Divine Monkey

Who created man?

I

The question how the world was created is the oldest in human history, and if someone wants to give some answer he will not be able to avoid the teachings of the ancient myths. In pro-scientific stage of human history the myth is the only evidence of human intellectual functioning.

Myths are the refuge of human knowledge and function as an instrument of the primitive man to force his knowledge and understanding of the world. The Cosmogony and Theogony are both early evidence of how the world was created. The oldest surviving intact Greek Theogony is that of Hesiod. He explains that first was Chaos, then Earth was created and used as a retreat of the immortal Gods living on top of Mount Olympus. From Chaos were born Erevos and black Night and from the Night the Ether and Day. (116-125) Here we see that all celestial bodies and phenomena are described as private entities descendants of Heaven and Earth. In contrast to the biblical God who is the creator of the world, in the Greek myth God or better Gods are rulers of the world but not the creators. Moreover, Jupiter the offspring of Gods is younger and therefore stronger and wiser. The legend states that the conflict between old and young Gods serves the primary idea of the origin of the world from less perfect forces to finest ones. The proof of this idea is the two battles of Titans and Giants. With Tartarus the mythical cosmography is completed. The Tartarus symbolizes the foundation of the world and hence the origin of which, as we mentioned above, comes from Chaos.

To sum up, the origin of the world in the pro-scientific man comes from Chaos and Zeus, the most perfect and
the wisest of all Gods comes from less perfect Gods, much weaker and less wise.

However, what does Hesiod says about the origin of humans? In his work Erga kai Imere (Works and Days, Solmsen: 53-101), we read the following:

And Nefeligeretis Zeus said with gall:

Son of Iapetus, who knows all the tricks, I am glad you've stolen the fire, laughing at me, a great lesson for you and for things to come. I'll give them unhappiness for the stolen fire.

In Plato's dialogue Protagoras we are told the myth of Prometheus and Epimetheus. Since Epimetheus forgot and gave all the powers to the non-logic animals, humans left naked and unarmed. Hence Prometheus decides to steal the fire from Hephaestus and wisdom from Athena and gives both to humans. The legend states clearly that people have some divine origin as opposed to the non-logic animals that do not have anything divine. Certainly man is incomplete having lost permanently immortality or happiness.

Apollodorus describes the origin of man in his myth of Deucalion:
Zeus decided to wipe out people with flood. Prometheus advised his son Deucalion to build an ark to save himself. Having built the ark, locked into it with his wife Pyrrha. Zeus threw a lot of rain so goods and souls were lured. When the rain stopped Deucalion and Pyrrha made a sacrifice to Zeus to thank him for their salvation. God Zeus accepted their sacrifice and told them to ask for anything they wanted. They asked God for more people. This created a new tribe.
Here, the myth shows God as the creator of humans. And so the perfect God creates a being less perfect, the man. Here, as in the myth of Prometheus and Epimetheus, the origin of man is reversed in comparison with that of God, namely the wisest of all Jupiter. The perfect being, Jupiter, has a humble origin from less wise and frailer parents, whereas the imperfect being man is descent from the omniscient Zeus. Why God Zeus is a creature of inferior beings and man of superior beings?

If God is whole and perfect, we would expect his creation to be whole and perfect, something not true. The idea is based on the perception that from something perfect and fine perfection is produced and nothing less. But if this is true then we, the people are the living examples of the non-perfection. Hence the whole idea would be wrong because the Creator made the imperfect human being. To save the Idea we could argue that the man originates not from a higher being, like Jupiter, but from an inferior being. Therefore the idea that from the perfect and finest comes out only the perfect and finest can be rescued.

II

This ordered universe, the same for all, no god nor man has made, but it ever was and is and will be: fire ever living, being kindled in measures and in measures going out.

All human creations have a use specified by the primary human need that created them. For example, the cause for the construction of a pen and its primary use was the human need to communicate. The pen will not have existed without man. Since its construction, it ‘lives’ to serve the fundamental need for human contact. So the pen is the mean to communicate. Apart from the primary use it can also be used in various ways: as a weapon for an attack or self defence, as a sexual object, as the object of mania, jealousy etc. So what is the primary reason to be a pen? The reason is to
write, that is a utilitarian object through which we communicate. You may write with it exquisite poetry, and scribbles. Changing the primary use we change its meaning. Thus the human need for communication has created the idea of a pen.

Let us now return to God and his creation of man. If man is God's creation, then the agent serves a need of God. And if man serves a need of the Creator, the Creator is not perfect as he needs human beings to serve him and the notion of a non self-sufficient God would be a mistake. God is perfect without any needs and wants. I would further argue that God is in a situation of calmness, in a constant state of nothingness. This does not mean that God does not exist. 

Returning to the question whether we can get from a perfect being a less perfect one, man seems to temporarily solve the question. We can imagine a perfect machine fitted with the latest technology to produce a faulty pen due to some short of malfunctioning. So we could say that a perfect factory produces a defective product. So God created a defective product, humans. Thus God is the creator of a non perfect being. This assumption contradicts in terms with the idea of God. So the idea that God created man shall be refuted. Then, if not God who created us?

III

All Gods are dead: now we want the Overman to live. Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra.

I want to go back to the idea of a weaker, less perfect being that can create something stronger and more perfect. We can take the example of the pen in order to acknowledge that a single pen can record a story more accurately than a thousand human mouths; a nuclear bomb is more powerful than a thousand people. Thus we see a weak man creating something more powerful than him, a pen or a bomb. Hence, a weaker creature creates something stronger and better. As in the case of God Jupiter being an ascendant of less perfect Gods. The weak produces anything to overcome his weakness. Thus, the man has better chances to create something that is more perfect than him and this is God. As we move from the geocentric view of the world to the heliocentric, we should also move away from the notion that God created us. We are not an Idea of God. Then, whose Idea are we?

We are the Idea of a weak and less wise creature than humans. If God has no need for man then who would need us? One possible answer, although not the only one, is the monkey. Let us recall the origin of Jupiter and not forget that he comes from inferior parents.

The need for more reasoning and logos led the monkeys to create the human beings. And in return the man is able to create something more perfect than himself that some people may call it God, but I will borrow a phrase of Nietzsche and would say Overman. It seems that man is able to create the idea of an Overman like 'Jupiter' and not Jupiter or God the idea of a man. Here we follow the logic that says a weak creature has a greater need for a stronger, more perfect being than the vice versa. Like a baby that needs the stronger parents and in time the stronger parents will become weak and will need their stronger kid.  

Hence, the monkey created the Idea of human beings and predetermined the primary need for logos, reason. If we lose our reasoning we will lose our primary use. In other words we will be a pen without ink. Finally, we in return create our Idea of a perfect human, the highest being, the Idea of a perfect God, stronger, wiser and perfect from all beings. God is in no position to create a higher Idea than himself as there is nothing higher than God itself. What is God or Overman? God is an imaginary creation of man and of society. This magma of ideas created the widely wrong view that man is created by God.

In Conclusion, I doubt the divine nature of man and propose a more rational solution to the origin of humans from the monkeys. The imaginary of the ape created man, which in turn the human imagination has created the Overman or God. Therefore, we should light a candle to Saint-Monkey.

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