by Ray Walker

Created on: November 30, 2008

Angelique Reder writes "God is the creator of our souls, and spirits, and through that alone God is worthy of worship." To this I would ask is merely creating a child worthy of worship? No. The parents must also practice moral behavior. The Christian god, especially of the old testament, is not moral and, thus, not worthy of worship any more than abusive parents would be. The problem is that the typical view of god is that it is all loving and nurturing and that his/her act of creation is an act of love. That is the assumption behind your statement. I am convinced that the idealization of a nurturing loving god is the projection of a civilized life because that is not how most of humanity throughout history has viewed god. Most of humanity has viewed god has a harsh and cruel entity that takes out its grievances on humanity and that it must be quelled through sacrifices and other rituals. As conditions for humanity have softened over time, so has the characterization of god. Moreover, it makes no sense to me that a loving, nurturing god would design a system of survival that requires mostly violent means in order to persist than love. Therefore, either way, all notions of god, as they are typically articulated, do not describe a god worthy of worship. Even the loving, nurturing god would be acting in a less than moral fashion for nothing else than making violence the essential common mode of survival within nature.

In the end, there exists no concept of god where normal human behavior is not vastly superior. That is, would most people you know burn their own children for misbehavior? Would most people you design a life system that required its inhabitants to kill and eat each other in order to persist? Would most people you know design a life system where the inhabitants slowly lose their faculties? My point is not to seem a malcontented curmudgeon. On the contrary. When natural life is viewed without a designer, it is perfectly acceptable. But once you introduce the idealization of a creator is pure love, natural existence makes no sense and now has something accountable. I do not believe that a loving god would create leukemia, AIDS, yellow fever, malaria, bubonic plague, typhoid, or old age. It simply makes no sense. If I were to believe in any god it would be that it must believe that violence is an important component to development of living beings. Therefore, I would oppose it as I live far more ethically.

Therefore, no concept of god can be worthy of worship because it is either violent or condones violence.

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