In Jewish Philosopher's latest post he extols the peacefulness and gratitude that comes from contemplating God's goodness, which culminates in love for god, and his creatures (only the ones who love god like him, of course).
I personally would find it difficult to love a psychopathic mass murderer, which is what Mr. Stein's god is. I imagine that the young starving children being led to the Nazi gas chambers might have a little trouble contemplating their love and awe for God, as well as the millions world wide who die of disease, famine, natural disasters or war. Even if this god is the one who grants life in the first place, what kind of sick joke is it to create creatures, only to torment and kill them?
I find it much easier and more comforting to contemplate with awe, a naturalistic and Darwinian reality, with all of its complexity, flaws, and magic.
5 comments:
You don't understand. God only kills those who deserve to be killed. All those people you mentioned were dirty drugged-up whore-mogering skeptics. Yes, even the little children.
With all my my cynicism towards JP's ideas, it is a little easy to forget that there are much more palatable concepts of god, which actually do more justice to the idea. Its not all or nothing. JP certainly is the perfect straw man and he is so easy to knock down. While my god idea is not really particularly Jewish, I like to think of god as "those forces in nature which we don't understand and govern the universe". This naturalistic god is certainly not the classic biblical god, but can be a source of awe and inspiration,. (Although morality is a little tougher to argue)
> I like to think of god as "those forces in nature which we don't understand and govern the universe".
In other words, your God is literally the "God of the gaps."
> This naturalistic god is certainly not the classic biblical god, but can be a source of awe and inspiration,.
Sure, nature can be awe-inspiring, but there's no need to call it "god" to appreciate the vastness of the cosmos or the intricate interplay of subatomic particles (or whatever you find awe-inspiring).
Maybe, although I'm still not claiming the God is an entity, more a concept.
The flaw thinking is interesting. Common, but still interesting.
Consider: you call God a psychopathic murderer, then talk about the victims of the Holocaust as well as victims of other tragedies. In short: God murdered them. Am I understanding you right?
Or are you saying: No, of course the Nazis murdered the Jews but by allowing it to happen, God is complicit in the crime so He is also a bloody murderer.
Ah, so God should have stopped them, right? And God should make it rain in Africa and prevent disease from affecting anybody, or at least innocent little children. Because if God is good, that's what He does - He prevents pain. Are we on the same page? Good.
So where's the line? Does God appear every time someone's robbing a bank to stop the criminals? Does He personally intervene in every sexual assault? Does He expose corrupt politicians? Does He put His hand down to prevent you from jaywalking? It obviously begins with undeniable tragedies but where's the line? Where don't you want God to intervene?
The answer is simple: when it comes to something you want that He doesn't. Then God can just butt out.
So when you, as a Jew, are about to put a piece of food in your mouth that isn't quite kosher, if God were to appear and say "No, DrJ, you can't eat that" you'd have no problem telling Him to mind His own business. If you're about to pocket some cash for a job well down and He shows up and says "No DrJ, that's cheating on taxes" you probably wouldn't be so pleased. He can save orphans in Africa from famine but only because that's okay with you and your values.
A parental figure that gives you everything you want and expects no reciprocal responsibilities. Around here, we call people who think they have that kind of life coming to them spoiled brats.
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