(Apologies to Warner Brothers and “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.”)
OK, before I get started I assume you know Superman is a
fictitious character. Right? There is no such Kryptonian on earth named
Clark Kent who has super powers and flies around in a red cape with a big S on
his chest. I also assume that for many
of you, God is a fictitious character.
There is no such omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent being as God and
there is no such person on earth today named Jesus walking around in robes and
sandals. Some of you may believe that
one or the other of these characters is real.
That’s fine. You can believe what
you want.
I am a big fan of Superman, (a.k.a. Clark Kent and Kal-El). He has never claimed to be all powerful. He has never claimed to know everything. He has never claimed to be everywhere all the
time. He has never claimed
responsibility for creating anything.
And he has never, ever asked to be worshiped or adored. If anything, he seems shy and is reluctant to
reveal his true persona so he hides out as Clark Kent. He emerges as Superman, however, whenever
there is a wrong that needs righting or bad guy that needs busting. Most of what he does from my point of view is
miraculous, though he does not claim those actions to be so. Kal-El has never claimed to be a deity. He never claimed that his father, Jor-El, was
a deity. It is interesting to watch
Kal-El struggle with human emotions and desires even though he is not of this
earth.
God, on the other hand, insists that we worship Him, in fact
that we worship Him first and foremost.
He claims to know everything, see everything and be everywhere at
once. He does not perform miracles in
front of the press, but expects us to believe he performs miracles. Superman’s sweetie is a reporter and much of
what he does is public covered by audio, video and print media. God’s son, Jesus, was sent to earth to die,
just the opposite of Jor-El who died sending his son to earth so that his son
may live. Superman seeks to serve
humans. Jesus wants us to serve
him. In Siegel and Shuster’s gospel,
Kal-El makes mistakes and fumbles, but consistently seeks to work for the
better good and to save and protect humanity.
Further, no Superman comic book ever claimed to be inerrant and dogma
inspiring. In the Bible’s Gospels we
read that a few disabled people were healed, water was turned into wine, fish
and loaves were multiplied, fish were caught, water was walked on, storms were
calmed, and a dead guy was raised. Hard
to see how those acts were anything but self-promotion rather than acts for the
betterment of humankind.
It is believed that God answers prayers. I have no personal evidence of that, but
others claim to. Superman has super
hearing. Many times folks in trouble
call out and it is Superman who physically responds and deals with the
problem. If God and Superman were both
real, which one would have shown up to save the passengers on the Germanwings
flight that crashed into a French mountain?
I think I know.
If you do not do what God wants you to do He will send you to
a place of torture for eternity. If you
do not do what Superman wants you to do he will either lock you up for breaking
the law, or allow you to be a human being and make up your own mind. He fights for freedom. In fact, he stands around and hears people
criticizing him to his Clark Kent face.
Jesus was never so forgiving.
So, if there is a contest between Superman and God, and the
winner becomes real, who would you vote for?
Sorry God. Superman really is a better deal than you. He is more powerful, more accessible, more
forgiving, and more supportive and he arrived in modern times, not the Bronze
Age. Plus, he could not be crucified. The nails would bend rather than penetrate,
and he never would have sat still for that anyway. Martha and John Kent raised no fool.
I vote for Superman to be our god at the dawn of reason.
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