If Omniscience, then automaton

Quite possibly the one concept I’ve battled with the most (both personally and in argument with non-believers) is that of an omniscient God, as a believer, my response was: well, God is omniscient because the bible tells me so, and I believe he is by faith, I did question God about it and often told close friends this was the first question I was to ask in heavens.

What’s omniscience?

The Wikipedia definition (interesting read by the way) reads: “is the capacity to know everything infinitely, or at least everything that can be known about a character including thoughts, feelings, life and the universe, etc.”

IMHO there’s a direct conflict between this definition and the “Free Will” concept; you see, the fact that God knows “everything infinitely” has a lot of important implications for us as humans, such as:

- If God knows everything, regardless of time, state or external variables, it means he doesn’t only know the outcome of our decisions but which decisions we’re going to make; Furthermore if he knows our decisions beforehand he also knows our thoughts before they form, you add the timeless nature of God into the mix and things get very complicated.

The fact that God knows our thoughts for eternity implies that even before we were born he knew of our existence, if this is true then these are the only theories I can come up with at the moment:

God pre-ordained everything at the moment of his very existence, which means everything has been pre-ordained eternally.

There are numerous problems with this theory, but the most important one is that predestination completely rids men of responsibility from religion, and completely conflicts with the bible, after all, why would God even write the Ten Commandments if he knew already (even before writing them) who was going to follow and who wasn’t.

Even more complicated is the fact that If all our steps are predestined, and we have just a perceive notion of rationality and logic then we are no more than glorified Automatons (hence the post name).

This of course doesn’t make sense to me, but how about this?

In order to stay true to the concept of “Free-Will”, God allowed a random derivative form of himself (or completely separate entity created by him) to pre-ordain our lives.

First of all this is non-biblical and ultimately the same as above, but this scenario lends itself to God trying to change our pre-defined random path with his.

The new testament explains that the only way to go to heaven is to through Jesus Christ (ex: John 3:16-17, John 14:6); this poses the problem that billions of lives lived and died and never heard about Jehovah or Jesus Christ, this of course, challenges God’s omnipresence, how come these people went through their hole lives and didn’t hear of this omnipresent God.

In this article, the writer believes that God provided a path for people to witness his undeniable existence through nature, he states the following:

“We see, also, that men should be able to look at creation and understand the "eternal power and divine nature" of God. That is almost shocking, isn't it? That God, in creation, has made it so clear to ALL men that He exists that they are "without excuse" for not submitting to Him.”

I couldn’t disagree more, If God makes it so clear to ALL men that he exists, that we’re, “without excuse”, then, you would not be reading this in the first place, and more importantly how can we explain the way ancient civilizations and native tribes dealt with their awareness, they were polytheistic and had VERY different beliefs. Who is to blame here?, their lack of intelligence or interpretation of the obvious?

I could go on and on, but I think is safe to say that it borders on the ridiculous to me, how about this:

God is not omniscient

Well, this is the most honest to me and it makes sense, this is the easiest way to explain all of the above, but also War, Violence, Miscarriages and so many terrible things, but of course, it also greatly conflicts with the Bible in that God would not be all powerful.

I guess I prefer a God with less power but is Loving and Good, one that doesn’t has a direct implication on the bad things people go through everyday, than an all-powerful God who allows good but also a lot of bad things to happen, a god who promises protection to those who follow, but also “warns” that because of him they might be persecuted…

As usual, reach your own conclusions and feel free to comment.

Faith Scavenger

Marriage… The Chicken or the Egg?

Preface: as said before I’ve tried to keep this blog anonymous, even from the wife, unfortunately, I cracked open like a bag of Doritos after she lured me with her sex, and confessed, she is still very much a Christian and still praying for me (I think), but I bring it up because she asked me what I’d write about next and I replied, Marriage, from that moment on I’ve been harassed as to why I’m not done writing it. Women!, anyway…

A few days ago I was asked: Most great men of the old testament had multiple wives, did God changed his mind and the rules?

I’ve always wondered about this myself but never really gave it much thought, after all, my wife could not care less if an Angel from heaven appeared before her to tell her God allows me to take another woman, poor angel, she just won’t have it.

