In the Bible, the serpent's proposal to Eve—that she and Adam should eat of the forbidden fruit because then their eyes would be opened, and they would be "as gods" Gen. 3:5.—sounds like a good deal. After all, don't we all occasionally imagine a life or world in which we're directing as well as starring in the "show"? But wait! What about the plural "gods"? My idea of perfection may differ from yours. Who prevails—the most cunning, the strongest? That might be the other fellow, not me. Not such a good deal after all. As long as we accept the notion of many gods—many minds—each conceiving of and attempting to control human affairs according to a personal vision, we're subject to anxiety, conflict, confusion.
The really good deal is stated in the first chapter of Genesis. There God makes man in His own likeness and gives him dominion. See Gen. 1:26. Man, then, is not a god, but the radiant expression of the one God, or Mind. Since God cannot be in conflict with Himself, His offspring—expressing His nature—cannot be in conflict with each other. There is only one, harmonious whole—Mind and its expression. Perceiving this truth empowers us to refuse the forbidden fruit, to refuse belief in a material, personal ego knowing both evil and good. It frees us from the temptation of self-indulgence and the use of willpower to achieve private ends.
Should we, yielding to temptation like Adam and Eve, find ourselves in a situation where we have been fooled into thinking of ourselves as gods and have come up hard against the inevitable consequences, we can emerge from hiding See Gen. 3:10.—stop ignoring the condition or feeling guilty, afraid, unworthy. Instead we can resolve to resist indulging in anything that would keep us preoccupied with material goods and pleasures, which would result in spiritual barrenness. And we can refuse to blame others for our plight. We always have the option to stop right where we are, change direction, and affirm that God has always been, and is now, conscious only of His perfect creation, including us. We can remember that man is the expression of God, that he has no personal ego separate from God. Such an ego never existed. Our thought thus opens to receive God's revelation of His allness and of our perfect, spiritual identity in His likeness. This leads us away from a superior/inferior "little god" sense of self, struggling to gain and retain a tiny spot in the universe, and toward the clear recognition of our true selfhood, which is worthy, secure, satisfied—one with God.
