Beyond Good and evil - what are we becoming

Using dialectical logic we can learn what the will of God is for the universe and for mankind. Some people may say mankind can not know these things, it is not for him to know. I say that is a bunch of BS. Mankind has sought this very thing since the beginning and can come to know it, in fact, I believe God wants us to know it. Back to the dialectic. The Thesis is that only good exists, the anti-thesis is that only evil exists, the synthesis is that they both exist, but how can that be in a God created universe? If God created good, then he most certainly created evil. So it can be concluded that both good and evil have a part in the will of God. (Keep reading below)

Now some sects of Christianity will come out and say that God makes people do one thing or the other, either evil or good, that they were predestined to be that way. Lets use the Dialectic again; The thesis is that God makes people do good and evil, the anti-thesis is that God does not make people do good and evil. The synthesis is that God created good and evil and mankind chooses on his own free will which to do. In fact the scriptures back this up in Deuteronomy 28 which says, “I call heaven and earth as a witness this day and have placed before you life and death...choose life.” So it is our choice. The book of John also says; “they loved darkness rather than light.” Love is a free will expression. No one makes you love something or someone. The very thought that someone could love darkness over light, goes to show you that the lovers of either were acting out of their own free will.

But how does both good and evil play a part in the will of God? And, what is that will? The answer is simple actually. The will of God is for mankind to be gods as well, to be like him. But how did we come to this conclusion? Lets take a look in Genesis. In the creation the Gods create mankind in their image. Yes I said Gods plural, not God singular. But I am not the one who said that, Genesis says it. The word used for God here is Elohim(Chaldean meaning Gods – plural, or a council.) The actual translation would be, and the Elohim said “Let us make man in our image” I mean the very nature of the sentence goes to show you that there are more than one, it says; “Our image” So the group of divine beings known as God create man in their image, their likeness, or plainly put, just like them. Then from there the divine beings known as God go on to give the earth to this man created in their image. They didn't just delve out responsibilities to him, they gave him the earth thus removing themselves from the power thereof. But where do good an evil come in to play here, and how was it a part of Gods will to aid mankind in becoming just like him? I mean we just saw man was made in Gods image already, what more was there? Quite a bit actually. Yes man was made in his image and his likeness and became the God of this world, however to be just like God there was something else needed. An act of the free will to choose the knowledge of good and evil. God certainly has the knowledge of good and evil. But back to Genesis we go. God places man in the garden, full of lush trees, bountiful fruits, and all the animals to tend he could dream of. However, he also puts something else there, he places two trees in the middle of the garden, one the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the other the tree of life. God instructs the man not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil lest he die. Now there is something rather significant here to look at. Why would God place something in this beautiful, perfect world that could possibly kill the man, the apple of his eye, the one created in the image of the Elohim? Well, the only conclusion is that it was Gods will. God does not do things for no reason, every thing God does has been carefully and mathematically planned. There is a reason for everything, nothing is random, if there was randomness then there would be no order and only Chaos. Everything has been perfectly planned, and God knows the end from the beginning. Now how does God know the end from the beginning? Scientifically speaking this would be impossible, however not if one used careful mathematical conclusions. Some could argue that God does not exist in our time space continuum, and has seen the end already with his own two eyes. Perhaps, but still it is a mathematical equation where as God exists in all time periods simultaneously. This is possible, the spirit of God in a thousand years relays a message back to God in our present time and tells him what has happened. This has been scientifically proven to be a reality by people like Einstein and Steven Hawkings. Light they say exists in all time periods, and bounces information back and forth to itself from one time period to the other. In fact, Steven Hawkings has said this will be how time travel is discovered in the future, once we learn how light is able to do this. Hawkings has said that light is able to travel through time back and forth, it is outside our time space continuum. The bible helps us here as well, it says that God is light. So, if God is light, then it stands to reason that God is able to do what light is able to do. Now I am not going to get into the science of light, if you would like there is tons of information on the Internet regarding this. In fact Russian Scientists have discovered a lot about light. So it is possible that God could know the end from the beginning without having to invoke the idea that we just cannot possible know how he does this. God has carefully evaluated the future and made provision while he was carefully planning the creation of the Earth. Therefore everything God does is for a reason. Even putting the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden. Some have said that yes, God put it there, but it was not his will for mankind to partake of it. He even warned mankind about this. Yes, he did warn him, but you cannot gather from his warning that it was not his will. He warned the man what would happen if he partook of it, he did not say, don't eat it because its not my will. I have something else in store for you. No, God did not have something else in store for us. God knew man would partake of the tree of knowledge, and had a purpose for us doing it.

