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Feb. 9, 2007 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
39:05
640 Slugging God

Should we care that God does not exist?

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Good morning, everybody.
Hope you're doing well. It's Steph. It is the 9th of February, Friday.
Time for the weekend with the wife.
How lovely. And it's 2007.
And it's time for me to oh-so-engagingly encourage listenership by attacking a listener.
I'm really, really sorry, and I hope it doesn't come across that way.
But... I wanted to provide a perspective to a very talented and intelligent recent joiner to the board, who I will ascribe with the generalized, overgeneralized nomenclature,
who has been putting up a I can't really say spirited defense, but I would certainly say impressive, in many ways, defense of indifference?
Maybe that's the word.
Maybe it's not. But in a conversation that's been going on about religion...
Bab has been taking the position that you really don't need to think about it too much.
I mean, if you're really an atheist, then you don't really need to think about the existence of God too, too much, of course, because you don't sit there angrily or passionately denouncing the existence of something like Zeus or hobgoblins or anything like that.
So, it's not something that we should really spend too much time and effort on, but we should focus instead on other things.
Or, as he puts it, surely the logical principle of parsinomy and the application of Occam's razor to these sorts of situations makes a natural disbelief in God logical.
Why would it be fanatical?
It is not so much...
Absolute belief. You don't fanatically not believe in the boogeyman, you just know it is a fantasy.
I don't spend much time thinking about the lack of existence of the X-Men either, beyond their media representation.
And I totally understand this viewpoint, at least I think I do, and I totally sympathize with it.
And to some degree, there's a related, at least in my mind, related group or person who's talking about We're good to go.
The reason for me, I'm sort of going to share my reasons and then share what it looks like to me when I read this kind of stuff.
What do you care about what it looks like to me?
Well, you don't, of course, right?
I'm hoping to make a case for something that's going to alter behavior on your part, or at least perspective on your part.
So I'll tell you why I pour an enormous amount of emotional and intellectual energy into opposing, attacking, undermining, pulling down the Christian God or other gods and why that's an important part for me.
Now, what I posted back was something that you, I'm sure, heard me say before, shockingly, which is that The X-Men and the Boogeyman, those comic books, aren't read by people who believe that they're true.
And the most moral and positive lesson that people can get out of that, if they're consistent, is that I should be put to death.
So it's a little bit different than the Boogeyman.
The Boogeyman threatens nothing to do with me.
And currently, of course, the reason that I involve myself in other people's beliefs...
It's because of democracy.
I mean, if it was a totally free society, I would still probably make the case, but it wouldn't be quite as passionate.
It wouldn't be quite as extended.
But because people who have faith have control over nuclear weapons, either directly through being in politics or indirectly through voting, they have quite a lot of power over my life.
So, to me, it's not just a matter of the X-Men or the Boogeyman.
I don't believe it.
It's nonsense, but it's virulent and powerful.
And the fact that a lot of Christians believe that Israel has to exist in order to fulfill the prophecy of the end times, and they believe that the world is going to end within the next 50 years.
I mean, this kind of incredibly dangerous fantasies Psychosis, really.
It's a social psychosis.
It's very dangerous to my interests, to my self-interest.
If I want to get rid of the state, then I have to get rid of God, and I have to get rid of all institutions where virtue is perceived to be innate.
God is good no matter what he does.
My country, right or wrong.
But she's your mother.
You have to love her.
You have to see her. All of these...
I have to peel away...
Virtue from institutions.
Why? Because when virtue is associated or embedded within institutions, it ceases to become virtue and it actually becomes corruption.
If you are loyal not to what is good, and I'm not saying this about any listener, if you're loyal not to what is good, but to habitual institutions, then your desire for morality is being turned toward evil, toward corruption.
And so I need to continually peel back The idea that virtue is anything other than virtue.
Right? That virtue is anything other than virtue.
Virtue is not your family.
Virtue is not your state. Virtue is not your country.
