During his inaugural 2025 address, US President Donald Trump floated the idea that God protected him from an assasination attempt, in order for The Donald to act as an instrument in His hands to pull back the United States from the brink of disaster and make it Great Again.

I believe that Trump’s electoral victory does in fact reveal something about the power of God. This is well illustrated with a story presented by Cicero over two millenia ago, from his immortal book “De Natura Deorum” (On the Nature of the Gods; see also an earlier post). The story is told by one of the book’s three main characters, the skeptical Cotta, who argues that there is no compelling evidence for the existence of the gods. Here’s a tale of plunder with impunity:

“Indeed Diogenes the Cynic used to say that Harpalus, a brigand of the day who passed as fortunate, was a standing witness against the gods, because he lived and prospered as he did for so long. Dionysius, whom I mentioned before, having plundered the temple of Proserpine at Locri, was sailing back to Syracuse, and as he ran before a very favourable wind, remarked with a smile, ‘See you, my friends, what a good crossing the immortal gods bestow on men guilty of sacrilege?’ He was a clever fellow, and grasped the truth so well and clearly that he remained in the same belief continuously; for touching with his fleet on the coast of the Peloponnese and arriving at the temple of Olympian Zeus, he stripped him of his gold mantle, an adornment consisting of a great weight of metal, bestowed upon the god by the tyrant Gelo out of the spoils of the Carthaginians, and actually made a jest about it, saying that a golden mantle was oppressive in summer and cold in winter, and he threw on the god a woollen cloak, saying it was for every season of the year (…) It is also related that he produced in the market-place the spoils of the temples which I have mentioned and sold them by auction, and after he had got the money issued a proclamation that anybody who possessed any article taken from a holy place must restore that article before a fixed date to the shrine to which it belonged; thus to impiety towards the gods he added injustice towards men.

Well, Dionysius was not struck dead with a thunderbolt by Olympian Jupiter, nor did Aesculapius cause him to waste away and perish of some painful and lingering disease. He died in his bed and was laid upon a royal pyre, and the power which he had himself secured by crime he handed on as an inheritance to his son as a just and lawful sovereignty.

Accordingly the prosperity of and good fortune of the wicked, as Diogenes used to say, disprove the might and power of the gods entirely.” (Cicero, de Natura Deorum III. xxxiv–xxxvi; italics added for emphasis)

Obviously this conundrum relates to the problem of evil, and it has kept many philosophers and theologicians awake at night. We will leave it here for now.

References

Cicero, M. T. (45 BC). de Natura Deorum. Translation by H. Rackham, 1956

About The Author

Eric-Jan Wagenmakers

Eric-Jan (EJ) Wagenmakers is professor at the Psychological Methods Group at the University of Amsterdam.