Thank you, Taq, for this clear-headed and refreshing antidote to the all the inescapable confusion that stems from the typical guess-work about God. I see no reason to consider Douglas Adam's guesses any less likely than all the rest.
Personally, for reasons I can't explain, I've always found Randy Newman's take on the question to be rather compelling as well -- so much so that I can recite it from memory (though at the moment, the name of the song escapes me; it's from his "Sail Away" album):
quote:
Cain slew Abel. Seth knew not why.
"If the children of Israel are supposed to multiply,
Why then should any of the children die?"
And the Lord said:
"Man means nothing. He means less to me
Than the lowliest cactus flower, or the humblest yucca tree.
He chases 'round this desert, because he thinks that's where I'll be.
That's why I love mankind.
I recoil in horror at the foulness of thee,
At the squalor and the filth and the misery.
How we laugh up here in heaven at the prayers you offer me!
That's why I love mankind."
The Christians and the Jews were having a jamboree.
The Buddhists and the Hindus joined on satellite TV.
They picked their four greatest priests, and they began to speak.
They said, "Lord, a plague is on the world! Lord, no man is free!
The temples we built to you are tumbling to the sea!
Lord, if you won't take care of us, won't you please, please let us be?"
And the Lord said... and the Lord said:
"I burn down your cities, how blind you must be!
I take from you your children, and you say 'How blessed are we'!
You all must be crazy to put your faith in me!
That's why I love mankind.
You really need me -- that's why I love mankind."
(lyrics (c) by Randy Newman, from the early 1970's)
autotelic adj. (of an entity or event) having within itself the purpose of its existence or happening.
™ Version 4.2
