[b]Philip Pullman
I told him I was going to betray you, and betray Lyra, and he believed me because I was corrupt and full of wickedness; he looked so deep I felt sure he’d see the truth. But I lied too well. I was lying with every nerve and fiber and everything I’d ever done…I wanted him to find no good in me, and he didn’t. There is none.[/b]
For a few, something to shoot for.
You speak of destiny as if it was fixed.
Cue the “compatibilists”?
No, seriously.
It comes from history. It comes from the record of the Inquisition, persecuting heretics and torturing Jews and all that sort of stuff; and it comes from the other side, too, from the Protestants burning the Catholics. It comes from the insensate pursuit of innocent and crazy old women, and from the Puritans in America burning and hanging the witches — and it comes not only from the Christian church but also from the Taliban. Every single religion that has a monotheistic god ends up by persecuting other people and killing them because they don’t accept him. Wherever you look in history, you find that. It’s still going on.
Indeed, maybe it is all just natural.
Can is not the same as must.
But if you must and you can, then there’s no excuse.
Please, don’t remind them.
We are all subject to the fates. But we must act as if we are not, or die of despair.
Let’s pin down how profound this is.
Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit.
Okay, but what about the ones that see no difference?