Editing Mike Mentzer (section)

==Personal life==

===Beliefs about a Creator===
Mentzer stated in the last interview before his death that he did not believe in [[God]] "as He is commonly defined", but that "There is what's called a rational view of a creator. As I said, there cannot be a God as He is commonly defined. God is infinite, God is everywhere, God created the universe - that's an interesting one. There's no such thing as creating the universe or causing the universe to come into existence, as the universe is the ground of all causation! If there was a God, He would have to consist of some material substance and He'd have to live somewhere. Therefore, existence always existed, even in the context you just gave. If, as you said, it was proven somehow beyond a shadow of a doubt there was a rational creator and a life hereafter, yes, I would grab at the chance to be with my mother and father again."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ironmanmagazine.com/mike-mentzers-last-interview/|title=Mike Mentzer's Last Interview -|first=The|last=Sandwich|date=October 1, 2001|website=www.ironmanmagazine.com}}</ref>

===Objectivism===
While in school, Mentzer's father motivated his academic performance by providing him with various kinds of inducements, from a baseball glove to hard cash. Years later, Mike said that his father "unwittingly ... was inculcating in me an appreciation of [[capitalism]]."<ref name="Bob Burns" />

According to David M. Sears, a friend of Mentzer and an editor and publisher of his ''Muscles in Minutes'' book, he stated that:<ref name="Bob Burns" />

{{blockquote|As you know, Mike was a voracious reader of philosophy in college-so that would put him at, say 18 years old, in 1970. He read the more traditional philosophers then, and "probably" didn't fully embrace [[Ayn Rand]] until the mid- or later 1980s (since none of his writings mentioned her until at least the mid-80s if not later). In my opinion, Mike's ideas on bodybuilding were "allowed" to emerge because of his Objectivism. His approach to critical thought, analytical thinking, and knowing there is one truth, all allowed him to buck conventional thought and push onward with his own mental effort.|David M. Sears<ref name="Bob Burns" />|}}

Regarding what he learned from [[Ayn Rand]], Mentzer said in an interview:<ref name="Bob Burns" />

{{blockquote|Learning logic and acquiring the ability to think critically is not easy, though not impossibly difficult. I learned how to do these things by reading and "digesting" the works of novelist/philosopher, Ayn Rand. To get started on the proper, methodical path read her books of explicit philosophic essays ''[[Philosophy: Who Needs It]]'' {{mdash}} especially the Introduction and the first two chapters – and ''[[The Romantic Manifesto]]'' – especially the second chapter, "Philosophy and Sense of Life." After reading and re-reading the first couple of chapters from each of those books, put them aside for a while and read her two epochally great novels {{mdash}} ''[[The Fountainhead]]'' and ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]'', in that respective order. Just as is true with any other context of knowledge, philosophy must be studied in a logically structured order ...|Mike Mentzer<ref name="Bob Burns" />|}}

In his last interview before his death, Mentzer said he was delighted to get so many phone clients and close personal bodybuilding friends, such as Markus Reinhardt, who had been influenced by him to become [[Objectivism|Objectivists]]. He described Objectivism as the best philosophy ever devised. He also criticized the philosophy of [[Immanuel Kant]], which he described as an "evil philosophy," because according to him Kant set out to destroy man's mind by undercutting his confidence in reason. He also criticized the teaching of Kantianism in schools and universities and said it's very difficult for an Objectivist philosopher with a PhD to get a job in any of the universities.<ref name="atheist">[http://www.ironmanmagazine.com/index.cfm?page=article&go2=181&StartRow=2 Mike Mentzer's Last Interview By: The Sandwich] "I don't believe in God."</ref>