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I believe in no God and in no ghost. Just the thought of speaking about such things destroys them. You must realize that whatever it is we speak about, whatever we make too much noise about, is necessarily absent, is lacking, is existent no more. So when people speak of love, they lack love; when they say they have love and a beloved, they nevertheless are missing the absence, and so they have thoughts in their minds about it, or, in more cases, it exists in language, only as language; the same with rights, our social rights just like our ethics - they speak about "freedom of speech" because they lack that freedom, because they need its existence as language; they speak of "liberty," because they are the most unfree, slavish, inferior men alive. I dare you to test this hypothesis: for every right our dear Americans have they lack something more essential - only as such did they need rights.
But I want to tell you a little about God and atheism, since, I believe, it is only the noblest of souls these days who first have to taste the emptiness of nothing, of lack of spiritual direction, and therefore, the lack of direction in general.
It is strange talking about God, spirit, soul, force, and this "something" as if it were up there, out there, and not here. Do you not feel as if you are estranged from this world sometimes, as if you were a virus, an exile, a rebel indeed without a single cause? Doesn't talking about things distances them? You have to believe me when I say that those who speak much about God and their faith, their so called "spirituality," are the one's who lack it most. They do not see themselves as a part of the whole but estranged from it, as if they were not in this universe and as if the universe was not in them. They differentiate between the "I" and the "You," the "I" from the "World," the "I" from "Universe," and they leave the I floating as if in nowhere, as if it were self-sufficient, as if it were not the whole and the whole were not it. But you are the whole, and the whole is with you - all the time. You need not speak about it. You need no reason for it. You are it, and it is you. You are in all and all is in you.
What is missing? Faith. The strongest and most rebellious, insistent, consistent, and if at all necessary, criminal faith that is willing to go far - very far, as far as possible. Faith in what? In the connection, the wholiness of you and the whole. Philosophers and psychologists have made much about the difference between the "I" and the "world" to which the "I" belong; they wrenched apart the individual - they shook his faith in himself as a manifestation of a totality and degraded him to an individualistic anomaly. But these are tricks and illusions of men who have not the faith in themselves to take themselves far.
Have faith. Dogma, fanaticism, extremity - are far more forgiving and honest than mere "peace" and "equality" and the prostituting “open-mindedness” of the sick men who have nothing to safeguard, thus have to be open-minded and accepting: because they having nothing in them that requires a declaration of war! Not everyone can take himself that personally, and those who do, they are bound to be called tyrants, arrogant fellows, enemies of humanity, criminals, rebels; they are bound to be isolated; but having faith does not care about these conventionalities - take yourself, and make sure you take yourself far, despite the nonsense which would undoubtedly follow you wherever you go.
Make it your resolution this year that you will have faith despite the world and its commodities, despite their lacking. To be sure, they will try to hunt you down as if you were an outlaw of the spirit; some will mock you, others will hate you, and for the first time you will realize with undeniable clarity who your friends are, who the truthful men are, and whom are the mere ghosts and appearances, men who exist as words, as promises, as noise, and not as faith. They will stop you, they will all try to stop you, from taking yourself seriously - they will first tell you "but life is a big joke," others will tell you that "life is just a game," some will whisper "but why take life that seriously?" while others still will say "who cares? just live life to the fullest"; and the most famous one, "life is too short for us to bore ourselves" - do not listen! It is noise. It is mere frequency. An error that tests your solidarity. Escape them. Escape mere noise! It is, they are, just...lost frequencies, distorted pitches, bad music. Run away and do not look back, because they will be running after you - and that alone can make you tremble. Do not stop. Make your will the will of the universe and will the universe with you. Do not listen to those who call you "irrational" - they are too weak to handle irrationality; do not answer to those who demand "reason" from you, because you are reason and reason is you. Remember, where shallowness lurks you will always hear of people not taking life seriously. Life is a well of joy - it is not just a circus or a stage; take it seriously, only then will you value not taking it seriously. Suffer, only then will you realize what it means to be at peace; live to the point of self-destruction, only then will you realize how great life is. Live fanatically, or do not live at all.
Happy Christmas!
-Emann.
