11.23.10
This is an excerpt from "God's Debris" by Scott Adams (though this is NOT anything Dilbert related). So far, I can't say I agree with a whole lot of the ideas proposed in the book, but I like this conversation about "ranking" and "importance," and I do feel that we should recognize the arbitrariness of the way we rank things.
“To a God not bound by the limits of human practicality,
every tiny part of your body would be as action-packed
and meaningful as the parts of any rock or tree or bug. And
the sum of your parts that form the personality and life we
find so special and amazing would seem neither special nor
amazing to an omnipotent being.
“It is absurd to define God as omnipotent and then burden
him with our own myopic view of the significance of
human beings. What could possibly be interesting or important
to a God that knows everything, can create anything,
can destroy anything. The concept of ‘importance’ is a
human one born out of our need to make choices for survival.
An omnipotent being has no need to rank things. To
God, nothing in the universe would be more interesting,
more worthy, more useful, more threatening, or more
important than anything else.”
“I still think people are more important to God than animals
and plants and dirt. I think that’s obvious,” I argued.
“What is more important to a car, the steering wheel or
the engine?” he asked.
“The engine is more important because without an
engine, there is no reason to steer,” I reasoned.
“But unless you have both the engine and the steering
wheel, the car is useless, isn’t it?” he asked.
“Well, yes. I guess that’s true,” I admitted.
“The steering wheel and the engine are of equal importance.
It is a human impulse—composed of equal parts arrogance
and instinct—to believe we can rank everything in
our environment. Importance is not an intrinsic quality of
the universe. It exists only in our delusion-filled minds. I
can assure you that humans are not in any form or fashion
more important than rocks or steering wheels or engines.”
