Creation and Human Dignity

Earlier this semester, I read an ancient Babylonian poem called the Enuma Elish. The poem is essentially a creation account according to Mesopotamian mythology. (If you are really into Mesopotamian epic poems and want to read it yourself, you can do so here.) The basic plot is that there is a great battle between the gods. On one side stands Tiamat and her husband Kingu, who are portrayed as the "bad guys" in the story. On the other side is Marduk, the patron god of Babylon and the hero of the tale. After a period in which Tiamat goes on a revengeful rampage, Marduk steps up and vows to defeat her. This he does, and he then uses her body to create the earth and the sky.

A lot of people pay close attention to the Enuma Elish because they see a number of similarities between the poem and the creation account of Genesis 1-2. There may be some. Much more significant, however, are the differences, and perhaps the key difference lies in the way the two stories explain the creation of man. In the Enuma Elish, when Marduk kills Tiamat, he takes her husband Kingu captive. After a while, the gods decide that they could use some underlings to do their chores, so Marduk proposes the creation of man:

When Marduk heard the words of the gods
His heart prompted him to fashion artful works.
Opening his mouth, he addressed Ea
To impart the plan he had conceived in his heart:
"I will take blood and fashion bone.
I will establish a savage, 'man' shall be his name.
Truly, savage-man I will create.
He shall be charged with the service of the gods
That they might be at ease!
The ways of the gods I will artfully alter.

This sounds like a great plan to the gods. But the problem is that they need the raw material needed for creating man. The solution? They yank Kingu out of his prison cell, kill him, and use his blood to make man.

It's such a far cry from the way the Bible describes it:

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)

In the Enuma Elish, mankind is created out of the villain of the story for the purpose of service. In the Bible, mankind is created in the image of the hero, God, for the purpose of ruling. The Babylonian epic provides an incredibly low view of humankind, while the Bible elevates humankind in a way that was perhaps unique in the ancient world. For the Bible-believer, a person had dignity and purpose because they are made in God's own image.

The same holds true today. Christianity offers a view of human nature that, I think, is much higher than most other systems of thought. And yet, many today would claim the opposite. It is a common remark that "Christianity demeans humankind by imposing a system of behavior on people. It's too controlling. It does not allow for the free expression of life that we ought to possess." From the naturalist perspective that dominates Western thinking, human dignity is expressed through unbridled behavior. A person who fully understands their esteem and worth ought to have freedom to live however they choose. A person should be able to do whatever feels right to them, and no other person or church should encourage a different mode of behavior.

Here's the problem with that: Creating an ideal in which humans ought to live however they choose does not actually raise human dignity. It lowers it. In such a thought-system, human cease to be moral beings who have the ability to choose right over wrong. I become no more of a moral agent than the leftover Chinese food in my fridge. If I adopt a naturalist understanding in which I am simply the most highly evolved of the animal kingdom, my life does not have real meaning or purpose.

I'm thankful for the way I am made (in spite of my near-sightedness and patchy beard). I'm thankful that I'm not just the product of random biological chance or the creation of a mythological villain who lost his fight. I'm made in the image of the Creator of the universe. That fact gives me worth and dignity. It gives my life purpose. And the way we understand our own natures guides what we do with it. Let's live like who we are.