Virtue is not your class or your race.
Virtue is not money.
Virtue is not power.
Virtue is not God.
Virtue is not obedience to religion or obedience to God.
Virtue is not being a soldier.
Virtue is none of these things.
The only thing that virtue is, I'm sure you get where this is going.
So that's one of the reasons that I oppose God so strongly.
It's not a reaction formation to my doubt about whether God exists.
I really don't have any doubt whatsoever that God is a complete fantasy.
So it's not, for me, a reaction formation to my own doubt.
I am not hostile to God because I secretly wish God loved me, but do not feel His presence.
I'm not saying anyone's saying that, but just in case it's crossed your mind.
But I dislike the idea of God because it erodes people's integrity, it erodes people's connection with other people, it promotes psychotic fantasy, and those people, who I would have sympathy for in any situation,
because religion, of course, is something which was inflicted upon them as children, I would have sympathy for these people no matter what, but the fact that they have access to nuclear weapons, George Bush and Tony Blair, both fundamentalist Christians, access to nuclear weapons, getting hundreds of thousands of people killed, provoking hornets' nests of terrorists who are going to want to strike back at some point, which might take down myself or my wife or my friends or even one single sweet listener of Freedom Aid Radio.
So I can't oppose the nuclear weapons.
I can't oppose the army.
I can't oppose the bullets.
But I can oppose the ideas that makes these weapons so dangerous.
I can oppose the ideas that make these weapons so dangerous.
So I hope that this helps you to understand why it is that I fight against religion.
I would dearly love to inhale something vaguely herb-like and rise above the fray and feel that there was no need for me to descend into such petty wrangling.
I would really like to withdraw from the fray and not feel that I must take up arms against this greatest devil, which is God.
I would dearly love for that to not be something that I had to do.
Because I would much rather...
I'm the kind of doctor who would much rather live in a world of no sickness, right?
I mean, I'd rather put myself out of business.
But... That's not my goal at the moment.
That's not, and I've talked about this before, so please don't think that it's some sort of heavy obligation.
It is something that makes me very proud of what it is that I do with my time, and it makes me very happy, and most importantly, it makes my marriage great.
So don't worry about me.
It's not a burden.
But I'd rather I didn't have to do it, if that makes any sense, right?
I mean, if you're moving to a new house, right, you don't want to move, but it's not a sacrifice to pack up everything and move at all, right?
So don't worry about me.
I'm fine, as far as that goes.
And of course, you're not worrying about me.
I mean, obviously I've not expressed any Significant discomfort and some sadness with the idea, but not significant discomfort.
So all the people who wrote to me to tell me that, no, don't worry, I'm not obligated to do anything.
They're not talking to me.
They're really talking to themselves and saying, don't worry, I'm not obligated to do anything because my dedication to this course, they feel as a pressure against their own conscience.
And that's something we can talk about another time.
But I would say that if you do feel Pressure against your conscience for my dedication to this cause, then I would suggest that you explore that and not dismiss it by saying, oh, I don't have any, no positive obligations, I don't have to do anything.
Once you learn about introspection, once you learn about how to listen to yourself, then you will view promptings such as this as invitations, not as attacks.
Not for me, from your own conscience, right?
So, if when I say I'm going to I'm going to graduate to working on this full-time because that's the most important thing that I can do with my time and my life.
And if you feel uneasy and feel that, well, that's sort of an implicit demand upon me, which I resent, or whatever you feel, waving that feeling away is not a good idea.
Absolutely and totally believe me when I tell you this.
If you believe nothing else of anything that I say, Please believe me that waving that feeling away is not a good idea.
It doesn't mean that you have to do anything.
It doesn't mean that you have to do anything.
But you have to listen to that idea.
You have to let it into your heart.
You have to let the discomforts into your heart because they're here to help you.
They're not here to hurt you.
They're here to help you. And if you wish them away, well, they don't come out as pleasant the next time.
