DOES GOD EVEN CARE?

From the Point of View of a Little Mouse

"This, now, is the judgment of our scientific age--the third reaction of man upon the universe! This universe is not hostile, nor yet is it friendly. It is simply indifferent." (John Haynes Holmes)

Have you ever seen a cat play with a mouse? – that is, have you ever seen a cat catch a mouse and keep it alive just to bat around, watch it try to flee, catch it again, bat it around some more? – a prelude to an eventual murder.

This is nature in its purest form. Watch it, it’s morbidly fascinating. I wonder, if there were no human beings to build bridges and highways, speak in languages, drop bombs, go dancing, develop philosophies on the purpose of life, and pray to God, would life on planet earth be nothing more than this cat-and-mouse game?

Of course not. Nature’s game is so much more than that. And yet, cats are genetically built in such a way that makes them a natural tyrant – from the point of view of a little mouse.

Imagine you were that mouse I saw my friend’s cat playfully torturing. Your life is as inconsequential as a soon-to-be-thrown-away toy. You are that toy, an object of ephemeral amusement for a being built to dominate you. A cat, by nature, is a hunter. You – the mouse – live to eat and go where there is food, and you mate and you live with your family within a small mice society. Your life is a matter of survival by ingenuity; all you do is eat and take care of your kids. If you’re a male, you might get into some fights, but you’ve never hurt that which God did not intend you to eat – or so you think.

So you think you know God’s intentions?

What philosophical school of thought hasn’t attempted to rationalize the brutal indifference of nature? What religion hasn’t tried to justify the suffering of the innocent? And what rationalization and justification premised on the notion of an all-knowing and all-loving God who made man in his image hasn’t run into numerous obvious logical snafus? Perhaps, from the point of view of an “objective being,” the human mind is genetically built in such a way that makes it a natural tyrant. Perhaps we are too self-righteous to conceive the truth about reality, one in which we are not central to existence.

Our minds, as unique in and inimical to nature as they may seem, are obviously a part of nature’s game; and this proposition holds true in any philosophical or religious theory I know. Whether you believe God created the earth in seven days or that dinosaurs roamed the earth for millions of years or that there is no God and/or nature is all that exists (to oversimplify but a few), you can agree, without apprehension, that our minds are a part of the creation or existence, call it what you will. This is probably the most obvious statement ever made.

But our minds can not accept that nature – God’s creation and/or that within which exist all things – could be indifferent; this is antithetical to our (subjective) conception of justice. Hence the creation of an “afterlife” by inquisitive minds seeking solace from a rugged life – the basic tenet of many major religions.

But just how “divinely-inspired” is this noble idea of an afterlife? How well does it fit in with the simple observations of God’s nature the human mind, which has been programmed to seek truth despite its mortal flaws, has made? Why does nature program beings to kill? Why does life both perpetuate and kill itself?

Perhaps mankind has been approaching these questions from the wrong point of view. Perhaps the little mouse may help.

If you were the little mouse, what would you be thinking while under the dominion of my friend’s cat? You’d probably only be concerned with survival, which is, ironically, your only concern whether in danger or not. But, looking at life from the point of view of that little mouse I saw being tortured by my friend’s cat for amusement has lead me to the following conclusions.

God – the creator of all that exists – is just. But God has to be absolutely indifferent to be absolutely just. And because God is completely indifferent, we have to take justice into our own hands and combine our subjective views of justice into a universal human code of justice.

So how should we go about this? How could we do so without having to fight to impose our subjective views onto one another, which would only result in the same tragedy that those who have fought in the name of religion has wrought?

Well, let’s talk. Are there any universal human laws already? There is a couple, I believe. Most cultures think incest is taboo. Most cultures have laws against murder. But, even these two laws have many exceptions and are filled with subjective points of view – and, as they say, the devil is in the details.

But there is one other law I believe is also universal. I believe this law is programmed into our DNA and the human soul. Jesus put it perfectly: Do unto others, as you would want others to do unto you. Do you believe this is, in general, the right way one should conduct oneself? If you truly believe so, then you will make the details fit the philosophy, and not discard the philosophy in the face of details!

In other words, if you truly believe in “Do unto others…” you will – like Jesus – act with it in mind, despite the devil, i.e. details. Like Mother Teresa said, "If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway."

With this principle as our foundation, let us begin fitting the details to our universal philosophy to make this world a better place.