While reading some good ole Ayn Rand, I hit a point of friction between my beliefs in God and how she seems to accurately depict religion.
To her it seems that the ideal of God is just a way of making man into a worm through squirming and begging for forgiveness. And though the description is a dash harsh, isn't it at first glance true? Man is the animal that has tamed other animals, built structures of metal thousands of feet high, gone into space and returned, and even over doubled its initial life span. But does not most religions (those with a god or gods) ask us to believe that we are in fact weak, we are corruptible, we are not good, and we need something out of this world? Or that we are in fact nothing but worms squirming in the greatness that is God's presence and we need to apologize even for our existence and its brokenness (original sin)? Is man to renounce his reason so he can accept his faith? Should we shy from progress in a disgusting humility of believing we are playing God? For after all, is not the ideal of medicine a blissful immortality since we wish to reduce pain and life longer through it? Is such a goal sinful? Is it sinful for man to look at the world and say with a swagger "Follow my lead"? Are we to apologize for getting out of the primal mud and still be a little dirty? Man has defied nature and darwinism. If a man is to be confident should it not be in the dexterity of his hands and the wit of his mind or should it be in the absent ghost of a god? If God is he who can do anything and who can know anything, is it shameful to believe that man becoming quite the deity himself?
On the other hand, Christianity (in my opinion) seems to teach these things: We are to remember that we are not gods. Yes, we do in fact bleed and we must accept that death is common and thus not become attracted to the desires of this world. For you see we are travelers and this is but a stop on our way (though which way we must choose). So give up. No, not on life but on immortality. Don't you know God loves you? Aren't you aware that as strong as you are, that's exactly what makes you weak with pride? Instead look to he who never fell yet was weak, look to him who died horrifically yet continues to live majestically, yes bow to he who shows us the way we would never have found on our own for we are in his debt...his eternal debt. How were we to know that it is truly living to have our attachments to power, security, and intellect commit suicide? No, if every man is able to look to his parents and at least acknowledge that he owes his existence to them than he must turn to Jesus and acknowledge that he owes his new life to Jesus. If we left the primal mud, it is God who is handing us the towel to clean ourselves off. And who animated your dust? For truly we will return to the soil so what first made it move? Remember. That is what I get from the Bible. Remember, everything. How broken you men have always been. How whole God can make you. Always remember.
I believe both can be extremes in their own rights and the truth is that we are right to be proud of ourselves. We are right to say we are the greatest creation in the world. But we are wrong if we take the word "creation" out for we are not gods but bits of cells and energy. "Ozymandias" should always be remembered (my favorite poem). And also, God gave us the world to shape as we wish yet we should never forget that it is not ours. So yes, in the face of the animal kingdom we should stand with our heads up high and say we are man, the only co-creators of this world, yet when facing God we must see that we are in fact second to Him. We must remember how we bleed.
