God is the Ultimate Conspiracy Theory

This was originally published in American Atheist magazine about three yearas ago. So it is a blast from the past!

People often speak of the Balance of Nature as a principle that administers justice in the universe, a justice that eventually produces consequences for every action, and evens out all inequities across a span of time. This span of time can be so vast, however, that most of us never live long enough to see it played out. What we do witness is a multi-year drought disposed of by a four month deluge. We see that nature can be alternately fertile and desolate with intense unpredictability. We see earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, tsunamis, and fires - all processes of a living planet - occur without any consideration for our homes, cities, and desires for permanence.

The forces of nature go about their way with total indifference to our human presence. Imagine indifference itself as a kind of power. How can human beings live according to a universe that does not even notice them, let alone consider them? How can mercy and justice be derived from natural forces that exemplify indifference because they possess no consciousness at all? For some the answer is - "there must be an Entity like ourselves (conscious ego) that exists behind these forces, a Being who controls these forces. This means that everything is an expression of will, a Divine will!" - and with this kind of thinking the concept of God was born, and continues to exist to this day.

It is important to understand the sense of security and power that can be gained by postulating a conscious Entity behind the indifferent flux of natural phenomena; with this idea one seemingly conquers indifference, and can appeal directly to the Being who controls nature, a being who "notices you"! Every religion, faith, and invention of God so far has been, amongst other things, an attempt to escape the horrifying idea that the universe is ultimately and totally indifferent to us. Better to believe in the fires of Hell itself than to know that there is no Cosmic Moral Order, no Scorekeeper, no Witness, no Judge, no reward or punishment in an Afterlife, and no supernatural audience. It is the same in our interactions with other humans. People demand an audience for their virtues and deeds. "Where is the value of an action" many unfortunately think, "if no one is there to witness it?" - as if value is bestowed by a spectator, by the mere presence of a spectator.

Love and hatred are fine for most people, as long as they are noticed. It is to be treated with utter indifference that is the greatest blow. Now extend this hatred of indifference to nature and the cosmos. People would rather believe that tragedy and disaster are delivered upon their heads deliberately by a "god" with a plan and a "higher purpose" than to think that it happened for no reason whatsoever.

All magnitude of tragedy can be endured so long as a purpose can be found in it. When none can be found the human survival instinct must manufacture one. The Greeks could not endure suffering that had no purpose, so they invented an audience of gods to witness their strife. Purpose was found in being a Divine Spectacle. The Jewish people could not endure slavery under their rulers who worshipped a multitude of gods, so they invented a single all-powerful God to serve as their liberator and protector; a God who later served as their great punisher whenever they failed to obey a strict moral code, which allowed the ruling priesthood to interpret every hardship and defeat as the will of God (Yahweh) and therefore deserved. In each case a god was created to serve the self-preservational imperative of the people who needed it, and later to preserve and expand the power base of a ruling order. It is no different today. "God" comes from human psychology, not from empirical evidence in nature. Though a complex order of magnificent and robust design is ever revealing itself within the workings of nature, it is human psychology that extrapolates this evidence into "proof" of a Conscious Entity that spawns and controls it all, a conclusion that is anything but scientific in its willingness to declare that "intelligent design" proves the presence of an "intelligent designer".

Many people are fond of seeing a god's will in everything, from disasters to elections to an acorn falling at their feet at the right moment. This is to make God the Ultimate Conspiracy Theory. If a tornado destroys one church, but not another - "It is God's will." If someone loses an election - "God has spoken." If our nation hits hard times -"God is punishing us." If I get constipated -"God is punishing Me." If our enemies are destroyed -"God is Just." This anthropomorphic thinking is an attempt to recreate nature in our own image. It assumes that behind every Deed there is a Doer; behind every chance or accident there is an ego conscious entity exercising its will; behind every event, no matter how large or how small, a master hand is placing pre-determined puzzle pieces. This psychology reinvents the universe into the ultimate conspiracy theory. This view may serve the preservational imperatives of many amongst us, but it is far from any criterion of truth, or necessity to believe.

