How Do You Like 'dem Apples?

If we've learned anything in the last two weeks, its that you don't mess with God (referring to the christian/catholic male deity). We've also learned that scientists who learn too much end up killing innocent people and die lonely and sad.

So last week, we had Frankenstein, a young scientist who learned too much, discovered too much, and created a monster that screwed up his entire life. Whether his intentions were good or not, he played God, created life in an unnatural way (i.e. without the help of woman) and was punished for it. He also died after losing all his family and friends and wasting his life chasing a monster through the tundra.

This week, we have Dr. Jekyll, a successful doctor who learned too much, discovered too much, and released his inner "monster" that screwed up his entire life. He, too, played God and created a new life from himself. This part of him effectively consumed him, destroyed him, killed him. He messed with the natural order of life and he "got what he deserved".

Those of us who grew up in the christian/catholic church know that God is super particular about the way life is made. Strictly between a man and a woman. Crazy shit happens when you try to mess with God's creation-of-life plans. And we all know that too much knowledge is always a bad thing (Adam and Eve screwed the pooch on this one). You learn too much? Boom: Humanity is cursed with sin and your son murders your other son. You have intercourse with someone of the same sex? Literally boom: he sends fire from the sky and burns entire cities to the ground and for the next two thousands years you live on the outskirts of civilization. Moral of the story? Don't mess with Gods way of creating life, man.

I see these two stories, both Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, as warnings from the authors. Knowledge, and especially too much of it, can be a really bad thing. It will ruin your life. Also, don't mess with how life is made because whatever thing you make, will inevitably kill you. Don't play God and God won't play you.

I actually kind of hate both of these lessons, however. These were both written during big moments of change in the world. There was a lot of new technologies and politics were constantly changing. Some people were scared about how these changes would affect the comfy lives they were accustomed to living. People were scared. They were scared their lives were about to be completely flipped, meaning they might be treated like those people they had marginalized for hundreds of years (sound familiar????)

So I say screw that. Knowledge is an amazing thing. Knowledge gives color and vibrancy to life. It makes you feel all types of things, good and bad. If we feel the same way constantly, if we're as "emotional as a bagpipe", are we really living? Is this a quality of life we should strive for? Aren't feelings what gives us life? On the whole life thing: surrogacy seems to be going pretty well and there aren't any robots trying to kill us yet so I think were doing pretty well on the creating-life-unnaturally front. Never stop striving to learn more and discover everything you're capable of. Screw the old way of doing things. I think civilization's doing pretty well for itself (compared to where we started that is...).






So how do you like 'dem apples, God?