behalf.
SHAKTI GAWAINIt’s my experience that we’re much more afraid that there
might be a God than we are that there might not be.
Incidents like those above happen to us, and yet we dismiss
them as sheer coincidence. People talk about how dreadful it
would be if there were no God. I think such talk is hooey.
Most of us are a lot more comfortable feeling we’re not
being watched too closely.
If God—by which I do not necessarily mean a single-
pointed Christian concept but an all-powerful and all-
knowing force—does not exist, well then, we’re all off the
hook, aren’t we? There’s no divine retribution, no divine
consolation. And if the whole experience stinks—ah well.
What did you expect?
That question of expectations interests me. If there is no
God, or if that God is disinterested in our puny little affairs,
then everything can roll along as always and we can feel
quite justified in declaring certain things impossible, other
things unfair. If God, or the lack of God, is responsible for
the state of the world, then we can easily wax cynical and
resign ourselves to apathy. What’s the use? Why try
changing anything?
This is the use. If there is a responsive creative force that
does hear us and act on our behalf, then we may really be
able to do some things. The jig, in short, is up: God knows