In case you haven’t noticed, God’s got a pretty sweet gig.
Think about it.
He’s omniscient, all powerful, uber forgiving, and all those other neat super powers you can read about in Bible Comics.
In what occupation in this planet can you combine the power, influence, and fame that is blindly given to high-celebrity, with the lack of accountability most of our school teachers currently enjoy? That’s right, there’s only one…
The Supreme Being.
Supernatural Overlord.
The big…G-O-D.
Think about it.
Let’s say Johnny Christian finds out his best friend Skippy has cancer. Johnny’s first thought isn’t, “God, that jerk, why did he give Skippy cancer?”
Nope. Johnny usually goes straight to the, “Please wonderful God who controls the planet and makes all decisions for all of us, please save Skippy. I promise to go to church more often, never to swear, and I will burn my collection of Big Beautiful Booties. Just please save Skippy”.
Not only does big G not take any of the blame for something that happens on his all powerful watch, but he acquires groupies begging for his mercy. I mean, I’ve seen some high quality scams, but this is the crème de la crème.
Because then, even if Skippy takes a turn for the worst and ends up kicking the bucket, you think Johnny Christian would finally stand up and say,
“Listen G, WTF man? I stopped swearing, threw away all my favourite Big Beautiful Booties, and you still took Skipped. What a jerk move! You can get your $10 a week from someone else!! We are through!”
But even THAT doesn’t happen.
Instead, it turns into one of, “It just wasn’t in God’s plan”, “He’s in a better place now”, or my personal favourite, “God must have needed Skippy more than we needed him”.
Sure, because an all-knowing, all-powerful creature needs some random human to help him run the universe. That’s like Obama recruiting a parakeet to help him reform healthcare. I’m not buying it.
I just have never understood why it’s always an undisputed fact that God controls everything and decides on everything, but no one ever blames him for the tragedies that take place every day or holds him accountable for his decisions. All I am looking for (though know I will never find) is a little more consistency in thought.
Imagine all men everywhere had this sort of influence:
Man- “Honey, I just wanted to let you know that I slept with your sister a few nights ago. I hope that’s alright.”
Woman- “WHAT? How dare you sleep with my sister? I thought you were going to be faithful to me forever. You told me that if I had no other husbands other than you and didn’t covet anything that you would be a good husband to me and we would live a good life?”
Men- “Well, unfortunately, I know that’s what you thought, and you were great, but that just wasn’t the plan I had in mind. My plan had always included me sleeping with your sister.”
Woman- “Oh, okay. Well, you must’ve needed her for a good reason then, I know how important that plan is”
Men- “Good, I’m glad. And by the way, Grey’s Anatomy has just been cancelled.”
Maybe this is why we never hold anyone accountable for their actions in today’s society. Perhaps this is why we accept substandard behaviour in everything from our educational and financial systems down to our personal relationships. If God is in control of everything, if he’s driving the car, “what the hell could we possibly do?”
Rarely do we ever hold one another accountable for our actions.
Rarely do we ever hold ourselves accountable for our decisions.
Rarely do we ever hold ourselves to a standard any higher than the last mistake we made.
It’s important to fail.
In fact, it should be encouraged, but not without productive, positive intent, and genuine effort.
We seem to be a society without standards, merely a line in the sand without rhyme or reason to its place.
Too many people on this planet are so used to putting the fate of the world into God’s unaccountable hands, they’ve forgotten how to use their own.
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I agree that we don’t hold people or ourselves accountable. That is precisely the reason why I think people DO blame God because we don’t want to blame ourselves for the decisions we’ve made.
I can’t even count the times that I’ve blamed things on God. Why? Because it was easier. Throughout my life, there were times when I wasn’t prepared to hold myself accountable (at the time) for the decisions I made. I also wasn’t interested in blaming anyone else, so I just threw the blame onto him. I think it happens a lot more often than you think, but obviously people can’t do this publicly – how could you ever? How ridiculous would we look?
On the flip side, we also have to acknowledge that God is just a part of a person’s faith. If it helps people get through life, why would they want to hold him accountable? People don’t hold others who are a part of their lives accountable, even when they have done horrible things, so why would God be any different?
I haven’t had a good relationship with God for a very long time, but I’ve come to the conclusion that he’s not at fault for all the shitty things that happen in life. I’ve used him as a scapegoat for too long.
