A Theological/Bible Related Commentary
Part III
What “Sinless” God?
There is a deeply-held religious conviction that God is utterly incapable of doing anything evil, of being wicked, or of behaving “sinfully”; that He is simply unable to exhibit anything other than pure “holiness.” Evil is altogether absent from God’s heart, insist Christian commentators. God is all that is Good. He is without blemish. Sin is an anathema to God’s very being!
Really?
Well, if God actually thought-up the concept of evil, brought it into existence, and then deliberately unleashed it on both angels and man through the guise of “free-will,” how could this possibly be true?
God, incapable of doing evil? For real ? Then, what was the murder of every infant baby, every young child, and every pregnant woman on planet earth during Noah’s Flood, a love fest?
It was “justified” in God’s eyes does not suffice as an answer for what was done. We still call what God did, “murder.” Murdering babies is a “sin” in Christian theology, is it not? Furthermore, God did not have to actually drown babies. He could have just wiggled his nose and made them “disappear” with just a simple “poof and they’re gone.” What He did instead is just plain cruel beyond measure. (Just picture what it must have felt like for those infants frantically fighting to stay alive amid the torrents of water!) Where did God’s vaunted love, mercy, and compassion disappear to at the time? (Too busy gettin’ Jesus-God ready for the big show, was He?) To simply argue that because God did it, it could not possibly be evil or sinful makes a complete mockery of what it means to be evil and sinful.
The creation of evil, by the very act itself, reveals God’s sinful nature. The creation of the very impulse to disobey His Almightiness was surely wicked—in light of the consequences. To deliberately create evil—based on simple common sense and logic—would just be impossible for a being perfect in love, mercy, and goodness to undertake. Would it not?
Now a Catholic “twist” on the creation of evil is to argue that God didn’t actually create evil, but merely allowed it to exist. However, this clearly flies in the face of John 1:3 and Colossians 1:16 where it is affirmed that the God Jesus created “everything” that exists, both “seen and unseen.” Evil most certainly exists. Ergo, “God” created evil as well. The act of even “allowing” evil to exist would be an evil act in itself. Would it not? Moreover, it is an “argument” does nothing at all to explain where evil itself actually originated, now does it?
What God has consciously and deliberately perpetrated should be grounds for His Almightiness to be condemned to eternal damnation Himself if fair and just were to be truly “fair and just.” Should it not? He deliberately created EVIL, when he didn’t have to.
Allowing Eve to be supernaturally beguiled into sin by an evil being of God’s very own creation was certainly immoral. And having that heavy hand in the brutal ” “torture” of faithful Job (cf. Job 2:7), the suffering of Job’s wife, and the needless murder of his seven sons, his three daughters (cf. Job 1:2; 18-19), and nearly every single one of Job’s numerous servants, (cf. Job 1:3; 15-17) was absolutely beyond the pale. In fact, it was evil personified. And who explicitly sanctioned torture and those murders? Oh, that’s right: “Sinless God,” of course!
Trying to find logic in religion is like trying to find honesty in politics.
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You got that right!
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I totally understand your frustration. I do actually believe in God, but I believe God is responsible for everything that happens. I disagree with the Christian idea that God does good, and humans do evil. It doesn’t make sense.
If God is omnipresent (as most theology supposes) then God is surely responsible for all action in the cosmos. That’s the kind of God I believe in. I don’t believe in free will. There is one will, God’s will, that expresses itself in many different forms.
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I’m not actually “frustrated.” I’m an atheist who believes the whole “God” thing is a complete sham. But I’m delving into the hypothetical in my articles. That entails assuming God exists simply for the sake of discussion.
Your view of God is a much more “realistic” one than most. However, he comes off being nothing more than a supernatural tyrant with a vanity-complex up the kazoo. Your God created evil. And for that reason alone he is evil personified in my book. Thank goodness he doesn’t exist. Problem is, evil men do !
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I think the hardest question in philosophy is ‘why do we suffer’? I have a theory regarding why God creates suffering, and if you’re at all interested you can read about it here:
http://perfectchaos.org/2012/03/04/the-reason-why-we-suffer/
I don’t expect you to agree! But you might see where I’m coming from, at least.
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Your question has bedeviled man for ages. But as you well know, we make each other suffer far too much.
As an aside: I checked out your blog and homepage. I must confess, I am very impressed! I’ve not explored things in depth, as of yet. But I can see you have quite a lot going for you. You are one smart “cookie.” A tip of the hat to you.
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I did read your article on the reason why man is made to suffer so. And you’re right, I find much to disagree with. But it is through the free exchange of ideas that we hope to learn and grow. As I’ve said before, I believe your God is the creator of not just all that is unpleasant, but abominably evil too. And I see no valid reason for such evil to be brought into existence. Greywolf’s 1st Dictum: “There can be no greater evil in all of existence than the Creator of evil.” That would be God.
In my view, God is a completely imaginary creature. But since so many people believe He does exist, the dictum applies. God is not helpless. He is malevolent.
One last point: It struck me that your belief in your God is based more on emotion than empirical evidence. That is in no way an insult. It’s just a sensation I had reading your finely written article.
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