|||SUN DAYS ON ORCAS by EDEE KULPER |||
If you didn’t happen to read last week’s column, I am asking my brother some theological questions from afar (emailing him in Illinois, and he emails me back.) I love hearing his opinions, and I know he is no lemming, so I’m interested in hearing how he has processed his own questions and where it has brought him.
Here is the next question I’ve asked him regarding God. (To read the first question and answer, go here: https://theorcasonian.com/sun-days-on-orcas-pondering-god-part-i-of-iii/.)
Edee:
If God is real, instead of being a great mystery told through oral stories and a bible (with blatant miracles here and there), why didn’t God choose a different paradigm? For instance, in your opinion, why doesn’t God communicate with each of us audibly but in a way no one else can hear, so that each of us knows and feels for a fact that we are loved and guided if we choose to be?
Jack:
If there is a God, imagine Him in the beginning with a most magnificent idea, “Let’s create something.”
But WHAT to create… What would be worthy of creation? Any mere physical object, or even a complete system, no matter how beautiful or intricate, no matter how complex or how ingenious, no matter how imaginative, would be rather pointless without someone to appreciate it. Would God be satisfied with the result of such an effort? Sitting back to watch a wind-up toy of His own design?
Consider the world we find ourselves in, but imagine it without people. It would still be a self-contained system supporting all the needs of life; countless expressions mingling and reproducing and adapting to carry forward into the future. A world brimming with life (even without people) in perpetual balance, generation after generation? A jewel in the cosmos, energized by the sun. What a marvelous accomplishment!
But WHO would know about it?
Animals could never grasp the glory of such a work. A living system without mankind would pale in comparison to the creation of self-aware individually conscious beings possessing the means of appreciating it. Someone possessing the ability to compose THESE WORDS, for example. Infinitely more valuable than mere living and dying.
So, after populating the world with plants and animals and everything else required to sustain life, He adds the icing on the cake.…
YOU!
….created in his own image. Dare we consider ourselves as His companions?
In the beginning, the only thing withheld was the knowledge of good and evil. Preserving innocence, and resting in the glow of such a glorious work.
Perfect.
But events soon spiral out of control. His one request to avoid eating the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil becomes our first independent act! And He realizes that starting inside the garden, in His presence, is a recipe for failure. An act of free will only moves us farther away. Might it be better to rearrange the system? Where an act of will can bring one toward God instead of away from Him?
When someone is born into royalty, it is rational for that individual to obey the crown that provides so much in return. But is that loyalty given freely, or merely a decision made in self-interest? Would God be satisfied with such a calculated response? Since few would rebel against an earthly King after enjoying the benefits of his good graces, how will the King know who truly loves Him?
So, He pushes us out of the garden. We start over here. Removed. Outsiders. Better to have us start somewhere else and then decide to come closer. (Maybe that is the whole purpose of this short life in the world?)
In this new system, if God literally revealed himself beyond a shadow of a doubt, the game would be over and only a fool would turn away.
We are born into the world not knowing for sure if God exists, but it truly allows us the freedom to decide independently. At any given moment we are choosing between a selfish moment in a dog-eat-dog, survival-of-the-fittest world of natural chaos, or we are choosing a loving response in the same world, but accompanied by the faith that a good shepherd has shown us a better way to live.
One follow-up point I would make is that, although I don’t believe God interacts directly with humans like He might have in the olden days, the biblical text seems to tell the story that the older methods have been replaced by Jesus’ work here, which allowed us access to the Holy Spirit as a guide and counselor. I truly believe in the guidance that’s available if approached in the right way. The right way for me is to privately and sincerely ask to be shown, including grateful appreciation for all that has already been given.
People who mimic the types of public prayers that you hear most often in religious services will never get there, in my opinion. If you listen closely, it is usually some form of telling God what we wish He would do for us.
Readers, feel free to respond in the comments with your own answers to this question.
