“Ben, the foulest sinner of all is the hypocrite who makes a racket of religion. But we must give the Devil his due. Mike does believe in his ‘Old Ones,’ I don’t know that they don’t exist; I simply find the idea hard to swallow. As for his Thou-Art-God creed, it is neither more nor less credible than any other. Come Judgment Day, if they hold it, we may find that Mumbo Jumbo the God of the Congo was the Big Boss all along.”
“Oh, for Heaven’s sake, Jubal!”
“All names belong in the hat, Ben. Man is so built that he cannot imagine his own death. That leads to endless invention of religions. While this conviction by no means proves immortality to be a fact, questions generated by it are overwhelmingly important. The nature of life, how the ego hooks into the body, the problem of the ego itself and why each ego seems to be the center of the universe, the purpose of life, the purpose of the universe — these are paramount questions Ben; they can never be trivial. Science hasn’t solved them — and who am I to sneer at religions for trying, no matter how unconvincingly to me? Old Mumbo Jumbo may eat me yet; I can’t rule him out because he owns no fancy cathedrals. Nor can I rule out one godstruck boy leading a sex cult in an upholstered attic; he might be the Messiah. The only religious opinion that I feel sure of is this: self-awareness is not just a bunch of amino acids bumping together!”
“Whew! Jubal, you should have been a preacher.”
“Missed it by luck. If Mike can show us a better way to run this fouled-up planet, his sex life needs no vindication. Geniuses are justifiably contemptuous of lesser opinion and are always indifferent to sexual customs of the tribe; they make their own rules. Mike is a genius. So he ignores Mrs. Grundy and diddles to suit himself.
“But from a theological standpoint Mike’s sexual behavior is as orthodox as Santa Claus. He preaches that all living creatures are collectively God … which makes Mike and his disciples the only self-aware gods on this planet … which rates him a union card by the rules for godding. Those rules always permit gods sexual freedom limited only by their own judgment.
“You want proof? Leda and the Swan? Europa and the Bull? Osiris, Isis, and Horus? The incredible incestuous games of the Norse gods? I won’t cite eastern religions; their gods do things that a mink breeder wouldn’t tolerate. But look at the relations of the Trinity-in-One of the most widely respected western religion. The only way that religion’s precepts can be reconciled with the interrelations of what purports to be a monotheos is by concluding that the breeding rules for deity are not the rules for mortals. But most people never think about it; they seal it off and mark it: ‘Holy – Do Not Disturb.’
“One must allow Mike any dispensation granted all other gods. One god alone splits into at least two parts, and breeds, not just Jehovah — they all do. A group of gods will breed like rabbits, and with as little regard for human proprieties. Once Mike entered the godding business, those orgies were as predictable as sunrise — so forget the standards of Podunk and judge them by Olympian morals — I think you will then find that they are showing unusual restraint.”
– Jubal Harshaw – Stranger In A Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein
I don’t get it, but sometimes I don’t get you, sir. But I always love you. Thanks for tasty candies. Grayson ate the marshmallows. Slinky ate the lime slices. I have been eating(very slowly) everything else. You rock. Gemma too.