As sure as sunrise follows sunset, any tragedy that captures the public’s attention, such as the Aurora shootings, will be followed by thumb sucking articles posing the question “Where was god?” and then using up a thousand words to essentially say, “Hell if I know, but you must keep believing anyway.”
However, god is clearly sick of these mindless speculations and took the opportunity of one such article to respond in the comments and clarify things once and for all.
Dear Christians:
God here. I thought I would take the time to personally explain my absence in the Aurora shootings. While I was at it, I thought I would also explain my absence during every murder, massacre and crime that has ever taken place in World history, and in every war, in every famine, drought and flood.
You see, I do not exist. I never have. Did it really make sense to you that I would create an entire Universe with billions of billions of planets and wait about 13,700,000,000 years just so I could focus on a few Jews from Palestine about 2,000 years ago while ignoring the rest of the 200,000,000 people on the planet at the time? Did I make those few Jews or did those few Jews make me?
Further, do you really think I would sit back and do nothing while Nazis killed 6 million of my “chosen people,” but find it important enough to intervene and turn water into wine to stop some hosts being embarrassed at a wedding in Cana?
…
No, my human friends. I am afraid I do not exist. I do not read your minds (or “hear your prayers” as you like to call it) and you are not going to achieve immortality (or “eternal life” as you like to call it) no matter how many commandments from Iron Age Palestine you choose to “keep”. Move on and enjoy the few years you have. You were all dead for the last 13,700,000,000 years and it wasn’t that least bit uncomfortable now, was it?God
(Via Cory Doctorow.)
Ever notice that God gets praised when something good happens but never gets the blame for bad stuff?
John Bunyan, the author of Pilgrim’s Progress, was a soldier during the English Civil War (1642–1651). One day he was supposed to have guard duty but his captain had him run some errand and someone else stood guard for him. There was a raid on the camp and this substitute was killed. In his autobiography Bunyan claims his life was saved because God had a purpose for him. Nowhere in this self-congratulatory spiel is there any mention of the guy who got killed. Apparently God didn’t have any use for him.
Yeah, the same point baffled me when I read a book of a Holocaust-survivor (including death marches) from a Hungarian christian-converted jew.
No empathy at all for all the victims around him, who were not saved. It made me sick.
God may have have been in Holme’s body. See Scopolamine.
The idea that God is all powerful (Omnipotent), all knowing (Omniscient) and is everywhere (Omnipresent) seems not to apply to Judeo/Christian concept of God.
For example, the questions like: Where was God when the holocaust occurred, or where was God when the Aurora murders happened, or any murder or war occurs, would have two possible answers. Either God was there and did not do anything about it or he was NOT there and since he was not there he could not do anything about it. But if God’s property of Omnipresence is true, then He must have been there. Either, he did not do anything about it or he could NOT do anything about it. And from the looks of it… God was not doing much all this time. So from Omnipotent, this God was Not so potent. From all can DO to God was All cannot do.
The usual apologetics for this inability to be potent, is that God has his OWN plan. Unless, saving humans is part of the PLAN, then it is NOT NECESSARY to DO ANYTHING. But was it not said that GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON TO SAVE MANKIND? Well, saving mankind’s soul was more important than saving mankind’s physical body. And thus, God does not have to do anything about people killing each other. He simply established the ten commandments where Thou shalt not kill is one of the codes of conduct.
A problem occurs when talk about Jesus return is brought to fore. Since it is common knowledge that Jesus is God and that Jesus and God are one. Then Jesus should be Omnipresent as well. It is also noted in the bibles that Jesus seats at the right hand of the Father in heaven. That tells me that there is a physical chair or throne of some sort for both Jesus and God to seat on. Those chairs would have to be part of a physical structure…perhaps a physical kingdom. But if God and Jesus are both spiritual beings, then why do they need chairs? Do their legs get tired so they have to take a seat?
But more importantly, it is said that Jesus will return someday. But if that is true then obviously, he is not here today, so there is a reason to return. Then, how can he be God when he is not Omnipresent?
And so this could be why, God and Jesus could not do anything about those murders…. It is because, they are not here. They must be somewhere else. When are they coming back?
Jesus says….only the Father knows. And if both of them are seating next to each other… then both of them are somewhere else but here. And that is why they could not do much at all.
Ah, god was preoccupied at that time finding those two trees for his mother to appear on.