While thinking about what a friend told me “I forget the past and move on as though it never happened” although I did not tell her, but I did not agree with her philosophy either. I went on thinking what would the world be if we forget the past, I mean our history.
There would have been no airplanes, electricity or even nuclear energy because, if Isaac Newton forgot his theories there will be no hope for most motion based innovations; if Thomas Edison also acted in the same vain, then there would not be electricity and innovations that utilize it. My point is the past is one’s most priceless possession.
Although it might not favor you at all times, but that does not make it evil. The nuclear energy is an example of such scenarios, it was regarded as evil during and after the cold-war, but just because of the past it created people didn’t forget it, now it is saving a lot of lives through radiotherapy and so on; and creating more energy to sustain the need for more qualitative power supply.
People also didn’t forget electricity. Although electricity has claimed lives, people are still looking for ways to generate more of it because of its importance.
What about religion? Religion is the perfect example of why the past is priceless and not meant to be forgotten. Our knowledge of the creator is the backbone of our morals, laws and even the idea of sin. These were all formed due to a particular incident in the past and has ever since been passed down from generation to generation and is the only reason the world is organized, without the intuitive knowledge from God which is the backbone of the above stated ideology, the world would be disorganised.
Now lets find out from the creator the wisest of all. what is God’s point of view about the past? Because this is the only thing that counts. If God sees it as being essential to his creation, then no one can say otherwise.
I have this question : was God’s original intention for man to die? My answer is yes, because God knows the beginning and the end. He also created man in his own image and likeness for instance; God is the ocean and man is the wave. Man was created solely for the purpose of expressing God's Thought and Action in this world, after which he re-foulds' back to the ocean of his emergence which is death.
When man was still in the garden of Eden, he was not totally in the image and likeness of God. Although he made certain decisions for himself, he only knew right (good), he didn’t know wrong (evil). God wanted him to by himself (that is man) choose to know wrong, that’s why he didn’t create man with the knowledge of evil. God’s aim was probably to create man in his image and likeness but along the line God might have realized that for man to truly be like him, he has to possess both the knowledge of good and evil. Since God knows the end from the beginning he probably knew that if he gave man the knowledge of evil, when man sins he will blame it on God for giving him the knowledge of evil. Being the wisest of all God probably sort for a way to create man in his own image and likeness, knowing both good and evil and had to take responsibility for all his actions. God probably didn’t bother himself about the knowledge of good because for every good done by man he (man) gets a reward, he might keep it for himself or share the glory with God ,but which ever way no one would blame God for something good. However if they eventually do then it’s a plus for God; I mean what is a good blame if not glory?
In order for man not to blame God when he does wrong , God created him in his own image and likeness without the knowledge of evil. God kept the knowledge of evil in the fruits of a tree in the garden of Eden. God warned man of the consequences of eating out of the tree. This act of God vividly tells us that God is not a deceiver, else he would not have told man about the tree and let him eat of it so he can accomplish his goal of making man knowledgeable of both good and evil. Now many people may think God is a deceiver because he didn’t tell man of the tree of life from the onset, but what is the use of eating the fruit of life when you are already alive; is it not when you die before you need the fruit of life? that’s why God told man about the fruit of life after man died and not before. Back to the topic, i would not have had referrence to find out the answer to the above question ( was God’s original intention for man to die? ) if The spirit of the lord didn't come upon men and make them write the word of God. If he didn’t want us to remember and walk with our past would he have inspired the creation of the bible?
In conclusion, the past is yesterdays present and if forgetting the past is good, then I wonder why doctors are still treating amnesia.
Written by Richman Ogbeide-ihama aka richysize