How could the rational amongst us live according to such an all pervasive entity? One would have to kill such a god to exist at all, let alone be free. It is a good thing for us that "God" is a creation of the human mind - for the mind, and its hidden psychology, is our ultimate guide and ruler.

Knowing Thyself: The Parable of the Caveman with the Atom Bomb

Jackpine said to Werbinox:

“Many Council members gathered here do not approve of the part I am playing in the strategy to defeat the Destroyer, or the way I am playing it. You are a part of my particular plan, so some of that hostility towards me is also directed towards you. Plus, your presence here frightens them.”

“Why?” Werbinox asked.

“Two tribes of cavemen go to war with each other”, Jackpine said. “One side has clubs, and the other side has a nuclear weapon. Which side is the most powerful?”

“The one with the nuclear weapon?” Werbinox said, wondering if it was a trick question.

“No!” Jackpine roared. “They are just more dangerous and destructive to themselves and others. A caveman with an atom bomb is still a caveman. His capacity for death and destruction has been extended, and that is all. His power over himself has not by a single wit been increased, and has most likely been diminished. The history of your planet should come to mind. Am I speaking to you here?”

‘Yes”, Werbinox answered, somewhat taken aback by the vehemence of the old man’s tone. “But I am not stupid or violent. Why do you compare me to a caveman?”

“Because you do not know yourself.”

Werbinox stopped walking, and stood still for a moment of silence. “I don’t understand how you can say such a thing to me.” Anger crept into his voice. “After all we’ve been thru to get here? I know myself.”

“Since when?” Jackpine asked, turning to face his young protégé. “Since the moment you ate the mushrooms? Since you rocketed thru space faster than the speed of light? Since this moment right now? Do you think that what you know now is all there is?”

“No. But I know a hell of a lot more about myself than I did a few days ago when I bashed that creep’s head in with a baseball bat!”

“You know enough to get yourself deep into trouble, but not enough to get out.” Jackpine said, turning back to the trail before him to resume the climb. “Knowing what you can do is not the same as knowing yourself.”

“How do I get to know myself?” Werbinox asked, following him.

“Get over the idea that you already do. Discover the fact that you are a machine."

The Geometry of Awareness

Your clarity of thought, perception, and apprehension of the Self must be strengthened, sustained, and increased. This clarity must be made to penetrate your life & environment as a conscious and willed geometry, ordering and shaping actions and events accordingly. The formulas that you enact within yourself and then extend outwards should be clear, precise, rhythmic, and conscious. They should be expressions of a Geometry of Self-Awareness, and, in the realm of timing, their tempos should be in the pocket, neither behind nor ahead of the beat.

Inciting others to slowdown or speed up the tempo of their thoughts, perceptions, and actions, or to synch up with your own in a type of psychological entrainment, is a legitimate and effective technique of Lesser Black Magic. Creating the impression that you are behind or ahead may also suit your purposes, provided you apprehend and / or control where the actual beat is. In the realm of LBM, this represents a geometry of misdirection, manipulation, and deception. Such a technique is not possible to sufficiently control if you yourself do not know the truth and potentialities of the matter.

Apart from linguistic etymology, why refer to the art and science of the magus as magic? After all, the western mind views magical and rational thought to be antithetical. However, when magic is properly understood as an active, dynamic set of principles and practices that aim not only for befuddlement and entertainment (stage magic) or the manipulation of other minds (LBM) but also self-knowledge, self-transformation, and the application and extension of an enlightened & active Subjective Universe to the Objective world, it can be seen as the “applied psychology on a rational & supra-rational scale” that it is.

