So I was walking around the Tucson Barnes and Noble, trying to think what English language drivel I’d wish I had during a month in Mexico, and I saw the Harper’s cover story, “Are Christians evil?”
This I obviously had to have. The point of the article, which is actually a book review of David Lewis and Phillip Kitcher’s “Philosophers Without Gods” published in August, is interesting..
The premise is that because God insists that those who know nothing about him are sentenced to unimaginably long torture of unimaginable agony in unimaginable ways that God is intrinsically evil. Works for me.
The following idea is that if Christians approve of, and in fact worship this kind of behavior, then they are in fact evil. Where the hell is the love in sentencing African five month olds who die of starvation to billions of years of anal rape by barbed penised demons? It has always struck me as the plan of a less than loving deity.
Call me crazy.
If I were Eve, I’d pick an apple from a tree because it’s human to be hungry, and that’s all.
7 comments:
Jeff, as I suspect you know, that entire idea is a strawman. The Bible is very clear that all have heard, and that all people have the law of God written on their hearts. The proper question to ask, I think, is not, why would God send an innocent person to hell? But rather, why would an infinitely just God bother to save anyone, when all people have sinned and are guilty?
Actually, as I think more about it, this whole idea is about as ridiculous, and outright blasphemous of an idea that one could possibly imagine. I know of no Christians who claim that there are people who exist who do not "know" God. The idea of original sin, that all men are guilty, is fundamental to Christianity, which is why the author of that book is erecting a giant straw man by basing his entire idea on the concept that Christians have, apparently, never heard of that doctrine.
I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous. The entire Christian religion is based on the idea that there are no limits to the merciful act of God's saving grace, the history of which has been played out throughout the Bible.
A straw man that'll burn in Hell!
Sorry I just had too.
So I don't know whether to respond seriously or not.
My short answer, yes.
Long answer, Yes.
The only thing that matters is love.
I don't think everyone is guilty.
I think everyone is righteous.
We are only what we do.
Jeff: yes. I have heard it said that it is the only grouping that to be a member, one has to admit one’s evilness. Somehow it then gets lost in the marketing!
Ben: I used to believe that Drivel. And the lie that there is enough knowledge of God to justly condemn every man, but not enough to save them…unless they happen to be one of the elect.
And the idea that God creates a race, then, being " an infinitely just God " would inherently not want anything to do with the people he created is plain stupid.
His law reflects His love. Do you know why God hates divorce, for instance? Because he loves people. That is the same reason he hates bad doctine. It hurts people.
That is why Jeff so rightly ( and Righteously!) rants about that thinking. It is perverse and Demonic, and separates people from the Love and enjoyment of God for which they were actually created.
Each one of us is responsible for our own actions based on our own experience and knowledge. That is clear from the teachings of Jesus and Paul, and Peter and John. The Blood of Jesus is sufficient to save everyone he came to save. And John 3:16,17 says he came to save the world. C.S. Lewis said that it is never too late to accept grace. And that people are saved by Jesus' blood even though they were confused in their understanding of him. I like that, because I maintian that no one has a non-confused understanding of Jesus...he is that different than us.
But that is speculation. The destiny of others is a matter of speculation, but not of conclusive knowledge by anyone part based on holy writ. Holy writ simply states “judge not that you be not judged”
Oh, yeah, and Love.
i've maintained for years that if there is such an entity as satan, no group is better serving his purposes on earth than fundamentalist christians, or turning more people off to the idea that there might be a loving god out there somewhere.
glad to see the culture is catching up with me.
rick
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