When I come to my own beliefs, I find myself quite unable to discern any purpose in the
universe, and still more unable to wish to discern one. Those who imagine that the course
of cosmic evolution is slowly leading up to some consummation pleasing to the Creator,
are logically committed (though they usually fail to realize this) to the view that the
Creator is not omnipotent or, if He were omnipotent, He could decree the end without troubling
about means. I do not myself perceive any consummation toward which the universe is
tending. According to the physicists, energy will be gradually more evenly distributed
and as it becomes more evenly distributed it will become more useless. Gradually everything
that we find interesting or pleasant, such as life and light, will disappear -- so, at
least, they assure us. The cosmos is like a theatre in which just once a play is performed,
but, after the curtain falls, the theatre is left cold and empty until it sinks in ruins.
I do not mean to assert with any positiveness that this is the case. That would be to assume
more knowledge than we possess. I say only that it is what is probable on present evidence.
I will not assert dogmatically that there is no cosmic purpose, but I will say that
there is no shred of evidence in favor of there being one.
I will say further that, if there be a purpose and if this purpose is that of an Omnipotent
Creator, then that Creator, so far from being loving and kind, as we are told, must be of
a degree of wickedness scarcely conceivable. A man who commits a murder is considered to
be a bad man. An Omnipotent Deity, if there be one, murders everybody. A man who willingly
afflicted another with cancer would be considered a fiend. But the Creator, if He exists, afflicts
many thousands every year with this dreadful disease. A man who, having the knowledge and
power required to make his children good, chose instead to make them bad, would be viewed
with execration. But God, if He exists, makes this choice in the case of very many of His
children. The whole conception of an omnipotent God whom it is impious to criticize, could
only have arisen under oriental despotisms where sovereigns, in spite of capricious cruelties,
continued to enjoy the adulation of their slaves. It is the psychology appropriate to
this outmoded political system which belatedly survives in orthodox theology.
......
Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received
dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. If I
were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about
the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided
I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful
telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved,
it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly
be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed
in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds
of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity
and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age
or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time. It is customary to suppose that, if a belief
is widespread, there must be something reasonable about it. I do not think this view can be
held by anyone who has studied history. Practically all the beliefs of savages are absurd. In
early civilizations there may be as much as one percent for which there is something to
be said. In our own day.... But at this point I must be careful. We all know that there
are absurd beliefs in Soviet Russia. If we are Protestants, we know that there are absurd
beliefs among Catholics. If we are Catholics, we know that there are absurd beliefs among
Protestants. If we are Conservatives, we are amazed by the superstitions to be found in
the Labour Party. If we are Socialists, we are aghast at the credulity of Conservatives.
I do not know, dear reader, what your beliefs may be, but whatever they may be, you must
concede that nine-tenths of the beliefs of nine-tenths of mankind are totally irrational.
The beliefs in question are, of course, those which you do not hold. I cannot, therefore,
think it presumptuous to doubt something which has long been held to be true, especially
when this opinion has only prevailed in certain geographical regions, as is the case with
all theological opinions.
My conclusion is that there is no reason to believe any of the dogmas of traditional theology
and, further, that there is no reason to wish that they were true. Man, in so far as he
is not subject to natural forces, is free to work out his own destiny. The responsibility
is his, and so is the opportunity.