Abrahamic God as a mythical alpha male

This column has presented details that “Mwari” and the Abrahamic God are two identities that are characteristically not related at all.

Shingai Rukwata Ndoro – Chiseling the Debris
From an indigenous point of view, “Mwari” is an infinite, eternal and impersonal life force. It does not crave for human attention and needs no supplication. It does not seek relevance and validation by threats, force, fear or coercion. The word for the Divine in ancient Egypt is “NTR” (Neter, Nejter). Neteru is the plural for the ancient Egyptian divinity or sum of divine energies.

The hieroglyph for ‘Ntr’ looks like a flag. ‘Ntr’ is also the force of nature (from Latin, “natura”, which means “birth, essence”). The ancient Egyptian sum of divine energies (“neteru”) humanised aspects of an impersonal cosmic energy or life force whose behaviour created and sustains life and the universe.

Attributes and functions of such an impersonal cosmic energy or life force were also presented as animals. Non-theistic Vedic Hinduism (Advaita Vedanta) acknowledges the Divine as a single and absolute force without form and attributes. Such a Divine is considered to exist in everything and everywhere and is referred as “Brahman” in Sanskrit. This is considered as an unchanging, infinite, immanent, transcendent and genderless reality. It is an “infinite ocean of joyous empty consciousness – impersonal, inactive, and anonymous”.

In Persian Zoroastrian cosmology, the Divine is “Ahura-Mazda” (the infinite and eternal Light) and was considered a life force in nature, which encompassed the whole universe, something that the whole system was made up of, something, which we humans are also, part of.

No shape, form or symbol was ascribed to “Ahura-Mazda”. In contrast, the Abrahamic God is a humanoid, masculine and personal (tribalist) figure sickeningly craving for human attention, praise and supplication. It has what Hector Garcia has called “tribalistic morality” or “parochial altruism.” Its scriptural record of being the worst kind of character is shocking and unsettling to any person of honour.

“In his book ‘Drunk with Blood: God’s Killing in the Bible’, Steve Wells adds up the killings attributed to (the Abrahamic) God and those attributed to Satan: Through pestilence, plague, natural disasters, striking people down, et cetera, (the Abrahamic) God is directly described as killing 2 475 636 people, often for capricious reasons such as burning incense or even questioning (the Abrahamic) God’s killing.

“Satan, the goat-headed embodiment of all that is dark in the universe, is given credit for killing a paltry ten. When Wells estimates the likely size of towns or communities destroyed, it raises the number of (the Abrahamic) God’s victims to more than 24 million, and bumps Satan to 60. Yet (followers of Abrahamic faiths) consider (the Abrahamic) God unquestionably righteous and Satan the epitome of evil, with no apparent sense of the inherent hypocrisy.” (Hector A Garcia, August 2015)

By literal definition, an “alpha male” means a dominant male. “Alpha” is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In sociology and zoology, the strongest, dominant or domineering male in a particular group of humans and animals, is the “alpha male”. An alpha male is characterised by the following: it demands absolute devotion, submission, obedience and allegiance arising out of insecurity and lacking emotional balance; aggressive dominance and maintains a social group related by blood by a grip of brutal violence; uses intimidation, threats and violence to establish and maintain position; conquers and protects territory by brutal violence and war mongering; sexist and misogynistic but still picks multiple females to mate with without restraint and expects any female to provide sexual favours; fathers all children or considers all children as his even if sired by subordinates; takes credit for everything even done by subordinates and everything done in his name; dissent is viciously suppressed; and subordinates or subjects show deference, “by ritualised gestures such as bowing,” praising, kneeling, supplications and other displays of unquestioning submission “to appear smaller and less threatening” and to secure favours; surrender of food through offerings and fasting and yet “he is not made of flesh and blood” and “obsessed with genetic lineage”; prefers subordinates or subjects to be automatons, ignorant and lack awareness.

The Abrahamic God “is described as possessing an array of humanly impossible powers. He is omnipotent, or all powerful. He is eternal, meaning that he never dies. He is immaterial, having no bodily form. And he is omniscient, all-knowing. And yet, despite all these powers, this god is described as a jealous god, one who demands obedience and submission from his subordinates, who fights rivals to his throne, and who shows an immense interest in territory”. (Hector A Garcia, March 2015)

According to Hector Garcia (2016), the image and characterisation of the Abrahamic God is rooted in the alpha male of primate behaviour. Primates are all “bound to their biology, require territory for food, engage in war to secure territory, and compete for mates with other males so that they may launch their genes into future generations”.

How can those of good intentions, good faith and good character subscribe themselves to such a brutally cruel, vengeful narcissist, homicidal and genocidal Abrahamic God who condoned and commandeered violence, intense hatred, discrimination, slavery, rape, murder, child abuse, sexism and parochial morality against anyone outside his tribal in-group?

Do those of the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Rastafarianism) have their own malevolent side that is projected through the mythical and humanoid alpha male in the form of the petulant Abrahamic God? Next week, we explore scriptural evidence around these claims.

References
Hector A Garcia, “Why Is God a Dominant Male?” (Psychology Today, March 8, 2015)
Hector A Garcia, “God, Satan, and Our Moral Bias” (Psychology Today, August 2, 2015)
Hector Garcia, “Alpha God: The Psychology of Religion Violence and Oppression” (2016)

Feedback: [email protected] or Twitter @shingaiRndoro. A gallery of previous articles is found at www.sundaymail.co.zw/author/shingairukwata