Journal of August 9, 2005

8/9/05 5:06 PM Spontaneous thoughts with respect to a proposed letter to Mr. B (a Muslim). I am thinking that he and I (a Christian) and an atheist should set out on a journey together, somewhat as though we were comrades and enjoyed each other's company, and see together how far we can go in discerning a course of action regarding the taking on of a belief as a faith. I think our commonality must be, as fellow humans, that we respect each other, and perhaps even love each other, and that all thinking of God or anything at all begins by the impulses of our senses. Right reason prescribes the tools of experience and science. Right reason also prescribes right conduct, and it is that which has actually been presupposed all along, namely we are brothers, for we are human. We are human and we are rational, and it is from that plateau that we must stand together, and take our survey together.

Now what, I think, this means is that right reason will also tell us the way in which God, if there be a God, would communicate with humans. It would not be by signs, for demons can perform great signs, it would be with regard to that fundamental principle we have as humans, the three of us together, that we are brothers, that we are compelled by the moral law of brotherhood to look out for each other, and never to cause him harm.

Now in the course of our travels one of us becomes a Christian (albeit a queer sort of Christian), the other a Muslim (a family man) and the other an atheist.

What will resonate with the human being, due to his very make up as a rational (right thinking) man will be a call to brotherhood, no matter how actually expressed, e.g., honoring parents, and it is this deep resonance that connects a person to a brotherhood. However I think this universal is restricted into groupings, e.g., Christians, Muslims, atheists.

Now I think the first task, if I may take the lead, but which I think surely must be common, namely that there is a God in the first place in order for religion to make sense in the first place.

We know through right reason what the moral law is, before we ever come to religion, for we respect this moral law and break it only reluctantly and with pain. This pain is the respect we have for it. We know it is right and that we are bound to do what is right.

Now here is the tricky part, for now we want to take an absolute which we recognize as an absolute and then now later are coming to consider the necessary conditions in order for such an absolute to make any sense. Now in fact it does make sense (through respect) and so then since it does make sense it also follows that God exists, for it God did not exist, it wouldn't make any sense. And so since the atheist knows that the moral law is absolute and may under no condition be violated, it follows that he necessarily presupposes God, for he could not know that of the moral law and that of the non-existence of God, for God is the sense of the moral law. Without God it simply does not make any sense. But it does make sense. It makes sense before God, but not without God. And so therefore we have simply to presuppose the existence of God as a given. And so atheism is out. They need be made to think consistently with themselves and either admit in all sincerity that all restraints were off (as the Joker in Batman).

Next I suppose it would be my turn, since the Mr B came later, although perhaps there is a dialectic advantage somehow in being first or second. Perhaps, if the first speaker were totally convincing then all three would have joined up with his idea. And so I shall take the place of the one to speak first. If I speak convincingly then it will be impossible for them to then go from that to something which may also be convincing if only someone were able to think in terms of that something for a change.

And so I might proceed in this way. We have a problem. We are all tempted to sell each other out if the price were right. Now we don't realize this at first, and at first we are brothers without distinction, but then we take notice of the possibility of gain at the expense of another. This is our evil, that we are ever even willing to conceive of selling out a brother for gain, indeed for any reason at all. That we even consider it. We do this and so we know that others do it too, and so we must become wary, for the sake of survival, of how someone might just decide that it were advantage to him to take advantage of one of his brothers. He would be ashamed to think that of himself, that he could betray a brother. We become willing to sell each other out in the market because we all know that each is thinking of the same calculus, for he has to, for self protection.

This is a deep seated evil which plagues the human race. It is a fact. But it is also a fact that this is a voluntary evil, for we know that we should not act in this way, and do so only because we have to do so for survival.

Without this evil in our predisposition we would never even consider an immoral act, against a brother, for it would make no sense to talk about something which were impossible even to consider. How can you do something which requires considering but which is impossible to consider for it is an impossible act for freedom. We will not do something before considering it and alternatives. That's what freedom is all about.

But while we most certainly would have been made by God as creatures of such moral goodness and purity, and so we can safely assume there has been a fall, which we picture to ourselves by an alien force (a demon), but which we also cannot understanding better with regard to reality. I may be assuming too much. I am simply depicting the appearance to human sight of infinite glory, which is always limited in human eye.

We must believe in a fall, for otherwise that would mean that we were evil as a species, and that would be us on the same par with demons, and where the three human beings are no longer brothers but objects to be bought and sold (including perhaps also self enslavement). Surely the restless yearning for justice and truth proves an innate goodness which belongs to us as a species and which is merely moored in mud. We know that we ought to treat each of this little trinity of brothers as a brother and not to seek to take advantage of each other and bring a halt to the striving of moral purity in all dealings among the three.

And so we know that we are in a state of evil which is self perpetuating and we know that we could stop taking part in this evil if we simply wanted to, and that we could become good people, if we wanted to. And so it seems as though there is a duty among all the three brothers to look out for each other.

Now I want to switch gears and skip the Christian take on things, and look rather at how the Muslim deals with things.

