I remember when I was a kid hearing the expression, “You can be whatever you want to be.” It was one of those expression that parents or teachers would say to encourage their kids to pursue their dreams and strive for excellence in their studies. The truth is, as we grow up, we begin to chuckle slightly every time we hear that statement because that just isn’t always how we often experience the world around us, but in the new age movement this slogan serves as a guiding truth about the nature of humanity. The idea that we can be and do anything we desire dictates how we ought to live in the world. This new age belief that we can all be gods has become popular and presents an appealing way of viewing the world. In a world with so many different events taking place that seem so far out of control this appears to be a belief that can provide a sense of power and security that is deeply meaningful. The question we need to wrestle with is what would it mean for us to all be gods? We are going to examine two problems: the practical and ethical.
Let’s begin by grounding the new age belief of self-divinity in their philosophy. The new age belief is that everything in the universe is God. Naturally, if the universe is God, then everything in the universe must be divine including humans! This is a challenging statement because most of us when we think of God think of someone distinct from creation. In the new age worldview God is not distinguishable from the world. We have been clouded by this idea of the self and lost our knowledge of this. The lie that we have ingested from western society is that there is existence apart from the divine. To flourish as humans, we need to recognize our divinity! We have to move past old ideas about god and empty ourselves from these false notions of individuality. Only then will we be able to live in a higher consciousness and shape reality to be whatever we want.
It inherently seems that this view of reality seems unlivable. After all, if we are all one substance and that one substance is God, how can I refer to myself? There is not a world in which I can say, “You, I, or We are gods,” because that would imply that we are actually distinct. This also suffers from the problem that if it is true that we are all gods, then it is unlivable.
While the idea of getting to decide right and wrong is appealing at first glance, living in a world where this is true is devastating. If everyone is divine and able to determine morality for themselves, how does ethics work? If an individual asserts that love is good and another person says murder, who is to say that either one of them is wrong? This ultimately is an unlivable position and extremely dangerous. There would ultimately be no basis to say that one way of living is better than another, because they both have divine origin. The new age worldview would say that they have an ethic of love, but there is not a logical basis for it.
It is important to recognize the appeal of this worldview. This lie that we can be like God is the same lie that the serpent presents to Eve in Genesis 3:5. We deeply desire to be independent from God and to seize the right to define reality on our own terms. However, the scriptures teach that we are made in the image of God (Gen 1:27) and that we have inherent worth, value, and dignity as God’s representatives in the world. While this image has been distorted through sin; through Jesus we can be made into a new creation and live now as a new humanity awaiting the day when God will restore all things.
Written by Grant Gobezie