Image of Moloch from the United Biblical Dictionary, Philadelphia—New York, 1837.
A Mirror for the New Aristocracy
When the world learned what was happening on Epstein Island, many experienced shock at the monstrous reality. Almost simultaneously with these revelations, millions of viewers were watching the series “Westworld”—an elaborate fantasy about an amusement park where ultra-wealthy clients could indulge their darkest passions with impunity. These two phenomena—one real, the other artistic—turned out to be mirrors reflecting the same spiritual illness. They are not a random coincidence but symptoms of a profound worldview shift that demands not only legal but also spiritual reflection.
Epstein Island and the series “Westworld” are two symptoms of a single spiritual illness, the name of which is self-deification.
Our ancestors called this demonic delusion; today it is clothed in the forms of technological anti-utopia and glamorous scandal. Epstein Island and the series “Westworld” are two faces of the same reality, two symptoms of a single spiritual illness, the name of which is self-deification. They point to a radical worldview schism, an abyss in society. Where did the idea come from that for some people others are merely expendable material for pleasures? The answer lies not in sociology but in the spiritual choice between two projects of humanity: deification of man by God, and the self-“deification” of man.
From Protagoras’s “Man the Measure” to Nietzsche’s “Man-God”
The idea that the chosen stand above society’s morality is not new. It can be traced from the ancient Sophists, who proclaimed that “man is the measure of all things.” This principle, severing the connection between truth and objective divine law, contained the seed of future arbitrariness. If the measure of all things is the individual man, then the strong and clever become the measure for the weak and foolish.
Christianity offered a different, opposite anthropology: Every person is the image of God, called to deification, to becoming a “God-man” through humility, repentance, virtuous love in obedience to the Creator and Provider. This is the path of grace-filled virtuous transformation, accessible to everyone through Christ. “God became man so that man might become god by grace.”
However, the diabolical distortion of this idea gave birth to the concept of “man-godhood”—which is when man himself proclaims himself god, rejecting any need for salvation, renouncing the Cross, renouncing his responsibility before the Creator. Philosophically, this was succinctly formulated by Friedrich Nietzsche with his dual concept of the “death of God” and the “superman” who lives “beyond good and evil.” What for Nietzsche was the tragic ideal of a solitary mad thinker has become a guide to action for modern global elites, the paradigm and meaning of their godless existence.
The logical chain “man is the measure of all things → man is god for himself” is not new. In Christian anthropology, man attains the highest dignity as the image of God, called to love and sacrifice. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? (1 Jn. 4:20). Love for the concrete, “visible” neighbor is the criterion and path to God.
The distortion of this ideal leads to the satanic alternative—man-godhood. This is not a philosophical abstraction but a life program that F. M. Dostoevsky, even before Nietzsche, brilliantly diagnosed in Raskolnikov's1 theory of those who “have the right.” His hero poses the fatal question: “Am I a trembling creature or do I have the right?” The answer is the rebellion of Dmitry Karamazov, tempted by the evil one: “If there is no God, then everything is permitted.”2 This is the key formula that removes all moral prohibitions. The “one who has the right,” the superman, himself becomes the source of law for himself, the measure of all things, including the lives of other people, all humanity, and the world.
Historical Roots of the Division into “Superiors” and “Inferiors”
The logic justifying license for some at the expense of others is rooted in the most ancient and dangerous principle: “divide and rule.” This division arises from pride, which generates the notion of fundamental inequality among people: the chosen, blessed (by blood, faith, reason, or wealth) and the rejected, cursed, whose life and dignity have substantially less value—or none at all.
The origins of this idea in Western civilization (understood as a synthesis of ancient and Judeo-Christian traditions) are extremely deep and go back to two powerful currents that later merged.
The first is antiquity with its strict opposition of civilization to barbarism. Greeks and Romans drew a rigid boundary between themselves, bearers of the polis and civilization (“paideia”), and barbarians, beings of a different order who could be lawfully enslaved, plundered, and destroyed if necessary. For a Hellene or Roman citizen, there was one code of honor and law toward equals, but toward the “barbarian” other, far harsher and more cynical rules applied. Here already arises the model of two moralities.
The second is the Judeo-Christian tradition with its characteristic temptation of false chosenness. Both in Jewish and Christian teachings there exists the sacred idea of divine election—not as a privilege but as colossal responsibility for service, moral duty, and the mission of salvation for all humanity: I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you; and in you all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed. (Gen. 12:3).
However, human pride constantly tried to distort this spiritual calling into worldly privilege—to turn the Covenant with God into an occasion for exalting oneself over neighbors. The prophets of the Old Testament (Amos, Isaiah, Jonah) and the Church Fathers constantly denounced this false, Pharisaical understanding of election, reminding us that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34) and that the true Israelite or Christian is not the one who has circumcision or baptism, but the one who keeps and embodies his faith in deeds of love for all (Rom. 2:28–29; James 2:17).
