The Hedonist
Once there lived a strong and intelligent nobleman who strove to do that which was best for his people. His name was David. The king of the land was not as concerned for the people though, in fact, he cared nothing much for any of them. This mighty king was called Saul. David was Saul's top adviser in spite of the fact that they viewed the country so differently. For Saul, in stead of spending his time shepherding his great country, decided to indulge in anything and everything that pleased him. David wished to ease the lives his countrymen who strove hard to support the nobility. Yet the two men's conflicting goals both led to the same conclusion: David should run the country provided that none of his policies affected Saul and that David was still second in command. This country was one without a god. Not that the people had denied one, they just lacked the imagination to create one.
And life continued for years in this way until David noticed that the nobility was killing itself. Not through murder, but suicide. This alone would have been troubling but the notes left by the dead men were starting to raise the suicide rate, the crime level, and a loss of productivity dramatically. So he started to read the notes himself and the notes had a similar effect on David. As for the contents of the notes, the general conclusions in them could be summarized to be:
1) We will all die.
2) Once we die, it doesn't matter what we did in this life for we are still dead and will no longer exist.
3) Being good does not lengthen a man's life so morality doesn't matter for the just and wicked all die alike.
4) A life without a meaningful purpose is pointless.
5) We all die no matter what purposes we pursue.
6) A purpose is only as meaningful as we value it.
7) We can't value something once we are dead.
8) In the long run, all purposes are meaningless since we die.
9) Since all purposes are meaningless, life is pointless.
Such were the conclusions David read and he couldn't help but agree with them. Still though, he wished for people to live happy lives, for after all, whether life is pointless or not, shouldn't the living be made as content as possible? So he presented the king with his problem: how can he make the commoners continue to love life and view it as meaningful. Saul, as usual, didn't care in the least bit and wouldn't have bothered with the issue at all if it wasn't for the report of how significantly the amount of taxes collected dropped. Which makes sense for why should the people pay if they can get away with not paying? Plus many people had given up working or had worked less so they those that continued to pay didn't even have that much to give. This in turn hurt the treasury or more importantly, Saul's allowance.
So now Saul and David were working together on a solution to the sudden apathy that had gripped their homeland. Unfortunately though, they weren't having any success. Neither really disagreed with the notes and the only reasons they continued to strive for a better country was David's fatherly love for his people and Saul's indulging love in the pleasures of this world. But these reasons couldn't be shared with others and sustain a country so they were at a lost of what to do. This is when a man named Nathan entered their land.
Nathan claimed to be a prophet, a term which neither David nor Saul ever heard of. In fact, they never would have even heard of Nathan except that wherever he went, the people went back to work and the criminal and suicide rates dropped lower than they had ever been in the country's history. After a few inquiries into the improved areas, they found out that a drifter named Nathan had preached in all of the areas and that he was loved by the people in the provinces. So David and Saul sought Nathan out and after finding him, brought Nathan to the capital to discuss his success and background.
First Nathan explained that he was from a foreign country and had left there from disgust. He spoke of a foolish king named Solomon who believed in a religion (this term and its ramifications had to then be taught to David and Saul) and even wasted taxes on building a great temple to worship the god. Nathan was exiled after proposing to Solomon that the temple was merely the apex of human stupidity and waste. It seemed that for a holy man, Nathan thought quite atheistically. But his tale wasn't finished there, he then spoke of his many travels into multiple nations preaching "the Foolish Word" as he privately called it. Nathan was not content to just let religion spread of its own accord, he too wanted his fun at creating ones and so he did. His hope was to have so many silly religions conflicting each other that man had to realize that religion was just a delusion and that they had been duped quite thoroughly. After this, Nathan explained, man would be united into one nation that didn't worship a god but the truth: that death was the end.
In Nathan, David and Saul saw their solution. Just trick the people. Saul certainly had no issue with it and David justified it knowing people would be happier if they treated the lie as the truth. And so David and Saul sent Nathan out to preach his religion to the people. Sure not all believed it, but the seed of doubt of what was true was planted. And from it blossomed beautifully blissful lives of ignorance of what was true. In fact, by the end of Nathan's tour around the country, the lies of Nathan and the truth mixed to make such a marvelously unclear gray mist around the occurrence of death that multiple religions were already forming where death was considered a good thing for the now dead person was with a god or some such nonsense that no one attempted to prove. And all the while David and Saul rejoiced.
People were happier than ever before and, more importantly to Saul, they were working harder than before. O Saul had so many memorable quotes as he spoke joyfully to David and Nathan. Some of which include: "O, how perfect! Before the government could only enslave the body but now with religion, we can enslave the heart and mind as well!" or "Ha, they preach now that the hedonists of this world should revile religion but why is this David? We should embrace the tool that convinces fools to provide for us!" or his personal favorite "Nathan thank you, you have given me the best social worker I've ever had by leaps and bounds...GOD!" But despite his happiness, Saul still had devised plans against Nathan.
It is true, Nathan helped the kingdom more than Saul ever had but he was still a threat. Nathan wished to spread religion just so all would see how foolish it was and eventually abandon it while Saul wished it to be an eternal lie to pacify his kingdom among others. Even David was against Nathan knowing that he wished to kill religion purely from spite, not love. And so the two devised a plot to kill Nathan, which they then carried out. And when the people cried out for an answer, Nathan (under the threat of a life in constant torture) explained that he must go and leave them to see God. For the people's sins must be accounted for and as long as they followed the laws of man (Saul was quite clear this point had to be addressed in all the religious preachings of Nathan) and the laws of God, they could follow Nathan to the beautiful eternal life promised to them. And so he went on spreading his lies until his last breath, laughing internally all the while.
