Nature To be Commanded, Must Be Obeyed // Logic as A Healing Tool

Nature to be commanded, must be obeyed.

A concept that I’ve had difficulty grasping, fully understanding, until recently.

Back in 2009, when I starting writing The Crooked God Machine, I wanted to tell the story in a direct response to the destructive forces that I saw religion had the potential to wield. It was something that I wasn’t even seeing other atheists talk about. Sure, there were the Crusades and Jonestown and the serial killer Son of Sam, but these examples didn’t quite hit home just how evil religion was for day-to-day processes. I also found that such extrapolations of the evil of religion was an easy way for people to dismiss just how serious this issue was. Those were extremists, and they were normal, and would never do such terrible things.

What I saw when I looked at those terrible things that had happened in the name of religion, was not extremist or bizarre inside the realm of religion. What I saw instead, was the natural trajectory of following a religious creed. The “God” in Crooked God Machine was also following the natural trajectory, the most logical thought process, for the parameters he was given.

If you think this is wrong, it’s because it is. People generally want to be good, and religion is evil, and most people do not want to do evil things, like smash infants on rocks or kill gay people.

But I think the worst thing about religion is how it distorts the thought processes of ordinary people. Religion, regardless of the denomination, is largely about faith, wishful thinking, faulty causality, suppression of human impulses, and positivity.

But that kind of faulty thinking does not just stop when it applies to religion. You cannot pick up an incorrect way of thinking and have it not affect the rest of your life. It spreads to the way you think about cause and effect, how to improve yourself, your relationship to other people, how you try to solve problems.

Nature to be commanded, must be obeyed.

That means in order for you to change or fix or move anything, you must truly understand it.

Imagine someone who has a serious terminal illness. Cancer, maybe. Most people will think that it is absurd to pray instead of getting cancer treatment.

But think of all the little ways in which you try to manipulate your mental processes and psychology by “Praying” (I.E, wishing, desiring it) instead of direct action. You wish that you didn’t get so angry at your wife - but that does not quell your anger. You do not look, really look, into all the processes that trigger the anger. And you take no steps to improve it. You simply keep wishing - and so the anger does not cease. It may in fact, become worse.

Yet I’m an asshole for not respecting people’s false beliefs - Christianity, paganism, gnosticism, tarot, reiki, ghosts, whatever. And I do not respect it simply for the fact it is incredibly harmful, it keeps you from addressing real issues, and figuring out how to REALLY solve problems.

Most people would think you were insane for thinking dinosaurs weren't real. And yet, I’m expected to entertain the idea that tarot may be real because of someone’s subjective, non-measurable experience.

I have an eating disorder. I’m currently in remission, for the most part, but I say that I still have one because I still have to fight those maladaptive thoughts nearly everyday.

For years I heard: “Just eat the donut.” “You’re not going to get fat.” “Who cares how many calories is in that?” “Stop being so obsessive.” “It doesn’t matter what you look like.”

This had nothing to do with religion - but it was “religious” thinking. Imagine something, and it’ll happen. Don’t look at facts.

But I knew that realistically, if I ate enough calories, I WOULD get fat. The majority of America is fat. And it DID matter what I look like - there is data that attractive people generally are more successful, are paid better, and given more attention. It seemed the only way I could get “Better” was to accept another false reality.

But when I met Robert, he suggested that I exercise a few times a week and track my calories so that I knew I was staying within my BMR.

It was incredibly difficult at first - I’d cry eating that many calories, and become nauseous. But the numbers didn’t lie - and the scale didn’t swing up. It’s been nearly a year since I’ve been tracking my calories, and it’s freed up a lot of mental space to focus on other aspects of my life. (Eating disorders take up a HUGE amount of time. Not eating is an incredibly tedious activity.)

Nature to be commanded, must be obeyed.

These days I’ve become frustrated with how much I don’t know.

How much time I’ve wasted accepting “Good enough” explanations, when I could have been learning how the universe worked.

I stare at a poster on the wall, and wonder how it sticks to the wall. I know it’s adhesive, but how does adhesive work?

When I turn on a computer, what happens to make it boot up? I know vaguely, but I don’t really KNOW.

And when you KNOW, that’s when the real fucking magic happens.

That’s when everything changes.

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