the mechanism of life. Finally you would turn to man; but you would turn to man not merely as a complicated animal, sooner or later you would have to tackle the problem of consciousness, which had hardly arisen so far as animals were concerned. Furthermore it would not matter whether you created man in a flash, as Adam and Eve were created in that lovely story, or whether you created man through evolution, either natural selection or survival of the fittest. Sooner or later you would have to decide what to do about the problem of consciousness.
Now it would be absolutely impossible for you to give man the same consciousness as yourself. You are god, and it is vitally necessary for you to keep the ultimate strings of power in your own hands. Practical prudence absolutely demands it. Earth may end in a hellish carnage; but that is nothing compared with the nightmare of a Frankenstein creation overwhelming the creator. This is not cowardice or lack of faith; it is plain ordinary sanity.
Furthermore man must die, in order that he may be compelled to strive against death. Death in the spiritual world is very much like the 2nd. law of thermodynamics in the physical. It may be paraphrased by saying, “Everything grinds to a halt”; and to keep an ordinary secular civilised community going, a great deal of creative effort has to be put in by a large number of people. Without death this effort would not be made.
The only circumstances in which it would be possible for you to consider allowing a man to be immortal, and to have the same consciousness as yourself, would be if the man was willing to live a life in co-operation with yourself. But outside the army, co-operation must be full and free; and there would always be the danger of rebellion. The result of that might be a creation inhabited by immortal people who spat defiance at their creator. Your only alternatives then would be to leave them to stew in their own juice, or drop an atomic bomb.