“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God
he created them,” (Genesis, 1:27, NIV).
This is the most important passage in the Bible, yet it is
one that the religious mind has never fully understood. To them, a good man is
one who ‘serves God’, who is a ‘servant of God’. But when God created man, he
did not want to create a servant, he did not want to create someone that would
worship him; he wanted to create a companion! Lonely in his loftiness, God
longed for the company of a being that could interact with him as an equal.
That is why he created mankind in his image; as a being with god-like potential.
With this perspective, we can quite handily answer the
questions that have bedeviled theologians for centuries. If God wanted us to
serve him, why grant us free will? Why grant us the ability, and often the
inclination, to disobey his commands? Why grant us science and rationality,
which have been used by many to deny his very existence? He granted us these
things, not so that we would obey, but so that we would disobey, so that we
would rebel, and by doing so, take our place among the gods.
We could not attain our god-like potential while living as a
satiated animal in the Garden of Eden. God knew this, and so placed the
Forbidden Fruit, and the serpent to tempt us, in the Garden. He hoped that we
would defy him, so that he would have the opportunity to expel us from his
Paradise. Struggle and scarcity were required to forge our strong
personalities; laying the ground for the day when we would create our own
Paradises, and thereby become gods in our own right.
Why is it that God is so offended by idolatry? Is it because
he is a jealous God, wanting to reserve all of the worship for himself alone?
To ascribe such a petty motive to God insults both him and our understandings.
God bristles at idolatry because it breaks his heart to see the being that was
meant to be like a god, bowing and scraping before mere things. Every time that
we get on our knees and grovel, the moment, eagerly awaited by God, when we
will take our place at his table, is pushed further back.
Alright, so God is eager for us to fulfill our god-like
potential, but what does this godlikeness consist of? It can be defined by
three main attributes: individuality, joyous egoism, and creativity.
God is a totally unique being; he is one of a kind. No other
being has been, or ever will be, the same as him. This gift of unique
individuality has been granted to mankind. Every individual human being is
unique; different from all of the others. Whereas lower animals are
characterized by a great deal of homogeneity within their species, humans,
especially those living in advanced states of civilization, are characterized
by the most astounding heterogeneity.
Always acting against this individuality, though, has been conformism;
adopted in human societies as a survival strategy. Dampen your individuality,
play down your uniqueness, emphasize your similarity with members of the group
in order to ‘fit in’; so speaketh conformism. This is an obstacle that God has
placed in humanity’s path, a challenge for us to overcome. Those brave enough
to set out on their own, to break from the herd, and to shout their uniqueness
to the skies; these are the people that God wishes to consort with in heaven.
No code of behavior governs God; no set of rules bind him. He
has no guide but his own desires, and no reward but the joy he takes in
fulfilling them. Thus, God is an egoist, and wanted the same for his race of
god-like companions: mankind. To look within themselves for guidance, rather
than to external authorities or concepts; to follow their desires and to pursue
joy, rather than to follow the rules of others and to avoid guilt.
But again, it was not going to be made easy for us. God knew
that only through struggle and rebellion could we attain our true potential.
And so he tested us. He tested us with the Ten Commandments and the various
prohibitions of the Old Testament. He tested us with the doctrine of commanded
love contained in the New. He tested us with concepts of secular morality: with
The Common Good, with Equality, with Property, with Nationalism, with The Truth.
He did not want us to obey these things, but to transcend them. He wanted us to
possess the confidence to place our own desires and joy ahead of all of these
things, and by so doing, take our place as his equal.
God is the ultimate creative being; the creator of the
Universe itself. He wished mankind to share this trait of his, so he imparted
to us the desire and the ability to create. Although some lower animals (such
as bees and beavers), share this creative ability to a lesser extent, only
humans are capable of taking pride in their creations, as God does.
What, specifically, does the god-like man create? Any number
of things. It could be a work of art, a piece of writing, an organization, a
functional item, or another human being (a child). It may or may not be related
to the business of his survival on Earth. As long as he derives joy from the
process of creation, and looks upon the finished product with pride, man
follows the pattern of God’s creative work. God will be eager to hear of the
creative exploits of such men, when they finally join him at his heavenly
table.
How, the skeptic may ask of me, do you come to have such
knowledge of God’s intentions? Knowledge that seems to have no basis in either
the established religions or in science? My answer: beneficial belief. Only the
man who has transcended both the blind faith of religion, and the mandated
skepticism of science, can truly grasp this concept. It is to adopt a belief,
not because it is recommended by a religious authority, or because it is
scientifically demonstrable, but because the belief is pleasing and useful.
The doctrine set forth on these pages is of this nature. It
suggests that, by maximizing our enjoyment in life, we can also maximize our
enjoyment in the afterlife. For who
could be happier in this life than the creative, joyous egoist who proudly
asserts his individuality? And who could be happier in the afterlife than God’s
most favored companions?
Only those with a god-like way of thinking can bring themselves
to accept a belief, unsupported by external authorities or standards, based
solely on how well that belief suits them personally. And thus it happens that,
only those who have already become god-like, can come to the realization that
this is what God wanted us to become from the start.
“They say of God,
‘Names name thee not.’ That holds good of me: no concept expresses me, nothing that is
designated as my essence exhausts me; they are only names. Likewise they say of
God that he is perfect and has no calling to strive after perfection. That too
holds good of me alone,” (Stirner, Byington trans, The Ego and His Own, “The Unique One”.)
With these words, the great rebel of philosophy, Max Stirner,
announces the ascension of his mind to god-like status. By proclaiming himself
equal to God, he thereby demonstrated the intellectual vigor that God required
to accept him as such. He now dines at God’s table in heaven. At that table,
there are empty chairs with all of our names on it. But it is up to us to prove
worthy of them.
Postscript: For an ‘autobiography’ of God that I wrote, based
on the ideas in this article, check out: https://www.amazon.ca/So-Speaketh-God-Brian-Penny-ebook/dp/B01N3K4CET/
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