Natural Zippers

"God isn't compatible with machinery and scientific medicine and universal happiness. You must make your choice. Our civilization has chosen machinery and medicine and happiness. That's why I have to keep these books locked up in the safe. They're smut. People would be shocked if..." The Savage interrupted him. "But isn't it natural to feel there's a God?" "You might as well ask if it's natural to do up one's trousers with zippers."

-- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World This passage illustrates - and explodes - one of the most conventional arguments for deity - "I feel that there is a God." Instinct. We rely heavily on instinct (and what we like to refer to as intuition, which is really just instinct given a nicer name to make it sound reasonable instead of impulsive) to guide us through the perils of our daily existence. Instinct can be good - it keeps us from falling off high objects, walking through bad neighborhoods at night, and being eaten by predators. But instinct has also led us very far astray. The world changes faster than our chemical and genetic makeup. Sometimes, instinct adapts. Most of us are capable of riding in a car at 50 mph or riding an elevator to the tenth floor without panicking. Most of us understand that despite our body's craving for fat and sugar, too much of it is bad for us. We relearn our instincts. We come to think of these things as normal, as natural. Like zippers on trousers. We want to think that there's a God because it gives things purpose - and if things have purpose, then it isn't our fault if they are out of our control. At least, we think, they're in someone's control. And if that someone happens to be benevolent and omnipotent, well, then, we don't have to feel bad about all the horrific things that take place in the world, because they're all under control. God is our psychic security blanket. Sometimes, we need to let those instincts go. To accept that zippers are as natural as trousers, and that trousers are as natural as rainstorms.