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Harari in his book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century describes two contradictory god images that I call the god of the campfire and the god of the burning pyre.
This is how they are different:
| The god of the campfire | The god of the burning pyre |
|---|---|
| ”a grand and awesome enigma" | "a stern and worldly lawgiver" |
| "we know absolutely nothing about it" | "we know only too much about him" |
| "what is life all about?“ | what is the truth and the law? |
| “this is the God of the philosophers" | "this is the God of the crusaders and jihadists, of the inquisitors, the misogynists and the homophobes" |
| "we give our ignorance the grand name of God” | we call our biases and hate God |
| ”this is the God we talk about when we sit around a campfire late at night" | "this is the God we talk about when we stand around a burning pyre” |
Related
- I call Harari’s two gods (using his words) the god of the campfire and the god of the burning pyre: 4a1a-i-call-harari-s-two-gods-the-god-of-the-campfire-and-the-god-of-the-burning-pyre
- People often play magic tricks swapping these two gods, while they are not at all interchangeable, right the contrary. 4a1-harari-calls-it-a-magic-trick-how-believers-swap-versions-of-god-so-god-can-serve-their-agenda
- Harari says the bigger the enigma, the less likely it cares about the tiny details of our daily activities.
- Harari advises to choose different names for these two gods, so we can within ourselves differentiate which god we are talking about.
- I have my own image or sense of God, but it rather feels like moss and mushrooms.