The Gospel According to Ginger – 16
Mesmerised, the audience in the park and millions more at home watched at the video we had—unbeknownst to His Holiness—recorded when the Pope and Julian had sat down to have dinner. We had two cameras. One was hidden in a brooch on Mrs Monk’s blouse; the other was in Peter Tholen’s sunglasses. They didn’t carry any recording equipment, though. The audio and video signals were transmitted directly to our truck that was parked just outside the walls of Vatican City.
During that dinner, the Pope had made Julian an offer. He wanted to give Julian his own daily TV show so that he could spread the word of God’s eternal, unconditional love among the youth of the world.
“And why would I want to do that?” Julian asked.
“I like you,” the Pope said and smiled. “I think you have great potential, and a lot of your thoughts go in the right direction. What you have yet to realize, though, is that the message of love, compassion, and kindness that you have been preaching in recent weeks and months is the message of God. All love comes from God.”
Julian laughed. “I don’t know if you’ve read the same book as I have, but to me your God seems like a rather grumpy, begrudging, and vengeful character.”
“It’s tough love, but it is love. Keep in mind that He let us kill His only son, only so that He could forgive us. That, my dear young friend, is infinite love.”
“That, my dear old friend, is infinite creepiness. He let us kill Jesus, and then He forgave us not because He’s such a nice, compassionate guy. He did it to make people feel indebted to Him and to make them feel eternally guilty. It was a setup, and I think people need to know the truth about that.”
The Pope smiled. “I’m sorry that I have to go all Jack Nicholson on you here, but people can’t handle the truth.”
“You should give them more credit. The truth will set people free.”
“Exactly!” the Pope exclaimed triumphantly. “That is exactly my point. People can’t handle freedom. Well, most of them can’t anyways. I’m sure you can, and a few other people as well. But the vast majority of people are mindless sheep that need to be herded and—occasionally—culled. Why do you think the 23rd psalm starts with the words ‘the Lord is my shepherd’? That is not a coincidence, my friend. Man can never be free. Myths are necessary to give ordinary people a sense of meaning and purpose. Do you know what the biggest challenge is that the world is facing in the 21st century? It’s not poverty, or hunger, or disease. It’s crowd control. Karl Marx called religion the opium of the people. I call it crowd control. The so-called opium of the people is not some fancy kind of recreational drug designed to expand people’s minds and to broaden their horizon. It’s a sedative. It’s supposed to make people numb to the pain of their existence, and to give them an illusion of hope. If people were aware of that pain and of the vanity of their hope, if they were allowed to grasp the pointlessness of their existence, the world would descend into chaos and mayhem.”
“Wow,” Julian said. “You really don’t have a lot of faith in the human race, do you?”
“Let me tell you something, Julian,” the Pope said. “I appreciate and admire your youthful idealism and your belief that man is inherently good, I really do. But once you grow older, you will change your mind.”
“All right, so you don’t believe in man,” Julian said. “But do you really believe in God, though?”
“What, do you think I’m stupid?” The Pope laughed roaringly. “Of course I believe in God. I believe that man created God in his image in order to keep his fellow men under control. And I believe that you, my dear young friend, are intelligent enough to understand that for all the reasons I’ve mentioned, that misguided belief in God is good and necessary.”
Julian shook his head very slowly. “Why are you so afraid? Why are you so afraid of a world without God?”
“Because I have seen how the world works,” the Pope said solemnly. “And believe you me, once you have seen it all, once you begin to grasp the scope of all the cruelty, all the atrocities that man is not only capable of but all too often even willing to inflict on his fellow men, you will be afraid, too. Very afraid.”
That’s where the video ended.
Julian was still standing in the middle of the stage, overlooking the crowd. There were a few scattered boos and catcalls, but most people in the audience were too aghast, too stunned to say anything.
So Julian started to speak.
The Sermon in the Park
“Everybody’s scared. You, me, everyone I know, and everyone you know. And those who claim not to be scared are the scaredest of them all. Everybody’s scared.
“As humans, it is in our nature to feel a deep-rooted fear of insignificance, of purposelessness. It is also in our nature to seek answers to every question we can possibly imagine, because having answers gives us the illusion of safety, even if the answers we have aren’t always the right answers. Knowledge is power, as they say, and therefore the lack of knowledge comes with a feeling of helplessness, confusion, and fear. Nobody likes feeling helpless or confused. I don’t, you don’t, and neither did our ancestors in the African savannahs a hundred or two hundred thousand years ago.
“Imagine them, how they were sitting around a warming campfire at night, under a vast dome sprinkled with tens of thousands of stars. Imagine how they must have looked up at that stunning, majestic sight of the unpolluted night sky; how they must have marvelled at its beauty; how they must have wondered what those tiny specs of flickering light were and what their purpose might be. They didn’t know that those stars were giant furnaces, like our own sun, that in their centres forged the very elements that one day in the distant future when the sun, the Earth, and all life on Earth will long have ceased to exist, will give rise to new solar systems, new planets, and possibly new forms of life that we aren’t even able to imagine. Our ancestors, of course, didn’t know any of that. They had no way of knowing it. All they knew was that every living thing one day must die.