God warned man what would happen if he partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he knew man would die because of it. But lets evaluate what exactly the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is. Well, it was exactly as it is. A tree of knowledge of the existence of good and evil. The bible lumps the two together into one fruit. That is to say that good and evil are a part of one another, in fact they are the dialectic. Good exists, as does evil but the knowledge of it is one and the same, because you cannot know good unless you know evil and vice versa. Good would not exist if evil did not, evil would not exist if good did not at least in the form of the knowledge of it. Its like the Yin and Yang. The circle with one swirl white and the other swirl black, however there is a little bit of both in each. They both serve a purpose. But what is that purpose and how does the knowledge of good and evil play into our becoming Just like God? Lets move on to find the answer.

God is well aware of Good and evil, so in order for us to become like God completely we too had to know it, however this knowledge has side effects. Death was the side effect. But do not be discouraged, because death also plays a part in us becoming like God. Death is the opposite of life, they are the dialectic of one another. Listen to what Jesus says about death in John 12; “24Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” We are seeds, when seeds are planted into the ground the outer shell dies, and the life on the inside comes forth. However this life on the inside cannot come forth unless the outer shell die, because what is on the inside cannot penetrate the hard outer shell. When the hard outer shell dies, it softens enough for the life on the inside, the fruit to burst forth and grow into a harvest. So death plays an important part in producing this life. Now this life is not what we think life is. We imagine life as us living, breathing and moving. However that is not what real life is. Real life is Gods kind of life, to be like him. So death was the side effect of us becoming aware of the knowledge of good and evil. But how does this knowledge kill us. Easy, the knowledge of good and evil brings a self awareness that mankind had not had up until this point. Mankind was not conscious of himself. This two has been proven scientifically. In the book “The Origin of Consciousness in the break down of the Bicameral mind” by renowned Psychologist Julian Jaynes, Jaynes reveals that there are two sides to the human brain. One side, the left is the side that we are actively engaged in in this time. It is our consciousness of ourselves. It is the part of our brain that participates in this world via language, movement and other senses. It is the dominant part of the brain of mankind in the present age. However we have another part of our brains, rarely used. It too configures language but passes this information on to the left side. It has been discovered that people with mental illnesses that cause hallucinations or audio hallucinations use the right side predominantly, that this is the area where these hallucinations are located, or originate from. It then sends a signal to the left side which processes the information into our consciousness. Thousands of hours of clinical research into these matters have been put forth to draw these conclusions. Also, it has been determined that people who are autistic or mentally retarded also utilize their right side brain, the left side having been damaged somewhere in the womb. However the right side is not utterly useless, it plays an important role in our lives. It is where most pattern and mathematical equations are figured out. It is the part of our brain that helps us learn patterns of things, work things out mathematically. The right side works them out then sends a signal to our left side which filters it and relays it to our consciousness (or awareness). Julian Jaynes said that the left side of the brain belonged to man, the right side belonged to God. In ancient history he goes to show that mankind was not as conscious of himself as we are today, and used the voices of Gods in his head to guide him instead of making left brain decisions. The left side is the analytical side, arguing rationality with us. The left side is our consciousness of ourselves, whereas the right side is the consciousness of the Gods. He went on to say that somewhere in the evolution of man, that the left side became the dominant side, shutting out the voices of the Gods. Proof of this exists in almost every cultures religion. People in ancient times seemed to have no problem communicating with the Gods, whereas today it is very rare for someone to hear those voices, and when they do, they filter it through the analytical left side, usually dismissing what they heard. Could the right side of the brain be the side that connects us to the spiritual world? Jaynes dismisses that notion believing the voices of the Gods being solely the work of our right brain imaginations, but one thing Jaynes was unable to disprove was that in ancient times, the right side of the brain, which heard the voices of the Gods, was able to predict and prophesy future events. He simply concluded that he could not understand how this was so, and that perhaps in the future someone using his model would discover it. Until someone steps forward to prove how this was so, we can accept the fact that the right side of the brain is where God spoke to people, since it to was able to receive and understand language. The right side is the spiritual mind, that Paul the apostle talks about in Romans 8; “ 5For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
 6For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
 7Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Is Paul speaking of the Bicameral mind here that Jaynes discovered scientifically? Seems like it.

