The problematic concept of God
I recently had a discussion about religion and what name do we give it. I was born Lutheran, and was given an upbringing that knew words like “heretic”, “God-fearing”, “sinner” and the sort. Pretty old school that is, go by the book, don’t add stuff, don’t take stuff away, don’t alter it as it pleases you. That kind of upbringing gave me the attitude that you can’t pick and choose inside your religion. You take it as it is or don’t take it at all – so I chose not to take it at all. I left church about 10 years ago.
I had trouble with certain things, like The tree of Knowledge between Good and Evil. First, God puts it in the Garden and tells these animal like creatures with no concept of Good and Evil not to eat of it. Because they have no concept of good and evil, they should not know anything about disobeying or obeying, either. Yet, when they fall right into the trap, God banishes them out of the Garden of Eden without giving them a second chance now that they would actually be equipped to know between good and evil. I thought he was just being UNFAIR.
Another thing I had problems with digesting ever since I was 6 years old, was that if God only lets people who believe in him and repent, in Heaven, what happens to people who never hear about him? Surely they cannot be cast out just because nobody told them? My auntie then explained to me that God will accept them if they still lived a good life doing good things without knowing. That satisfied me for some time, but then I started thinking that hey, if it’s okay for the guy who didn’t know about God to go about his life the way they FEEL is right, and without making too much of a mockery out of it, then why do we have to obay these silly rules all through out our lives that really don’t make much sense to a common man? Isn’t that UNFAIR?
The Christian God likes to put traps for people. He gives them sexuality and tells them not to use it. He gives them anger and tells them never to speak in anger. He gives them ambition, but tells them never to desire something that is not their own. He gives them pride and talent, tells them not to boast about it, but at the same time not to hide talent. (Okay, so that’s doable.)
And then what is Jesus? He’s the guy who changed the rules when people just couldn’t cope with the old stuff. Why do a God, an all-knowing power, need to change rules in the middle of the game? Didn’t he know from the start we wouldn’t cope? He should have known better. And then, what happens to those people, who lived before Jesus Christ, and lived by the old rules but couldn’t cope? Let me guess? The Hell with them! Isn’t that just UNFAIR?
Then when you read the Old Testament, you just crinch the whole way through. (Not that I ever made it the whole way through.) You wonder why God would say anything like that. He’s just an asshole! Your believing friends tell you that Jesus changed all that. What? Jesus changed God’s mind and made him more humane? Didn’t he KNOW BETTER when he wrote the Old Testament? Isn’t God supposed to be a constant, unchanging being, with all the knowledge in the world? Such beings are not being ILLOGICAL, and yet, this God was.
Then, God doesn’t like vain people, but he’s so vain himself, that if you don’t believe him, do as he tells you and worship him, he will get a temper tantrum and not let you in heaven or even send some horrible things your way to punish you and turn you back to God. The God is narcissistic!
I could deal with a concept of vengeful God, even a cruel one, but never unfair or illogical. Those two traits are a deal breaker for me. If God can’t handle being more just and logical than I am, then certainly there’s something wrong with the concept. And who told me about these rules that God has? Not God! God has never said a word about any of that stuff, not to me or anyone I know.
So I left the Church, and decided not to believe anything for a while. I don’t think I was being an atheist, but rather an agnostic. I just decided to give the whole thing a rest until it would make some sense to me. When I allowed myself to think about it again, I made one rule: Nobody would tell me what to believe if it didn’t feel right. I would not accept concepts as a whole, but would take information from within myself, not of books, no matter how holy they claimed to be. I would take answers from nobody but God himself.
God has a small voice. It’s not the booming voice that some people believe him to have. No, his voice is so tiny, soft and silent, that it is easy to ignore. We call it “conscience” or “instinct” or “gut feeling”. Unfortunately, it is the type of voice that can be manipulated, and interfered with. Like if someone tells you often enough that sex is bad, that is going to mix the signal God is sending. We can mistake other people’s messages for Gods messages. That is why you can never be quite sure that what you believe is correct, as listening to the signal without interference is quite difficult at times. What I know about God though, that he understands this, and won’t hold it against you if you get it wrong. To get it right isn’t more than solving a problem, and if you can’t solve the problem, it’s not something you should be punished for. You have been given limited resources and varied resources and not all people can be judged by the same scale. That is not to say you would be judged. Life isn’t a competition, and the reward for it is always the same; Heaven. We’ll all be sitting there side by side, Bush, Hitler, Gandhi and Mother Theresa, as equals. After we cross that barrier, we’re no longer human, but souls, pure souls, without any interference of the signal. Then we know what God is saying, without hesitation, and it would be illogical to then say: “Oh, now that you know everything and see me, I’ll send you to Hell!”
And of course, the biggest interference of them all… If you are a devout Christian, you have been warned by others that listening to people like me is dangerous. I am here just to speak on behalf of the Devil. I am here to lead you to evil. I cannot say anything to prove that wrong, but the good thing is that the True God would not punish you for listening to those warnings. He understands that not everyone will get it right. He will let you go and speak awful things about him, and understand. And when you die, he will give you a smile and a wink and go: “Oh boy, you got it wrong, didn’t you?” And then you will reply, as now you know everything, with a smile and go: “Oh God, did I ever!” and he won’t punish you for using his name in vain, even though you didn’t really use it to address him.
