On God: An Uncommon Conversation by Norman Mailer, Michael Lennon Read Free Book Online Page B

kind of odd integrity, if you will, in terms of their environment—seemed to do better for the most part than those who didn’t. Of course, there are animals—we can see this directly—who had too much courage. This notion of balance underwriting courage is what God began to search for.
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    Let me shift a little bit over to the dark side, to the Devil. If things are indeed getting worse—if Satan, as you seem to fear, could be winning—why would the Devil wish to destroy the world, rather than run the world as an ultimate tyrant? Wouldn’t he wish to rule humans, convert them to his evil slaves and minions, rather than destroy them?
    Let’s start with the Devil’s point of view—the word “evil” is not even present for him.
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    Evil is his good, as in
Paradise Lost?
    He might see it that way. It’s such a blatant speculation, let’s have a little fun with it. My guess is that the Devil sees God as incompetent. After all, the Devil is a fallen angel, that I assume. Why? Because certain geniuses have come along who had intimations of what our origins might be. Milton was certainly one. I think Milton is as good a rule of thumb for approaching this matter of God and the Devil as anyone I’ve come across—homage to Milton. So I propose that the Devil’s belief is that He or She could end up with a better world, a better form of existence, a more sophisticated, more intelligent, well-run notion of things. Now, what are the Devil’s means? Well, our fear is that He could destroy the whole world in order to start over again. There, I’m out on the end of my mental belay—does the Devil have the same creative powers that God does to create animals, plants, humans, a system? Or is the Devil a parasite, essentially, upon God? That’s a question I wouldn’t presume to answer.
    That’s why I have more trouble dealing with the notion of the Devil than with that of God. It’s relatively more direct to deal with the notion of God as the Creator.
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    But if you see the Devil as capable of defeating God, He must have equal powers.
    Well, even at the highest level, there is such a matter as mindless destruction. When you can’t win, you destroy the game. The spoiled kid who picks up the marbles comes in all forms. But such a kid hardly has to be the best player. If the Devil feels that He or She cannot gain those powers that are needed to form a new universe, the rage generated may be so intense that the next move is to destroy the works. Talk about rank speculation, let’s suppose the Devil is treacherous and has sold His or Her birthright to some other god in the cosmos and will do His or Her best to turn over a paralyzed, inane, stupid, mainly destroyed world to someone who can build it up. The Devil could be a lieutenant, rather than a majordomo. In that case, the game starts all over again.
    These notions of what the Devil might be are not nearly so comfortable as assuming that God is an imperfect creator. That makes sense to me. But the Devil could be this, that, anything—I don’t know. One guess: Technology is an arm of the Devil, which I think is probably true. Still, technology could be a third force, ready to destroy both God and the Devil—man’s assertion against God and the Devil.
    The questions are wide-open. No way to propose answers yet, but perhaps the question will become somewhat more focused as the new century goes on. As of now, for example, I would assume technology is indeed the Devil’s force. Why? I feel it viscerally. That’s the best I can offer. I think of all the things I’ve detested for all these years, starting with plastic. It seems to me plastic is a perfect weapon in the Devil’s armory, for it desensitizes human beings. Living in and with plastic, we are subtly sickened.