LETTER: How can some claim to know what God’s desires are?
By Letter to the Editor on April 9, 2012 7:50 am / 14 comments
It’s funny that some claim to know what God wants.
God, they say, is the creator of everything. He alone designed this expansive, elegant universe.
Certainly the force that created the atomic structure and fashioned the conditions for life must be incredibly transcendent, they say.
So why do many who proclaim the supremacy of God often in the same breath degrade Him by claiming to understand his desires and motives?
We’re just a speck of the stardust scattered across the universe. We’re barely even a blip on the celestial radar. It is ludicrous to assert that God spends time brooding over worldly affairs, and there is no evidence to support this assertion.
With good intentions, people often pray for the safety and success of soldiers at war. But what sort of righteous, loving God endorses the annihilation of His “greatest” creation? And despite these prayers, death and loss are still a very real part of war. Doesn’t this suggest that maybe God isn’t listening to the selfish longings we direct at him?
Americans, who are usually more privileged than the rest of the world’s denizens, constantly ask God for more blessings. We always want more money, better health and greater comfort, and who wouldn’t? When those wishes for continued prosperity become a reality, many are quick to cite the hand of God as the catalyst.
But is a hand that favors those who already have so much really worthy of our praise and adoration?
The political sphere is brimming with rhetoric about what God does and does not want. God, supposedly, doesn’t want gay marriage. God, supposedly, thinks homosexuality is unnatural.
If God floats through the heavens fuming because two gay people are in love, then God is as silly as the people making such narrow-minded claims. An entity so supreme that it defies any coherent explanation ought to have bigger fish to fry.
In taking even the most cursory glance at the world we inhabit, one can see that if God exists, He is morally bankrupt, incompetent or just isn’t that concerned about us.
So please, if you’re ever inclined to say you know what God wants, or if you feel like you understand his motives, look around. If you’re being honest, you’ll realize you don’t know as much as you think.
Cheers,
Darnell Gardner Jr.
Dogma-Free Society, CMU’s atheist and agnostic student organization
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14 Comments
I applaud this post!
“One can see that if God exists, He is morally bankrupt, incompetent or just isn’t that concerned about us.” –
Darnell, this statement tells me you have your eyes focused on humans and not the almighty. Humans in their free-will, make choices that are bankrupt, selfish and sinful.
You are confusing man with the creator.
God bless you my friend.
I believe you misunderstood this article. It is definitely about God.
I’m in favor of infanticide, homophobia and sexism. Who in their right mind would worship me?
Did you even read the Old Testament, or are you one of those silly geese who think you can just pretend I never did all that messed up stuff because Jesus and the New Testament made it all better?
Let me tell you, Jesus may have been meek and mild, but I’m not at all. Don’t get turned into a pillar of salt my child!!!!!!!!!!!
If anyone wants to spend all eternity with NORMAL people, please come see me in hell. We’ve got saints, sinners, patriots, gays, intellectuals, lovers, false prophets, Judas, scientists, doctors, politicians, women, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Steve Jobs, Ghandi, and several of the Founding Fathers down here. Trust me, I know how to throw a party, and so do these guys.
When God turns his back on you for being as flawed as he created you, I’ll take you in no questions asked. Come chill with a chill dude.
Sincerely,
Satan
Satan: Man was created in God’s image. That means perfect. You led eve into rebellion and eve is still following your will. 50 million unborn children slaughtered and counting…
Steve: God killed 2,476,633 people in the Bible. You know how many I killed? 10.
Satan: Gods is going to destroy the earth and you . Can you imagine the death toll?
The creator gives his creation infinite eternal torture for a finite life.
Sadistic tendencies only scratches the surface of your God’s personality.
It is even funnier to read the comments written by a devout rationalist attempting to disprove the existence of a God or whether or not such a God has the ability to communicate with the beings it created. Nor, do I understand the hostility of people like Darnell Gardner Jr. and groups like Dogma-Free Society, CMU’s atheist and agnostic student organization towards Christianity. Islam yes. Christianity no. Doesn’t Mr. Gardner realize that the belief system, he espouses is just as dogmatic as the religious and political groups he is condemning? The portions of the world in the 20th century that have tried to reconstruct their moral order around a philosophical/political system devoid of God’s in visible hand .Have produced Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao and Pol Pot and a human death toll which ran upward to 100 hundred million. In closing. The Christian world understands the horrific history of secular atheism and is pushing back against it for their own survival and the survival of this great nation. God bless America!
According to scripture this Mr. Gardeners problem:
2 Corinthians 4:4New International Version (NIV)
4 The god of this age has
blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of
the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
It’s pretty easy, actually: God’s desires and motives are clearly outlined in a little book called the Bible. Duh. If you read it, you’d know this.
Hitler wasn’t an Athiest. He was actually a Christian. Sound logic, though.
That Catholic church isn’t atheist. How many have they killed over the course of history?
People do bad things regardless of their religious identity. Fact.