The Library: Revised and Condensed
God might be dead—but the world seems to be going to hell.
Now, don’t get me wrong—I’m not particularly fond of the whole God idea. (After all, God’s the one who’s ultimately responsible for those Godawful Christmas movies my kids force me to sit through each year.)
But at least “God” gives life some sort of meaning and value.
And what happens when we simply remove that type of meaning and value from life?
Well—have you ever seen one of those talk shows that puts an overzealous liberal against an overzealous conservative? That’s pretty much what people will become. We’ll totally lose it, and take to supporting a belief, group, or country as if our lives depended on it.
But if we don’t believe in God, then what should we do?
Worship me. …
Just kidding.
We should learn to control some of our instincts and impulses, and become higher people who contribute to a higher civilization. (In other words, we should pretty much be the opposite of that bastard Wagner.) Rather than giving up on real life (like potheads and Jesus) and/or directing our will-to-power towards dominating others (like Genghis Khan and Yosemite Sam), we should use that will to master ourselves and become higher life-affirming people.
The truth about the truth is that there is no truth.
Thinking that there’s only one right way to think about something—that really is no way to think. (I think.) It’s simply a sign that our thinking is too fixed and narrow.
Instead of thinking that this is so or this isn’t so, we should think about how many ways there are to think about something.
As far as I know, there are many truths—and even in if there is a single truth, there’s no single correct perspective on it.
And even that might not be true. After all, there are many other ways of thinking about how we should think about the truth. And from another perspective, there might be just one truth, and just one right way to think about that truth.
In fact, now that I think about it, everything I just said is true from some perspectives, and untrue from other perspectives.
And in certain ways, the truth about the truth is that there is a truth.
Teachings of Reality’s Only True Non-Existent God
Recorded Teachings of the Buddha
The Apology of Socrates
Arthur Schopenhauer: The Glass is Half Full...
Rene Descartes: Discourse on the Cane
David Hume: An Essay Concerning Concluisions...
Immanuel Kant: Critique of Pure Bull
Ludwig Wittgenstein: Eveything is Bull