Posthumous addition: 05/03/07

Psycho God?*

If you really think about our widely held beliefs about God, you'll be forced to conclude that God has to be a psycho.

After doing a bit of off-the-beaten-path research on this I find that the problem is not God, but in the "errors" -- most intentional and some accidental -- passed down to us in the form of "God's Holy Word."

The evidence is clear -- at least for those not too closed-minded to consider it.

Why a "psycho?" Let's consider some things.

First, God is considered perfect, all knowing, and all-loving.

So, right off, we have problems.

Logically, perfection can only create perfection, or else it's not perfect to start with.

So, if you go along common religious belief, you have to accept the fact that an all-knowing and perfect God created us in a very imperfect state.

This is akin to a carpenter with a reputation for absolute perfection making a table where none of the legs match and one of them is six inches shorter than the others.

Okay, assuming we we can get by that one...

...we have an ever bigger problem.

It's stated that God is to punish most of his creation (which might well include you and me)in Hell forever...

...for being sinful and imperfect.

But didn't He possess foreknowledge of the outcome of his creation to start with...

...or were we some kind of a surprise and profound disappointment?

And if that's the case, wouldn't it clearly contradict what we've been led to believe about God's all-knowing attributes?

Okay, enter Jesus the Christ who, consistent with the blood sacrifices detailed in ancient Jewish scriptures, died for our sins, human failings, and imperfections.

So as vexing as the perfection problem might be, maybe Jesus solved it.

But, hold on!

According to Christian scriptures sacrifices don't atone for anyone else's sins  -- only for the people who make the "sacrifices."

So apparently when that scriptural discrepancy was realized, things were revised so we just have to believe in what Jesus did before we are forgiven.

But, even so, we are left with an even bigger problem,

What happens to the majority ("few there are that enter therein") of people in the world and throughout history...

...who were born in the "wrong" place and time, or into a non-Christian religion or family?

And whose idea was it that they be born in these eternally lost situations in the first place?

Didn't God know from the get-go that despite His perfect love, most people He created (very imperfectly) would be left out in the cold -- or, more accurately, relegated to the eternal heat of Hell?

So is God a sadist, or did He have no idea what would happen to the majority of mankind?

This "love concept" also gets a bit strained when we read all those examples in the Bible about what He supposedly dictated should be done with scores of men, women and children. (Ever read Leviticus?)

You'll recall that in one account blood covered the streets of an entire city.

And all this from a loving God?

And then we have the centuries of major anti-woman problems.

So in bringing this up am I advocating atheism or discounting the contribution of Jesus?

Not at all; but it did make me dig a bit deeper into Biblical history...

...the versions where "believers" aren't just providing accepted "facts" for other believers in a closed-loop fashion.

I found that throughout early Christian history some key scriptural concepts were designed for political reasons...

...and so that the Church's central role in things would be established and ensured.

And just so people during those times wouldn't be tempted to believe the in earlier (and maybe more accurate scriptural) accounts...

...(keep in mind, there were scores, if not hundreds, of different versions of the gospels floating around in those days)...

...the person who appointed himself to establish what we were and weren't thereafter to believe...

...Saint Augustine, that person who we now know was a cold-blooded murderer and non-Christian until his death-bed baptism conversion...

...also destroyed the many scriptural accounts he didn't agree with...

...and whenever he could, the people who believed these accounts.

More blood in the streets.

Because in those days there was no way to reproduce materials except by hand by those chosen for the task...

...and the vast majority of people couldn't read or write...

...people had to rely on priests to tell them what the scriptures did and didn't say.

See the problem?

[Editor's note: This is where Fog's writing breaks off. He generally ended his completed columns with either "-30-" or "### ### ###," so I assume he planned to add to this at some point. By the way, at the end of what he wrote I found the words "Renard," and  "Disappearance." I'll leave it to you to figure that out.

*This is one of the unpublished columns that I found after "Fog's" passing.

You may recall that "Fog" thought that some of his columns were too controversial to be included in his original collection. I've now decided that some of these writings should now be published. 

-RW