About The “God” Thing…

First things first – For Me.

Secondly, from the Big Book, page 132 – “Each individual should consult his own conscience.” I am not here to impose my God on you!

I do, however, find that discussions along these lines always pique my interest. Especially when I feel like someone has displayed the enormous arrogance of individually acting as if they are God. (please – note I have said “I feel.” This is my perception. Your perception may or may not be different.)

The positive, for me, is a topic like this brings me back to what works for me and the memory (today) of what I was like (then). For that I am grateful.

I’m going to quote someone who will remain nameless. Please, understand I would rather not get into a pi**ing contest with who said this, or with any of those that support him. I would very much want to take the time, because I can, to post what I feel is an appropriate contradiction. It might sound like character assassination. I hope not but, well, so be it. There are always two sides to every story.

Here’s the quote;

“I know I will never drink again because, for me, the use of alcohol is profoundly immoral conduct. In this respect, I don’t allow my bodily desires to shape my moral principles. I will never “find myself” in the immoral act of self-intoxication. I guarantee it.”

At one time, that person used alcohol just as I did. To get drunk. To change how I felt. To avoid feeling how I felt, etc. So, the basic foundation of why I feel about this statement as I do is, why does this person think they have the right to place themselves above me, in any way, shape or form?

The answer lies, for me, in what the oldtimers brought to my attention through the Twelve Steps – my “God Complex” and then, humility, along with intelligence. Humility and intelligence can co-exist, as long as I place humility first.

The “God Complex.”

“The person who is said to have a ‘god complex’ does not believe he is God, but is said to act so arrogantly that he might as well believe he is a god or appointed to act by a god. Some believe that ‘god complexes’ are particularly common in arrogant, highly educated, worldly, or powerful people.”

That said, I move to “Playing God.” I heard these words from my sponsor and I read them in the Big Book. They made sense to me. And – the solution, the “how and why of it,” has worked continuously through today, thankfully.

Playing God arguments (hubris)

There are two distinct categories of criticism, theological and secular, that have been referred to as “Playing God” arguments:

The first category is based on the alleged inappropriateness of humans substituting themselves for an actual God. This approach is exemplified by the 2002 Vatican statement ‘Communion and Stewardship: Human Persons Created in the Image of God,‘ in which it is stated that, “Changing the genetic identity of man as a human person through the production of an infrahuman being is radically immoral,” implying, as it would, that “man has full right of disposal over his own biological nature.” At the same time, this statement argues that creation of a superhuman or spiritually superior being is “unthinkable”, since true improvement can come only through religious experience and “realizing more fully the image of God”.

Clicking through to the definition of “infrahuman” I find “an inferior human being.” Which, when combined with “the production of an infrahuman is radically immoral” and “man has full right of disposal over his own biological nature,” in my mind destroys this cr*p – “I don’t allow my bodily desires to shape my moral principles.” It is way too obvious to me that the person I’m referring to has “immorally produced” you and I to be inferior to him plus has a much too exalted opinion of his full rights as a man.

Furthermore – I get me drunk. I don’t have the power to guarantee anything. Without help, left to my own devices, I will drink.

The How and Why of It; (pg. 62)

“First of all, we had to quit playing God. It didn’t work. Next, we decided that hereafter in this drama of life, God was going to be our Director. He is the Principal; we are His agents. He is the Father, and we are His children. Most good ideas are simple, and this concept was the keystone of the new and triumphant arch through which we passed to freedom.”

Aaaah – freedom!