What would be your greatest disappointment without the existence of G-d, or gods? If you would NOT be sad or disappointed, and would be happy or neutral, please tell why.
Well, if we were in pagan times, I probably would not be too upset to learn that there arenāt any āgodsā like Zeus &co who might force themselves on my wife or have my city and civilization virtually obliterated as the result of a beauty contest (Troy).
If there were no God, then that would immediately mean any existence itself would cease. But letās assume you mean a world of a strictly Aristotelian kind of God who simply does not involve himself in the meagreness or pettiness or triviality of human affairs.
In that situation, I think the greatest sadness that would be a consequence of it would be the knowledge (acquired only with immense difficulty) that there is this potentiality of divine blessedness or happiness but knowing we had no reason to think we could ever enjoy even a share of it. That coupled with the idea that those who are victimized so unjustly in this life even for, or especially for, doing the right thing canāt hope for or expect any reward for their courage. This is in part, I think, why the early Church Fathers tended to view exemplary instances of pagan heroism with such affection : what some of them sometimes did, they did strictly because it was the right or honourable thing to do. It must have been quite endearing for thoughtful and reflective men to hear Saint Paul preach that in every age God is pleased with and accepts those who fear him. In even our post-Christian mindset this seems like common sense, but it was not even remotely a truism in pagan times.
Of course, more modernly in our age once more you see people living in a world of doubt or uncertainty about God and eternity and, thus, their heroic deeds are often all the more praiseworthy because they do them simply for justiceās or goodnessās sake or simply out of love. But today -unlike in pagan times- our secular culture is not so fond of promoting a culture (or a kind of cult) of virtue. The pagans would often do that: they were aware of the virtues and promoted them with the idea that at least your memory would, in theory, be honoured by your fellows for heroic acts that were ultimately for their benefit. The atmosphere of our times is often quite contented with a live and let live philosophy that can even hold heroism possibly quite in contempt as just rocking the boat. There is an easy tendency to indifference. Notwithstanding, nature is hardly overcome and exemplary virtue, when it shines, shines all the more brighter in the darkness. People will feel moved or attracted by it.
I think the West for the past few centuries has been playing the prodigal. We ceased Creation as our own and determined that we would be the masters of it without reference to God. We would make the rules as we go and as we saw fit. I think the looming question is whether or not the West, as it sinks more and more into a materialist slavery, will find the whole affair empty and degrading and return home. Our modern sorrows are arguably all the more painful exactly because there is a memory of āhomeā that lingers in the air: there is the evidence of a culture that preceded us that thought and hoped in things beyond the temporal. The pagans had no such equivalent evidence. I personally of course hope that we will turn around and begin to head towards the house and homeland of our Father, though there is no guarantee of course.
