If the heavens, stripped of his noble imprint,
Could ever cease to attest to his being,
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.
Let the wise man announce him and kings fear him.
Kings, if you oppress me, if your eminencies disdain
The tears of the innocent that you cause to flow,
My avenger is in the heavens: learn to tremble.
Such, at least, is the fruit of a useful creed.
-Voltaire [1768], Epître à l'auteur du livre des Trois imposteurs In this poem, Voltaire develops in a general way the idea that the existence of God (or the belief therein) helps establish social order.
History provides us with a story that in many ways complements our need for God. Tyrants rise and fall in a historical cycle as the sun rises for a time but always sets in the end of a continual rotation. The need for God is evident even in the tyrant that elevates themselves to force others to see them as the God of their life.
Without God it would be necessary to invent God. Oh how often we have seen this.
statue of Nebuchadnezzar
statue of caesar augustus
Statue of Stalin
Statue de Mao de Président, Shenyang, China
The toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Firdos Square in Baghdad shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Soldiers salute bronze statues of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il at the Mansudae Grand Monument in Pyongyang, North Korea
Even the secular or atheistic rulers understand on a simplistic level that a higher than human status is good for sustaining a civilized or civil obedient society.
Time eventually catches up to them all showing how mortal they are. They die by old age or killed off by the next power hungry utopian dreamer. A utopia that if only we dwell in eugenics, slavery, socialism, communism, Marxism, euthanasia, gene mutations, the conqueror of weak nations etc, etc. By any means necessary if we just push past the inner morality one small step and we can achieve a perfect world where all of lifes issues will fade away. Just sacrifice now, rewrite the history books, and burn all counter beliefs so that generations to come will only know of this utopian dream.
The idolization of self has left so much bloodshed, heartache, hunger, thirst, disease and all with the promise in the beginning if you bow down to me, all your worries and fears will be taken care of.
Even the ruler knows a world without a morality elevated above men becomes in the eyes of the people... meaningless. Just the opinion of a angry tyrant. Even Nietzsche a atheist feared the idea that science in his mind had killed God as in proved God false. He feared that without Christianity the world would become dark and hopeless.
Whither is God?" he cried; "I will tell you. We have killed him -- you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us?
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Parable of the Madman (1882)
One day every statue will crumble, and every knee shall bow to the one and only Almighty God. Every sculptor will acknowledge the one who sculpted the universe. Chiseled from the nothingness of nothing. No more will evil men abuse the need for God as in replicating the results of worship. A true utopia will be brought forth by the only perfect ruler who can achieve this great achievement. No more will the blood be spilled of our boys sent to war, no more will the mother have to raise her child alone, no more will people go hungry, no more thirst, pain, tears, sickness, decay. God Oh Almighty God crush the statues of the world. Crush the idols. The crush the self made gods with the lower g. No more will anyone ever be forced to bow to such idols. No more will they die for refusing. Your laws are supreme and your commandments are good. Universally fixed and self evident to all so that no human can escape the fact we need something above ourselves to give us hope, a dream, a future, and above all else a reason to live. Amen!
-
1
- Show all