There’s this saying by football legend Johan Cruyff. He went to Spain to play in the 1970s and was asked by a journalist if he believed in God — his team mates were all rather devout Catholics.
“I don’t believe in God, because in Spain all 22 players before a game begins make the sign of the cross and pray to win… if God listened to everyone, each game would be a draw!”
Now I’m not sure if this necessarily disproves the existence of God. And obviously Cruyff, a rather irreverent figure and a bit of a jokester, was just speaking in jest. But it does hit at what I believe may be a fundamental truth here…
When men go to war, they pray for victory. They pray their side wins, the other side loses. And the other side prays the same prayers. As do many athletes. For one person or one side to win, often the other side has to lose. For one group to succeed in its aims, another group must fail in theirs. And as a result, we’re left in this strange vicious cycle of doom and gloom where we suffer, and we hate that we suffer… but to solve our own suffering and enrich ourselves may cause suffering in someone else. And we can never seem to “have it all”.
Life sometimes ends in a draw, as a football match might. But more often, it ends in crushing defeat, or glorious victory. In the twilight zone between these two extremes, very little else can live. We delude ourselves it can, because without hope, who can live? Whoever designed all of this, designed it the way a clever designer would a hard-to-crack video game.
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