Initially I thought, it certainly looks like God changed his mind about this, polygamy is clearly seen in the old testament, if this is true and he changed his mind it conflicts with the concept that God is constant; after a bit of research I learned that polygamy still exists today, it is legal in several countries, I do find curious that “The State of Israel” has severely limited the ability for Jews to enter polygamous marriages.

Thus the unusual post name, is Marriage the holy institution created by God for one man or one woman? or is it the result of thousands of years of trial and error between men and women? Is it Immoral now? was it for Abraham (the father of faith), Jacob, David or Solomon?.

So there you go, you make your own decision if God or us changed his/our mind(s), I believe you know mine.

Note: I strongly recommend you read this post from Jonathan Turley in the USAToday couple of years ago, for the most part it is a bit off-topic but it is an interesting article nevertheless, I thought it helped me put moral values in perspective.

Faith Scavenger

So, are you an Atheist now?

I was speaking with a dear Christian friend of mine last week, normal, trivial conversation until he asked me: Hey, how’s church?, how are the ministries? What’s the Lord doing in your life these days?; I was not prepared for these questions, and after several seconds I replied with an unfortunate -Oh, I’m not going to church anymore… Ouch, he of course started telling me how God wants me to go back to church and why I should care, listen and Obey.

if you read my first post you know I have no intentions to discuss my thoughts with the people I know, I just don’t think they need me to “save them” or make them see the “truth”, and I honestly don’t think they’re “wasting their lives”, this is ultimately their choice, in fact, there are some good things in church, things that are very hard to find on the outsides of it. I did however, engaged in the conversation and started explaining my problems with God, the bible and faith.

It must’ve been as expected as winning the lottery, after I was done speaking he was quiet… he confessed he was not expecting that one and asked me -So, are you an atheist now?

I thought it was a fantastic question, one that I had not given any thought whatsoever, after a long pause I replied with -No, I don’t think I am, and explained why.

Atheist is defined as the affirmation of the non-existence of gods; but you see, I still have not found a better explanation for what I perceive as “the perfection of the universe”… the facts that Humans are special among all living creatures and that there are so many marvelous details are overwhelming to me. Some things about the “Evolution Theory” make perfect sense to me, but others don’t, so for the moment, I have to say that I still believe in “Intelligent Design”, but allow me to further clarify, I believe that a being we call God designed and started an engine we called Nature (including its evolutionary cycle); I don’t believe in the omniscient God who is my father, protects me and watches over every step I make and whom I have to pray to in order to communicate with him… I don’t for the simple reason that he doesn’t communicate back.

Evidently, this was not a satisfactory response to him and I completely  expected it; I then proceeded to define Christianity,  -You’re asking me if I believe John 3:16 right?

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Unfortunately, I don’t believe this now; there’s no way to believe Jesus is who he says he is without absolute Faith, which I simply don’t have… my friend was very confused and I knew it was time to stop the conversation.

This post defines the reason why I wanted to start the blog in the first place, writing this post forced me to self-examine and find out exactly where I am at the moment.

Faith Scavenger.

The 6th Commandment…

I must confess this one bugged me a lot, even on my best times spiritually.

Among the very first things we learn about God is that he gave us “The 10 Commandments”, this is not only taught on Christian homes, but pretty much anywhere…the 6th Commandment is “Thou Shall Not Kill” and luckily most humans agree it is a good commandment, I do also…

Where am I going with this?
well, you see, in several places of the bible God allows people to kill others, for example, when someone breaks “the law”, it was what it was back then. There were however other occasions, like in Deuteronomy 7, where he actually told his people to have no mercy of their enemy and to destroy them, he was going to be with them, please go ahead and read the whole chapter yourself, but I must say that to me, it feels manipulative, God hits several sensitive points of his relationship with Israel and they’ve disobeyed him in the past.

As in my previous post this doesn’t feel like the best call for a being with unlimited wisdom and understanding of humanity, I mean, it is not so hard to grow believing God is sovereign and to see him as the giver and taker of life; why then darken the waters by allowing other humans to kill in his name? wouldn’t it be “safer” to wipe them out (like he did with Sodom and Gomorrah)?

