Edward Conklin Ph.d.

Tool-maker to God Maker: a Human Journey Edward Conklin Ph.d.

Benjamin Franklin is said to have been the first to define humans as "a tool-making animal.? Until recently humans have been defined as the only tool-maker and tool-user species. But recent evidence has accumulated to show that other species also make and use tools including, chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas, crows, dolphins, elephants, sea otters, and the Galapagos Island finches. Since these mentioned species, and more, make and/or use tools, a new definition of what it is to be human is needed. What really defines and sets humans apart from all other living species of tool-making and tool-using species, is what no other animal has been observed or known to do. Of all living species only humans are god-makers. The mechanism of god making must be scrutinized, revealed, exposed to light and laid bare, to show it is only and completely the human ego that has generated the human-like ego of a god. A god is a conceived strategy of regulating human behavior for the better, a way of furnishing direction from a lower animalistic level to a higher level. Whoever maintains the view of a human-like god simply want to improve themselves, and wants extra help doing so, even if imaginary. Self-improvement is a benefit to oneself and to all. The ego of a god is only an ineffectual reflection of the human ego, an ego that ever contributes to its own troubles of interpersonal conflict and aggression. Just as stone tools have become obsolete, so the cognitive tool of a human-like god is on its way to becoming obsolete. As did the use of stone tools, the cognitive tool of a human-like god is also receding into history.