So that's sort of the first reason, which is that the Christians have an enormous amount of power, and the Muslims have an enormous amount of power, and the Jews have an enormous amount of power.
Not so much worried about the Jainists or the Zoroastrians, but they're on the list.
Don't worry. So that's one reason.
Now the second reason, which to me I think is even more important in terms of what matters to me personally, and again this doesn't mean anything to you, but the second reason Let me take you on a story.
So I'm walking down a street, and there is a large trapdoor on the ground.
And I hear people milling around.
Under the trapdoor, I hear the murmuring of voices, I hear the clink of glasses perhaps, the tittle-tattle of cutlery.
And I'm sort of curious because I don't see really any glass or windows or air holes or steps or anything like that.
So I kneel down beside the trap door and I say, Hey, is everything okay?
And they're like, No, we're fine.
Because I don't quite understand why you're under the ground.
And they say, Well, we're under the ground because there's an enormous pile of rocks On top of our trapdoor.
And those rocks are placed there by Gilgamesh, the perfect deity.
And it's evil for us to try and get out because we're being punished for the sins of our fathers.
Okay, it may take a little while.
It would take 12 episodes of Lost to get that across.
But let's just say that that's what I hear back.
And I say, well, have you ever tried to get out?
And they say, well, no, of course not, because it's evil to try to get out.
And plus, there's all these rocks.
So, even if we wanted to, it wouldn't make any difference.
There's way too many rocks for us, even if we combine, to push together to get out.
And... I then say, well...
There are no rocks up here.
And then there's a long pause, right?
There's a long pause.
And then they come back and they say, get thee behind me, dark spirit of the underworld.
You are evil for telling us that there are no rocks.
And I say, okay, well, I don't mean to startle you, and of course you've been living in the dark under the ground for many generations, so I'm not going to try and shock you, but I'm telling you, up here, there's no rocks, it's beautiful, it's sunny, it's warm, and there's a handle, and there's no lock.
No rocks, no locks, and a handle.
I can just start to lift this thing.
And there's more silence.
And then they say, what you tell us is evil, we cannot...
So then I just grab the rope handle and I just lift the trapdoor.
And immediately there's a great cry and a catawall from the bowels of the earth where these peoples are trapped.
Or not trapped, but trapped by an idea, not trapped by anything physical.
And they start stabbing at my legs with forks and it hurts like hell so I jump back and let the flap fall down.
And fundamentally, that's my position.
I mean, that's sort of where I am.
Now, it really depends on your humanity.
This is not any sort of implicit criticism.
This is just my perspective.
It really depends on your level of humanity, whether you say, ah, to hell with them.
Crazy nutjob underground dwellers, dwarves.
To hell with them. They are stabbing at me.
They believe all these crazy things.
Let them rot in the dark. And I could sort of understand that, except that there's children being born every day in this underworld.
And to extend the metaphor beyond reasonable grounds, though, to actually apply it more accurately to the world, there are like two or three people that you know of who aren't underground and everyone else is.
Oh, and they're working on weapons.
And their holy book says, the underground holy book says that you should be put to death.
And they're bringing their children up in this terrifying night fantasy of the underworld.
They are in emotional and spiritual agony themselves.
They are...
wholly intent upon waging a war according to their holy books against you and every other surface dweller and dragging you down into the underworld or turning to ash the world of the surface of light of reason of truth which they consider to be the abode of the devil and if you know all of this it certainly is entirely possible for you to shrug your shoulders and say well there's no rocks they're crazy I'm not going to get involved in this mess.
And to move on with your life and to not ever go back to the trapdoor again.
And I can understand that.
There is a... A kind of freedom in that, right?
Not engaging with any of the craziness that people believe.
There is a kind of freedom of that.
And it's not a pretty or pleasant thing to do.
It's an incredibly satisfying thing to do when it works.
And not everyone is cut out to be a doctor.
There's no reason. No reason. I don't spend a single moment of my day looking for a cure for cancer.