There is no evil in man, but merely confusion as to the right one of two paths. One path leads to happiness and the other to pain. It seems that there is a God named Allah who does what he wants to do. I think of the Joker of Batman as a possible person who does what he wants to do. Allah does whatever he wants to do and he has created a paradise and a hell and is now in process of filling his paradises and his hells. that's what we are here for, to provide fodder for his paradises and his hells. Now if you don't do what he says, you go to hell, and so that's important, for there are so many places in paradise and so many slots in hell, from two to one. One has two slots and one has one. And they are waiting on us to be filled. Now here is what you must do in order to avoid hell. You must do A, B and C. Let's make this clear. If you don't do A, B and C, then you go to hell for sure. And so you have to do A, B and C whether you want to or not. It's better to want to. Now in addition if you comply with D and E you get a greater reward. Oh, you get a reward if you do A, B and C, and you will be happy, for you have avoided hell. But in order to great a greater happiness you also have to do D and E. And perhaps the greatest regard is F.

Now I, my two brothers, intend to comply with A through E and perhaps even F, and one of these, B perhaps, is that I tell you of this way to paradise and to hell. But I don't worry about telling you for I intend to comply and so I am going to be one of the ones going to Paradise, and you two have to fight it out in fervor to see which of you is being destined for hell and which for paradise.

Look brotherhood is nice and all that, but this is eternal happiness, my brothers, and there is only so much of it available and I am going to get my share and nothing is going to count me out. This is every man for himself. There is no way that I can influence Allah to let you in too (except possibly if I do F). This is each man for himself, and I am not going to play the fool and do anything less than perfection in my submission, and so I know I am going to get any prizes that are available.

And so the Muslim looks at the evil of the species and says: too bad. I didn't make this world or its rules. Allah does that. All I can do is to do everything I can to make sure that I am one of the ones who gets the big happiness and certainly not one of those who is destined to hell.*

[* Could that be the thinking of the suicide bomber? "If I am called to kill a bunch of innocent children (so-called) then obviously these are people who are destined for hell anyway, and so can hardly be of much concern of Allah. Right? Think about it! Big deal."]

"While I love each of you dearly, my two brothers, I would not hesitate to slay you if I were told to do so by Allah in a convincing way. Would you? If Allah himself told you to kill your innocent child, would you refuse? Would you be an idiot? Then you would deserve hell. Allah will make sure the innocent have paradise and only the guilty have hell. You don' need to worry about that stuff.. I am going to do as I sincerely believe that I am told, or I am going to die trying, but, buster, I am going after the happiness to the very best of by ability. I am not an idiot."

"No one can help another here. This is each man on his own. He stands on his own feet alone. Either he was submissive and did as he told, or else he was impudent and acted the fool. It's all up to you. No one can help you. You are the only person who can help you and you have to do it now, before the day of delight of Allah, when he will finally people his paradise and his hell."

Speaking now as a Christian I would hope that the three men would have become convinced of the natural evil and the redemption of the spirit which is available to all, and where hell is nothing but a separation from God and Life, and where none are destined except to a use of their own freedom. Having arisen from the natural evil that flesh is heir to, the Christian eschews the natural evil of the flesh society (of exploitation), and thus enters into an eternal bond with all those of a like mind, it may be one, it can be two and it can be all three. Then the Christian would argue: heaven has at least one in it, myself, and I will never be alone for I will be with God if with no one else, and so I invite both of you to join me in a world where there is brotherhood as an absolute law and above all market, and where no one ever has a reason to sell out his brother. For that is never in the cards. For this is a brotherhood, a all for one and a one for all. And not like you were being told to do so (which, I think, may be C), but because you want to, because you are a brotherhood. Everybody counts. a sort of trinity.

In the heaven the Christian brother will find the communion with God as a moral psyche where kindreds are drawn together. A moral physics. In hell the brothers will find isolation, for no one in hell can tolerate a different spirit than their own. And so there is really no comparison at all. In Christ one obtains communion with God and with other people, while apart from Christ each opts to fend for himself alone in a struggle for more at the expense of others in the realm called hell.

The only way to avoid this outcome is to become a Christian and putting on the mantle of "we are in this all together." For if a person should opt for the Muslim conception as presented here (and this is only my own, honest look at Islam at this particular point in time), then indeed he strikes out on his own and will have to fend for himself and will end up living by himself, for no one will be able to stand such a conceit as he is himself.

What the Christian then provides to the trinitarian brotherhood is a continuing sense of brotherhood without the need for extortion. For every person will choose, one way or the other, what path he shall take, whether together or alone. In Christ we have communion with God, and nothing else can compare to the communion with God.

I honestly think that the decisions the three brothers are going to make is something like this: we know (from above) that we cannot be atheists, and so it is either Christian or Muslim. If you choose Christian, the atheist brother will be changed, but he will not lose his freedom. If you choose Muslim, the atheist brother will be changed by a self submission and de facto self imposed tutelage in his quest to be one of those destined for happiness, making sure that no other thoughts were ever seriously considered by the Muslim.

The Christian then is the free man, making his own way in accordance with his own assumed code of moral conduct. The slave is told what to do and how to do it and when to do it, and a good slave is like a trained dog who does his master's bidding with enthusiasm.