— The prayer of Pi.
Mostly praying to himself.
We believe in Marxfreudanddarwin
We believe everything is OK
as long as you don’t hurt anyone,
to the best of your definition of hurt,
and to the best of your knowledge.
We believe in sex before, during, and after marriage.
We believe in the therapy of sin.
We believe that adultery is fun.
We believe that sodomy is OK.
We believe that taboos are taboo.
We believe that everything is getting better
despite evidence to the contrary.
The evidence must be investigated
And you can prove anything with evidence.
We believe there’s something in
horoscopes, UFO’s and bent spoons;
Jesus was a good man
just like Buddha, Mohammed, and ourselves.
He was a good moral teacher
although we think His good morals were bad.
We believe that all religions are basically the same—
at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of
creation, sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.
We believe that after death comes the Nothing
Because when you ask the dead what happens they say nothing.
If death is not the end, if the dead have lied,
then it’s compulsory heaven for all
excepting perhaps Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Khan.
We believe in Masters and Johnson.
What’s selected is average.
What’s average is normal.
What’s normal is good.
We believe in total disarmament.
We believe there are direct links between warfare and bloodshed.
Americans should beat their guns into tractors
and the Russians would be sure to follow.
We believe that man is essentially good.
It’s only his behavior that lets him down.
This is the fault of society.
Society is the fault of conditions.
Conditions are the fault of society.
We believe that each man must find the truth that is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust.
History will alter.
We believe that there is no absolute truth
excepting the truth that there is no absolute truth.
We believe in the rejection of creeds,
and the flowering of individual thought.
“Chance” - a post-script
If chance be the Father of all flesh,
disaster is his rainbow in the sky,
and when you hear
State of Emergency!
Sniper Kills Ten!
Troops on Rampage!
Whites go Looting!
Bomb Blasts School!
It is but the sound of man worshiping his maker.
— John Steinbeck, from his 1962 Nobel Prize acceptance speech
— John Donne
This man is a Holocaust survivor, and he speaks of believing in the potential of humans. Truly powerful.
— John Steinbeck, East of Eden
— Mahatma Ghandi
“We have usurped many of the powers we once ascribed to God.
Fearful and unprepared, we have assumed lordship over the life or death of the whole world — of all living things.
The danger and the glory and the choice rest finally in man. The test of his perfectibility is at hand.
Having taken Godlike power, we must seek in ourselves for the responsibility and the wisdom we once prayed some deity might have.
Man himself has become our greatest hazard and our only hope.
So that today, St. John the apostle may well be paraphrased: In the end is the Word, and the Word is Man — and the Word is with Men.”
-John Steinbeck, 1962 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech
To understand the role of the individual, one must understand the prevalent or potentially innovative thoughts in society at large. Steinbeck’s writing has been the most beautiful literary form I have ever come into contact with, and for that reason (illogically, admittedly) his principles are much more attractive to me, as I am sure they are to many other readers. I am not going to comment for or against the veracity of the above statements, because this is not a “preachy” tumblr. To believe something, my dear audience, you must assess it and make the ensuing conviction your own. If you know me, you will know how I feel regarding the quote. Think about how you feel.
To the degree that loneliness has been treated as a matter of public concern in the past, it has generally been seen as a social problem—the product...
”
Seen on the subway.
They say if you give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day. But if you teach a man to fish…....
no thank you