Other than if it's privatized, then it'll be much more likely to happen more quickly.
The medical systems, healthcare, and so on.
So, I don't spend any time looking for the cure for cancer.
I do spend my time arguing for a state of the world that is morally consistent, logical, valid, valuable, and will, by the by, end up with a cure for cancer in a way that the state system will never ever do it.
But I don't spend any of my time, and I don't spend any of my time operating on people, and I don't spend any of my time bringing sight to the blind or sound to the deaf or any of these sorts of things, because that's not my gig.
And so if somebody says to me, oh yeah, well why aren't you a doctor?
It's like, because I didn't want to be a doctor.
I don't think I'd be good at it.
I don't think I would enjoy it.
I think that what I would do is consume a large amount of resources to be trained as a doctor, not end up doing it full-time, but all the resources that I claimed while being trained as a doctor would now not be available to somebody else who could have made a really great doctor.
So I've actually not just not added myself to the world of doctoring, but I have subtracted one other person who would be an excellent doctor, so it would be a very bad thing for me to do.
Not evil, just unproductive.
Inefficient. So, that would be sort of my response.
Now, when I hear of a doctor doing great things, I don't feel like I need to Denigrate or put down or dismiss or undermine or provide negative feedback towards that doctrine anyway.
To me, it's like, hey, more power to you.
Do great things.
But the Buddhists of the world and this particular person who's posting, there is an implicit criticism, which I don't mind at all, of course.
Criticism is great. But there is an implicit criticism about what's going on at Freedom Aid Radio.
It's particularly sort of what it is that I'm doing.
Because I'm trying to talk the people out of the underworld.
And I do that because I fundamentally care for myself, but also in a pretty important way, I care for them.
I care for them and I care for their children.
I don't like people being trapped in this underworld of medieval pig ignorance that is religion.
And is to me Buddhism, and is to me statism, and is to me the cult of the family.
It's primitive.
It's primitive.
And we must grow up at least to reach the height of our weapons.
So you may not care for the people who are trapped in the underworld.
world.
Because I'm whispering through the cracks in the trap door.
And I'm tugging at the ropes.
I have to do it delicately and I have to do it gently, though it may not seem very gentle at times, because...
If you startle people, you hurt their eyes and they attack you.
And once they attack you, if you're a philosopher and people perceive you as a philosopher and they attack you, the odds of them becoming a philosopher themselves or having any positive relationship to the truth, they are diminished thereby.
So I don't want people to end up having an opposition through their own attacks towards philosophy.
So a couple of weeks ago, Christine and I did an Ask a Therapist Wherein we criticized a woman or questioned a woman's motives in helping her alcoholic friend.
And she then attacked us roundly and attacked psychology and attacked everything to do with introspection and said that it was all nonsense.
And I think that was my fault because I talked about how she may be the plainer friend which may have prickled her vanity.
So I certainly apologize for that.
But now what are the odds of her ending up going into therapy while she's attacked people who've tried to help her through therapy?
So it means that she's now walled off from pursuing this.
At least it's very unlikely.
It's going to be a much greater deal of resistance.
It's hard enough to go into therapy when you want to and you don't have any opposition to it and you've never attacked anyone on that grounds.
Once you set up a position where you do attack, you have attacked someone who's trying to help you, then it's going to be very, very unlikely that you will ever receive that help.
So, trying not to provoke an attack is very important.
Not because I don't like being attacked, but because if I'm being attacked, then there's no point trying to help.
Because if somebody attacks you, then they're much less likely ever to listen to what it is you have to say or to what it is that anybody who's saying anything similar.
So, it is like surgery.
Lots of anesthetic, lots of don't move, lots of this and that.
So, for me, it's a very delicate and powerful operation.
And you can say, as this guy does, well, why bother?
It's nonsense. Don't believe in any of it.
Rise above it. Don't engage.
Don't get involved.
Basically, just walk past.
You know, you can mention to people if you like.
Please, don't signal.
