The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut’s second novel, is marvelously fun.
Quirky beyond belief—a seemingly wild random ride that ends up all linking together in the end.
The basic plot is perfectly circular. It is the type of story that my wife, who hates looping time travel stories, would hate.
(By the way, the recent Doctor Who invention of “Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey” was a hysterical dodge to avoid the inherent problem of maintaining continuity in a 50 year long science fiction series in which time travel is the whole point.)
In the midst of that circular plot, there are all sorts of crazy subplots having nothing to do with anything, but amusing in their own right. (There is even a proto-“Harrison Bergeron” which was much better done in the short story than in the novel.)
There is one subplot which truly intrigued me. In the middle of the novel, a character creates a new religion: The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent.
The theology of the church is perfectly explained in the name of the church. In fact, once you have a theology that says
a) God Exists, and
b) He is Utterly Indifferent,
well, there really isn’t much more theology to work out.
A fascinating thought experiment, this new religion.
Compare The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent to the conclusion of Sartre’s Nausea. In both the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent and in a state of total existential nihilism, there is no point to anything.
But, is it more comforting to think that world is meaningless because there is Nothing or because the God who created everything is totally and completely indifferent to the creation?
Oddly, those two worlds would be observationally equivalent—if you live in one, surely someone would think the world was actually the other. So, while at one level it would make no difference which was right, I suspect most people would rather live in one universe than the other. But, I am not sure which is more attractive.
There is no point in denying the attractiveness of a universe in which God the Utterly Indifferent exists.
If God is Indifferent, then why should any of the rest of us be otherwise? That would be comforting. I can stop caring about all the problems in this world.
But, then we’d have that problem of wondering why God was so Utterly Indifferent and that would be rather insulting. After all, I care about Me, so shouldn’t God care about Me?
So, maybe the existential crisis of Nausea is better. Though, it is hard to fathom how Nausea could be a preferred state to any other state.
It’s almost like the more you think about it, the more you realize that maybe it is better if there is God the Not So Utterly Indifferent.
All of which gets me wondering why there are people who seem to hope it is a godless universe. I understand doubting the existence of God, but I am genuinely baffled by people who seem passionate about the desirability of such a thing.
Vonnegut’s human history is senseless from our standpoint. That is the whole point of The Sirens of Titan. Yet, there is a merriness in the senselessness. I do understand that. If there is no point to any of this, then why not take joy in it?
Happiness is underrated in modern philosophical circles.
Related Posts
Vonnegut, Kurt Cat’s Cradle “Does Life Have Meaning?”
Nietzsche, Friedrich Twilight of the Idols “Philosophizing With a Hammer”
Even though I read the Sirens of Titan as a young man, I have many a time chuckled on the idea of “The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent”, because, if I was ever to establish a religion suitable for all the people that would unite all religions – that would be it. In fact, I think all religions worship such a god – unknowingly though. 🙂
BR,
Jouni