And, as you said, it’s important to fail. ‘God’ agrees, as it said that he gave us the ability to make choices. Having that ability means we must deal with the consequences of those choices. This doesn’t mean he should be blamed, that means we just have to make better choices by learning from our failures. (* Side note: I do think we have a consumer attitude towards experience as we’re expected to turn even the most unfathomable losses into an opportunity for personal growth.*)
As for things out of our control, that is the cycle of life and people understand that (or should). We always want to blame someone so we can better understand. Well, get over it, everyone!
my main problem I have is with the large amount of inconsistent logic.
You say, “…he’s not at fault for all the shitty things that happen in life.” and, “…he gave us the ability to make choices.” The latter being a much larger discussion on the existence of autonomous thought and free will. But these two statements, which most Christians would agree with you on, are in direct conflict ideologically with other dominate religious beliefs.
Such as the fact, that God has a master plan that he has set out for all of us and that God is all knowing and all powerful. So with that being said, God not only knows about all of the terrible things that happen in the world, he specifically planned for it. And for those of us with any reality based knowledge of how the world functions…that’s messed up.
Now anytime this conversation arises, I find that religious people often jump haphazardly between the “master plan” view and the “free will” view almost at will in any attempt to defend their belief. Sure, they call themselves “believers” but I just wish they wouldn’t select their beliefs on the basis of whatever discussion they are having at the moment.
I hate to do this, but as always, the best example that comes to mind is from George Carlin (allow me to paraphrase) “What’s the point of god having this big grand master plan that is laid out for us, if any shmuck with a $2 prayer book can throw up a prayer for something and mess it up?” They are two views in complete opposition of one another. As is the basis of most religious discussion.
not to belabor(spl?) the point even more so, but I guess it goes back to the rosy belief that everything happens for a reason. This magical reason that will one day cure all. This point of view alone has given many people (myself included at one time) a total scapegoat from having to actually think about, and learn from the experience.
I also agree that for some people god is just a part of their faith and if it helps someone makes sense of things and get through life easier, I am all for it.
However, it’s this sort of logic and pattern of thinking that is harmful to the way they make decisions in the rest of their lives.
Playing devil’s advocate here, just because he has a ‘master plan’ doesn’t mean everything in your life is mapped out. What family we’re born into, what sex we are, who lives and who dies…I think those the things that are ‘mapped out.’ I don’t think whether your girlfriend or boyfriend breaks up with you is included in God’s plan. And anyways, those are probably ramifications of your own choices.
The bible is not meant to be read literally, but to be interrupted. I think it uses ‘master plan’ (if it uses it at all) loosely. I personally don’t think God has mapped out your entire life because, as I said before, you have choices. Perhaps he knows where it will lead based on those choices, as if he’s psychic or something *wink*. Just because a psychic knows the path your life will take, doesn’t mean they are responsible for how you get there.
I personally think the grand plan is much bigger then all of us. I don’t think it has a lot to do with each of our individual lives, and for the twits reading so much into it, well, they’re dumb.
I’ve often used that phrase, “everything happens for a reason,” but I think we use it to comfort ourselves. I’m sure the phrase sometimes lends itself as a scapegoat, but that’s pretty dumb when you think about it. The phrase itself isn’t necessarily tied to God, but I’m sure it’s where it derived from.
There are religious fanatics that are using this sort of “logic” as the main source of how they make decisions – that is why they are called fanatics. And, I’m sure there are those who wouldn’t be classified as fanatics that are using some of it too. In the end, everyone will do what is right for them, even if we think it’s dumb.
If everyone did what was right for them, things would be a lot better for everyone, but unfortunately that’s not reality.
And the phrase that everything happens for a reason is almost absolutely tied to god, fate, or some sort of plan.
It assumes that whatever tragedy or negative occurence has taken place, that it’s for some higher reason, or greater good…when that’s just not the case, no matter how many “exceptions” to this rule are brought up. We can find any connections in something if we look long enough.
You are also using your own selective logic to explain this mysterious “plan”.
Why are your family, gender and sex tied into this crazy plan but not when your relationships end? Because if what family you’re born into is supposedly decided, as you mentioned, doesn’t dating and relationships directly influence that? the family you’re born into is dependent on your parents meeting which would have to be part of the plan. Its either everything is decided and we’re on rails or nothing is decided and we have autonomous thought.
though I don’t believe either of the above is accurate, if you’re religious, those are your choices. The reason that its impossible
to stick with one or the other is that religious dogma needs BOTH to sustain itself.
And this is what I mean, just an inconsistency in logic. But to be fair “P”, yours is still better than most.