On ‘The Fountainhead’: Man living godly is the only real proof of God

Acharya Prashant
5 min readAug 19, 2020

Howard Roark: “I didn’t know it then, but it’s because I’ve never believed in God.”

Henry Cameron: “Come on, talk sense.”

Howard Roark: “Because I love this earth. That’s all I love. I don’t like the shape of things on the earth. I want to change them.”

Henry Cameron: “For whom?”

Howard Roark: “For myself.”

~ The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand

Question: When asked by Cameron about his career choice, why did Roark (the protagonist in Ayn Rand’s ‘The Fountainhead’) say, “I’ve never believed in God,” while he seems to be the one who actually does?

Acharya Prashant: Most people blame of shape of things on Earth, on God. Most people say, “God is the father, the creator. So if things on the Earth are ugly, who is responsible? God.”

And this is accepted.

Isn’t this a great fad in Spirituality, — ‘Accept things as they are’? When you say, “Accept things as they are,” what you are saying is, “After all it is God’s wish, how can you not accept it?”

“If things are totally rotten, why are they totally rotten? Who is the prime mover? God. He is the doer, He did it. And if He did it, who are you to not to accept His wish…

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