Vast portions of the psyche, which may or may not have anything to do with the largely untapped potential of the core self that one Is and may Become, are unordered and seemingly autonomous, existing with a life of their own. Because of this, multitudes of people sleepwalk thru life, unaware of the extent to which they are led and dominated by unconscious motives, reactive and programmatic emotions, and mechanical habits. When these people encounter beings that use their innate powers to clarify their perceptions and thoughts for an ongoing exploration of the Self and the world, for a dynamic self-knowledge capable of extending its formative geometry deeper Inwards and further Outwards for the purpose of causing change according to conscious will; beings who can seemingly call forth and command hidden processes and sources of energy and embody them, making the world dance to their tune while manifesting their highest hopes and dreams - such beings seem not only lucky, but magical, if not actually divine. Thus, “magic” is the art and science of operating the mind and spirit at the optimum they are designed for, and capable of. Magic is a tool for discovering and exercising the truth of what we are, and are capable of; a truth that we have yet to fully comprehend or understand.

Magical power is buried, underused and unexercised, in the thought of ordinary people. It is a unique, individual, and yet universal Geometry of Awareness that awaits its discovery, cleansing, strengthening, and extension into the Inner and Outter worlds.

A Christian Nation: Turning the Other Cheek

A truly Christian nation, properly understood, would not be a "nation" at all. It would welcome all people as brothers and sisters.

Christ counselled to "turn the other cheek", and taught that you must not resist evil, even to the point of refusing to defend yourself. He exemplified this teaching himself when he went to the cross. Therefore a truly Christian people, i.e. people who literally follow the ways of Christ, would not even have a military. They would not use force or violence even to defend themselves, let alone launch a pre-emptive war. If a Christian people were attacked, they would collectively turn the other cheek, and forgive their attackers, and strive to love them. If they were conquered, they would submit to their conquerors and work to slowly convert them from within. The masters would, maybe eventually, adopt the ways of the slaves, and all would be levelled as children of God.

As you can plainy see, a "Christian nation" has never existed on earth, and arguably never can. The United States is anything but a Christian nation. It has become rich and powerful to the extent that it is not Christian. Yet it pretends to be, hence its hypocrisy in the slave and Indian extermination days, and now. Hence its unending hypocrisy, delusion, and hubris. And for those who dont know, you cannot be a true American if you cannot chastise your own country when it deserves it.

Believing that it has a "special covenant" with God (the same Old Testament God the Muslims call Allah, btw) America will go the way of the Dutch and the British Empires. What empires? Actually we will be lucky if we get off that easy.

The OTHER - A RHP Placebo

The root of Christianity is Faith and Altruism. It can also be said to be fear and self-hatred. That was the beginning of my own turning to it. The very things I am supposed to turn to Christ to be delivered from – guilt, sin, and ego – amount to self-hatred contrived thru erroneous interpretation. One of the greatest nights of my life was also one of the worst, and the most frightening. This paradox was created by an acceptance of the tenets of Judeo – Christianity, an acceptance that preceded a far more important exploration of my Self that was to come later.

The constant exhortations to “die to yourself” and to attribute everything good to God are welcomed with enthusiasm by Christians because they are taught to despise the Self that they are. I do not despise myself; on the contrary, I love myself, and left the Church accordingly.
Those who love and embrace the Self have no need to become a relentless conduit for something “else”. God, so to speak, is within me, and is me. My Self must be explored and brought into further Being, not eradicated in favor of a foreign, one-size-fits-all cookie cutter shape of selflessness, denial, and sacrifice.

Christianity is like a placebo that activates an individual’s power to alter and heal their self, but only within a specific parameter of the great Mystery. It is not the “substance” but the belief in it that works. Belief is the power, thus Faith is the essence of Christian magic. But here is the important point: most people do not believe in themselves. They are taught to feel this way, for “pride is the greatest sin”. Huston Smith wrote in relation to Christianity that “we do not like ourselves very much…if there is to be liberation, it will have to come from without, or better, from above: a higher power”. Accordingly, most people must be tricked into their own potential. It must be an OTHER who heals and delivers them, an OTHER who is believed in by significant others – family, friends, and society. Here is the essence of the Right Hand Path, which is based upon a general distrust and dislike of the Self that is either genetically inclined, and / or taught and reinforced by a religio-moralistic culture.

