Reply #30: God Is Neither All Good or All Bad

[iamjoy]

If we believe that some omnipotent being exists, he is neither all good or all bad. For sake of argument, I am going to accept the Judeo-Christian interpretation of an all powerful God - at least initially.

First, God favored the Hebrews. Now he had a pretty funny way of showing of it, allowing them to serve the Pharaohs for hundreds of years. But finally, he got off of his divine butt and decided to unleash some divine whoop-ass on the Egyptians. The bible says God "hardened Pharaoh's heart" this would seem to contradict the idea of us having free will and be a pretty crappy thing to do besides. But nonetheless, God did eventually free the Hebrews with his mighty hand and outstretched arm. God brought them to the Promised Land after making them wander in the desert for 40 years. Maybe God was doing something else or just wanted to see how long it would take Moses to ask directions.

So God brought the Hebrews to the Promised Land and helped them throw out the people already living there. Good for the Hebrews, not so good for the folks already living there.

I guess the Israelites did something to make God mad, because they went into exile, returned for a while and went into exile again. It seems like at this point, God had decided to favor the Christians. Later maybe God thought it would be amusing to let another bunch of his followers, the Muslims, fight with the Christians for dominance in the world.

After several hundred years of this, God got must have gotten bored with the stupid people he had created. He thought about letting them all get wiped out by plague so he could start over, but then decided that maybe it would be more fun if people were smart. He decided to share his enlightenment. Art, music and literature flourished. He also figured these kings were getting just a tad too arrogant thinking they were like Gods themselves, so he decided to take them down several notches. Some of these kings really were lousy. Look up hanging, drawing and quartering for an example. Remember that treason could be saying, "I don't like the King."

God decided it would be interesting to set up the world with unequal resources, so that some humans could easily profit while others endlessly toiled and suffered. What a boring world this would be if we were all really equal. Right now, he seems to be favoring the Western world. Look at how lousy things are in Africa and parts of Asia. But you know, that could change and maybe it's already starting. The drought in the southwest doesn't seem to be getting any better. We have drought in the Southeast, too. Our prosperity was made possible by an abundance of natural resources, but now we seem to be using them up. If God still likes us he'll fix it and restore the plenty, but if we've fallen from God's favor we are so screwed. Maybe he'll bestow his blessings on some of the countries of Africa next, and they could certainly use a break. Maybe in a few hundred years people in Sudan will be watching television ads to send money to help the starving kids in America, or about how women in Arizona have to walk 3 miles to get water and risk being raped by roving bands of outlaws when they venture out.

God sends diseases, and God sends cures. God sends more diseases.

Maybe God allows man to do evil because this great social experiment of his is amusing. Even if you assume we have free will God could have sent a stray bolt of lightening to strike down Hitler before he became leader of Germany. God could have sent a sudden heart seizure to Stalin before he could murder 20 million Russians. God could have sent a flood to drown Pol Pot in the early 1970s. Maybe we should thank God for being on our side so that the Allies won World War II.

If you accept an omnipotent God, you cannot ignore that the very blessings of liberty and prosperity we now enjoy stem from his grace and goodwill. Yes, prosperity. If you are reading this on the internet you are prosperous. I don't mean to minimize the troubles of foreclosure and bankruptcy many in this nation face, but compared to other parts of the world, we are prosperous. Hard work plays a part too, but let's be fair, do you think our millionaire CEOs work that much harder than farmers in Congo? God laid the groundwork for Western society - gave us a pretty good gig. Others, not so much.