Gods Or Atoms: Who Cares?! Bloggers for Peace.

forpeace6 This month’s Bloggers For Peace Challenge is all about quotes! A good peace quote can fundamentally shift your way of thinking for the rest of the day, and the great ones can change you for the rest of your life!

Because I just love to be difficult my quote is really long, in fact it is more like a passage. But I think it’s a great piece of writing that contains a very important message. First let’s take a look at the quote by Stoic Philosopher Epictetus, and then I’ll talk about what it means to me afterward:

“What does it matter to me whether the universe is composed of atoms or uncompounded substances, or of fire and earth? Is it not sufficient to know the true nature of good and evil, and the proper bounds of our desires and aversions, and also of our impulses to act and not to act; and by making use of these as rules to order the affairs of our life, to bid those things that are beyond us farewell?

It may very well be that these latter things are not to be comprehended by the human mind, and even if one assumes that they are perfectly comprehensible, well what profit comes from comprehending them? What Nature is, and how she administers the universe, and whether she really exists or not, these are questions about which there is no need to go on to bother ourselves.”

It’s God!

This passage always reminds me of the atheism versus religion debates, and the utter futility of it all! Sure it’s fun to converse and argue over theories and belief systems but in the end where does it get us? Whether we choose to believe in a single God, multiple Gods or some other intelligent deity or entity, or whether we choose to believe in a purely physical, atomic universe, we can still understand and practice the fundamentals of ethical living and rationality!

The God vs no God debate is such a red herring, an argument that sucks up so much energy that could be better used elsewhere; a distraction. Why choose to focus on the tiny differences between beliefs when we could focus on the vast fields of common ground that exist between all people.

That’s just cruel.

We don’t need a God, nor a complex personal philosophy in order to recognize feelings of joy and satisfaction in ourselves, and then to enjoy witnessing those same feelings in others. We don’t need to know what the universe it made out of in order to be kind, patient and polite. We don’t need to be “right” about which God is the real one in order to know the difference between what we control and what we do not!

Let’s read that last line again: “What Nature is, and how she administers the universe, and whether she really exists or not, these are questions about which there is no need to go on to bother ourselves.”

Atheism I do not NEED to know how the universe works in order to bring peace to myself and those around me, I do not NEED an explanation for why things occur, I simply need to react ethically to whatever does occur!

Live and let live, treat others as you would like to be treated, do not deliberately cause pain and suffering. It’s common sense stuff! And whether we come to these realizations through religious moral guidance or “Godless” rational self-interest, the end result is the same. Peace, kindness and cooperation are the most productive, constructive and expansive tools we have. We don’t need to know God to “know thyself” and we don’t need to have the complete map of the physical universe in order to smile at the lady working in the corner shop.

Oh come on! Really?!

Theorizing and philosophizing is great fun, and scientific discovery is a worthy pursuit, but let us not allow our petty differences like whether there’s a God or not, or which one is the best, get in the way of treating ourselves and each other with dignity, respect, patience and kindness.

The man who knows God, and the woman who knows there is no God, both have exactly the same capacity to form opinions, beliefs, preferences and aversion. And they have the exact same ability to exercise their will in anyway they so choose! To be cruel and tyrannical, or to be patient and kind; these can never be blamed on one’s belief system as every second of every day we have within our power the ability to choose exactly what we believe

“What does it matter to me whether the universe is composed of atoms or uncompounded substances, or of fire and earth?”

That’s more like it!

All I know is that we’re here and that building peace in my life feels down right good, and that cruelty, deception and hatred make me feel sick. I may never know the “real” truth behind all the God vs no God stuff, but until I do I’m going to stick with what I do know; the people and challenges that are right in front of me, and I’ll meet them as best I can with the tools at hand