Lots but some of it is humorous.
All humour is lost in 110 x 6 = 660 pages. And the font is not even San Serif.
Firefox tells me that I will encounter God 84 times in the first book. That is too much.
But 128 pages. That is an achievement.
Here are a few sentences with God in them.
Some people may be offended that the word God is used throughout the book and conclude that this is a religious work. Perhaps the ‘G’ word even makes them want to shut down and disconnect from what is being said. This would be unfortunate. As you carefully read the text you will see that the word God (often referred to as ‘He’) is simply a symbol pointing to the laws that govern our universe.
Isn’t it obvious that if such a discovery exists, and it does, and you deny the possibility, you are setting yourselves up as infallible gods among men, just as our intellectual ancestors did when they prematurely rejected the discovery of Gregor Mendel? Can’t you be the ones to confirm the discovery? Must it be others, long after we are dead?
Because this book dares to oppose the three forces that control the thinking of mankind: government, religion, and education—the most dangerous thinking of all, the kind that really doesn’t know the truth, as Socrates observed, but because of some kind of fallacious standard presumes to know—I have found it necessary to resort to this manner of introducing my work in the fervent hope that I can reach those who will be able to extract the pure, unadulterated relations involved before another century passes by or an atomic explosion destroys millions of lives. Now be honest with yourselves; do you really know, or only think you know? If you will admit there is just the slightest possibility that you have not been endowed with the wisdom of God
; that you may be wrong regarding many things despite the high opinion you and others hold of yourselves; that the expression the blind leading the blind could even pertain to you; I know this is difficult for you to conceive; I say, if there is the slightest possibility you could be mistaken and you are willing to admit this to yourselves, then I cordially welcome your company aboard; otherwise, you had better not read this book, for my words are not meant for your ears. But should you decide to accompany me on this voyage, I would like to remind you once again that this book is not a religious or philosophical tract attempting some ulterior form of indoctrination; it is purely scientific, as you will see, and should the word ‘God’ seem incongruous, kindly remember Spinoza, and you will understand immediately that it is not. While God is proven to be a mathematical reality as a consequence of becoming conscious of the truth, war and crime are compelled to take leave of the earth.
There is an ironic twist here, for if all evils in our world no longer exist, how happy would certain professions be to know that their services will no longer be needed? Shouldn’t this news make those individuals who have been trying to correct the evil in the world very happy? If the cry of the clergy is ‘Faith in God,’ isn’t it obvious that the priesthood would rather see an end to all sin than to preach against it and shrive the sinners in the confessional? They should be simply thrilled at the miracle God is about to perform, even though it means putting them out of work.
The theologians I contacted, though they admit they pray to God for deliverance from evil also believe it is impossible for man to accomplish this apparent miracle. In a sense they are right because the law that was discovered is equivalent to the law that inheres in the solar system, over which we have no control. Any system of established dogma that is based on a false belief needs to be exposed so that the truth can be revealed. This is much easier said than done because the knowledge of what it means that man’s will is not free was buried deeper than atomic energy and presents problems that are almost insurmountable. Convincing a few people of this truth is one thing; convincing the entire world is something else. Supposing the very people whose understanding it is necessary to reach refuse to examine the facts on the grounds that the discovery could not be valid because it starts out with the premise that man’s will is not free. To show you how confused are those who have been guiding us, a rabbi was told that the author of the book “Decline and Fall of All Evil” has the permanent solution to every problem of human relation, and he replied, “How do we know that God wants us to remove all evil?” Now you tell me, if he is doubtful of this why do all theologians ask God in the Lord’s Prayer to deliver us from evil? Another rabbi criticized me for not attending the synagogue, to which I replied, “Isn’t the reason you go to the Temple due to your faith in God, your belief that one day He will reveal Himself to all mankind?”
The belief in free will was compelled to come about as a corollary of evil for not only was it impossible to hold God responsible for man’s deliberate crimes, but primarily because it was impossible for man to solve his problems without blame and punishment which required the justification of this belief in order to absolve his conscience. Therefore, it was assumed that man did not have to do what he did because he was endowed with a special faculty that allowed him to choose between good and evil. In other words, if you were called upon to pass judgment on someone by sentencing him to death, could you do it if you knew his will was not free? To punish him in any way you would have to believe that he was free to choose another alternative than the one for which he was being judged; that he was not compelled by laws over which he had no control. Man was given no choice but to think this way, and that is why our civilization developed the principle of ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,’ and why my discovery was never found. No one could ever get beyond this point because if man’s will is not free, it becomes absolutely impossible to hold him responsible for anything he does. Well, is it any wonder the solution was never found if it lies beyond this point? How is it possible not to blame people for committing murder, rape, for stealing and the wholesale slaughter of millions? Does this mean that we are supposed to condone these evils, and wouldn’t man become even less responsible if there were no laws of punishment to control his nature? Doesn’t our history show that if something is desired badly enough, he will go to any lengths to satisfy himself, even pounce down on other nations with talons or tons of steel? What is it that prevents the poor from walking into stores and taking what they need if not the fear of punishment? The belief that will is not free strikes at the very heart of our present civilization. Right at this point lies the crux of a problem so difficult of solution that it has kept free will in power since time immemorial.
