Cerutty On Faith,Religion and Achieving

Percy Cerutty was a complex man. It was often hard to figure him out. Just when you thought you knew how he felt on a subject he would say something that would seem contradictory. No where was this truer then when he wrote about what I will call faith, belief in God.
I have read where he flat out dismissed 'believing', said he was an agnostic but later would quote from the Bible as well as reference certain men of faith.
There was a message in his seeming dismissal of all things religious and I will comment about this after the following quote by Cerutty.
I should add that there was something he was trying to get across in what appeared to be his rejection of religion. I believe it is of great value for us to understand.


"Heavens, hereafters--'rewards' and hoping to meet the Saints. All can be, I would say--certainly are illusions. Such hopes and beliefs can never be but an admission that today is dull and we cannot alter it. Unreal dreams, especially anticipations after death, are substitutions for living satisfactorily today. Only the poor dream of riches: the sick of being healthy: only the frustrated, those unable to dominate their environment, the incompetents, the unhappy, dream of 'rewards in heaven'. The realist realizes his reward today, and most days. He 'lives': the others? They dream!"


Something to keep in mind: Cerutty reclaimed his mental and physical health through study and a lot of physical effort. His recovery did not happen overnight.
I believe the message in his quote above is that you have to take charge of your life. You have the power in you to change and improve your condition. To leave your situation or condition solely in "God's hands" and doing nothing yourself is in Cerutty's mind, weak, and ultimately cowardly.


Most of us underestimate what we can actually accomplish.