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What is the psychology behind claiming a God created literally everything (including evil...getting to that in a moment), yet when good things happen, it's presumptive and perhaps even heretical to pat ourselves on the back, yet when bad things happen, it's presumptive and perhaps even heretical to blame God?
If God made everything, doesn't that include evil? Well, actually, according to the Bible, it does (this will come as no news to some, who have already read these passages and possibly have discussed them):
(Isaiah 45:7, KJV)--"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."
(Amos 3:6)--"Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?"
Yet, when evil happens, we claim it's our own fault - even if that evil comes in the form of, say, a natural disaster. There's always an answer. "There wouldn't be natural disasters if man hadn't been so sinful from the get-go and mucked up what should have been a perfect world."
Yet, when good happens, even if it is good going directly from one human being to another (say, a family taking in a homeless person), we still aren't allowed to claim it as something good we did; rather, we say "God brought the man into our lives for a purpose" or "praise God that He opened our hearts."
Isn't this all really, really, really self-hating? What is the psychology behind a belief system that has stop-gaps and answers to any possible situation so that man can't "do good" even when the evidence is there that, on a practical level, he did do good - but that he is 100% believed to be bound to do evil (be sinful), right down to fetuses being assumed to be future evildoers who will absolutely, without a doubt, need "saving"?
When people "do good", the believers comment that they did good "through God." Yet when evildoers do evil, it is NEVER said that they did evil "through God" - even with God's own assertion, according to the Bible, that He is the creator of evil. That, literally, evil wouldn't exist without Him. There would simply be no such thing because He didn't create it - and He created everything.
It's as if people are all too willing and eager to spit and yell about how horrid and wretched people are...no matter what. It feels like pure self-hatred to me...from the cells on out.
Isn't it all very self-hating, very humanity-hating, almost masochistic ("I deserve this")?
Why would people feel this way? Worse, why would so many people so easily feel this way?
It's as if people are all too willing and eager to spit and yell about how horrid and wretched people are...no matter what. It feels like pure self-hatred to me...from the cells on out.
Isn't it all very self-hating, very humanity-hating, almost masochistic ("I deserve this")?
Why would people feel this way? Worse, why would so many people so easily feel this way?
I've often compared the human-God relationship to that of a battered wife and an abusive husband. Unfortunately, people will accept and even embrace this sickening paradigm, the idea that humanity is inherently evil and nothing good has ever come out of our existence. When something good does occur, it's because God was acting through that person - the person him/herself is still festering with the blackest of evil and infernal hatred.
One of the first things an abusive husband will do to his wife is to rob her of her self-esteem, her pride, her dignity, and her self-respect. This is precisely what Christianity attempts to do with this "we're all sinners and deserve Hell" nonsense. "Pride goeth before the fall" as the saying goes. Pride is always the enemy because pride might lead us to believe that we can get by without God. Heaven forbid (literally) that we think we just might be able to pull it off on our own.
I think its hard for believers and un believers to thank God in the trouble. We are human and want someone to blame easily in that moment and usually its the person, not God, we blame him later.
Ex: a family member gets cancer and dies found late stage. We blame the dr for not saving them or the hospital for not doing more, then we blame God for not saving them. Its HARD to thank god for the good times, last moments, etc.
I think its hard for believers and un believers to thank God in the trouble. We are human and want someone to blame easily in that moment and usually its the person, not God, we blame him later.
Ex: a family member gets cancer and dies found late stage. We blame the dr for not saving them or the hospital for not doing more, then we blame God for not saving them. Its HARD to thank god for the good times, last moments, etc.
You are misunderstanding.
Why would god get only thanks, and never accept any responsibility?
Why do we only accept responsibility for everything that goes wrong, and never get credit for what goes right?
I have solved this problem elegantly. I don't have to give god or devils credit or blame for anything, and I am simply left to say, "did I personally cause this? yes? then what can I learn from it to do better next time? No? Then it's just one of those things".
The hardest thing (for me anyway) has been to truly accept the role of dumb luck and random cause and effect, and to accept my true insignificance and non-specialness. The universe doesn't owe me squat. And in whatever passes for the great scheme of things, I am entirely unremarkable. Once you really, really get this, you can let go of SO much negativity -- disappointment, disillusionment, feelings of unfairly being put upon or let down or picked on, and so forth. And you can live so much more in the moment, neither attached to good outcomes continuing reliably, nor really caring that much about how flaky the connection between effort and outcomes actually is.
