The Courage to Become (Pt III)

"Man has eaten from the tree of knowledge; he has not died, as the serpent had correctly predicted; he has become as God."

I found it amusingly ironic that Kurtz, in his haste to establish secular humanism as a viable alternative to traditional religion, suggested that humanists should adopt Prometheus as their patron saint. His greatness? "He was a champion of human-kind known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals."

If I'm not mistaken, stealing from God is the opener for 3 major religions. It is the first deed of note that Man performs after being created - stealing from God by eating forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.

If you're curious, no, there's no other (apparent) reason why Kurtz nominated Prometheus. Just the simple fact that he had the balls to steal something of value from a God who didn't want him/us to have it. Notably, Prometheus and Adam and Eve were all punished for their actions. Yet the stories of taking what we should not have from something greater than ourselves in order to advance have lived on, through the millennia of our collective history.

Which leads me to wonder if we don't retain the notion of 'God' as a cognitive marker of that which is greater than us. As a way to stoke our collective imaginations with stories of unlimited power and knowledge, and what one does with such abilities. Sure, but you can get that in good science fiction, you say. True, but good science fiction is rare, and perhaps we don't yet have enough of it to compete with the collective imaginings of our vast ancestry, who referred to what they imagined was greater than them simply as 'gods'.

For if we cannot imagine what is greater than us, what inspires us to strive and become something more? What holds back the apathy that accompanies the notion that we are simply a genetic program executing itself?

I was more than a little disappointed (for reasons I'll reveal in a future post) when The God Delusion began by seeking to establish Einstein's views on religion/God. As if Einstein would/could somehow invalidate or validate religion or atheism. A similar pattern followed throughout the book - seeking to establish the legitimacy of atheism by claiming various great scientific figures as atheists, or as sympathetic to atheism. These men did what, exactly? Oh, right, they teased the Universe into giving up Her secrets for the good of mankind. They found Knowledge that Man did not yet have, and they took it. (I doubt that Dawkins had in mind to give us a parallel story of Man's struggle to become something greater, but it's amusingly coincidental nonetheless.)

If you've read You Shall Be As Gods (and I hope you will, especially if you think that The God Delusion is the summit of the argument against traditional religion), then you may have come to see religion as (among other things) the story of Man's struggle to strive, challenge, and become that which is greater than He is. That struggle continues today, but we are in danger of missing the goal for all the fighting we do over the correct 'path' to the goal.

"What matters today is not the difference between believers and nonbelievers, but that between those who care and those who do not care."