Considering God's 'failure'
by TerryWalstrom 22 Replies latest jw friends
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TerryWalstrom
Jehovah's "Failure"_________We humans never seem to consider God in terms of anything but Power and Ability. The idea of 'failure' is preposterous.Or, is it?If we take our notions of Jehovah in terms of PURPOSE, even the most devout pilgrim must acknowledge --at least for now--such PURPOSE has not come to pass."Oh, but it will!"Okay, if you say it enough times. Sure.The Apostles and disciples ended their fervent prayers with, "Come quickly, Lord Jesus."And we're still waiting.JW's who jury-rigged Jesus' 'arrival' back in 1914 are forced to split such an invisible notion into two halves! Their Jesus has been busy all these years GUIDING the Governing Body in circles.Such a great guide! What a marvellous plan. Hooray.Be that as it may...I would reduce the problem of J-God's failures into one compound thought and I'll share it with you for your autopsy.Here it is:J-God's failure stems from having created INFERIOR creatures (making them less than divine) and holding them to perfect standards. Humans are inferior to Angels. Angels are inferior to God. (We'll side-step the whole Michael/the Word/Trinity argument).Holding a legless person to height standards is unthinkable. How does Jehovah differ? Not at all.JW theology builds an argument forever crumbling under poor design.Concocting a Legal Contract with Israel and attaching a malediction to failure to uphold a perfect law guaranteed centuries of persecution and hounding. The Jews (like Jehovah's Witnesses) buy-in to a special relationship and status and end up ruinously disappointed--all the while--covering up for it. (Not admitting God's failure.)The Apostle Paul (more or less the founder of Christianity as a theological reasoning process) lamented he was torn between what he wished to do and what his human nature demanded instead.It's like a stone wishing to float like a balloon!Conflict of nature is a very silly notion and I'll tell you why.IF...(I say "IF") we are designed and manufactured by a Divine being such as Jehovah, then we can't escape His design flaws.Dogs chase cars. It is their nature. Sure, you can punish the dog--but why not create him differently? (If you're God, of course.)The scenario mainstream Christianity suggests consists of DYING and being re-engineered into something ELSE entirely.Doesn't that REALLY mean--"Oops, let me start over and try again with these humans and angels and the whole damned architecture?"Well, it does to me!Christianity is a 'back-to-the-drawing-board situation contrived to look like a DIVINE PLAN of the ages.God's failure (I repeat) stems solely from creating creatures INFERIOR to Himself and demanding they adhere to a SUPERIOR standard wholly against the very nature He imposed.The Ad Hoc explanation of the serpent, Garden, Sin is no better than a Rudyard Kipling "Just So" story.God manufactured a chair. The first time anybody sat in it--it crumbled. Let's blame the sitter?Bah, Humbug.Build a better chair and it won't crumble!VICTIMS BLAME THEMSELVES!Accepting some built-in 'sin' from ancestors is a 'blame-yourself' victim argument.Surely we can't blame God?GOD FAILED and took humanity down with His error.JESUS FAILED and there are forty thousand denominations eager to make slightly different arguments as to why it only appears to be failure IF you come to their church and believe their proprietary nonsense.Whichever "God" humans think up--they still die hoping that self-same deity has been appeased by ritual and virtuous hijinks.Notice, if you will, this is not an Atheist argument at all.I'm granting an implied "swallow the gnat with the camel" presupposition.I just toss this out as an observation on my part.It isn't clever. It isn't argumentative.Think of me as just a man looking at a gorgeous old building with collapsed walls while reading a plaque which says, "The most perfect structure by the finest architect which endures forever."What is APOLOGIA?It consists of talking people out of plain sense by contrived arguments.It's considered an act of Faith.Been there. Done that. Thanks, but No Thanks.Have your say ... -
TerryWalstrom
As an addendum to the above mention of Just So stories*
Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories each tell how a particular animal was modified from an original form to its current form by the acts of man, or some magical being. For example, the Whale has a tiny throat because he swallowed a mariner, who tied a raft inside to block the whale from swallowing other men. The Camel has a hump given to him by a djinn as punishment for the camel's refusing to work (the hump allows the camel to work longer between times of eating). The Leopard's spots were painted by an Ethiopian (after the Ethiopian painted himself black). The Kangaroo gets its powerful hind legs, long tail, and hopping gait after being chased all day by a dingo, sent by a minor god responding to the Kangaroo's request to be made different from all other animals. -
waton
The Jews (like Jehovah's Witnesses) buy-in to a special relationship and status and end up ruinously disappointed--all the while--covering up for it. (Not admitting God's failure.) TW:
How about the line from Fiddler on the roof;
"I know we are the chosen people, but why not for a change choose someone else? and
The Idea of perfection os perverted. Perhaps what we perceive as ideally perfect is not. The process of temporary designs working in the the evolutionary process, leading life on into the future is what defines perfection, not an absolutely flawless painless process. or?
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deegee
Their Jesus has been busy all these years GUIDING the Governing Body in circles.
........lol
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deegee
JESUS FAILED and there are forty thousand denominations eager to make slightly different arguments as to why it only appears to be failure IF you come to their church and believe their proprietary nonsense.
I can't understand how Christians claim that they pray to God for guidance, direction and understanding and they insist that God inserts thoughts into their minds and speaks to them yet they arrive at 40,000 different explanations about God. Is God telling each denomination something different?
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Finkelstein
Ancient Hebrew mythological expression was done so to socially control people in a certain manner but also evoke the idea that in doing so a Messianic savior would come to rescue mankind from its woes and perils such as death and sickness.
It was also intentioned to rid mankind of all wickedness that devil god created on earth from the involving influence by this rebellious god.
Maybe its more mankind's failler to not accept that this ancient mythology is inherently fictional in its originality, born out of human ignorance of the world in which we live but still expressed with empathy and compassion toward the human condition..
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eyeuse2badub
Being a jw all of my life up until about 10 years ago has convinced me that there is no god or that at the very least, that there is no caring god! I view the bible as Hebrew Mythology and all religion as cult crap! My my my the freedom of no longer believing that soooooon we will be delivered into paradise!
just saying!
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deegee
Terry,
Maybe God made humans inferior for a reason – he did it for his entertainment. The re-engineered/afterlife/next life existence is rather boring. It’s by far much more entertaining to have an existence with a lot of drama, mayhem, mishaps, thrills, spills, disaster, tragedy………..our inferior existence is God’s blockbuster.
God hasn't failed, he's just having fun at our expense.
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EverApostate
God's failure means we acknowledge there is a God and he failed (Again, how can an infinitely wise, all perfect god fail ? ) for some reasons
I would rather rephrase the tile as "Invention of God is a failure"
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waton
We invented the God of the Gaps, is it really the God of the Gaffes? but:
For a universe that basically made itself (developing by existing inherent energy and laws), we have done well