Worldly Hope

Science, in spite of its conflict with theological prejudice, has been accepted because it gave power. Belief that the course of nature is regular also gives a sense of security; it enables us, up to a point, to foresee the future and to prevent unpleasant occurrences.
-- Bertrand Russell, Religion and Science

Aha, finally a concession. But could this be true not only of scientific knowledge, but all knowledge? All knowledge as a tacking down, an attempt to find security in the world through a special patterning of neurons.

What is the danger? Hope in the world -- in your intelligence, your spouse, your clothes, your car, you job, ad infinitum -- is dependence on the world. Dependence on the world is potential death through the letdown the world inexorably throws at us. Slavery would be a more appropriate term. You are a slave if you place your hope in anything in this world.

What can be done? Is it possible to sustain hope beyond the world? Well, yes, that's the task of believing in God -- but who can prove God? The only solution is a madman's infinite leap into the unsubstantiated hands of an unsubstantiated deity -- but who wants to be mad, irrational, floating outside the comforting boundaries of the sensate? Happiness, it seems, is never pure, perpetually mixed with either potential heartbreak or ostensible madness.

But you must make a leap. A leap must be made.