Thus was born the monstrous ideology: Europeans by their very nature are bearers of supreme right in relation to the rest of humanity.
The tragedy of the West and all humanity, since its (the West’s) metastases have spread everywhere, lies in the fact that in the era of forming its imperial and colonial identity, there occurred a fatal synthesis of these two models of division. The ancient idea of the superiority of the “civilized” over the “savage” was reinforced and sanctified by the perverted, worldly interpretation of religious election. Thus was born the monstrously convincing ideology for contemporaries: Europeans (or the “Christian people”) are not merely more technologically developed; by their very nature, by divine Providence, they are bearers of the highest order and right in relation to the rest of humanity. By virtue of their election from above, they are destined to rule the world.
It was this poisonous fusion that gave moral justification to Western imperialism and colonialism with their slave trade and destruction of entire cultures. It also became the philosophical foundation for racial nationalism and Nazism, where the place of the “civilized” and “chosen by faith” was taken by “Aryans” or representatives of the “master race.”
In all these cases, the same principle operated: “everything for the ‘chosen ones’, law for others,” with the law written by the “chosen ones.” The inferior (“barbarian,” “goy,” “Untermensch”) was placed outside the framework of common human morality, becoming an object over which the “chosen ones” possessed almost absolute power.
This logic of division into the superior “chosen” and inferior slaves became the historical and ideological forerunner of everything that was done on Epstein Island and is artistically explored in “Westworld”: the creation of an enclosed space where the “chosen” can carry out their will with impunity over “others,” whether robots or living people declared subhuman or biorobots.
Contemporary Context: Technology, Capital, and Flight from Death
The uniqueness of our time lies in the unprecedented possibilities of fantastically rich and influential people. Global finance, digital technologies, and transnational corporations have created a layer or caste of people whose power and wealth make them practically unaccountable to earthly laws. They live in a legal vacuum created by armies of lawyers, private security services, and political influence. They can effectively afford anything they desire without fear of earthly punishment.
One problem remains that the global elite cannot solve and that reminds them of their creatureliness, limitations, and vulnerability: death.
However, one problem remains that they cannot resolve, which reminds them of their creatureliness, limitations, and vulnerability: death. Death calls into question the man-godhood of the global elite. And this elite tries to fight it. Transhumanism, cryonics, genetic engineering, biotechnologies—all these are elements of a project to overcome human nature, to rid it of death. It is not merely about extending life but about the desire to eternally preserve one’s identity as “superman”—with his power, wealth, and exorbitant pride. Death is the last universal law reminding self-proclaimed “gods” that they are merely human. To remove this obstacle too means finally severing connection with the common human fate, forever standing above it, totally affirming one’s own right and will.
“Westworld”: Simulacrum and the Ethics of “Those Who Have the Right”
The series “Westworld” is not mere entertainment. It is an open manifesto of the new ethics. It clearly delineates the hierarchy:
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Gods (clients)—everything is permitted to them.
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Demiurges (park creators)—they serve the gods but themselves try to play at being creators.
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Robot-hosts—not people, androids, therefore any violence can be committed against them without pangs of conscience.
The entire drama of the series is built on the question: What if the “dolls” acquire consciousness, soul, their own “I”? For the park’s clients, this question does not exist. Their reality is absolute arbitrariness elevated to a philosophical principle. They pay for the experience of absolute impunity. The series legitimizes this model, making it glamorous, technological, aestheticized.
“Westworld” is an open manifesto of this new old ethics. It propagandizes it. Viewers want to become park clients, “supermen” for whom “everything is permitted” because their victims are not people but skillfully made things. This is safe, simulated sin that nevertheless educates the viewer to accept the very logic that if your victim is not equal to you (robot, object, or “trembling creature”), then everything is permitted. The series becomes a trainer for consciousness, preparing it for the thought that with sufficient power and division into castes “everything is permitted” in the real world.
Epstein Island: Ritual and Reality
Now let’s look at what happens when this model is transferred to the real world. Epstein Island is precisely that “Westworld,” only instead of robot-hosts, there are living girls, teenagers, and children. Instead of complex artificial intelligence—fragile human souls created in the image and likeness of God.
Epstein Island is precisely that “Westworld,” only instead of robot-hosts, there are living girls, teenagers, children.
This was not just “debauchery” or “crime.” It was a ritual. A ritual of initiation into the caste of the chosen. A ritual binding the elite with shared anti-values, shared complicity in “pure” evil. A ritual of affirming power through trampling the most vulnerable and innocent part of humanity. This is a modern form of vampirism—where the life force feeding the “supermen” is the innocence, youth, the very humanity of their victims.
