Playing God
This is just some food for thought. I’ve been working on a few posts addressing Jung’s Answer to Job, particularly his analysis of the Antichrist legend and the Book of Revelations. This short piece looks at some things that leapt out at me that don’t really fit into any of the other posts I’m working on.
“Ever since John the apocalyptist experienced for the first time (perhaps unconsciously) the conflict into which Christianity inevitably leads, mankind has groaned under this burden: God wants to become Man, and still wants to.”
-Jung, Answer to Job p. 93
Although there are a number of problems with Jung’s use of scripture to support his argument, this point fairly well encapsulates the model he presents us with in Answer to Job. In the Jungian version of the narrative, IHVH strikes at Job out of jealousy. IHVH, being all-powerful, is also amoral and tempestuous, throwing his weight around where he pleases. Job’s ability to endure suffering, according to Jung, ignites something in IHVH. This, he theorizes, is the motive IHVH had for becoming human in the form of Jesus Christ, in order to experience suffering as human beings do. In the race to realize divinity, in other words, the creator is a step behind humanity.
We are told in Genesis that when human beings acquire knowledge of Good and Evil, they acquire the quality that will cause them to “become as Gods,” those who they were created in the image of. Presumably that image was incomplete, because even after acquiring this crucial knowledge, human beings are compelled to labor, to suffer, and to die. There is an interesting isomorphism here between the way in which human beings realize their divinity through the experience of existence and the way in which IHVH seeks to realize his divinity through Jesus. Christianity is an attempt to identify with the creator’s effort to experience the consequences of His creation becoming more like him, having the same knowledge but not the same power.
Not yet, anyway.
Technology allows us to play God. We can affect our environment on a scale unimaginable a mere fifty years ago. We can manipulate the building blocks of life and nature. We can travel anywhere, and overcome more or less any obstacle that the natural world might present. Our ability to do this, and through increasingly accessible communication tools to do this as a mass of humanity, is increasing exponentially. For individuals of forceful personality and captivating ideas, a massive audience is a great deal more accessible.
This has been bittersweet. Jung describes the Old Testament IHVH as a maniac who abuses his power at the expense of the Hebrews. Human beings, once we acquired power over the natural world certainly used our power in much the same way, at the expense of nature. IHVH had power over the natural world and knowledge of Good and Evil, but didn’t know suffering or death. Human beings experienced suffering and death and had knowledge of Good and Evil, but had no real power. The incarnation of Christ in IHShVH (Jesus) gave IHVH his experience of suffering and death, and technology gave human beings power over the natural world. This could be the reason why it wasn’t until the Aeon of Horus that we could say, “there is no god but man.” Just a thought. If we have achieved an equilibrium of sorts between God and Man, the next step, as described in Revelations and elaborated upon in Liber AL, is obvious.
Afterthought?
I refuse to see all this chaos and destruction as a result of “human verses nature.” We didn’t suddenly materialize out of the Q Zone and start rampaging over planet earth. Whatever we do to nature is something nature is doing to itself. It’s not pretty, but it is the consequence of what we are. We should absolutely try to address the problems our unusual success have created, but to separate the human world from the natural world and put them at odds is to cater to the same kind of thinking that caused people to reject the notion that we are descended from primates. We should be responsible for our power, but we should remember that we are responsible for nature because we are part of it, not because we have “wronged” it. Western civilization is so detached from the natural world that people are able to romanticize and mythologize nature. This is a dangerous way to think, if for no other reason than it is a lie.
“Ever since John the apocalyptist experienced for the first time (perhaps unconsciously) the conflict into which Christianity inevitably leads, mankind has groaned under this burden: God wants to become Man, and still wants to.”
-Jung, Answer to Job p. 93
Although there are a number of problems with Jung’s use of scripture to support his argument, this point fairly well encapsulates the model he presents us with in Answer to Job. In the Jungian version of the narrative, IHVH strikes at Job out of jealousy. IHVH, being all-powerful, is also amoral and tempestuous, throwing his weight around where he pleases. Job’s ability to endure suffering, according to Jung, ignites something in IHVH. This, he theorizes, is the motive IHVH had for becoming human in the form of Jesus Christ, in order to experience suffering as human beings do. In the race to realize divinity, in other words, the creator is a step behind humanity.
We are told in Genesis that when human beings acquire knowledge of Good and Evil, they acquire the quality that will cause them to “become as Gods,” those who they were created in the image of. Presumably that image was incomplete, because even after acquiring this crucial knowledge, human beings are compelled to labor, to suffer, and to die. There is an interesting isomorphism here between the way in which human beings realize their divinity through the experience of existence and the way in which IHVH seeks to realize his divinity through Jesus. Christianity is an attempt to identify with the creator’s effort to experience the consequences of His creation becoming more like him, having the same knowledge but not the same power.
Not yet, anyway.
Technology allows us to play God. We can affect our environment on a scale unimaginable a mere fifty years ago. We can manipulate the building blocks of life and nature. We can travel anywhere, and overcome more or less any obstacle that the natural world might present. Our ability to do this, and through increasingly accessible communication tools to do this as a mass of humanity, is increasing exponentially. For individuals of forceful personality and captivating ideas, a massive audience is a great deal more accessible.
This has been bittersweet. Jung describes the Old Testament IHVH as a maniac who abuses his power at the expense of the Hebrews. Human beings, once we acquired power over the natural world certainly used our power in much the same way, at the expense of nature. IHVH had power over the natural world and knowledge of Good and Evil, but didn’t know suffering or death. Human beings experienced suffering and death and had knowledge of Good and Evil, but had no real power. The incarnation of Christ in IHShVH (Jesus) gave IHVH his experience of suffering and death, and technology gave human beings power over the natural world. This could be the reason why it wasn’t until the Aeon of Horus that we could say, “there is no god but man.” Just a thought. If we have achieved an equilibrium of sorts between God and Man, the next step, as described in Revelations and elaborated upon in Liber AL, is obvious.
Afterthought?
I refuse to see all this chaos and destruction as a result of “human verses nature.” We didn’t suddenly materialize out of the Q Zone and start rampaging over planet earth. Whatever we do to nature is something nature is doing to itself. It’s not pretty, but it is the consequence of what we are. We should absolutely try to address the problems our unusual success have created, but to separate the human world from the natural world and put them at odds is to cater to the same kind of thinking that caused people to reject the notion that we are descended from primates. We should be responsible for our power, but we should remember that we are responsible for nature because we are part of it, not because we have “wronged” it. Western civilization is so detached from the natural world that people are able to romanticize and mythologize nature. This is a dangerous way to think, if for no other reason than it is a lie.