INTRODUCTION TO BOOK I
ARE WE ON THE RIGHT PATH?
Whatever
man does, is activated by considerations of pain and pleasure. The fear of pain,
and desire for pleasure constitute his instinctive behavioural mechanism. Since
death is man's worst fear, immunity from death, or eternity, ranks as the best
favour.
Through fear, man began to believe
that there is a god or goddess behind every force of nature such as the Sun, the
Moon, the wind, the rain etc.; and if he submits to the deities they will show
him favour by protecting him from disease, destruction and death. This is what
gave birth to mythology i.e. the belief in superstitious gods and goddesses.
Dominance-urge, that is, the
compulsive desire of some people to command their fellow-beings, and to be
worshipped by them, is so great that they project themselves as gods to replace
the existing mythological deities. This is the most convenient way of exploiting
people's psychological susceptibilities. The Middle Eastern mythology vouches
for this fact. However, the method used to secure this goal is called
"revelation": a person desiring to be God, pretends that he is the
Vicar of God and preaches only what is revealed to him by the Almighty. Through
this veil, he eventually establishes his own divinity backed by a host of fairy
tales.
Revelation is the biggest fraud
that man invented to gratify his urge of dominance, but the propriety of
revelation itself depends upon the concept of a Creator God which is totally
irrational. Amongst many other fatal flaws, it follows that if the universe
needs a Creator God, then the Creator God must have been created by yet another
Creator God, and so on.
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Preface
