Chapter One

Why I am writing this book

Why am I writing this book? The answer is: partly to help myself, partly to help other people. The existence or non-existence of God is the most important question we humans are ever called to answer. If God does exist, and if in consequence we are called to another life when this one ends, a momentous set of consequences follows, which should affect every day, every moment almost, of our earthly existence. Our life then becomes a mere preparation for eternity and must be conducted throughout with our future in view. If, on the other hand, God does not exist, another momentous set of consequences follows. This life then becomes the only one we have, we have no duties or obligations except to ourselves, and we need weigh no other considerations except our own interests and pleasures. There are no commands to follow except what society imposes upon us, and even these we may evade if we can get away with it. In a Godless world, there is no obvious basis for altruism of any kind, moral anarchy takes over and the rule of the self prevails.

Yet all of us know that the logic of Godlessness would not prevail in our own case. Even if we have no belief whatever in a God, even if we are certain no afterlife will follow and that there is no eternal system of rewards and punishments to regulate our behaviour in the world, we know that we are incapable of pursuing a purely selfish existence. Try as we will, total self-regard, let alone total wickedness, is beyond us. Even the worst of us has redeeming qualities, often positive virtues. Selfishness may be our policy, the pursuit of pleasure our sole aim, but altruism keeps creeping in. It is as though