Thinking about that whole BrianTony thing, and how it applies to God and Amputees, I have to wonder... Am I just wired differently?
I look at www.whywontgodhealamputees.com, and the site seems to take it for granted that any Christians reading it will just rationalize away everything they're saying. They give a lists like this :
And I'm left wondering how the heck they came to that conclusion. As I read the articles, not a single one of those popped into my head. I must admit there's a chance that my faith that 95% of Christians aren't crazy isn't based in fact. Maybe, I suppose, most are, and I'm just different?
- It is not his will
- He doesn't have time
- I didn't pray the right way
- I am not worthy
- I do not have enough faith
- I cannot test the Lord like this
- It is not part of Jesus' plan for me
- And on and on and on...
No. That feels like a trap. That "us vs them" mentality is what makes it easy for people to be bigots. "I'm unique - all others are inferior" is also the first step towards a delusional messiah complex. So, again, I'm left to conclude that my experience must be more typical than atypical. Any other conclusion gets me into trouble.
But if that's the case, then the "Christians are delusional" portion of "God is imaginary and Christians are delusional" is wrong. Let's revisit the 10 questions and see if any other explanations can answer them all.
- Why won't God heal amputees?
- Why does God let children starve?
- Why does God demand the death of innocent people in the bible?
- Why does the bible contain so much unscientific nonsense?
- Why is slavery condoned by the bible?
- Why do bad things happen to good people?
- Why don't the miracles of the bible leave evidence?
- Why doesn't Jesus appear before you personally?
- Why would Jesus want you to eat his body and drink his blood?
- Why do Christians get divorced at the same rate as non-Christians?
But there's other interpretations, other theories that could explain those questions:
- God could be real, but cruel, manipulative, and evil. Why doesn't God heal amputees? Cause God is an evil dick, who likes to torture and maim and abuse. All those passages about how he loves you - that's just to fool you into staying in line. Frighteningly enough, this would answer all 10 questions pretty well.
- God could be some sort of "lesser" supernatural. Perhaps he's an alien or ghost that showed up in Israel a few millenia ago and demanded worship. Perhaps he's powered by faith, or worship, or sucks energy out of those who are sexually frustrated. He's got powers humans lack, but he's not all-knowing or all-powerful, he's just a creepy entity that using us. The sort of thing that'd be at home as a villain on Dr Who or classic Trek. He can influence and cause hallucinations in one or two people at a time (thus he did inspire parts of the bible), but ultimately lacks all the big flashy powers. In the early days he cultivated and guided the religion to ensure a food supply, but the last several centuries there've been enough believers that he's grown lazy.
- As above, but nothing "lesser" about it. God is a terrible monster that drives people mad. Think In The Mouth Of Madness, Event Horizon, or 12 Monkeys, but about Christ instead of cthulhu, warp drive, or Brad Pitt's germ theory. Deep in lost Jerusalem, dead Jesus lies dreaming, and given strange aeons even death itself may contract the sniffles and get sucked through time. Look out, God's standing right behind you!
- The apocalypse could be an event that came and went ages ago: this could be Hell. Perhaps the pre-apocalyptic non-hell world had evidence of miracles and operated under laws of science that followed the events of the bible. Perhaps the bible is a record of what happened in the prior world. We could blend the cathars with mass-solipsism, and assume there was no history - that everyone prior to our generation didn't really exist, we're the hell-trapped souls that sinned back on earth, and anyone over the age of 40 is some sort of demon.
- God could be imaginary, but the human mind could have amazing psychic potential. Faith healing and various minor supernatural events could be real, but limited in power and scope by the number of people working harmoniously. Sure, this still wouldn't explain why the bible is so frickin' weird and amoral, but at least a few of the miracles would be rendered believable by this theory. If we all hold hands and sing, the world will transcend and all the amputees will be healed - but there's a catch there since the amputees lack hands for us to hold.
- As above, except it's not about psychic power, it's a matter of esoteric laws of magic. Certain prayers get close enough to those laws to convey minor magical effects, but the spell that regrows limbs is just too complicated to stumble upon accidentally. Anyone with the know-how to restore limbs is also just sitting on tons of power and thus has either left the earth to explore the galaxy, or cloaks themselves in a magical veil to hide from the prying eyes of humanity, or has killed and sucked each other dry like in those Highlander films.
- God could be imaginary, but rather than all christians being crazy, instead it's just that the church's leadership is corrupt and conspires to keep the majority of people stupid and subservient. No wait, I could actually believe that one...
- God could be good, but not all-knowing. Perhaps his power is constrained to a limited area at a time. He might be focused somewhere else, since the Drake equation suggests we've got at least a few sister civilizations way the heck out there. Eventually, as he makes the rounds, he'll show up on earth again, and then heal all the amputees. Maybe he'll raise the dead ones and apologize to those he couldn't heal during their lifetimes. Considering the size of the universe, I figure he's still thousands of years away. In the meantime, we're all SOL.
- Or maybe all of the above are simultaneously true at once, especially the parts that contradict. Hey, Jake, I smell a sequel!
I'd like to make a video of this. I started a few weeks ago toying with it, putting together a cute little parody, but my computer died and there's no time to start over on a new computer and hope to get it done before NaNoWriMo begins. That's probably for the best, since clearly my thoughts are all over the damn place on this. Good night, folks!
5 comments:
Another possibility:
We truly are made in God's image and just like most of us, he really doesn't give a fuck.
And Rolfe, you are in the majority in this country. You identify yourself as Christian, don't go to church, and think the Christian Coalition are a bunch of right wing wackos best kept at a safe distance of at least a couple of states. For instance, my mom is a DFL party delegate in Minnesota and also a former national board member of Women of the Evangelical Luthern Church of America. She even has personalized W ELCA plates on her Camaro.
But like Briantony, most Christians I have met tell me that God talks to them. In all my years as a good little Lutheran, God never saw fit to say a damn thing to me. If someone I despise asks me the time, at the very least I'll tell them to fuck off. I even tell sp'angers that I have no change to spare. If God really does exist, he's an even bigger prick than I am.
But every other 'religion' I have hooked up with has resulted in conversations with deities and demons. Some of those conversations were very real to me. Should that make those religions any more real than faiths where the deities haven't said anything to me? Most people, if you delve into it, will admit that God does not actually talk to them, but gives them little signs here and there. Which is total headology bullshit. I can conjure a demon and have him talk to me. I have held similar conversations with deities. We talked. I'm inclined to believe it was self induced delusion, but I am willing to entertain the idea that these entities are very real. If so, then once again God is an uppity prick who just doesn't give a fuck.
Yes Rolfe, you are wired differently.
Just like everyone else.
At least you have the wires. You could have been just given the empty case and no warranty!! This might be where I am??
There's also the possibility of God as watchmaker -- someone who built a system in which we're living, but not someone who can/will intervene. The old canard, here, is that we can't know Good if Evil doesn't exist.
Personally, I think it's that our homo sapiens mind revolted at a world without pain and death, so the machines had to build a matrix in which bad things happen to good people.
One of my favorite writers, James Morrow, deals with this question in BLAMELESS IN ABADDON, in which a minister who has lost his faith puts God on trial as a war criminal. (The previous book, TOWING JEHOVAH, is also very good. In that one, God dies and His giant body falls into the ocean, where Angels hire a supertanker captain to tow the holy corpse to the arctic to preserve it.
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