Rules and morals were invented that no one can live up to, and should not necessarily even want to be lived “up” to, for downward is their actual direction for many. These rules and morals exacerbate guilt, fear, and self-hatred. People will do anything to escape guilt, fear, and self-hatred, even as they lead themselves into such states – an activity that is itself symptomatic of an unconscious desire for punishment. Because of guilt and self-hatred, people do not see themselves as worthy and capable of forgiving and loving themselves. Only an OTHER can do that, not just a mere mortal, but “God”. For the sake of God they can learn to love themselves and others. By this psychological device Christianity has triumphed. By forsaking oneself and embracing a divine OTHER that loves and forgives, one unconsciously learns to forgive one’s self. It is You that forgives yourself by way of a hidden, masked part of your psyche that is personified and externalized into something separate and exalted. If a “sinner” realized it is he himself who forgives and heals himself thru an image of the redeemer, the effect of liberation may be destroyed, especially if it comes too early in his conscious development. The OTHER must not be seen to be his own invention, for he is not worthy to create his own salvation, and the invented is, according to his upbringing – untrue. Only tradition – what millions of others say and do – is true. This is why the Jesus franchise is so powerful. From its inception the emotionally loaded concept of a redeemer has been attached to the mythical figure of Jesus. Hearing other people proclaim this specific personage to be the “The Redeemer” appeals to the herd instinct, which drives people to want to be on the same page as everyone else. One does not redeem oneself by one’s own invented OTHER; one accepts the OTHER that their parents, family, and friends preach about. This mass acceptance makes it “true”. The herd instinct, by definition, wants to believe in a truth that is applicable for all. That it appears to be objective is more important than whether it is or not.

Christianity triumphs thru its appeal to a herd mentality that associates the OTHER / Redeemer archetype – a power that is within each of us - with one sole mythic figure – Jesus. In this way it attempts to monopolize and market our own psychic powers for renewal and healing into a product external to ourselves that we must buy and bow to.

That one is raised to believe that the redeemer archetype is Jesus and only Jesus gives this mythical figure his particular power, a power that is our own psychic heritage repackaged and sold back to us in an alien form. If I were raised to associate the redeemer – who is necessary only in relation to the guilt produced by the theory of sin – with a martyr named Bagio Velli, it would work just the same, provided my significant others believed in him, too. To believe that an OTHER redeems me requires a belief in the OTHER that others are talking about. To put it another way – it requires my belief in others to know the truth, and to BE the truth AS the truth.

Concerning the concept of a messiah, it could only come from the psychology of a messianic, i.e. “chosen” people. The exceptionalism that the tribe perceives in itself as a whole is projected onto, and concentrated within, a mythologized individual, who henceforth singularly represents it in his personal being. He is now a spokesman for a group mentality, and his authority and exceptionalism rests entirely on the sense of exceptionalism of the collective that thrusts him up. Messianism is thus a collective phenomenon. There must be a chosen many for there to be a chosen one.

A follower of the LHP, working for his own personal divinity, does not view his exceptionalism as a valuation that must be accepted and bowed to by others, and shuns such a mentality as delusional and contradictory to his world-view and spiritual quest. Only when this sense of exceptionalism is based on a collective does it find itself arrowed into a being who must now be an exception for all others. Messianism is inseparable from RHP herd psychology, and is a most dangerous viral manifestation of it.

In my experience, the LHP begins with not only with an intellectual Recognition that the OTHER is indeed myself, but a Carnal - Intellectual – Emotional embrace of this Recognition, and an all-encompassing desire to explore my Self and develop my Truth.
Humanity is divided between those who fear and shun the truth of the Self, and those who Accept, Embrace, and Pursue its development.