“What a scary thought, knowing that one has to die one day but not knowing when or how. These were men, women, and children like us, filled with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and hungry for the truth. Alas, what they were lacking were the right tools to find that knowledge, to comprehend that truth. They had no telescopes, no microscopes, no x-ray machines, no mass spectrometers, no computers, no Internet, no Google, no Wikipedia. How could we blame them for the fact that when they were asking themselves these questions, many of which we are still asking ourselves today, they didn’t immediately come up with the right answers? How could we blame them for picking the easy answer? God made it all. The end. How could we blame them for inventing religion?
“Religion was our first version of the truth. It was our first attempt as a species to explain the world when we didn’t know anything. We didn’t know that the Earth was a planet revolving around the sun, that the sun was just one of billions of stars in the Milky Way, or that the Milky Way was just one of billions of galaxies in the universe. We didn’t know about the laws of physics. We didn’t know about chemistry. We thought that disease came from curses or witches. We were scared, and in order to alleviate our fear, we tried to explain the universe in a way that would calm us and comfort us and soothe us and give us hope that in the end everything would be okay; that we were not alone; that there was someone out there who loved us and who was looking out for us; that death was not the end.
“We should all give our ancestors some credit for at least trying to make sense of it all and to explain the world in the only way they knew how. It as a valid attempt at its time, but today we know that they were scared; they were whistling in the dark.
“Everybody’s scared. People do the craziest things when they’re scared. Some become angry. Some become violent. Some become outright crazy. Some become all of these things. People will do anything to distract themselves from their fears.
“Thousands of years on, we are still trying to come
to terms with the effects of having eaten from the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. We became aware of ourselves. We realized that we all have to die one day. But does it mean we are all doomed? Does it mean that all our lives have to be endless toil and suffering? Does it mean we should seek our way back to paradise, back to the Garden of Eden before the fall, back to a state of blissful ignorance? Closing our eyes will not make reality go away.
“Too many of us are still scared, still whistling in the dark, still trying to blind out reality for the fear that they may not like it or not comprehend it. But there is a pathway to comprehension, and that pathway is education. Knowledge is power, and if you’re shying away from learning because whatever it is you are learning might frighten you, you’re doing it wrong. Knowledge is supposed to empower, not inhibit; to encourage, not to intimidate; to comfort, not to petrify. But beware of the dangers and pitfalls of limiting yourself to just one source. No single book, no single documentary on the Discovery Channel, no single article in National Geographic is ever going to give you the full picture. Their job is to dumb things down for the public in order to reach the biggest possible audience. All they can do is bait you, get you hooked and interested, and inspire you to do more research, to look at other sources, to sort out all the evidence, to look at it and analyze it and come to your own conclusions. Go out and learn, explore, analyze, contribute to the world’s knowledge and move us forward towards a better future. That’s all I ask of anyone who’s willing to listen. No more, but certainly no less.
“I think it’s time for us to stop whistling in the dark. Let us stop trying to distract ourselves from what is there for everyone to see, what is undeniable, what is unavoidable. Let us grab the torches of wisdom and shine their lights onto reality so that everyone may see. Only if we care to look, we will see; only if we see, we will be able to understand; and only if we understand, we will be able to determine where we have come from and where we ought to be going. Let us not seek to remain in the dark and hope that somehow some benevolent divinity will come and guide us to the light. We’re on our own.
“I know that sounds very scary, but being on our own doesn’t mean we’re alone. None of us are alone. We all have each other. Let us work together towards a better future for all. Let us be strong; let us be courageous; let us be daring. And if we really must believe in something, then let us believe in ourselves and in our ability to find our own way because that’s what we have already been doing since the beginning of time.
“Let me briefly—if I may—address your parents, or indeed those of you who already are parents. If you’re a parent, you want to make sure that your children are ready for the future and for a life that will continue long after you’re gone. You want them to be prepared for life in a world that to a great extent you know nothing about. The best way to prepare them for that life is to love them unconditionally. To love unconditionally is not an easy thing to do, and many of us are struggling and will forever struggle to do it. One way to do it is to let go. Letting go means to have faith in the abilities of your children to deal with life in their own individual way, and to trust them to do what they think is right for them. You can try to influence the outcome of your offspring by giving them the best education possible. You can try to control the kind of information they’re being fed and the experiences they get to make, but in the end you have to let them do what they do, what they want to do, what they need to do, and accept the result even if it’s not what you expected or wished for. Have faith in your children, and most importantly: listen to their questions, and take those questions seriously, because those questions are the ones that are most likely to take us forward. It’s our children who will have to live in this world long after we’re gone. Let us not inhibit them with superstition and with fear. Let us instead encourage them to use knowledge, reason, compassion, and understanding, to lead us towards a better future.
