This is an open-comment theology blog where I will post various theological musings, mostly in sermon or essay form, for others to read and comment on. If what I say here interests you, you may want to check out some of my books. Feel free to criticize, to critique, to comment, but keep comments to the point and respectful. Many of these posts have been published elsewhere, but I wanted them collected and made available to a wider audience.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Question of the Day
What do you think of God's act of empowering rather than controlling?
Frankly I don't like it. It seems to be the best argument for there being no God or that God truly does not care about humans. How can an all good God sit idly by and watch horrors like what we have inflicted every day?
I've heard all the arguments and they don't amount to much when it is your child, your lover, yourself suffering. It all falls apart. This remains the single greatest hole in all of my faith.
It is a hole that persists and I've found no argument or grace to fill it.
I would gladly toss aside all empowering for some bliss and lack of evil. Free will just isn't worth the pain.
I don't see how it can be incumbent upon God to do what it is not in his power to do. Of course one may argue that it would be better to not exist at all, for God to stop creating altogether. My intuition is that being, existence is an inherent good, and any genuinely creative act is of greater value than non-creation. But if Gods power is persuasive and not coercive, then empowering others is simply the limit of what God can do. I also don't think it is fair to accuse God of 'sitting idly by'. For God is the force that 1) makes any positive (moral or beautiful) creative act possible by providing the initial aim and 2) provides meaningful grounds for said act by retaining all experience within Himself. There is no horror visited on anyone that isn't visited upon God. And all meaningful response to any pain is the result of His presence. There is no existence at all without freedom. To be is to be self-determining. God's power is the power to make things make themselves. The choice is NOT between a free, imperfect existence and a dominated perfect one, but between a free and (at least potentially imperfect) existence and no existence at all. Have you read MYSTERY WITHOUT MAGIC yet?
No I've not read "Mystery Without Magic". Will it somehow make me not see suffering as bad? Will it convince me the evil inflicted upon my fellow creatures is somehow meritorious?
If it can do that OK. If not I'm not sure what one more book will matter.
I don't think suffering is meritorious. Let me as unambiguous as possible: I don't think God is all-powerful. But, then, what good is God? That is the question that book answers.
Christ did not have to die, but human beings made this inevitable.
God's power is love. That love can be taken for granted, but it is given regardless of who you are.
If God could force everything to be just the way he wanted it to be, then there would be no reason to live in the first place. God would just "program" our lives and we could be robots created for the sheer purpose of a sick, deviant, all-powerful owner.
Frankly I don't like it. It seems to be the best argument for there being no God or that God truly does not care about humans. How can an all good God sit idly by and watch horrors like what we have inflicted every day?
ReplyDeleteI've heard all the arguments and they don't amount to much when it is your child, your lover, yourself suffering. It all falls apart. This remains the single greatest hole in all of my faith.
It is a hole that persists and I've found no argument or grace to fill it.
I would gladly toss aside all empowering for some bliss and lack of evil. Free will just isn't worth the pain.
BTW, you asked. :)
I don't see how it can be incumbent upon God to do what it is not in his power to do. Of course one may argue that it would be better to not exist at all, for God to stop creating altogether. My intuition is that being, existence is an inherent good, and any genuinely creative act is of greater value than non-creation. But if Gods power is persuasive and not coercive, then empowering others is simply the limit of what God can do. I also don't think it is fair to accuse God of 'sitting idly by'. For God is the force that 1) makes any positive (moral or beautiful) creative act possible by providing the initial aim and 2) provides meaningful grounds for said act by retaining all experience within Himself. There is no horror visited on anyone that isn't visited upon God. And all meaningful response to any pain is the result of His presence. There is no existence at all without freedom. To be is to be self-determining. God's power is the power to make things make themselves. The choice is NOT between a free, imperfect existence and a dominated perfect one, but between a free and (at least potentially imperfect) existence and no existence at all. Have you read MYSTERY WITHOUT MAGIC yet?
ReplyDeleteNo I've not read "Mystery Without Magic". Will it somehow make me not see suffering as bad? Will it convince me the evil inflicted upon my fellow creatures is somehow meritorious?
ReplyDeleteIf it can do that OK. If not I'm not sure what one more book will matter.
I don't think suffering is meritorious. Let me as unambiguous as possible: I don't think God is all-powerful. But, then, what good is God? That is the question that book answers.
ReplyDeleteChrist did not have to die, but human beings made this inevitable.
ReplyDeleteGod's power is love. That love can be taken for granted, but it is given regardless of who you are.
If God could force everything to be just the way he wanted it to be, then there would be no reason to live in the first place. God would just "program" our lives and we could be robots created for the sheer purpose of a sick, deviant, all-powerful owner.
If we are robots, I want to be R2D2...LOL!