I would like to draw some parallels between how God treats his loyal servant, Job, and the way an abusive man treats his partner. It continues to amaze me that Jews and Christians truly believe that God is all loving yet still torments and sadistically tortures mankind. According to the Church, God has that right - God is the Supreme Being. This behavior - torture, torment, rape, murder, infanticide etc. comes from an infallible God. Thus, God's actions are infallible. Why then, do we get so upset when we hear about a woman being raped, beaten or murdered by her partner? God did these very things to thousands of people in the Bible. In many of the Biblical tales God "tested the faith" of his followers by punishing them and, in the end, these followers developed a greater love and understanding of God. Was God just testing Sharon Rocha's faith when he allowed Scott Peterson (or maybe God ordered the Devil to make Scott strangle his 8 months pregnant wife, bing her, tie her feet to cement blocks, and dump her lifeless body in the bay) murder her and her unborn baby? If we are to believe the Bible, then God purposely killed Laci and Connor to test the allegiance of Laci's family. Wow, that sounds like a loving God, doesn't it?
The book of Job is a long story designed to explain the existence of evil and suffering in the world. It falls short. This is it in a nutshell:
Job was a very wealthy man with several children who had families. Job owned livestock, property, and trading companies. On a bet with God, Satan arranged for Job's children and their families to be killed, his livestock stolen and his caravans robbed. Job lost everything he had except his own life. Pressing the bet even more, Satan afflicted Job with a terrible skin disease. Despite these catastrophes, Job did not curse God, even though his own wife urged him to do so. In fact, Job tore his robes as a sign of Grief and due to his immense faith in the Lord he lay down before God worshipped the Creator.
Notice how similar God's actions are to those of an abusive partner:
Abusive individuals need to feel in charge of the relationship. They will make decisions for you and the family, tell you what to do, and expect you to obey without question. Your abuser may treat you like a servant, child, or even as his possession.
Abusers commonly use threats to keep their victims from leaving or to scare them into dropping charges. Your abuser may threaten to hurt or kill you, your children, other family members, or even pets.
The abuser lashes out with aggressive or violent behavior. The abuse is a power play designed to show the victim "who is boss."
Abusers are very good at making excuses for the inexcusable. (Not only does this sound like God but also, the Church's explanations for suffering). They will blame their abusive and violent behavior on a bad childhood, a bad day, and even on the victims of their abuse. (Doesn't God blame evil on Satan??)
The abuser sets up the victim and puts his plan in motion, creating a situation where he can justify abusing her. (How many times in the Bible - OT and NT-does God set people up to be hurt and tortured??)
To be blunt: I fail to see how anyone capable of average cognitive functioning and of sound mind could worship a God who willingly tortures and torments his followers.
-END OF RANT-
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Your problem is that you think like a human being thinks and therefore you are limited by your perspective. Do you think that a man who throws himself on a hand grenade to save his friends thinks he'll somehow live? If not, why does he do it? Do you think that when grandma makes an embroidery she strives to make the reverse side look as good as the front? If not, then why not?
The answer lies in the belief that God has a grand design for the universe, one that we cannot see and one that he encourages us, as men, to assist him with making. We are flawed. We kill and hurt others contrary to God's will. We are weak mortal flesh, we get sick, we get hurt, we die. These things interfere with the grand design but because the end product, which we can neither see not comprehend is so vast and worthwhile that God strives to direct our weak and flawed bodies and wills to help him complete it.
In the end, the comparison, though weak, is to grandma's embroidery. On the reverse side it looks like crap, but on the face it could be beautiful. If we magnify that so far beyond what we can fathom as beautiful, then perhaps the pain and death we suffer contributes to what one day will be something so awesomely beautiful and something that we are part of.
We suffer pain because we have the opportunity to experience happiness and joy. There can be no one without the other. If we had no pain, no challenge, no risk...what would life be worth? It would be worth nothing. We would be like the Greek Gods...bored, listless and wasted. Nothing could hurt them, they felt no pain, they were bored, silly and stupid.
