| Re: Do you believe in Creation?
Part 2
Who the Heck is God?
A alien from another planet with no supernatural beliefs arrived on Earth and asked “What is this God that some people speak of? What’s He like? What should I believe? People say He’s all around, but invisible. Is this myth or fact?”
“Well,” a TOE forum member replied, role the dice and take your pick of one or more of positions that humans have arbitrarily taken, and a few scientific ones by those educated in the natural sciences:
00 God can perform any miracle whatsoever and does so often, but it is never anything obvious like healing an amputee by growing back an arm or a leg.
01 God does not exist and was made up out of humans’ wishes for an afterlife and/or is derivative of the child-parent relationship.
02 God really exists as defined by a certain religion, which happens to be mine, but not as He is defined by other religions.
03 God once lived on the moon, then on the sun, then on Mt. Olympus, but now lives in Heaven.
04 Jesus is divine, being the son of God, for we were there at the time. (Christian)
05 Jesus is not the son of God, for we were there at the time. (Jewish)
06 Mohammed was the prophet of God, not Jesus, for he said so. (Islamic)
07 The Bible is the word of God and is literally true. The Earth was made in 6 days is only 5000 years old.
08 The Bible is an amalgamation of of old Jewish legends and the history of some of tribes moving around. It has a lot of good poetry, but it was made by mere humans, not God.
09 Mary was the virgin mother of God (Christian).
10 Mary is not recognized as special (Lutheran).
11 Jesus spent a lot of time in America but no other religions know about this (Mormon).
12 God created reality because it could not make itself and it could not always have had the potential to exist and it could not have been here forever. It is ridiculous for reality to have always existed or to have formed itself.
13 God did make Himself and was here forever. It is not ridiculous for a God to have always existed or to have formed Itself.
14 God is benevelent—all on Earth may enter Heaven. He wields no power but love.
15 God is vindictive—if your god-given free will does not follow His will, He will torture you forever by burning you in Hell.
16 Only Christians may enter Heaven. (the Pope)
17 All but the Moslems are infidels and can’t enter Heaven.
18 There is/is not Heaven, Devil, Angels Hell, Purgatory, Limbo.
19 God answers prayers and e-mails.
20 God leaves us on our own and doesn’t interfere.
21 God made divine revelations to the founder of my religion, but not to the founders of other religions.
22 The angel Gabriel appeared to Mohammed in a cave.
22 An angel appeared to Mary to prepare her for the Immaculate Conception.
23 God is all knowing.
24 God had no idea that the humans of Noah’s era would turn out so bad.
25 God is infallible.
26 God exterminated all life in Noah’s time, but then realized He made a big mistake and so invented the rainbow as a sign that He would never make this mistake again.
27 God wants statues in churches (Catholic).
28 God does not want statues in churches (Protestant).
29 The Pope is infallible.
30 The Pope is not recognized by other religions.
31 Evolution never happened.
32 God created life by letting evolution take over for him.
33 God created Adam and Eve out of clay.
34 God only wants men to be priests.
35 God wants both men and women to be clerics.
36 God will soon end the world, although He was going to do so in the 1990’s but changed His mind. (Jehovah Witness)
37 God, with His intelligence systems and emotional systems is far too complex of a composite to be absolute and fundamental and be made only of Himself.
99 Many items have omitted above that could be thought of to add to the confusion.
HE Reigns
“Who makest me?” she cried to the sky. “Reveal thyself! Who art thou?”
The heavens remained dumb.
She again cried, “Who hast made me? Who?—Thy image is tainted!”
Visions of angels appeared in the sky. “You have a question for us?” they asked.
“Yes, what sort of God made me to suffer and toil in this sad world?”
“It’s a lovely and beautiful world,” said the angels, in chorus.
“OK,” she said, “I’ll play your game. Tell me now, who made this varied and sensual world of charm and grace and color? Who gave me intellectual beauty and those rare but beautiful waves of emotions which I have known and enjoyed for their breathtaking meaning and depth?”
“A good and loving spirit,” they said. “That’s our usual answer.”
“And who gave me freedom to love and live and grow, flowering free and fragile, though beautiful, but then withering, faded and forlorn in old age, like some evanescent dream?”
“It was the Creator of all life.”
“And who gave me sadness?”
“HE did,” they answered.
“And who gave the world hunger, pain, misfortune, sickness, death, worry, and unbearable calamity which drags us suffering to the grave?”
“He reigns,” they said.
“Give me his name!” she asked. “Who is he that does not even grant me peace in the grave?—for Hell awaits me there as a further torture, does it not.”
“He rules,” the angels replied.
“His name! I ask but his name—the name of one so cruel! Who is the one that would create man as a precious vessel, though imperfect, and then destroy this lovely creation by sickness and death in rage?”
“He is the One,” they said.
“Name him and let him be known for his vengeful name—for in my own fine dreams of man I allowed no sickness, no pain—all was love and beauty! I gave up all my powers but love. Who is he that is the source of my everlasting pain?”
“HE does not exist,” the angels finally said, “nor does the Devil, nor do we—all simply is as it is and so it ever shall be. It’s the way that the world happens to work. Therefore, all is right with the world. We angels are simply manifestations of your own thoughts. All that is truly real comes from within; nothing comes from without.”
“There is no creative deity?” she asked.
“There is none; there is only an unconscious spirit which is part and parcel with the universe, co-eternal with it and embodied in it as the principle of life in all things. It is the connectedness of all things, and exists far below the level of atoms.”  |