Unfortunately this is not the only place we see it taking place, a better summary can be found here (Although I always recommend that you verify this on your own bible):
http://www.evilbible.com/Murder.htm

I ask you then, in the hands of a person with an Agenda, isn’t this dangerous? after all, it is written in stone, but if is God himself was telling you otherwise, then it’d be okay, right?

Think for a second how many atrocities have been committed in the name of religion and in the name of “good”… don’t you think that if God would have enforced this rule with a “stronger hand”, making sure it was really understood and respected as a Commandment (not just a guideline), wouldn’t his creation and his kids be overall better covered, protected and ultimately happier?

Faith Scavenger

God knows better, but how about Cain?

A few months ago I was hunted by one thought:
God has infinite wisdom and complete understanding of our minds and hearts; why did he handled the “Cain situation” the way is portrait at the bible?

Being father of two young little girls I've come to realize that I have to be very careful in my dealings, my two year old passed the "jealousy phase", but whenever I spent too much time with my 5-month old baby and she realizes this comes to me and demands me to carry her also, I laugh, and carry them both whenever she says this. Unfortunately I know there will be a time in which carrying them both won't solve the problem, but the question is, how will I make them both feel special or one of them not feel neglected?

I have some ideas of how I would, but as a responsible human been and the loving father I want to be I still leave room for the unexpected and changes the future brings. God doesn't need to deal with this, he just knows.

Which is why I wonder if he knew that Cain was going to murder his brother, in other words, was it planned? or expected?, an even better question is: was this the best way to deal with the situation?

You see, when I read "but for Cain and his offering had no regard" in jest I thought, wow... only four people on Earth and God doesn't like 1 of them, that's gotta hurt; but you know what, that's probably how he felt (so much so that he murdered Abel).

As I've said in the past, I'm not trying to understand God's reason, but I do question it and even challenge it.

It was pleasant to find this has been asked by many people in the past, here's an interesting article I just read about this: http://www.torah.org/projects/genesis/topic1.html

Feel free to comment,

Faith Scavenger

How I began to lose my faith (PART III)

If you have not done so read Part I and Part II before continuing…

I meant for the previous post to end with that dramatic punch… this really challenged all my beliefs.

About 2 months later, I had no clue of how to trigger pieces of God in my life, and this new feeling of disbelief was taking over; in fact I let my thought process run free on theories I had not explored before, it was then when my wife gave me the fantastic news that we were expecting our second daughter, she was pregnant.

This was (and not by little) the best news I’ve received this whole year, it was refreshing and unbelievable appropriate to the godlessness I feeling, after all nothing screams God, Life or creation like a newborn’s first cry (IMHO), so I thought this was an interesting and loving way for God to speak to me, friends and family rejoiced with us as we publicly thanked God for the opportunity to be parents again, and is worth noting a lot of them thought this was “coming from God”.

This is a bit hard for me to share, unfortunately, my wife had a miscarriage just a week or two after.

HOW CAN THIS BE? I thought; is this suppose to make me a better Christian? is this suppose to show me something? what good can come from death? this makes NO SENSE God, I’m sorry.

That was my reaction, one that I still feel strong about, you may or may not think this is a big deal, but it is for me. if I have a relationship with Jesus Christ and he loves me, then why does he do what he wants without letting me in on his plans? I can assure you that if this decision was taken by anybody else, be it my parents, my brothers or my best friend, my reaction would NOT BE pretty; and what strikes me the most is that we’re all flawed, so, as much as it hurts I still might be able to forgive the person… but Jesus Christ? my God? who knows me? who knows how I’ll feel?.

My Pastor, who is a person I happen to love and respect a lot, sat down with me and we had a very honest and deep conversation in which I told him everything I felt, from the beginning, he was a bit mad (but mostly because I know he genuinely cares for me) that I kept him on the dark for so long, but told him that my relationship is supposed to be with God, and I felt he did not have to fight this fight for him; My pastor gave me a lot of advice,but the one he stressed the most was that I needed to come back to church and seek God, that God was going to respond. I said yes and committed to going to church next Sunday. but I didn’t go, coming Sunday I felt that I didn’t have to go to my best friend’s house everyday to try and get him to speak to me.