After Nathan's death, many of the different religions began fighting amongst themselves declaring the others to be false. This in turn led to killings that David nor Saul had ever expected. But through weaving a tapestry of lies they made the religions tolerate and even pity each other for being lost. And so the kingdom continued well past the lives of David and Saul. Each quite proud of what they had accomplished together but even more amused that the first religious martyr had been an atheist.
And life continued for years in this way until David noticed that the nobility was killing itself. Not through murder, but suicide. This alone would have been troubling but the notes left by the dead men were starting to raise the suicide rate, the crime level, and a loss of productivity dramatically. So he started to read the notes himself and the notes had a similar effect on David. As for the contents of the notes, the general conclusions in them could be summarized to be:
1) We will all die.
2) Once we die, it doesn't matter what we did in this life for we are still dead and will no longer exist.
3) Being good does not lengthen a man's life so morality doesn't matter for the just and wicked all die alike.
4) A life without a meaningful purpose is pointless.
5) We all die no matter what purposes we pursue.
6) A purpose is only as meaningful as we value it.
7) We can't value something once we are dead.
8) In the long run, all purposes are meaningless since we die.
9) Since all purposes are meaningless, life is pointless.
Such were the conclusions David read and he couldn't help but agree with them. Still though, he wished for people to live happy lives, for after all, whether life is pointless or not, shouldn't the living be made as content as possible? So he presented the king with his problem: how can he make the commoners continue to love life and view it as meaningful. Saul, as usual, didn't care in the least bit and wouldn't have bothered with the issue at all if it wasn't for the report of how significantly the amount of taxes collected dropped. Which makes sense for why should the people pay if they can get away with not paying? Plus many people had given up working or had worked less so they those that continued to pay didn't even have that much to give. This in turn hurt the treasury or more importantly, Saul's allowance.
So now Saul and David were working together on a solution to the sudden apathy that had gripped their homeland. Unfortunately though, they weren't having any success. Neither really disagreed with the notes and the only reasons they continued to strive for a better country was David's fatherly love for his people and Saul's indulging love in the pleasures of this world. But these reasons couldn't be shared with others and sustain a country so they were at a lost of what to do. This is when a man named Nathan entered their land.
Nathan claimed to be a prophet, a term which neither David nor Saul ever heard of. In fact, they never would have even heard of Nathan except that wherever he went, the people went back to work and the criminal and suicide rates dropped lower than they had ever been in the country's history. After a few inquiries into the improved areas, they found out that a drifter named Nathan had preached in all of the areas and that he was loved by the people in the provinces. So David and Saul sought Nathan out and after finding him, brought Nathan to the capital to discuss his success and background.
First Nathan explained that he was from a foreign country and had left there from disgust. He spoke of a foolish king named Solomon who believed in a religion (this term and its ramifications had to then be taught to David and Saul) and even wasted taxes on building a great temple to worship the god. Nathan was exiled after proposing to Solomon that the temple was merely the apex of human stupidity and waste. It seemed that for a holy man, Nathan thought quite atheistically. But his tale wasn't finished there, he then spoke of his many travels into multiple nations preaching "the Foolish Word" as he privately called it. Nathan was not content to just let religion spread of its own accord, he too wanted his fun at creating ones and so he did. His hope was to have so many silly religions conflicting each other that man had to realize that religion was just a delusion and that they had been duped quite thoroughly. After this, Nathan explained, man would be united into one nation that didn't worship a god but the truth: that death was the end.
In Nathan, David and Saul saw their solution. Just trick the people. Saul certainly had no issue with it and David justified it knowing people would be happier if they treated the lie as the truth. And so David and Saul sent Nathan out to preach his religion to the people. Sure not all believed it, but the seed of doubt of what was true was planted. And from it blossomed beautifully blissful lives of ignorance of what was true. In fact, by the end of Nathan's tour around the country, the lies of Nathan and the truth mixed to make such a marvelously unclear gray mist around the occurrence of death that multiple religions were already forming where death was considered a good thing for the now dead person was with a god or some such nonsense that no one attempted to prove. And all the while David and Saul rejoiced.
People were happier than ever before and, more importantly to Saul, they were working harder than before. O Saul had so many memorable quotes as he spoke joyfully to David and Nathan. Some of which include: "O, how perfect! Before the government could only enslave the body but now with religion, we can enslave the heart and mind as well!" or "Ha, they preach now that the hedonists of this world should revile religion but why is this David? We should embrace the tool that convinces fools to provide for us!" or his personal favorite "Nathan thank you, you have given me the best social worker I've ever had by leaps and bounds...GOD!" But despite his happiness, Saul still had devised plans against Nathan.
It is true, Nathan helped the kingdom more than Saul ever had but he was still a threat. Nathan wished to spread religion just so all would see how foolish it was and eventually abandon it while Saul wished it to be an eternal lie to pacify his kingdom among others. Even David was against Nathan knowing that he wished to kill religion purely from spite, not love. And so the two devised a plot to kill Nathan, which they then carried out. And when the people cried out for an answer, Nathan (under the threat of a life in constant torture) explained that he must go and leave them to see God. For the people's sins must be accounted for and as long as they followed the laws of man (Saul was quite clear this point had to be addressed in all the religious preachings of Nathan) and the laws of God, they could follow Nathan to the beautiful eternal life promised to them. And so he went on spreading his lies until his last breath, laughing internally all the while.
After Nathan's death, many of the different religions began fighting amongst themselves declaring the others to be false. This in turn led to killings that David nor Saul had ever expected. But through weaving a tapestry of lies they made the religions tolerate and even pity each other for being lost. And so the kingdom continued well past the lives of David and Saul. Each quite proud of what they had accomplished together but even more amused that the first religious martyr had been an atheist.
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