“Faith is defined as belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence. According to that definition, I am proud to say that I do have faith. I have faith in humanity. I have faith that together we can cure disease, that we will end poverty and hunger and suffering. Deep down inside I’m a believer. I believe that we as humans are ultimately good.
“We have it in our hands. We can work together to make the world a better, friendlier place. Together we can build a better world and a better future for ourselves, for our children, and for all of mankind. Let our courage, our hopes, and our dreams be a beacon in the night for ourselves and our children and our children’s children, so that one day all mankind may live in peace and harmony with itself and with all of creation. Let us be reasonable. Let us shine the light of knowledge and wisdom, and lead the way. We can do this. We have already done it. Look how far we have come since those early days in the savannahs of Africa. Let us not stop here; let us not stop now; and let those who want to hold us back not hold us back.
“Religion is the fight for people’s right to be ignorant; for their right to not having to know but to accept certain beliefs that have no solid base in reality. And it’s not helping. If we don’t end religion, religion will end us. Too many people still believe in a divine creator who made it all, a god who created the heavens and the Earth, us and all life we see around us. But I ask you, where is the magic, where is the grandeur in that view of life? What is special about being the creation of a supernatural entity, an omnipotent being that can create anything and everything it wants? Why would you feel special about having been created by someone who can create anything, especially if you think about all your own faults and deficiencies, all the pain and the suffering in the world, the disease, the disasters, the hunger, the pain, the atrocities, the injustice. Wouldn’t you think that an omnipotent being ought to have done a better job? Wouldn’t you think that if our planet Earth really were unique in the universe, our divine maker would have put in more of an effort?
“I think it is time for us to rid ourselves of our childish belief of a kind old man in the sky. Not even the Pope believes in God anymore, so why should you? If there really were an omnipotent God who could create anything he wanted, wouldn’t you think that He’d create a universe that’s teeming with life? Why would you think He’d just create our planet, our species with all its intrinsic faults and insufficiencies, and then just sit back all complacent and self-satisfied and say, ‘Yeah, that’ll do.’ Wouldn’t He try again and again and again to deliver a better, a more refined, a more perfect product? If He exists, He clearly doesn’t have that sense of tenacity and perfectionism, because if He did, wouldn’t we be able to find life not only here on our own planet but on every planet in every star system in the universe?
“Look, on the other hand, at a universe that was created by the laws of physics, a universe that abides only by the laws of nature. It’s a vast place. It’s a cold place. And it’s not a friendly place. But that is not to say it’s an unfriendly place either. It just means that the universe doesn’t give a damn one way or the other. The universe doesn’t mind, because it doesn’t have a mind. Now imagine that in this vast, cold, indifferent universe the laws of nature inadvertently conspired to give rise to our solar system, our beautiful planet Earth with all its beauty and diversity of tens of millions of species of life. There is grandeur, there is magic for you right there. I know and you know that it’s not perfect, at least not as perfect as you’d expect it to be if it had been created by an omnipotent, benevolent God. It is far from perfect. It’s a cruel world in a cold universe. But to think that in this vast and cold and indifferent universe the laws of nature would allow for the emergence of a place like planet Earth and a species like ours that is capable of love and kindness, of compassion and of reason … isn’t that the greatest miracle of all? Doesn’t that make you feel special? Doesn’t that make you want to cherish, embrace, and celebrate life even more? Doesn’t that make you want to give your fellow human beings a pat on the back and say, ‘We’ve done well’?
“L
ife on Earth has come out of dust, and one day it will return to dust, but look at all the things we have accomplished in between and all the things we can yet accomplish in the future. Doesn’t it make you appreciate the miracle that is nature, and doesn’t it make you want to be a better person for the sake of advancing the very miracle that we all are a part of?
“I think it is time for us all to grow up and take responsibility; responsibility for our actions and for our beliefs. It’s time for us to realize who and what we are; to come to terms with our shortcomings. But let us not despair. Let us not give in to our fears and superstitions. Let us not seek to blame each other for the state of the world. Let us embrace each other, let us embrace our differences, our mistakes, and our potential to both fail and succeed. Let us be brothers and sisters, united in our fight for a world in which each and every individual has the chance to live a life of freedom, happiness, and prosperity. Let us appreciate how unique, how lucky we are. There may be 100 billion stars in our galaxy, and there may be 100 billion galaxies in the universe. But as of now we know of only one star system that has brought forth life. And just look at the extraordinary amount, complexity, and beauty of life that we can see all around us on our beautiful planet Earth, on this pale blue dot, this speck of dust in a vast universe.
“I for one am proud to be a part of that miracle, and not a single day goes by where I do not feel grateful to my ancestors and their ancestors and their ancestors for everything they had to go through—unwittingly and unwillingly; their toils and their hardships; the challenges they had to face and the obstacles they had to overcome—to endow me with the incredible opportunity, the immeasurable pleasure, and the indescribable honour to be a part of the great miracle that we call life.
“So I would like to invite you all to join me. Let reason lead to understanding, and let understanding lead to a better, happier, and more fulfilled life for all of us. Our journey has only just begun. Come with me.
Idolism Page 30