A few random ramblings…

One of the recurring themes in western literature is that of the creation rebelling against the creator.

Probably the most famous of these would be Mary Shelleys ‘Frankenstein’, but it is by no means alone… and nor was it the first. And it got me to thinking about where this all started.

See, recently Battlestar Galactica, without a doubt one of the finest pieces of science fiction on television, finished up its fourth and final season. Thankfully, it was finished up by the choice of the shows creators, and not like many other shows in the scifi genre that get cancelled before given the opportunity to resolve their storylines.

Battlestar Galactica showed how the cycle of violence and hubris affects humanity, creating artificial life only to take its creation for granted, to then have it rebel and ultimately set out to destroy them. It’s a common theme in entertainment… technology runs wild and leads to the downfall of man. The Terminator franchise embraces this to the extreme of the technology we create gaining sentience and then enslaving mankind.

Looking back, even ancient tales tell of mankinds creations turning on them.  If I understand correctly, the  Hebrew bible mentions the ‘golem’, an animate being created from inanimate material, typically clay. There are variants on the story, but the typical version tells of a group of Jewish people under attack from a roman emperor, creating the golem to ensure their safety. It becomes increasingly violent but fell in love… only to be rejected, and becoming increasingly violent and dangerous, even to his own creators. Ultimately, the golem is deactivated but left to be reactivated if needed.

It is, of course, an allegorical tale to warn the reader of the dangers of hubris… of becoming too proud of ones own power.

But it occurred to me that there are ealier tales, if we are to believe the bible.

It seems that even God is not exempt from the lesson to be learned in this arena. You could argue that Adam and Eve’s defiance of God’s order not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge falls into this… but I think a better, more fitting example, is that of the Morning Star… Lucifer.

Satan… introduced by the Rolling Stones through the line, “Pleased to meet you. Hope you guess my name”.

Angels were created to serve out the will of God… in their various choirs. From Grigori and Seraphim, to Cherubs and the Archangels… all of them were created to serve God without question, doubt or hesitation.

They are created without the one thing that makes us human…. free will.

Hence, all that much more serious when one rebels, thinks for themselves, decides to usurp the boss’s authority and try a hostile takeover of the company. Anyone who has worked in the civil/public service knows that trying to outdo the boss gets you a rapid deployment to the unemployment lines… and it seems that Heaven is no different.

But it does serve as a warning to anyone contemplating having kids, I guess.