What in the series is shown as fantasy happened literally on the island. And this is a thousand times scarier. Because it is not a mechanism that suffers, but a personality. Because it is not a program that is destroyed, but a soul.
The island is a place where the simulacrum became a nightmarish reality. Here the theory of Raskolnikov was literally implemented. The “privileged” came there to affirm their godlikeness through absolute dominion over “trembling creatures”—living, defenseless souls. This was a ritual binding the caste with shared complicity in trampling the sanctity of human personality. If in the series, violence over “hosts” is entertainment, here it is a sacred act of self-deification through defilement and humiliation. This is the practical consequence of the idea that “if there is no God” and no Higher Court, then the only court is your own “right to have.”
Permissiveness—Pride—Satanism
Moral permissiveness (the practice of the island) is born from immoderate pride (“We are gods, we can do everything”), which, according to the holy fathers, is an expression of satanism.
The devil was the first of the created to say: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. (Is. 14:14). He is the first “superbeing” who wished to live by his own will, not by the will of the Creator, wanting to become god without God. With this tempting idea, he seduced the first people. With it, he continues to tempt us, their descendants.
The essence of satanism is in the radical rejection of God as Creator and Lawgiver, in affirming complete independence from Him, in postulating absolute self-law (autonomy) of “I.” “I am the law for myself and for others, the lower ones.” First, the sly devil proclaims this, followed by the people seduced by him. Man-godhood is born from satan-godhood. Behind them stands immoderate pride desiring only to command, not to submit; what Nietzsche called the will to power, the thirst for dominion over all lower and weak.
Epstein Island is the materialized kingdom of this satanic idea. It is an anti-monastery. If a monastery is a place for mortifying passions and educating the spirit through obedience and prayer, then Epstein Island is a place for cultivating the darkest passions and killing the spirit through moral permissiveness.
Thus, we see before us the realization of the satanic project of “man-godhood for the elect”: to become god through pride, violence, separation from the “plebs,” and trampling morality. Its outcome is eternal spiritual death, hell of despondency and loneliness.
In opposition to this project is the Christian ideal of “God-manhood for all”: to unite with God through humility, love, sacrifice, and compassion for neighbors. Its outcome is deification as full and perfect blessed union with God.
Trans-deification Instead of Man-Godhood
Modern theorists of transhumanism speak of completing the project of man and transitioning to some new evolutionary species, for now called “transhuman.” Human nature itself is declared outdated software subject to total upgrade or replacement. According to one of the main ideologues of this direction, Yuval Noah Harari, future beings created with the help of bioengineering and artificial intelligence will relate to people as people today relate to monkeys.
The idea of self-deification remains, but this is no longer deification of man. To achieve deification, man as a species must be overcome and canceled. The pride that gave birth to the slogan “everything is permitted” now leads to the dream of creating a new species for which not only God’s commandments but also biological and existential limitations of Homo Sapiens will not apply.
“We no longer want to remain human!” transhumanists proclaim. “We wish to create ourselves, transform exclusively according to our own will, in our own image and likeness!” Thus, the rebellion against God that began with satan, following disobedience to His will, denial of His Providence and being, reaches the rejection of the very nature created by Him. This is the culmination of the idea “I have the right.” If the “one who has the right” superman trampled morality, then his transhumanist successor encroaches on creaturely essence itself.
In this light, Epstein Island and “Westworld” appear not as final points but merely as training grounds, laboratories for cultivating consciousness for which the “lower” (be it human or android) is merely raw material.
The Christian answer to this is not in arguing about technologies, but in courageous confession of the enduring value of the human soul, created in the image of God and redeemed by the Blood of Christ. The teaching of “God-manhood” affirms that true perfection lies not in going beyond humanity but in filling it with Divine grace, to which Adam was called in paradise and which the New Adam—Christ—manifested in fullness.
Forewarned Is Forearmed
Epstein Island is not an anomaly but the logical outcome of the path civilization took by placing “man, the self-creator” at the center of the universe, rejecting objective good and evil, declaring morality a convention. “Westworld” is its glamorous advertisement and ideological justification.
Epstein Island is not an anomaly but the logical outcome of the path civilization took by placing man-creator at the center of the universe.
Our society stands before a choice: to continue moving in this direction, where technology and capital create new slavery with omnipotent “gods” and rightless “human material,” or to find in ourselves the strength to return to the Sacred.
We must return to the understanding that man is not god but the image of God. That his dignity lies not in might and license but in the capacity for love, sacrifice, and compassion. That the ultimate mystery of human life lies not in how to extend it infinitely for the elect but in how to fill it with eternal meaning and grace-filled light accessible to everyone.
“Westworld” and Epstein Island open to us the future that powerful forces of this world want to realize. However, upon the spiritual choice of each of us depends whether this future will become our personal reality, the reality of our families, our people, country, state, or whether we will use it as a terrible and sobering warning.
