| Why would someone want to "prove" their faith?
Why would a Supreme Diety want people to Doubt?
Why does a benevolent God tolerate Evil?"
Wouldn't it be easy, if you were an omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent diety, to simply announce, in clear and easy to understand terms, in every human language and to all humans simultaneously, "Here are the rules and I will kill every transgressor starting NOW who violates any of them."?
But nobody's perfect, you say, we'd all violate the rules, and we'd all be killed. Right?
No.
We ARE perfect- at least, we can be. If There was an armed policemen standing next to you with pistol drawn, and you truly, absolutely beleived that the very next time you sinned, he would empty his magazine into your head, then you would be utterly without sin for the rest of your very nervous life.
When a priest pedophile molests a child, he does not do in plain view of the child's father. Yet, if you asked an admitted pedophile priest, did you do this in the sight of God, he would admit, Yes, I did. Why would a priest commit an act in the sight of god but not in the sight of a mere human being? Because no matter what he says, no matter how deeply he has studied scripture, there is doubt. He just does not BELEIVE in God the same way he BELEIVES the six foot, two hundred pound guy with the cute little alter boy son will beat the stuffing out of him if he saw the priest ever touch the child.
And God wants it that way. Good and Evil are things we have to find, learn about, and experience, no matter that the lessons are harsh. This is the lesson of the HIGHLY Metaphorical and not at all literal Genesis. It is the First Moral Lesson of the Bible, and there is a good reason for its being first. Summed up, it is: You will go from ignorant bliss to knowing Good from Evil, and it won't be pleasant. Humans learn Evil by giving in to the temptation of Evil- the serpent (Satan) did nothing wrong, it merely acted to its nature. Eve did nothing wrong- having no knowledge of Good and Evil beforehand, all she knew was "this guy says no, the serpent says yes, what's the difference between the two?". We have to learn it the hard way, there is no other way.
God laments, over Humans learning Good from Evil "He has become like us", that is, become a heavenly being by learning of Morality.
To Learn Good from Evil, the temptation must exist. The punishment must not be so certain and so strongly beleived that the temptation is powerless. In order for the temptation to have any power and effect, in order for us to Learn, God must allow himself to be doubted. If he was as real and evident as the armed policeman above, no temptation would be strong enough.
So, a religion that offers or claims proof of its own mythology undermines its own moral agenda.
Some people beleive that without the threat/promise of religion, we will not behave in a moral way. This is nonsense. Anyone who lived through 9-11 knows the truth. Around New York City, in the aftermath of the attack, people rallied to help in the most amazing ways. People gave blood and goods and money, they swarmed down to the site to lend physical effort, they baked cookies and ran their restaurants to provide free food for the crews. Music students played for tired national guardsmen while professional massage therapists provided their services to the men for free. The "evil" corporations like Coca Cola and McDonalds, and even Volvo, sent their trucks to the front. All of this was an automatic human response, without any directive, call, request or sermon. With no religious motivation, this was one of the most, if not the most, powerful acts of mass good the world has ever seen, and in a place the world least expected to see it. Meanwhile, the humans who pepetrated the act of gross evil that took the lives of 3000, they were the ones acting in accordance with religious directives.
So why have religion at all? Can we not just have ethics and morality? We could. A benevolent God would not only tolerate this, but favor it. Think about it, its pretty obnvious from an ethical standpoint. Would you be prouder of your own children, contemplating doign an act of good, saying "we should do this because Dad wants us to" or "we should do this because its the right thing to do."?
But its not likely to happen. Religion puts power into certain people who want that power to themselves.
Trust in those religous leaders who have the will to say, "I'm not sure, and I can't prove it, but I beleive..." The wicked ones not to trust are the ones who say "This is the proven word of God".
How can I resolutely believe in a faith which I doubt? It's what we have to do as humans, neither angels nor animals, and when we do it, it's a miracle. |