I don't mind. You can just walk away from the trapdoor that holds the vast mass of humanity.
Because, of course, it's not just religion, statism and family addiction and organized religions of every kind and all this other nonsense, false philosophy, postmodernism, existentialism, all the nonsense that goes on these days.
you can walk past all of that and say, well, there's no rocks, so why would I bother?
And of course there are no rocks, and there's no God, and there's no state.
I understand all of that.
But the problem is that other people don't share your understanding of the truth.
So you have this truth, and other people don't understand it, and they are trapped in the underworld by the fantasy of rocks and the fantasy of the evil of trying to lift the lid.
It's not that hard to lift.
The only resistance is moral.
The only resistance to atheism from Christians is moral, fundamentally.
That it's wrong to disbelieve.
That's, of course, because everyone takes morality seriously these days except philosophers and libertarians.
So, for me, when somebody says to me that I don't spend much time thinking about the X-Men, the reality of the X-Men, Then this person is saying that I am delusionally attached to the non-existence of God or have some sort of non-reality processing where by trying to talk to people about the non-existence of God and make the case for the non-existence of God,
I am acting in a delusory manner that is fraught with emotional problems.
Of course, if you met somebody who thinks that the X-Men are real, or who argues vociferously and endlessly and eternally that the X-Men are not real, then you would assume that this is somebody who needs some pretty significant adjustments in his dosage of lithium or whatever he's taking to control.
These fantasies. And you'd also, of course, if somebody spent their life vociferously arguing that the X-Men did not exist, you would...
And I understand. This is why I say I understand the position.
You would absolutely believe that deep down this person did believe that the X-Men existed and that they're talking more to themselves and trying to talk themselves out of believing that the X-Men exist and so on and so on and so on.
I understand all of that. I really do.
But... If you are interested in correcting people's fantasies, right, let's just say, this is directly out to bat, if you are interested in correcting people's fantasies, which I think is a very good thing to do, then clearly my fantasy, if I do have such a fantasy, my fantasy that God does not exist and I need to keep talking about that over and over and over again, that...
That is an incorrect fantasy that needs to be corrected.
It's something you believe and I think that's great that you want to correct me.
But here's the thing, right?
Here's the thing and it's not a small thing for me anyway.
If You need to correct fantasies.
Surely you should start with the worst and most self-destructive fantasies.
So let's just say that I do have a fetish against God and I, whatever, continue to argue against God because I secretly believe that God does exist and need to overcome my own doubts or whatever, right?
Let's just say that is the case.
While I'm still a heck of a lot closer to the truth by emotionally arguing that God does not exist, even if I secretly believe that he does, I'm still a lot closer to the truth than people who vociferously argue that God does exist.
That God does exist. And this is the contradiction I think that you're going to face when you examine it within your own mind and your own heart, which is that you obviously feel the need to correct me on my fantasy.
And so you're accepting the principle that human beings should be corrected if they believe things that are false.
And I think that's great.
You and I are brothers in that way.
I agree with you completely. But if human beings should be corrected in terms of their false fantasies, Then spending time correcting me, who's much closer to the truth, even if it's psychologically motivated, correcting me rather than correcting religious people is not consistent with your values.
And this is a conversation that I will have over and over again before my life is done and I return back to the arms of Jesus.
No wait! He doesn't exist! Which is that people who correct me Are acting on some principle that error needs to be corrected, that error should be corrected, that you should spend your time and energy correcting other people.
I've got no problem with that. I think that's great.
But of all the people in the world to correct, if the principle is that error should be corrected, am I the person you should be focusing on?
I'm sure I make tons of errors, but I would say that I'm probably not too far along down the error mine compared to other people who are literally in the center of the earth.
To expand this metaphor a little further.
So that's the same conversation that I have with people over and over again.
If you are going to correct me, then you are going on the principle that errors should be corrected, and you're choosing to spend the time that you could be correcting other people who have more egregious errors.
You're choosing to spend that time correcting me.