So, whether you think it is justified or not, this is how it all began. Today I sit in a BIG pile of questions which only keep on widening the gap and making a comeback to church more unlikely.

I do miss a lot of the social aspects of church though.

Faith Scavenger.

How I began to lose my faith (PART II)

Please read part I so this post makes a bit more sense to you…

I kept going to church every Sunday, I did however, dropped every leadership position I had (obviously) and blamed work for the sudden change (which conveniently was part true also). This marked the beginning of the most spiritually charged year of my life.

Please allow me to enumerate several teachings we learn as Christians (which hopefully adds a bit of context), in no particular order:

• God Loves you and wants what’s best for you
• We live by faith and not by sight
• God talks to us in different ways
• Our faith is not dead because we have a relationship with Jesus Christ
• Jesus died for our sins
• God create us in his own image

There are certainly hundreds more, but those will do for now.

You see, I was in doubt, but at the same time I had certainly “felt God” in a personal way in my life before, so I thought, if I really look for him not only I will become a better Christian, but I’ll understand his plans for me and mine a bit better, so the plan was set in motion.

Every night for about 3 weeks, after my wife went to sleep (this is important because I didn’t want her to worry just yet), I read my bible purposely seeking for “God’s voice” to guide me; I will not deny there was already some doubt in my mind, so it is entirely possible I was predispose to not hear him speak to me. However, I still thought it was worth the fight because since he knows my heart, can read my thoughts and knows what’s best for me he should’ve been able to guide me; unfortunately nothing happened, and I started losing hope, these questions arose at the time:

• Does God like me enough to pay attention to me?
• Does he not answer me because I’m basically testing him (and we can’t do that)
• What kind of a relationship am I in?
  • Whenever I was asked advice for a relationship in which only one was trying to make it work, I replied with -does the other person want to be in this relationship?, is this different? it feels the same…
• Is this just one of the so-called “Spiritual Desert” or “Shadow of the valley of Doubt”?

Anyway, something that really challenged my core happened; but I’ll talk about this in the next post.

Faith Scavenger.

How I began to lose my faith (PART I)

Most of my friends and family are Christians, I believe anonymity must be maintained on my end if I truly want to have inner peace with this, so, parts of my story will be omitted or adorned.

It all started when my best friend's dad was diagnosed terminal cancer few years ago, for the first time in my life I felt the kind of faith spoken of in the bible, you know the one that can move mountains; while sad it was a fantastic spiritual moment, for the first time in my life I was going to witness a true miracle, there was just no doubt in my heart… well, he died, which of course, was a HUGE shock for me; all of us who were praying for a miracle turned to the not so unusual phrases: it was part of his "master plan" and “it wasn’t meant to be”; and life goes on I guess, but deep down I felt disappointed.

A year or two later, a close family member died, it was specially sad because aside from all the love we felt this was the only person living with grandmother; general wisdom tells me it is stupid to question God's decisions because he always wants what's best for us, evidently, something I could not possibly see was cooking some place and was going to be better for somebody involved in the process. and surely enough YEAH!!!, after several months, God's plan presented itself (or so, in a very weird way, I thought at the time). Another family member's husband died, instead this time I publicly thanked God in church and showed it as an example of those times God does things we don't understand, that there's always a purpose, we worshiped and rejoiced... Why? well she moved in with my grandmother and neither of them was alone, so, my brain connected the dots… oh, God allowed her ill husband to die, but she’s still taken care of and now helping another loved one as well. beautiful.

And life was a bit better again, except that she died just 2 months later, leaving my grandmother alone all over again and in greater emotional agony.

I know I can't pretend to understand God's mind; it is too big for me, but when that occurred I remember thinking for the first time: oh oh... that felt TOO RANDOM, why would God allow this???.

 

Faith Scavenger.

More on Part 2