God is generally thought of as being
an all loving God. He hate's the sin, but loves the sinner. But there
are times where God's love is question, most commonly during disasters,
trying times, upon seeing a horribly disfigured and/or handicapped person,
and most commonly at elections. Here are some examples:
"How could an all loving God do
that to Christopher Reeve?"
"How could God have let the
terrorists get to the World Trade Centers?"
"WHO WAS ELECTED SENATOR OF NEW
YORK?!?!?! HILLARY... OH GOD HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO THOSE YOU
LOVE?!?!?!?!?!"
Another time people can wonder about
the love of God is while reading the Old Testament. Here are some of the
things I read that really made me wonder how people could call God "all
loving":
"For yet seven days, and I will
cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every
living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of
the earth." (Genesis 7:4) Of course this is from the story of
Noah's ark, when God decided he wasn't happy with how man turned out so
he killed every man and animal on Earth except for a select few. If he
loves the sinners but hates the sin, why not kill the sin instead of the
sinners?
"Then the LORD rained upon Sodom
and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And
he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of
the cities, and that which grew upon the ground." (Genesis 19:24,25)
Again, God opted for killing the sinners he loves, and not the sin he
hates. Go figure.
"And it came to pass, that at
midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt,
from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn
of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of
cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and
all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was
not a house where there was not one dead." (Exodus 12:29-30).
Wow, I never thought that somebody who loved everyone would ever have
something like that on there résumé.
I could go on
forever with a list of all the mass murders, infanticides, genocides, and
injustices this all loving God commits in the Old Testament, but I'm only
allowed so much bandwidth and will have to omit the others. Just read the
Old Testament, you can't miss them. I would like to touch on something a
bit more philosophical. I want to make you think a bit here. Let's look
at the concept of Freewill.
God, because
he loved us, gave us freewill. Meanwhile, God creates a Hell to burn
anyone who is bad for all eternity. We don't have to go, it's our
choice. If we choose to be bad people, God puts the eternal smack down on
us and sends us to Hell to burn, scream, get tortured, and be miserable
for all of eternity.
Here's the
problem... If we use freewill, but not how God wants us to use it, we are
severely punished. So do we really have freewill? If God loves the
sinner and hates the sin, why punish the sinner if he/she used the
freewill God gave us? Freewill in Christianity has more bullshit than a
farm does in Texas. Christians do not have freewill because they are
living how they think God wants them to live... NOT living how they want
to live. Freewill does exist on earth, because we can physically do
anything we are physically capable of doing. If you want to go into a
mall and shoot everyone with a fully automatic machine gun, you could.
Granted it's illegal and stupid. So the judicial system would use its
freewill to fry you in an electric chair. But to say that there is a
cosmic freewill in the Christian faith system would require one of two
things... either being a complete and utter liar, or being on mind
altering drugs.
I would say
that freewill would be proof that God does not love anybody. He is
basically dangling it over the collective heads of Christianity and
taunting them with "look at what I have, you can have it too, but then you
have to ROT IN HELL!!!!!"
Here's how I
would imagine a meeting with God would go shortly after a person's death
if they had used the freewill they were given.
God:
Sorry chump, you ain't on the guest list. I guess you will have to
burn in Hell for the rest of eternity... I hope you were a masochist.
Person:
What? Why am I going to Hell? I thought you loved everyone, I was
expecting forgiveness.
God:
Well, you remember that thing I gave you... Freewill? Well, you used
it. And if there is one thing that pisses me off it's when people do
things that I don't want them to do. The only thing I hate more than
that is when people think for themselves. Anyway, have a nice trip to
Hell, loser. (Does the "L" on his forehead with his index finger and
thumb)
Person:
Then why did you give me freewill, if you didn't want me to use it?
God:
I'm an asshole like that. You probably thought I loved everyone too, you
sucker, truth is, I hate nearly everyone. There are only a select few
people I liked... Hitler, Crowley, Jack the Ripper, and of course Anton
LaVey. Now shut up and buh bye!
Another
interesting view of Freewill was brought up to me by a Christian reader
the other day. They were responding to Saul's death. In 1
Chronicles 10:13 God killed Saul, yet in 1 Samuel 31:4 Saul
killed himself. A Christian said in an attempt to deny a contradiction,
"God slays people in many ways. Here he used Saul himself. The Lord
gave Saul over to death. A little ambiguous, and a common mistake."
The problem
with this explanation is that it show that God causes people to commit
suicide. Suicide is an act of freewill, thus being a more honorable way
to die than being killed. But if God causes suicide, it means there is no
freewill and therefore God creates everyone who is going to Hell,
specifically to go to Hell. How sick can you get?
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