sometimes i wonder if humans are intrinsically good. i see examples of great goodness and great evil in every age and every culture, and it seems to me that the masses live somewhere in between on the bell curve of morality. perhaps humans are born into this world as blank slates: desperate destitution seems to engender as many acts of violence as it does loving sacrifice; and our own culture of wealth and materialism spawns as much apathy as it does almsgiving. humanity as a whole has the power to build paradise on earth or a living gehenna (or even cause the extinction of our own species). my rational mind tells me that one path is as likely as the other, but i have an irrational faith and hope that good will prevail. i am hoping that this faith in the goodness of humanity will be like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

although i lean heavily towards atheism (in principle if not in practice), i think that god is a good idea. i’ve appropriated gandhi’s concept that ‘truth is god’, and i am trying to use this concept to drive myself towards an ideal me and to help my fellow sentient creatures towards paradisiacal joy on this earth. i revere truth, i rejoice in truth, i worship truth, and will fight and perhaps even die for truth. (at the same time, i ask–along with pilate–”what is truth?”). i have little hope and even less evidence for life beyond death; but perhaps living this life as if i will live eternally will help me to value the ideals of compassion, non-violence, and sacrifice above that of self-preservation.