Scott Adams《 God’s Debris : A Thought Experiment 》
( Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2001 )
Excerpt from Chapter 7 [Genuine Belief] p.27-30
“Very few people believe in God,” he replied.
I didn’t see how he could deny the obvious.
“Of course they do. Billions of people believe in God.”
The old man leaned toward me,
resting a blanketed elbow on the arm of his rocker.
“Four billion people say they believe in God,
but few genuinely believe. If people believed in God,
they would live every minute of their lives
in support of that belief.
Rich people would give their wealth to the needy.
Everyone would be frantic to determine
which religion was the true one.
No one could be comfortable in the thought that
they might have picked the wrong religion and
blundered into eternal damnation, or bad reincarnation,
or some other unthinkable consequence.
People would dedicate their lives to converting others
to their religions.
“A belief in God would demand one hundred percent
obsessive devotion, influencing every waking moment
of this brief life on earth.
But your four billion so-called believers do not live
their lives in that fashion, except for a few.
The majority believe in the usefulness of their beliefs
─ an earthly and practical utility ─
but they do not believe in the underlying reality.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“If you asked them, they’d say they believe.”
“They say that they believe because pretending to
believe is necessary to get the benefits of religion.
They tell other people that they believe and they do
believer-like things, like praying and reading holy books.
But they don’t do the things that a true believer
would do, the things a true believer would have to do.
“If you believe a truck is coming toward you,
you will jump out of the way.
That is belief in the reality of the truck.
If you tell people you fear the truck
but do nothing to get out of the way,
that is not belief in the truck.
Likewise, it is not belief to say God exists
and then continue sinning and hoarding your wealth
while innocent people die of starvation.
When belief does not control your most important
decisions, it is not belief in the underlying reality,
it is belief in the usefulness of believing.”
“Are you saying God doesn’t exist？” I asked,
trying to get to the point.
“I’m saying that people claim to believe in God,
but most don’t literally believe.
They only act as though they believe because
there are earthly benefits in doing so.
They create a delusion for themselves because
it makes them happy.”
“So you think only the atheists
believe their own belief？” I asked.
“No. Atheists also prefer delusions,” he said.
“So according to you, no one believes anything
that they say they believe.”
“The best any human can do is to pick
a delusion that helps him get through the day.
This is why people of different religions
can generally live in peace.
At some level, we all suspect that
other people don’t believe their own religion
any more than we believe ours.”
I couldn’t accept that.“Maybe the reason
we respect other religions is that
they all have a core set of beliefs in common.
They only differ in the details.”
“Jews and Muslims believe that
Christ isn’t the Son of God,” he countered.
“If they are right, then Christians are mistaken
about the core of their religion.
And if the Jews or the Christians or the Muslims
have the right religion, then the Hindus and Buddhists
who believe in reincarnation are wrong.
Would you call those details？”
“I guess not,” I confessed.
“At some level of consciousness, everyone knows
that the odds of picking the true religion
— if such a thing exists — are nil.