Our identity is a lie because it is a fundamental dishonesty, in the moment, about our true existential situation. This lie obscures the fact that our self-esteem is borrowed, that it rests upon a cultural hero system. More, the lie hides the fact that our self-esteem is fundamentally a form of idolatry, a service rendered to the cultural hero system—what the Bible calls a principality and power. But this dishonesty is vital in that it is necessary in order for the human animal to continue on in the face of death. Again, the existential burden that death places upon us is impossible to carry.
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