Friedrich Nietzsche, in The Parable of the Madman, declared that God was dead. While ultimately thinking that God’s demise was a good thing, Nietzsche understood that the throne could not be left vacant and mankind would have to step up and assume all of God’s divine responsibilities. This raises a very important question; whom would you elect to that Divine Office? Which pop star, politician, or preacher do you feel is qualified to be in charge of the cosmos? Well, you’re not alone, I can’t think of anyone either!
We humans fail to recognize that when we take God off the throne and place man in His stead, we end up abdicating authority to a suicide bomber strapped with enough explosives to destroy the entire planet. Disturbed by this unpleasant possibility, we distract ourselves by periodically patting him on the back and awarding him a Nobel Peace Prize. The very being who brought you atomic energy also created the atomic bomb; the creature who rubbed two sticks together and brought fire to heat your home also burned innocent people with napalm.
Why does man always wants to supersize his newfound powers to God-like proportions? We seem obsessed with taking human cleverness to godlike levels. We fool ourselves into believing we are divinizing our newest inventions when in reality we’re actualizing the very evil we were never supposed to know. We have dreams of immortal power trapped inside sinful mortal brains. It appears that we are woefully unqualified to rule the universe, but instead of bowing our knee to the true King we obsess over His sparkly crown.
When we empty the heavenly throne room, a power struggle ensues, and people just like you and I engage in a cosmic game of musical chairs. We eagerly circle the last remaining seat waiting for the heavenly chorus to stop so that we can claw our way onto the divine throne, but then are horrified by the chaos that ensues when we cruelly execute the divine right of a king. The annals of history are replete with the tragic tales of the collateral damage we have inflicted on the world by seating ourselves on a throne that is far too big for our divinely challenged bottoms.
