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Chapter 6: In God’s Mankind’s Image

 

“I Am” (But You Are Not)

      Are Humans . . .

            Greater Than or Just Different From Other Bipeds?

            Other Mammals?

            Other Animals?

            Trees?

            Endowed with a Soul?

            Alone in the Universe?

The Creator of God, Who Is the Purported Creator of Humankind

            I’ll create you and then you can create me back . . .

      On Believing Whatever Will Bring You Peace of Mind

            The lion can eat me, but I am created of God and will return there, so who cares?

The Collective Human Inferiority Complex

      . . . and the Resulting Ego

            The Individual Human Ego

                  Disagreement: A Function of Passion? Thought? Nope. Ego.

            The Collective Human Ego

      Biological Impulses: The Sex Drive and Love

      Hiding the Animal Necessities

      Superlatives: Why Are We Always the Most or Best or Worst?

There Are Gods and Then There Are Gods . . . and Then There Are Gods

      Idolatry

      Idols Aside: The God(s) That Remain

      One God: Whose Rites Are Right?

            If all Baptists (Muslims, Hindus, Methodists, Catholics, etc) are going to Heaven whether or not anyone else goes, why not just leave the others alone? Ego. Control.

      Conversion Begets Assurance: He Converted, so I Must Be Right

 

Simply put, was humankind created in God’s image or did we create God so we’d have someone to create us — omeone from whom we could receive blessings and salvation, on whom we could lay blame for tragedies and disasters (or could erase them with a “mysterious ways” phrase), and with whom we could align ourselves, thereby elevating ourselves over the rest of creation?

 

To continue to attempt to illustrate our place in the Wholeness, we take the first faltering steps to bring humans back to earth from their exalted perch far above all other sentient beings. Even a benevolent master is still a master, and being a master is nothing more than a function of ego. We begin to explore the concept that perhaps we’re no more advanced than a deer or grasshopper, that we’re simply advanced in a different direction. Perhaps we’re no better than any other sentient being, but simply different, with different gifts and talents to give to the Wholeness and different needs to fulfill from the Wholeness.

 

To become a passive observer, we must first recognize and settle into our place, our role, in the Wholeness. To find our place in the Wholeness, we must first explore our relationship with other sentient beings; examine the hidden, mammalian side of humankind and why we insist on keeping it hidden or acting as if it doesn’t exist; and discuss belief systems — after all, how many gods does one species need in order to feel better about itself? Again, this is not to diminish any individual’s belief system, but to illustrate our place in the Wholeness and raise questions. Who knows? Perhaps even you are a god to the ants who chose to build beds in your yard . . . . The question here is “Is belief enough to create a god?” If so, and if the ants believe you are a god, then you are a god. What a concept!

 

We begin a discussion of the collective human ego, the related collective human inferiority complex, and our need for a god to create us in his own image to raise us above everyone else in our own view. In short, why have we psyched ourselves out?