“What if God was one of us?”
Credit to Eric Bazzilion, and thanks to Joan Osborne for singing his brain-rattling words. And thanks to my mother, who, along with my grade school teachers, promised that if I applied myself, I could be whatever I wanted. Little did they know how seriously I would take them.
The Involuntary Ghostwriter opens with the announcement, “In the beginning… I was born.” God, or the CREATOR as He prefers, claims He once lived a life much like ours. He did not create the Universe. He exists within it. But will claim credit for the tiny bit of it that we call the universe. He did not invent sex, much as He would love that credit. It predates Him but has been and remains one of His favorite things. He did not invent sin. Another concept predating Him, which He has concluded, following His own struggles, is a creation of our own making. So, there is no need to ask for forgiveness except from those whom our actions have harmed. He promises to answer some of our questions while sharing the story of His life.
Before dismissing this as utter nonsense, stop to consider: An ape with the audacity to stand on its hind legs and raise its head above the others, and, yes, consider itself superior, who I believe, particularly with the first written words of its descendants, becomes an active participant in its creation.
For brevity, jump ahead to the present while looking back a mere five hundred years, and imagine explaining your SmartPhone to the Inquisition. Now, another five hundred years ahead, imagine the explanations we will require without hope of comprehending them. From there, how far into the future before our descendants appear to us as gods, like those of Greek mythology? And, considering the current pace of technological and medical innovation and how far we’ve come from that first self-important, entitled bipedal ape, are there any limitations to what we can ultimately become other than our imaginations and ruthlessness?
From an entirely different perspective, ask the question: In the past, how have we received purported messages from on high? The words of fellow bipedal apes, correct?
JONATHON FRY, thanks to a hard-earned financial boon, finds himself with a year to fulfill a lifelong dream and write a novel, beginning as a fictionalized version of his early life but soon haunted by powerful erotic visions of a beautiful woman he had never met, and feeling compelled to write about memories that are no long his own. Would this have been similar to the experiences of prior writers of the Holy books, through no choice of their own, becoming conduits channeling the words of God or the Creator as He prefers? Prophets, i.e. Involuntary Ghostwriters?
Other Titles in The Ghostwriter Series
