One possibility we had not considered was that God might be the great ironist. Just as scientists conduct experiments in the laboratory with rats, mazes and pieces of cheese placed behind the right door, God might have carried out his experiment on us as rats. Our task is to find the door behind which eternal life is hidden.
This is not a bad definition of God, one that was previously unknown to me, although it has its touch of naivety and trickery, as is the case, moreover, with almost all attempts to define Him. Although we do not come off particularly well in the comparison with rats, I like it because it gives us an idea of the extent of our ignorance about eschatology, which is much like that of a rat or mouse about what lies beyond its maze.
For most rats, this ignorance does not deter them from their efforts to obtain the little piece of cheese or whatever reward is on offer. That drive is tremendously powerful. We have already discussed the famous Olds and Milner experiment on the reward circuit, which demonstrated this.
