God Moves in Mysterious Ways

"God moves in mysterious ways."
"It all happens according to God's Plan."

We've all heard these phrases before along with:  "God has a plan and we are not meant to understand it."
Maybe we don't understand it because it simply doesn't make sense.


We often hear about bad things happening to good people.  You know the situation: good, decent person that gives to the community, is respected by all, goes to church on Sunday, never in trouble with law, and then suddenly he loses his job , has a heart attack, and finds out his three-year-old son has just been diagnosed with leukemia. Or a little girl in the neighborhood is sexual molested and killed by another neighbor. Or a mother and six young children are all killed in a fire.

We hear ministers on TV saying how this is all according to God's Divine Plan and that we must turn to God for answers and comfort. Excuse me? We are to turn to God for comfort when he is the one that either caused or allowed these events to transpire?

What kind of all powerful god cannot come up with a better way to enact his "divine plan" that putting children through the nightmares of being raped, being beaten to death, being burned alive, or other such horrific events. What about tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters that kill tens, hundreds, or thousands?

We are often told that we have "free will" and that it was our own actions that resulted in these tragedies. Fair enough, if the only ones to feel the effects of our decisions were ourselves, but far too often others must bear the brunt of our poor judgement. And what about God's Plan? If he truly has a plan, then how can I alter it with my free will? While there may be some wiggle room in his plan, it's obvious that inflicting pain and suffering on innocent children is not inconsistent with his plan, otherwise it would not occur.

God is supposedly an all powerful, all knowing, loving, and just God. One would think that a being of such power could think of an alternative to all of this pain and suffering to complete his plan. However, if we read the Bible in detail, we find that the suffering of humanity is not a problem for God, but that inflicting pain and suffering is actually a pastime. After all, this is the same god that drowned all of humanity, sent plagues on even the innocents of Egypt, killed or directed the killing of millions of people in the Bible simply to make room for his "chosen people".

If we read the Bible and listen to ministers, priests, and televangelists, we already know the end result of God's plan. Those who believe will spend their afterlife in the presence of God, and the rest of us will burn in Hell.

In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction.
(Thessalonians 1:8-9)


The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
(Matthew 13:41-42)


... into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
(repeatedly: Mark 9:43-48)

It doesn't matter what we have done to help our fellow man or the compassion that we have shown to those in less fortunate circumstances. It doesn't even matter if we kill, rape, steal, or lie. The only thing that matters at the end is if we believe in God.

If God has a plan for us and since the only thing that counts towards gaining entry into heaven is a belief in God, then his plan logically must be geared towards increasing a belief in him. So how does God try to get us to believe in him? By demonstrating love and compassion? No. He continually threatens us with destruction or hell.


Fear appears to be the key mechanism for God to generate faith.

...Thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God.
(Leviticus 25:17)


...That they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.
(Deuteronomy 4:10)


Gather the people together, men and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God.
(Deuteronomy 31:12)


Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. (Isaiah 8:13)

Injustice

The Story

Several years ago, Mike Baker and his family were the victims of a home invasion. An intruder bludgeoned Mr. Baker and his wife, Cathy nearly to death, tied them to chairs, and forced them to watch while he brutally beat and then raped their twelve-year-old daughter, Megan. The intruder, let’s call him Mister X for his real name is immaterial to the story at hand, then slit Megan’s throat and stabbed her parents repeatedly. Megan died almost immediately; her father later that night. Despite her severe injuries; however, Mrs. Baker managed to survive, but was in the hospital for weeks and took years to fully recover physically; mentally, she never quite did.

Mr. X was found a few days after the incident, arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison; he was acquitted on a technicality during an appeal and released. Mr. X continued his antisocial behavior through a string of burglaries, armed robberies, auto theft, and other various criminal activities which culminated in the murder of an elderly woman for the $2.35 in her purse. This time, Mr. X was convicted to life in prison and there were no appeals. Mr. X spent the rest of his life in prison, dying of pancreatic cancer just five years into his sentence.

