In chapter 17 of Brave New World,
John the Savage and Mustapha Mond discuss the emotional need for
God.
John asks the World Controller, "...isn't
it natural to feel there's a
God?"
Mustapha Mond
replies:
"You
might as well ask if it's natural to do up one's trousers with zippers," said the
Controller sarcastically. "You remind me of another of those old fellows called Bradley.
He defined philosophy as the finding of bad reason for what one believes by
instinct. As if one believed anything by
instinct! One believes things because one has been
conditioned to believe them. Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad
reasons–that's philosophy. People believe in God because they've been conditioned
to.
So, Mond's response is
that the Utopians have no instincts, at least not for God. He says that he has
conditioned the citizens of the Brave New World not to be unhappy; therefore, there is
no need for God.
Mond finds the idea of God emotionally
unsatisfying. He thinks that the desire to seek God is a kind of emotional response to
suffering and pain. Since he has eliminated all suffering and pain, he has eliminated
the instinct for God by extension. God is like a zipper. One doesn't have the need
for it if he doesn't know it existed in the first
place.
Mond believes humans to be empty vessels. Before
and shortly after birth, his labs fill them up with all the feelings and thoughts they
will ever need. Instinct is to be averted, like books, nature, and family. All
instinct is replaced by genetically engineered "bliss."
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