The Stomach and the True Self
In Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche poignantly noted that, “The stomach is the reason man does not easily take himself for a God.”
The aphorism requires little interpretation. It surgically and succinctly reveals man’s obvious natural and biological limitations in mortal life.
The aphorism is often cited as an appeal to humility. Unlike the perfect, transcendent, unfeeling, eternal omnigod of Christian philosophers, man is deeply anchored in nature and at the mercy of basic biological functions and needs.
Taken as a synecdoche, the belly represents all of man’s glaring vulnerabilities and barriers—all those things that make us mortal, dependent, and limited.
At the very least, it serves as a sobering reminder of the gaping void that separates man from God. The things that ground us in mortality, many of which are needed simply to survive in mortal life, are the same things that prevent us from becoming gods.
Yet this contrast between the human and the divine can only go so far. After all, Jesus’s offer of everlasting life offers a man a way out of mortal limitations. It essentially closes the gaping void separating man from God.
Jesus’s offer is meant to remind man that he possesses a true self—an innate part is divine; a part is a god in embryo. It is this part that moves on to everlasting life and Heaven.
During mortal life, the true self lies buried under layers of false selves. Some of these, exemplified by the stomach, are needed for basic survival in the mortal world. Others stem from genes and heredity. Others emerge from the process of socialization, psychological development, learning, and experience. Some false selves are indispensable to mortal life; others are actively taken on and endanger or corrupt mortal life.
Beneath all of that lies the true self—an uncaused cause that is by itself an eternal center of freedom, agency, creativity, and being.
It is the true self that ultimately accepts or rejects Jesus’s offer of everlasting life with the understanding that Jesus’s Second Creation offers the true self—as a center of freedom, agency, creativity, love, and being—the opportunity to fully and creatively participate in Creation sans any physical, natural, and mortal limitations.
The true self is the reason why man should not easily mistake himself for being nothing more than a stomach.
The aphorism requires little interpretation. It surgically and succinctly reveals man’s obvious natural and biological limitations in mortal life.
The aphorism is often cited as an appeal to humility. Unlike the perfect, transcendent, unfeeling, eternal omnigod of Christian philosophers, man is deeply anchored in nature and at the mercy of basic biological functions and needs.
Taken as a synecdoche, the belly represents all of man’s glaring vulnerabilities and barriers—all those things that make us mortal, dependent, and limited.
At the very least, it serves as a sobering reminder of the gaping void that separates man from God. The things that ground us in mortality, many of which are needed simply to survive in mortal life, are the same things that prevent us from becoming gods.
Yet this contrast between the human and the divine can only go so far. After all, Jesus’s offer of everlasting life offers a man a way out of mortal limitations. It essentially closes the gaping void separating man from God.
Jesus’s offer is meant to remind man that he possesses a true self—an innate part is divine; a part is a god in embryo. It is this part that moves on to everlasting life and Heaven.
During mortal life, the true self lies buried under layers of false selves. Some of these, exemplified by the stomach, are needed for basic survival in the mortal world. Others stem from genes and heredity. Others emerge from the process of socialization, psychological development, learning, and experience. Some false selves are indispensable to mortal life; others are actively taken on and endanger or corrupt mortal life.
Beneath all of that lies the true self—an uncaused cause that is by itself an eternal center of freedom, agency, creativity, and being.
It is the true self that ultimately accepts or rejects Jesus’s offer of everlasting life with the understanding that Jesus’s Second Creation offers the true self—as a center of freedom, agency, creativity, love, and being—the opportunity to fully and creatively participate in Creation sans any physical, natural, and mortal limitations.
The true self is the reason why man should not easily mistake himself for being nothing more than a stomach.
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