..."purpose" (in the sense of destiny).
I haven't thought about "purpose" as associated with "destiny," but only as associated, in the minds of those who "see" and "know" "purpose" to be, with the existence of a consciousness (we've called it an "extrinsic" one in such discussions before) that has an agenda. The agenda is the purpose.
- and, perhaps most of all, the stance that their "certainty" makes them a better person, innately superior or more fortunate than people of every other "certainty" - or of none.
Clearly that "certainty" doesn't make them "better" people. If anything is obvious about the ohsoverycertain, it is that they are capable of great brutality. Civilized Americans who believe in the Bill of Rights, for example, believe, because of their "certainty," that all American women should be forced by the state to gestate zygotes to term.
In some ways, in some circumstances, I can buy that they can be "more fortunate." It's hard to accept the meaninglessness of some suffering. It would be a comfort, sometimes, to be able to believe that even though one couldn't, oneself, figure out why it was okay that some horror occurred, Someone, somewhere, knew the "reason" for it, and knew it was really all for the best.
It would be like a mind-drug. It might well make one feel better, I think. |
