You could take this to be heresy.

Featured image: Michael Pacher, Kirchenväteraltar, Flügelaußenseite: Der Teufel weist dem hl. Augustinus das Buch der Laster vor

[Apologies if you do (take this to be heresy) and are consequently hurt by it. Nothing personal.]

In some remote (in some cases, not remote at all) corner of our minds, we hold onto the belief that there is some purpose behind our existence, that somehow, by being so clever, by being self-conscious, and by having free will (?), we are special, we matter in the grand scheme of things, and that there is, indeed, a “grand scheme of things” to start with.

This belief extends to there being this one, single entity – a puppeteer [with a conscience] of sorts – who looks over and after us. This entity is said to have no restrictions, thus making it possible for all sorts of [seemingly] magical and fantastic things to occur around us, if only the entity wanted them to.

Think, though, really think, and you’ll realize that our world is too elaborate, too chaotic and too damn dirty for it to be the product of a well-thought-out scheme by an omnipotent being. This chaos, the magnitude of it, and the idea that it is the result of a series of random occurrences that happened to be “lucky coincidences” (lucky for us, that is) is what is truly magical, truly fantastic; much more so than the puppeteer theory. With this theory, you see, YOU hold the strings that control you.

[Hey, I’m a believer, too. It’s just that I believe in myself.]