Dolores Wise was the Baker family’s neighbor, but wasn’t home at the time of the attacks. She was out doing what she normally did on Thursday nights – volunteering at the Senior Center. After the attacks, Mrs. Wise helped the Baker’s other family members to make funeral arrangements, with transportation to the hospital, and kept them all well-fed. This wasn’t anything new for Mrs. Wise. Her entire life she had always tried to help whenever she could whether at the animal shelter, or with the local blood drive, or soup kitchen to name a few. When Mrs. Baker was able to come home from the hospital, Mrs. Wise spent a good portion of the day helping her to eat, bath, and keep the house. She read to her, cooked meals, and took care of errands like grocery shopping and paying the bills. She did this almost everyday for three years until Mrs. Baker eventually died from unseen consequences of the brutal beatings – or perhaps grief.

In the last few months of his life, Mr. X was bedfast, and so he did a lot of reading and thinking, in particular the Bible. He started to think back on his life and all of the things that he had done and the pain that he had caused. Two days before he died, Mr. X accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

After Mrs. Baker’s death, Mrs. Wise had a lot of free time on her hands, so she went back to the volunteer work that she had enjoyed so much throughout the rest of her life. She continued to work with at the Senior Center, the animal shelter, the soup kitchen, and other miscellaneous activities. A few years later, Mrs. Wise died after suffering a stroke. As she was near death, she though back on her life and how fulfilling it was, how full of love, hope, and joy. Now, Mrs. Wise knew that she only had one life to live, that there was no heaven or hell or afterlife of any kind. She firmly believed that no gods existed and that with this one precious gift of life that nature bestowed upon her, that she must live it to its fullest – and she did. Mrs. Wise died a non-believer secure in the knowledge that her life had been one well spent.

As chance would have it, Mrs. Wise and Mr. X died on the same day and were taken to the same funeral home. Dale Wheaton was the funeral director and while his wife Leah was at work, their ten year old daughter Emily stayed in her dad’s office at the funeral home.

Pastor Halton arrived at the funeral home at the request of Mr. X’s sister, Pat. When he arrived, he inquired about Mr. X and seeing Mrs. Wise’s name displayed, inquired about her as well. He was particularly curious as to why only three people were present in the viewing room for Mr. X, while Mrs. Wise’s room was filled to the brim. Mr. Wheaton explained about the life of crime that Mr. X had led and all of the suffering that he caused. Only his sister, her husband, and Mr. X’s brother had bothered to show up. In contrast, he explained, Mrs. Wise was generous and warm – loved by all who new her.

Now Emily, being the curious creature that she was, couldn’t help but eavesdrop on her father and Pastor Halton. Emily listened intently to what they were saying trying to keep hidden. Pastor Halton told Emily’s father that surely such a woman deserved a first class eulogy and wanted to know which minister would be conducting the service. “None” said Mr. Wheaton, “Mrs. Wise was a non-believer, an atheist”. Pastor Halton was somewhat taken aback; he couldn’t believe that a woman of such integrity of character and moral principles was an atheist. “It’s a shame”, he said, “that she didn’t come to God before she passed”.

Suddenly Emily burst out from her hiding place and dashed forward, inserting herself between her father and Pastor Halton.

“Why did you say it was a shame, Pastor Halton?” Emily asked.

“Because, now she won’t be in heaven with Jesus.” Pastor Halton answered.

“But she was good.” Emily implored.

“It doesn’t matter, Emily. She turned away from God and now must spend eternity separated from him.” Pastor Halton explained.

Emily asked, “Separated? Where? In hell?”

“Yes, Emily. It’s sad, but just” stated Pastor Halton.

“What about Mr. X?” Emily asked.

“Well, as I understand it, witnesses say that he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior before he died, so he will share eternity with God.” Pastor Halton explained.

“So he was wicked and goes to heaven, but Mrs. Wise was good and spends eternity burning in a lake of fire?” Emily asked with incredulity.

“That’s correct Emily. If we believe in God, we are rewarded by his Grace, but when his children turn from Him, He must punish them for their transgressions.” Pastor Halton explained.

“Daddy” asked Emily “you would never leave me or hurt me just because I couldn’t believe in something would you?”

“No, Emily. You are my child and my love is unconditional” said her father lovingly.

Emily hugged her father tightly and then turned to Pastor Halton.

“I want to be just like my dad when I grow up – and like Mrs. Wise.”, said Emily.

Pastor Halton shrugged and walked over to Mr. X’s family. He talked with them for a while and then left – never stopping to pay his respects to Mrs. Wise.

