And God is simply the Love that
springs from universal suffering and becomes consciousness.
But this, it will be said, is merely to revolve in an iron ring, for
such a God is not objective. And at this point it may not be out of
place to give reason its due and to examine exactly what is meant by a
thing existing, being objective.
What is it, in effect, to exist? and when do we say that a thing exists?
A thing exists when it is placed outside us, and in such a way that it
shall have preceded our perception of it and be capable of continuing to
subsist outside us after we have disappeared. But have I any certainty
that anything has preceded me or that anything must survive me? Can my
consciousness know that there is anything outside it? Everything that I
know or can know is within my consciousness. We will not entangle
ourselves, therefore, in the insoluble problem of an objectivity outside
our perceptions. Things exist in so far as they act. To exist is to act.
But now it will be said that it is not God, but the idea of God, that
acts in us. To which we shall reply that it is sometimes God acting by
His idea, but still very often it is rather God acting in us by Himself.
And the retort will be a demand for proofs of the objective truth of the
existence of God, since we ask for signs. And we shall have to answer
with Pilate: What is truth?
And having asked this question, Pilate turned away without waiting for
an answer and proceeded to wash his hands in order that he might
exculpate himself for having allowed Christ to be condemned to death.
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