all these thoughts about God, religion and the church (and i intentionally separate terms) keep tumbling out. i don't know about you, but sometimes i see this blog as a cynical rail against the sect i grew up in, a lamentable reaction to the regrettable discovery of a deep, deep emptiness.
sometimes.
i have been looking back at what i've written, and through all of the negative comments and sarcastic accusations, i've seen a coherent thread of progress. this is going somewhere. but progress isn't always so great. is it?
maybe not. but the way i see things, we are, all of us, in a nearly hopeless predicament of apparent meaninglessness; maybe the disillusioned try not to think of it, while the comfortable 'make their own meaning.' the especially bold will claim transcendent truth (that, and people who get paid to claim it).
the problem is that people starve, are attacked, are killed. maybe i naively believe that every famine has a solution, every war is misguided and every addiction or mental illness speaks to a lack of something.
God. how can we fix this?
it's like we're complacently lost at sea, and i'm like 'it's hurricane season. let's go.' you can ask me where, but we all know the answer to that one. anywhere.
so where are you going with this?
i'm in a state of crisis because i haven't found a voice that's strong enough to calm the storm of our times. can we really abide sickness, famine and war? can we really call them part of God's plan?
people commonly use the idea of God as a calming influence that will help them sleep at night. but i think if we really believed in God, we would find it just that much harder to sleep.
hell. that's more like it:
if we say we value human life, then there is absolutely no way we can be ok with a God who doesn't. christianity champions such a God.
if we say we know the divine Author of the universe, then we had better have some damn good answers for our actions...
 |
| poussin's victory of joshua over the amelekites. |
maybe what i'm arguing for most of all is to get people out of this state of certainty and complacency, and into the wasteland of doubt and possibility. have we constructed these comfortable idealogical cocoons only to sleep through the epidemics and the genocide?
no. i really believe that if we stop and think about it, we can't accept the pathetic and crippling notion that 'He's got the whole world in His hands.' it might help us sleep at night, but that won't make it any more true.
I think this is the most thoughtful and associable perspective on human meaning and spirituality I have read so far. I understand the questions you are asking, but sadly I don't have any answers yet. Maybe there are no answers... Maybe we are creatures that exist only to question. That is what separates us from zombies. The zombie thinks "EAT!" The human thinks "must I eat?" -no name
ReplyDelete@no name: "That is what separates us from zombies."
ReplyDeletei lovelovelove your zombie explanation.
One of the hardest things ever is to have little kids look up at you and ask you why God lets bad things happen. I've pondered that myself and I have come to the conclusion that yes bad things do happen, like you mentioned famine and other sorts of things. However when you study the bible, old testament as well as new you see a very interesting thing arise. God does let bad things happen, as well as tries to prevent certain things from happening. What? Is that possible? Look at the story of moses and pharro. The bible says that God Hardened pharos heart, which ultimately lead to his death in the red sea. To me that seems like a bad thing. However God saved thousands of his chosen people from continuous slave labor. We see that after he saves them he simply tells them that if they follow him and live the life he's asked of them he will bless them, but if they don't follow him they will suffer their own consequences, which is exactly what happens. I believe that God is trying to lead the world up to the actual judgement day, which "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."-Matt 24:36 I think that the bad things that happen are related somewhat to either a rebellious nation or hi's ultimate plan. I do not believe all disasters are caused as a punishment and I also have no way of proving that they are in accordance with the bible. It's just my own opinion. However I know that the reason bad things happen in general is because adam and eve let sin enter into this world. Sin is cruel, it hurts, it's murderous, adulterous, lying, and many more things. Sin rules this world because Satan rules this land. We are only saved by the love and grace of God. I know that he does want to help me in every way possible. He is Both a god who is leading us to be with him forever, judgement day, as well as a god who leaves us to our own demise. Like he says, "I am who I am."
ReplyDeleteJoel, thank you dearly for writing this. When I began reading the Bible for my own development, and forced myself to not recall any of the "christian traditional views" I came to terms with the fact that God literally frightens me. I think the fact alone that he's powerful enough to do anything is terms enough to be frightened by him. He sent his own son to die, so how much less would he hesitate to off any one of us for any given reason.
ReplyDeleteJust reading I realized why the ideological maxim having to do with salvation, "love Jesus," is actually so hard. If actions reflect personality, then I find it pretty hard to love one like God's.
Perhaps, I'm getting sidetracked. Oopie. Any hoot, kudos, sir. Loved the post.
'He sent his own son to die, so how much less would he hesitate to off any one of us for any given reason.' Because he died for US. It shows just the opposite.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Christianity necessarily "champions such a god." Perhaps, but if you look at the WORDS, God gives warning and he is constantly saying how much he hates death and war and loves peace. Perhaps the wars and deaths that the Bible specifically says God supported and maybe even started have more meaning that we think. Perhaps through unfortunate deaths, more lives are saved. No one can ever really know.
And in some ways I DO think all wars can be prevented, and in some ways I don't. They can, it's up to us. But it's up to more than just one country or group of people or person (usually).
I love Ghandi and what he did. But if the British had decided to enslave any Indian whom they found a nuisance, perhaps concentration camps or even death, his plan would not have worked (unless the shocking horror brought in other countries). Mao killed tens of millions of people who didn't agree with him, other countries could do the same. There are certain times when the unrelentlessness of one nation may only be stopped through time and the changing of leaders, or a physical more violent approach.
ya, I have no answers for you. I asked God my questions and He said He couldn't tell me.
ReplyDeleteThen again we aren't really looking for answers anyway
All I can say is I love you, sir.
God does too. (He's just crazy)
Time for homework :)
@anonymous(2): in some ways that is a very convenient worldview to have.
ReplyDelete@jered: "Just reading I realized why the ideological maxim having to do with salvation, "love Jesus," is actually so hard. If actions reflect personality, then I find it pretty hard to love one like God's."
- the God of the bible is problematic for so many reasons.
@anonymous(3): "Perhaps the wars and deaths that the Bible specifically says God supported and maybe even started have more meaning that we think. Perhaps through unfortunate deaths, more lives are saved. No one can ever really know."
- you just opened an enormous can of worms. go back over the parts of the bible that you don't find problematic and ask yourself if you're judging God on the strength of His actions as recorded in them.
do you really have the right to claim on the basis of the scriptures that God is loving in any contemporarily meaningful way or that He cares for human life above all else. are you forcing your modern ideas down the throat of a God conceived long before senseless killing was considered a bad thing?
@mark: thanks man : ) i love you too. good luck with the homework.
"but i think if we really believed in God, we would find it just that much harder to sleep."
ReplyDeleteDope quote. I certainly agree.
I actually agree with the 2nd and 3rd anonymous posters pretty consistently to tell the truth, I won't nitpick but essentially, I think they've got the heartbeat. Personally, I've watched God do some stuff in my life that seemed terrible at the moment even if I didnt feel like I deserved it, only to take it and make it do something powerful at a later date. I can't know the outcome of all of these events specifically, but I do know that I trust His judgement, even when it hurts.
@michael: gotta remember to pick our battles. some ideas aren't worth laying our lives down for.
ReplyDelete