God looked angrily at the earth, at all the selfless men who pleaded and plundered, cheated and stole and lied, at all the slick, double-speaking charlatans who tried to make men guiltily give up their joy, guiltily give away all of their possessions. So with a mighty voice he thundered, “Let Capitalism be! Let each man live by the judgment of his own mind! Let the individual self profit! Let each unique individual rear himself an altar of the desires and dreams of his life and heroically lead himself on toward completion and fulfillment! Let Humility be dead and Pride spread its wings and soar!”

Then one man said, “Why then, do we need you, God?”

God replied, “You don’t need me. I didn’t create you so that you would be a burden of need upon me. I didn’t create you so that I could become a nurse-maid, bandaging your wounds and enveloping you in pity every time you made a mistake. I didn’t create you so that I could wear myself out with hearing your moans and prayers and pleas. I created you because I was bored with all these passionless angels who never have a thought or will of their own. I want to see individuals who go their own way, who cherish their own dreams and work and fight for them. I am tired of mindless followers who bow and bend and smite their miserable little selves. And I am angry, very angry, at all the earth-worshippers, those men who count themselves of less value than a bug or a plant or a sliver of ice. They are the most abyssmal failures. Maybe I will create a Hell after all, but somewhere hidden far away, where I don’t have to see or hear these more than unfit things.

“No, it is not man who needs God, but I, God, who WANTS man. I want man the thinker, man the inventor, man the passionate lover, man the hero, man the individual! I want to proudly and selfishly worship something supreme that is not of my own choosing or making. I want to be inspired! Earth, I gave you men; now bring me giants!