One of the great platitudes which are popular today when we are confronted with acts of violence is to refer to Fyodor Dostoevskys famous statement from The Brothers Karamazov: If there is no God then everything is permitted. Well, the first problem with this statement is that Dostoevsky, of course, never made it. The first one who used this phrase as allegedly made by Dostoevsky was Jean-Paul Sartre in 1943, but the main point is that this statement is simply wrong. Even a brief look at our predicament today clearly tells us this. It is precisely if there is God that everything is permitted to those who not only believe in God but who perceive themselves as instruments, direct instruments of the divine will. If you posit or perceive or legitimise yourself as a direct instrument of the divine will, then of course all narrow, petty moral considerations disappear. How can you even think in such narrow terms when you are a direct instrument of God? This is how so-called religious fundamentalists work, but not only them. Every form of so called totalitarianism works like that, even if it is presented or if it presents itself as atheist.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 21:26:28 +0000
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