God: Author of Iniquity or Only Good Fortune?
Wednesday May 3, 2006
It's awfully common for people to attribute all their good fortune to God; for some strange reason, though, they don't also blame God for any of their ill fortune. Why does this inconsistency exist? Why praise God for saving a single person in a disaster but not blame God for the dozens or hundreds killed in the same incident?
Wendy Kaminer writes:
God is like a Teflon president who gets all the credit for his successes and none of the blame for his failures. When a religious person invokes God to avert, not inspire, violence, an amen chorus instantly appears. Google “Terry Ratzmann,” and you’ll get about 19,000 hits, compared with 120,000 hits for Ashley Smith, the young woman taken hostage in Duluth, Georgia, by alleged mass murderer Brian Nichols on the same day as Ratzmann’s killing spree.
Smith persuaded Nichols to release her and turn himself in peacefully. She “disarmed the 6’1’’, 210 lb. suspect with her faith,” People magazine reported. As almost everyone must know, Smith read to him from the best-selling evangelical self-help book, A Purpose Driven Life, and talked about God’s plan for him. [Free Inquiry]
A photogenic woman who does good via religion gets a lot of attention; a crazy man who does evil because of religion is largely ignored. Why is that? Do people simply not want to hear about the ways in which religion can encourage evil? Does the media simply not want to disillusion people by explaining these things?
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On this subject of theism inspiring evil, you should read, “Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith” by Jon Krakauer. Came out in 2005. About a woman and her 15-month old daughter who were murdered in 1984 by two brothers who believed they had orders to do so from God.
Godi/Gotti exists in the sick minds of those who also write the name down on pieces of paper. Goddi/Gotti exists nowhere else.
First off, Where was your “God?”
Second, the Christian God did not bring suffering into the world, sin did. God did not bring sin into the world mankind (Adam and Eve) did. And in order for God to have stopped man from sinning he would of had to deny us free will, but God wanted to have a relationship with humans, and you cannot have a relationship with a robot. Sin separated us from God, so God sent his son Jesus to pay for our sins. Thus restoring our relationship with God, but since there is still sin, there is still suffering. There will come a day when there will be no more sin, and on that day there will be no suffering anymore.
I don’t have any gods.
Wouldn’t have happened without your god’s permission.
Prove it. I can’t levitate, but somehow that doesn’t violate my free will. I can’t make myself invisible, but somehow that doesn’t violate my free will. Your god has set things up so that there’s lots of things I can’t do, yet apparently my free will is intact.
By your argument, there won’t be free will anymore, either. So either free will isn’t really that important, or you’re wrong that an absence of sin means an absence of free will.
Which is it?
Amen, Christopher! God is good. God is good all the time! Because God is good my life is blessed! As said in past, an absense of light is darkness, and an absense of good would be evil. Look at the structure of an eye and tell me how all the parts evolved, how can each part know to evolve into something that works with other parts when it didn’t before? Check out the book Darwin’s black box. Remember, it is your eternity at stake here. Do you want the truth, or is ego and pride more important than where you spend your eternity? Most people spend more time figuring out their retirement investments than where they may spend eternity, but is it worth that risk? Take care and God Bless you all.
Susanna: since you seem to agree with Christopher, would you care to address my response to him? He never bothered to answer, but perhaps you can.