The Cathars taught us that nature is the creation of an evil god. Francis of Assisi preached to the birds, claiming that the goodness of god manifested itself in nature. Science has now settled that nature is neither good nor evil, but, generally, it’s not that pretty. Kind of nasty, actually.
Augustine said, more or less, that humans have free will, but generally only to exercise it in the service of evil. Thanks a lot, Augustine. Some of the more radical gnostic sects said that once you were an initiate, once you possessed the gnosis, you could do whatever the hell you pleased. You had transcended morality and that in doing evil you were, in fact, doing good. Or neither.
My friend George sells tropical fish. This year, at the annual fish convention in Ohio, Thor, his favorite cichlid, won Best in Show, First Prize in his category, and People’s Choice. Thor has won these awards two years in a row. How does a fish win People’s Choice? “Look him in the eye, Steve, he’s got such fucking attitude!”
But I digress.
George has another fish, whose name I didn’t catch. But we were introduced. He’s big, from Madagascar, and his natural habitat has almost disappeard. He won First Prize in his category, too. George has found a girfriend for him. He takes her from her tank, puts her in a water-filled plastic bag and shows her to the big fellah. “He’s definitely interested, but he can’t have her till next year,” George says. “No girls for you, buddy! You’re gonna win another show. You can’t lose your focus!”
George is clearly god here. Is he evil? Or good?
And what about Ms. Madagascar? Does no one ever ask her opinion?
I confess to being spiritually confused here.
Czeslaw Milosz thought long and hard about these things. He attributed to "The Greeks" the preference for circles rather than finite lines or points. "I want to record something that exists and persists because it isindividual, unique." (Conversations, 226). But the finite is not necessarily "opposed to" the infinite: can't have one without the other. Finitude and particularity are ways in which we think about the improbability of being at all. The Chinese Chan poets and many Christian thinkers share the insight of the originating no-thing as opposed to the created thing. See William Desmond, God and the Between.
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