Commentary:

The Bible talks about what happens to those that do not follow God/Jesus:

Matthew 25:41 (Jesus speaking to people at final judgment), ...Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

Revelation 20:12, 15, And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life...And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Matthew 10:28, And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Luke 12:5, But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which AFTER he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.
Matthew 18:8, 9 Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or feet to be cast into everlasting fire. And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.
Does your church teach this? How can a god be just if he sends good people to hell and cruel people to heaven? Does an epiphany at life’s end negate a life of evil? Does the lack of one negate a life of compassion and generosity?
Can you be truly happy in heaven if your family is burning in hell? If you think you can, if you think it’s even acceptable to be put in this situation, then, I feel truly sorry for you. Sorry and disgusted. How anyone can worship a god that is so heartless is beyond me.
Wake up, people. Most of you are more moral than the bible that you cherish and more moral than the god you defend. Act like it – through off the cruel god of this bloodthirsty religion. Stop propagating this twisted man-made fairy tale. Think long and hard about what your religion truly means and above all – Think for yourself.

God Says: Humanity Sucks

On my way to work this week, I was listening to a preacher on the radio. He said what I have heard many other preachers say many, many times, but every time I hear it, it makes me sick. He was talking about how all of us have sinned, how all of us are incapable of reaching the kind of perfection that god demands of us, and how we all fall short of the glory of god. See Romans 3:23.

It's the typical view that humanity is worthless, vile, immoral, and incapable of goodness with out the grace of god. The view degrades humanity to elevate god. It takes away all of the compassion, knowledge, art, science, etc. that man has cultivated for good over the years and gives the credit to God. It denies the fact that despite setbacks, humanity has clawed its way passed many obsolete notions (in some places) and outdated moral norms and is trying to trend the path towards increased compassion and decreased selfishness. But religion is happy to leave us with our greed, anger, cowardice, and cruelty and deny our better nature by assigning it to God.

God supposedly created us in his image, created us as we are - incapable of being perfect - and then blames us for this. I despise this part of religion probably more than anything else.

God created us, created us prone to "sin", incapable of meeting his standards, and doomed to eternal punishment for it. But he has a way out, if only we believe that setting his son (himself) up as a blood sacrifice - a human sacrifice - as a substitutionary atonement - for our shortcomings. If we pay the ransom, belief in God and Jesus and they whole warped concept of justice that He provides, we get the "prize" of spending eternity with this jerk. Fortunately, He does not exist. He is a creation of Man. It's too bad Man has such low self-esteem that it has to create God's to make us feel even worse.

God Knows

God, according to most religions including Christianity, is all-knowing. If a god exists, it knows why I don't believe in it. It knows exactly what I find troubling about the various religious definitions of and explanations for god. It should also know exactly what information or experience that I would require to be convinced that he/she exists. So far, this invisible sky-god has chosen not to do so. Apparently, this god doesn't exist or doesn't want me to believe or is incapable of doing so.

If the god is not capable, then it's not much of a god. If the god chooses not to reveal this information, then how could it be considered compassionate or just, since it knows that I am doomed to eternal damnation?

I know that some would say, "but it has been revealed to you, you are just closed to it". Bull. The kind of information and god that I am talking about would make it impossible for me to not believe in its existence. And this is not an issue of free-will since, believing in a god's existence doesn't mean that I would necessarily worship this god - far from it.

If I were provided that evidence right this second, I would believe, put God would still have a lot of questions to answer and I highly doubt that I could worship this god given everything I know about its cruelty and injustice.

If god exists and has the capabilities ascribed to him/her, then apparently god wants to me to be an atheist.

The Character of God: 2 Kings 2:23-24

2 Kings 2:23-24

23And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.

24And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.

Comments:
Many apologists try to say that these passages are taken out of context. So go look them up for yourself and you will see that the full context is represented in these two passages. Simply for mocking Elijah, God sends two bears to tear 42 children to shreds. Forget "context". Is there any situation in which this seems justified? Not to me. They didn't try to cause him bodily harm and they were children! You can argue all you want that it wasn't God that sent the bears, but what other reasonable explanation is there? Immediately after Elijah curses the children, the bears appear and kill them. Coincidence? - I think not. This is just another example of the "justice" of the Bible's "loving" god.

