[b]Douglas Adams
Who is this God person anyway?[/b]
It’s about time someone asked that.
I’ve had the sort of day that would make St. Francis of Assisi kick babies.
What some would call a good day.
It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much, the wheel, New York, wars and so on - whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man for precisely the same reasons…
So, too close to call?
The President of the Universe holds no real power. His sole purpose is to take attention away from where the power truly exists…
Who might that be? You know, if there is no God.
In the great debate that has raged for centuries about what, if anything, happens to you after death, be it heaven, hell, purgatory or extinction, one thing has never been in doubt - that you would at least know the answer when you were dead.
Or, far, far, far, far, far more likely, not know.
I remembered once, in Japan, having been to see the Gold Pavilion Temple in Kyoto and being mildly surprised at quite how well it had weathered the passage of time since it was first built in the fourteenth century. I was told it hadn’t weathered well at all, and had in fact been burnt to the ground twice in this century. “So it isn’t the original building?” I had asked my Japanese guide.
But yes, of course it is, he insisted, rather surprised at my question.
But it’s burnt down?
Yes.
Twice.
Many times.
And rebuilt.
Of course. It is an important and historic building.
With completely new materials.
But of course. It was burnt down.
So how can it be the same building?
It is always the same building.
I had to admit to myself that this was in fact a perfectly rational point of view, it merely started from an unexpected premise. The idea of the building, the intention of it, its design, are all immutable and are the essence of the building. The intention of the original builders is what survives. The wood of which the design is constructed decays and is replaced when necessary. To be overly concerned with the original materials, which are merely sentimental souvenirs of the past, is to fail to see the living building itself.
See? It’s all about conflicting assumptions. I was right all along!!