Since mankind was not conscious of himself to the degree we are at the present time, he was free from certain things, namely self conscious guilt. After the fall of man, his consciousness began to develop more and more, he became totally self conscious instead of God conscious. This meant he was fully aware of his limits and faults now. He was aware of the nature of his actions, and because he was aware of those actions he became guilty in his own mind. Guilt has been proven to be the number one cause of illnesses in the world. Guilt is the root of death. Guilt brings shame, one of the main causes of psychological illness. But mankind would have never known such things had it not been for the first man, Adam who partook of the knowledge thereof. Mankind was oblivious to good or evil. He did not know either existed. People say he was only aware of good, but that is not true, how could it be, since you cannot know and understand one without the other. However did good and evil exist prior to mankind becoming conscious of it? Absolutely. First, God places the knowledge in the midst of the garden before mankind ever was conscious of it. Look back here at Genesis and see if there was an act of evil before mankind ever became conscious of such things. Genesis 3 is the story of the fall of man, however in Genesis 2 we find where God instructs Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God never instructed the woman, this commandment was to the man only. How do I know this, lets take a look. In Genesis the Serpent comes to the woman who only received the commandment second hand from her husband. Somewhere along the line the man added to the commandment that God gave him, for when the Serpent asks her “hath God really said you shall not eat of the trees in the garden” She answers we can eat of the trees in the garden but not of the tree in the midst of the garden, we shall not eat nor touch of it lest we die.” Lets go back a little, did God tell Adam he could not eat of it or touch it lest he die? No, God told him that if he eat of it he shall surely die. Touching it would not do anything. But, Eve got this information from Adam, who obviously added to the commandment of God. The bible says' “Woe to him who adds to my words” Adam obviously disobeyed God, long before he partook of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil. This is why the serpent was able to trick Eve. He says, “You shall not surely die.” So, Eve reaches out and grabs hold of the fruit. Here is the kicker and where it gets very interesting. When she reaches out and touches it, nothing happens. Adam must be wrong. So, she takes a bite...guess what? Nothing happens. Adam standing right there sees this whole thing go down, sees her take a bite and nothing Happens. God must be wrong. So, he takes it from her and takes a bite as well. This time something does happen, as soon as HE bites into it, the eyes of both of them are opened. The commandment was to Adam, not to Eve. Once Adam partakes they both die consciously. No longer are they completely God conscious, now they are self conscious. The first thing they realize is that they were naked. They immediately run and find something to cover themselves with, a fig leaf, more than likely from the same tree whose fruit they had just partaken of. There is much to say about that but that is for a future article. They became afraid of God, and ran from him, instead of admitting to their problem and allowing him to help them. They took it upon themselves to fix the problem, by covering themselves with a fig leaf.