The Character of God: 2 Kings - Chapter 1

Consider the following chapter from: 2 Kings 1

¹ After Ahab's death, Moab rebelled against Israel. ² Now Ahaziah had fallen through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria and injured himself. So he sent messengers, saying to them, "Go and consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, to see if I will recover from this injury."

³ But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, "Go up and meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and ask them, 'Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going off to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?' ⁴ Therefore this is what the LORD says: 'You will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!' " So Elijah went.

⁵ When the messengers returned to the king, he asked them, "Why have you come back?"

⁶ "A man came to meet us," they replied. "And he said to us, 'Go back to the king who sent you and tell him, "This is what the LORD says: Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending men to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!" ' "

⁷ The king asked them, "What kind of man was it who came to meet you and told you this?"

⁸ They replied, "He was a man with a garment of hair and with a leather belt around his waist."
The king said, "That was Elijah the Tishbite."

⁹ Then he sent to Elijah a captain with his company of fifty men. The captain went up to Elijah, who was sitting on the top of a hill, and said to him, "Man of God, the king says, 'Come down!' "

¹⁰ Elijah answered the captain, "If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!" Then fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain and his men.

¹¹ At this the king sent to Elijah another captain with his fifty men. The captain said to him, "Man of God, this is what the king says, 'Come down at once!' "

¹² "If I am a man of God," Elijah replied, "may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men!" Then the fire of God fell from heaven and consumed him and his fifty men.

¹³ So the king sent a third captain with his fifty men. This third captain went up and fell on his knees before Elijah. "Man of God," he begged, "please have respect for my life and the lives of these fifty men, your servants! ¹⁴ See, fire has fallen from heaven and consumed the first two captains and all their men. But now have respect for my life!"

¹⁵ The angel of the LORD said to Elijah, "Go down with him; do not be afraid of him." So Elijah got up and went down with him to the king.

¹⁶ He told the king, "This is what the LORD says: Is it because there is no God in Israel for you to consult that you have sent messengers to consult Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Because you have done this, you will never leave the bed you are lying on. You will certainly die!" ¹⁷ So he died, according to the word of the LORD that Elijah had spoken.
Because Ahaziah had no son, Joram ^[a] succeeded him as king in the second year of Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah. ¹⁸ As for all the other events of Ahaziah's reign, and what he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel?

Comments:

King Ahaziah was ill and chose to ask another "god", in this case, Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron whether he would recover. God sent Elijah to intercept the messengers and to tell them of god's dissatisfaction. The king sent a small regiment of this army to meet Elijah and ask him to return to see the king. The response: God killed them all. A new regiment repeated the request and again, god killed them all. Later the king dies "according to the word of god".

What was the point of this? God killed 102 men who were responding to his interference with the king's messengers. These men had done nothing wrong and it was god who started the whole thing in the first place. Because of his jealousy, people had to die.

Fortunately, I don't belief a word of it. But if you do believe that the bible is the revealed word of some god, here is an example of the character of your "god" - jealous, vindictive, and certainly not just.

Minnesota's Golden Gopher "Mocks" Praying Player

As an atheist, I have to agree that this was disgraceful. No, not the gopher, the praying player. I find it absurd that players have to publicly broadcast their religious beliefs in such a flagrant manner. Would it be acceptable if I went to the end zone and said "I'm so happy I don't believe in you, God."?

What about when players have to look to heaven and thank god after every play? I love to watch Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers play ball, but I want to cringe everytime he "thanks god" after every play. Come on, do you really think that god is making sure that you don't get hurt or that you succeed on every play?

I think this kind of demonstration and thinking about religious expression is so arrogant and demeaning to humanity.

Arrogant because these individuals appear to believe that god is going to take time out of his day to ensure that they do well or at least don't get injured, but he apparently can't be bothered to stop children from being raped and beaten or dying of hunger and disease every single day. Apparently they think sports ranks higher than human welfare to god.

And it's demeaning to humanity when everything good that happens is attributed to god, while everything bad is either due to human weakness or Satan. Take a little pride in what you do. These athletes excel because of genetic gifts and damn hard work, not divine intervention. Every time god gets the credit for what man has sweat and toiled for, it cuts us down just a little bit more. But then that is the message of religion, isn't it: Man is worthless and requires redemption through god. It's a very negative view of humanity - and they call us atheists pessimistic.