THE MACHINE

It has been said that man is fashioned in the image of God (the Father), but while we may have our doubts about that, these days, we know for sure that God (the Son) was fashioned in the image of man. It has also been said that man is conditioned by his machines, and while there may be some truth in this, we need not doubt that machines are made in man's image. By which I mean that man creates from his own order the order of the machine, that man precedes the machine, not the machine man, and that the machine stands to him as he used to stand to the Creator - a reflection of a preordained order, in the one case natural, in the other case artificial.

Man, then, becomes God twice over, first in being, then in doing; first in Christ, then as creator of the machine, though we may suppose this latter assumption of divinity a decadence compared with the former. Yet man needs the machine and the machine, seemingly, needs man, or, at least, this used to be the case ... before it became autonomous and thereby capable of leading a completely independent existence, as in computers and digital watches, much the way man outgrew his dependence on God (the Father) and became, via Christ, independent, and hence fully human. Now the machine has become fully mechanical, liberated from man and free to do its own business, regardless of what human beings may think of the fact. At one time God took orders from man; now man takes orders from the machine, which he trusts to do his business for him, much as God was expected to answer prayers.

These days only the most backward of people still pray. For the machine is capable of fulfilling most human needs, having been fashioned in man's image. We are fed by it, entertained by it, educated by it, informed by it, transported by it, warmed by it, pleasured by it, clothed by it, dried by it, cooled by it, repaired by it, tanned by it, reproduced by it, and even killed by it. What it ultimately cannot do, however, is to save us, for this is something that man can only do by and through his mind, striving, in the process, to overcome his body ... with the assistance, needless to say, of the machine. For just as he became liberated from God (the Father), so he must become liberated from himself, if he is to attain to the Superman and subsequently be engineered beyond that post-human stage to the Superbeing. So the machine will come to support his successors, no less than God (the Father) once supported men. And their ultimate goal will be liberation from the machine, which is nothing less than Heaven and, inevitably, full attainment to God (the Holy Spirit).