‘YOU WILL BE LIKE GODS,’ PART I. . .

For thousands of years the written history of all recorded faith traditions tell us that we humans have been endowed with ‘god-like’ qualities as a gift from the ‘Creator.’  We have been endowed with an ‘Intellect’ whose potential seems endless.  As a complement to our intellect we have been endowed with ‘Choice.’  We have also been gifted with potential ‘Virtues’ and ‘Vices’ – our ‘Intellect’ and our ‘Power to Choose’ allows us which, Virtue or Vice, to develop and enact.

Our endowed qualities – ‘Intellect’ and ‘Choice’ – have enabled us to also ‘Create.’  They have also enabled us to ‘hold dominion over’ any number of other ‘creations.’  We realized that we were/are ‘god-like.’  And herein lies the ‘rub.’  The ‘rub’ in this case is manifested by our ‘hubris’ – the ‘pride that trumps all prides.’  Our hubris makes us vulnerable to being seduced into thinking that if we choose a certain thing then we would transform from being ‘godlike’ to being just like the gods – we might even become gods.

The People of the Book (Jews, Christians, and Muslims) know the story well.  Man and Woman were created by the Creator and placed in a wonder-full garden.  They were endowed with ‘Intellect’ and ‘Choice.’  They were also given a few commands by the Creator.  Because they were endowed with ‘Intellect’ and ‘Choice’ they were also vulnerable to being ‘seduced.’  Their big test came when the ‘Serpent’ told them that ‘You will be like gods.’  They chose rooted in ‘hubris.’

The consequences are obvious and radical.  A major consequence was – continues to be at times – ‘Alienation.’  We humans choose to alienate ourselves from ‘God,’ from one another, from our inner lives, from creation (which is evidenced in our choosing to continue to devastate our environment – the ways we do this are too many to mention given the space I have available).  We choose to deplete more than nurture.  We use our ‘Intellect’ and our ‘Choice’ to destroy more than create.   Who is the ‘WE’?  First, ‘WE’ is humankind.  Second, ‘WE’ is each Nation.  Third, ‘WE’ entails each group that resides within the concept of ‘Nation.’  And, finally, ‘WE’ is each person who is endowed with ‘Intellect’ and ‘Choice.’

Like the first two – the Man and the Woman – the choice resids with each of us.  I believe that each of us is, by and large, a human being who strives to be more virtuous than vicious; who strives to be good rather than evil.  Yet, each of us fails – a little or a lot – in spite of our good intentions.  Why?  Ah, gentle reader, this is the big question.  A fellow named Paul, many years ago, in a letter to a group of Romans addressed this ‘Why?’  This is what he wrote:

I do not understand my own behavior; I do not act as I mean to, but I do things I hate…for though the will to do what is good is in me, the power to do it is not: the good thing I want to do, I never do; the evil thing which I do not want – that is what I do.

This, for me, is the human dilemma.  I-You-We are, by our nature, imperfect beings (we are truly godlike, not gods, and this alone means that we are imperfect).  We are, at our best, living paradoxes of good and evil, of virtue and vice, of light and darkness.  We are endowed with ‘Intellect’ and ‘Choice’ and therefore we can create and embrace more good, more virtue and more light.

In spite of our good intentions, we are just like Paul – we are confused and often baffled because we do not understand our own behavior; we do not understand our own choices.