Post by Jinsei on Mar 29, 2007 11:48:27 GMT -5
I found this at modernhumanist.com and thought I'd post it here to see if I could stir up some thoughts on what this guy is asking. What do you think?
This article was inspired by Simon and the great discussion we had in the last post.
Around the world, people get into discussions about God. Whether God exists, why God does what God does and how should we live according to God - all come up on a daily basis in discussions about life, society, relationships, science and government.
One of the biggest challenges that fuels much of the debate is that people tend to be highly inflexible in their beliefs. Much of this inflexibility stems from most people’s belief about God. God is omnipotent, omniscient and in all aspects perfect.
The problem with the Perfect God is that it doesn’t leave any room for discussion. God can never be wrong or not know something or make a mistake, because he is perfect. Thus, there can be nothing more needed to understand life in the world because the bible provides it all(or the Qur’an) and it is the literal word of God, who is perfect. The perfect God concept creates a great Cartesian Circle, but for today, I want to pose a different concept.
What if God wasn’t perfect?
What if we start with the assumption that there is a God and then examine the role of God in the world. If we apply Ockham’s Razor to the God question (again assuming that God does exist), logic would seem to imply a much different, more imperfect God that we have known.
If we imagine all the challenges that come into play with the Question of God; why is there evil? why do bad things happen to good people? how could God allow this, that or the other thing to occur if he is a benevolent deity? Each time we ask these questions a more and more convoluted explanation must take place as we strive further and further away from accepted reason or logic because we are trying to fit these occurrences in with the Perfect God.
If we take that idea away and contemplate the idea of a meta-powerful entity, but not an infallible one, it would make many things make a whole lot more sense.
Why did someone’s child get hit by a drunk driver? Maybe God was helping 5 other people and couldn’t help everyone. No malice, he was just too busy.
What about the Tsunami or Katrina? Maybe it wasn’t retribution for gays or a punishment - maybe God just couldn’t stop it.
What about creation? Maybe God didn’t literally blink everything into existence, maybe he started the process genetically and chemically and it grew over time? Maybe he didn’t create the universe, just jumpstarted human life on this planet after the meteor wiped out the Dinosaurs. That would explain the Dinosaurs as well as why we haven’t found life on other planets yet. Maybe our God is a rogue scientist?
If you look at the old testament, God is much more human - he gets angry, is happy, shows preferential treatment, is vindictive, jealous, makes mistakes - you name it. The God of the old testament is much more like a pagan God from Greece or Egypt than he is in the New Testament.
Think of all the things that don’t make sense about the world and all the things that don’t make sense about a perfect God, then re-imagine these things involving an imperfect God. All the issues seem to evaporate. Why didn’t God answer your prayer - maybe he couldn’t, maybe he didn’t want to, maybe he had to choose between your prayer and someone else’s and their was more important or they got there first?
If two groups worship God with the same fervor and they both fight in the name of God and believe he is on their side and one of them loses wouldn’t be easier to believe that he just chose the other side to win or was busy doing something else rather than some complex combination of failed piety or belief or some other self-flagellating concept?
Why doesn’t God strike down all the infidels or terrorists or gays or pedophile priests? Maybe he can’t, maybe he won’t, maybe he just didn’t know. What if God was talking to Al Gore about climate change on the day the two airplanes hit the twin towers? We if he didn’t hear about the genocide in Darfur until he read in the New York Times?
An imperfect God may miss things, but he is obviously doing a lot for a great many people too. Plenty of people have miracles every day, while others get hit by busses on their way to feed the homeless after just winning the lottery and donating it all to the church.
Some would say all of this is evidence of NO God, but that is only true in contrast with an omnipotent, omniscient, perfect God. An imperfect God CAN get distracted, CAN forget to do something, CAN have limitations - all of which goes a long way to explaining all of the apparent contradictions and unanswered questions.
What do you think?
Around the world, people get into discussions about God. Whether God exists, why God does what God does and how should we live according to God - all come up on a daily basis in discussions about life, society, relationships, science and government.
One of the biggest challenges that fuels much of the debate is that people tend to be highly inflexible in their beliefs. Much of this inflexibility stems from most people’s belief about God. God is omnipotent, omniscient and in all aspects perfect.
The problem with the Perfect God is that it doesn’t leave any room for discussion. God can never be wrong or not know something or make a mistake, because he is perfect. Thus, there can be nothing more needed to understand life in the world because the bible provides it all(or the Qur’an) and it is the literal word of God, who is perfect. The perfect God concept creates a great Cartesian Circle, but for today, I want to pose a different concept.
What if God wasn’t perfect?
What if we start with the assumption that there is a God and then examine the role of God in the world. If we apply Ockham’s Razor to the God question (again assuming that God does exist), logic would seem to imply a much different, more imperfect God that we have known.
If we imagine all the challenges that come into play with the Question of God; why is there evil? why do bad things happen to good people? how could God allow this, that or the other thing to occur if he is a benevolent deity? Each time we ask these questions a more and more convoluted explanation must take place as we strive further and further away from accepted reason or logic because we are trying to fit these occurrences in with the Perfect God.
If we take that idea away and contemplate the idea of a meta-powerful entity, but not an infallible one, it would make many things make a whole lot more sense.
Why did someone’s child get hit by a drunk driver? Maybe God was helping 5 other people and couldn’t help everyone. No malice, he was just too busy.
What about the Tsunami or Katrina? Maybe it wasn’t retribution for gays or a punishment - maybe God just couldn’t stop it.
What about creation? Maybe God didn’t literally blink everything into existence, maybe he started the process genetically and chemically and it grew over time? Maybe he didn’t create the universe, just jumpstarted human life on this planet after the meteor wiped out the Dinosaurs. That would explain the Dinosaurs as well as why we haven’t found life on other planets yet. Maybe our God is a rogue scientist?
If you look at the old testament, God is much more human - he gets angry, is happy, shows preferential treatment, is vindictive, jealous, makes mistakes - you name it. The God of the old testament is much more like a pagan God from Greece or Egypt than he is in the New Testament.
Think of all the things that don’t make sense about the world and all the things that don’t make sense about a perfect God, then re-imagine these things involving an imperfect God. All the issues seem to evaporate. Why didn’t God answer your prayer - maybe he couldn’t, maybe he didn’t want to, maybe he had to choose between your prayer and someone else’s and their was more important or they got there first?
If two groups worship God with the same fervor and they both fight in the name of God and believe he is on their side and one of them loses wouldn’t be easier to believe that he just chose the other side to win or was busy doing something else rather than some complex combination of failed piety or belief or some other self-flagellating concept?
Why doesn’t God strike down all the infidels or terrorists or gays or pedophile priests? Maybe he can’t, maybe he won’t, maybe he just didn’t know. What if God was talking to Al Gore about climate change on the day the two airplanes hit the twin towers? We if he didn’t hear about the genocide in Darfur until he read in the New York Times?
An imperfect God may miss things, but he is obviously doing a lot for a great many people too. Plenty of people have miracles every day, while others get hit by busses on their way to feed the homeless after just winning the lottery and donating it all to the church.
Some would say all of this is evidence of NO God, but that is only true in contrast with an omnipotent, omniscient, perfect God. An imperfect God CAN get distracted, CAN forget to do something, CAN have limitations - all of which goes a long way to explaining all of the apparent contradictions and unanswered questions.
What do you think?