ABSTRACT
Self-righteousness often masks an immoral conscience. Humankind is at a place where the work of immoral conscience is poisoning the planet, and the goodness of law is made poisonous or vacuous by cynical manipulation, disregard, or fundamentalist rigidity. S. Freud, the mental health field has neglected the distinction between omnipotence and omniscience, although much is to be gained by reflecting on their difference. Omnipotence tends to refer to the exercise of limitless power in physical terms, of mind over matter. Miscalculation from the standpoint of omniscience can be disastrous; the Bible was right in associating the seduction of omniscience with disaster. In clinical terms omniscience murders experience and is very prevalent. The imaginary omnipotence of the bully sooner or later comes up against some chastening physical limit. Religions instinctively express the terror by representing the greatest bliss and torment in immaterial terms.