The problem became a mental one. The mind is a very powerful force. The mind, or soul is the real us. Many people imagine that we are a body with a Spirit, but that is not he case. The spirit is the aspect of us in the spiritual world, the body is us in the physical world, the mind is the real us caught between both worlds. Science has proven that the universe is multi-dimensional, meaning there is more than one dimension. We live in a physical dimension, at least that is what we can see, hear, taste, smell and feel. But the truth of the matter is that we are multi-dimensional as well. Perhaps we are a universe within ourselves. This could be possible, think about it. Have you ever seen the makeup of an Atom? Look very closely at one on the Internet. What does it resemble? It resembles a solar system. It has a nucleolus in the center, which is surrounded by particles floating around it on a perfect plain. Meaning the particles float around the nucleolus like planets do the sun. The molecule in the middle resembles the sun, it is a ball of energy emitting light. It has also been said that the atoms that make up our bodies are as far apart from one another as the stars are from one another in the universe, on a smaller scale of course. This is very interesting. The bible says that we are created in the likeness and image of God, is God the force of the universe, whose stars make up his being like atoms do ours? An interesting thought but perhaps not relevant to what we're talking about. Most of us imagine God as this big man, standing over the top of the universe like someone gazing down at a fish bowl. I used to see God this way as well, but have not for some time. But the fact remains that we are a multi-dimensional beings, with an aspect in the spiritual realm, and an aspect in the physical realm, and the real us caught between both worlds. This takes us back to Julian Jaynes Bicameral mind, one side, the left for the physical world, the other side, the right for the spiritual. I have long thought that faith was the 6th sense, so to speak. A sense that mankind has been missing for many, many years. This two could be explained by the bicameral mind, whose right side is dominated by the sense of faith, whereas the left side is dominated by our physical senses.

However what does all of this have to do with the will of God, and our becoming just like God. Well, everything, it all ties together, however we were talking about good and evils role, so lets move along. God is obviously aware of good and evil, and in order to be just like him we had to be as well. In Genesis after man and woman partake of the fruit and become conscious of good and evil, the Elohim speak once more. “Behold, the man has become like one of us, to know good and evil.” This confirms our thoughts, that God was aware of good and evil, however there is something more to all of this, God is beyond Good and evil, and in order for us to be completely like him, we have to be as well. But there was only one way to do this.

Once a person receives knowledge of a thing, it is impossible, short of a brain injury to ever loose this knowledge. That is the thing about knowledge. Once you learn something, you know it forever. You may forget about it from time to time, but it is always there, just like riding a bike. Knowledge is forever, unless of course one suffers some head injury. So therein lies the problem, God had to deal with this knowledge and there is only one way to do it. Knowledge cannot be unlearned, it has to be replaced with a superior knowledge. The knowledge of good and evil brought self awareness, guilt, shame and condemnation, which all resulted in mankind becoming more and more evil in his actions. Thats right, it was this knowledge that led man to become more and more evil. In proverbs 17 it says; as a man thinks in his heart so is he.” basically, what a person thinks about themselves they will become. A thief is only a thief because he thinks he is a thief. No one wakes up one day and says to themselves, I think I want to be a thief when I grow up. A thief is a thief because he has evaluated his condition and can only come to one conclusion; whether being a thief would work out for his best interest. People are what they are because of the dominant thoughts that fill their minds. People are afraid because they see themselves fearful, they are angry because they see themselves as angry first, before they ever make an action. It all starts out in our brains. In Anger management they teach the ABC's of anger. “A” is the initial action taken against us. “C” is our reaction to the incident, but “B” is where we have worked out what “C” was going to be. “B” is where we decide what action or lack of action we will take because of the “A” incident against us. Example, “A” is where someone yells at us and calls us a name. “B” is where we process this information and make a decision how to respond. “C” is our response to the name calling, whether it be yelling and name calling back, or walking away. “A” is not under our control, but “C” most certainly is, and “B” is where we process that control. The choice of how to respond in situations is under our control. So, in short our actions begin as thoughts in the brain. This goes back to what Paul says in Romans 8. Carnal minded or spiritually minded. Those who are led by their carnal minds reap death, those who are led by their spiritual mind reap life. Death having a range of meanings here, not limited to physical death, but death being a force in our lives of negativity. So, God had to replace this obtained knowledge with a superior knowledge since the knowledge of good and evil brought guilt and condemnation, which pushed us away from God. Ultimately that is what guilt does, it causes us to run from God, just like Adam and Eve did. Guilt causes us to run from all of those we love and care about, because of the shame we have. It causes us to even run from ourselves and dive into addictions to hide our guilt temporarily. Guilt is the cause of the knowledge of good and evil and guilt is what has caused mankind to separate himself from God, and grow increasingly evil in his actions, thus pushing us further from God. So guilt had to be dealt with, but God would not deal with the guilt by punishing man, if this had been the case mankind would have died a violent death and been separated from God forever. He had to deal with it another way, and there was only one way...he had to deal with it himself. He had to punish the guilt by allowing himself to take his own wrath. Only he could survive his own wrath. And he did.