A great psychologist once said, "Everybody hurts. Everybody." And then he went on to say "We can demonstrate the opportunity for joy despite the pain. If there must be an absence of pain for joy to exist, the condition of the average person is hopeless. When an individual becomes fixated on their pain, all other awareness diminishes. Their capacity to enjoy anything other than the pain is limited. Sometimes all we need to do it increase the scope of their vision. We can also offer encouragement and strategies for experiencing joy. Life is pain, pain in normal. We must find joy despite our pain and that is the triumph of the human spirit."
Your argument is nothing new to me. However, I disagree with you. Your statements are what YOU have come up with in YOUR mind to hold onto your belief that God exists. I once felt as you do and enjoyed the musings of Khalil Gibran about joy and sorrow. They are flowery, and on the surface, quite moving. But my logic is now able to overcome being temporarily sated with insufficient reasoning and cliches. They are moot points to me now.
You are right, I am thinking like a human. Why would a God who LOVES mankind, create us in such a way that we would be so confused? Why wouldn't a loving a God give us the clear answers? If we need to prove our faith to God then God has severe self-esteem issues and is not Perfect! God is supposed to be perfect. If something is perfect, it is complete--it needs nothing else. So why did God create the Earth? Why did he create us?
More on pain and suffering: God could have created us in a way so that all we were able to feel was joy and pleasure and we would be able to FULLY experience the extreme ecstasy of joy without having to suffer. God did not do that though, did he? Also, our goal here on the earth is to live according to God's laws so that we may gain entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven (according to the Bible). God could simply skip this whole Earth business and we could all be in heaven with him.... but he doesn't do that. He intentionally places us here on Earth to make us suffer and test our faith. That is not a perfect God. That is an evil tyrant.
Plain and simple. How could a perfect, omnipotent being create imperfect beings, only to punish them for it?
If a person ponders this daily without the pre-programmed (indoctrinated) biblical responses in mind, they will have a slight chance of waking up/deprogramming.
Mainstream religion's members can clearly see the programming of cults, but cannot see their own because it is so deeply ingrained. The reason it is so hard to see what is clearly happening is due to taking the brain of a child (or a weak or traumatized adult) and telling it repeatedly what is true and what is not. The sky is blue, the earth is round (took a while to get people on board with that idea), water can drown you, our invisible god is real (but other people's gods are wrong and don't exist). That sets up a lifetime of faulty reasoning and blissful ignorance difficult to overturn.
Many kids who are abused don't want to turn their parents in and leave what is familiar. Fear is the only love they know. People are too afraid to question the idea of gods to the farthest corners of their minds out of fear (that an angry god is watching them question its violent acts and reasoning).
Despite American freedoms, children are not allowed the natural process of coming to a conclusion about gods. But things as important as drinking, sex, and driving are stressed as responsibilities for older humans. Religious beliefs are just as important and should be tackled once older, after the brain has had time to develop reasoning skills.
Most people would agree that they would be disgusted seeing a mother favor one child over the other. But when their god has favored one race of people over the rest of the humans HE created (and tells them to kill them all and their children and their livestock-animals too?), they accept it. Waking up to this paragraph alone would bring horror to the mind that hasn't been programmed. But they find this acceptable from a loving god because they're told (by church "officials" or preachers or parents) that our brains are just too feeble understand why this is RIGHT!
And to answer the question I began with....it's just not possible....unless their god and satan were one in the same. And that's just more silliness.
It took a while for people to realize the earth is round, people shouldn't be slaves, and women shouldn't be property without a vote. And many parts of the world still can't see the damage in it (blaming culture and their god's permission for this behavior). Mental evolution is a painful, ongoing process. Thanks to the internet, minorities of all kinds, can find solace in each other while waiting for everyone to catch up. It's dangerous to not believe what everyone around you does (spawning many Invasion of the Body Snatchers type movies for decades). You can lose your job, be ostracized, and be killed for not blending in. That's why many still fake their beliefs. No one wants to find out the people that claim to love them could turn on them in bigotry and misunderstanding.
Deprogramming is a long, sometimes painful, sometimes wonderful process. Getting your mind back can be done. It's kind of like the Matrix movie....will you take the blue pill or the red pill? It has to be a conscience decision to wake up.
Keep up the blogging! Take care.
Post a Comment