“How can a monster perform miracles?”

Recently, a few religious leaders have been accused of highly inappropriate behavior—and, in the latest case, criminal behavior—by the faithful who followed them for years. The truth is that there are abundant examples of priests, bishops, preachers, mediums and even Buddhist monks—which I tend to admire—doing the most unethical and immoral things possible. It is quite easy to find news about clergymen who use drugs, have sex, participate in orgies—and these are the best cases. In the worst cases, they commit crimes: sexual abuse of faithful, money laundering, and participation in illegal financial and political schemes.

The power of death, by William Holbrook Beard

This shocks those willing to believe in something higher. Some of the victims ask: "How can a monster perform miracles?" Some become indignant, full of rage after seeing the victims question their own faith. Others become sad. I identify more with those who get sad, because I do too. It is very sad when someone's faith if shaken in this way. It's sad when people's faith is shaken in anyway—I say this because I've had my own faith shaken, years ago, and I lost it. Even so, at the same time I defend that everyone should see the illusions that surround their lives, be them material or religious illusions.

How can a monster perform miracles? They can't. They don't. They never performed any miracles. I know it's hard, but the fact is that the world is utterly indifferent to our presence and no one can change this. There is no god that can change this, there are no miracle workers that can alter this datum. There is also no salvation in history, in politics and in Utopia. It's bad, yes, but it's reality. Whoever affirms the contrary is trying to sell something. One can think that living inside an illusion and a lie is good, but I disagree. It's not good, because this illusion and lie make us perpetuate an ancient cycle of births that won't take us anywhere, because human history doesn't have a future point of completion. Jesus won't come back, and we will not build the perfect society.

The illusion and lie make us put new people in the world, sentient beings that never asked to exist. The same illusion and lie make us believe that, when we create a new life, we're doing a great favor to this new being. However, at some point the farce is discovered—usually too late to stop great pain and suffering. Hearts are broken, terrible violence committed, old age, debilitating illnesses, painful death. Therefore, it is preferable to say no to illusion. The theater of eternal affirmation of life, joy and youth hides a pile of broken bones that served no purpose but the continuation of an unnecessary species, just like all others. Happy are those places in the universe where organic matter never existed.

By Fernando Olszewski

(This post was first published December 10th, 2018 @ Exilado Metafísico)