Jesus Christ came into the world God incarnate. He is God, he is the Elohim embodied in human form. He took the cross in order to replace the knowledge of good and evil,which brought guilt, with something else, the knowledge of grace and love, which brings life. In the Old Testament good was to be rewarded and evil was to be punished, in the new testament, the knowledge of both of them have been done away with, and replaced with a superior knowledge. The knowledge that good and evil no longer matter. God has moved beyond good and evil. No longer is good rewarded and evil punished, the only thing that matters is Gods grace, which is not based on whether we deserve it or not. God has moved beyond good and evil and wants us to do the same, since the knowledge of it brings death into our lives. However most people have still not moved beyond it. God has entered his rest. He asks that we do the same. Hebrews talks about this. It was not only the knowledge of good and evil that made us just like God, it is also the moving beyond it, which actually makes us just like God. God is beyond good and evil and so must we be, if we wish to be just like him. Good and evil are earthly. Moving beyond it is Spiritual. Good and evil is carnally minded, grace and love are spiritually minded.

However, is there something to replace good and evil with which to gage our actions by? Of course. Love is the answer. God is love, so therefore we must be love as well. Love gages its actions by two things; smart and stupid decisions. God bases his decisions on whether they are wise, or unwise actions. Unwise actions reap negative consequences, whereas wise decisions reap beneficial consequences. Unwise decisions usually reap negative consequences on more than one person, whereas wise decisions typically have beneficial consequences for a wide range of people as well. Obviously that is true, think about it, Adams unwise decision to partake of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil affected us all, and Jesus' wise decision to partake of life affects us all as well. So we move beyond good and evil to wise and unwise. Good and evil brought guilt and death, whereas wise and unwise brings more wisdom and life. No longer are we plagued by the guilt of good and evil, but we benefit from wise and unwise, because even our unwise decisions benefit us, a wise person learns from their unwise mistakes, and moves beyond them, however we learn nothing from the knowledge of good and evil and rarely does anyone move beyond its guilt. Guilt is embedded in the soul of man, his psyche because of the knowledge of good and evil, but wisdom is embedded in our souls no matter if we make a wise choice or an unwise one. Again, the wise person learns even from their unwise decisions. God is wisdom, he has moved beyond good and evil into wise and unwise based on love. So must we.

In conclusion, we see that it was Gods will for mankind to become just like him, to move beyond good and evil into wisdom based on love. However to get to that place, we had to pass through the shadow of death, the knowledge of good and evil. “Yay, thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” The rod represents Gods judgment on Jesus, the staff represents Gods mark of love and grace based on wisdom. Gods will is for us to be just like him, to be God as well. This scenario is seen in many places throughout the bible. In Genesis we see we were created in the Elohim's image. In Psalm's we see God say; “have I not said ye are gods?” In the New testament Jesus recalls the passage from Psalms, and repeats it; “Have I not said ye are gods.” Also, it goes on to say in the New testament that we are the Sons of God. Sons are no different from their fathers, they are exactly the same. Jesus said he and his father are one. He also says that he in us, we in him, we are mixed together, we are one. Paul says we are heirs of God and joint heirs of Jesus Christ. We are just like him. John goes on to say, “as he is so are we in this world” Hebrews says we know not what we shall be but when he is revealed we shall be just like him.” So we can see over and over again that it was Gods will for us to be gods as well, to be just like him. So, no longer do we have to ask, what are we..but instead we ask, what are we becoming.