God's Debris

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.”