I am sure that most humans have to work through all this, but significant entanglement with most religions will greatly retard and even arrest the process. I am really only getting this totally through my thick skull in my late 50s, when I could have had it sorted out a good 25 or even 30 years ago, and had it be less of a problem in the meantime -- if only I hadn't spent my entire childhood and the first 20 or so years of my adult life largely marinated in faith-based concepts. Just when I think I have really accepted all the above about myself, and about life in general, I discover some new layer of the onion I've unwittingly left in place.
I think its hard for believers and un believers to thank God in the trouble. We are human and want someone to blame easily in that moment and usually its the person, not God, we blame him later.
Ex: a family member gets cancer and dies found late stage. We blame the dr for not saving them or the hospital for not doing more, then we blame God for not saving them. Its HARD to thank god for the good times, last moments, etc.
Unbelievers don't thank God. They cannot, by definition as unbelievers, thank God.
I no more blame God for anything than I blame a leprechaun for it.
If everything was PERFECT, there would be no life as you know it.
We can all agree that as we live our lives and age we become something different than what we were when we were born. Changes occurred. I don't mean evolution like darwinism would preach, but it is undeniable that we go through changes in life, both seen and unseen.
I keep thinking about a perfect diety. If there was one perfect all-knowing omniscient being--wouldn't that being be bored? There'd be nothing that changes. Nothing would happen because nothing would need to.
Order out of chaos? Chaos out of order? How about both. A duality is created. Now one can experience itself.
Because YOU were provided with CHOICE.
Choice is either to be like god and create or do beautiful or, to refute god and do things wrong, bad, ugly.
It's called free will. Only in the Garden of Eden there was no wrong. As soon as man made the decision, wrong became an available option and there is no need to blame god in YOUR choice.
What is the psychology behind claiming a God created literally everything (including evil...getting to that in a moment), yet when good things happen, it's presumptive and perhaps even heretical to pat ourselves on the back, yet when bad things happen, it's presumptive and perhaps even heretical to blame God?
If God made everything, doesn't that include evil? Well, actually, according to the Bible, it does (this will come as no news to some, who have already read these passages and possibly have discussed them):
(Isaiah 45:7, KJV)--"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things."
(Amos 3:6)--"Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?"
Yet, when evil happens, we claim it's our own fault - even if that evil comes in the form of, say, a natural disaster. There's always an answer. "There wouldn't be natural disasters if man hadn't been so sinful from the get-go and mucked up what should have been a perfect world."
Yet, when good happens, even if it is good going directly from one human being to another (say, a family taking in a homeless person), we still aren't allowed to claim it as something good we did; rather, we say "God brought the man into our lives for a purpose" or "praise God that He opened our hearts."
Isn't this all really, really, really self-hating? What is the psychology behind a belief system that has stop-gaps and answers to any possible situation so that man can't "do good" even when the evidence is there that, on a practical level, he did do good - but that he is 100% believed to be bound to do evil (be sinful), right down to fetuses being assumed to be future evildoers who will absolutely, without a doubt, need "saving"?
When people "do good", the believers comment that they did good "through God." Yet when evildoers do evil, it is NEVER said that they did evil "through God" - even with God's own assertion, according to the Bible, that He is the creator of evil. That, literally, evil wouldn't exist without Him. There would simply be no such thing because He didn't create it - and He created everything.
It's as if people are all too willing and eager to spit and yell about how horrid and wretched people are...no matter what. It feels like pure self-hatred to me...from the cells on out.
Isn't it all very self-hating, very humanity-hating, almost masochistic ("I deserve this")?
Why would people feel this way? Worse, why would so many people so easily feel this way?
I'm starting to get very self-conscious with all these threads about Evil & The Devil.
I mean...why does it always have to be MY fault? Also...depending upon what "Evil" activity you choose...it can be very enjoyable and lots of fun.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!
I've often compared the human-God relationship to that of a battered wife and an abusive husband. Unfortunately, people will accept and even embrace this sickening paradigm, the idea that humanity is inherently evil and nothing good has ever come out of our existence. When something good does occur, it's because God was acting through that person - the person him/herself is still festering with the blackest of evil and infernal hatred.
One of the first things an abusive husband will do to his wife is to rob her of her self-esteem, her pride, her dignity, and her self-respect. This is precisely what Christianity attempts to do with this "we're all sinners and deserve Hell" nonsense. "Pride goeth before the fall" as the saying goes. Pride is always the enemy because pride might lead us to believe that we can get by without God. Heaven forbid (literally) that we think we just might be able to pull it off on our own.
Well-drawn analogy, Shirina. There is no basis whatsoever for the preposterous assertion that we are inherently evil and/or deserve eternal torment. We are capable of evil and we are the only creatures capable of evil because it only exists in the willful desires and actions of a human consciousness. All other "bad things" are just part of life and have nothing to do with evil.
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