GENIUS AND GOD

Etymology Of Genius.

The word genius comes from Latin, where this word means the guardian spirit either of a person (attached to each person since birth and guiding him or her to the kingdom of the dead after death) or of a place, as in genius loci. It is closely related to the word genitor, meaning begetter, creator, father, emphasizing creative ability and the power to produce.

Transferring this etymology to figurative use, genius can be seen as the guiding spirit of humanity, a path-layer. Genius in this etymological sense is not a leader, as being a leader is a human quality, whereas a genius is always “superhuman,” something of a deity. Also do remember that a guiding spirit of humanity is not necessarily a good spirit, and the notion of evil genius is by no means foreign to any of us.

Genius And God.

Before we start the entry proper, let us have that Isaiah verse from a previous entry (Creator Of Evil, which was part of my mega-entry The Mystery Of Things, posted on January 20, 2011) back again:

“I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7)

Considering what I said there about God being admittedly the original Creator of Evil, this and the next entry have now become absolutely necessary. What is the relationship between God and genius, and also what goes on between genius and Satan? Let us leave the second question for the next entry, but right here we are talking about the relationship between genius and God.

Why is God interested in people at all? Leaving Adam and Eve aside, where God was the direct creator of both, which should entitle Him to a legitimate curiosity regarding the post-creation “independent” workings of His creatures, let us look at God’s relationship with the first couple’s sons Cain and Abel. First, the Bible passage proper:

“...And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. (Nota bene!) And she again bare his brother Abel. (And here the Bible does not quote her saying: “I have gotten another man from the LORD.” Nota bene!!!) And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering.(Whatever respect means here, the Bible leaves us with no record of what went on!) But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth; and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth; and it shall come to pass, that every one that findeth me shall slay me. And the Lord said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.” (Genesis 4:1-16.)

Presumably, Abel is the good son here, and Cain is the bad son. But all we know about God’s relationship with Abel is that “the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering.” The Bible, which is, to a Christian, the Word of God, and thus an expression of what God wants us to know and what He doesn’t, gives us no further indication of any communication between God and Abel whatsoever, and not a single word has been exchanged between them on the record, whereas in Cain’s case we notice God’s inordinate interest in Cain, with plenty of direct dialog going on between them. Why is the Bible silent about God’s communication with the good son Abel? Is he of no interest to us as a person, whereas Cain is? The mystery here is not too great, perhaps. The answer is probably the one already suggested. Cain is the man to watch, while the good Abel is a man of… well, no importance, what we might call a mediocrity.

Having said that, we can go on, and define genius as a person of special interest to God, whom He engages in conversation. Apparently Cain was a person of interest to God, albeit an evil genius. I suspect that God’s brief reference to “Abel and to his offering” has been made on Cain’s account in the first place, to provoke him, rather than to reward Abel… The implications here are for everybody to see.

So who is a genius? It is one who engages in a conversation with God. For some persons the Bible provides us with records of such conversations. For others, and for all those living in later times, after the Books had been closed, such records are also available, although they are of a somewhat different nature.

Each work of genius, be that a masterpiece of literature, art, architecture, or other, is a public record of that genius’s conversation with God.

Genius And Satan.

The question I raised in the previous entry: what goes on between genius and Satan? naturally assumes that there is a relationship, and this assumption is perfectly correct. After all, there is a protracted relationship of sorts between Jesus and Satan in the Bible: Jesus engages in a conversation with the devil, instead of telling him off!

“Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.” (Matthew 4:1-11.)

This is of course a different kind of conversation from the one God had with Cain in the last entry. But its purpose is clear: the Bible teaches us a lesson about what a temptation is and how it must be fought off. The Bible also tells us that temptations come from the devil.

With regard to the particular lesson of Matthew 4, as its story is applicable to our subject Genius And Satan, and stipulating the fact already in evidence that a work of genius is a conversation between genius and God, Satan would just love to sabotage genius by turning him into a success story, whereas genius must resist not so much the fact of success, as the contributing role of Satan in it.

Ironically, Satan’s arguments in the Matthew 4 story come across very much like arguments of a capitalist apologist, emphasizing the advantages of success at all costs and twisting the demands of morality, to bring home his immoral purpose.

And finally, unless the reader may have noticed it, the story of Matthew 4 may be a good Biblical lesson of how to handle Satan, but coming from the Christian Bible, it does not give us a conversation between Satan and genius, but one between genius and God! In this sense, Satan and Jesus are having a conversation, somewhat like the one between Cain and God in the last entry. Jesus is by no means the genius here, as, in Christian theology, Jesus is God. Thus, in the stories quoted in my last two entries, both Cain and Satan are geniuses, and not because this thought has just entered my mind, but by the nature of my specific definition of genius: Only a genius is privileged to have a recorded conversation with God.