But what god is
God? What is the nature of God? What is its character and
intentions? To answer this in part, we are able to learn from our own
history, dispositions, and human condition. Every society, every
ruler in history, every kingdom of power that we are able to document in our
past has completely fallen apart. Every tyranny has collapsed. If
we extrapolate our human condition to guess at the nature of God we could
deduce that God must not be corrupt. He must not exhibit any evil of any
kind, as we know that evil tends to implode
over time. If God were evil in any way, the nature of evil would likely
have already imploded into non-existence and this conversation would be
moot. Therefore if there is a God, it must be absent of any evil that
would have corrupted and led to universal decay. God therefore is good,
pretty much exclusively good, nothing else could last.
There are a group of
people who believe that God may well exist, but if He does, He may have simply
originated life like a wind-up toy, and then let it go out on its own, to
whatever end it finds. This agnostic
point of view claims that any God would be
impossible to truly understand as God. It would be infinite, and humans (due to our
mortality) unable to grasp God in any context. This rational accepts the
universal power of a God, but denies its benevolence. I believe it stems
from a more substantive question, why do 'bad' things happen to 'good'
people. And how could a benevolent God permit evil to exist in any
form? We will address these questions in a future section, but for now I
draw attention to the fact that an agnostic viewpoint essentially accepts the
divinity of God as original creator of life, and then denies His benevolence as
they are unable to reconcile it within their own experiences here.
It is said that
'good' cannot exist without 'evil'. This is true in the sense that there
are choices which confront us every day that seem to fall into the good versus
evil category. But that means 'good' is a choice. It also means 'evil' is a
choice. It would appear God chose to be completely 'good', making the
opposite of God = 'evil'. God would appear to embody every good and noble
trait thought, action, or intention that ever could exist, and evil is left
with everything else. It remains a choice both 'good' and 'evil' then.
But the premise remains that God continues to exist only because he is absent
any of the characteristics that would have resulted in His own demise (i.e.
evil). Therefore 'good' has always existed and will always continue to
exist. The choice of 'evil' has also always existed, but seems to have a
much more limited scope of manifestation. And 'evil' has no part in God.
So the basics we
understand about God include that He always existed, beyond our understanding
of time, space, and matter. He must be good; as if He were evil he would
have self-destructed by now. And that both good and evil are choices that
we and God make. It is reasonable then to proffer that God is the author
of choice. He becomes the author of 'free will'.
And one other area we
have yet to address in the existence of man. Where do we derive emotions from if not from God?
Emotions seem to fall into 2 basic categories, those that enrich life, and
those that diminish it. Sound familiar. Emotions seem to emulate
our choice in that we can experience both 'good' and 'evil' emotion, with
predictable results. We choose to engage in an emotional response, or
feeling. We choose to limit for ourselves how much we allow this feeling
to dominate our existence. And sometimes we seem to lose control of our
choices over feelings. But if feelings come from God as well, then God
becomes the author of Love. Love has it's opposite then, as an
alternative choice, which is Hate. But God chooses not to embrace hatred,
and only embrace Love, as again, the acceptance of anything evil would lead to
His eventual self-destruction.
To embrace the
concept that God is Love
is not some fairy-tale superstitious notion that helps us sleep better at
night; it is a rational, logical, conclusion we reach after studying the
alternatives, and witnessing the results. But to accept this premise
requires a reconciliation of why we live in a world with so little of God's
love around us? Why do we seem to be dominated by the absence of God
(i.e. evil)? If Love is our origin, why are we here where we are today?
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