God seems illogical

College Confidential Community
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<p>It seems to me that in the traditional Christian sense, God is sort of illogical. I'm not going to get into the "why does God let evil happen" argument, but here are my thoughts:</p>

<p>If there is a God, generally it is thought that he requires obedience and belief as a "price" for salvation. So basically people who go to heaven are those who believe. The problem is that I would argue that THROUGHOUT TIME (even in theocratic societies such as pre-Columbian America, etc.) the smartest people, on average, don't believe. I think this is true even when the society as a whole is religious (i.e., our founding fathers weren't overly religious in their private lives, on average.) Artistic people, brilliant scientists, writers, etc., all skeptics. </p>

<p>So what is god trying to accomplish? Does he <em>want</em> to live for eternity with the type of people who read "Left Behind?" Is he willing to give up the cream of the crop of his children to the Devil because of the way He is running things?</p>

<p>Possible solutions:</p>

<p>1) There is no God.</p>

<p>2) There is a God, he is omnipotent, but his priorities are beyond human comprehension.</p>

<p>3) There is a God, he is not omnipotent and his creations have moved beyond his control and he is no longer relevant.</p>

<p>4) There is a God, he is not omnipotent, and he and the Devil are engaged in a relatively even battle for people's souls, with the Devil generally winning the souls of the degenerate and/or liberal and God winning the souls of sheep. </p>

<p>Post which number you most agree with or if you have another possible solution.</p>

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<p>There is another possibility: That God and Satan are in fact one being.</p>

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<p>I just think this is to stir up some huge heated debate where it's impossible for any one side to win.</p>

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<p>Ummm.... obviously no one knows for sure. So it wasn't posted to cause some sort of CC religious war, just to provoke thought.</p>

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<p>you make good points julians, and you've obviously given this a lot of thought. but there's a reason traditional Chrisitan call it faith. it's not possible to reason your way out of.</p>

<p>personally, i think god is more of a force in the universe than a being, a force that embodies all the noble intentions of man and is the essence of spirtuality and wanting to find out more about the world and yourself. i do not believe our souls are in constant peril, but just trying to find it's identity in relation to the world.</p>

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<p>God isn't supposed to be logical--that's the point.</p>

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<p>wow! awesome response deus!!!</p>

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<p>I am tired! Of waking up each day and praying to him to correct my problems. I'm tired of kneeling before him at night and thanking for yet another wretched day. I am tired about thinking of him whenever I'm in anxiety and distress. I am tired about him looming in my mind's backdrop whenever I wish to have privacy . I'm tired of getting punched down while my fellow classmate with similar stats is gifted with a wonderful scholarship. I am tired of waking up half of the night, wishing that he look down upon his children and bring my lost sleep back. For me he (God) might be waiting in some corner of March and April.</p>

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<p>I had to write my Philosophy Final on this very subject. It was an interesting paper to write, if your interested do some research on the argument for evil. That's the name of the argument against the existance of a god... There are actually very defined rules that you must prove in order for it to work.</p>

<p>For the record, this paper has nothing to do with my beliefes about anything. It was the subject of the paper, and I was going to write the best possible paper I could.</p>

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<p>If there is a God, generally it is thought that he requires obedience and belief as a "price" for salvation.</p>

<p>This is generally only a belief of fundamentalist protestants, not all (or even the majority) of Christians or relitious people period for that matter. Doctrines on salvation have nothing to do with the arguments for and against the existance of god.</p>

<p>Allena is right - arguments about this are very structured. The "oh, its faith - you can't reason faith" thing is irrelevant. My philosophy of religion class was entirely about arguments for/against the existance of a god, and we spent an entire 3-4 weeks just trying to define god (and making observations about rational skepticism) before moving into various arguments. It's more complicated than you might think.</p>

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<p><em>note to self</em>: never take theology</p>

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<p>Theology - perhaps not
Philosophy - hell yes! :)</p>

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<p>Wow that class sounds like a pain Icarus. We spent rougly a month on the debate about what god is, and if he really does exist. I could not imagin a whole class on just that.</p>

<p>One of the most important things if you take a class like that, you need to get out of the whole religion thing and focus just on the concept of a god.</p>

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<p>exactly - which is why you can't focus on one religion's concept of salvation, etc. You need to come up with a general concept of "god".</p>

<p>And actually, I really enjoyed the class. It was very interesting stuff, and the professor was awesome - just graduated with his Ph.D. three years prior. But then I'm a philosophy major, so I would like this stuff haha. I'm actually reviewing a paper I wrote about Hume's objections to traditional morality at the moment... fun stuff.</p>

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<p>david hume? the scottish philospher?</p>

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<p>Yep - he doesn't really agree with Plato or, well, any other Western philosopher about the nature of morality, so I'm writing about this based on his "Treatise of Human Nature"</p>

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<p>"3) There is a God, he is not omnipotent and his creations have moved beyond his control and he is no longer relevant."</p>

<p>That would be my guess from what I have heard. Of course, there are two addendums: God willingly give up some of his omnipotent-cy so that free will would exist and people's actions not God's put people where they will be (the degree of this is debatable). Frankly, I am not sure.</p>

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<p><em>thinking to self</em> dinosaurs are cool</p>

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<p>omnipotence doesn't discount the possibility of free will, mathgeek</p>

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<p>dinos are cool <em>ponders dinosaurs</em></p>