And that's fine, too.
But I think it's important to recognize that it's not a logical position to have.
It's not a logical position to have.
Because you could be spending the time that you spent posting me, you could have spent that time posting on a Christian board, but you chose not to.
And that's important. I think that's an important thing to understand.
Because the question is why?
Why would you spend time correcting an atheist who argues against the existence of God rather than, which you admit does not exist, rather than spend your time arguing against the existence of God?
But you can't say, well, I don't like to correct people because you've already corrected me.
You can't say, well, I don't like to disabuse people of their illusions because you've already done that with me.
So whatever we act in is a principle.
And the principle doesn't hold in terms of what you're doing.
It's sort of like this, if I can use another metaphor, and I don't like to use war metaphors, but this is the one that I think works in this situation.
It's like this. You and I... are facing some absolutely horrible and demonic energies.
Enemies, sorry. Absolutely demonic and horrible enemies.
They are pouring across the veldt at our little hut and we are trying to save ourselves and we have rifles and ammo and so on.
And what happens is we're both firing madly away.
You're firing a little faster than I am.
We're trying to bring these people down or these demons down or whatever, enemies down.
And what happens is you start shooting and turn to me and say, you know, I don't think that you're reloading in the right way.
I think you could go a little bit faster in terms of reloading.
Because... Your method of reloading, Steph, is a little awkward.
I've noticed that I'm going about 5% faster than you are.
So I've just sort of noticed that your method of reloading these weapons is not really working.
And so I think maybe what we'll do is, let's sit down on the floor here.
I'll go over how this gun works.
And what we'll do is we'll figure out how we can get your speed of firing or reloading up, you know, by 5% or so, because I think that would really help us.
And I'd say, are you nuts?
These devils are coming!
We've got to fight!
And you say, yeah, but I mean, I understand that.
What I want to do is make us safer.
I want to make us safer.
Because you not reloading fast enough is endangering us.
And I'd say, well, you know, any possible gain that I could make by reloading 5% faster has now been entirely wiped away by you lecturing me about how I could possibly reload, let alone the time to sit down and train and how I could reload faster and do a slightly better job of this.
We've already lost every conceivable gain that we might have, and they're almost upon us.
Right? And then some horrible thing happens and my head goes spinning off into a corner.
And, of course, the very subtle moral of the story is that if you're really interested in protecting yourself, then interrupting me while I'm shooting to say you could maybe adjust a little bit here and there and get a few percentage points increase is actually...
If you're really interested in protection, then stopping me to talk about some minor thing to do with me rather than...
Going to the source of the problem, which is these demonic creatures all swarming over the grasslands to rip off our heads, that might not be the most logical thing.
It could be said, really, that you're not that interested in self-protection, at least at that moment, right?
I mean, I don't know what would be going on.
I know what's going on sort of psychologically other than that, but...
And I'm sorry, that's a violent metaphor, and I do apologize for that, but that's just the one that popped into my head, and, you know...
Me, self-censorship, we shall never meet.
So... The question then becomes, why is somebody doing this, right?
Well, it's nothing to do with me.
Why would Bob write this and say, well, you know, it's like believing, it's like arguing vociferously against the existence of the X-Men.
It's irrational, it's childish, it's dislike.
Why would he say that?
Well, because he doesn't want to join the barricades, right?
But he thinks that he should.
I mean, there's complicated stuff in life.
This one's not that complicated.
This one's not that messy.
Clearly, Bob has great abilities.
He has a sharpshooter's eye and a steady trigger finger.
He has enormously powerful abilities in the fight for virtue and goodness, which is a fight.
It doesn't mean that I live in a state of perpetual fightingness, but it is a fight.
I mean, let's not kid ourselves about that.
And it's not a fight that the good guys are winning yet, right?
So, in fact, quite the opposite.
Most of them are deserting to the enemy or to what to me is an even worse camp, which is indifference.
Or the Buddhist fantasy that you can rise above the fray.
