Blasphemous arguments against a Christian God
In growing up, God took a back burner in my family to everything from summer vacations to dinnertime. Suffice it to say, I cannot recall hearing a word spoken on the subject of God or religion with the exception of the time I asked my dad what religion we were. "Protestant," he said, and that was the extent of my religious upbringing. I don't fault my parents for my lack of religious education; rather I thank them for it. It left my mind a clean slate on which to draw my own conclusions based on observation and reflection.
One of my main complaints with the Christian model of God is that it paints a picture of an all-powerful, all-knowing being that monitors our lives on a daily basis. First of all, if God were all knowing he would know the events of all history: past, present and future. If God knows the future, then he knew that Adam and Eve would eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If this were true, wasn't the Garden of Eden a setup?
Also, if he knows the future, then he knows what every living thing on this earth is going to do. To me, this flies in direct contradiction to God giving us free will. How can we possibly have free will if God already knows what we are going to do at any given moment? Yet he holds us accountable! It would be like letting someone out of jail with absolute knowledge that they would commit another crime, and then holding them fully accountable.
Finally, if God is all-powerful, and it is Satan that is at the root of all the evil in the world, why doesn't God just forbid Satan from causing such misery? I suppose He granted Satan free will, as well. Wouldn't that have been a bad move on His part?
All these things and more lead me to believe that the Christian God is either flawed by definition or is a mean, vindictive God. I myself believe that God is a creation of man to explain the unexplainable and to give man a tool to use to get other men to do his (not His) bidding. Although this is not necessarily a bad thing in itself, history has shown us that in the hands of the wrong man, the word of God can compel other men to commit horrible atrocities. Cases in point: the crusades and the inquisitions.
One of my main complaints with the Christian model of God is that it paints a picture of an all-powerful, all-knowing being that monitors our lives on a daily basis. First of all, if God were all knowing he would know the events of all history: past, present and future. If God knows the future, then he knew that Adam and Eve would eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If this were true, wasn't the Garden of Eden a setup?
Also, if he knows the future, then he knows what every living thing on this earth is going to do. To me, this flies in direct contradiction to God giving us free will. How can we possibly have free will if God already knows what we are going to do at any given moment? Yet he holds us accountable! It would be like letting someone out of jail with absolute knowledge that they would commit another crime, and then holding them fully accountable.
Finally, if God is all-powerful, and it is Satan that is at the root of all the evil in the world, why doesn't God just forbid Satan from causing such misery? I suppose He granted Satan free will, as well. Wouldn't that have been a bad move on His part?
All these things and more lead me to believe that the Christian God is either flawed by definition or is a mean, vindictive God. I myself believe that God is a creation of man to explain the unexplainable and to give man a tool to use to get other men to do his (not His) bidding. Although this is not necessarily a bad thing in itself, history has shown us that in the hands of the wrong man, the word of God can compel other men to commit horrible atrocities. Cases in point: the crusades and the inquisitions.
posted by John Ivey at 5:46 PM
5 Comments:
Did we grow up in the same house??? ha. I remember mom being a truly spiritual person. She always taught me that God was in our hearts. We didn't have to go to church to have God with us--He was always with us regardless. She taught me how to pray, how to be a good person and to be humble. "We all will pay for how we live," she always told me, "so always be good." When she said a bad word or said something bad about someone, she would always look up and say "Forgive me Lord." She still does!
Guess that's the difference between growing up a girl and growing up a guy in our house. You were more in tune with dad, I with mom. I never heard a religious word out of him, not even the protestent bit. In fact, I remember him really being down on practicing any type of religion.
It is so funny how all four of us have totally different memories of how we were raised. Daig.
P.S. You need to read some of Margaret's posts if you haven't already. I think you can relate to her writings.
www.theanswers42.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the recommendation Rosa.
Yes, I agree (as you'd expect) that man made God, not the other way around, but it's not as simple as that.
If children were taught the history of religion, rather than an uncritical account if the beliefs and practices of the various religions, it might all begin to make sense.
In pre-monotheistic times, over 3000 years ago, there were lots of religions and they were mostly about humankind's relationship with the natural world, the seasons, fertility, etc. They were also mostly matriarchal - women were in control. They produced the babies and were the gatherers that everyone relied on to eat when the hunters came home empty-handed. People lived communally of necessity.
I think that the development of the monotheistic world religions - Judaism, Christianity, Islam - have as much to do with economics, politics and social control as with belief. Christianity in particular has been preoccupied with sex and with the repression of women. It's still happening today.
As for 'God' - there are so many versions of him, her or it. Some are the caring sort who answer prayers. Some send you to hell if you don't agree with him. Some are indifferent towards us, but just pervade the universe. Which one are you expected to believe in?
It's a waste of time asking Christians the sort of questions you've asked - you can't reason with irrational people. They'll just answer with more nonsense.
Keep up the blasphemy! The more the merrier.
I know we discussed religion a few times and are in agreement with what you posted here. Recently a blogger at a site I use wrote something very similar to this regarding organized religion. The one thing gets me are those that thank god for their good fortune when it was their own hard work that did it. For example, the athlete thanking god for winning the gold medal. I'm thinking it was their years of hard work and sacrifices that won those awards. I have also had the view that organized religion is a type of brainwashing. And let's not forget the hypocriticalness of Pat Robertson. He's a whole other topic unto itself!
Thank you both for your comments. g.lo, I don't recognize your name. Would you let me know you are? The suspense is killing me!
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