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About Me
I am a (anti-)feminist childfree INFP blogger, a life coach, and a writer. If you'd like me to write for your blog or other publication, don't hesitate to ask.
I am Finnish and live in Australia.
I have had a personal website in this address since 2001 and made my first personal site in 1998 - hooked ever since!
Yes, couldn't agree with you more. Still, this is a vast subject, and cannot be dealt adequately, no matter how hard we may try. The problematic concept of God has been a main concern of mine for quite a number of years, and inevitably it features as a principal issue in my novel, “A Diary of Wasted Years,” out by Eloquent Books. You may want to check it out and share your comments. Anyway, great post. Keep it like that.
I'll put that on my reading list, even though I read like 3 books in 5 years. I know it's sad, but I just can't seem to get through them faster! (And when I was 12, I read maybe 8 books a month, how things change!)
It is a vast subject… And I could go on for days, too, but yes… I'll just blog for now. :p
Thanks for the comment!
I zeroed in on this one post above all others, but then you know me, Sebastyne… I was bound to do that.
I'm not going to debate this because, quite simply, I can't. I have my own questions that I ask about a God who rarely makes sense to me, and some of them are exactly the ones you have asked. How can I pretend otherwise?
I decided a long time ago that God has done a poor job of representing himself in the Bible (or is it a poor job of how he allows people to represent him in the Bible?), so he mustn't be terribly interested in the whole PR game. It's actually kind of shocking at how warts-and-all unapolagetic he is about his image in the Old Testament and then how he deigns to show us his gentler, tender side in the New Testament. It's as if he's saying, “I'm complicated, just like you. I would love it if you tried to figure me out.” I don't know. It's certainly gives me food for thought.
Ultimately, questions about God are something we either have time for don't, based on where the frustrating lack of concrete answers takes us. What may be too much like a fruitless chasing of the wind for some, may be a stimulating (albeit sometimes baffling) spiritual journey for others. I sometimes feel like I have a foot in both camps.
People that have read the Bible have told me that Satan is a much more transparent and less conflicting personality than God, even though Satan does not actually appear that much in the Bible. Formally speaking, punishment should be served as a way to correct wrong behavior. Eternal punishment does not fit that. If God's form of punishment is eternal, then it's retribution.
The reason devout believers have a problem with your message is not simply because you're trying to lead them to hell. No, the reason is, if you tell someone that all the stuff he's been following nearly all his life is a farce, what he hears from you is, “your life has been a lie”. You didn't say this and probably didn't mean it, but that's what they year. More than any other part of your message, this is what gets them defensive. They feel insulted when someone dumbs down the lifestyle of faith they “work hard” to pursue.
Well, they haven't exactly responded to me directly, as you can see from the lack of comments. I was just making a general point about how trying to “fight” religion with logic is futile because of the instalment of belief that anyone who tries to sway your unconditional/no questions asked -faith works for the devil. If it's insulting, fine. It's no more insulting than them telling me I'm a whore for living my life according to my own beliefs, is it?
People that have read the Bible have told me that Satan is a much more transparent and less conflicting personality than God, even though Satan does not actually appear that much in the Bible. Formally speaking, punishment should be served as a way to correct wrong behavior. Eternal punishment does not fit that. If God's form of punishment is eternal, then it's retribution.
The reason devout believers have a problem with your message is not simply because you're trying to lead them to hell. No, the reason is, if you tell someone that all the stuff he's been following nearly all his life is a farce, what he hears from you is, “your life has been a lie”. You didn't say this and probably didn't mean it, but that's what they year. More than any other part of your message, this is what gets them defensive. They feel insulted when someone dumbs down the lifestyle of faith they “work hard” to pursue.
Well, they haven't exactly responded to me directly, as you can see from the lack of comments. I was just making a general point about how trying to “fight” religion with logic is futile because of the instalment of belief that anyone who tries to sway your unconditional/no questions asked -faith works for the devil. If it's insulting, fine. It's no more insulting than them telling me I'm a whore for living my life according to my own beliefs, is it?
The older I get the bolder I get. I already sent you a private message through your site, and now I am happy to post a comment here. I did check your site out a lot this morning. You are a very talented writer and I absolutely love reading your views. I don’t agree with a lot of them, especially this one. But that doesn’t bother me a bit. I certainly don’t want to debate it either, and there was a time that I too would have got defensive, but not now. I do believe. End of story. I don’t have to understand it all, if I did then perhaps I would be as supreme is Him. I am okay with not knowing everything, or stuff not making any sense. It is a choice, I just believe and I do hear Him. (No I am not white coat ready, crazy, although many think so)
I even found myself (and had to stop myself) comparing myself to you, your writing, your intellect…How silly of me. You are about 10 yrs or so younger and have an amazing ability to explain yourself and intrigue the reader. I am now middle aged, still seem to have a child like personality full of amazement and wonder, heartache and pain, and atlas, JOY.
If I had a prayer for you, it would be to really hear Him, since His book is out for you right now, that you hear Him and you know, that you know, it is Him.
Carla
I must say that not believing in christian god doesn’t make one an atheist. I feel your warmth in the message but I don’t want you to feel I need saving. I am in good hands, too.
Thank you for your comment and it makes me glad to hear it didn’t offend you.