Okay, so I have this essay to write for school that is due on September 10, before I even arrive on campus. It's an essay on plagiarism and why a university should be concerned about their students following strict guidelines regarding avoiding plagiarism. Currently, at this exact point in time, I have a few scattered ideas typed out in a word document and no real structure at all. Thirteen days to go....I might think about starting on it soon.
Anyways, that's not the big point. As I was brushing my teeth in the bathroom last night after typing another random thought into that word document on plagiarism, I got a random thought: What does God think about plagiarism? Is it possible to plagiarize Him? More than that, if it's possible, how does He feel when we plagiarize Him?
Well, technically plagiarism is a sin against someone else. It's stealing, stealing someone else's work to be exact, whether artistic, musical, linguistic, mathematic, or scientific. It's also saying "Hey, I'm the one who created this!" when someone else deserves the credit instead. So I suppose to answer the question "how does He feel," I think that He feels sad, because we are hurting others by stealing from them.
So, is it possible to plagiarize God? Honestly, this is pure speculation from my point of view, as a lot of this blog has been, so feel free to disagree, but I feel that yes, it is possible to plagiarize God. In addition to the obvious (taking words from His Word and saying that you came up with them all by yourself), isn't it plagiarism when we plant something and then say, after it has grown, "I grew this?" We didn't grow it. We planted it. We watered it. We made sure it was positioned in the sun. But we didn't grow it. What about when we complete a very hard task, and then take a step back and say "I did this all by myself?" Did we really do that all by ourselves? In truth, we can't do anything without God.
On the other hand, God created us in His image with the ability to create. We can be original creatures and create things. God didn't create the car on the sixth day, nor did He paint the Mona Lisa. Some could argue that he may have inspired Pythagorean's Theorem and the Theory of Relativity, but I am not certain that that is the case.
So where do we draw the line? And does any of this even matter? I honestly don't think we need to go crazy about this whole thing. I found it intriguing enough to write about, but I think God would rather have us worry about more pressing matter, or in fact not worry at all.
The Bible says that what we do to the least of these, we also do to Jesus Christ. Creators are in a vulnerable position when they come up with something original and then send it out into the world to be criticized, acclaimed, or stolen. I almost feel as though by giving proper credit where proper credit is due when we ourselves are creating, we are indirectly being kind to those creators who are in a vulnerable position, thus doing so to Christ. I also believe that by recognizing and fully believing in our hearts that we humans would not even be capable of living without God, and by not being afraid to name Jesus as our Savior and the center of our lives, we are giving proper credit where proper credit is due to Him as well.
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