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Wednesday 5 September 2012

‘You Always Get What You Deserve’: Another Blatant Bloody Lie?

Major religious groups
Major religious groups (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last week, I wrote a post titled, ‘Work Hard and You’ll Succeed: the Biggest Lie?’ Today, I want to explore, with you, another blatant lie.

We’re told, frequently and with much volume, that we get what we deserve. I think this is an attempt by some to encourage the first lie in the minds of those as yet unschooled in reality. It’s also, of course, a saying completely founded in the religious concepts that underpin the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Their sacred texts explicitly tell followers that their rewards will follow from their actions.

But is it true? Do we, or indeed anyone else, get what we deserve?

Does the innocent child deserve to starve to death by an accident of geographical location? Does the winner of millions on a lottery actually deserve this piece of great fortune? Does the drug baron deserve a life of luxury and ease at the expense of those who suffer and die through his activities? Does the Chairman of a business empire deserve the exorbitant income he awards himself?

There are millions more examples of people receiving things they don’t deserve. In fact, I’d say that more people get what they don’t deserve than get what they do. In fact, I can think of very few people I know who have actually been given what they deserved.

I hear those of a religious mind-set yelling that we get our real rewards in heaven, paradise, or whatever other presumed afterlife they believe in. But such destinations are pure speculation. There’s no way of knowing whether they even exist except by taking that final step to enter them. By then it’s too late to discover that all your effort, good, bad or indifferent, has, in fact, resulted in you reaching the same end as all living things on death: i.e. the recycling of your components. If there is an afterlife, and it’s something we can never know since no one has ever returned with a reliable report, then surely the creator of such a splendid reward system would want us to be certain?

There’s little point in any deity permitting us to have doubts about such things, since these are supposed to be the very motivations that make us do the bidding of that deity. Yet the tales that are sold by the various religions are so different and contradictory. Surely any deity worthy of the name would at least remove the elements of doubt and dispute and provide a means whereby we could actually experience such rich rewards? Nothing else makes sense.

Of course, I understand that many are now yelling at me that I have to have faith. I’m sorry, but faith in something for which there is no evidence, let alone proof, strikes me as little short of imbecility. Does anybody seriously believe in fairies, a flat Earth, that Mars is inhabited by little green men or any one of thousands of such tales? We’ve dismissed the myths of ancient times, the tales of Zeus and his clan, Odin and his cohorts, Ra and his comrades, as early attempts to explain what was then inexplicable. A similar fate is already undermining current deities as reason and rational thought supersede superstition and folklore.

It isn’t that I deny absolutely the possibility of religious dogma having a basis in truth; it’s that I see such division in interpretation and I don’t believe it can be proven. The very existence of God is a matter we, as humans, will probably never be able to determine one way or another. If such a power actually exists, it must, by its very nature, be so far outside our experience and knowledge as to be incomprehensible. Any attempt to define such a power must inevitably diminish any reality it might possess. So, I take the only sane and reasonable attitude possible: I can’t know, which is why I style myself agnostic.

I’d like to say, ‘religious considerations aside’ and give examples of my argument on that basis but, unfortunately, the world in which we live is so deeply imbued in religious foundation that it’s impossible to escape its influence.  

But I will set a challenge.

Can anyone, without citing religious concepts, please provide more examples of people actually getting what they deserve than those who most clearly do not deserve what they get? I’m open-minded enough to be converted to a different view, if I can be given evidence that ‘just deserts’ is something more than a meaningless lie disguised as truth by those with vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Go ahead; change my mind.

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4 comments:

Mike Maynard said...

Hi Stuart,


Very good. I rarely see people getting what they deserve. If we got what we deserved then David Cameron would be sitting on a very sharp stick! I tend to think the theory of survival of the fittest is a little more appropriate. the fittest being the most psychopathic in the case of Hitler and even in the case of the Pope and Royalty there appears to be an ability to calmly ignore people when they are starving and "pray for them".

stuartaken.net said...

How right you are, Michael. It is, as you say, the most ruthless and least caring who succeed, not those who we consider most deserving.

Anonymous said...

Have you ever read the non-fiction book "The Sociopath Next Door," by Martha Stout? And in fiction, have you ever seen the movie, "They Live," from 1988, starring Rowdy Roddy Piper? And I'm sure you have read, "1984." Examine those works to find out why the ruthless and least caring succeed. Also watch the 1980's series, "V." (the Visitors) These works of fiction, are not really fiction. They are allegorical and contain ancient truths that have been occulted from public consciousness. A sociopath can fake human emotion and manipulate others. They have very few real emotions, and are completely devoid of conscience. This is completely unexpected by the victim, and the abuse occurs before the victim even knows what happened. Their actions are so unbelievable that the targeted victims feel pity towards them even after the abuse is discovered and acknowledged. Governments and large corporations are run by these types of people, as they thrive on collectivism, pyramidal structures, dominance, and power. They are a collective, made up of elite bloodlines with psychopathic traits and characteristics dating back many centuries, all the way back to Ancient Egypt. They walk among us, they are about 4 percent of the population.

stuartaken.net said...

Not read the book or seen the film, but I have, of course, read 1984 and fully understood its message. Your comments about sociopaths confirm what has been a growing conviction I have reached by a combination of received information and knowledge and personal experience of the world over my many years. As you so eloquently state; these individuals are supreme manipulators and make it very difficult for most of their victims to even recognise that they are being so deeply influenced. My hope is that the web and internet, by exposing so many more to the realities, will eventually start a movement to increase recognition of this reality. In fact, I think such a movement may even have already begun. Protest is growing worldwide and the influence of government, religion and big business is very slowly beginning to slow down. We haven't reached stasis yet or, of course, begun the downward trend. But the future holds some hope, I think. Many thanks for your thoughtful comment.