The Philosopher and God

The philosopher says that if God created man, He did an awfully poor job of it. We, as a species, seemed to be doomed to destroy ourselves. We tend to be self-centered, or, at the very least, very selective in our compassion, we tend to take needless risks, we don’t learn very well—it frequently takes a serious jolt to our own situation just to get our attention, much less actually learn from it. Some of us can be very stoic when it comes to other people suffering, and not even stop to consider, “What if that were me?” One of the questions that comes up is that, if God is real, why is there so much suffering in the world? Is it that God can’t do anything about it, in which case He is not so all-powerful, is He? Or is it that He won’t do anything about it, in which case He isn’t exactly the loving God that religion makes Him out to be, is He?

Furthermore, God hasn’t done a very good job of making it clear to us just who He is. He seems to go out of His way to keep Himself a mystery. There are hundreds of different religions, and most of them claim to be the only way to achieve eternal salvation—that they are the only one with a true understanding of who God is.

Someone else suggested that we have been created with a “God-shaped hole” and that as much as we would like to be self-sufficient, we really never can be. Some people manage to create the impression that they are self-sufficient, but it is only an illusion. Some of these people even manage to fool themselves. Recently a scientific study indicated that human beings are hard-wired to believe in a god or gods, and even to develop religious practices. And yet, many of these people (possibly even most of these people) are no more moral or compassionate toward their fellow man than the average atheist.

The thing is that there are a lot of people who, although they take their religion very seriously, don’t have a personal relationship with God. You can find those people in any religion you like. It’s easy to say, well, most of the Christians that I’ve known.. (or Muslims, or Jews, or Hindus, or Buddhists, or whatever other religion you like) … have been guilty of (whatever sin you like). Quite, frankly, I’ve probably been guilty of whatever sin you happen to be thinking of, myself. As much as I would like to claim that I am always in tune with God, and always obeying His plan, always doing my part, I am, above all, human, and I make mistakes. I have made many mistakes. Perhaps if I were a better learner, I wouldn’t make so many mistakes. On the other hand, if I were less intelligent, perhaps I would be less inclined to trust my own judgment and get better at seeking God’s will for my own life.

Still, the question really comes down to, why didn’t God create us better? Scripture says that the vessel has no right to ask the potter, why have you made me this way? Still, I would like to suggest that most of us are familiar with the truism, “Anything worth having is worth working for.” If you aren’t familiar with that one, then another statement, made by one of our founding fathers, may help with the concept. Thomas Paine said that “That which we obtain too easily, we esteem too lightly.”

If there were only one religion, the right one, and the only choices were that religion, or atheism, then most people would choose that religion. There would, of course, be varying degrees of devotion within that religion (I’m sure that some atheists would become members just to keep from being ostracized). Where would be the challenge in that? If God made Himself obvious, then there would be no atheists either. We would, in effect, have no freedom in regards to our own religious beliefs.
To be continued...