The Superkeith [Überkeit]

"Behold, I teach you the overman [Übermensch]. The overman is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the overman shall be the meaning of the earth! I beseech you, my brothers, remain faithful to the earth, and do not believe those who speak to you of otherworldly hopes! Poison-mixers are they, whether they know it or not. Despisers of life are they, decaying and poisoned themselves, of whom the earth is weary: so let them go."

-Friedrich Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra

I'd like to think that if I were an atheist (assuming such a position were possible), I would live completely free of all moral restraints. Having no absolute Truth to guide me, I would be the most conniving, power-hungry villain to walk the planet. I'd be so good at being bad, in fact, that no one would know that I really didn't give a darn-tootin' diddley what they thought of my actions. I would be Superkeith, and there would be no stopping me.

Given my upbringing as a missionary and pastor's kid, I've learned the ins-and-outs of being 'such a good little boy.' My parents never forced me to act good; I just knew it was my lot in life. One of the things that most plagued my conscience growing up was when I sneaked small pieces off bacon slices before breakfast when my mom wasn't looking. The 'rebellious stage,' or, even worse, the 'rebellious pastor's kid' stage was something I never went through. Heck, I've never even frickin' cussed.

This veritable mastery of the art of looking good has placed me in a good position, I believe, to be potentially the worst person possible - one who acts perfectly on the outside, but whose innards are full of dead men's bones. I could be a white-washed tomb who revels in the darkness inside, an ethical egoist - Nietzche's overman - who is in complete mastery of his feelings, actions, and will, turning every situation into his advantage, attaining power in every area of life.

As for love, I would exploit it to the max. Oh, yes, the ladies would do as I pleased, thinking all the time that I was just as weak and vulnerable as they in the servitude of affection. Indeed, I would be well aware that, "Sometimes it requires only a stronger pair of spectacles to cure the lover, and he who had the imagination to picture a face, a figure twenty years older would perhaps pass through life very undisturbed" (Nietzsche in Human, All Too Human). Sensual pleasures and adoring devotion would be mine, for as long as they suited my fancy, until I decided to move on. Then I would leave, those who loved me feeling only that they had somehow wronged me, and all too ready to make it up at a moment's notice.

Such is the lure of power, of mastery, of the overman; one who has conquered the weakness of humanity and has only power left within his soul, with no conscience remaining to curb the fulfillment craftily calculated desires.

It's impenetrable.

There is only one overlooked tragic flaw. There is one weakness, and this is its strength. For the ultimate perfection of strength is found in the strength to be weak. This is what Lucifer hadn't counted on when he fell like lightning from heaven. Closest to absolute power is that which embraces all abilities except that to relinquish itself. Closest, however, is not absolute, is not perfect, and is not complete. On its own, It has fallen short, and It will continue to fall for eternity. It is constantly becoming more nothing than It was before, and yet never nothing enough to be free from the horror of plummeting from being more than It presently is.

Perfect love is found only in giving all. Perfect freedom is exercising the freedom to commit absolutely. Perfect peace is only discovered in the face of strife. Perfect knowledge is faith. Being seated at the right hand of God is in complete only in kenosis, in the Absolute emptying Himself and making Himself nothing.
 

Christ is the only Overman. Only He is perfectly God and perfectly man, and it is impossible to take His place, for He is the One and the Complete, and anyone who would go to the Father must go through Him. Only He has perfected power in weakness and love in vulnerability. I know no Superkeith is possible on my own, but through Christ I am beginning to understand with a knowledge that comes through faith, to choose freely to be His servant, and to love others with a love so strong that it is broken and weak, a love that embraces so closely that the beloved is free to go, and a love that would go through death that another might live.

"Love is all, it gives all, and it takes all" - Soren Kierkegaard