And somehow gain happiness.
Well, I don't think that you surrender the world to bad people with lots of weapons and end up happy.
I just don't think.
I think that turns into a perpetual race to self-erase, which I think to me is the result of the Buddhist approach to truth, but we can get into that another time.
But he obviously has great abilities.
He is a natural-born warrior.
You, my friend, are a natural-born warrior with a great deal of natural integrity, great writing skills, great reasoning skills, and great emotional skills, right?
Because you know what to say.
And, of course, I don't know if you've listened to many podcasts.
I don't know if you've read much on the board.
but People put their false selves before me to free themselves, right?
I mean, they shoot at me so that I can pry the gun from their hands, right?
I mean, that's the deal.
And that's not the first time.
It's not the last time.
It's the thousandth time that this has occurred.
And so, naturally, I understand it, and I appreciate it, and I sympathize with it.
But you did not post this post in order to get me to put down my gun.
You posted your post so that you could pick one up.
And I know that because when you choose to do something, it's because it's the highest value for you at that time.
No question of that, right?
I mean, I'll go with the determinists as far as this goes.
It's the highest value to you at that time.
And why would the highest value to you be, when you come across somebody who's fighting hard and communicating hard about philosophy and truth, to get that person to put down his gun?
Well, because you want to pick it up.
You do. You absolutely, absolutely do.
Because you've picked it up with regards to me, right?
That's a sort of correction, right?
You've picked it up with regards to me.
And what you want me to do is to help you to release your inner Rambo of truth-telling.
If I may be so bold.
That's what you really want.
And it's a terrifying moment.
It is an absolutely terrifying and horrible moment when you realize that no one is coming to save the world and that you have the capacity to do it and you have the potential to do it and you have the abilities and the skills, the bad skills.
And no one's going to do it, except insofar as you pick up the sword.
The sword is just going to lie there, and people are going to pave over all of the natural ecosystem of virtue, and there's no way to save the world unless you act.
And it's horrible. It's a horrible, horrible moment, and you might want to listen to 628 for mine, although I had one earlier.
I can't remember the number called Loss, which also went in this way as well.
So I would say that facing that...
Waterloo of your own where you realize that you have the ability, you are a natural doctor, it is a state of plague, and you better pick up your kit and get busy.
It's a horrible moment, because you want to do it.
You know it's the right thing to do. You know that you want to do it, but you're terrified.
And so what you do is you say, well, it doesn't need to be done, and doing it is foolish.
And, of course, unless you want to do something, you're not going to oppose it, right?
Unless you want to do something, I mean, virtuous, I mean, kill someone, right?
Unless you want to do something, you would not find any...
value in opposing it.
Or you'd be more curious about it, right?
You'd say to me, well, tell me why you're so focused on this opposition to religion and so on, because to me it's confusing.
So help me understand it.
But when you pull out the false self intimations that the other person is crazy and appeals to their insecurity and so on, It's clearly because you feel that it's the right thing to do and want to do it, but it makes you very uncomfortable, and so what you end up doing is you end up saying to the other person, well, what you want to do is crazy, and it's wrong, and it's foolish, and so on.
And that's your way of trying to wriggle out of a responsibility which none of us choose, right?
A responsibility which none of us choose, which just seems to land on us, like a meteor out of a clear blue sky, which actually could happen, like lightning out of a clear blue sky.
But this capacity, this responsibility to sort of fight for truth in the world, it just sort of lands on us, and it's landed on you, my friend.
It has landed on you, and I'm going to suggest that you explore the possibility of what it would be like to pick up this sword, because...
Everyone else in the world has a sword except those who actually know what to do with it and know the right way to use it and can use it for good.
So I hope that this helps.
I hope that I haven't pried the lid off to the point where you're now stabbing at my legs with a fork.
And I hope this is helpful.
And, of course, this is all theoretical.
I'm perfectly willing to be corrected on it.
Just let me know what you think. Thank you so much for listening.
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