blind Christian lady would have told her? Did she know enough to say: is the being preaching love? Or was she simply trying to oblige her friend, Mohammed’s wife, who was hoping that she would agree with her that it must be God and not a demon.

And so the first rule is this: a demonic religion will never assert the supremacy of the moral law. If God is practical with humans, then he will reveal himself most clearly as the moral judge that human reason itself insists upon (in the development of the Highest Good as the purpose of the moral act). If a demon is active he will never admit any such principle.

And so then my children. There are two aspects of God to help your recognize him, namely his power and his goodness in wanting you children to love each other always and never to forget to love each other. There is no sense saying he will be infinitely powerful, for that we can never recognize, not as humans, but only he will be very powerful and will amaze is. A demon may also appear very powerful, and the only sure thing you can go on is that the demon will never approve of the supremacy of the moral law.

If a man should make up the story, or if he should hallucinate the performance of that story and if it should call for the supremacy of the moral law, then we simply will not be able to tell and will look to other things, like super power. No human will ever lie or break the moral law except reluctantly, and it is not conceivable that a man could ever be demonic and honestly enjoy violations more than anything else. And so without the power of the supernatural, it is difficult to tell a divine being from a human being. We are speaking now of what others report to us and not what we can tell, wondering if the story is from a man who is lying, perhaps including a supremacy of the moral law, and so lying for our own good (a la Plato’s Noble Liar), or who is hallucinating a marvellous story which looks like something that a divine being might say, i.e., call for the supremacy of the moral law.

Let’s summarize: if someone reports a divine encounter and that the moral law is clearly supreme in all practices ensuing from that encounter, then the report is true, or a lie of a human being or an honest report of an unrealized hallucination of a being, but it will not be an encounter with a demon. If the moral law is deprecated to a submission to the commands of the being, then the being is demonic, and neither of man nor of God. We can be sure that God will never do this, because this is the only way we can tell for sure that we are not dealing with a demonic figure.

The nearest way that God can make clear to humans of his divinity is by his pointing to the moral law as self evident to all who will consider. That is sort of the negative condition, i.e., if this is not clear, then nothing is clear. But if this is clear and then there are additional shows of great power, then in that case you can know that you are dealing with God. Otherwise, without the great power, it could be merely human talk and nothing else. I.e., a chatter, as Wittgenstein might possibly have put it (as I conject).

Now to the fun part, our children, let us now look all around at what comes at us and let’s see if we can discern a possible revelation of God from the work of man or the work of a demon. To this end let us compare Christianity and Islam (Kant didn't think Judaism was a religion as rather a state in exile from its homeland).

Christianity establish a n affinity with the moral law immediately in the revealed life of Jesus. Kant went so far as to declare that the notion of a moral religion, a truly revolutionary thought, was first suggested in the life of Jesus as reported in the gospels. The icon is usually given as John 5 but it is in Romans 13:8-10 and is the general tenor of all the Christian scriptures.*

[* A discussion of the changes that overtook the Christian faith historically will be appended and will likely be quite interesting. In fact the whole idea of the Paulian might fit in nicely in order then to speculate on what like happened as the church came ever closer to Constantine.]

In fact in the Paulian conception it is the moral act alone that is pleasing to God, and not anything else, except to the extent it leads to that moral.

How does Mohammed stand up? There is no indication of the supremacy of the moral law in the iconic example of Abraham (insert here the logic, etc.). Indeed Kant thinks there is no reason at all to consider Islam as a moral religion as it far rather is extortionist and morally debilitating. This our children will want to consider very closely. There were no great acts associated with Mohammed and so it is not clear as to whether it arose from a demon, for it could be Mohammed’s sincere desire to force peace on people or it could be an hallucination of what Mohammed had been thinking about so intensely for 40 years. With regard to an actual revelation by God, and to have the moral hidden beyond sight in that revelation, and thus to bring suspicion upon his very authorship, it is hard to imagine that God would have wanted to remain so hidden.

Now, dear children, if you are able to spy a moral religion which is associated with power beyond the human capacity, then you have very good reason to think that this is a revelation of God himself.

And now speaking as a Christian parent I would say: the interesting thing about Paul’s revelation, as opposed to that of Mohammed, is that Paul promises an effect of a power greater than human, namely a change in the human disposition, and this is what Paul revealed had happened to him, turning from enemy into friend. This effect has been attested to by Francis of Assisi, John Wesley and millions more, and so it seems to be that the best bet on the current scene of being a revelation of God is the Christian, and especially the Paulian revelation of Paul. Wesley spoke for all in declaring that what the gospel promises has been accomplished in my soul (a continuing growth is eager love acts). And so in the Christian story you will be given a validation through experience, and the entrance fee is faith.*